So the company ventures into new areas to buoy up profits. Maintaining games and staff are a never ending expense. The profit made two years ago, isn’t paying the staff today. And while Arena.net is a good company, they’re in business to make money. That is what companies are in business for. If they’re an honest company that puts out a good product, they’re ENTITLED to make money.

I don’t see this as buying art. People become attached to their characters and they become vested in them. This is perfectly normal. It happens all the time. These costumes better suit some of my characters than the elite armor I’ve already bought.

Which is another point no one mentioned. I have a NUMBER of characters, both male and female. I’m not getting two costumes, but many. My paragon uses the Male Dwayna costume, I put the female one on a mesmer mule, my main is wearing the grenth costume, but using the mask he got for free over Halloween. For ten bucks I’ll buy more, if I happen to like the designs.

People pay huge amount of moneys for hobbies and Guild Wars is my hobby. When I break down the amount of money spent over the time I’ve spent playing, it’s far far cheaper than cable television would be, never mind going to the movies. It’s cheaper than any other game I’ve ever bought.

I’m not talking about giving charity to a company. I’m talking about paying a company for my entertainment. Anet is selling four games for under fifty bucks at the moment. I hardly think anyone is in the position to call them greedy.

/grammarnazi

People who bought Guild Wars loved the idea to pay once and never again. Free updates, free to play till the servers go down.

This changed and is getting worse. They use the aging GW1 as a micro-transaction testbed for GW2.

Now storage slots, char slots, costumes, etc. etc… more and more is no longer part of the game, simply cannot be got in the game, it is all “optional” and you can buy it if you want – for real money.

My beef with micro-transactions is that they are not much – I can easily shell out the bucks for this stuff. Nothing wrong about that so far.

But I am sure I am not the only one who played MT based games that sooner or later realized he paid more than for a several months subscription of let’s say World of Warcraft!

Imagine that – new costumes on every holiday. Shop now, my Lord, says Evony. ;) Or let it be. Nobody forces you to anything, after all – that is the usual argument. Or supporting the great cause of ArenaNet.

Anyway, I go to this food truck occasionally in Northern Virginia that sells Chicago-style Italian beef for almost $10 a sandwich. It’s more expensive than I would normally pay for a good Italian beef, but the fact that I like that they are stubbornly bringing Chicago-style food to NoVa means more to me… and I show it with my money.

Does that imply that they actually feel the $10 price for in-game art is somewhat inflated and wish to ascribe a portion of that $10 somewhere else?

It’s like buying virtual weapons at a charity auction. Oh, it’s -really- for charity! Therefore, I can spend thousands of dollars and not feel guilty paying the price? Why not simply donate that sum to the charity in the first place without going through the rigmarole of obtaining the virtual desired artifact?

Oh, by the way, Torchlight is also at $10 this weekend for those still fencesitting. :)

I suspect however that even after I engage in a week or three of virtual $10 comparisons, I will end up caving in and picking up the Limited Edition twopack (yay marketing speak, just wait as 6 months later, they slash individual costume prices to $3-4.) before January’s out. *sighs* The Grenth costume is still so unspeakably awesome.

The in-game art is digital, exists in the form of bytes, and is yours till the Arena.net servers come down and stop supporting Guild Wars. Contains four 3D costumes. Cost: $10.

Also costing $10 are varied objects such as a LOTRO’s founder price monthly subscription, a City of Heroes costume pack (with a special power included), Team Fortress 2 on a sale weekend, a modern game’s DLC, old classic games, and with some hand-waving of pocket change, lunch or a movie ticket.

Is one or the other somehow worth more, and ascribed more value towards? And why?

- Arena.net sells an art book to look at and have at your coffee table or whatever: Laudable.

- Arena.net sells a piece of in-game art your characters can wear: They are robber barons.