Retaining that fresh out of character creation look can be expensive in Guild Wars 2.
I used to think the idea of paying a monthly subscription for a game was crazy. That was before I'd actually played any MMOs, and while I remained sceptical through my initial free trial excursions into City of Heroes and World of Warcraft it wasn't long after those trial periods were over that I gave in and subscribed to CoH. It rapidly became clear to me that there was a lot more to these games than there was to the average singleplayer title, and if I was playing only one of them in a month then suddenly that subscription fee seemed like a very good deal indeed.
My tendency to divide my attention between multiple MMOs soon followed though, and over the next few years I'd sometimes have two or three subscriptions running at a time - usually City of Heroes and Fallen Earth, with ocassional forays back to WoW.
Guild Wars 2 was a bit different, since it launched with a buy-to-play model that was somewhat unusual at the time. By 2012 the pay-to-play model was already deep in decline and free-to-play was spreading rapidly across the MMO landscape, but for a big new game like GW2 to launch with a box price but no subscription was something different. The other big names of the time all launched with both, even if they didn't always hold onto the P2P model for as long as they'd have liked to.
Nowadays Guild Wars 2 is itself a F2P title, as are most others, with only a few still hanging on to the monthly subscription model. The dividing line has become blurry, and I've seen it argued that both WoW and Final Fantasy XIV could be classed as F2P titles now. Personally I feel that's a stretch, as both games have very clearly defined points at which it becomes impossible to continue playing without a subscription. FFXIV's trial period is astonishingly long by the standards of the era when sub-only games dominated the genre, but that period does inevitably come to an end. Likewise WoW's starter mode goes further than it used to due to that game's recent level squish, but still shuts down a long way from max level. Opinions will vary of course, but neither of these games fit my definition of F2P.
A lot has changed over the last ten years so far as payment models in MMOs are concerned. WoW's infamous Sparkle Pony caused quite a furore years ago, but nowadays every MMO - including the P2P ones - has a cash shop, and it usually takes something truly egregious being added to the store for the playerbase to react with more than a shrug. Do Not Sell Power was once an uncrossable line - albeit one that studios not infrequently did cross, eliciting varying degrees of outrage - but that debate is long since over, except perhaps in PVP-centric games.
That's not to say that all cash shops are viewed in the same way. I've singled out The Old Republic in the past for its tendency to annoy players into the store by putting a price on removing certain irritating restrictions, but it's hardly unique in this. Limits on inventory space are often used to prod players toward the store - LOTRO is one of the worst offenders in that regard.
It's worth saying though that in general the F2P models of today are notably less restrictive than they were when the concept was still new to the genre. City of Heroes offered a F2P option in the last year or so of its live run which was ferociously monetized, putting a price on just about every new zone, powerset and costume piece. Likewise until the huge giveaway of content earlier this year both LOTRO and its SSG stablemate Dungeons & Dragons Online could get very epensive if a player wanted to experience all of the content. Compared to these, and others, Guild Wars 2's model was, and is, extremely generous.
However if a F2P game has no clear way to convince the player to buy something/anything from the store - like Secret World Legends - that might be good for the player but it's probably bad for the long term health of the game. Developers don't work for free, and that money needs to come from somewhere.
In the case of Guild Wars 2, for me at least, it's probably going to come from the appearance system. Transmog/cosmetics/wardrobe used to be the acceptable face of the cash shop since it had no impact on gameplay. It does have an impact on the game experience though, and GW2 has monetized it more than most. It's a good system - like RIFT the appearance of a newly acquired item is automatically saved for future use - but each and every change made requires the use of a transmutation charge, and that means the cost of maintaining a look can add up quickly, especially during levelling when I'm swapping out old gear for new all the time.
There are a couple of things that make it less of an effort to maintain a consistent look while levelling than in say World of Warcraft. Using the basic dyes is free, and the design of individual armor pieces within the same class doesn't vary too wildly, enabling them to mix and match reasonably well, much like in Neverwinter. Still, transmutation charges are mostly a cash shop item - I've obtained a few as quest rewards, mostly for 100% zone completion - and I'm using them sparingly for now. Not least because more than once I've transmuted an item only to pick up a better piece of gear for that slot two quests later.
Other than this, from what I can see at least, the store in Guild Wars 2 leans mainly toward cosmetic outfits (which as usual I'm mostly indifferent to) and convenience items/services. I'm not yet at a level where I need the Living World content, and besides the Heart of Thorns/Path of Fire expansion pack is at the top of my to-buy list, though I missed the recent sale. Darn it.
It's likely that over time transmutation charges will account for a disproportionate amount of my outlay in this game, but for now I'm mostly saving the charges I have for those times when I pick up an item that's too good not to use but too ugly to look at for any lengh of time. The weapon I got when I signed up with the Durmond Priory was a strong contender for that, looking rather less like a sword and more like a weaponised ice lolly.
Actually, after looking at another weapon available from the vendor at the Priory, I'm starting to wonder if these researchers have ever done a study on what a sword is actually supposed to look like.
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