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

I won a dwayna one by following them on facebook. They were just giving out codes :P Its kinda legit.

We've already paid for the game.

Just to say they look absolutely awful..... the Female looks fine i guess but the male is awful.....

The current dwayna/grenth costume is nice

WIth the way anet has handled a lot of problems lately, I actually did agonize over it a bit. Do I really want to reward anet for their mismanagement of everything GW lately?

Do I really want to give them my cash for one more thing that adds zero content into a game that's been stale for over two years?

But, this is the game I play the most. This has been the game I loved the most. Amd anet wasn't always like this. Maybe it's all because of the shift to GW2, I don't know.

But ever since I beat EOTN, all that's been left is grind (which I hate) to earn titles for my characters. I do it not to show any greatness on my part (these titles are only grind, not skill) but to reward my characters for years of fun play.

So I bought it. One more reward for my characters. They're the only reason I still come back to this game. I can't stay away too long without missing them a bit. (yes, I have issues)

I bought both. £5.99 isn't really a great deal.

Would be good if we could buy the codes though. Could buy a few as gifts.

He meant, "dont buy the costume"

Edit: had some coffee

It makes me terribly sad that what little development resources still being devoted to GW1 are spent on stuff like this.

The costumes don't bother me one bit. I think they look awesome, but for me they're about $8 bucks more than I'm willing to pay, so I'll pass.

Anet can set up microtransactions for vanity items all day long as far as I'm concerned. Infact the more the better. If there were tons of stuff to choose from and some diversity in what's available, I might spend a little money in the store for in-game items just to have a little more personalized char. And as long as the items aren't tradeable or give an edge I really don't care.

I love them, bought them the minute I saw the add.
I know micro transactions is NOT the way to go, but with the way these costumes look and move we have something good coming in GW2.
Hope more of these will come in the future through other means than purchase.
Hmmmz,... costume design contest maybe????

Yes yes yes yes yes!!!! I don't give a rats ass about the costumes, but the fact that I can now do everything in the pumpkin crown I value over all other things in GW, is absolutely priceless, and long overdue.

Why isn't anyone making a big fuss over how they've given us that for free, and not forced us to buy the costumes to unlock the ability to do so? Simple, because that would be admitting that aNet did something outrageously right, and that, my good friends, suits the QQ poor me attitude not at all..

GG on this one aNet!

Comparison with Hitler and the meaning of live and bacteria in this world... what have you been smoking? And you're the one saying "get real", like... really?

I've already bought the game. If I stop playing ANet won't get a clue as there are so many reasons why I would. Nor would they be interested in keeping me playing GW1... why would they?

And anyway by not buying/playing you send a binary message: yes/no. That is not feedback. Feedback is *why* you're not buying or playing. Which is why this forum exists and entire languages with a full vocabulary were invented because we need to say more than just yes and no.

However you guys seem to have a problem with people articulating why yes and why no. Which is a very non-constructive attitude. Why do we have this forum if the feedback can be sent by "not buying and not playing". Are you suggesting we should shut the forum down as it's useless?

Ashamed to say hadn't thought of this,it's a great idea. Maybe even have an Abbadon one.

Oh, i thought real roleplayers left GW many years ago cause there was no housing/social armors & a limited lore. I'm OK with roleplayers but GW is just the wrong game for this.

Still disapointted with the use of limited ressources of the Live Team for... this...

What misinformation am i spreading? I tell people apart from the game purchase it is free to play but here's the main point... anet fanboys ignore/disregard the fact there are optional upgrades in the store regardless of weither its vanity or not its still there.

I think one of the biggest issues with GW is the strict and completely rigid manner in which armor is handled. For instance, in Neverwinter Nights, you can completely modify the appearance of every facet of your armor, e.g. if you want full plate to look like a dress, you can do so, for an in-game price of course.

Although it still isn't in the same league for ability to customise, I think this is certainly a good beginner step in the right direction towards players having a more complete unique appearance, as opposed to merely mix/matching pieces of various armor. Even though there are currently only 2, I see no reason whatsoever as to why basically any model in the game couldn't be added as a costume. Realistically, the models are all already there, and work fine, as proved by mysterious tonics. The only thing they'd really have to do is add icons for each different set. Probably 5-10 mins per piece tops..

Food for thought.

I was exaggerating

Yes/No is indeed feedback, however useful/not useful its still a message.

