Earning mount skins in game

[Sobx.1758]

59 minutes ago, Gibson.4036 said:

I only started getting legendaries in the last year. Ascension, Aurene Amulet, Aurora, and Vision have all taken me to parts of the game or had me play in ways I wouldn’t have otherwise. The experience of those would have been much diminished if I could have just done stuff I’ve always done and bought them with gold.

It’s a balance.

So now you get it, better late than never 😄

Edited August 31, 2022 by Sobx.1758

[kharmin.7683]

1 hour ago, ProtoGunner.4953 said:

And instead of what I want to play, I go for the most efficient way and farm gold for days to get enough for the mount skin that may or may not be available the moment I want to buy it? Great fun.

Sure, if you're in a hurry and need to obtain it right now.  What have you been spending your gold on up to this point?  I'm not in-game rich by most comparisons, but I'm sitting well over 1300 now.  I play the content I enjoy and have never had an issue with gold. 

What about materials?  Do you have a lot stored in your bank that you can sell off?

EDIT: Plus, if skins were rewarded in-game, there is no guarantee that it would be in your preferred content, so you would have to farm things anyway rather than playing what you want to play. 

Edited August 31, 2022 by kharmin.7683

[Borked.6824]

3 hours ago, Dawdler.8521 said:

Then everything is lazy?

There's no difference between doing WvW for WvW currency so you can WvW stuff, dungeons for dungeon currencies so you can buy dungeon stuff, raid for raid currencies so you can buy raid stuff, fractals for fractal currencies so you can buy fractal stuff and.. well literally buy anything for the common currency - gold. 

No, you're right.  There's almost no refutation that a global currency is the best way to earn rewards.  But it's the principle and existential philosophy of the thing.  You'll find more happiness in life with a little diversity, goal-oriented work, and surprises along the way.  Let go of your control over everything and let "fate" do the driving a bit.  Games are games for discovery, not for efficacy.

[Xanadrine.4352]

12 hours ago, Sarius.9285 said:

yea, having actual mounts drop and not just gold/materials would be amazing

It would also be incentive to play through some neglected content. having mount skins with a chance to drop in content like dungeon bosses world bosses ect would revitalize a lot of things . lets be clear in most games do you think people keep rerunning content over and over for the heck of it?  no, there is incentive to do it. You clear things the first couple of times to see you can do it and get the experience, you go back for the possible rewards though. its like that in every game ever made 

Edited August 31, 2022 by Zuldari.3940

[TexZero.7910]

Add them to dungeons.

 

Require completing the dungeon to see the mount available for purchase for some number of tokens while also being rare drops.

 

Solves the whole problem of if it's too rare, i'll never get it mindset with the inevitable end of being able to purchase it. Works better now with the dungeon currency squash since you'd be able to play whatever dungeons you want after unlocking each one's unique skin.

[RadiantWolf.2058]

A couple dungeon currency mounts would be cool.

[Serephen.3420]

10 hours ago, RadiantWolf.2058 said:

I don't think all mount skins should be free in game. I think that in a game with no subscription the overwhelming majority being in the shop makes sense but it would be very nice to have some in game.

 

I love GW2, it has some of the best moment to moment gameplay of any MMORPG out there but it does lack prestige rewards which is a shame for a game with horizontal progression. All it has are a few infusions which aren't ideal for people who want weapons or mounts that sparkle instead of characters. I think it would be neat if ANet was a little better about that. Hence this hypothetical.

 

....But I do tend to get confused emote reactions raining from the sky when I mention something like this. Maybe people just prefer that all mount skins are always 100% gemstore only (and one PvP one) idk.

Most of the confused reactions are likely from whales who want everything in the gemstore and can't conceive of there being other options. 

 

That said, there have been some valid pros and cons mentioned in the comments (the hurr durr just convert gold to gems comments aside) it seems some people just really didn't understand the whole point of the suggestion.

 

While I'm not so big on rare drops outside of some situations, many people would definitely enjoy having some more ingame cosmetics that they can work towards and earn aside from titles and such. It's a game that focuses on horizontal progression afterall. Once you have full ascended or legendary in particular. Is just grinding for gold really that fun? Maybe if you're of the farmer mentality but for others it becomes a drag and while the gem store skins are nice(usually nicer than most ingame), having even just a few prestige items that are not epileptic inducing infusions would go a long way. They did some with backpacks in EOD and the elite spec weapons too. Pof release would have been the ideal time to add some ingame earnable ones so maybe that time has passed. 

