Skill Unlocks in the Guild Wars Store!

RoflmfaoYes. Yes they are. And so is every1 else who is applauding this online store. Its not "mandatory", its just giving a clear advantage to players who are willing to pay more. Its not a violation of EULA, its just doing something Anet said they would never do (unless...skills aren't content either now ).

Welcome to Pay to Upgrade folks. Enjoy it and remember:

YOU ASKED THEM TO DO IT TO YOU!

Well this feature is mainly here for Johnny Latecomer. For most people who already have both chapters, and have had for a long time, this feature isn't worth buying at all, because whether or not they PvP, they probably have a lot of the useful skills unlocked already, either from faction or from buying/capping the skill in PvE.

Johnny Latercomer though is already at a disadvantage just because he hasn't played as long, doesn't have as many high lvl characters/gold, doesn't know as many players, and doesn't have runes/mods unlocked. With the skills unlock feature though, he has an opportunity, for a fee, to try and catch up with the people who have been playing for a long time.

Though he still won't have many advantages like the ones I listed earlier in this paragraph, he will have all of the basic Guild Wars skills, which will give him a jump start and let him learn how to use skills at a little faster rate than that of someone who has to wait and unlock something to then try it out and learn how to use it.

Though he'll still have a lot of catching up to do with the rest of the veteran gamers, he'll have a solid foundation to start from, and won't feel overwhelmed.

With all this said and done, dear ol' Johnny Latecomer ends his day with a smile

The release of buyable unlocks will always be delayed, probably by about a year, so that there still will be a use for Balth Faction. People will still be in a race to unlock the good new skills, and use them against the other teams as soon as they can, but for a newcomer, unlocking all of the old skills is like running a race that's already been decided a year ago.

We should reiterate every 10 posts to everyone that

THIS OPTION WAS IMPLEMENTED BECAUSE PLAYERS WANTED IT

I think the ONLY thing we should be arguing over as a community is PRICING.

Its waaaaaaay too expensive.

Well done A-net, I'm expecting a lot more where that came from. Would like to buy that perfect +5 20% Gold Platinum Wand from the store too instead of waiting for months hoping one will eventually come on the market. Paying with real cash or ingame money, I don't care, I just want that wand and a pimp cup (divine symbol) thank you
I prefer giving it to anet instead of giving it to some elitist (buy/resell) who would exploit the situation.

Nobody forces you to buy anything. It's just another option available in GW. Don't bite the hand that feeds you.

The thing is, it's not way too expensive IF it means you don't have to buy the (more) pve side of things by buying the actual chapter first.

Dear ol' Johnny has to spend $90 to be able to use all those Prophecies skills. If that's not a turn off to new PvPers, I don't know what is. They're basically shooting themselves in the foot since you have to buy the $50 game in order to actually use the skills you unlock for $40.

And no, this is not what PvPers have been asking for since the beginning of the game. We've been asking for UAX immediately. We don't want unlocks, we want competition. We don't want to spend $50 for 2 new classes and more skills to unlock. Just give me the option to unlock a class and all of its skills for something like $10 and I'll be happy.

Well at least by their current explanation and reasoning for released the UAS, the UAS wouldn't have been available even if the store was there from the start. Guild Wars is about the skills, so part of the fun is the race to aquire the new skills and use them either against AI monsters, or other players in PvP. For a newcomer though, there is no one to race against; most of the community has already run the track and gotten all of the skills. Also it's a futile race if you're running a year behind everyone else.

Where is the fun in racing all by yourself? Some people push themselves to the limit in the real world and do it all alone, working to improve their minds or body, and they are successful with that. But this isn't a real world achievement. It's a game that's supposed to be played for fun and entertainment.

The goal of the Guild Wars business is to increase it's customer base, and keep that customer base as long as it can. If some new guy shows up and can't ever catch up with the majority of the community, it's not going to be very fun, because there won't be many people around to baby-sit these newcomers while they play through for the first time, what you and I have all played through countless times. This new person will eventually regret buying the game, and will not buy further games to be released.

Back last November I came across a game called Eve-Online. This was the first time I had heard of it though apparently it had been out for quite some time. I really liked the way the game played, and all of the amazing features in it. It was a game I could really get into. The problem, though, was that I was pretty much alone in my noobness while I was trying out the 14-day trial. I didn't know who or where to ask my questions, and was flying around the entire time watching all of these longstanding veterans fly around in their superships, zooming past my cute little pod flyer. I really liked the game, and still do, but I had come into it to late, and saw that I would be spending most of my time just by myself in that huge world playing the endless game of catch up.

