Now We Are Six : GW2

Guild Wars 2 is currently celebrating its sixth anniversary. Until yesterday, the festivities had been a tad understated. It's hardly surprising. Six years isn't much of a milestone.

We got a sixth anniversary pack in the mail on the anniversary of launch day. It was nice but not too exciting, since it was pretty much last year's over again. It did come with the choice of a set of armor skins, all of which can be seen over at Dulfy's. Nice armor, too, for a change.

Then there were the usual sales in Evon Gnashblade's Black Lion Emporium (aka cash shop). Sales are always welcome. I picked up a bunch of bag slot expanders at a decent discount.

Other than that I wasn't paying too much attention. Then I came home from work last night and Mrs Bhagpuss said "Look in the Gem Store when you get on - we've got presents!". And we did. Two of them.

One was the traditional Customer Appreciation Package - a free Black Lion Key and a Black Lion Chest to open with it. As I've said before I love lootboxes. I'm a huge fan of RNG and I'd always rather have a box with randomized contents to open than one with either a choice I can make or a specific item.

I don't, however, like paying for lootboxes because I'm a cheapskate. Free ones are for me.

As I've also said before, GW2 has some of the crappiest lootboxes in existence. I opened my free one on each of my three eligible accounts and the best thing I got was a dye I already had. Pathetic. Indeed, most of the items I got were so bad they verged on the insulting. If I had paid money I'd be furious.

Part of the problem from my perspective is that because of the backlash against lootbox randomization, GW2's boxes now automatically include a fragment of currency, which you save up to buy stuff. This, apparently, is a popular change and has caused the cost of the lootboxes (which have to be found as drops in the game and are tradeable) to skyrocket. Go figure.

That takes up one of the random slots and this time round we also got a guaranteed mini - a bunny (actually a "Springer" but no-one but ANet calls them that).  That left just two random rolls. Mine came up snake eyes. Three times.

Much better - and contradicting what I just said about not liking boxes with choices - we also got a Novelty Selection Box. This ties in with something I had no idea was going to happen - the addition of a Novelties Section to the Wardrobe.

It's explained in detail in this post on the GW2 website. There are four slots, one each for Musical Instruments, Held Items, Toys and Chairs. This means that, when you buy or otherwise obtain any of these things, you can add them to your Wardrobe and every character on your account can use them. You even get a new hotbar slot just for Novelties.

That. Is. HUGE!

I've spent very little money on GW2 in six years other than buying the expansions. There's very rarely anything in the Gem Shop that interests me.

I absolutely cannot fathom why people spend money (or gold) on perma-use utilities like unlimited salvage devices or the endless procession of novelty picks, axes and billhooks. I have always found the ones vendors sell to be perfectly adequate but judging by the insane racket and firework display going on around me every time I visit a node I am clearly in a tiny minority.

What I do sometimes spend money on, however, and have done throughout the life of the game, is Toys. I have Sonic Diggers, Electromagnetic Ascenders, Kites, Balloons... I love my Magic Carpet and Riding Broom so much I wrote posts about both of them.

Until now I had either to buy separate Toys for each character that wanted to use them or I had to put them in my shared inventory slots. And since I'm also too mean to buy more shared inventory slots...

Now everyone gets to use them! Okay, I still have to buy multiples because I have three accounts, but it absolutely will encourage me to do that. Also, chairs. Chairs! I've seen someone sitting in the Emblazoned Dragon Throne and it's awesome!

There aren't any pictures of me using the new Novelties I got from the Selection Box because... I haven't selected any yet. This is why I prefer randomized luckboxes to being given a choice. I suffer from Choice Paralysis.

I suffer from it so badly that I almost all of the choiceboxes I have ever had in GW2 are still stashed in my bank. Yes, all six years' of them. I often take them out and open them to look at the options only to close them and put them back. One day I'm going to do a post where I list them all. It can be used in my committal hearing, when they put me in a secure facility for my own safety.

And, while we're on the subject of hoarding, there's a sale on Bank Tab Expanders on Friday 31st. I already have my gems ready.

The Novelty Selection Box and Customer Appreciation Package are available for free from the Gem Store for two weeks. All accounts except F2P are eligible. Don't miss out. The choice of Novelties is excellent and you have tohave better luck with the Black Lion chests than I did...