What should be, vs. what is.

[Aodlop.1907]

What I should be thinking: I can't wait to chase after new amazing cosmetics in Cantha, and for my efforts to be rewarded with unique sets of armor and weapons!

What I'm really thinking: I can't wait to see all the amazing, unique looking items inspired by Cantha they'll be releasing in the gem store for the next few months!

 

Part of me really wonders how this game would be, in a world where they chose a different business model and everything ever released in the gem store was actually the reward for some in-game event or feat...Oh well.

[yoni.7015]

I wouldn’t want to pay a monthly fee so for me it’s totally fine that they release new skins in the gem store. If I like them I’ll buy them. 

Edited February 19, 2022 by yoni.7015

[Farohna.6247]

It would look like a mandatory subscription.

[Ariurotl.3718]

Well, it's nice that you're excited either way, I suppose.

[Witch of Doom.5739]

I think there will be both -- cool stuff we can get by doing quests and chasing rewards, and things we can buy in the Gem Shop.  I don't mind buying occasional things in the GS since that means there's no monthly subscription.

[Khisanth.2948]

What you will actually be thinking: I can't see anything under all these lightbulbs

[AliamRationem.5172]

12 minutes ago, Witch of Doom.5739 said:

I think there will be both -- cool stuff we can get by doing quests and chasing rewards, and things we can buy in the Gem Shop.  I don't mind buying occasional things in the GS since that means there's no monthly subscription.

I think the balance between the two could be better.  We could use more armor skins earned by playing the game.

[Dawdler.8521]

What I should be thinking: A whole new expansion with tons of new exciting content, it feels like EoD wasnt too long ago!

What I'm really thinking: Is Anet ever going to fix the broken DBL garri cornerstone in their stated cornerstone mode of WvW?

[Stx.4857]

What you could be thinking:

 

"How can I get better at making gold so I can buy whatever I want from the gem store for free?"

 

I don't think A-nets business model is perfect, but compared to other games I play (mainly ESO), it's pretty good.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Until lately, I hadn't seen many armor pieces in the Gem Store.  The forums seemed to ask for those, so they started showing up a bit.  The majority of armor seems to be acquired in-game.

Not sure if Black Lion Weapon skins should be considered Gem Store items or not; they are available, usually, on the Trading Post. 

[Sarius.9285]

30 minutes ago, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

Until lately, I hadn't seen many armor pieces in the Gem Store.  The forums seemed to ask for those, so they started showing up a bit.  The majority of armor seems to be acquired in-game.

Not sure if Black Lion Weapon skins should be considered Gem Store items or not; they are available, usually, on the Trading Post. 

might be, if you consider the dozens of beginner armors. But in general we get alot more gems store armor than ingame armor

[lezbefriends.7516]

There are actually quite a few new cosmetics earnable in-game in Cantha, they just don't look good. 😛

[Danikat.8537]

1 hour ago, Sarius.9285 said:

might be, if you consider the dozens of beginner armors. But in general we get alot more gems store armor than ingame armor

Are you counting outfits as armour? Because there's only ever been 9 complete armour sets for each weight in the gem store (including ones from launch) and we got nearly that many in-game just from Season 4 and Icebrood Saga. (Individual pieces are closer: 102 from the gem store vs 105 in-game if I've counted correctly.)

(That's based on the Wiki's galleries/lists. GW2 Efficiency puts it at 450 gem store skins vs 1,883 in-game, but that's counting each armour weight seperately.)

I think the gem store ones are more noticable however because they're all in one place and regularly rotated in and out to draw attention to them, whereas the in-game ones are often only available from a specific vendor or via an achievement, so unless you're looking through the wardrobe or something like the Wiki galleries it's easy to miss many of them.

Edited February 19, 2022 by Danikat.8537

[Freya.9075]

There are many good armor skins in game. When I see requiem set I get more impressed (if you could call it that) compared to when I see some gem store skin cause I know what they had to do to get those skins. Not that it’s a huge grind to get them but some collection armors are really nice looking. 
 

