PoF has made Gw2 Cash Shop centered

[Bloodstealer.5978]

@ProtoGunner.4953 said:

@Bloodstealer.5978 said:If you could share your idea on how they supplement the development of the game beyond box sales/expansions I am sure the bean counters will be all ears.Other than that nothing has really changed with the shop except the theme around new additions which will of course be linked to current content.

They could supplement it even if they give us 10% of those skins via achievements/questlines/collections like every other MMO out there. There is not only black and white. This is my main critique. No one argues against a gem store which sell mostly fluff, but at least give us a tiny bit % of those skins not by a absolutely unepic way like outright buying them...

A big part for me in other MMOs for me was getting rare epic mount skins via in game achievements/questlines etc. It's a shame that there is not a single mount skin out there and out of the tons of gliders only the legendaries are available (aside from original skin and the special edition).

That's the whole point.

The game has masses of skins obtainable in game and more added on a regular update basis.Mount and gliders follow the same line as outfits and are primarily cash shop fluff put out like a carrot on a stick to tempt us.. but they are exactly that, just fluff and not needed and give no advantage over anyone else.The cashshop supplements the game's income and supports further development beyond box/expac sales so why would they want to dissuade you from buying them by putting them in game... It's not like you have to use real money anyway, you can convert in game gold to gems when you have enough and then purchase the skins then. Rome wasn't built in a day.Now if those same cash cow skins provided any in game advantage then yeah.. we could discuss this non-issue a lot more.

[robertthebard.8150]

@ProtoGunner.4953 said:

@"Bloodstealer.5978" said:If you could share your idea on how they supplement the development of the game beyond box sales/expansions I am sure the bean counters will be all ears.Other than that nothing has really changed with the shop except the theme around new additions which will of course be linked to current content.

They could supplement it even if they give us 10% of those skins via achievements/questlines/collections like every other MMO out there. There is not only black and white. This is my main critique. No one argues against a gem store which sell mostly fluff, but at least give us a tiny bit % of those skins not by a absolutely unepic way like outright buying them...

A big part for me in other MMOs for me was getting rare epic mount skins via in game achievements/questlines etc. It's a shame that there is not a single mount skin out there and out of the tons of gliders only the legendaries are available (aside from original skin and the special edition).

Actually, the very existence of this thread disproves your "argues against the gem store selling fluff" statement. They don't want to buy the fluff, they want it for free, and you outline that same desire in this very post. Most MMOs don't give away mounts at all, although, swtor did have some you could buy from vendors in game with in game currency, relatively cheap too, I might add. They are, by and large, less than what you'd buy from their CS though. Some of them can be unlocked via achievements, but it's not "go run this Flash Point and get it", it's "go run a lot of them and get it". Overall, since they perform equally to mounts that I already had, I didn't waste my time with them. ESO recently started giving one away at level 10, account wide, as part of their level up incentive thing, and Aion doesn't give them away at all, no matter what content you have. I got my raptor because I have the appropriate expansion, and I'll get my griffon the same way. I'm already "winning" the mount war with the game, I don't need to "win" it any more getting free skins.

To the original point, the items are fluff. They make no difference in gameplay, and so, are completely irrelevant, unless you want to collect them, and the problem, based on the very existence of this thread, is that if one wants to collect them, one will have to buy them. This is, very literally, an argument against selling fluff in the CS.

[ProtoGunner.4953]

@robertthebard.8150 said:

@ProtoGunner.4953 said:

@"Bloodstealer.5978" said:If you could share your idea on how they supplement the development of the game beyond box sales/expansions I am sure the bean counters will be all ears.Other than that nothing has really changed with the shop except the theme around new additions which will of course be linked to current content.

They could supplement it even if they give us 10% of those skins via achievements/questlines/collections like every other MMO out there. There is not only black and white. This is my main critique. No one argues against a gem store which sell mostly fluff, but at least give us a tiny bit % of those skins not by a absolutely unepic way like outright buying them...

A big part for me in other MMOs for me was getting rare epic mount skins via in game achievements/questlines etc. It's a shame that there is not a single mount skin out there and out of the tons of gliders only the legendaries are available (aside from original skin and the special edition).

