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GW2 isn't a P2W game... but I'll call it a P2E game... "Pay to Enjoy."
Want that flaming sword? Tough, you've got to buy it.
Want that cool electric armor? Tough, gotta buy that too.
Want to unlock all those treasure chests you've found? Sure, you may be able to find occasional keys to unlock a few... but meanwhile, you'll have a big stack of treasure chests that you can't unlock, unless.... yep, you guessed it... you're willing to buy keys in the cash shop.
That's just not fun for me. Do you need all that fun stuff to "win" the game? No... but, I want access to that stuff to have fun.
For me (and many others), continually having to unlock fun stuff through a cash shop isn't fun.
THAT, to me, is the key divide between P2P and F2P. People who are honestly fans of each model end up spending money in the long run, regardless of whether they do it through monthly fees or cash shops. I simply prefer to pay a fee up-front and then forget about cash while I'm doing my gaming.
EDIT: And, as I said before, the content "updates" for the first six-12 months of GW2 were pretty forgettable. Most development resources were put into seasonal events that were built around monetizing seasonal cash shop items. The actual in-game updates were on par with the mini FATE events that people complain about in FFXIV.
Want that flaming sword? Tough, you've got to buy it.
Want that cool electric armor? Tough, gotta buy that too.
Want to unlock all those treasure chests you've found? Sure, you may be able to find occasional keys to unlock a few... but meanwhile, you'll have a big stack of treasure chests that you can't unlock, unless.... yep, you guessed it... you're willing to buy keys in the cash shop.
That's just not fun for me. Do you need all that fun stuff to "win" the game? No... but, I want access to that stuff to have fun.
For me (and many others), continually having to unlock fun stuff through a cash shop isn't fun.
THAT, to me, is the key divide between P2P and F2P. People who are honestly fans of each model end up spending money in the long run, regardless of whether they do it through monthly fees or cash shops. I simply prefer to pay a fee up-front and then forget about cash while I'm doing my gaming.
EDIT: And, as I said before, the content "updates" for the first six-12 months of GW2 were pretty forgettable. Most development resources were put into seasonal events that were built around monetizing seasonal cash shop items. The actual in-game updates were on par with the mini FATE events that people complain about in FFXIV.
Yeah, but, the only thing in those boxes is cash shop stuff... Like, exp boosts and random little aesthetic things. It's nothing that actually affects the game.
I mean, I can't say I've ever failed to enjoy a game because the only way to get an armor or weapon skin was through an RMT option. That's just... weird to me.
GW2 has plenty of great weapon/armor skins in the game. Why would I care?
As for content, I have two comments. 1, GW2 is a PVP game at its heart, so it's not surprising its PVE content wouldn't be quite up to par with other PVE-focused MMOs. That's not an issue with the F2P model.
Also, while the content updates themselves are small, they started delivering them every week. That's pretty huge in an MMO system where we've all just sort of gotten used to waiting months and months and months for new content.
Also, the holiday events I participated in for GW2 were a lot of fun, and I never found them particularly RMT-focused.