New In-Game Store Item - Limited Edition Wintersday Costume Pack

You just redeem your costume from the NPCs after you buy it in the store. There's no way to buy it in-game. You have to purchase it with real money.


Lame.

This is another test how much people are willing to pay for looks. They already tested how much we are willing to pay for storage and for changes to our character model.

What will they test next?

The result will influence how much and what we get for free and how much "stuff" will cost in Guild Wars 2.


Upon release of GW, they would not have dared that, not even have thought about that. But it seems that also the success of DDO's new "free 2 play" business model with item store seems to inspire ArenaNet to do the same.

Apparently this system is no longer that much associated with crappy asian grinders as it once was.

While I do not condemn item store systems, I regret the development nevertheless.

LA, Kamadan, Shing Jea and GToB that im aware of. next to the existing festival hats traders.

Just brought it, awesome costume. $10 bucks is pocket change to me, at least it goes and support anet.

Unlike the makeover kit it is unlimited use, therefore I will be purchasing the Wintersday set.

I've always found this to be absolutely ridiculous. If Anet was offering something that actually had some awesome stats to it instead of just dolling up our characters, I might consider it.

As it is, though, every armor in the game is exactly the same. The only difference is appearance. Give us some new gear. These micro transactions are just absolutely retarded.

okay in gtob saw female dwayna and male grenth and meh. they aren't worth 10 bucks.

AGREED

I bought it as well. Its Killer. And even at 10 bucks...its still cheaper than paying monthly for WoW or its ilk. If you dont want the items offered for cash, then dont pay for them. Some will and to them its pocket change. As stated here...at least it helps support Anet...you know...that NO MONTHLY FEE game you have enjoyed for almost 5 years now.

is the dwayna one different colors for different proffesions? lol at more income for them ;-)

A clever way to make money. Well done ArenaNet. Now can you actually fix the game please?

And, this is exactly wanted Anet wanted. People are buying into it "Oh, it's only 10$" which adds up really fast. Suckers ^^

this frightens me..
if they wanna turn guild wars into one of those money sink free to play games with a bazillion real money extras then fine.

i just hope gw2 wont be like this

In before ArenaNet offers different name fonts and colours in the ingame store.

And a new title track based on money spent. One which has one of those obnoxious animations.

Undyed:




Gonna be playing around with these for a bit.

Why support a game thats basically on the bare minimum support?, if they convert enough to the micro tranaction model... think of the people they can covert for monthly fees?

They pushing as a test as someone said earlier, they would've never tried this when the game was more active.

Microtransactions were for a long time frowned upon by westerners.
Then we had the extreme success of ingame features like "glowing hands" for the Collector's Editions.

"Woot! People pay money for that! $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$"

Seems westerners are not above paying extra for glowy crap!

Then they added char slots. Then model makeovers. Now costumes. In Oblivion they even sold horse blankets, so well, they will sell more and more and more.


Microtransactions are the new buzzword and model for a lot of upcoming games. We will have to deal with it.

What irks me so much about the system is that it usually works like this:

Extra Storage
Costume
new area, app 1-3 hours gameplay, buggy (<- Fallout 3 "Downloadable Content comes to mind)
This fancy thing
That fancy crap
Server transfer
Gender change, etc. etc. etc.

I bought all Fallout 3 DLCs - and while I really liked two of the DLCs, even those were in general not worth the money.

-> A lot of money for a minimum of content/stuff.

I have not played Dragon Age yet, but I fear it follows the same principle: Great game, but every minor extra or expansion costs comparatively so incredibly much more.


Another motto that I always appreciated for computer gaming is "keep money out of the game." Once they add microtransactions like this, it will inevitably also have impact on the way they design stuff - around those micro transactions.

I am scared for GW2, but still hope for the best.

Why are people thinking that asking us for an *optional* purchase with absolutely no impact on the game is a stupid idea? Do they not understand the basics of business? Anet isn't some charity running this game out of the goodness of their hearts. They need to make money, plain and simple.

if you buy it forget any free content in GW forever.

I saw alot of free mmorpg doing custome pack crap but never expected GW to go down that road. Guess this is what we can expect for 2010.

There are currently only 2 costumes available, and they cost pennies to produce, and by there very nature are made to look good.

I'm thinking these skins will end up horribly saturated and overused. I remember an ANet from a few years ago that made Blindfolds undyeable and Shiro's Daggers have prohibitive requirements to keep players from overusing them. WTF happened to you, ANet? At least those items still had to be farmed and worked for.