[Scalacious.4139]

What many here don't understand is that "just work up gold and exchange it for gems" is not about doing it in a way that is exhausting and repetitive. You only have to do that if you want something as quickly as possible, but let's face it, it's a game and really everything you do in this game you kind of earn gold in the process. Just play as you like and sooner or later you will have the gold for a mountskin. If you do things that you enjoy, then it might take a week or two longer than the most effective grind, but in return you will have done things that you enjoy. That is by far the best method if you want to have a certain skin. Imagine that the mountskin you really want is not available in the shop but is tied to certain WvW achievements, but you don't want to play WvW because you hate the mode. Then the mountskin is out of reach for you forever.

[Leger.3724]

I think it would be interesting to have a few unique mount skins that are a rare drop from a raid boss or a particularly hard world boss/event like say Dragon's End.

 

They already drop rare cosmetic infusions, right? And they've recently added the Aurene legendary re-skins? To me it seems like an idea worth looking into for Arena Net - start looking at other potential cosmetics like infusions or "infusion changers" into the gem shop while also taking a few planned gem shop mount skins and instead throw them in as rare drops in pve.

 

Personally I don't really agree with dungeon currency purchasing. I'd rather see it as a drop. Maybe a drop within a dungeon but a drop nonetheless.

[ProtoGunner.4953]

15 hours ago, kharmin.7683 said:

Sure, if you're in a hurry and need to obtain it right now.  What have you been spending your gold on up to this point?  I'm not in-game rich by most comparisons, but I'm sitting well over 1300 now.  I play the content I enjoy and have never had an issue with gold. 

What about materials?  Do you have a lot stored in your bank that you can sell off?

EDIT: Plus, if skins were rewarded in-game, there is no guarantee that it would be in your preferred content, so you would have to farm things anyway rather than playing what you want to play. 

I mainly use my gold to craft legendaries. And I am not patient, so I buy most materials if I don't have them. This usually takes easily 500 - 800 gold.

[Sarius.9285]

22 hours ago, Scalacious.4139 said:

Create your own quests! If you want to have a mount skin that looks like the Exalted, for example, visit different places in Tarir and in the jungle in general. Defeat the Octovine a few times and do other quests and metas in the area. Over a few days and week you should have enough gold to buy the skin and have some story reason why you just got that skin (even if you bought it in the shop). It's still a role-playing game and you don't do much different with the one I described than with your "official" quest. In the Skyscale, you also just travelled from place to place and did a few quests.

nah I prefer to have quests with actual ingame lore, preferably collections that also give account points or something in that way, also gold isn't a problem, I have more than enough, it just feels good to do quests/collections

[Sarius.9285]

12 hours ago, Zuldari.3940 said:

It would also be incentive to play through some neglected content. having mount skins with a chance to drop in content like dungeon bosses world bosses ect would revitalize a lot of things . lets be clear in most games do you think people keep rerunning content over and over for the heck of it?  no, there is incentive to do it. You clear things the first couple of times to see you can do it and get the experience, you go back for the possible rewards though. its like that in every game ever made 

exactly. Yes people play the game for fun, but ultimately they want/need a carrot on the stick 

[SoulGuardian.6203]

I was saving for a bettle skin which is the only mount that I still don't have a custom skin for.

Not that I use it much, it's just when I do use it, it gets stuck underground.... 

We all know that "bug" right?

So it's the fact that I need one.

 

However, one morning I just woke up and decided I want to get a Guild Hall.

So I did.

All my effort now is going on the Guild Hall, and must have spent over 300-400 gold already on the Guild.

 

I completely brushed aside the mount skin, and the comm tag.

 

Now I'm an In-game broke player... again.

I might have regreted it a little bit.

 

So, my point is, it would be really nice if ANet did give us a chance to get certain mount skins as achievement prizes; but I hardly doubt they will.

 

I know how frustrating it is to try save gold for something, when there are so many things ingame that require large amounts of it... and now with the guild and all... 

[Southerncarl.2740]

22 hours ago, yoni.7015 said:

Mount skins should stay in the gem store. Now you can play the content you like to get gold to buy the skin you like and you are not forced to play specific content in order to get the skin.

 

Or you could just pay real money to skip the game and get the content instantly which I wouldn't be surprised if the the majority of people do.

The world would feel more engaging and immersive if you earned the mounts from in game drops/quests/world events and certain locations in the world that related to the look of that certain mount.

The integrity of the game is diminished when you have to do something like farm gold to buy mounts and someone else can just swipe a credit card and get the same achievement. 

 

"I am not against skins in the shop, but we have 300 mount skins and one single skin is available via quest"

Welcome to the rot of the microtransactions in MMOs. 

