Why do so many things end up behind a paywall?

[Sepheiron.4918]

One thing I really despise in GW2 is the shop. Don't get me wrong, a shop with special services like appearance/name change is okay and imo even needed but so many armor sets (outfits) and weapon skins end up as shop-only and get removed again after a few weeks. Yes, a game needs a revenue but didn't A-Net brag back in the GW1 days that you can also keep a MMO running without monthly subscriptions? And an ingame shop didn't exist back then. Yet you released 3 (!) addons for that game implying that it was more than profitable for you.

I remember back in GW1 the merchants sold you each piece of armor set vs 20 plat or so and some crafting materials. The challenge was not just to find the merchant but also to gather the money and mats, which were often ectos (kinda rare back then). That was part of the endgame content which does not seem to exist in GW2.

Sexy weapon skins? You had to farm bosses which COULD drop green weapons (highest quality) or farm the UW where mobs could also drop some nice skins. Now all the nice weapon skins are just being sold by merchants vs Black Lion Claim Tickets which again are only obtainable via the ingame shop. Surely you can also buy them vs gold if other players purchased them but these players also had to spend real cash to get them in the first place. Of course there are also some skins obtainable via grinding (like the legendaries and Claw of Jormag's axe) but let's be honest, the real sexy skins are the ones from the black lion merchants.

Why has it become so "normal" to put every new skin behind a paywall?! Why not make it that you have to complete a specific achievement which then would unlock a merchant who sells you the skins vs INGAME GOLD and INGAME MATERIALS? At least then the achievement grinding would finally make some sense. Even the new addon did not bring many new skins. Instead everything ends up again at the black lion merchant. At least give us some consistent possibilities to farm the tickets e.g. by defeating world bosses (e.g. 1 ticket scrap drop per day for certain world bosses)

[Mewcifer.5198]

There is still plenty of very nice weapon and armour skins that are earned in-game.

I see nothing wrong with a cash shop selling cosmetic items.

[Drarnor Kunoram.5180]

GW1 always had account upgrades to buy that cost real money. This was character slots, bank tabs, and yes, even outfits.

[Rayti.6531]

It's not that I don't agree with you - I'd also prefer for ANet to introduce more skins (be it weapons, armor, mounts - you name it) to be acquireable through drops, quests, collections or other means which provide something interesting for the players to do in their ingame time.

But your statement that real money has to be spent by either you or somebody else for every BL skin existing is wrong. You get BL keys and (therefore also BL tickets) through map completion, as rewards for certain story steps and (in negligibly rare cases) also through mob drops.

I own several BL skins through map completion only - which neither I nor anybody else had to pay real money or gold for.

[Danikat.8537]

There are literally hundreds of weapon and armour skins available in-game. Some of which can be bought from NPCs and others which need to be crafted or earned by doing achievements and collections. (Or a mix, like you do an achievement to unlock the merchant.) Yes there are also ones sold in the gem store but you can create many different looks for your characters without ever touching those.

If you include things like the option to buy black lion skins from other players with gold there's even more. (Although then you may as well include the option to buy gems with gold and say everything can be obtained without paying real money.)

I have 11 characters, all wearing different skins and using different weapons and in total I have 1 gem store weapon and 1 gem store top (which I got free). I do want to get the chaos gloves too when they come back, but just because I've finally decided to admit I do sometimes like excessively glowy characters, not because I can't find good gloves in the game.

[Boulder.3589]

I kinda agree with op in a sense that it would be nice to have more earnable skins. Because for cool weapon skins, right now its Legendary weapons way at the extreme high end in terms of cost and effort, nothing/not much in the middle and then very easily attainable but mostly bland stuff at the lower end. I could just be overlooking many things so please tell me if I'm missing something. There are a lot of cool skins in the dungeons but they're kinda dead and cultural armor/weapons are easily overlooked too, so maybe that's the part new players are missing out on.

[Lonecap.4105]

You can try and justify it, but OP is right. There are not enough attractive cosmetic options available which can be earned through gameplay.

Take some of the most popular content enjoyed in the game: Auric Basin, Tangled Depths, Silverwastes and even the Choya Pinata. They all have the potential to give highly desirable and interesting aura effects. Another example - look around next time you're in a massive group of players - count the number of bloodstone eyes - people love to earn cool cosmetics like that.

Worryingly... that there is no gear progression unlike other games only makes the importance of these cosmetic items all the greater.

At the moment, you can buy a cool weapon skin for 600 gems. You get it and then that's that. It doesn't feel special at all. Honestly I would rather pay 600 gems just to unlock a quest to be eligible to earn these skins.