In this case, the entire thread boils down to the COSTUME, this is what we are discussing.

Dont like the costume, dont buy it

Anet did you get the message?

I think the forum is a useful tool for feedback to the developers so people that do post constructive may get their message out, but $$ gets the point across better and faster in cases like this.

I'm looking forward to being able to put on a Margonite costume if that ever comes around.

They could of course release more.

A 10$ costume for every season and holiday. What else could we want more?

(Maybe additions to GW1 that are focused on fun and improving the game, and not around testing various new ways how to milk the remaining playerbase for maximum profit? Every major update nowadays seems to be bundled with a new type of micro transaction ... hooray!)

horrible, thoughtless, arrogant, unsupported statement. but unlike you i'm gonna tell you WHY you're 100% wrong.

if i don't like the way the game is going, i'm going to express my opinion about it, whether you or anybody else likes it or not. but see, the thing is, i'm gonna give valid reasons behind my opinion because that's what a discussion is about. that's what you do on forums, you discuss things. and discussions aren't reserved for endless praise and smiley faces, they're for shouting your voice and discussing ideas and opinions, whether good or bad. forums 101 you can thank me later.

not playing a game because you don't like one feature in it is just about the most senseless and irrational thing i think i've ever heard, just think about what you're saying for ONE second and you'd save yourself lots of embarrassment.

It's the costumes indeed. But it's the trend that can't be ignored as well. When ANet released the storage updates, name changes and toon facials for money you could say that was a "one time" thing. Not really reflecting how they want to make money. However the costumes now prove that it wasn't a one time thing but it rather settles in a trend/path for how ANet will manage their GW1 business. And it is a normal question: are we going to expect an exclusive elite armor skin as a micro transaction next? The costumes are already very close to just that.

"Cosmetics" are just as an important part to the game as stats. It's a game. Not many people play games with good stats and bad cosmetics. I wouldn't be surprised if more people play for the "cosmetics" than for stats. But I don't have the real data to make these assertions.

And if the target audience is kids/teenagers cosmetics is all How many kids will pester their parents to buy them the "costumes" cause their friends have them? Isn't that what ANet is betting on?

Even besides that: storage. Storage *is* "stats" and not just cosmetic. You have an ingame advantage if you buy more. So yes, GW already sells "better stats" (not just cosmetics) for money in their game store.

I only hope they never start doing stupid costumes that don't fit with the game such as ninja, bunnies and cyborgs.

Simply put


This is an option nobody forces you to purchase or not

Ok I bought the dual pack to-day so what. It does not interfere with any other player. Its like guys who pay in game currency for rare skin wepons.

Ok its real money here but, the cost is irelavant (to some) $10 mabe a lot to some but , its your choice to buy or not

So Anet for me its fine and from what i have seen in towns its okay to plenty of others also.

A Merry Christmas to all the Bah Humbugs out there.

This was priceless! Thank you!

The way I look at this, GW is a dying game. I've been around since slightly after release (my oldest son was in for the beta, and never gave me a heads-up. No free PC tech support for him!). There hasn't been any real content added since EOTN and the BMP.

I've done everything there is to do in this game. I've loved this game, and more than gotten my money's worth (thanks anet). Lately things do seem to get mishandled and it does get frustrating, it could all be related to the pressure of getting GW2 out to us (in case you haven't noticed, we are a pretty demanding crowd).

So I currently grind for titles, not for myself (no skill in grinding) but for my characters. I've enjoyed playing all of my characters for over 4 years now, so I'm rewarding them for all that fun. These costumes are just one more way to do so.

Maybe I have issues (ok, no maybe there) but I start to miss them if I'm away from the game too long. If you don't care about this kind of stuff, or think it's overpriced, unnecessary, whatever. By all means let your wallet do the talking.

I have had my own disagreements with anet, but trying to imply they're money-grubbers looking to milk us dry? After you've gotten over 5 years of play for only a $50.00 required investment? Jeeze what else has that kind of ROI? I guess you could buy a real nice magnifying glass and use it to burn up ants for 5 years.

^This.
12 Chars.

That is not the issue here. The issue here is that ANet prefers to release "costumes" for almost the same price campaigns are now and they are not working on any campaign/real content for their money.

So if that's the way they want to make money: silly cosmetics that takes their team a week to implement instead of working on real content/campaigns... As they so long ago said: "new campaign every 6 months". It now turned into new "armor skin" every 6 months for similar price. Awesome. /applaud their business direction.

