Horrorscope

I haven't spent any money on gems in this game.  I'm not opposed to it, Anet needs to have income, I understand that.

But first off, the Gem Store is a joke!  There's hardly anything there, and most of it is horrid garbage.  RNG is just bad.  I don't go to Macys to bid on a grab bag full of cr#p, I won't do it here either.

Second,  I feel that Anet sold me an unfinished game.  I'm not bitter or sore about it since they have been working to finish, but I don't feel they are deserving of a "tip" from me yet.  Since this last patch has now introduced some unwanted elements into their game, I can't say I'll be supporting that direction with my money either.

Their behavior says that infracting people for forum snarkiness is more important than class balance or a viable end-game.  Priorities, I guess *shrug*

I love the game, it's the first game I've ever really got to the max level considerable fast, especially when it's 80 levels, but I was hoping for more of the end game, I loved rvr in WaR and the WvWvW is like it but on a grander scale, it's just a pit I can never get in to experience it.

I don't really get this overflow system. I thought, at start, that it would be something to simply circumvent queues at login. That is a fine idea.

But once you're in, why do they keep putting you back into overflow every time you use a waypoint that's not in your immediate vicinity? Changing zones = basically getting booted from the server. That is stupid, considering that WvWvW is a major selling point, queues are looooong and you can't get into it from the overflow servers...

What is the benefit to this exceedingly weird system?

Bloodtau, on 07 September 2012 - 12:17 AM, said:

I used to be a staunch support of Anet (you can look through my post history pre-launch).

However, the mass bannings over "funny" non-offensive names and "exploiting" gltiches (while usually not even notifying the user why they were banned) have definitely changed my view on them as a company. I would never expect a company to ban paying customers for simple "infractions" (if you can even call them that). That's just poor customer service.

I was not banned, but I feel very strongly about the topic of customer care.

Just a question of what kind of value I get for my dollar.  Is GW2 worth the purchase price?  So far signs are good, I've payed for games that ended up being crap or losing my interest pretty quick before, logging fewer hours and having less fun than I did with these beta weekends.

So are the individual cash shop items worth the cost?  Well, some of them no.  I don't really care about xp boosts, or dye packs(with 400 dyes currently, rather just farm them in game, I don't like gambling.  I would buy an individual series of dyes though, or if they were account wide), or res stones, or bank/AH summons, merchant summons, etc.

For other things, like character slots and bank slots...  Well, yeah.  I'm not paying a monthly sub, so buying quality of life stuff is pretty easy to justify for me.  Kind of like League of Legends - I buy skins and character sometimes with money, because I've played for hours and hours.  In the end they've made more than a box copy off of me, and I've gotten more than a box copy worth of value because they are incentivized to make their game GOOD.

Everyone is free to make their own judgement here obviously - some people are certain to never spend any money, and if they get gem store items it is with ingame conversions.  Some people will buy a few things.  Some will buy a lot.  So long as you admit that you are doing what you want for your own reasons.  Arenanet has been pretty good about being careful with making the items in the cash shop not granting a gameplay advantage, it is all cosmetic and quality of life stuff.  Furthermore, with the ability to buy gems with ingame currency...  You can just play the game to get those items too.  Might be a poor time to money conversion, but everyone is free to decide what their time is worth, and playing GW2 is bound to be more fun most of the time than getting overtime/selling plasma/second job/whatever.

Arguing about personal preference is a terrible idea though.  If someone likes chocolate ice cream, let them.  If someone likes strawberry, whatever.  If they like AmeriCone Dream, good for them.  So, whatever.  I like that Arenanet has made a game that accommodates a lot of flavors of ice cream, and not just 'you get what you are served".

DarkWalker, on 13 June 2012 - 02:17 AM, said:

Honestly I always felt that if the game has a subscription, all the services should be free, no money for transfers and re-customizations.  But for game that do not charge a monthly fee, I am fine with them charging for transfers and re-customizations.

Cash shops are to much like a drug to the game developers in my mind.  First it is just a little taste, then once they get that taste they want more and more.  Eventually, they become addicts that just can't control themselves and they hurt the people that love them.

I played LOTRO from betas until soon after F2P.  When Turbine made DDO F2P, they swore that LOTRO would never suffer that fate.  However, when they got a taste for the F2P money they changed their mind.  Then they increasingly broke promises concerning store items.  See?  Its like a drug, a little taste, then a little more, then they are stealing from friends.

I know Anet didn't have this problem in GW1, but they also had a limited game.  There was only so much they could do with a non MMO.  Now they have an MMO and the are also under NCSoft for the creating of the game.  The more people buy silly things like crafting XP potions the more likely that Anet will want more.  Then the game gets broken to make more money in the store.

McSumo, on 13 June 2012 - 10:58 AM, said:

I had 0 dyes as did my wife in limited play.  XP scrolls lead to other stuff.  When Anet controls the game, the XP given for stuff, the leveling speed, then they can make it to where XP scrolls are needed.  That is what happens in F2P games.

To be honest I really do enjoy everything, it's just the horrible lagg and terrible FPS that is irritating me to no end. I'm usually not too critical of games I just start playing because when you're new you tend to think games are bad when really it's just your inexperience. It's fun, I'm just dissapointed I can't be an allstar because of the lagg.