Actually, the very existence of this thread disproves your "argues against the gem store selling fluff" statement. They don't want to buy the fluff, they want it for free, and you outline that same desire in this very post. Most MMOs don't give away mounts at all, although, swtor did have some you could buy from vendors in game with in game currency, relatively cheap too, I might add. They are, by and large, less than what you'd buy from their CS though. Some of them can be unlocked via achievements, but it's not "go run this Flash Point and get it", it's "go run a lot of them and get it". Overall, since they perform equally to mounts that I already had, I didn't waste my time with them. ESO recently started giving one away at level 10, account wide, as part of their level up incentive thing, and Aion doesn't give them away at all, no matter what content you have. I got my raptor because I have the appropriate expansion, and I'll get my griffon the same way. I'm already "winning" the mount war with the game, I don't need to "win" it any more getting free skins.

To the original point, the items are fluff. They make no difference in gameplay, and so, are completely irrelevant, unless you want to collect them, and the problem, based on the very existence of this thread, is that if one wants to collect them, one will have to buy them. This is, very literally, an argument against selling fluff in the CS.

As mentioned: I am not against gem store items and I don't want everything for free. In contrary: I bought a lot of mount skins via gem store. But I would appreciate if they would give us some skins in game. Why is that so hard to understand?

I played Aion years ago, but to my knowledge the wings you could get were upgradable via in game quests/stuff?

Also I played WoW which had like hunderds of skins which you could get in game. I don't remember FF14, but I think you could them also get in game. Now I understand that those games are sub based. On the other side though you mentioned all f2p games. At least GW2 is buy to play and not for free, which is imho a difference.

[Bloodstealer.5978]

@ProtoGunner.4953 said:

@robertthebard.8150 said:

@ProtoGunner.4953 said:

@"Bloodstealer.5978" said:If you could share your idea on how they supplement the development of the game beyond box sales/expansions I am sure the bean counters will be all ears.Other than that nothing has really changed with the shop except the theme around new additions which will of course be linked to current content.

They could supplement it even if they give us 10% of those skins via achievements/questlines/collections like every other MMO out there. There is not only black and white. This is my main critique. No one argues against a gem store which sell mostly fluff, but at least give us a tiny bit % of those skins not by a absolutely unepic way like outright buying them...

A big part for me in other MMOs for me was getting rare epic mount skins via in game achievements/questlines etc. It's a shame that there is not a single mount skin out there and out of the tons of gliders only the legendaries are available (aside from original skin and the special edition).

Actually, the very existence of this thread disproves your "argues against the gem store selling fluff" statement. They don't want to buy the fluff, they want it for free, and you outline that same desire in this very post. Most MMOs don't give away mounts at all, although, swtor did have some you could buy from vendors in game with in game currency, relatively cheap too, I might add. They are, by and large, less than what you'd buy from their CS though. Some of them can be unlocked via achievements, but it's not "go run this Flash Point and get it", it's "go run a lot of them and get it". Overall, since they perform equally to mounts that I already had, I didn't waste my time with them. ESO recently started giving one away at level 10, account wide, as part of their level up incentive thing, and Aion doesn't give them away at all, no matter what content you have. I got my raptor because I have the appropriate expansion, and I'll get my griffon the same way. I'm already "winning" the mount war with the game, I don't need to "win" it any more getting free skins.

To the original point, the items are fluff. They make no difference in gameplay, and so, are completely irrelevant, unless you want to collect them, and the problem, based on the very existence of this thread, is that if one wants to collect them, one will have to buy them. This is, very literally, an argument against selling fluff in the CS.

As mentioned: I am not against gem store items and I don't want everything for free. In contrary: I bought a lot of mount skins via gem store. But I would appreciate if they would give us some skins in game. Why is that so hard to understand?

I played Aion years ago, but to my knowledge the wings you could get were upgradable via in game quests/stuff?

Also I played WoW which had like hunderds of skins which you could get in game. I don't remember FF14, but I think you could them also get in game. Now I understand that those games are sub based. On the other side though you mentioned all f2p games. At least GW2 is buy to play and not for free, which is imho a difference.

Well this thread was about the OP's factually incorrect topic of PoF making the game cashshop cantered with no content or skins being made available in game since core was released.Many of us have disproven that theory as there are is a wealth of content/skins achievable from within the game.. in fact didn't we just get a little more thrown at us.

The thread however,was not directed at mount skins in isolation and as previously said they follow the same theme as outfits and are regarded as cashcow fluff items put there for your perusal and purchase.Would it be nice to be able to get them in game.. sureWould it make sound economic sense to the business .. doubtful

The game needs certain hooks and bait to temp the little fish and the big whales alike.. mount skins are the current bait. But as you correctly pointed out, GW2 is B2P but it too has a F2P element and the cashcow is the way to cast out the hooks to snare all of us, both F2P and B2P.We get a heck of a lot of content given to us after the purchase of the core game/expacs already so is mount skins really that much of an issue.

