A Note on Microtransactions

There is no ANET policy as to paying once, forever. No one's ever said that, no one's even intimated that. How you extracted that belief out of a business model based around selling continued expansions, weapon packs, skill unlocks, and mini-quests, frankly defies comprehension.

I'm all for microtransactions. Face it, entitlement generation, you loons who think all things should be free: the people with more money than time, who pay for these vanity items and unlock packs, are paying your way in this game.

You should go back to games like load runner or pac-man which are strictly 'pay once' forever.

Just dont complain about the lack of game updates or server time.

I feel there are two key words to all of this:

"Having"

and

"Advantageous".



This quote was key.
Forgive me, but I disagree and I highlighted the phrases as to why.

I would agree if, as a new player, I were to log-in and see items in which were necessary to purchase in order to complete the game. If it cost me an additional $5 to complete Hell's Precipe, Anet and I would have some serious issues with one another.

That isn't the case though. Just as you stated in your post, the menu is filled with optional purchases. They do not prevent the vetern, or new player, from experiencing the full game of Guild Wars. By not making those purchases, you're not being denied any less service to the game. The box statement remains truth. I am, still, not required to ever pay a fee to continue to access Guild Wars.

Many have asked where the line is drawn, but unfortunately only individuals can answer that based on their own thoughts. Only Anet knows where their line will be eventually drawn. My hope their line is the same as mine.

My line is drawn when it comes to items and/or content that provides a significant and obvious advantage to those who makes purchases, while on the flipside of that coin, restricts, or hinders, gameplay for those who don't.

For example:

If this update suddenly provided Daggers with max damage of 7-22 and these daggers were only available in the item shop, customized with a +30% dmg mod, offered double inscription slots and couldn't be traded, that would provide a clear advantage to the item shopper. I'm not talking about pretty skins that don't change a thing, other than someones personal jealousy level. I mean clear, advantageous, items.

If this update suddenly provided class armor with a 10 point higher max for all classes and these sets were only available in the item shop, that would provide a significant advantage to the item shopper.

If this update offered skills (elite, or otherwise) only available in the item shop, that provides a significant advantage to the item shopper.

Once item shops begin selling exclusive items of mechanics the game is no longer about skill, or about technique and teams. It turns into who has the fattest online wallet to stock up on exclusive powerful goods like most F2P games with cash shops. You would see PvP would become even more unbalanced as your best teams wouldn't be based on their access to the same skills as everyone else, but to the teams who best unloaded income into exclusive items from the mall.

As nice as an extra pane of storage may be, that extra pane doesn't provide you anything more than I already have. I can still store items and so can you. Your sword is still the same as mine. Your armor is still the same as mine.

I doubt I'll be losing in a match because my opposition has 6 panes of storage to my 4.

If Anet ever decided to start selling such things in their store, I would 100% agree - They have lost all sight in their model and Guild Wars would all but destroy the basis and intent of their original success.

I, too, love the RP side of games and I agree. My character, "Sonata", has a long written story and emotive side that has continually expanded over the years I've been playing her and when I played her. As such, when creating the character for PvE and taking into consideration what I wanted "Sonata" to be, I took great care and significant time in adjusting what I felt was needed for this character upon creation. That way (obviously before this update) I would not find myself in a situation where I was displeased with the characters vanity. Two years later, there's not a thing I would change on her. Even if I changed her hair color "Sonata" wouldn't be "Sonata" anymore.

Microtransactions are awesome for this game and I heartily approve of this update.

Like?

RR, no one knows how the economy would be in 2009 back in 2005, but, please don't use that as an excuse, if you read the news, mmorpg is one of the industry that is the least affected by the current economy crisis, infact they are the industries on the rise.

MMORPGs and the great recession

Guild Wars 6 million strong

I agree, the OP's points are thoughtful and well-stated.

But, just in my humble opinion ...

It utterly amazes me that anyone is willing to pay recurring costs for any game. I can live with the fact that an occasional Chapter comes out, that, with significant content, I'm willing to pay for, if purchased from a reliable source, which I can trust to forever protect my account and CC info.

But micro-transactions, monthly subscription fees, etc. - not for me. I get that ongoing improvements require some financial stimulus to support them. New unit sales should have covered this, IMO (6 Million and counting). The desire to remain competitive should have been sufficient. I look back over the years and do not recall any intra-chapter, epic change that warranted additional out-of-pocket costs. I'm not in either camp that chants A-Net needs the money to survive, or GW2 will suffer if we do not give until it hurts. Again, simply stating my opinion.

