While I would agree that the cash shop could be buy-to-win, the way they have it established (at least in the first BWE) leads me to believe that it won't be as bad as people are trying to make it out to be.

If you could not get the gems with in-game currency (such as if you had to buy them with money), then it would be unfair. However, the currency exchange is very fair and allows people to take advantage of the things the gems offer without having to pay money to get them.

Yes, however, it's true that with a lot of money someone can buy everything that they want in-terms of gold, but I am okay with that. If people want to pour more money into the game then they can have at it, it'll only help the development of the game.

Is this a concern stated as fact?

I mean gems still aren't buy to win, but I just want to know before I elaborate lol.

Originally posted by JuJutsu

Originally posted by enoch420
Can any of you babies tell me how you win GW 2 by buying stupid boosts from the shop? Do you win when you hit max level faster? Do you win because you have something before other people? Explain the mentality behind this "win" idea people are getting from the shop. Go back to Bloons TD.

Ok I'll try to explain it to you. Some games, such as GW2 have something called PvP (player versus player). In PvP, individuals and groups fight one another when an individual or group is defeated the other individual or group 'wins'. Pay-to-win refers to a situation where an individual or group uses real world money to buy an advantage so that they are more likely to win. If you have any other questions I'd be glad to help.

I know what pay to win means. I was being facetious. People win PvP because of skill, not little boosts. I don't care how much people pay for crap to help them win, if they're bad players, they'll lose no matter how much crap they buy. The stuff offered by Anet isn't OP for PvP. I've yet to see people with the smarts to dodge and avoid damage get thoroughly owned. I believe winning is up to the person sitting at the keyboard. Thanks for the reply but I was trying to use sarcasm. I get tired of skimming the forums and see people crying about stuff that is most likely going to change and blaming others for their lack of skill. Good day.

Do I think Gems are Buy to Win?

No, I don't. Even with 2000 free gems for the weekend, I didn't find the cash shop buffs worth a purchase. They are a non-issue.

Cash shop lock box keys? I got almost as many keys in game as I got boxes and the items in the boxes were mostly one shot, modest buffs. Plus, I can buy keys on the Marketplace and can sell boxes there too, which, depending on the prices people are willing to pay, may be the best bet anyway. Not an issue.

Gems for Gold? Gems don't create new gold. There is an in game currency market with pricing based on supply/demand. For me to buy gems with $$$ and sell gems for gold, someone in game needs to be willing to buy my gems. If there is excess gold in the economy to spend on gems, why am I so in need of gold that I need to spend $$$ to exchange gems for gold? I still firmly believe that most gems sold on the marketplace will be "left over" gems after someone buys a basket of gems in excess of the cost of what ever account upgrade they are buying. If people with deep pockets want to buy gems specifically for trading them for gold? Great, now I can trade my excess gold for gems, so I can upgrade my account with out spending $$$. Why do people forget that the trade works both ways? It's huge to be able to trade yiur excess gold for account upgrades that would normally cost you cash. Really guys, not an issue.

The truth is that you can play the game and enjoy it with out ever touching a cash shop purchase.

Now, yes, some of the account upgrades, like bag slots and bank space are very valuable. They are not necassary, espescially when you remember how easy it is to travel to vendors to sell stuff or to your bank to store stuff, but most people who really get into the game will probably want to eventually buy some upgrades here. However, the game is Buy to Play, while offering a cash shop as part of the business model, which has been known right from the start. One thing the beta weekend proved was that in spite of being Buy to Play, the game is not short on world space, game play or content; rather it's one of the most feature and content rich MMORPGs ver released. No one should resent that the game offers some worth while account upgrades, at very reasonable prices, in order to suport the Buy to Play business model!

None of the Cash Shop items even come close to "Pay to Win". If Gems for Gold were "Pay to Win", then every game with illicit RMT gold sellers must be Buy to Win, right? GW2 goes out of it's way to make sure that Gold =/= Win and that gold sellers will have a rough go at their trade, so, once again, not an issue.

Do us all a favor:  Stop beating that poor, dead horse.  We get it.  Some people think the CS is Pay2Win.  Others don't.  If you think it is, don't play.  If you're not going to play, why bother complaining about it?  If you think we're a bunch of fools soon to be parted with our money, please, stop trying to save us from our foolishness.

Thanks, bye.

Originally posted by evolver1972

Do us all a favor:  Stop beating that poor, dead horse. 

Not going to happen, so get used to it.

We get it. 

Doubtful

If you think it is, don't play. 

