Skill Unlocks in the Guild Wars Store!

I hate seeing how ungrateful people are, I mean, people request a UAX for so long, and now that something to that is offered, everyone gets mad? I mean, come on. It's a feature that I think is legit to sell in the store, since it reduces grind.
Having skills does NOT make people a better player, it's playing with those skills and experience that tend to. It's the player Skill, not the skills they have (to a certian extent).
For those people who want to join in now, I see it as a good investment to do an unlock-all for all the proph skills when you start the game. It's a lot less grind, just so you can CATCH UP to the people who already have the skills. Sure, they spent a long time unlocking them, but in reality *if you are only playing to unlock skills, not for fun, why are you playing*. Unlocking skills that WHOLE time should not have been the primary focus, it should have been the fun playing. Now you can spend time, and have fun, AND have the skills

CREDIT where it is deserved. lol.

yea, being pissed off about this faded over the past few hours. still say they should just unlock it for free though...

so new theme. game (not=) life. but i guess people ranting on these forums is
game > life XD

So it would be better if the newcomers can't play HA at all, because they have to unlock skills first?

This option is for players who don't have much time and still want to participate in PvP and don't have to grind anymore to be competetive. What is wrong with that? Jezzus.

...And how would any of that affect you in the slightest?

Don't assume that every newcomer is going to show up and complain on the forums because they don't understand the game. Maybe that's what you did but most people aren't like that. And if they are, then they'll just get shut down instantly, called noobs, and have their thread closed.

So once again, how would any of that affect you in the slightest?

This was a long time coming. Pity about the obscene price though. Ah well, lucky I quit the game ;p

Fake Edit: Seriously this will definitely have a positive impact on pvp. I can't tell you how many times i've tried to take people into a team because they wanted to HA only to find they don't have the necessary skillset. Imo it is the biggest barrier to entry in pvp, far bigger than rank/titles etc, or who you know.

Real Edit: To the people who are moaning about how these people won't have skill, what makes you think that pve-ers who just spent a zillion hours pveing to buy all the skills will be any better? answer: they wont. I found that it is best to assume all players are complete morons who need to be told exactly what to do despite their rank or qualifications. Generally things aren't as they originally seem..

Woah... just woah.

So when will we be able to buy these in the online store in the near future?

-Coke/Korean exclusive items
-Collector Edition Bonus Keys (etc Divine Aura in CE of GWP and Bonus Dances in GWF)
-Mini pets-exclusive cash only ones included with the rest
-Cash only greens lol
-Extra storage slots
-Map all towns pack
-Full titles Bonus pack
-Special Trim colours for capes
-Special/Holiday event Items and Hats
-Special Cash only Emote pack
-Rank Bonus pack scaled to price
-100k gold for only USD$9.99

I suppose it would be unlikely that the game client would be offered free like those other MMOs that sell their ingame items/bonus for real cash would it?

Rofl and gg Anet.

So can players who only own Factions, buy this skill pack, and be able to use the Prophecies skills? If so, that would be awesome, and justifies the high price tag.

I think offering a huge discount to players who already own the Prophecies game would be a good idea too. I know I would buy skill packs for my friends if it did not cost me the price of a full game.

You don't have to buy the skill packs, the skills are already available if you own that campaign. This was mostly introduced so that people just starting to play GW when one of the new campaigns comes out can buy the skills they missed so they wont be so far behind the curve. You are not being asked to pay extra here and there, you are being allowed to purchase extra features like more character slots if your account is full and skill packs if you're just starting GW.

p.s. It's Not called an expansion, if you recall all campaigns are designed to be stand-alone. They can also be expansions in the capacity that you can add them to the prior campaigns so it's your choice whether or not it's an expansion. Should someone who buys a single campaign automatically have access to all skills from prior campaigns for pvp..... no.

O.o I'm having trouble discerning whether your mocking this new feature, or your giving your support for it, or something else entirely :O

My best guess would be that unlocking these skills would be the same as when we unlock skills during PvP Preview Events. I have unlocked a few Dervish skills on my account and they will remain unlocked so long as my account exists, but I will not be able to use those Dervish skills until I buy Nightfall and add the key to my account.

I would say it acts the same way. If you buy the unlocks but don't have Prophecies. They will remain marked "unlocked" on your account until the end of time, but you will not be able to use the Prophecies only skills included in this unlock until you add a Prophecies key to your account. Keep in mind though that included in the total Prophecies unlock, are all of the "core" skills that will be available to all Chapters, so buying these unlocks wouldn't be entirely useless for someone with only Factions.