Though I recognize the irony of this statement, I see a strong comparison of this issue to that of paying for cable TV. Yes, it has improved over the years, but we have become addicted to ever spiraling costs - once we were hooked. It has sadly become the accepted norm. I can remember the days when cable TV was touted as 'completely commercial free', AND IT WAS (please don't get me started on the whole signature 'bugs' issue). And I can also remember the days when showing 20 year old movies in a constant loop wasn't what premium cable TV was about. Yet another related comparison: pay-per-view/On Demand movies - never bought one. But I digress ...

I'm not sure I truly believe this BUT, I wonder how many improvements which people have clamored for (myself included) may have been held up waiting for a strategic opportunity to roll out mega-upgrades for $$$. How many could have been released earlier as 'free' enhancements for customer goodwill? Note, I do not begrudge A-Net from making additional revenue, I simply don't like the way this has come down.


After four mostly glorious years of playing GW I think it has turned a big corner this day. Even with these OPTIONAL items that I am not forced to purchase in any way, I am saddened by these changes. A glimpse at the inglorious future to come.

Will I stop playing, probably not. Will I buy GW2 when it comes out in 2023, possibly, depends on the access/usage requirements. Will I purchase items through the In Game/NC Soft Store - Magic 8-Ball says "Outlook not so good".

For those that revel in these changes, I wish you the best and truly hope the future is kind to us all. I expect to be in a minority opinion on this matter. Those who can step back and see the big picture may yet agree with me. We stand before the precipice (at Thermopylae, I fear).


R.I.P. That Which Was Guild Wars, 2005 - 2009

Interestingly I've been able to change the appearance of my characters and their names for free in the last 4 years - its called the delete and then create process.

Guild Wars for long only sported a single pane in the xunlai storage. Then came 3 more panes and the materials. FREE.

Again they added material backpacks (yes its a bit too grindy and should work with runes to make larger bags instead of "save for a larger bag and don't enjoy the space or enjoy the space and take forever to get the large bag") and another pane for FREE.

Yes completely free is a lot better from my point of view, but most of what been added is just for the comfort of time saving.

People already bought new accounts and character slots (and people that have the 25 max character slots can now have extra storage without buying a new account). The only difference is u pay more per space but its a lot easier to keep tabs on ur stuff.

As long its stuff that is only for comfort I don't mind. Its optional and only gives comfort and/or saves time. But time is money so its acceptable that to save time you cna spend money.

TL,DR - The opposite of having to pay for these new features is not having them, its not having them for free.

The last time ArenaNet got any money from me was a year and a half ago, when I bought EOTN. For a year and a half I have played on their game servers for free. They have had updates (Smaller ones obviously, they are hard at work on Guild Wars 2), holiday events, bug fixes, skill adjustments, and ran contests. They even set up a Live Team, just to focus on GW1 until GW2 gets here. None of that costed me a dime. Now I am supposed to feel robbed and betrayed because they are OFFERING $10-$15 optional, non game-breaking, luxury features?

This is a transitional phase for both ArenaNet and us, the players. I feel it is jumping the gun to assume this is an acurate representation of GW2's business model. Every interview I have read since GW2 has been announced had stayed firm to fact that Guild Wars 2 will be supported by expansions/campaigns with no monthly fees. Will there be a few optional microtransactions like GW1? Probably. Will microtransactions be the focus? I honestly don't believe they will. Let me finish by asking you this. How many new features added with Factions, Nightfall, and Eye of the North had to be bought seperately from the campaigns?

If you want to jump into this discussion please read, don't assume its just another boycott. If you have read thrugh the thread, you will Please Note that my first respond to this thread is Guild Wars is not Free.

Then I proceed to say I paid for every possible packs, game of the year, character slots for 2 full complete accounts myself. I have more, but that other account was a gift and its also full complete account maintain by another party for me, also with extra character slots. Is that FREE?

