So far most of the media was showing the cool stuff and not showing too many of the buggy parts of the game
And the game does indeed have A LOT of amazing stuff going on. GW2 unlike many other mmo's IS going to be great even with the current bugs, as bugs are something that will be fixed
Here's the thing though.
The media isn't showing too many bugs, while they are obviously there. Most of the reviews are focused on the cool features.
There are obviously weaker areas to the game, which are the last moment added content (stuff added last tends to still have bugs), the not so massively tested areas, content that is planned for after release (thus not yet finished or there at all)
Now with the pre-purchases drawing near
I'd like to open a discussion about the not so awesome parts of the game
Do you think they will manage to fix most of the bugs before release?
Do you think they will just postpone the game until it's perfectly polished, or will they start feeling the pressure and release asap?
Some examples of bugs would be areas where you get stuck as parts of the quest respawn
Getting stuck inside world items that you have to interact with for quests
Boss monsters getting stuck inside the floor
etc.
I know Arena Net didn't give us a release date yet, so do you think that if a lot of bugs are found during the still to come beta weekends, the not yet mentioned release date is going to suffer, or do you think the date that they have in mind already has these bugs calculated in it?
With that said what do you guys think the release date is going to be anyway?
One more thing That I'd like to discuss about is the cash shop
What do you guys think about the cash shop?
Personally I see pro's and con's
Here's some facts
The gems (cash shop currency) are going to be trade-able for in game gold
The items are pretty much all non game-play affecting
It gives the possibility for people to actually buy expansions with in game gold (if the expansions will be buy-able with gems, which is in the plans)
Now some things that can affect the game in both ways and which I have some doubts about
The gems are trade-able, thus it takes away the need of buying gold through illegal ways (gold buying), but on the other hand this promotes to actually buy gems for gold
Where on most games people are held back of buying gold because it's illegal, in GW2 using the cash shop to gain gold is promoted (just like in f2p's), because well it's legal
I'm not sure how big the impact of gold is on the game, but this could essentially mean that pay to win situations will arise
I am not a fan of gaining perks and advantages in game by the use of real money, so I don't really like the fact the cash shop is there
One more fear that I have with cash shops is, that I've seen companies become greedy
Not one company, but plenty of companies, have introduced "decently balanced" cash shops before, and slowly switching to a pay to win model during the course of the game
Some examples would be Vindictus (EU), Runes of Magic, (pretty much any game that went from p2p to f2p), Age of Conan. Some companies very guilty of pay to win from the top of my mind, Perfect World, Aeria, G-potato, Nexon and many more
A very good example of how not to make a cash shop pay to win, yet very appealing to the customer is League of Legends cash shop
One model. No adding of crazy game changing items to it. Everything that affects game-play is gain-able without the need of cash shop (LoL CS includes, little exp/ip boosts that are insignificant, buying champions which are all buy-able through game currency and champion skins which are different looks for your character)
Now you can argue that all the items in GW2 cash shop are gain-able without spending your real life money, as you can buy the gems from other players
But that's my other concern. In LoL to buy any of those items (outside of skins) you can either spend the cash shop currency or the in game currency. What does this mean? It sets an inflation cap.
What am I afraid of in GW2 is inflation, rich (in game) players (like me, as I always gain tons of gold) will be able to buy out the cheap gems early on in game. Later on the gem price will keep raising, as there will be more gold overall in game. Thus when someone new joins GW2 and will want to buy something from the cash shop with in game gold, they will have to pay crazy amounts of gold for their gems. As there is no way to ensure the gems price won't raise past a certain gold cap, it means we would pay a shit load eventually.
Now I do think Arena Net has come up with a way to balance this out, or they will (or not?) but it's a point of concern to me
Another thing as mentioned earlier, is company greed.
I really hope they won't get greedy like many other companies and keep the cash shop limited to non game-play affecting items
Remember, this isn't an f2p game, we already buy the game and expect balance, not a buy to win environment of f2p games
This post is becoming pretty long now so I ll round it up here for now as I'm too tired to think of more concerns right now
And the game does indeed have A LOT of amazing stuff going on. GW2 unlike many other mmo's IS going to be great even with the current bugs, as bugs are something that will be fixed
Here's the thing though.
