Kityn

Arava, on 05 May 2012 - 05:53 PM, said:

To be fair, I was on the fence when I bought the CE. I actually went back-and-forth with myself several times between the date when ArenaNet announced the CE contents and the date when they finally went on sale. Ultimately, though, I chose to ignore my misgivings and to go ahead and purchase the CE for myself because of my past dealings with ArenaNet and because the physical items seemed to be worth the extra money (my SO knew he wanted his, and that was my birthday present to him). That was my fault: I acknowledge that fully.

As it is, I intend to play the game I bought and to play it hard. Whether I buy any expansions, however, is largely going to be affected by how ArenaNet handles the cash shop in the base game.

Myrina, on 05 May 2012 - 04:44 PM, said:

I WANT to love this game. I WANT this to be my next immersive fantasy world. I just cant do it quite yet. Not with the little things they are doing to pick at my pocketbook.

As far as the CS screwing up the game, I'll be honest with you. I've done a lot of digging on the game from many many different sources.  From the first announcement of GW2/B2P/CS that was made public, every single troll, naysayer, doom&gloomer, and all around critic has said from the start that it would be the CS that is going to sink the game. That's kind of why I'm monitoring it so closely and why it has so much to do with my decision to invest in this game. Not only money, but my time as well.

Domriana, on 05 May 2012 - 04:34 PM, said:

And it's a shame. The game itself is very fun to play. But if I have reservations about the cash shop, and I was willing to throw down $300+ for two Collector's Editions (for myself and my SO), I can only imagine how much doubt a person who isn't yet convinced to buy the game might have.

Of all the ways that ArenaNet could have screwed up their game, I never expected it to be the cash shop. Perhaps I should have.

You know.. it's little things like this that continue to keep me from actually purchasing the game. There's been 3-4 times where I've pulled my credit card out of my purse to spend the $60 only to pause a sec and consider. Last time it was removal of the transmutation vendors and terrible in-game chat system. The time before that was the discovery of having to RMT to create a character on another server other than the one I was "locked" to because I created a character there at launch. Seriously, AT LAUNCH I'm supposed to know the server I chose wont be full of meme-spewing neckbeards. Time before that was the leaked item shop with res scrolls, lockbox/key sales, and the addition of armor durability immediately followed by repair scrolls in the CS.

I know a lot of this seems superficial when looked at as single instances over time, but for someone that scrutinizes their purchases a little more closely, it adds up and creates doubt very quickly.

I'm not alone either. I'm part of a large group of MMO and RPG fans and we are all very hesitant to jump in with both feet.

KaneK89, on 05 May 2012 - 07:36 AM, said:

Sadly, I agree with you. Let's see what they do at release. For now, the most irritating thing is that they promised one thing in a Blog post and then the game shows you another reality... we trusted you, ArenaNet. Don't ruin that.

Draugadan, on 05 May 2012 - 06:30 AM, said:

There are still a lot of people blindly defending ArenaNet. I want to give them the benefit of the doubt. I really do; hell, I bought two copies of the Collector's Edition (one for me, one for the SO). I have a definite interest in retaining faith in ArenaNet. I just... I dunno. I'm nervous. It was my fault for throwing down that much money upfront (ignoring that if I'd waited until release, I wouldn't have gotten any CE's). I know that. Still.

I will say this much: whether it's NCSoft applying pressure or ArenaNet trying to see what they can get away with, if the cash shop launches in a direction that I do not agree with, I will not buy any of their expansions. Too little, too late, but it's all I can do.