Guild Wars 2 - Released/Leaked Cash Shop info

  Recently Anet provided players with a glimpse explanation on the workings of microtransactions in GW2, in preparation for it's early beta testing during the last weekend. Naturally, a bit more information was leaked through the beta weekend about the cash shop elements and these has raised a lot of controversy and debate among the community. While I would like to remind my readers that these belong to a "early" testing on the beta, these items should still be able to provide players with a good idea of the in-game cash shop structure in general, with that in mind here are some of the shots that have been floating around the internet.

How does it work?
  As we all know F2P games are funded by cash-shops, this much is no mystery to most gamers out there. In these type of shops you can only purchase stuff with a special type of in-game currency which requires real money.

  Now lets explain how this works specifically in GW2. The special currency will be gems which like all currencies of the type can only be bought directly via real money, however it is not the only way to get them as there is also another way of acquiring them.

  Gems have a uncommon characteristic, they can be traded with other players for Gold which is the standard currency in GW2, meaning any player can get them without paying real money providing there are players trading them

  On the above screenshot it shows a in-game market tracking feature on the standard value between gems and gold. What this means is that trading gems will work just like a real-life stock market where players can look at a value/time graph of the gems current worth and decide when the time is right to buy/sell them.

  I foresee a lot of players keeping an eye in this since you could effectively make a in-game profit if use the old "buy-low, sell-high" technique.  I'll also add that the current expected estimate is roughly 5-6$(4-5€) per 400 gems.

Cash shop impacts

  While it's still early to say anything too definitive, it's all too easy to unsettle a community whenever the cash shop is the talk in question. Throughout all this, Anet reaffirms their position in their philosophy of microtransactions on visual perks, services and time-saving conveniences.

Available boosts

  As the Cash Shop images were leaked, I'm inclined to agree that they have stayed within the boundaries they set out for themselves. The game does not have a itemization advantage, nor does the faster leveling make a impact. These things I believe are crucial when referred to and influence what the cash shop can have to differentiate it between pay to win and simply pay because its nice or saves you some time while not giving you actual advantage over other players.

  As the easiest example, having a buff that gives you additional 50% experience while killing monsters for a hour, that by itself isn't much and when in a game where your level is automatically adjusted in dungeons and pvp zones to match the others, actual advantage is almost nonexistent.

The voiced concerns

  The biggest concern with the cash shop for the community, surprisingly isn't the shop itself but the gem currency. While it's true that the ratio between actual real cash paying gem buyers, and those interested to get gems with in-game gold is expected to be abysmal, I don't think that it's such a issue as most seem to think it is.

  As I refer again that most of the cash shop items are not in anyway crucial to gameplay, people who can't pay real cash for them might want some gems very badly for whatever use they intend, and yet its actually "normal" to consider that gems paid with real cash can hardly be compared with a virtual currency made in game, a point which I often find people forget as they complain about this issue.

Style items

  Guild wars has always been a very player driven economy, if someone is willing to pay whatever price for the gems, it's still in the end, part of the economy. This as a taken example inspired from EVE online and their PLEX influenced economy, is a alternative way to bring income home to Anet for a game without monthly fee, instead of illegal gold sellers who infest beloved games with bots and spawn farming.

  Also, taking GW1 as the first example where the cash shop with account services and costumes was made available, people who didn't pay real cash didn't even have the possibility to acquire this things, the existence of the gems raise controversy because it'll be a unknown factor how it will mold itself within the economy, but it's still a chance at these items for people who can't/won't afford them with real cash, and a convenient way for people with more money then play time to acquire in-game valuables, directly benefiting Anet and hopefully thwarting illegal activities.


Guild Wars - The game with the pioneer monthly-free plan

  The existence of GW by itself was unique the moment they charged players for the game, but at the same time kept it monthly free with only a mild cash shop to support itself, this was so with GW1 and it will continue to be so with GW2 albeit with a slightly more varied cash shop.

Areanet explains

  Personally, I always loathed "free" mmos with a pay to win cash shop. Awhile back, I tried a much talked WoW clone called Allods Online... it was well made, had decent gameplay and "good" graphics comparable to World of Warcraft. As I had quit WoW around that time the much familiar gameplay was still relatively new and entertaining up until I reached the part where I discovered that the game was literally impossible to play in higher level areas without Incense buffs, a simple explanation is that it equaled your character's stats to the environment, allowing you to progress throughout higher level areas, what put me off was the literal way that they enforced this system.

