As someone who may want to try GW2, i'm curious as to how 'necessary' the cash shop is.

What kind of things are sold in it exactly? I'd like to hear the categories and item types/items.

It is not required...if you don't like collecting every junk item in the game and need more storage.

it is not required... if you are fine with the amount of character slots given and don't want to play all 8 classes.

it is not required.... if you aren't lazy and don't mind running around every inch of the map so that you don't fall behind in levels.

Well you get the idea.  It isn't required.... just there make what should already be easy or acessable, an option to those willing to pay a little bit extra.  Not required.... but sure most every character either via gold ingame or paying with real cash, will buy gems that are   appearently, completely optional.

Can you somehow obtain gems without paying cash for them?

Originally posted by ChromeBallz

Can you somehow obtain gems without paying cash for them?

yes you can! Just turn in your silver and gold for gems. You never have to buy them if you do not want to.

yes you can. in fact its so easy, that as a gamer you will be able to buy all the necessary stuff in the first week.

new char slot: 800 gems   *3, so you can create each of the classes

new bank slot: 600 gems  *4/5 for a maxed out stash

currently: 2 gold = 700-800 gems

apart from these 2 upgrades everything else is useless crap like pets and boosts and things you will be interested in once everything else becomes boring. I got all character and bank slots, just by exchanging gold vs gems.

What people often dont understand about this "cash" shop is that you can buy gems with gold! And its perfectly affordable! Should not have been called "Cash" shop in the first place, its called GEM shop for a reason!

You can really afford buying more than 15$ worth of gems per month. That means, not only you're not paying a 15$ monthly sub, you also get more than 15$ worth of Gem shop items a month just for playing the game!

Gem shop has very useful inventory expansion, and since bags in game cost exponential amount of gold (15 slot bag 50 silver, 18 slot bag 2 gold, 20 slot bag 10 gold) its simply more logical to pay ~1 gold 20 silver for another bag slot rather than upgrade your bags from 15 to 18/20 slots.

Gem shop has boosters. Those are really subjective:

- XP boost, i thought it would help speed up my leveling, BUT it only increases Kill XP, and you get much more XP from gathering and events/quests/exploration. So, i didnt use it and got to lvl 80 easilly still.

- Crafting XP boost, this one is very helpful if you're low on mats, basically if you use it, you can level up your profession using less mats, BUT, if you want to discover every recepie, you dont need it. So its your choice. If you dont use it you'll have to discover more recepies to pass a tier of crafring. I used it but now that i want to get all recepies, i feel like i could get on without it

- Magic find boost, probably useful in dungeons, but i'm not sure. It increases frequency of drops, but most useful items come from vendors (tokens/currencies), at max level you get mostly non-max level drops... so... it depends on wether this boost's value in gold is worth it (produces more than its value in gold items when used)

- Karma boost, probably useful if you really need lots of karma, basically this is a way to convert gold to karma (karma is like a second currency that is given out for quest/event completion but isnt tradeable between players).

Plus, Gem shop has a key you can use to open chests that drop everywhere. Basically, you can buy chests on AH for cheap, so you just pay 125 instead of 150 you pay for boosts usually, and you get a random boost, random fluff item that transforms you into something fun, and random tool (useful item for gathering mostly). Thing is, there are way more boosts to be found in such chests. They up your damage by 5%, or your armor by 5%, etc. They may be useful in WvWvW (however i dont know wether they work there and wether they stack). Or in PVE of course. But i am not using themyet.

And of course it has million of cosmetic stuff i dont even care to explore. Dont need it. Well, except a pirate outfit. You get to build a toy cannon once an hour and summon a parrot. Yarr! That's cool....

------------------------ Bottom line ------------------------

I was sceptic about this "cash" shop being Pay to Win.

Now I played it. I can truly tell you that it doesnt feel like a cash shop at all!

Really! Gems are basically gold and gold is basically gems. Its like EVE Online system where you can input real money into the system but cannot output it back (can convert real money to game money but not the other way around). Gems - the RMT currency - are just another form of ingame gold with fluctuating exchange rate. Everything in Gem shop is perfectly affordable to the point of prices being ridiculous (new bag slot costs ~1g20s, upgrade from 15 to 20 slot bag costs ~9g50s). Some stuff is plain illogical to buy: a very expensive item, costs like an extra bag slot or more, that is ONE USE and for five minutes allows people to click it and receive a random fun effect - like being turned into ghost etc.

There is A quirk however. Since conversion rate is based on the amount of people converting, AND isnt open to public (we do not know how many tracnsactions actually happened - ANet can pull the strings at any time without people having any way of detecting it), this means that someone WILL have to buy gems and convert them to gold, otherwise the gold to gem ratio will skyrocket until its no longer viable to buy gems for gold for most of the population. And it will be forced to do so by ANet if they feel they get too little income from cash shop.

