Actually, in Guild Wars 2 there was a chance keys could drop from mobs, you could also purchase keys off the AH for gold (originally, well did for the first 2 weeks). There are actually several other games which have chests that drop that require cash shop keys which include Tera, Neverwinter and Star Trek Online. Thing is it's actually a common and popular microtransaction strategy sneakily forced onto free to play MMOs by marketing teams who think it's a clever idea... <_< That whole chest thing wasn't ArenaNet's idea, it was forced on them by NCSoft. Hens why they took it upon themselves to have the keys drop rarely for players in game, NCSoft can't say no to that. What happened in GW2 was predicted; we were fools to buy into the hype and purchase the game without knowing what was already circulating around the net. Everything that started to happen in NCSoft published titles was a result of a hostile take over of their marketing when another publisher, known infamously for producing cash grab games and games full of microtransations on facebook and mobile games, bought 40% of NCSoft's stockholding 3 months before the release of GW2. This action also lead to the removal of account bound dyes in GW2 and replaced by character bound dyes, which forced players to get all the dye sets individually for each character, this was forced onto ArenaNet too by NCSoft to boost microtransactions in dye packs from the cash shop. The inclusion of exchanging gold for gems and other such practices are from the developers themselves trying to buck the system they were stupid enough to allow themselves to be bought into. All the while using the excuse "to stop gold sellers" as a clever ploy to prevent it's inclusion, two birds one stone, nice one guys. Though I agree it's a very despicable marketing strategy to employ to "force" microtransactions for the chance at randomly generated gear and boosts; which could be argued as Pay2Win in some circles... I find the whole practice of deceiving the customers and doing "tiny money grabs here and there" which in the long run add up to a lot of money is in fact the wrong approach to conducting microtransaction, it leaves people bitter and angry. The better model of approach is the "chunk" method which Riot Games employs, where only 10% of the population actually ever buy anything. But "boy do they buy things" I've known people who have spent over $1000 on league skins; that's equal to 10 people purchasing a full price retail game. So in essence, 10% of the population pay for the other 90%'s free game time; that's the honest way of doing microtransaction, the original way. Forced tiny crash grab mentalities ($3 here, $2 there), like the one EA employs now is the evil money grabbing ethically wrong way of conducting business, you exploit the lowest common denominator, people's lack of value for petty cash, but at the same time, it devalues the base game, making money grabbing blatantly obvious. And from the reaction of customers, it's obvious they don't like it. The sad thing is, it's very easy to argue that exploiting the lack of value for petty cash is in fact not charging chunks for vanity items... no, that's again exploiting a lack of rationality and playing on uneducated fears of; also don't use games like World of Tanks or Mechwarrior Online as examples of "chunk" methods that suck; what people didn't like about those games had nothing to do with the microtransaction model, it had to do with the gameplay and the developers lies about the gameplay.
Isn't that obvious? I buy a game and they put in a system that push me to spend more money. We play for loot and I have to pay or miss a loot. That is P2W in a way. You consider the loot as crap, I didn't at the time. The pleasure of such game is the loot and then I got a loot that I cannot use unless I pay, but what I have already pay for the game (and it was not cheap). Basically the cash shop is the same thing. If I like the B2P system it is because I don't want to have microtransaction. So the very existence of a cash shop which have all kind of booster and nice stuff upset me because I already paid for this. And when you play a game where you constantly reminded that there is something that upset you, that damaged your game experience. Best regards, Skanvak Drakken de la Maison des Drakkens
Then you were obviously playing the wrong game. Guild Wars 2 wasn't about the loot at all; it never was, nor was the game designed around it. The game was designed around 'casual everything.' The focal point of Guild Wars 2 was a game that appealed to casual gamers who enjoy doing massive multiplayer content together. The focus point was the combat system itself and the lore rather than content and substance. Gear had little to no obvious impact on gameplay for PvE content, the only time it was impacting was in WvW and only in the situation where you gank other players who are not part of a zerg; which was rare. So by that logic, it would of only mattered to you if you were a PvP griefer. Gear in that game served a cosmetic purpose more than any and only end level gear served any real practical use because they had beneficial passives. If you want to play a game where the entire focus point is gear, play a dungeon crawler like Diablo or Path of Exile or even games like Dark Souls. In those games player stats were the passive and the gear you ware is the build. In GW2 it's the other way around and Anet were rather clear about that even before the game released; same for a lot of other games too, just because you're angry you made a poor choice of purchase, doesn't mean you should flame a game over it.
I understand, but you miss the point. There is loot! The box is a loot. And looting something that say "hello give me money or you cannot use me" is despicable. Beside in GW2 you don't always have end game gear, so the loot is important contrary to GW1 and even in GW1 you look at the loot for the skin. So, no I disagree, the game have a loot appeal. And GW2 is not casual at all with the high end dungeon (the fractals). Only the leveling is casual friendly. Though I play Diablo 3 now (but I miss the open world and exploration aspect). Best regards, Skanvak Drakken de la Maison des Drakkens
Like i said above Skanvak, everything contained in the cash shop could be obtained with gold, so you either pay with your time or you pay with your wallet. And yes it leaves a sour taste in peoples mouths, but then monthly payments do even more. So tell me then, with Behavior already stating EC will be a B2P game, how do you plan to fund any future content inclusions in the game? If you deny microtransactions, what is gonna pay for actually producing the further content? And for the record, Fractals are a joke when comparing to content other games use for dungeons. Its not easy for a casual, but the actual dungeons are bottom tier when comparing to 99% of other MMOs.
You mention you can buy items with either gold or money. So this gold is in game currency (requisition) ? I did bad reading on your post. I had in mind that devs have said that you can either get items by playing the game or just buying it with cash. But I was wondering if there will be some only cash shop cosmetics that cannot be obtained any other way ?
Cant say i know that, i was referencing GW2's system where everything (including cashshop items) were obtainable with time and gold, i hope you understood that now. I dont know how lucrative it was for GW2, but they are still alive and kicking. Though its starting to die down im afraid, which again can also be attributed to the devs attitude of not listening to us and making their most popular game feature (WvW) a better experience.