Now if you were not happy at the pricing of some of those skins etc in the cashcow then yeah I could support that, but that's another horse already beaten to death

[robertthebard.8150]

@ProtoGunner.4953 said:

@robertthebard.8150 said:

@ProtoGunner.4953 said:

@"Bloodstealer.5978" said:If you could share your idea on how they supplement the development of the game beyond box sales/expansions I am sure the bean counters will be all ears.Other than that nothing has really changed with the shop except the theme around new additions which will of course be linked to current content.

They could supplement it even if they give us 10% of those skins via achievements/questlines/collections like every other MMO out there. There is not only black and white. This is my main critique. No one argues against a gem store which sell mostly fluff, but at least give us a tiny bit % of those skins not by a absolutely unepic way like outright buying them...

A big part for me in other MMOs for me was getting rare epic mount skins via in game achievements/questlines etc. It's a shame that there is not a single mount skin out there and out of the tons of gliders only the legendaries are available (aside from original skin and the special edition).

Actually, the very existence of this thread disproves your "argues against the gem store selling fluff" statement. They don't want to buy the fluff, they want it for free, and you outline that same desire in this very post. Most MMOs don't give away mounts at all, although, swtor did have some you could buy from vendors in game with in game currency, relatively cheap too, I might add. They are, by and large, less than what you'd buy from their CS though. Some of them can be unlocked via achievements, but it's not "go run this Flash Point and get it", it's "go run a lot of them and get it". Overall, since they perform equally to mounts that I already had, I didn't waste my time with them. ESO recently started giving one away at level 10, account wide, as part of their level up incentive thing, and Aion doesn't give them away at all, no matter what content you have. I got my raptor because I have the appropriate expansion, and I'll get my griffon the same way. I'm already "winning" the mount war with the game, I don't need to "win" it any more getting free skins.

To the original point, the items are fluff. They make no difference in gameplay, and so, are completely irrelevant, unless you want to collect them, and the problem, based on the very existence of this thread, is that if one wants to collect them, one will have to buy them. This is, very literally, an argument against selling fluff in the CS.

As mentioned: I am not against gem store items and I don't want everything for free. In contrary: I bought a lot of mount skins via gem store. But I would appreciate if they would give us some skins in game. Why is that so hard to understand?

I played Aion years ago, but to my knowledge the wings you could get were upgradable via in game quests/stuff?

Also I played WoW which had like hunderds of skins which you could get in game. I don't remember FF14, but I think you could them also get in game. Now I understand that those games are sub based. On the other side though you mentioned all f2p games. At least GW2 is buy to play and not for free, which is imho a difference.

Aion added mounts a year or so after it went F2P. I never bothered with them, because wings, but they did add 'em. Regarding the last bit there, I started completely free. The base game didn't cost me a dime, which is why I bought both expansions at the same time. If I wanted a mount, and after a few days of slogging through the beginner zones on a couple of toons I did, I checked prices and bought both expansions. I was amazed at how much free stuff just the base expansions delivered, on top of the content, and what it brings to the table. I don't see a need to cut any revenue from ANet though, since buying the expansions is, largely, a one off purchase, and isn't going to keep the lights on. The fluff, on the other hand, can.

[IndigoSundown.5419]

@robertthebard.8150 said:

@IndigoSundown.5419 said:

@Linken.6345 said:

@IndigoSundown.5419 said:

@Pifil.5193 said:

@IndigoSundown.5419 said:

@Dawdler.8521 said:

@"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:The only content that costs gems are the expansions. Side stories are free to all. The Living World is free to anyone who logs on just once during the 3-month period each chapter first appears.No its not free to all. You bought the future living world episodes when you bought PoF. Or am I mistaken and people with only HoT/GW2 can travel to PoF zones and do its story?

You are correct. There is a dual unlock system for Living World releases.

• Anyone who logs in during the 2-3 month release window for an episode triggers the first unlock.
• The second unlock is owning the current XPac.

Ill was only partially correct, because s/he did not include the second unlock condition.

In fairness Ill said the side stories (like the awakened invasions in Queensdale and the other starting zones that they added during the first) are free to all, not the episodes.