 

[Southerncarl.2740]

2 hours ago, Sarius.9285 said:

exactly. Yes people play the game for fun, but ultimately they want/need a carrot on the stick 

 

It's not so much the carrot on the stick it's just about getting that feeling of achievement in the game and the world of the game that you are investing your time in. Upgrading skins and cosmetics are a big visual factor of that achievement and when someone else can unlock all the stuff you put your time into getting with a credit card, the sense of achievement is well...gone.

 

 

 

[Sarius.9285]

13 minutes ago, Southerncarl.2740 said:

 

It's not so much the carrot on the stick it's just about getting that feeling of achievement in the game and the world of the game that you are investing your time in. Upgrading skins and cosmetics are a big visual factor of that achievement and when someone else can unlock all the stuff you put your time into getting with a credit card, the sense of achievement is well...gone.

 

 

 

yep, it just feels empty.

 

Another person made a good comparison of working to buy a beautiful painting of a mountain, vs. going on a trip, finding that mountain and painting it yourself

[kharmin.7683]

3 hours ago, ProtoGunner.4953 said:

I mainly use my gold to craft legendaries. And I am not patient, so I buy most materials if I don't have them. This usually takes easily 500 - 800 gold.

That's understandable.  It's a difference in priorities. 

[yoni.7015]

27 minutes ago, Southerncarl.2740 said:

 

It's not so much the carrot on the stick it's just about getting that feeling of achievement in the game and the world of the game that you are investing your time in. Upgrading skins and cosmetics are a big visual factor of that achievement and when someone else can unlock all the stuff you put your time into getting with a credit card, the sense of achievement is well...gone.

 

 

 

But why do you care how other players got the skin? I mean you know that you didn’t use your credit card. 
There are other items in the game that gives you a sense of achievement like infusions, titles and legendary armor. 
In the gem store they are available for everyone, because everyone can use a credit card or farm gold. 

Edited September 1, 2022 by yoni.7015

[Gibson.4036]

While there are a lot of ways to make gold, saying, “do what you like, it might take a few more weeks,” is way too simplified.

You can earn the 360g for a select license in 18 hours on some of the popular farms. Getting that same 360g running around the open world exploring and doing events is going to take vastly longer.

Im not saying it shouldn’t be that way, just that we should be realistic when saying, “you get gold doing anything”.

[Gibson.4036]

3 hours ago, ProtoGunner.4953 said:

I mainly use my gold to craft legendaries. And I am not patient, so I buy most materials if I don't have them. This usually takes easily 500 - 800 gold.

I have a tendency to prioritize function over form. My gold tends to go towards legendaries, and when I buy gems, QoL upgrades typically beat out skins.

Though, as Kharmin says, that’s a priority I’ve chosen. I do wish ANet hadn’t felt the need to design inconveniences into the game to get us to buy fixes. I’d have bought more cosmetics over the life of the game.

[Sarius.9285]

38 minutes ago, yoni.7015 said:

There are other items in the game that gives you a sense of achievement

that's the issue, you can literally just buy anything that holds any kind of prestige. You can buy infusions, titles, legendaries, etc. There is a massive lack in prestigious things that you can't buy with money. 

[yoni.7015]

8 minutes ago, Sarius.9285 said:

that's the issue, you can literally just buy anything that holds any kind of prestige. You can buy infusions, titles, legendaries, etc. There is a massive lack in prestigious things that you can't buy with money. 

If there were mount skins that dropped in raids or strike missions you could just buy them as well. I don’t know about you, but I don’t play the game for prestigious things. I play it because it’s fun. If you play entirely to show off then there are better games for that I guess. 

Edited September 1, 2022 by yoni.7015

[Asum.4960]

2 hours ago, yoni.7015 said:

I don’t know about you, but I don’t play the game for prestigious things. I play it because it’s fun. If you play entirely to show off then there are better games for that I guess. 

I can only speak for myself, but Prestigious things for me aren't so much about showing them off (store bought shinies fulfil just that purpose), but about the ingame journey and accomplishment they generally represent. Their connection to the ingame world.  

Do I still remember store bought items in MMO's from almost two decades ago now? Very little to nothing - even though they probably were the fanciest things to show off. 

Do I still remember some of the cool (and at the time sometimes frustrating) ingame journeys to earn some cool ingame prestige items, especially if it involved grouping and forming connections while overcoming challenges? Dang right I do. 

 

Taking the Decade Armor as a minor recent example, which while really just being "replay a bunch of old/starter content to populate those zones so the game doesn't look dead for the steam launch", I actually had some fun doing that. Seeing and replaying that content again is simply not an idea I would have had otherwise, and it was nice to relive those memories. 