It has been reurgitated dozens of times already, every time something was sold over the store:

It is optional, you don't have to buy it, stop complaining.

After four and soon five years of Guild Wars at least veterans should see the trend. And wonder if this is really a development for the better.


Micro Transactions are not my favorite but OK if done right. A good example for this might be DDO Unlimited.
*Bad* examples are the hordes of Asian grinder games that use this scheme.


Right now all they are doing is optimizing is their profit, and testing stuff for the future, GW2.

But leading the charge when it comes to innovation and fun gameplay? Right now they are sitting on the laurels of a glorious past, no longer in the lead, but trailing behind the pack -> a few days ago I was wondering how much more Guild Wars would have become better from a only half as well done "LFG" tool as WoW got it with 3.3!

GW2 won't be out before 2011 apparently. And till then GW1 seems to become the field test for micro transactions and their shop implementation.


I wonder if they will be selling costumes right away in GW2...

I think they look great, and I see no problem with ANet doing microtransactions along these lines.. They don't charge us a monthly fee, the game needs something to keep itself going. Now that the game is dying down, I can understand why many won't want to buy them but still.. It's not like it's crucial content, if you don't like it, you're not missing much.

My only issue is with the price. I do understand they probably took a couple of people a lot of time, but £5.99? That is pushing it just a little, and this is supposedly some special offer. I definitely think they should be a little cheaper, even just £2 each wouldn't feel so extortionist.

You only paid 50?

I paid close to 200 (just for the games and expansion).

LOok GW already HAD a RL Money = Major Advantage in game.

I paid real world money for 4 extra accounts when Nick the huntsman was perma pre. That with my 5 accounts amounts to 25 goth every day for me. I get 37,500 free gold every day because of that and then I do trappers that gives me 2 keys every 5 days for all 5 accounts. So Keys net me 240K a month and GotH nets me over a mill a month.

I also bought the eye of the north PRE-Release what has the ONLY legal 15-22 dmg MAX damage I might add sword in all of presearing.

That sword kills a lot of charr and nets me quite a few charr bags and kits. Kits are 10K post gold and I can manage one every hour with 5 minute Boss runs.

So this micro stuff has worked for a very long time. You can even buy all the pets all the reg skills a fire imp new toon slots so its not a new thing.

What ANet is doing is playing on...
Vainglory (Latin, vanagloria) is unjustified boasting. Pope Gregory viewed it as a form of pride, so he folded vainglory into pride for his listing of sins.

The Latin term gloria roughly means boasting, although its English cognate - glory - has come to have an exclusively positive meaning; historically, vain roughly meant futile, but by the 14th century had come to have the strong narcissistic undertones, of irrelevant accuracy, that it retains today[11]. As a result of these semantic changes, vainglory has become a rarely used word in itself, and is now commonly interpreted as referring to vanity (in its modern narcissistic sense).

So they prey upon us hoping that these human traits will profit them...and guess what...it will. It has been this way for more than 6,000 years.

second that! i like the ideal but i don't like these and hope for a set i can spend money on.

Funny how the forum mentality seem to be plain simple : Money's evil! The whole game is free! the game's running on it's reserves untill GW2 after all.

C'mon it's costumisation and cosmetic only. Plus we don't have in-game advertisement (I mean in the Buy-That sense, not the inventory slot) yet. When they do that it'll start being pitiful.

I really have no issues with this (no intent on buying them), but not at the cost of them not adding stuff obtainable through in game means.

Someone mentioned DDO's micro-trans. While slow, you can obtain store points through in game means to buy that stuff, or you can shell out cash for points and have it now.

Those that mentioned WoW's subscription fee, while steep considering the devs are ruining the game, you do get regular content updates(same for most subscription based mmos).

For the first 2 years GW had this same thing, sort of...till they abandoned gw1 for gw2(not due to new classes and skills being an issue but because things they wanted to do gw1's game engine could not handle). $50 every 6 months for a new campaign, is roughly the same cost as a fee based game. (wow's 6 month payment plan is $77ish every 6 months gw was $50ish every 6 if you look at it that way) However gw did not mandate you buy new campaigns or you couldn't play, you just didn't get to enjoy the new content.