I am against Guild Wars going into the micro-transaction business Model. The makeover, extreme makeover and name change are micro transactions. you have to keep buying it if you want to use it. What I want is for anything available to purchase in the online store to be MARK AS PURCHASED ONCE YOU BUY IT. Don't tell me the game is FREE, its not free for you, its not free for me. WE PAID. According to their "genius" way of developing the game, no monthly fees is not free either, if you look at it this way: when the bandwidth isn't used in the first place, there's no cost incurred, if there's no cost incurred, how is there a fees to be paid? I know they can very well choose to charge a monthly subscription fees without even telling us there's no bandwidth issue, BUT, remember, this is what sells Guild Wars, without it, most people who subscribe would be playing WoW since obviously figures shown, WoW has more subscribers then Guild Wars, this no monthly fees features is an advertising tool, is the Ace in their hand of cards, whatever you want to called it. A Gimmick. That is why it has made it so much more easier when They put up Stuffs for sale on their online store, players buy it without questioning, because everyone thinks the game is free without considering that we have already paid for it.

I'm confused Pumpkin... Was that in reply to my statement of the guy above me?

If it was to me, well try reading again. Never did I state you don't pay money for the games.

Because forum jumpers don't read, Apollo Smile, and the way you responded to the thread might make these people think differently, and I had to make it clear what it really is about.

PS: the first time when i see this: tl;dr, short for too long didn't read, I had to look it up on the web, that is basically what I mean by forum jumpers, the tldrers. So when you made a blanket statements that says Guild Wars is Free, I just had to jump in and clarify it once again. It wasn't actually directed at you.

Sorry Apollo Smile if I've miss-read you.

Language shortcut: "free" as in "free to play" as in "buy it once and then don't pay monthly fees".

I quite like the name "buy to play" or b2p.

Well, I'd get used to paying for DLC. It may not be quite as common in the western PC marketpace yet, but it's very common (and appears to be very popular) in the console game marketplace around the world, including western markets. If you browse Xbox Live Marketplace or Playstation Store for add-ons/DLC, you'll see that it is everywhere for many, many games.

In fact, many of us come to expect new games to have DLC available in the near future, which takes the place of content between seques. Some stuff I don't mind paying for and have paid for (Fallout 3 add-ons, MechAssault add-ons, the list goes on and on), while other things I refuse (horse armor for Oblivion for example).

There are some unofficial rules that console gamers expect the publishers to go by, though, such as ensuring they do not skimp on the original game content in order to sell more DLC. DLC should be above and beyond a full game - something they develop after the game is done and out the door. People aren't too happy when they buy a game and then are presented with 'DLC' that is actually already on the disc. That's just being cheap. As with anything like that, DLC is always optional though, not detrimental to the core game.

There is always the possibility of player-created content such as games like NWN and the new enhancements to CoH/CoV, which usually end up free, but hit or miss as far as quality control goes.

I understand you, Pumpkin. Free to Play IS Guild Wars' Ace in hand. They want the consumer to feel like they are getting a value, and quite frankly they are. That isn't a trick. I play WoW, and can say, YES it does have more content than Guild Wars currently. It also cost me triple of what the entire Guild Wars Series cost. It all comes down to what the consumer wants to invest in games.

GW1 is minimal in microtransactions and I believe GW2 will actually have LESS, due to the fact they won't be in a transitional limbo, they will make money from new expansions just like they did for this game up til' Eye of the North. Most of the cash shop stuff that people are up in arms about was added after EOTN. I don't want Guild Wars to be a microtransaction-fest myself, but I feel people are blowing it way out of proportion. If ArenaNet was to offer stronger weapons, better armor, exclusive pets, mounts, exp/rep scrolls, THEN would be the time to complain. Things like buying character slots and other server space based things are NOT going to go away, that will just have to be dealt with.

And what they want to get from it. Just finished the 3 dailies, it's getting me a bit on the way to get equipment pack, but most importantly I had a lot of fun, from Rocktail and Blacktide Den HM with almost full parties to very cool AB games. You get factions, money, coins, drops, this is where the game gets really to life and we're on the better side of the game replayability.

Got my 10 gifts of the travellers with cool stuff, nothing amazing until I get mini Gwen-chan but still cool. And for free, completely free.

In all honesty, rarely has a product given so much value for money. That's why I was ready to give a little bit more for a storage pane, but I'll wait for another opportunity.

On the other hand, if you're into player customisation (RP comes to mind), I guess you may or may not welcome the $10 pricetag.