S/He made three statements:

"The only content that costs gems are the expansions." (incorrect -- XPac's cannot be bought via gems, only the deluxe upgrade can)" Side stories are free to all." (correct)"The Living World is free to anyone who logs on just once during the 3-month period each chapter first appears." (incorrect)

My comment was only addressing the Living World chapters.

Unlocking the episode is free to all if you log in when it first goes live but yeah you having it unlocked on your account is no good unless you have the relevant expansion.

Personally, I think that the only unlock required should be buying the expansion.

I agree that that way would be cleaner.

I fixed your post for you it is correct that you get it for free when you login once during the 3 month period, it will be there when you get the relevant expansion free of charge.

No, you altered what I said, you did not fix it. The fact is that there are two unlocks for LW episodes, not one. The only reason I care is that someone who does not know the game inside and out could read, "LS is free if you login during its release period." and believe that is all they need to do. But, split hairs if you must.

There's only one, the login condition. You cannot expect to get paid content that you didn't pay for, well, you can, but you're going to be very disappointed. I own both expansions, and so, the only conditions I would have to meet for the seasons is to log in. Anyone that knows gaming will know that they can't play paid content w/out buying it, even if they believe they should be entitled to that, or to "discounts".

So, it's paid content, then, with an additional (login) requirement. That's two requirements, not one. I'm not interested in the impact of such statements on people who "know gaming." People who don't "know gaming" also play this game, and might read this thread.

[robertthebard.8150]

@IndigoSundown.5419 said:

@robertthebard.8150 said:

@IndigoSundown.5419 said:

@Linken.6345 said:

@IndigoSundown.5419 said:

@Pifil.5193 said:

@IndigoSundown.5419 said:

@Dawdler.8521 said:

@"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:The only content that costs gems are the expansions. Side stories are free to all. The Living World is free to anyone who logs on just once during the 3-month period each chapter first appears.No its not free to all. You bought the future living world episodes when you bought PoF. Or am I mistaken and people with only HoT/GW2 can travel to PoF zones and do its story?

You are correct. There is a dual unlock system for Living World releases.

• Anyone who logs in during the 2-3 month release window for an episode triggers the first unlock.
• The second unlock is owning the current XPac.

Ill was only partially correct, because s/he did not include the second unlock condition.

In fairness Ill said the side stories (like the awakened invasions in Queensdale and the other starting zones that they added during the first) are free to all, not the episodes.

S/He made three statements:

"The only content that costs gems are the expansions." (incorrect -- XPac's cannot be bought via gems, only the deluxe upgrade can)" Side stories are free to all." (correct)"The Living World is free to anyone who logs on just once during the 3-month period each chapter first appears." (incorrect)

My comment was only addressing the Living World chapters.

Unlocking the episode is free to all if you log in when it first goes live but yeah you having it unlocked on your account is no good unless you have the relevant expansion.

Personally, I think that the only unlock required should be buying the expansion.

I agree that that way would be cleaner.

I fixed your post for you it is correct that you get it for free when you login once during the 3 month period, it will be there when you get the relevant expansion free of charge.

No, you altered what I said, you did not fix it. The fact is that there are two unlocks for LW episodes, not one. The only reason I care is that someone who does not know the game inside and out could read, "LS is free if you login during its release period." and believe that is all they need to do. But, split hairs if you must.

There's only one, the login condition. You cannot expect to get paid content that you didn't pay for, well, you can, but you're going to be very disappointed. I own both expansions, and so, the only conditions I would have to meet for the seasons is to log in. Anyone that knows gaming will know that they can't play paid content w/out buying it, even if they believe they should be entitled to that, or to "discounts".

So, it's paid content, then, with an additional (login) requirement. That's two requirements, not one. I'm not interested in the impact of such statements on people who "know gaming." People who don't "know gaming" also play this game, and might read this thread.

People that read the forum will understand that they can't play the content w/out buying it too. I realize it's easy to assume that they're all some kind of moron or something, and won't understand that the chapters that will show up in their journal if they've logged in require an expansion to play. Here's a shocker for ya', it even states that in the journal. Requires "insert expansion here" to play. So essentially, I have it backwards. There is only one requirement, but that requirement is owning the appropriate expansion. If you're going to be playing, you'll need to be logged in to do it, and no matter how oblivious you believe players may be, everyone's going to be able to figure that one out.

[zaced.7948]

that's bullshit, gw2 has always been cash shop centered.

