Is Guild Wars 2 Pay2win?

[Virdo.1540]

[maddoctor.2738]

Pay2Win what? What exactly are you "winning"?

[Solanum.6983]

Nope and it's one of the great things about the game.

No sub fee.Living world is free as long as you simply just log in the months during the current chapters release.Horizontal progression with plenty of ways to max out your character in game.Gems can be purchased with Gold meaning you never have to spend a cent if you don't want to.

The only thing you actually have to buy is the expansions but even then they are very cheap for the sheer amount of content you get with them.

[Astyrah.4015]

assuming this is actually a serious question,

if fashion wars is your endgame, then yes GW2 is pay-to-win. you buy the best skins and cosmetics on the cash shop rather than farming then ingame.

if it's pve (raids, fractals, strikes, dungeons) or wvw, then throwing more money at arenanet wont exactly win you anything for your character or progression other than actually helping the game stay online for years to come -- which in return wins you a game to play and enjoy for as long as the servers are live.

[Ayrilana.1396]

Not really. Most transactions which could be considered that in this game are more convenience related although I personally would not consider those P2W. Someone that spends their RL money in the game isn't going to have much of an advantage over players if at all.

[Shaogin.2679]

Well you've been around long enough to know for a fact that it isn't Pay2Win. So either you're trolling, or something is on your mind that caused you to arrive at this conclusion. So, which is it?

[Xanadrine.4352]

I put maybe because it depends on the definition of what you call p2w. In my case its not pay to win overall the only things you buy in the store are like cosmetics and some utility like slots and tabs. But where i have a concern is players that are coming into the game and have bought the expansions dont realize they have to buy all the stories to go with it, unlike other games where the ingame content is there when you buy the expansion. This leaves new players with breaks and holes in the storyline and unable to access full zones and some mounts. And as much as people will say make gold and buy the gems, its not that easy for people that are not veterans. I think its that part of the game where new players then get mad and turned off. They dont realize it till after they hit 80 and start going through the zones , that wait a second something is missing. Then they have to either spend real money on gems or take a long road trying to get gold in game to buy them. Many will just throw up their hands at that point.

Regardless of what people say, it is almost impossible to keep up with a meta train without skyscale or griffon now.

[AliamRationem.5172]

Is this a serious question? No. Not only is it not p2w, it seems to be one of the few games that lets you actually fight other players rather than fighting their gear score!

[WindBlade.8749]

No but yes, they should put living worlds with the dlc associated to it, even if it's make it a little bit more expensive, paying two time the same price later feel way more expensive than paying one time.

[ugrakarma.9416]

the most close "pay to win" is only if u drag to top end content and metas, some requires status tied to expansions, but theses gamemodes are itself acessible only with expansions, like raids.

[aspirine.6852]

It is pay for convenience, not pay to win.

[HnRkLnXqZ.1870]

What can be bought with real money?

• Gw2, Expansions and LW
• Waypoint unlocks, levelups
• $ to GEM to GOLD
• exotic gear, ascended gear via crafting (hilariously expensive) and legendary weapons
• cosmetics and infusions
• achievement progression, for stuff you can be carried through (this includes LI and most KP ^^)
• story-progression

What cannot be bought with real money?

• Hero Points and Mastery Points (yet)
• Mastery EXP, theoretically possible but difficult and tedious
• skill & class experience, devices have their limits

How to win GW2?This is a MMORPG, where playing together with other players is considered part of the fun. If you rely on a 'device' to get around the skill/experience issue, it is questionable what you bought the game for. If you want to watch someone play GW2, you can just tag along a streamer and save the entire money.

If you just want an outmaxed character/account and then dive into Endgame content, joke is on you. As long as you are not gifted with a talent to learn stuff from seeing it once and the ability to process it instantly, your /deaths counter will skyrocket until you quit from frustration. Been there, seen a lot.

The important question for them is: Where to stop with Fast Forward? The more of the content you rush, the less there is for you to enjoy. I have seen players rushing both HoT and PoF, then the LW just to end up with nothing to do but farming. They do Fractals, Raids, Strike Missions and maybe DRMs. But you can enjoy that content without bothering about most of the LW and Expansions. You need to own the Expansions for the Elite Specializations.

Another problem comes with the Ascended gear requirement. Pretty much every guide out there and every build-page recommends using ascended or legendary gear. Because it has the highest stats and the build-designers always want to reach the highest benchmarks. This however leads to a horrible misconception for new players. They consider everything below Ascended trash. We know this is not the case, but it is almost impossible to change their minds. I've met players who barely knew what class they wanted to play, let alone the build, but worked on their first legendary weapon. Flushed $ after $ down the bowl, crafting the precursor which was a lot cheaper on TP, quitting the game long before reaching T3. So once again: Please make your guides with exotic gear.

tl&dr; In my opinion, if you play the game Fast Forward with a credit-card, you will not stay long. You probably skip most of the real fun and often end up in places and situations which are rather awkward and frustrating instead. So I vote for no, I consider this system Pay2Lose.

