Guild Wars 2 Is it Evil? test revealed

By Robert Purchese Published 27 September, 2011

How micro-transactions are governed.

ArenaNet has vowed to never sell Guild Wars 2 players anything "evil" in the micro-transaction cash shop. And by "evil", the developer means anything that could make a character more powerful.

"Correct, there is a cash shop that we run for the game," Guild Wars 2 lead content designer Colin Johanson told us at the Eurogamer Expo 2011.

"One really important thing to note is, we don't ever sell anything in there that makes your character more powerful. That's really important to us.

"We like to do the - we like to call it the Is it Evil? test. Every micro-transaction that we do in the game, we have everyone in the company look at it and say Is it Evil? Is it really something we should be selling?

"Generally, the stuff in our store is purely cosmetic; it's bonus stuff, it's extra stuff you can get if you want to, but it's not stuff you have to buy to play the game."

Guild Wars 1 famously carried no monthly subscription at a time when they were rife. Money was recouped through sales of the game and its expansions and, later, through the micro-transaction cash shop.

"If people want to support our company and want to purchase that stuff, there will be more options for them to do so."

Colin Johanson, lead content designer, Guild Wars 2

But Guild Wars 1 was a far smaller project made by far less people. Guild Wars 2 has the salaries of hundreds to pay, as development approaches a fifth year. Recouping the costs associated with Guild Wars 2 will be harder.

"We not just hope, we believe a lot more people will play Guild Wars 2 than they did Guild Wars 1," declared Johanson. "And we think that that will offset a lot of the development costs in itself."

"We certainly are putting a lot more work into having more things available in our online store. The Guild Wars 1 store worked for us, it's been there the whole time, but it didn't have a ton of stuff in it. The Guild Wars 2 store we're working on having more stuff for you to pick from to buy.

"If people want to support our company and want to purchase that stuff," he added, "there will be more options for them to do so. And it's totally up to them.

"We anticipate that that will help us, too."

Guild Wars 2 was the Eurogamer Expo 2011 Game of the Show, thanks to a generous playable PVE show-floor demo and PVP hands-on for press. Eurogamer's Guild Wars 2 PVP preview, plus an interview with Colin Johanson about endgame PVE content, was published mere moments ago.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (19) Latest comment 8 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • dsmx #1 8 months ago

    I won't hold my breath on that.

    For example DICE said that you could never use battlefunds to buy yourself an advantage in Battlefield heroes, that didn't last, a few months later uber weapons were introduced and thus anyone using the vanilla weapons was fucked over.

  • Gastrian #2 8 months ago

    Post deleted at 17:56:43 13-04-2012

  • Sikosh #3 8 months ago

    http://www.eurogamer.net/LINKLINK is not a valid URL :(

  • Kanjin #4 8 months ago

    Hope they keep their word.

  • [maven] #5 8 months ago

    Does a pony make me more powerful? More bag slots? Access to a new character class? I just hope they don't go the LOTRO way, where the normal game inconveniences you so much to compel you to spend money.

  • WinterSnowblind #6 8 months ago

    @dsmx
    The developers were very true to their word with GW1, I don't see why they'd go back on it now. The whole point of GW was always to keep everyone on an even footing. At the end of the game, every single armour set has the same stats - harder to get sets are purely for showing off, they don't provide any real benefit.

    Any armour they sell on the store is most likely just going to be "costume" sets, like in GW1, which basically were just worn over your armour.

    Remember, it's not a F2P game, there's just no subscription. They're making money by means other than trying to rip people off through microtransactions.

  • uknortherner2000 #7 8 months ago

    @[maven]

    LOTRO has no initial outlay though. You download and play the game for free and if you choose, pay for that fancy horse or whatever, otherwise Turbine don't see a penny from you. GW2 is a boxed product, so you've already paid for the game and Anet have already seen your money. There's little incentive for Anet to piss people off by locking off sections of the game or introducing convenience items, which is why they won't venture any further than cosmetic (i.e. town clothing) items or character slots on top of the five or so you'll get anyway.

    @dsmx

    DICE are dictated to by EA who want to charge for the privilege of breathing.

  • ballshock #8 8 months ago

    @dsmx please never ever ever compare ArenaNet to dice and EA again.

  • Xardan #9 8 months ago

    It will likely be storage and inventory slots and cosmetic stuff like dyes and hairstyles. All which dedicated players will likely buy.

  • slippysloppy #10 8 months ago

    The Title of This Article Is it Misleading? Yes It Is

  • DDevil #11 8 months ago

    My mother was a witch
    She was burned alive
    Thankless little bitch
    For the tears I cried

    Take her down now
    Don't want to see her face
    Twisted and burnt
    Can't hide my disgrace

  • dsmx #12 8 months ago

    I'm not comparing them to EA all I'm saying is that there are always people who are willing to pay almost anything that gives them an advantage over other players and it is very hard to turn down a license to print money for your game. They may resist it however as they said themselves Guild Wars 2 has cost a lot more to make which is why I'm not going to hold my breath on them never charging for things that gives players advantages.

  • PixelPirate #13 8 months ago

    The only developers I would believe to follow through on saying

    "that they wont try and gouge you on micro transactions and give other players an unfair advantage"

    are Valve and Arenanet.

    Both companies are admirable in their treatment of the consumer and see the benefit of that. Activision could learn alot from them!

  • Rack #14 8 months ago

    Evil microtransactions cover things that give you power or convenience. Fingers crossed they stick to this.

  • craziii #15 8 months ago

    convenience items are totally fine. items that give a player an edge over another is not. why the hell would a convenience item be bad? please explain your logic. you make it sound like arenanet would go out of their way to make ingame inconvenience to force players to buy.

  • ZuluHero #16 8 months ago

    @dsmx

    Hate to say it but Arenanet isn't like that... I'd go out on a limb and say you've never played guild wars because if you did you wouldn't be thinking such things.
    Edited by ZuluHero at 27/09/11 @ 21:55

  • Rack #17 8 months ago

    By definition convenience items mean that the game goes out of its way to be inconvenient without them.

  • ZuluHero #18 8 months ago

    But in this instance they're "cosmetic" items. Craziii called them "convenience items" and you applied the definition that you couldnt do without them. Definition of cosmetic is a product applied to one's body or face to improve it's appearance. That's all.
    Edited by ZuluHero at 28/09/11 @ 11:35

  • bobfish09 #19 8 months ago

    ArenaNet have held true to their word so far, but at the end of the day they are owned by NCSoft, so we shall see.