[Faowri.4159]

@Yamazuki.6073 said:

@"Faowri.4159" said:The 'fancy' single mount skins are, imo, overpriced; the mount set packs are a pain as they don't let you buy individual skins for individual mounts (all or nothing!); and the 'standard' single mount skins are locked behind RNG in the adoption licence.

Relative to other games in the MMORPG market the mounts on GW2 are extremely cheap. Mount skins on GW2 are unlocked on your account for ~20$ a skin or for a bundle of them, where as on most other games you are looking at 10-30$ for a mount that applies to a single character. Even for some sub games if you want a mount for your entire account it will be ~30$ and in the f2p setting it is 30-50$ for account mounts. As for the RNG mounts, it's a little over 100$ I believe to get all of them with zero repeats, compared to mount loot boxes elsewhere you are looking at 50-100$+ for a single mount skin with repeats. Mounts on other games generally do not have the option to change their color, especially not so freely.

That's fine and all, but to me is basically saying "other MMOs are extorting even MORE cash, so this is fine!", and still doesn't resolve the fact that I cannot buy an individual mount of my choosing unless I like the top-end priced ones enough and I'm willing to part with a relatively significant sum of funds to do so vs e.g. nice gliders.

Anet can price and package up the gemstore however they want at the end of the day. The implementation of mount cosmetics has just personally been disappointing to me and not compelled me to spend real money on mounts even once so far, which is a real shame. I spend plenty in the gemstore - these days I have way more money than time! - but only on stuff that lines up with my general consumer principles and price point.

[ReaverKane.7598]

@STIHL.2489 said:

@Vivi.2805 said:I have a hard time remembering when was the last time they released some skins or content that was available from playing the game rather than spending X amount of gems.

And yet.. they just put out a whole set of Legendary Armor with it's own animated features.. that is obtained from playing the game.

That was actually over a year ago... But your sentiment is correct.

@Ashen.2907 said:

@Malediktus.9250 said:

@"Zedek.8932" said:

I don't know, the mounts for example come with a totally theme-fitting skin. It's not that a window pops up and says: "Okay, you have a mount, now buy a skin in the cash shop to finalize customization". You literally need anything from the cash shop. There are many great ingame alternatives. I love my Noble Count Outfit but the Noble set is also working fine. My regular set is just the sneakthief one. The gliders are mostly just strange and you don't glide all the time, I have yet to find a skin on the gemstore for my glider that does not look at least weird.

The mounts are all beautifully designed by default. Except for two things (the outfit and the aviator shades) I would be fine without any cash shop purchases so far. Also, it is, in my opinion, totally irrelevant to me if anyone wears cash shop or rides a mount or is faster at salvaging. Unlike in other games, like one from Squeenix, glamour is not as important in GW2. You don't need to keep up with every new item added, or skins, or whatnot. I know, envy can arise when it's actually in the game, but in the end, aNet offers enough nice things for free. But the grass is usually greener on the other side of the fence, aight? The cash shop and the non-cash shop fence in that matter..

Excelsior.

The standard mount skins are limited to 1 dye slot for no good reason. While even the 400 gem reskins have 4 slots

The limitation exists for a very good reason IMO. You reference it in your post.Lowering the minimum quality of Gemstore skins isn't really a good reason. Because that's it. If they wanted they could sell the exact same mount patterns with 4 dye slots and they would get away with it because the regular one has only one dye slot. But that doesn't make it a good reason to do it.Saying that is like saying that EA and others slicing off content from games to sell it as a DLC is a good thing. Because that's pretty much what reducing mount and glider dye slots to a single one is akin to.

[Yamazuki.6073]

@"Faowri.4159" said:That's fine and all, but to me is basically saying "other MMOs are extorting even MORE cash, so this is fine!", and still doesn't resolve the fact that I cannot buy an individual mount of my choosing unless I like the top-end priced ones enough and I'm willing to part with a relatively significant sum of funds to do so vs e.g. nice gliders.

It's called a standard set by customers, no one would be charging what they do for mounts across a ton of games if it wasn't selling. It's no different as to why games cost what they cost, or any other product. It is what either most people are willing to pay before they say no to it, or it brings the highest income. It is their job to bring as much as they can, and if people are fine dropping 10-30$ per mount per character on most games then blame the customers for "over paying", or rather, it just means you're extremely cheap when it comes to mounts; that's a personal problem and not an industry problem. Comparing this to extortion is a gross exaggeration.