[Randulf.7614]

Whilst I sorta agree, the difference in costs for gw2 compared to gw1 is phenomenally different. It needs to be funded somehow. WIthout them being there - forget regualr updates

[GrubySzymek.1362]

Rewards structure in game is indeed not really interesting. It's all about farming gold and buying skins from gem store. Or buy real money and skip playing altogether. I kinda got used to it, it's not going to change (and if so, only for worse).

[costepj.5120]

@ProverbsofHell.2307 said:

Worryingly... that there is no gear progression unlike other games only makes the importance of these cosmetic items all the greater.

You'll find very few people here worried about the lack of gear progression; it's one of the major selling points of the game.

[Mourningcry.9428]

Gold to gems also exists.... so, you can still "farm" to get those exclusive items.

So, no, no paywall except the the one you choose to put up for yourself.

[Lonecap.4105]

@costepj.5120 said:

@ProverbsofHell.2307 said:

Worryingly... that there is no gear progression unlike other games only makes the importance of these cosmetic items all the greater.

You'll find very few people here worried about the lack of gear progression; it's one of the major selling points of the game.

? Re-read what I said. I didn't say I was worried about no gear progression. I was worried that there's no meaningful progression in place of this. Just as Kheldorn said - you farm gold and buy gemstore goodies. More repetitive and less exciting than traditional gear progression.

[Healix.5819]

@Sepheiron.4918 said:Yes, a game needs a revenue but didn't A-Net brag back in the GW1 days that you can also keep a MMO running without monthly subscriptions? And an ingame shop didn't exist back then. Yet you released 3 (!) addons for that game implying that it was more than profitable for you.

They still don't have a subscription, they added cash shop a year after launch, and sales during their final expansion were lower than CoH, which NCSoft killed. GW2 originally didn't want to have expansions at all, they wanted a living world that would deliver an expansion's worth of content over time and for free. Their goal now however is yearly expansions.

GW2 would have had a lot more armor if there were only humans. It's why ArenaNet likes to avoid the chest and leg pieces, as they take the most effort to refit. They could be offering gem store items as in-game rewards however; who knows why they're not. Those RNG mounts for example, they could have easily given a few for free through various ways, such as doing the hearts to collect 100 tokens, or an achievement to have all golds on the adventures.

[Crossaber.8934]

i rather see cosmetic sold in store, instead of every good things lock behind RAID.

[Draknar.5748]

Well, one major difference is that the cost to develop a game now versus back then is very different. Like very different. And people expect significantly more out of a game than they did back then which means constant content updates. Wages cost more, marketing costs more, etc.

[dolcolax.1268]

lel i dont really get the people who pay more attention to fashion wars than playing the game

[PookieDaWombat.6209]

I always held that the highest tier cultural armors needed to be level 80 and stat selectable when you first bought them, but that's neither here nor there. As others have stated, there are actually a ton of in game skins that are obtainable and a lot of ways to earn enough in game gold to occasionally purchase things from the gem store with conversion, but even then that will take most players a while to get.

For me its not so much that they seem to put many of the "cool" skins in the store, because yes, they need to make money, but that they seem to fore go even trying to find fun in game ways to get those items as well. Fine, you want to fast track it and just get the things? Buy it, great. But lets take the Krytan armor set for example.

Fun bit of call back to GW1 and it would have been cool if there was some kind of quest in Ascalon and Kryta where you have to find tomes about the original armor collectors from Pre-searing that gave this skin to you and gather materials for the armor to get a guaranteed mystic forge recipe for the armor pieces. Sure it might take some in game time investment as well as material cost, maybe some gold, but then you could earn it. It would be a fun new thing to do for people that might want the armor but who don't have the money to just drop on gems.

Basically its a lost opportunity to both inject new fun side things in the game that keep people coming back to it just for the hopes of a few extra dollars on the gem store .

[Lonecap.4105]

@dolcolax.1268 said:lel i dont really get the people who pay more attention to fashion wars than playing the game

Because there has to be a reward or justification for playing. In things like PvP and WvW its not so bad, you can play for the glory or your ego. PvE just isn't competitive outside of a dps metre.

Some people would happily map complete a zone for zero rewards other than the gameplay. In a game like Dark Souls, I could play that game purely for fun, because the combat system is amazing. I like GW2 but it's mechanics aren't thrilling enough to justify themselves.

[mercury ranique.2170]

GW1 was a much simpler game to make and to develop. The studio was much smaller and content could be rolled out a lot quicker. For example. between factions and nightfall was a 6 months gap. While now, they need 2 years for a single expansion while the studio is a lot bigger.Off course, with the growth in size, also the profit for Mo and NCSoft went up. But I do not have any reason to believe that the percentage of revenue spend on the game development is any less then it was with gw1.