[Abelisk.5148]

It's pay to play not pay to win. Story chapters and elite specs require money. Other than that, gear advancement and skill enhancement definitely do not need money to be spent.

[Raknar.4735]

The definition of P2W has been warped in the last few years, so it depends on what definition you're applying to the game.

[Astyrah.4015]

@Shaogin.2679 said:Well you've been around long enough to know for a fact that it isn't Pay2Win. So either you're trolling, or something is on your mind that caused you to arrive at this conclusion. So, which is it?

the OP has 4 stars next to their arenanet id which indicates that yes, they've been a pretty active forum goer -- so i assume it's the former, they're just trolling lol

[Khisanth.2948]

@"HnRkLnXqZ.1870" said:Another problem comes with the Ascended gear requirement. Pretty much every guide out there and every build-page recommends using ascended or legendary gear. Because it has the highest stats and the build-designers always want to reach the highest benchmarks. This however leads to a horrible misconception for new players. They consider everything below Ascended trash. We know this is not the case, but it is almost impossible to change their minds. I've met players who barely knew what class they wanted to play, let alone the build, but worked on their first legendary weapon. Flushed $ after $ down the bowl, crafting the precursor which was a lot cheaper on TP, quitting the game long before reaching T3. So once again: Please make your guides with exotic gear.

That is not a problem specific to GW2 guides. That is a general people problem of not being unable to to think for themselves.

It is no different from people doing things and buying stuff just because it is endorsed by a celebrity or thinking they need something because some influener uses it. It is not a recent thing either as there are historical examples of something or another becoming popular simply because some high status person used/had the item.

People cling to their wants not their needs. Being a game just makes things worse because of the "oh this is just a game I shouldn't need to think" attitude.

[Fueki.4753]

Yes, it objectively is pay to win.
Elite specializations are stronger than core professions and one needs to pay to use them.

Edited July 31, 2022 by Fueki.4753

[Danikat.8537]

It might sound strange but what convinces me that GW2 is not pay to win is that there's very little consensus among players on the best or "must have" gem store items. I think if the game was pay to win there would be some items everyone would recommend because it's impractical or impossible to play without them. But even the more popular recommendations like infinite salvage kits or character slots will have large numbers of people saying they never bothered getting it, or never use it and wouldn't recommend it to other people.

[Virdo.1540]

@Astyrah.4015 said:

@Shaogin.2679 said:Well you've been around long enough to know for a fact that it isn't Pay2Win. So either you're trolling, or something is on your mind that caused you to arrive at this conclusion. So, which is it?

the OP has 4 stars next to their arenanet id which indicates that yes, they've been a pretty active forum goer -- so i assume it's the former, they're just trolling lol

Ive seen a discussion today in the LA map chat, with many different opinions.

[Linken.6345]

@Fueki.4753 said:Yes, it objectively is pay to win.Elite specializations are stronger than core professions and one needs to pay to use them.

Expansions witch contain elite specialiations are not considered pay to win.Instead you pay to continue playing the game.

[Xanadrine.4352]

@Linken.6345 said:

@Fueki.4753 said:Yes, it

objectively

is pay to win.Elite specializations are stronger than core professions and one needs to pay to use them.

Expansions witch contain elite specialiations are not considered pay to win.Instead you pay to continue playing the game.

I dont think he is talking about expansions.

[Shadowmoon.7986]

Xpacs selling especs are somewhat pay2win, i would argue build templates are in wvw in some cases. Templates used to be a bigger issue when cfbs could pretrap as dh and switch to another build with the traps preserved.

[Astyrah.4015]

@Virdo.1540 said:

@Astyrah.4015 said:

@Shaogin.2679 said:Well you've been around long enough to know for a fact that it isn't Pay2Win. So either you're trolling, or something is on your mind that caused you to arrive at this conclusion. So, which is it?

the OP has 4 stars next to their arenanet id which indicates that yes, they've been a pretty active forum goer -- so i assume it's the former, they're just trolling lol

Ive seen a discussion today in the LA map chat, with many different opinions.

my bad then, sorry for assuming! :)

[Aeolus.3615]

@Shadowmoon.7986 said:Xpacs selling especs are somewhat pay2win, i would argue build templates are in wvw in some cases. Templates used to be a bigger issue when cfbs could pretrap as dh and switch to another build with the traps preserved.

Buys expacts before they get nerfed so one can win agains tplayers w/o the expact that's somehow fake progression and more leaning towards p2w genra not totatly to be called it, but a shady deployment to make people buuy the new cool kid rotations or high damage(at least that's how heart of thorns classes came out).

[Touchme.1097]

If GW2 was P2W my character would be so OP he could solo raid bosses with all the money I have spent in this game so far. This game is skill based and quite balanced. I have played in P2W games before, it's not fun when you can solo 100% of the content I have to admit