Don't buy what you don't support, if enough people do the same, then the market changes, if you're in the minority then there's nothing that can be done until another game with lower prices comes along. Exaggerations don't change prices, money does (or lack of).

[Faowri.4159]

@Yamazuki.6073 said:

@"Faowri.4159" said:That's fine and all, but to me is basically saying "other MMOs are extorting even MORE cash, so this is fine!", and still doesn't resolve the fact that I cannot buy an individual mount of my choosing unless I like the top-end priced ones enough and I'm willing to part with a relatively significant sum of funds to do so vs e.g. nice gliders.

Don't buy what you don't support, if enough people do the same, then the market changes . . .

Goodness, you are determined to make an unreasonable customer of me, aren't you? :) However, quoted statement is exactly what I do, and have said I've done in all my posts here. I assure you, I am by no stretch of the imagination a cheap customer; I have sunk a hell of a lot of money into this game. I've bought collector's editions, soundtracks, outfits, utility items, upgrades, gliders, novelty items, gold via conversion. I'm a pretty routine spender in the gemstore. I support the game because I love it, because I want it and the studio behind it to succeed, and of course because I want shiny stuff and to win all the Fashion Wars.

What I am, however, is a discerning customer. As I said, I do not spend my real money on something if I don't feel I'm getting good value for it. Since you have homed in on mount cost, which is a small but legitimate percent of why I've yet to spend any money on mounts, let me explain again: Individual standard mounts via the adoption licence are 400 gems a pop. Individual mounts in the packs, if you break down the cost, work out at between 300 and 400 gems a pop (bearing in mind that one of the mounts in isn't something every person will easily acquire, so they may only be getting 4 rather than 5 useable skins).

Totally reasonable! Totally willing to spend that. Totally willing to buy a whole bunch of mount skins at that price. Unfortunately, I can't just buy a branded skin for my springer - I have to buy it for all my mounts. And if I want one of the licence skins, I have to play the RNG game. In short (and you'll notice a theme here) I have to spend more than I need to buy that one thing that I want, and/or have to engage in manipulative sales practices. This is where I discern that I am not getting value for money on the 'standard' mounts.

Then we have the fancy mounts at 2000 gems. And I don't care what other games charge; I care what this one charges. And this one is charging 81% of the cost of the entire expansion (in which we gained access to every single available mount) for one single mount skin. There is no luxury item in existence where that kind of price makes any proportional sense, and I'm afraid you will never convince me otherwise.

The 'other games do it' argument just doesn't bear any sort of weight against the use of manipulative sales practices. There are many out there that are tolerated by customers, often because we have no choice if we want to engage at all. Some examples:

• Inability to buy custom amounts of an in-game currency (thus ensuring that customers always have to spend at least a little more than they need to buy the thing they actually wanted, and always have 'loose change' rattling around that is probably not enough to buy anything, so of course needs to be topped up . . .)
• Artificial limitation of item availability as a pressure sales tactic - for example, removing items from the store arbitrarily to funnel purchases, set up later 'returning item' promotions and encourage impulse buying
• RNG/loot box mechanisms that encourage a gambling mindset and again, making a customer spend more than they need to get the thing that they want (note: this is particularly manipulative when coupled with a 'limited time' offer to bypass the RNG mechanism and get every available option, thus pressuring people to spend a huge amount in one go to avoid being burned over time)

I mean, I could go on. Anet has and continues to engage in all of these. Yes, they are 'industry standards'. No, they are not acceptable just because people are strongarmed into playing along if they want the shinies.

Of course, Anet does lots of good things, too:

• Account-wide unlocks
• Frequent sales
• Free item promotions
• Primarily cosmetic purchases that offer no real advantage
• Accessibility to non-paying players via the gold-gem conversion mechanic

So I will continue to support them, where I do not feel that keen sting of manipulation. If you still deem me an unreasonable, 'cheap' customer for protecting my consumer interests, then I'm afraid we'll have to agree to disagree :)

[Aridon.8362]

I think the original idea for path of fire armor was to have just outfits since that was, after all the original intention the artists had for armor. Mixing and matching armor styles with different textures such as taking a piece from the Arah armor set, and putting it with say a sorrows furnace piece creates a dissonant appeal. Personally I think people in outfits look really nice these days especially since outfits generally tend to be unique

[Blocki.4931]

The only thing PoF changed is that the general quality of the skins improved imo