And it’s a matter of taste as well. Some ppl don’t even like the gem store skins cause they are too shiny. and it’s safe to assume eod will have both kinds. 

[Omega.6801]

Finally some normality,  great to see yet another subscription-thread. No thanks.

1) What's in the gemstore can be purchased with in-game gold. So you are basically free to "earn" your fancy skin anyway you like playing the game. Given, some paths take longer than others, if your thing is afk'ing in LA, it will take a lot longer than if you're doing worldbosses or fractals.

2) If you want a subscription, no problem, buy a set amount of gems every month and buy whatever you want from the store as your "preferred player" or "subscriber" reward.

3) I would absolutely love to have more skins in-game. It could be basic, more down to earth skins for mounts or gliders and all that. However I would never want to pay a sub fee. I'm kinda fine with how the game is monetized allthough I see that there could be a few more things to earn in-game.

[Omega.6801]

11 minutes ago, lokh.2695 said:

Finally some normality,  great to see yet another subscription-thread. No thanks.

1) What's in the gemstore can be purchased with in-game gold. So you are basically free to "earn" your fancy skin anyway you like playing the game. Given, some paths take longer than others, if your thing is afk'ing in LA, it will take a lot longer than if you're doing worldbosses or fractals.

2) If you want a subscription, no problem, buy a set amount of gems every month and buy whatever you want from the store as your "preferred player" or "subscriber" reward.

3) I would absolutely love to have more skins in-game. It could be basic, more down to earth skins for mounts or gliders and all that. However I would never want to pay a sub fee. I'm kinda fine with how the game is monetized allthough I see that there could be a few more things to earn in-game.

Oh and this...
4) With a sub fee, each players possible spending has a ceiling, the monthly sub fee. They will either pay that fee or don't. With the current "free to play, pay to look pretty" system the possible spending has no such ceiling and while yes, many players do in fact play the game for free, these are more than made up for by the players who buy what they want, when they want it, by swiping the credit card. As it seems, this is still what makes ANet the most money, assuming that they would have switched models by now would it have presented itself as the better alternative.

Edited February 19, 2022 by lokh.2695

[Redfeather.6401]

It makes me sad sometimes.

Riders of Icarus there is hundreds of animals in the world that you can find and figure out how to tame and use as mounts.

https://ridersoficarus.fandom.com/wiki/Bestiary

If every mount skin in gw2 that was released in the gem store was instead a unique animal in the world that you had to find and figure out how to tame, then gw2 would be the most talked about mmorpg there is. 400 unique mounts to find and tame. That's huge. Instead it's $4000 dollars of skins to buy in the gem store.

[Freya.9075]

7 minutes ago, Redfeather.6401 said:

It makes me sad sometimes.

Riders of Icarus there is hundreds of animals in the world that you can find and figure out how to tame and use as mounts.

https://ridersoficarus.fandom.com/wiki/Bestiary

If every mount skin in gw2 that was released in the gem store was instead a unique animal in the world that you had to find and figure out how to tame, then gw2 would be the most talked about mmorpg there is. 400 unique mounts to find and tame. That's huge. Instead it's $4000 dollars of skins to buy in the gem store.

Riders of Icarus has skins as well. Legendary skins with stats. That game is all about the mounts and is quite expensive if you want the best skins for your familiars. And they do not feel unique like mounts in gw2 does. It can’t be compared really. I do not wish gw2 to be like that game. I love mounts and their skins but it would make gw2 worse not better. 

[Omega.6801]

26 minutes ago, Redfeather.6401 said:

It makes me sad sometimes.

Riders of Icarus there is hundreds of animals in the world that you can find and figure out how to tame and use as mounts.

https://ridersoficarus.fandom.com/wiki/Bestiary

If every mount skin in gw2 that was released in the gem store was instead a unique animal in the world that you had to find and figure out how to tame, then gw2 would be the most talked about mmorpg there is. 400 unique mounts to find and tame. That's huge. Instead it's $4000 dollars of skins to buy in the gem store.