Yes, Guild Wars could've planned this sales strategy from the start, and I wouldn't be surprised if they did. A good business looks way ahead. But at the same time, all it's really doing is making the customer happy, which is what consumer's are always looking out for when they buy.

Newcomers still have a lot of catching up to do. In PvP alone the strategy has been evolving since the beginning, and ranks are climbing higher and higher. I still think all PvE rewards should be done with hard work and dedication, without any interferance from store-bought boosts. For PvP however this new feature is just a small token of welcoming to new players, and is also a profitable way to keep the servers up and running.

I don't feel we're being decieved or lied to, or being forced in a corner by product limitations. If none of their tactical gains are inherently evil, thinking about how far in advanced they planned their marketing strategy doesn't make me feel sick at all. I think they've done a wonderful job building and maintaining their business, and wonder what of this they planned, and what of it was simply tossed into their laps.

How so? The vast majority of PvP players at upper levels are completely UAX already, this simply helps people get to a point where the builds don't restrict them, only their current player skill. Having skills unlocked is no advantage when you should have them anyways... or are people afraid this will let people get Drain Enchant to remove their RA mending? Oh noes!

The people who don't purchase UAX are at a slight advantage as they've used more skills through PvE and PvP progression, giving them a much better understanding. As TheMosesPHD said, this helps give a solid base for new players to work up from, rather than the huge task of capping all the useful skills, especially as more chapters become available and people may wish to purchase skills from a previous chapter rather than buy the game and play through it.

<--- Fully UAX via 1 character in PvE, and I don't feel 'robbed' or anything...

GJ anet at making it easier for new players to jump into PvP, which tends to push new people away.

Of course. it's still just an option. He doesn't neccesarily have to buy anything but one game. But however, if the newcomer feels this will help him even the playing field, I don't see it affecting me, and don't see it affecting the game balance, so more power to him if he chooses.

I still like the idea of no instant UAX as soon as the new skills come out. Part of pulling ahead of the other players is decisively choosing which skills/elites are best to unlock first. You've gotta try and gauge the potential of a skill before you're able to test it out personally. I think this helps the diversity of the game and helps keep new builds popping up over time when people finally get around to unlocking an elite and try it out. Practiced Stance hasn't been used very mainstream until just recently, yet it's been around since the beginning, and I don't think it's had any major (if any) buffs/nerfs the whole time. I like the idea of players not completely knowing whether or not a skill is worth it until they take a chance and test it out themselves.

Thank you, I'm happy to be part of it. At least the option is there. How many software houses listen to their playerbase like a-net I ask you? None. So stop b1tching and enjoy the game. Nobody forces you to buy it.

It's more expensive than I liked, but Anet,

I <3 you

Really? You guys need to read the fineprint. Yes, skills when unlocked unlock for both PvE and PvP chars. However, ANet, in their nonignorance (and likely they heard it from the concerns of the players because they do listen) thought ahead! These skills, when bought, don't unlock on PvE chars.

It is a bit pricey, but I'm fine with a little more grinding and keeping my money. Once again, it's an option.

And TheMosesPHD, thank you for being a source of common sense.

If you didn't see the advantages to UAS/UAX, you wouldn't be supporting it in your post, now would you Avarre. And I won't go into detail about how this is unfair/unbalanced/poorly ethical in Guild Wars Guru ever again, especially not in another person's thread. When I do--even managing to keep the conversation relatively troll free despite community attempts to thrash me for nay saying the online store--threads tend to be locked, posts deleted, and the entire issue swept under the rug.

So mostly I'm just going to watch, enjoy the show, and lmao in your faces as people realise just how deep that stick got shoved up the orifice of their--Anets; you have surrended your say in the matter--choice.

No trolling Avarre. Just restating Fact: You asked them for this. And though it has no direct impact on you atm remember that when it does--and it will--you applauded it now.

[email protected]: I'm not complaining. I'm give over on complaining. If you re-read, your last sentence only restated the part of my post that you didn't quote.

Like I said, I'm just here to enjoy the show. I guess the real question is, why are people so upset that someone thinks this is funny?