It's been ages since we've had new armor and, considering how much work it would take to do a complete set of quality male and female armor for each profession, I'd be willing to fork over for it (though I think it'd take something really special for my Warrior to change from his regular Templar and my Ranger to change from his Krytan ), same as I did over on City of Heroes for a costume pack (well, it also contained a power that can be used, but I like the costume bits better) last month...

(and, yes, I'd be willing to pay the normal crafting fees/materials for armor unlocked this way, as long as it was available at every armor crafter at each level/tier; same would go for weapon skins packs, though their crafters/collectors would need a filter to block out the stuff for other professions, just for the sake of our sanity when looking at the list )

In short, micro-transactions for new vanity content/cosmetic character changes and to make available the goodies from various boxed editions (eg, the GotY pack and Fire Imp) = good. Micro-transactions for new zones and mission packs (including the BMP, though I did get that as part of the Factions Platinum Edition - but, unlike the Imp, it's not included with every new edition of the boxed version) = bad.

Just like the real world, there are people who are willing to pay for conveniences and others who think they are entitled to everything for free.

ArenaNet has kept to their Free-to-Play business model and, on a regular basis, repeat that GW2 will use that same business model. If they want to make available non-necessary changes for your account for a fee, how does that change the business model.

I have seen players posting constantly in Sardelac that they would pay anything to change their characters appearance or gender, to obtain more storage or to get more things to do. And ArenaNet has made all those wishes come true.

If it means charging real world cash to fund the game and GW2 development, I am not complaining. I also, so far, haven't purchased anything. I don't need more storage at the moment (the free pane was great) and I am happy with my characters' appearance and names (didn't name them something at age 13 that now seems ridiculous).

I am not afraid of the future with ANet. They have always tried to give us what we want without changing the basic game. It is still skill over time. It is still a level playing field. I don't believe that GW2 will be any different.

I agree with JR for the most part. The only place where we might differ is "content." Everything else is spot on.

I would however use a qualifier for additional game content for sale, one that is exactly like the bonus mission pack. That pack was a story line kicker for transitions, to show what GW could pick up and run with, and how GW 2 might pick up on other incomplete stories or unexplored lore. It does nothing to alter the principle game and provides no reward that cannot be duplicated in the game. Infrequent additional packs that will enhance the appetite of the player base by doing nothing to unbalance the game play and providing small story connection are not a bad thing. They should not become a quarterly or bi-yearly release, as well as a drain on man-power, which would undercut the principle of the Free to Play model in spirit.

People. Will you on this bloody earth stop messing f2p with b2p? Everyone who plays this game has essentially paid for it. In f2p the only thing you have to do is register an account, download game and play.

There is no need for a customer who bought a game to be grateful that the game is ******* alive and still attractive to new players, as well as being grateful that there are any updates, fixes and such.

YOU HAVE ALREADY PAID FOR IT.

Telling someone who has bought every single campaign, eotn and bmp that he is playing 'free-to-play' game and that he should be essentially grateful that there was any update at all (lol?) is just plain silly.

People, grow up.

Guild Wars IS NOT free to play.
Guild Wars IS NOT free to play.
Guild Wars IS NOT free to play.
Guild Wars IS NOT free to play.
Guild Wars IS NOT free to play.
Guild Wars IS NOT free to play.

Once you understand this simple principle you will see clearly what a customer should expect a company he bought a product from in terms of quality service and content that keeps game attractive.

Anet is not a charity company. You pay your hard-earned money for their games, which essentially are advertised as b2p game.

If you have too much money in your wallet that's fine, but don't insist that Anet will go bankrupt if they don't resort to cheap microtransactions tactics like in this update. Also, don't be fooled that it costed them god-knows-how much money. And finally, stop believing that p2p model for a mmo is something normal. It is just as normal as other business models like b2p and f2p.

I see no reason to pay for content which I have the right for since I bought the game just because someone on the top is greedy and thought it would be cool to drain your money before you are allowed to play and then drain your money for the game to be enjoyable.

What right now happens is misleading propaganda saying that if game is not p2p then you should be grateful that anything is happening in the game. Wrong ... it's them who should be grateful that new players buy their game and it's their job to keep game attractive both for new and existing players. It's because MMO will never be successful with sick community.

Remember, you have paid for this game. And now they offer you something which essentially shouldn't cost you a cent because it's content for which you have already paid - said makeovers. Not to mention it's core gameplay and flavour, not some not-necessary-to-enjoy content like BMP.