Feels like something you(and others) might like but is not at all appealing to me(and probably others) because it sounds grindy and repetitive and mostly some feature that can't just be copy pasted into an existing game that wasn't released around this feature. If taming things is what makes you happy the most in an MMO, your game sounds about right, but GW2 was never released as the "tame hundreds of animals"-MMO.

Also while the 400 mounts to tame may be uniquie, the 4000$ of skins are not, at least from a mechanical point of view. Each Raptor jumps the same distance, no matter the skin. Also you will only "need" to buy all the skins if you're a completionist. I just checked and I have maybe half of all skins available, not a completionist but someone who spends cash on the gemstore on the skins that appeal to me.

Also also, 400 unique mounts to tame sounds closer to ranger pets in GW2 (bare the movement of course). People do talk about GW2 mounts, they talk about how good they are and how much they add to the game, but that's because of function not because of skins. I think you are comparing things that have nothing to do with eachother.

Also also also, "game x has y and it's awesome" doesn't make for a good argument on its own in general imho. I mean, fifa has way better soccer physics than GW2 and CoF is by far the superior FPS-game. And that's fine, because you can play more than one game in your free time.

Edited February 19, 2022 by lokh.2695

[Alcatraznc.3869]

This heavily depends on your own taste.

 

Despite what people says, Anet gave players a lot of free skins. HoT has lot of skins, PoF has a lot of skins, IBS gives some skins as well. Whether you like it or not is another topic but because you dont like the free skin Anet offer and like what is in the gemstore does not mean all the good stuff is only in the gemstore.  For a game that is F2P / Buy to play forever, I would rather have nice skin locked behind the gemstore that I can earn it for basically free because gold-->gem conversion, rather than grind mandatory stuff that should be in the game but instead is locked in the gemstore. 

[Redfeather.6401]

People above are quoting my post and shooting it down by arguing against things I never said.

 

It makes me sad that guild wars 2 does not let players unlock mount skins through hunting and finding them. That is all. Argue against that if you must.

[Vayne.8563]

Every expansion we've ever had, as in both of them, has had items in game you could work for, including both armor and weapons. It's nice that you want to make a point, but even living story chapters have had armor and weapons.  It's not all in the gem store. The implication of what you're saying isn't just misleading.  It's erroneous.

[ugrakarma.9416]

13 hours ago, Aodlop.1907 said:

What I should be thinking: I can't wait to chase after new amazing cosmetics in Cantha, and for my efforts to be rewarded with unique sets of armor and weapons!

 

When POF come out, i was thinking of the War God Greatsword would be the "big reward" for the history conclusion.

instead we get the fugly elonian/joko whatsover weapons.

Some notable exceptions:

-Mistward armor and related weapons(i hope the new rev spec GS continue the pattern).

-Auric Weapons.

-Warbest Armor.

-Warmaster backpiece for HoT.

Also Anet seems hate complete set:

-In neverwinter we had for example, avatar of war armorset+weapons+title(avatar of war).

if we want a themed armoset thats not gemstore, we have to be "over-creative" in Gw2.:

- in past week i have tring a "Icebrood Saga veteran" armor, a sort of "battle hardened" look, i had to improvise, mixing vigil armor+ebon vanguard shoulders+some headpiece from IBS+Boneskinner backpiece, because the "oficial" IBS armor, the runic armor is extravangatly fugly, and looks like a sort of alien futuristic armor.

 

 

Edited February 20, 2022 by ugrakarma.9416

[HnRkLnXqZ.1870]

I do not think the entire gemstore-stuff should be rewards, but a few less achievements that only loot AP would be nice. When I run new content with returners or new players and we do some of the hidden achievements, we usually just get AP. In a few rare cases there is a title and in a few extremely rare cases, there is some physical loot.

Does not have to be expensive, just something helpful. Can be ascended food of choice, exotic armor/weapon-box with selectable stats, box with runes/sigils you can select which you want or some of the cheaper gemstore-skins/minis. 

No monthly subscription is great. You can play as much as you want and never feel any pressure. If we ever switch to sub, I will probably return to ToR - if the servers are still running.