Originally posted by Scot

This shows the sea change that is occurring in MMO’s. Posters on here are defending P2W boosts as ‘only in PvE’ ‘only a random chance’.

If you get to top level quicker, you are that much better in PvP, so PvE boosts are P2W.

We used to argue about whether cosmetic cash shops were a bad thing. Now we are arguing about whether PvE boosts are a bad thing. Every couple of years I see this, one hallmark of a good MMO after another being removed from the genre.

Personally I don´t like the mystic chests at all.

But since the keys drop in game as well as you can buy them it aint a big issue unless you find 20 chests for every key or something annoying like that.

I personally plan to use both the keys and chest to aquire gold, I sell the keys to people who don´t want to buy items (dropped key mind you, and not cheap) and I sell the chests to the losers buying keys for real money.

Most of the stuff in those chests are worthless anyways so it is a good option to get gold from powerlevelers and similar people.

Originally posted by Scot

This shows the sea change that is occurring in MMO’s. Posters on here are defending P2W boosts as ‘only in PvE’ ‘only a random chance’.

If you get to top level quicker, you are that much better in PvP, so PvE boosts are P2W.

We used to argue about whether cosmetic cash shops were a bad thing. Now we are arguing about whether PvE boosts are a bad thing. Every couple of years I see this, one hallmark of a good MMO after another being removed from the genre.

ive never been a fan of experience boosts for cash sale but i'll admit that ive changed my stance on the topic

when WOW introduced RAF w 300% exp boost in summer of 2008, I took advantage of it

http://wow.joystiq.com/2008/08/05/blizzard-shows-off-recruit-a-friend-benefits-zhevra-mount-summ/

when EQ2 copied WOW and offered RAF exp bonuses  - I took advantage of that too

for both WOW and EQ2,

players were allowed to do this to themselves, so I created a few junk accts to get the 3 month exp bonus

We pay box price for the game upfront, the cash shop is used to help pay for the server time and continued support of a game. I'll gladly pay for a few micro-transactions instead of a 15$/month fee. 

Along with this, the difference between this and the typical FTP game is the quality. GW2 has been in the works longer than most (on release) FTP MMOs and is backed by a well known company with a good pedigree and decent support system.

Honestly, the cash shop isn't perfect, I think the extra bag slot should be account wide and not per character. All of the  vendor, bank, and similar consumables are just a matter of convenience especially because of the waypoint system whose cost becomes quickly irrelevant as a player progresses. Buff consumables have been confirmed to not work in sPvP and WvW PvP so I could care less. You can also get the buffs from those boxes which evens things out a bit.

Depends on how it is handled by the company running the game as to whether I find it acceptable or not. In other words, depends on the items in the cash shop. It also depends on what happens on the proceeds from that. Is any of it used to fund updates and content to the game? If the shop isn't P2W and the game sees regular updates then i have no problem whatsoever with the concept.

If neither of those hold true then I have a problem. So really it is a case by case basis for me.

Only problem with this game's design so far that I have that seems like a rather pointless and meager cash grab is the whole mystic chest design. The whole concept reeks of money grab and frankly it just feels like a cheap addition to an otherwise rather well put together game. That is something i would expect to see in a pos game like Last Chaos not a AAA game like GW2