I'm sure part of the cost is that you can buy UAS for prophecies without buying prophecies.

Its really not that serious, having a bunch of skills doesn't mean that its going to be used right.

Now we need options to buy full time access to Uw/Fow/The Deep/Urgoz and CE dances and pre-order collectors and event items so that people can be on equal stylish footing as other .

If enough people ask to buy FOW armor in the on line store, will ANET do it?
I mean it doesnt hurt anyone else its just a skin, it gives no unfair advantage in how you play the game? Lets all rally and ask for FOW armor to be in the on line store... I d pay 10 bucks a char for full FOW armor...

That may be fine for some, but there's plenty of us out there who really don't want to unlock anything at all. I want to be able to read a skill description, test it out, then use it in a build... not grind RA for an hour just to get a non-elite skill. It's this exact reason that large droves of PvP players fled Guild Wars within the first 2-3 months after release. Unlocking is just a terrible mechanic for a competitive game. Competitions are supposed to be about player ability when all other variables are the same for both sides. I don't have the time to unlock more classes. This game is supposed to be both casual and competitive. Unlocks are the antithesis of both.

Are you that cheap dude?

I would pay up to 100-200 euro to get that perfect platinum wand. They can use that money on servers or development or something.

Hmmz. Instant gratification, eh? Where's the fun in that? You may think you want everything at once, but if your wish really came true, you'd get bored and unsatisfied very quickly. Within days or at the most a couple weeks you'd be asking, "what's next?", only to find that there is nothing else left to be had. As a human being you will always be searching for something more. It's just plain unhealthy to spoil yourself with everything all at once.

I'm gonna call the thread dead, at least for me, and go to bed. I'm gettin tired. thx for the conversations everyone.

yea, they need to get rid of err7s/lags asap and profits from sales may help hasten solving the server problems.

TheMosesPHD, not everyone plays on a "chase the carrot" basis. There are people that, for some bizzare reason, play games because they actually enjoy them.

Ps. The metagame doesn't shift because people unlocked new skills...

Probably, yes. If skills are not content, how can armor be? No one with FoW should complain if a Johnny comelately wants to get his FoW early. I mean, the upper tier players aren't complaining that all their hard work skill capping Prophecies is now a $40 purchase. I can't see anyone of them complaining about an armor skin thats oh so hard to get...lol

Not that anyone listens to anyone elses post but I think its a fine idea. People wanted it and now they have it. PvP people didn't want to have to go through PvE to get all the skills unlocked and now they don't have to. To those that did..

1) You didn't pay an extra 39.99
2) Chances are you got some enjoyment out of the PvE aspect of the game.

Nice generalization. Too bad it's not true. I don't care about "what's next?", I care about "who am I facing next?". There's plenty of players in Guild Wars who don't need a carrot dangled in front of their face to enjoy the game. I can't say I've ever heard anyone say "Well, I've been UAX for a week. GW sucks now that I can't spend faction." Do you really think so little of Guild Wars?

Thank you.

This is the only problem that i have with this whole concept. Player x buys all the skill unlocks for pvp. everyone here says it does not affect pve in any way. well sorry to tel you this but you are dead wrong. in one of the recent updates all skills unlocked for pvp will show up at pve skill traders. now anyone who had the game or is buying the game can unlock whatever they need, then just make a pve char, get run, buy the couple handful of skills from the skil ltrader they want too, and still have no idea on how to play that character or what to do with those skills effectively.

This is a good thing for some people, many of the veteran players feel cheated in a way. I have played this game for thirteen months. thats a lot of time to put into UAX'ing my account for both prophecies and factions. UAX isnt a bad idea, but if i was forced into having to do it, why should the newer players who just buy the game instantly become 3/4 of the way towards what i have worked and grinded for?

Had this been available from the beginning to where proph players could have bought these, or was offered in a collectors like pvp edition of guildwars, i wouldnt have even though a blink to this. but forcing your long time players to have had to go through all the grind and playthrough all the storylines and earn the faction to unlock their accounts, the new players should have to do the same. You want the game to be equal, thats how, because as of this update, the game isnt equal. youre aleniating your vetran players who established this game for you, for the newer players. when havign the newer players to play the game like the veterans do, maybe then you would have a better playerbase which is based upon skill and time spent learnign the game.

this update make me sick of gw d..sigh..

personally i like this feature. It gets those PvP nasties out of my PvE server. :P

Yeah, I thought about that too.. thing is, if you don't have prophecies, how do you get to LA to buy those skills? And if you do, what stopped you from spending 1k at ember light camp skill trader and then buying the skill for your new character in ascalon?

