Cat

@alycat More money that time I meant.

@(Unverified) They weren't in GW1. Trust me. Cosmetics and shortcuts are appealing enough (not to me, but there's more than enough people with more time than money to make up for it.) I'd rather earn storage and character slots playing the game, assuming I ever feel compelled to play more than 5 characters, which is doubtful. Other people want more than 5 slots and they want them now. There's even people who want to spend a lot of money on the cash shop on cosmetics and storage and character slots just out of principal because they want to support ANet beyond the box price.

Look at all the people buying costumes in GW1. In the meantime, they gave us all the new GW Beyond content for free (provided you had the related expansions.)

@Ehra It's still box price only for me, even more so now. The T stones were tempting, but we can earn them in game without even getting involved in the gold/gem trade (pretty sure I saw they were purchasable with karma.) 5 slots is more than enough, but apparently I don't have to use real game money even if I did decide I wanted more (market conditions allowing) that is.

Now my husband will probably be lazy and buy extra storage because he gets really into the whole trading scene but also likes a head start, but I don't see him dropping more than a few dollars on the shop either.

So if I'm reading correctly, that means I won't have to have multiple tailors, artificers, etc? Or is it too soon to rule out BoP crafted armor and weapons?

@(Unverified) Wrong. GW 2 is skill based, not gear based. You can't buy skill. Gear stats improve during the game but those improvements are easily attainable through game play. There's no quota, no RNG, no endless raiding and relying outside systems like DKP to get gear, etc. Also, everybody gets max gear and stats for PvP. It's a level playing field. In order to win, you have to play better. There's nothing to give a lesser skilled or experienced player an advantage over someone with more skill or experience.

Also, in order to get gold you have to trade a gem to someone who earned the gold. Basically the cash shop is all about people trading time for money or money for time. And there's nothing you can buy that someone else can't earn. Sure, you may get to a certain level faster, but you won't be better geared than people of the same level as you and you'll also have less experience playing. Basically you can catch up easier but you will not be able to move ahead of your peers in terms of lethality.

Don't get me wrong. The system is still good for casual players with more money than time. It's just not bad for people who prefer spending time rather than money. It's pretty much a win/win for everyone except people with neither time nor money who likely wouldn't be playing anyway.

There may be *some* advantage on an individual basis in WvW but the worlds with players who spend more won't have an advantage over those that don't because new gold isn't being created, it's simply changing hands within the world. That, and they have a system in place to match worlds up so the same winning worlds aren't just steamrolling the same losing worlds (as an added check/balance.)

@Jetflame3 You do realize that in order to get in game gold, a person has to trade a gem to the person giving them the gold? The gems are used in the shop, which means the other player can now buy things out of the shop without using real money, which is a vast improvement over GW1, which still didn't have a P2W shop. No new gold is entering the game. It's merely moving from one player to another..

Also, there's nothing that can be bought in the store that can't be easily obtained in game. The only difference is currency. Some people are choosing to pay in time, others are choosing to pay in cash.

@jeremys 1) What looks cool is pretty subjective. Who wins a PvP match for example, is not.

2) Even if looking better was defined as winning and we could all agree on what looked best, there's still nothing in the shop that can't be earned through gameplay so even if your definition was accepted, the game still wouldn't be p2w.

@Unverfied B Yes, although some people may repeat them just because they enjoy them or whatever else. But there's so many options for leveling in this game that you will never *have* to repeat something. Also, keep in mind that the leveling curve evens out over time (no difference from 29 to 30 or 39 to 40, etc.) Basically leveling is designed to move you through the game at a steady pace (although sidekicking allows people to experience higher content, albeit without all the skills and traits they would otherwise have at their disposal.) I think mob grinding and repetition are very much a bi-product of games in which experience requirements grow exponentially without a comparable exponential growth of content.

@blackcat7k They ALWAYS told us there would be a cash shop. As others told you at another site, GW1 had one as well and it was far from mandatory to enjoy the game. I got far more enjoyment out of GW1 than I ever did out of Wow and spent a heck of a lot less money. I expect to have even more fun playing GW2.

Why have YOU bought into paying a monthly fee simply for the privilege of playing a game?

There is nothing even hinted at for the cash shop that suggests I need to pay any additional money out of pocket to enjoy the game aside from investing in future expansions. Also, you can use your skill, wits and friendships to advance and succeed. That's not true of WoW, well except for the using part. It's gear based, NOT skill based. Everybody can get from point A to point B in GW2 whether they spend money or not. In WoW, you're at the mercy of RNG and DKP and w/e else.

My husband and I can enjoy GW 2 for at least the next year at $120 only vs the additional $360 we'd have to pay for a game with a monthly fee. And if our children wanted to play with us, forget about it. That's another $240 a year per child vs the $60 per game only, since quite frankly, we could care less if people level faster. It won't dampen our fun any.

This is the end of an era for paying loads of money only for the privilege of paying a game vs paying additional ONLY if you want to get from point A to B faster, at least as far as GW2, is concerned since there's nothing you can buy that isn't easily attainable in game with minimal grind.

@Dunraven You can't pay to win a skill based game because you can't buy skill. At best you can skip to the end, which is beneficial for people with more time than money and of zero consequence to those of us planning to spend only time apart from the purchase of the game itself. Also, to what Facebook game is GW2 comparable?

Maybe I just have low standards. All I look for in a game is the ability to look how I want, play how I want and have fun in a beautiful action based fantasy game along side my friends. Can't think of a single game that fits the bill aside from GW2.

Also, I doubt that many people have "walked away" from the game considering it hasn't even been released yet, and those that claim to obviously haven't gone quietly, or else how would you even know?

Lots of people whine and complain whether it's because the game hasn't come out when they wanted or they didn't get into beta or w/e else, yet I still seem them hanging around to whine and complain and I anticipate seeing them at launch and thereafter as well.