A Note on Microtransactions

We may have had a good illustration of that a few minutes/hours ago on this board.

So what do you say JR, my points are moot?

I haven't seen a single good reason why microtransactions for non-content are bad.

The only bad reasons I've seen, have been some variation of "I want everything for free" or "GW2 is going to be completely micro transaction based in order to compete with X game".

The first one is greedy, the second one is unfounded, and both are moronic. Either buy your little trinkets if you choose to, or shut up and go away.

I'm sorry JR but I think you are completely wrong on this...well at least I disagree with your opinion. Its weird too because I've agreed with you on 90% of everything else. Even Fril has joined the dark side geez (well mostly). I'll post in the update thread.

Please don't say Guild Wars is Free, Guild Wars is NOT FREE, I paid for it twice :P, two complete accounts, plus many character slots, why I pay for those two complete accounts, bonus mission packs and character slots? because its what guild wars is, you buy it, you keep it and can play on the "free of charge server" forever, whenever you want to. With micro transaction you can't do that anymore, and Arena Net just violated their trust we gave them, you don't get to use the server for free anymore, you've got to pay for it now with the storage, and with the make over thing, you buy something you can use for 5 times, the next time you wish to use that service after your 5 tokens are used up, you've got to pay for it again, and again, and again, for what the developer only did once. *edit: what is worse, all these "big April Update" could have easily been made into expansion packs and marked as Already Purchased in your online store, to keep and use whenever we want, but Arena Net choose not to because they prefer to get pay for again and again and again and again more then they want to keep to their original way of selling expansion packs.

Oh, and please don't give me bullshit that Arena Net have to hire someone to do the hair and name change every time someone requested a change, cos i'll never believe it.

That is why I don't support them going the micro-transaction way, won't, never, ever :P

I don't want to shatter your hopes but: 1) I didn't do a U-turn on Anet yet; 2) I was mainly talking about CR/M in this post, which is only part of what GW is.

We're talking shades of grey here, nuanced opinions, not a "with us or against us" stance. I may be buying future products, but not all of them, and partly due to the impression I get following this "update"/product.

If you only bought the games you could still play for FREE on ANET's servers without ever purchasing something else from ANET. If you bought anything it was of your own free will not because you had to have it to play the game.

I don't see a problem with the new items nor do I understand a fuss about it. First off all most people who started a thread 'please gimme a stylist' had many responses that they would be willing to pay.

Second I don't understand where JR is saying buying mini expansions is against their model, it is exactly what I would love. Buy stuff you want, don't buy stuff you don't want. This isn't against their model at all, this is exactly their model but on a smaller scale (instead of 1 box, it is 4 times a small box together the price of 1 box).

I don't understand what point you are trying to make Risky Rangers, but yes it was out of my own free will and my love for how beautiful the game looks that I want to give my money to them, then, in the form of buying EXPANSION PACKS, not micro-transaction.

valence
Many people also stated that it would be ridiculous to charge real money for makeover and re-naming of characters, go read it, I remember what my responses was.

I'll quote Valence on this.

"Second I don't understand where JR is saying buying mini expansions is against their model, it is exactly what I would love. Buy stuff you want, don't buy stuff you don't want. This isn't against their model at all, this is exactly their model but on a smaller scale (instead of 1 box, it is 4 times a small box together the price of 1 box)."

Fair enough. At least you are somewhat more seeing what I was trying to say before though. Its just amazing that in the boycott thread I often listed examples of what ANet could possibly sell in the future (such as hair stylist etc) and many people thought I was nuts and said they wouldn't support that. That was before we knew that they were actually going to be selling this stuff. Now many of these same people are posting in threads supporting the idea. Its a sad state of affairs this community if you ask me Fril.

i pretty much agree with the Op. If u want to buy name changes , other stuff fine by me.

but when anet adds small additions to the game forcing storage to become an issue, then charging u for the fix then i have a problem.. Granted anet gave us a free pane if u can get logged in and a grind pack for each character. But i'd expect something for free since when we bought EoTN we didn't get anything extra such as a storage pane or even an extra charater slot.

I'll quote myself on this,

You do not need those things to play the game. Those are vanity items. Your original purchases are all you need to play, all else is for epeen. Show me otherwise.

I HATE them with all the might I can have while hating bytes and pixels (It not really much, but it's relatively the highest hate I generate outside real life).

I came to GW for three reasons:
- The game mechanics.
- The game setting.
- The "Pay once" policy.

And I'm not purchasing anything if it is not pay once.
I bought the game because I had to pay just once for it.
I got the collector editions because I had to pay just once for it.
I got the unlock packs because they unlocked everything forever, thus having to pay them just once.
I got character slots because I pay for them once.
I got the storage upgrades because I just have to pay for them once.
I got the 2005 and 2008 account updates because paying once is all that is needed to get them.
Same goes for the BMP.
I even got the all Bonus Music upgrades!
Of course I also got them because I liked and wanted them, but without them being 'pay once' I would NEVER consider getting them. EVER.

Most of those are vanities or 'luxuries'. Not really adding content, just some nice extras. But I just had to pay once for them. Just once.

So, unless they make 'pay once' versions of those features that are now 'micropaid', I'm not even lying and eye on them.

So this the first and only time I'm actually disappointed with ANet. Even Xunlai agents works by the 'pay once' policy. You don't have to pay every time you open the Xunlai chest. You pay for it once, even in-game.

PAY ONCE.

it has nothing to do with weather its a vanity item or not RR, you don't feel what I feel, guild wars should not be like this.

you should try Requiem Bloodymare beautiful too, aside from not having a secondary profession lol :P~

I just try and be realistic.I realize that as much as we like things to be the same as they were, circumstances sometimes change things. I am sure ANET had no idea the world economy would crash and burn when they released their game 4 years ago. There is an evolution happening with MMO's where micro-transactions are much more prevalent today than they were in years past. I can go along with them as long as it doesn't affect my ability to play the game without them.

Realistic? Ok. Let's look at a REAL site: Megaupload.

You can pay 9.99 for a month of premium service, but you can also PAY ONCE 199.99 for a 'for-life' service.

It's way much more than the monthly fee? Yes. But you pay it just once. Fire and forget.

I don't care if some people see character customization as non-important.

The fact is, GW is an RPG. Some people like the RP factor to it. Customization does indeed have an impact on actual gameplay. A game isn't JUST mechanics.


IT SHOULD NOT COST!

Who's "we"? Some of us were not naive enough to think things would be peachy clean forever.

"Got to"? "Got to"? ... No.

Oh tell us; what should Guild Wars be like? Shed your almighty wisdom for us. Your feeling are 100% fact... clearly.

NO! YOU'RE RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GOING WRONG! ANET MUUUUST GIVE US EVERYYYYYYYTHING FOR FREEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Yeah but seriously, you are bang on the mark with that comment.

"We" is all those that strongly believed that GW would go 'pay once' forever, as they always said.

Now some people will fear this would repeat in GW2. No longer being a 'pay once' game, but a micropaid one too.