Hero Points Being Made Available In The Guild Wars 2 Cash Shop Sparks Forum "P2W" Debate

Let's get this out of the way first. Players today have a very wide range on what they consider to be "P2W" (pay-to-win). Honestly, through the years, the term has basically lost its real meaning and become a bit of a catch-all term used when an MMORPG company does something in their cash shop that players don't like.

Guild Wars 2 adding the ability to buy Hero Points in their cash shop isn't "P2W" by the strictest definition, but it probably should have been worth a mention in the patch notes, at least.

Purchasing Hero Points isn't going to make your Guild Wars 2 character stronger than someone that's played the game. It isn't buffing your stats through the roof or providing you Ascended gear or anything. Guild Wars 2 is one of those "looser" MMO's when it comes to what your credit card can buy, though, due in large part to being able to convert paid for gems into in-game gold through the exchange with other players.

Buying Hero Points, though, is skipping content, much like level 80 boosters and Waypoint Unlocks do. Those items being in the cash shop was already a subject of minor debate, but Hero Points being available for cash has triggered the "slippery slope" argument from many on the game's forums.

If you're a PvP player in Guild Wars 2, you've probably been skipping doing Hero Challenges for Hero Points for a while now as you can farm them with your WvW scroll gains. That said, you are engaging in an in-game activity to do so still, whereas the latest addition to the cash shop simply requires a credit card swipe. Swipe that card for 1,000 Gems (a bundle size that of course isn't available to purchase from ArenaNet directly so you'd likely grab 2000 gems for about $25 online, or the 1600 Gems bundle in the game's cash shop for $20), and you'll gain 25 "Black Lion Hero Point Scrolls".

Using a scroll allows you to complete 1 random Hero Challenge in an expansion you already own...and yes, you read that right, it's random.

Hero points received from these challenges are used to unlock skills and traits in the Hero panel. Anyone buying these would still need to learn how to play their character. In fact, it could be argued that a newer player dumping a bunch of points on themselves may have a harder time in their learning curve due to increased abilities being available to them.

Not really P2W, but certainly pay to skip/pay to not play. While most on the forums recognize this, they don't like where it COULD lead.

Is there a future where ArenaNet sells Vista unlocks? How about Point of Interest unlocks? What does this do to the already limited number of people grouping for some of the MMO's harder Hero Challenges?

What about future content? Could future content be made around higher Hero Point requirements that could maybe "subtly" direct players to want to just buy the points?

It's a lot of "hypothetical" right now, but players don't seem too keen to want to examine these potential futures.

ArenaNet has made cash shop changes and rollbacks of certain products in the past due to player feedback, but we'll have to wait and see if they do so here.