So yes, someone will always have to pay cash, in order for others to pay for it with ingame gold. Its like when you exchange currency in your currency exchange booth, and you can exchange 10, 20, 100, 1000 or more at once, you only can do it because your countries exchange goods at a vastly superior volume. If your country doesnt export enough, the rates will drop. Same here, but with total control by the developer.

However, you really do not have a monthly sub, and have a very cool game made by very loveable developers. Why not support then with a 15$ monthly donation? I think i'll do that, pay around 15$ a month in form of buying gems, just to support them.

Originally posted by ChromeBallz

As someone who may want to try GW2, i'm curious as to how 'necessary' the cash shop is.

What kind of things are sold in it exactly? I'd like to hear the categories and item types/items.

Each day I feel the urge to buy more and more. It's very compelling. It's not needed, but it's encouraged through things limited bank slots, mystic chest, and siege weapons. 

The bank has plenty of room for crafting items but for actuall gear and such I think you start with about 20 slots.  

For the mystic chest you can buy keys to open them, the key drop rate seems very low. I'm yet to get a key drop.

Single siege weapons are not too expensive to buy with gold, but they are needed and they are the best way to kill. I'm starting to pop them like candy. Thus it's really hurting my gold growth. I'm certainly getting a pay to winish feel from WvW. Don't get me wrong, WvW is awesome, but I'm starting to look around and wonder who's dropping cash.

I think once the auction house opens up we all will be reaching for our credit cards or atleast want to. 

Siege weapons are mostly very cheap (like 6s), and expensive ones are better to be gotten from jumping puzzle for free!

And really, if you feel you need more inventory space, trade gold for gems and get it. Simple! Dont have to pay real money.

Originally posted by IstrebiteI

Siege weapons are mostly very cheap (like 6s), and expensive ones are better to be gotten from jumping puzzle for free!

And really, if you feel you need more inventory space, trade gold for gems and get it. Simple! Dont have to pay real money.

 

I spend a lot of time in WvW. I probably use the entire amount you can get from puzzles in a day.

Originally posted by IstrebiteI

Siege weapons are mostly very cheap (like 6s), and expensive ones are better to be gotten from jumping puzzle for free!

And really, if you feel you need more inventory space, trade gold for gems and get it. Simple! Dont have to pay real money.

 

you can also buy siege weapons with "Badge of honor" which you obtain by killing npc guards and real people in WvW

There were times I was a bit concerned. I plan to trade most of the money I earn for gems, but looking through the gem store, I honestly don't know what I would buy.

I level so quickly that boosters seem worthless. I think it'll be a long time before I feel like actually playing through a sixth character. With five characters I have loads of storage, and with the way salvaging, depositing, and selling works from anywhere, I don't see inventory space ever becoming a problem.

I guess I could spend gems on... mini pets? Dyes? Maybe I'll buy a pair of glasses or a hat for each of my characters. I'll probably end up getting some fine transmutation stones, although I currently have buckets of the standard ones and not much to use them on. There really just isn't that much to buy right now.

I think most people who are buying gems are doing so just to sell them for gold to give them an early edge in the game, which is keeping gem prices pretty low. Once everyone has loadsamoney, I don't know if anyone will care about gems until they add new costumes.

I've looked at the Gem store and so far I've felt no need at all to buy anything in there. This has not hampered my game experience in any way what so ever. It's not pay to win as the doom sayers would have you believe. You don't suffer from not buying Gems.

Bags can be crafted and the ability to dump crafting mats straight to a special bank tab means that I've never had any real problems with bag space. Experience gains and gold/karma gains without boosts are, so far, more than sufficient to allow me to repair, acquire karma items etc.

Anyone telling you that you have to buy gems in order to keep up is IMO trolling.

Originally posted by bcbully
Right now you would need about 8 gold (35 gems) to buy one bank upgrade. I'm level 30, and I don't think I've seen 8 gold yet. 

What are you talking about?

bank upgrades are 600 gems each... which is about 2 gold depending on what the exchange prices are at the time.

for 35 gems at the moment its like 12 silvers

Originally posted by IstrebiteI

What people often dont understand about this "cash" shop is that you can buy gems with gold! And its perfectly affordable! Should not have been called "Cash" shop in the first place, its called GEM shop for a reason!

You can really afford buying more than 15$ worth of gems per month. That means, not only you're not paying a 15$ monthly sub, you also get more than 15$ worth of Gem shop items a month just for playing the game!

 

However, you really do not have a monthly sub, and have a very cool game made by very loveable developers. Why not support then with a 15$ monthly donation? I think i'll do that, pay around 15$ a month in form of buying gems, just to support them.

There is no $15 amount of gems. It is either $10 or $20. However I do think they should put in a $5 increment of gems though. That would be nice and I bet they might make some extra sales that way.

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Originally posted by bcbully
Right now you would need about 8 gold (35 gems) to buy one bank upgrade. I'm level 30, and I don't think I've seen 8 gold yet. 

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Um. I have about 3.8 gold right now, and it's enough to buy over a thousand gems. You're reading the graph completely wrong. The average, high, and low values are per 100 gems, not per 1.