Thank you Ambient Melody lol. Guild Wars is not Free to Play, it is Buy to Pay without Subscription Fees.

I am pretty sure whatever is for sale in the online store now, is not going to go away.

I want to make emphasis to ArenaNet that Micro-transaction is not the way to go for Guild Wars or Guild Wars 2. Please do not go down that road, your wanting us to link our GW account to NCSoft Store account is VERY SUSPICIOUS, that might make someone like me think you are planning to put up more stuffs for sale in your micro-transaction scheme.

As long as they dont' go too far.

I would go for extra costumes over armor that would be nice.

The prices are too much I think. I would buy but not until they are cheaper or bundled with character slots. Rather get one character slot and end up with the same amount of space + extra minis

Tho with the prices I expect more richer content in the furture. I want more armors, weapons. Maybe throw some dungeons in prop-nf not as many as gwen but maybe a handful each would be interesting.

Solid. I couldn't have said it better myself. (If I could I would have by now).

GRRRRRRRR you guys....

buy to play is you buy you use it forever (IMHO) they are making you create tokens/tickets now with the makeover pack and name change, you don't get to keep that features, who cares what they want to sell in the in game store, even if they sell over-power weapons I wouldn't be this agitated if it were BUY AND KEEP TO PLAY ON THE NON SUBSCRIPTIONS FEES SERVER FOREVER.

SEE THE DIFFERENCE? god. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.................

Its about the freedom.
This isn't complicated, people.
If I don't pay my monthly $15, I will NOT get past the login screen on WoW. If I don't let Blizzard take that 15 bucks off my Credit Card, right on cue, each month, I will get NO ACCESS to ANY part of the game whatsoever.

In Guild Wars, If I refuse to buy a makeover pack or an extra storage pane, I can still log unto the game any time I want. I can still check out updates to the game and do holiday events, missions, pvp, etc. The real "meat" of the game isn't in these optional microtransactions. When I play GW, I have the freedom to CHOOSE if I think the extra enhancements are worth my cash. In a subscription based game, you have to shell out the monthly fee to play or even have access to the game, whether you like the recently added content of not.

In my opinion, the Zaishen Menagerie, Hall of Monuments enhancements, and Zaishen Challenge Quests did alot more for the core game, than changing my hairstyle or name.

Sorry, I must disagree fully on this one.

B2P MMO games with numbers of sold copies even 30% close to Guild Wars have enough money to run their business for years and then release next title and score even more players. It's not like they need something to compensate for the lack of annual fee in order to run the servers and quality service. What they do right now is a simple estimated cost calculation - how many players will they lose due to new b2p model with more and more aggressive microtransactions policy and how many future players will be turned off and then what will be the increased income given willing to pay players. It's not about freedom of choice, it's about making money ... lot's of money. Believe me, it WON'T translate into better technical support, more events, more content. It's purely about money as core game content is already released in paid campaigns and add-ons. The way their payment policy goes clearly indicates that they deviate from b2p model - not to get you a better game, not to bring you more content, but to get more of your money for something that should be essentially free - because you have already paid for it.

It's exactly the same reason as why they fired all if not most pvp testers way ahead of beta upon introduction of Factions and left us with Izzy making 'public-defined' nerfs or boosts, which did the same good as bad. The result is clearly visible ... greed for money destroyed pvp balance, if there was any. Greed for money brought imbalanced, broken gimmick classes. Greed for money brought Ursan which wasn't fixed for very very long so all EOTN users would vanquish every campaign in under two months without any skill involved.

GW2 doesn't use 100% instanced servers to reduce the server load and so they will have to get a better servers for persistence worlds. There isn't many other B2P then it's free MMOs, and the ones that there have been all have shotty servers, same as F2P ones. Sure, they get by, but they get by by being cheap with their materials. World of Warcraft uses a lot of it's monthly fee money to pay for it's more than 700 servers world wide and hundreds and hundreds of Support members and thousands of GMs.

You did not pay for name changes or character changes, you paid for a license to access their servers. Which you can, but at no point did you pay for anything other than this license, and now they're offering you the option to pay for other stuff besides. None of it affects your ability to compete with other people, and the profit will surely be going to help GW2 out.

If you don't like it, don't buy it. That's the quickest way to send a message to a business, assuming other people agree with your notion.