  I have tried games with cash shops that sold weapons and equipment but having to pay for a temporary buff to be able to play at all was new to me in the pay-to-win scene. My point with this is that even though GW has a cash shop some still mistake this as a pay-to-win game, while in fact nothing could be further from the truth. While the cash shop is obviously much more varied in it's selection of things to sell for other players, it's to be expected considering the game is operating at a much larger scale compared to it's predecessor, and yet Anet has done remarkably in keeping the shop and the game from crossing that thin line and becoming another pay-to-win environment.

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Blacklight: Retribution

Hello there, today I am going to review a game I have been playing on and off for the past few days, it's a free-to-play First Person Shooter named Blacklight: Retribution That's currently on open beta.

Before you start playing you should take a look at the game menu, even though it seems pretty straight forward it's not. Some menus are redundant while others are just not intuitive so I will try to explain in more detail during the review.

Let us start with the marketplace, obviously it's where you buy stuff such as gear, weapons and weapon parts(more on it later) however you can do the exact same thing from the customization menu, making it redundant since you have 2 ways of achieving the same thing with one slight difference. In the customization menu it will show how the item will affect your total stats while in the marketplace it will only show the item stats.

One thing I found confusing is the way the stats are shown in both the Customization and the marketplace. In the marketplace an item will show +10 recoil indicating that your weapon will have less kickback when shooting while in the customization it will actually reduce recoil by 10.

The customization menu is where you will change your gear and weapons. Gear-wise you have 3 slots which you can combine to your liking, some have more HP, other faster run speed or even faster energy gain for the VR. You also have a range of utility slots which depends on the armor you have, in these slots you can put items such as mines, grenades, visual-scramblers, etc. As for the weapons this is the greatest part of the game as you can tweak each to suit your playstyle:

• reload faster or carry more bullets per mag?
• closed scope with a big zoom or just a sight that aims faster?
• Stock that helps you control your recoil a bit better you one that increases the precision of each shot?
• a silencer or a longer barrel that increases your effective range?

...you choose.

Blacklight gameplay feels very similar to Battlefield as you sprint around from cover to cover in moderately large map, players as they level up will unlock backpacks which will let them fulfill certain roles in a team such as medic, dropping supplies or fixing the robots.

A particular unique feature of this game is the VR, yes it is Virtual Reality. VR allows players to enhance their vision to locate friendlies, enemies and other points of interest such as mines and weak-spots in the Robots Heavy-Armor. While using the VR you can not attack and it only works for a few seconds after which you have to wait for your energy to replenish, plus there are devices that counter the VR by cloaking nearby players from the VR or creating a dummy that will show in the VR.

HVR in action

There are 4 game modes, Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Domination and King of the Hill. While DM and TDM are self explanatory in DOM you have three fixed locations where you must Hack/Capture a device and keep it as long as you can to gain points overtime first team to get 1000 wins. KOTH consists on capturing a randomly activated location by standing near it for some time, first team to get 4 points wins the match.

One thing I find disappointing in the game is the lack of strategy, sure we wouldn't expect any strategy in a Deathmatch but the same seems to apply to all other modes, since the respawn locations are not fixed its not uncommon to get killed from behind when 5 sec ago there was no one there. This gives the maps a feel that regardless of the modes they are just a big arena.

Overall the game has interesting concepts and I believe it is worthy enough for you guys to give it a try, specially if you enjoy playing FPS just to kill time... or other players.

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Guild Wars 2: Pre-order

 Great News for the Guild Wars 2 fans, information has been released about the contents of both the Standard and the Collectors Edition of the game. The Pre-Oder according to Areanet will be available starting April 10th, as usual doing so will bring small perks such as:

• Access: to all beta events
• Access: 3 days head-start. (start playing 3 days before launch)
• item: Hero's Band (+2 to all stats)

 Beyond the above you will get the following in-game bonuses if you buy the the Deluxe or Collectors Edition:

• Unique Elite skill that summons a pet to your aid for a brief duration.
• A non-combat miniature pet of a known hero(Rytlock) to follow you around in your journey.
• Limited duration/use items: pet banker(5 days), Glory boost and Influence boost scroll.

 One thing i have to say is that the physical items included in the Collector's Edition is one of the best i have seen offered in any game in the past, it just shows the quality and commitment that have been placed in making Guild Wars 2.

 The game cost varies slightly depending on which retailer you get it from but it will be around $150 for the massive collectors edition, $80 for the Digital Deluxe and $60 for the Digital Standard.

 On a personal note i feel that the prices are more than acceptable for a one-time-fee game, however i dislike that they are giving limited duration/use items with the Deluxe Edition as i would rather have something unique and everlasting.

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