Dropping their original new campaign every 6 months plan to develop a new game (which will probably not feel like gw at all from what I have seen) was not the smartest idea. (especially when said new game was only a concept and not even in development yet)

Moving some devs over to start work on gw2, finishing campaign 4, moving a more devs over to 2, doing EotN (though possibly a half done campaign 4 if you read the speculations about it) then move more devs to gw2. But keep enough on gw1 to keep implementing stuff(new armor/weapons/missions) over the gap before the release, not a 3 year dry spell with skill "balances" and pay to have stuff, as your content updates would have been ideal imo. Though wasn't it mentioned that 2010 will have some good stuff for gw1 added somewhere. So long as its in game practical content not store bought cosmetics. Which brings me to my next point.

Cosmetic purchases (new costumes, makeover stuff) are different than the practical ones(storage, character slots, bmp) While none are needed, the practical ones do serve a functional purpose, not just make your character look pretty. As for the unlock packs those are for lazy people as mentioned(and yet sadly the only thing to have the option to take the time in game to obtain it vs paying to have it now)

If you agree spiffy we think alike, if not then you are as entitled to your opinion as I am to mine.

A little note to those saying they will buy them later when their price is reduced. Currently each is 6.99 us or for a limited time you can get both for 9.99 us. This could be their only ever discount on them, just figured I would point that out.

I think the fact that many people are wearing the costumes in town and others complaining about them as micro transactions is a compliment to ANet.

People complain if they dont get what they want. In this case, many of them want the costumes for free.

It is also amusing that people choose to focus on the costume micro transaction while forgetting that ANet actually DID send all of us a FREE gift with this update: the ability to wear your festival hat with your armored headgear. Most people choose to overlook this and insulted ANet instead because they want the costumes but didnt want to pay for them.

It is all greed, if ANet already gives you something for free, but decides to sell something else that you ALSO want, you resorted to insults instead of thanks.

Put up my thoughts @ http://www.killtenrats.com

tl;dr = If people want to buy this in-game "collectible," more power to them and ANet because that's all this is. It's not much different than winning an EL tonic via a contest or getting a Kuuni via a CE. Yet, people sour grapes this type of "collectible" because it feels less earned.

I think it is a quality product they are offering, and I hope they can make money off it. If nothing else, I am glad to give ANet some more money since my initial investment has given me two-thousand hours of gameplay for pennies/hour, and BONUS: I get two cool costumes in return.

dont be bothered by the costumes i mean the game aint much of a profit now and that is why they made this(so they can continue working on gw2). don't worry gw2 wont be like that till it will die too and this will take at least another 5 great years
the good thing is that gw1 might just become free to play with item store just so it can still live (if u ask y is that a good thing then its because if it wont be that then gw1 will be removed at the end)

I find it wierd that some people feel real world money is "less earned" than GW gold. I mean really, do real world money just fall from the sky without people actually taking the effort to earn them? Maybe for some of you with rich parents. I am not that fortunate, since I have to actually work very hard to EARN my own money.

I got sick of reading through all the complaining to see if anyone mentioned it... btw, my God, children!! Anyway, the OP and the thread title I believe are incorrect. It is not written as limited to purchase only until the 17th. It's written with the discount highlighted, meaning the deal is until the 17th.

Buy the Grenth and Dwayna costumes separately or as a pair. Each costume costs $6.99 (€5.99/£3.99) singly, but for a limited time (until January 17, 2010) we're offering both costumes for $9.99 (€8.99/£5.99). Once you've made this one-time purchase, the costume keys will be applied to your account, and the costumes can be created for any of your characters.

I said a $50.00 required investment. One could have played the beta, bought prophecies when it first came out, bought nothing else, and played it for the past 5 years.

See, it's a choice. I have a wife and two kids who also play. With all the campaigns, and all the additional content, and unlock packs, I've spent over $2,000.00. And guess what, that $2k over the course of four years for four people is: ($2,000.00 / 4) / 48 = $10.42 per month for enjoyment, still a pretty good ROI especially considering a lot of that is unnecessary purchases.

How about this: (approximates)
Prophecies cost per month = $50 / 54months = $0.93
Factions cost per month = $50 / 48months = $1.04
Nightfall cost per month = $50 / 42months = $1.19
GW : EN cost per month = $30 / 36months = $0.83

For a grand total monthly cost of: $3.99

This makes it pretty clear that the costumes are only available until the 17th.

No, the both for 9.99 pack is limited till then, individually they will always be there. Open the store page and look.