Personally, I don't need a name change because I can type my character's name correctly, I don't need extra storage because I don't mind a little inconvenience, and I don't need to change the look/sex of my character because they all look fine as is. But someone else might get something out of it, and all the more power to them.

To summarise - it's about unwritten laws and guidelines which companies that care about their reputation should follow. I remember back from 2005 how was Guild Wars advertised and how it deviated over the years. This update is simply a climax of my nightmares.

Because nobody expected an experimental business model to evolve or change... Did it even occur to you that Guild Wars most likely takes more to maintain than it was when it was just Prophecies?

I'd like you to show me the advertising (box/commercials/trailers) that is misleading here. They said they'd never have a Korean cash shop, that is, a Cash shop that gives you a gameplay advantage over another player (skills/equipment/etc only gotten through the store through real money). This is something that to this day is still true, there is nothing in the store that gives you a gameplay advantage over another player.

Back then they were happy with 100k accounts sold. Now they sold over 6m and got money already from things like BMP, unlock packs etc. It was experimental business because no one did it before in this scale, but deep to the core it was well thought. In one of interviews they said that they didn't expect such a success. It means that their business model was designed to run the servers at least for a couple of years without selling any campaign and to maintain servers even with number of sold copies as low as 300-400 thousands. Adding new servers and improving them is not linear to number of players ... if it was, I would have lovely 50-70ms pings like I used to have when Prophecies was released only, instead of having 200-350+ pings like now.

Sounds like an issue on your side. My ping has never been near that high.

I've to disagree.

You paid for what was in the box and the ability to play it online.

While the game changed over the years, most of those changes happened with the release of the new chapters, which you had the option of not buying them if you didn't like the changes.

So, when you bought the game you only had 1 pane of storage - you weren't expecting 8 panes of storage. You had 4 character slots and 2 more per chapter. You didn't have 25 character slots just because you can buy upto 25. When you bought guidwars you couldn't change a character name or appearance after creation.

You got what you paid for. And bought the game even without having 9 storage panes, the ability to change name, etc.

No one forced you to buy the game.

All the optionals, expensive or not, useful or not, didn't change the way the game was or its fundamentals.

You have a game that can be played online, updates happen to balance skills, fix bugs, add areas like SF, etc. That is what you paid for, that is what you have.

In that light you get stuff that you hadn't paid for, like festivals, menagerie, the books, zaishen quests, etc.

You don't need to be grateful to Anet, after all they only added those because they wanted and because it will help to please their costumer base, but on the other hand you can't really demand stuff you hadn't paid for.

TL,DR - You got what you have paid for (and some extras). All the new optionals you can buy now, if you wish, don't fundamentally change the game you bought in the first place.

To stop this endless debate I will just quote myself.

It's against my own morality and ethics to introduce something like paid makeovers allowing to mix-cross appearance from every campaign.

I'm not talking about licenses and law, because it can be argued to eternity what are final duties of a company and final rights of license user/holder.

I'm not naive, I'm honest.

What I stated is that I don't approve new Anet politics.

There are more like me, just like opportunistic people who can't be arsed over such nuissances and will just pay for makeover without thinking a second about it.

And please, for the love of god, don't quote my entire post if you haven't read it (too long; didn't read ... sry, who are you? time to grow up for a discussion).

God, when will people stop whining?

Anet have had GW out for 4 years now, and have provided you all with this online game to play with no subscription fees.

You buy the game and pay once. You can then carry on playing forever without paying anymore.

The game is still like that, 100% the same, with no changes. You pay for the game / campaign once, and no, YOU ABSOLUTELY DO NOT HAVE TO PAY ANY EXTRA TO PLAY 100% OF THE GAMES CONTENT!.

Now, this is an MMO, and like all other MMO's requires regular updates, server maintenence, and Anet have lots of staff members to pay who need to make a living.

They havnt had a new release out since EOTN, and are still a long way away from releasing GW2, and they still have bills to pay, food to eat, and maybe kids to look after as well.

They need money. Anet hires *ACTUAL REAL PEOPLE* who provide you with this amazing game, updates, and continuous dedication and support for a pay once, play forever style of game.

When they started GW, they said that they would make their money to pay for their costs by releasing an expansion pack every 6 months? Well, they kind of arent making any more expansion packs for GW1, are busy slaving away with 12-16 hour a day shifts, grinding with punching in programming code and designing graphics and pretty stuff for your next game, GW2.