The media isn't showing too many bugs, while they are obviously there. Most of the reviews are focused on the cool features.
There are obviously weaker areas to the game, which are the last moment added content (stuff added last tends to still have bugs), the not so massively tested areas, content that is planned for after release (thus not yet finished or there at all)
Now with the pre-purchases drawing near
I'd like to open a discussion about the not so awesome parts of the game
Do you think they will manage to fix most of the bugs before release?
Do you think they will just postpone the game until it's perfectly polished, or will they start feeling the pressure and release asap?
Some examples of bugs would be areas where you get stuck as parts of the quest respawn
Getting stuck inside world items that you have to interact with for quests
Boss monsters getting stuck inside the floor
etc.
I know Arena Net didn't give us a release date yet, so do you think that if a lot of bugs are found during the still to come beta weekends, the not yet mentioned release date is going to suffer, or do you think the date that they have in mind already has these bugs calculated in it?
With that said what do you guys think the release date is going to be anyway?
One more thing That I'd like to discuss about is the cash shop
What do you guys think about the cash shop?
Personally I see pro's and con's
Here's some facts
The gems (cash shop currency) are going to be trade-able for in game gold
The items are pretty much all non game-play affecting
It gives the possibility for people to actually buy expansions with in game gold (if the expansions will be buy-able with gems, which is in the plans)
Now some things that can affect the game in both ways and which I have some doubts about
The gems are trade-able, thus it takes away the need of buying gold through illegal ways (gold buying), but on the other hand this promotes to actually buy gems for gold
Where on most games people are held back of buying gold because it's illegal, in GW2 using the cash shop to gain gold is promoted (just like in f2p's), because well it's legal
I'm not sure how big the impact of gold is on the game, but this could essentially mean that pay to win situations will arise
I am not a fan of gaining perks and advantages in game by the use of real money, so I don't really like the fact the cash shop is there
One more fear that I have with cash shops is, that I've seen companies become greedy
Not one company, but plenty of companies, have introduced "decently balanced" cash shops before, and slowly switching to a pay to win model during the course of the game
Some examples would be Vindictus (EU), Runes of Magic, (pretty much any game that went from p2p to f2p), Age of Conan. Some companies very guilty of pay to win from the top of my mind, Perfect World, Aeria, G-potato, Nexon and many more
A very good example of how not to make a cash shop pay to win, yet very appealing to the customer is League of Legends cash shop
One model. No adding of crazy game changing items to it. Everything that affects game-play is gain-able without the need of cash shop (LoL CS includes, little exp/ip boosts that are insignificant, buying champions which are all buy-able through game currency and champion skins which are different looks for your character)
Now you can argue that all the items in GW2 cash shop are gain-able without spending your real life money, as you can buy the gems from other players
But that's my other concern. In LoL to buy any of those items (outside of skins) you can either spend the cash shop currency or the in game currency. What does this mean? It sets an inflation cap.
What am I afraid of in GW2 is inflation, rich (in game) players (like me, as I always gain tons of gold) will be able to buy out the cheap gems early on in game. Later on the gem price will keep raising, as there will be more gold overall in game. Thus when someone new joins GW2 and will want to buy something from the cash shop with in game gold, they will have to pay crazy amounts of gold for their gems. As there is no way to ensure the gems price won't raise past a certain gold cap, it means we would pay a shit load eventually.
Now I do think Arena Net has come up with a way to balance this out, or they will (or not?) but it's a point of concern to me
Another thing as mentioned earlier, is company greed.
I really hope they won't get greedy like many other companies and keep the cash shop limited to non game-play affecting items
Remember, this isn't an f2p game, we already buy the game and expect balance, not a buy to win environment of f2p games
This post is becoming pretty long now so I ll round it up here for now as I'm too tired to think of more concerns right now