Or how about we do what we want and you do what you want?

If you're not going to play, why bother complaining about it? 

See above.

If you think we're a bunch of fools soon to be parted with our money, please, stop trying to save us from our foolishness.

 See, I knew you didn't get it. 

Thanks, bye.

You're leaving?  okay later.

During WvW I got a trebuchet as a drop off a dolyak, one of only three dolyaks I managed to kill (did  a lot more PvE this time). Nerf dolyaks?

The guild buffs only apply in the immediate vicinity of the structure you're currently holding. They're not even map wide. See that trebuchet I got for free? When your walls are in rubble I'll be giggling at your buffs.

It's been a while since I played WoW last time but my Rift account expired not long ago. So, in Rift if you're an active player and you have a L50 character you'll receive at least one plat spam letter every day. So what, you might ask, how far can plat get me in a P2P game? Let's see. Plat can buy you crafted epic gear with stats on par with low grade raid gear. Raid progression in Rift is very strict - you just can't ding 50 and go to T3 in your quest greens, you won't be able to hit mobs at all. Skipping the lowest raid tiers is a nice thing because they're the most boring and the least rewarding. Plat buys you exactly that. All enchants (runes) and consumables are tradeable so plat can buy you them as well. And here's the real kicker - GDKP. I'm not sure if people pugged HK (top tier 20-man raid) in 1.7 with GDKP but they sure did that with RotP (top tier 10 man). So plat can even buy you some top tier gear. At this point you can apply for any raid guild and if you're not completely hopeless you'll get your relics quite soon.

Rift is a P2P game. But you can buy plat there if you really want to and it will significantly cut your time investments especially if you are a newcomer.

Is Rift pay2win?

Originally posted by Banisco

This again? how many times will people open this threads only to recibe the same answer:

Nothing in the store is P2W, in WvW the gold required to buy blueprints can be easily obtainable at high lvls so there is no point on selling gems only to buy siege weapons.

If this is the case, that gold doesn't matter anyway, they should make siege weapons and keep upgrades free.

Originally posted by Deldor

Originally posted by Banisco

This again? how many times will people open this threads only to recibe the same answer:

Nothing in the store is P2W, in WvW the gold required to buy blueprints can be easily obtainable at high lvls so there is no point on selling gems only to buy siege weapons.

If this is the case, that gold doesn't matter anyway, they should make siege weapons and keep upgrades free.

Or make it cost some kind of WvW currency. I think that would be a good idea. Find a gold sink elsewhere IMO.

Not really, all the Mystic Chests I opened didn't give me anything gamebreaking (10% Armor buff for 1 hour, woohoo...)

It will only be a slight issue when the game is first launched (Within a week) and the people who buy gems will be able to get ahead of anyone. By the time the normal content-rusher finishes all perks and advantages the paying player got would become obsolete.

*Will be buying gems for permanent 1.5x EXP until 80 and about $200 worth of gold*

Originally posted by dontadow
When someone wins at Guild WArs 2, Let me know

You can easily check the WvW Point Ranking yourself.

Originally posted by Deldor

Originally posted by dontadow
When someone wins at Guild WArs 2, Let me know

You can easily check the WvW Point Ranking yourself.

And fortunately every team can easily afford siege equipment without using the in game cash shop.

Is it me or was that image of the siege weapon page kind of old? The arrow cart wasn't the same price I saw it and the ram wasn't even on that image. I think the supply costs are also higher, so people who buy the weapons still need the help of others and a steady supply stream.

Another strange thing I saw was:

"Want to walk alllll the way back to the armor repair NPC (Merchants didn't repair in the weekend event) and then walk alll the way back to what you were doing?"

Couldn't he just teleport to a repair vendor and then teleport back to a nearby area he was at?

And there was also this:

"Choose the wrong world and want to play with your friends? That'll be 1800 gems (Weekend event price)."

The guesting feature wasn't inside beta, but I'm pretty sure most people know of it by now. He made it sound like this is worse than it is. It should only be an issue for WvWvW.

I don't think that guy is very truthful.

1st, sorry, I don't take any words serious from that site OP linked, not even bother myself to read content in link.

2nd. Played GW2 beta - and it's not pay to win. Sorry If I dissapointed all haters.

Keep in mind there are items in the cash shop that give more than just a minor advantage:
https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/gem/Mystic-Chests-Disturbing-contents/page/1#post129972

I still don't think it's Pay to Win, but I don't think we should just be so accepting of it that we just ignore the problem it's causing.