[MarshallLaw.9260]

The Gem store exists to help pay ANet staff. Expansions don't pay wages as many people presume they might, it's simply not enough income.If ANet were to make all Gem Store items into in-game rewards, they would not have enough funds to pay for maintenance, balancing, any improvements to the game, let alone further new content.

@Sepheiron.4918 said:I remember back in GW1....

That's fine but this is a different game at a different point in time. My great-grandfather remembers fighting the Germans, however it doesn't mean we intend to bring that back.

As I expected this is another self-entitled post about some cosmetic items, not even addressing the only possible flaw in Gem Store which was the harvesting tools which give extra mats (and boosts). I honestly don't understand - the game is subscription free, why do people expect everything to be included forever after they pay for base+expansions. Extra content requires extra funding, we already get LS free, if you really want to acquire these items, which have 0 impact on actual mechanics or gameplay - pay for them.

Lastly, there is a way to acquire this with ingame gold - ANet have kindly created gold-to-gems where you can safely get your hands on anything in the Gem Store after trading in-game materials for gold and subsequently for gems.

[costepj.5120]

@ProverbsofHell.2307 said:

@costepj.5120 said:

@ProverbsofHell.2307 said:

Worryingly... that there is no gear progression unlike other games only makes the importance of these cosmetic items all the greater.

You'll find very few people here worried about the lack of gear progression; it's one of the major selling points of the game.

? Re-read what I said. I didn't say I was worried about no gear progression. I was worried that there's no meaningful progression in place of this. Just as Kheldorn said - you farm gold and buy gemstore goodies. More repetitive and less exciting than traditional gear progression.

Well I've been playing since launch and never spent any real money except for the expansions. There must be something else that has kept me engaged for the last 7000 hours?

[dolcolax.1268]

@ProverbsofHell.2307 said:

@dolcolax.1268 said:lel i dont really get the people who pay more attention to fashion wars than playing the game

Because there has to be a reward or justification for playing. In things like PvP and WvW its not so bad, you can play for the glory or your ego. PvE just isn't competitive outside of a dps metre.

Some people would happily map complete a zone for zero rewards other than the gameplay. In a game like Dark Souls, I could play that game purely for fun, because the combat system is

its just me and i used to play both pve and wvwbut i play the game coz i like it. not because i want this fancy looking stuff. dont get me wrong ive bought some gemstore skins before, but im not gona chase that stuff.

[Crossaber.8934]

@dolcolax.1268 said:

@ProverbsofHell.2307 said:

@dolcolax.1268 said:lel i dont really get the people who pay more attention to fashion wars than playing the game

Because there has to be a reward or justification for playing. In things like PvP and WvW its not so bad, you can play for the glory or your ego. PvE just isn't competitive outside of a dps metre.

Some people would happily map complete a zone for zero rewards other than the gameplay. In a game like Dark Souls, I could play that game purely for fun, because the combat system is

its just me and i used to play both pve and wvwbut i play the game coz i like it. not because i want this fancy looking stuff. dont get me wrong ive bought some gemstore skins before, but im not gona chase that stuff.

I play GW2 or every MMO for the RPG elements. What is RPG, i guess that come to personal preference.

My RPG preference is to create and play some pre designed character with their own theme. Therefore what weapon they use and how they dress like is the most important element to define who they are. I make a swordsman warrior, he will not or refuse to use axe, mace, hammer sort of weapon, he uses swords, greatsword and dagger etc. And i will always avoid contents that other players required me to take certain weapon my character hated, for example RAID.

So yes, i play RPG with cosmetic in mind, seriously.

[Rysdude.3824]

I hope one day we can buy cosmetic auras like chak egg sac, confetti etc through the gem store instead of making it mandatory to earn it in game.

[Zedek.8932]

After being literally locked out from anything "nice" in FF14, which locks everything behind a stupid "playwall" that a normal guy (read as: 2 hours a day) can not reach or require other people to play (read as: I don't like the vast majority of todays video gamers, thus I stopped trying to make friends) or forces me to do stuff I do not want (read as: I am not here to level up a crafter, I am here to pump lead into people) I am very happy we get solutions that gives a benefit for the players and the game/developers.

In FF14 for example, it was impossible to dye something without proper crafter jobs. What the heck? If I, a 27-year old male, can do that with stuff from the supermarket, why can't my super duper hero without learning 500 levels of a crafting profession?

Excelsior.