They realised that they wont be able to get GW2 out anytime soon, and that there arent so many people buying GW1 anymore (Really, there isnt. People who already have any interest in the game have already bought it, and the numbers of players are actually in steady decline now).

Anet wants to carry on working on GW2. You, the greedy customers, want GW2.

But in order to get GW2, as well as continue updating and providing support for GW1, Anet need money to pay for their staff to be able to pay their living expenses, and right now, they have no other way of making money then to introduce micro transactions.

If you really feel so outright and morally outraged by this decision, then you can do one of three things:

1) Whine, whinge, cry, wah wah, and get nowhere other then wasting your own time.

2) Refuse to buy the items, but continue to enjoy playing the game with no monthly or extra costs over your initial purchase price (Best option IMO)

3) Rage quit the game and go somewhere else. I wish you good luck with trying to find another MMO that is as fair with its customer charges as GW is. I have already tried this for many years, and the only equivalently good deal I found is the lifetime subscriptiopn charge for LOTRO, but that is still very expensive at £150.

You only other option is to play an MMO with:

1) Free to download and play, but with micro transactions (E.G, Maple Story, Perfect World etc)

2) Pay fees, usually $10 per month (E.G. WoW, AoC, WAR, LOTRO), yet you still have to pay full price for expansions and server changes / character renames (Buning Crusade, WOTLK, Mines of Moria, wait you pay $10 per month PLUS you pay for the expansions ??? Thats a lot more expensive than GW).

3) Pay once, lifetime subscription, still have to pay for expansions though (LOTRO - £150 to get the same kind of gameplay as you have in GW).

Sorry to disagree with the whiners, but GW still has by far the best and most fair payment method and charges out of every MMO currently out there. You are seriously going to struggle to find a better game for your money anywhere else.

I hardly even play GW anymore, reinstalling the whole game again right now to try out the new updates, but even I appreciate how much fairer the costs for GW are then other rip - off Western MMO's.

Blizzard do not need to be charging 10 million subscibers $10 per month, but hey, they do anyway, and good for them that they leech close to $100 million every month from the people that pay those fees. In comparison to this, Anet earn and survive on peanuts.

I agree with what you said, bhavv. Sometimes I wonder if all these people complaining have even played other games.

storage not game content?

btw, Requiem - Bloodymare is the best deal out there now, absolute zero fees.

Morals are for pussies.
Winners take money.


Most of what you said is irrelevant.
The same way that A.Net isn't a charity, the users aren't a charity.
A.Net doesn't have enough money to found GW2?
Well then, I guess somebody will just have to look for a real job!


The problem is that WE, the consumers aren't acting normal.
A normal consumer that does not approve of a product, stops supporting that product.
We aren't doing that. We're just bitching and buying.

You already have storage


All the micro transactions are optional

for me: the bottom line is
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Arena Net NO MORE MICRO TRANSACTION. Do more mission packs, what ever pack thing you wanna do, make it buy once as a pack and be able to use at will in the game and be done with, don't be making us open tickets and buy tokens to exchange for items/service in the game.

GW has absolutely zero fees as well, am I missing something here?

And is this Requiem Bloodymare 4 years old with no fees or micro transactions whatsoever? I doubt it.

There are no fees in GW, and the storage updates are optional, If you dont want them, then dont buy them and be happy that you still arent paying any fees?

I dont understand your argument at all:

- You dont want to pay for the extra storage right?
- So you're not going to pay for the extra storage ...
- Meaning you still arent paying anything to play and enjoy the game?

So what is your problem if others choose to buy the storage updates? It gets Anet more money to spend on their future games.

I would have said it as bluntly as that, but I made an attempt to point out simple reasons why they need that money, rather than just simply saying 'Anet = company, company wants to make money'.

You dont have to agree with my points at all, but yes, the people working at Anet want some extra money, as they hardly make the same amount as what others like Blizzard make.

If you dont want to pay (not you Upier, but to anyone that doesnt want to pay for updates), then simply dont pay??? Is it that hard? You dont pay, you still get to play and enjoy the game with the same amount of storage you have had for 4 years. If that is really so bad, then you should have quit a long time ago due to the lack of storage maybe.

I think you missed the whole part where they are not making anymore content for GW1, they are only working on GW2 in terms of making something new right now?