So all up, the UAS button does nothing for pve.

People may have judged this update a little harshly, and I admit when I saw it I raised an eyebrow myself. I think it's because people fear a slippery slope. Basically, if ANet offers a UAX package for skill unlocks, what else could be made available for sale in the future? I realize this isn't a particularly revelationary insight (people have suggested as such in this thread already) but it's worth explicitly pointing out.

If ANet leaves it at this, no damage done. If they did start selling materials for FoW armor for example, that would be too far over the line, but because of this update it's a possibility that isn't seen as being out of the question anymore. I think that's what people really object to.

-Jessyi

* the new pvpers (wanting to pay more) will be competitive faster... great

* the pvp will be more refreshed.. great

* the new pvpers (unwanting to pay more) will be discriminated or will be unable to be competitive... TErrible BAD!

I really don't find the reason for charging for this type of thing!

(I do find a reason for charge for new charactar slot, i really love that on the store, but not this!)

IF the large amount of skills now are a problem for new pvpers to unlock, then be fair and provide a method to unlock prophecies skills a lot easier, but why the heck charge for them?

Under what term they charge for changing a bolean number on the already existing account data?

why don't they just start selling pre-made accounts? 1 level 20 of each class, with both 15 attribute point quests. 100% completed, and everything unlocked with 100k on each character.

It's practically the same thing.... you are buying an advantage.

you won't become the best just because you brought skills you see....

poeple who brought skills but doesn't play though the game won't know how to kite, how to spike, how to come up with an effective, synergetic build...

number of skills avaliable is not all there is to the game....

I hope that "official store" will be selling Brazil Soccer shirts for characters someday like Maplestory, Bullshit! Someday people will be spending more money with GW than any not "free online play" game like World of Warcraft. The only you need now is sell rank 12 for 100$, Bullshit! (I understand this is a business, but I don't like to see rich kids with more skills than me)

I see so many people with frowns on their faces, and conspiricy theories running amuck. First of all Anet provides us with FREE online play. The cost of 2 delevopment teams, server costs, etc. racks up. Once agian the more money Anet can profit the bigger the company can grow. Maybe Anet can take that money and work harder to provide a quailty game , which they allready provide. (*cough* auction house *cough*)

So are some of you scared that a newbie is going to buy prochies skills, and all of a sudden start pwning because he has Glads Defense Please, we all know pvp is based on skill and if they want to spend money to "improve" there pvp skills let them. They will only hurt themselfs in the long run with out learning the game. Which will let you pwn more noobs that are "Leet" with there new prochies skills

Lastly Anet does protect there pve content very very well. They remove bots, people using 3rd party programs, and keeps it from being "hacked" so to speak. Also remember the roll back when the traders reset? Prove they will not allow the economy to go into the toliet. They will not allow the GW economy to implode selling FoW armor or Ectos and Shards for $19.95 or any amount. They would have to be retarded to mess with PvE economy.

And if you dont like what they did to Guildwars QUIT. I will gladly take your account if you are unhappy with the game It is amazing what the world looks like outside of the computer screen

$40 is a small price to pay for never having to read another UAX-whining thread again.

Now that Anet implemented the EW pre-mades, no one can honestly complain that UAX is necessary. UAX is a luxury - a mostly useless luxury as far as the competitive player is concerned.

Back before decent pre-mades, and even before the Zaishen daily 1k free faction, I was able to unlock all of the skills, runes, and weapon mods needed to create a cookie-cutter boon prot on a friend's account in about two days worth of playing random arena. The vast majority of stuff to unlock - I would estimate more than 75% - is not needed for serious competitive play, and that's assuming you want to play every class.

If a friend on a budget wanted to start playing GuildWars and asked for my advice, I would recommend against purchasing this $40 UAS. A new player needs to learn basic game mechanics before contemplating more serious competitive play. The early parts of PvE of either campaign are useful for learning the interface (though with the introduction of the Isle of the Nameless, even this part of pve isn't as necessary anymore), and after that, the best place to learn pvp fundamentals is playing random and team arena. By the time the new player has learned enough to start playing seriously, she will have earned enough faction to modify the pre-mades with rune, skill, and weapon unlocks to play most of the builds seen on observer.

