korwinthale wrote: »

Well a horse for a regular subscriber is 17000 gold or you can pay money. That isn't a vanity item its a game mechanic altering item honestly.

Its the same horse though just different colors. Its when you can buy items in the store that are more powerful and can't get them by any other means it becomes an issue.

Gohlar wrote: »

Check your economics son. I do pay my own way and I was back in 2004 too. I suspect you weren't. The fuel comment really gives it away,

Well, let's look at the official stats rather than what I paid then and now as it's verifiable. Average cost in 2004 was £3.91. Average price now is £5.98. QED.

If you're going to make things up, at least make sure it is something that can't be checked.

Nope. Not worried.

Korah_Eaglecry wrote: »

Left_Hand wrote: »

What worries me about the item store is that it launched with the game with items already on sale. This kind of approach means that they are planning to develop the store as one of their income focuses and who knows what they will be adding if the sub numbers dont turn out as they expect.

In subscription games i'm against any kind of ingame store that is not selling solely services like character renames and transfers. Even cosmetic items should be exclusively something that you get ingame.

Not going to lie. I dont blame them. BioWare convinced themselves theyd be up there competing with WoW because they had VO Storylines. A year later they were going F2P and from then on out had to heavily rely on the Cash Shop for profits because Subs werent doing it.

Planning for the worst as an individual? Good.
Planning for the worst as a company? Greedy. Amirite?

Pretty much this. I think they know F2P is inevitable and already have systems in place. The race is on to get as much money as they can in the 1st year based on people's hopes. We fall for it over and over again for some reason.

I would have to say that I don't like micro transactions in a game especially one that I'm paying for. However it's something that has evolved along with the MMO genre. Mainly due to the success the Eastern MMO's have had with this method. So it was only a matter of time for Western developers to jump on the band wagon in an attempt to maximize their profits.

So while I don't like it, ultimately a company has to make money and sometimes it requires a company to be greedy. But as long as it doesn't affect the balance of a game like vanity items then I'm fine. If that allows them to reinvest more money into the game for faster bug fixes, more content, etc. then I think everyone wins.

Only time it doesn't is when a company is trying to milk its player base by adding pay to win. I understand the value of money differs from person to person, I am a firm believer that just because you have money doesn't mean it should buy you more power or influence. While that's not true in real life, I'd hope that in a video game that holds true to a large extent. Even if I have the discretionary income to spend on a game, doesn't mean I want to feel like I'm being squeezed for money to stay competitive. It detracts from the whole platform that has been thrown around here that it's about "immersion" and "equality".

While I'll admit I bought the Imperial edition to be able to get the mount and the race, I bought it at a discount otherwise I would have bought the standard. But having a horse at launch compared to those that didn't isn't considered game breaking, but it is game altering. It allows people who paid a greater potential avenue to clear content at a quicker pace which is what some people are saying. I whole heartedly agree. While this may not have been commonplace in the past, it is certainly now, it's how they do penetrate that population that's willing to spend more on a game compared to the college student that's living month to month. It's purely economics and while I can't say I love the idea, it is one that I can live with.

Left_Hand wrote: »

What worries me about the item store is that it launched with the game with items already on sale.

Where is this store? AS far as i know it has not launched yet, so how could there be items already on sale in it.. I am a confused citizen here

I am looking forward to even more from the store. Vanity items galore, I want A LOT of em .
New pets, mounts,weapons, apparel looks.

I mean you couldn't really buy an unfair set of armor unless they stuffed it full of traits and enchants, doubt they'd do that (well I'd hope they wouldn't).
But it would be cool to be able to buy a new armor look that you applied to the armor you craft. Doing this would only allow the armor to be as good as your BS skills.

Same goes for weapons. if you bought a new sword from the store it would simply be the look/geometry you purchase. It wouldn't be the PWN damage 6000 with 10k ps AOE, it would simply make your lvl 22 one handed sword look different.

Sounds fun to me and I am a total *** for new shinny stuff so open the gates

Now of course (well in my opinion) those who shop the store should not be the only ones who can get there hands on these items...it needs to be available somehow ingame via quests or drops..

Well you don't have to be mean and condescending just because I think it'd be cool to be able to buy vanity items.

I am genuinely excited about the game and having a great time, I don't want game breakers just as much as the next player so try not to be so mean.

Regarding the siphon of Devs time to create vanity items...probably not going to happen. I do not think the Devs that work with the games code/performance/backend have much if any involvement with design/modeling of the assets that go into the game, most of the time these are two separate departments. Now of course they would have to be involved in some part of the implementation of an asset but I do not think the entire Dev group comes running to insure a new hat gets put into the game. I could be wrong but..

As long as you aren't able to buy gear with better stats, I have no issue with it. If someone just wants to look a little prettier, it's no skin off my nose.