They want to offer an avenue for newer players to jump into the game without having to spend an ungodly amount of time catching up. They're doing it late and charging money for it so those that spent time unlocking don't feel like they just threw their time away.

I think this is a very nice add on for those casual players, especially ones who got busy jobs and still want to play GW.

Those that make more money with more job got less time, so hence this balance it out. While those who got more time and less money, it balance out again. If you got both time and money, you are one lucky bastard.

Teeheehee, I remember certain fanbois getting all angry and flaming when people complained about the purchaseable skill slots. I knew that it was just the beginning, but I never thought they'd sell a thing like that. Good thing I never got my UAS, I guess I'd feel pretty cheated as no doubt some of you are...

the only people are to blame is pvp players they have always wanted this so now they get it!

lets face it
its a scam

90% of skill to unlock are worthless

Hey I only own factions, and I was curious if I could unlock the Proph skill this way, without owning it. In my mind the only point of this would be to allow players access to earlier skillz without having to go through like 500 campaigns if all they want to do PvP, like myself.

Well, When i go into the store the option to buy the Skill sets is greyed out, but the option to by Proph and Additional Char slots is not, so it seems that with only Factions you cannot buy the Proph skills, so what is the point exactly? I assume they will release Faction ones soon enough but...it doesn't take THAT long to unlock a skill you decided you need, the only thing that would take awhile would be starting a true double class build of 2 chars you haven't unlocked anything for....Im a little confused anyway.

More Simply, has any1 with just Factions been able to purchase these packs? I'm not sure I'm even going to (i generally play a Ritualist), but the option would be nice.

I bet you can get them for everything besides assassin and ritualist even if all you have is factions

And in my mind, the only point would be an increase in Arena.net's revenues...

That's about the only answer we've got so far until something official clarifies.

Actually my understanding was that the whole point of the skill pack was so you could buy the skills from a campaign you don't have.

Here are my thoughts, and the thoughts of two others in my guild, "Cries of Frustration".


===THE GOOD========================================

Now new players can pick up the game without worrying that they'll start so far behind everyone else. I'm assuming $40 will buy you Prophesies with all skills unlocked based on the fact that that game is going to come down in price at local retail stores if it hasn't all ready. It looks like ANet will only do this to chapters that are old enough, which keeps the philosophy geared towards letting new players catch up.


===THE BAD=========================================

GW originally made these two statements about their game:
1) "a new player can compete with one that's put in tons of hours"
2) "it's not about time spent leveling, it's about skill"

The skill unlocking system has made those two statements false from day 1 (less so if you play cookie cutter builds designed by someone else). My biggest disappointment when loading prophesies for the first time was the list of locked selections when I made my first character. I don't see an advantage to locking skills for a non pay-to-play game, especially with the two statements from GW above.

Charging extra money to make your claim become true GW, is unethical. GW is all ready charging extra money for a proper number of character slots. I'm sure they will be charging for more in-game storage space as well in the near future.


===THE SOLUTION====================================

Some people feel betrayed by this. Mostly people with all skills unlocked. I have 10 Rt non-elite skills left to unlock from both existing chapters. I feel a little betrayed, but that isn't the issue. The issue is that I can't see continuing to play the insane amount of time I do to have everything unlocked, then have a little time to enjoy it before the next version come out. I'm more into PvP than PvE, but I play more PvE because I don't enjoy PvP nearly as much with locked selections. I love being able to buy a new game every 6 months, but not having to put in the time for unlocking. Based on personal philosophy, I can't justify buying little things that should have been in the game from the start such as more character slots or unlocked skills.

So yes, this change to the store is discouraging. But there is hope in it too. If this is a sign that future chapters will be less of a grind, then great. Nightfall introduces custom henchies, which has the potential for either more or less grind. I'm hoping they do it right.


---sidenote-----------------------------------------------------------------------

In another post I supported the idea of paying for unlocked skills. This was more a sarcastic commentary about the immense unlocking grind in the game. Even if I was serious, my comment was far a far lower cost. But either way, there's still the ethical factor of making a promise, but not delivering on it without charging extra. I find myself re-evaluating my choice to stay with GW. I was really hopeful about Fury. Unleash the Fury claims no grind, but like GW, they have also contradicted themselves by saying that there will be "skills" to unlock in their game as well.