Shortly after a player reaches this point, prioritizing unlocks in the order of the most useful gives way to prioritizing unlocks in the order of the least useless. This is the point at which UAX becomes a pointless luxury - desirable only for purposes of vanity, satisfying latent OCD tendencies, and fodder for whiners who would rather complain about a game instead of play one.

[cross-posted elsewhere]

This is actually a pretty good idea, i mean games like maplestory are doing it so why shouldn't they. Too bad its not for pve chars, I love my warrior pve char even when I play pvp I take her to the island instead of making a brand new char for pvp.
They should make it so that people can buy green items and runes for their pve chars from there, it would be a one time payment at the store and in game you type in something like "superior vigor rune" and one would appear in your inventory I would go for that in a milisec

*edit* also, i've seen many games on observer mode and most of those pro's have pve chars with pve weapons.

I would just like to point out that in order to spend this much money on skills, you have to be rather lazy. Even if you have no skills unlocked for PvP right now (and you will if you play a bit of PvE) there is an assortment of prebuilds that you can use to unlock skills. Even if you have zero social ability and are forced to only play in Random Arenas, you will still gain more faction than you really know what to do with after a very short amount of time.

Moreover, many of the Prophecies will never see any usefulness in PvP. Unlock what you need and forget about the rest.

If you pay for the unlocks, that's your decision. It's probably simply a waste of money though.

This has greed written all over this I don't know where to begin.

Let's start with a couple of quotes from the ANET team.
from http://www.telefragged.com/interviews/guildwars/
From http://pc.ign.com/articles/400/400429p1.html
From http://pc.ign.com/articles/645/645612p1.html

Hmm so from my understanding, GW initially set out to have no gimmicks with not thing up their sleeve when it comes to their business model. Furthermore, ANET believe that UAS will give players a richer strategically experience and that this richness should be available to everyone ... if you have the time, and in this recent event, the money.

From a business point of view, it is reasonably understandable that extra storage/slots cost money because we defend ANET that it might cost them additional database storage as well as storage for logs etc. So the pricing seem reasonable because there is a mark up over an explicit cost.

Now as for the Unlock Skill, I question the "cost" that is involve in implementing this to each individidual beside a small script is run. So basically, this product is sold purely on the perception of how much the player NEED. Where do this NEED comes from? From the game itself, the grind that was introduce into a game where it is announce as a "competitive game" where "skill is over time".

Now I know that this forum is predominantly PvE so most of you really don't care about this implementation, so I will try to put this into your perspective. The grind to unlock skill to a PvP player is very much the same as a grind for PvE player to get FoW armor. PvP players need them for flexibility as PvE player need FoW armor for looks.
So imagine what happen if FoW armor is sold in the same packaged product as a PvP skill?

Effectively, the Unlock skills package is balthazaa faction points but instead of selling the faction points they just sell us the skills so we have to buy all. Faction points for a PvPer is like gold for a PvEr. Without it you can't get a better character. So ask yourself this. Is this any better than a bot selling gold on ebay?
What if Anet start selling gold as well I mean why would that affect balance?
Why not gold? It doesn't change the balance? People don't have to buy it and can still farm gold and people who already have everything they don't need it. Furthermore, gold don't make people more powerful, just look better so why not gold?
You are basically selling the time saved to unlock skills. Very much the same way as bots farmer selling gold to save time from farming for gold. So why not gold next?
Is it because, there is this common conception of buying gold online is evil while faction points in disguised as skill unlocked is basically a valuable non-tradeable currency?

Actually you don't see. People asking for skill unlock in hope of making this game a competitive game. Game that can be played in the true spirites of competition where all sides are equal at the start of the battle. Instead you decide to make money out of this. It is not a good compromise because the grind was introduced by ANET and is removed at a cost by ANET.
Tell me how different is this from M$ creating a buggy software that can be attacked easily by virus and ask people to pay for anti-virus and bug fixing.
Tell me how different is this from internet company slowing down people online business until they pay more money. [Net neutrality]

Basically, Anet has step over the line that separate game developers from company. My hat's off to you and I hope EA and Blizzard will be more warmer to you on that side.

i hope the next thing available will be stacks of ectos... wait a minute... this is not like ebay???