Alamar wrote on Mar 21, 2012, 12:33:

Keilun wrote on Mar 21, 2012, 10:48:

wusel wrote on Mar 21, 2012, 10:22:
Item shop unlocks are for "account services and on time-saving convenience". To generate a demand for "time-saving convenience"-items, Anet must have left inconvenient game mechanics in the game ..so much for the promise of "no grind, just fun".

That statement there is a bit of a leap. Inconvenient game mechanics doesn't exclude fun. Most game activities generate gold naturally (eg. quests). So unless you tend to play your games by computing how to maximize gold gain, rather than you know enjoying yourself, then it's not exactly a grind. Or rather, it's only a grind if you make it one. Yes some games can create grinds (a la WoW or Lineage), but I'm inclined to at least give ArenaNet the benefit of the doubt that they've added enough variety through their personal stories and dynamic events that the game itself will stay fresh.

Your post screams naivety to me... So I may be misunderstanding, but it seems like you're saying WoW can be grindy, but GW2 isn't going to be because you earn gold while playing?

If the costs in GW2 take a day or two each, that might seem reasonable, but once you have to play, at max level, for a week (or play the AH), to buy one measely little item/buff/whatever, that's a whole different thing.

Also, this is the exact style of 'microtransactions' that has made mobile games so much money... You can play and play and play and unlock things as you go, or just pull out some cash and get it NOW... I personally like that the choice is there, but the counter-argument is that the game is purposefully slowed to 'make' people buy the currency instead...

-Alamar