If the Decade Armor had just been a Gemstore skin, I could have logged in, bought it and logged out (although I probably wouldn't have even done that, because I'm not keen enough on the skin to buy it - but rather I was interested in the feeling of a journey of working towards it, than the skin itself). 

But even if I had wanted that skin and it was sold on the store, and even if I would have had the idea to experience these starting zones again, that surely wouldn't have even remotely earned enough gold/gems for the armor - so I probably would have just defaulted to some efficient gold maker, rather than then aimlessly wandering around in starting zones. 

 

Ingame rewards like that offer unique targeted opportunities, like populating specific content, like crafting designed journeys, which store items just can't replicate.

 

8 hours ago, Scalacious.4139 said:

What many here don't understand is that "just work up gold and exchange it for gems" is not about doing it in a way that is exhausting and repetitive. You only have to do that if you want something as quickly as possible, but let's face it, it's a game and really everything you do in this game you kind of earn gold in the process. Just play as you like and sooner or later you will have the gold for a mountskin. If you do things that you enjoy, then it might take a week or two longer than the most effective grind, but in return you will have done things that you enjoy. That is by far the best method if you want to have a certain skin. Imagine that the mountskin you really want is not available in the shop but is tied to certain WvW achievements, but you don't want to play WvW because you hate the mode. Then the mountskin is out of reach for you forever.

What many here also don't understand is that (at least for me) it's not about not being able to buy store items/just getting things. I've been playing GW2 since the Beta/early access - I can buy anything and everything with gold converted to gems that I want. If I just wanted "Stuff", this would be a hugely beneficial system for me.

But for me it's about the desire for engaging, gameplay focused, ingame journeys with clear goals. It's about missing that feeling of seeing a player ingame with x skin and thinking, cool, they did y content to get that. Of things being rooted in and connected to the game world. 

How cool was the Obsidian Armor in GW1, not because it was flashy to show off, but because you knew where it came from, what players went through to get it - and it's skins being adorned with the very Obsidian Shards used in it's making, reflecting it's origin and ingame journey.

 

It's a similar reason in essence of why people like hand made items over mass produced factory goods. 

There just is a different emotional/psychological connection to things where you know where they came from and what went into them, etc., over just choosing any occupation, earning generic currency and then grabbing it off the store shelf.

While there is merit in the store bought convenience, even in video games, Games are imo far more engaging when they focus on (or at last provide in reasonable quantities)  gameplay focused ingame adventures, over play whatever you want and then interface with the ingame store. 

 

And I also don't entirely agree with the sentiment of a skin for example being tied to WvW, you disliking WvW, and therefor never being able to get the skin. If you overcome that adversity of not enjoying WvW, there is a good chance you'll treasure whatever reward you'll get from that more than any store item you ever bought - and these things always provide an opportunity for players to fall in love with content that they previously thought they would hate - while giving devs the opportunity to populate certain content that might not be the highest g/h, which let's be honest is what they usually gravitate towards.

So even when that may suck in the moment/initially, that's not all bad either. 

Adversity, and overcoming it, is part of the gaming experience and a strength of the medium - not something to ruthlessly commercialize out of them.

Edited September 1, 2022 by Asum.4960

[Sarius.9285]

1 hour ago, yoni.7015 said:

. I play it because it’s fun. If you play entirely to show off then there are better games for that I guess. 

and what defines fun lol? For some(actually most) people it's fun to work towards a goal that's not easy to obtain and not everyone has, which sadly doesn't exist in gw2, which is in part why the game will never be as big as the 3 other big mmos

 

 

Gw2 isn't bad and I played it for thousands of hours. But that's a big downside of it

[Gehenna.3625]

20 hours ago, kharmin.7683 said:

Sure, if you're in a hurry and need to obtain it right now.  What have you been spending your gold on up to this point?  I'm not in-game rich by most comparisons, but I'm sitting well over 1300 now.  I play the content I enjoy and have never had an issue with gold. 

I think you'll find that most players do not have anywhere near 1300 gold. So I think you probably would be rich by most comparisons. 

20 hours ago, kharmin.7683 said:

What about materials?  Do you have a lot stored in your bank that you can sell off?

EDIT: Plus, if skins were rewarded in-game, there is no guarantee that it would be in your preferred content, so you would have to farm things anyway rather than playing what you want to play. 

All they need to do is save gold or gems and set a threshold not to spend below that threshold. But yeah....instant gratification is a powerful thing.