In an ideal scenario where none of that was an issue, would you prefer the game with or without a cosmetic shop?
Like I said.
Would I pay a $30 a month sub to have a game with no cash shop? Yes, I would pay up to 50$ a month.
I would prefer without to an amount of 50$ a month. I am not joking. I would pay that for my own account and any close friend who can't afford it. To me it would be like going to a theme park once a month, but I go like 6 to 8 hours a day. Easy decision, why would I not bring a friend if they were in need.
I ask this because Steven has talked about how there are players who want the cash shop and to buy skins and that's one of the major reasons he is implementing it.
I understand that prospective exists, but I don't think those players alone would motivate Steven to put in a cash shop. I think being successful enough to stay independent is a bigger motivation. I think it is just hard to effetely communicate that as the head of a company to your prospective customers. What ever words he uses will get picked apart.
I have admitted in past threads that I could be wrong about all this, and Intrepid could just be greedy. I just have not seen the evidence yet.
dont feel like catching up on the convo so I'm just going to reply to the OP
Going off of what Asmongold said in the video, you have to judge the cash shop stuff based off of its effect on the game. In WoW, the cash shop 1) is unnecessary monetization as they also have a box-cost and a subscription and 2) makes the game worse because it devalues in-game achievable cosmetics.
AoC will not utilize a box-cost, so the monetization is more understandable. They've also said multiple times that the in-game achievable stuff will be just as good, if not better than the cash-shop appearances, though we have yet to see if that's true.
WoW is not AoC. while the cash shop is strictly bad in WoW, it will likely be different in AoC. Honestly, I trust steven & co to keep it at a good level.
You're just rehashing arguments we already went over by not reading through the thread
*shrug* get fucked
this thread won't change anything. not people's opinions, or the way the cash shop is implemented in AoC. That means that if I don't feel like reading four pages of arguments, I don't have to. Besides, if the five minute post that I made after reading the OP and skimming through the asmon video is 'rehashing arguments', then none of the arguments here were very interesting in the first place.
dont feel like catching up on the convo so I'm just going to reply to the OP
Going off of what Asmongold said in the video, you have to judge the cash shop stuff based off of its effect on the game. In WoW, the cash shop 1) is unnecessary monetization as they also have a box-cost and a subscription and 2) makes the game worse because it devalues in-game achievable cosmetics.
AoC will not utilize a box-cost, so the monetization is more understandable. They've also said multiple times that the in-game achievable stuff will be just as good, if not better than the cash-shop appearances, though we have yet to see if that's true.
WoW is not AoC. while the cash shop is strictly bad in WoW, it will likely be different in AoC. Honestly, I trust steven & co to keep it at a good level.
You're just rehashing arguments we already went over by not reading through the thread
Besides, if the five minute post that I made after reading the OP and skimming through the asmon video is 'rehashing arguments', then none of the arguments here were very interesting in the first place.
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DygzMember, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One
I am pro-shop.
I got into RPGs 40 years ago because I'm an actor.
Cosmetics are great for MMORPG costume parties - and I am not at all tied to outfits being a marker of uber combat prowess.
I am pro-shop.
I got into RPGs 40 years ago because I'm an actor.
Cosmetics are great for MMORPG costume parties - and I am not at all tied to outfits being a marker of uber combat prowess.
Change my mind.
(You can't.)
40 years ago there were less avenues for people to spend time acting for fun. We now have all sorts of places outside of RPGs you could spend time acting things out. Youtube,Twitch, VR Chat, Ect... If you had a goal to maximize time spent having fun acting. Would you not want to prioritize other options?
Not asking to challenge you, just curious.
If I had more time, I would write a shorter post.
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DygzMember, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One
I am pro-shop.
I got into RPGs 40 years ago because I'm an actor.
Cosmetics are great for MMORPG costume parties - and I am not at all tied to outfits being a marker of uber combat prowess.
Change my mind.
(You can't.)
40 years ago there were less avenues for people to spend time acting for fun. We now have all sorts of places outside of RPGs you could spend time acting things out. Youtube,Twitch, VR Chat, Ect... If you had a goal to maximize time spent having fun acting. Would you not want to prioritize other options?
Not asking to challenge you, just curious.
We also have MMORPGs to have fun socializing with masses of other players in non-combat scenarios!!
MMORPG costume parties are great for YouTube, Twitch, etc.
Life doesn't always have to be about maximizing everything.
I am pro-shop.
I got into RPGs 40 years ago because I'm an actor.
Cosmetics are great for MMORPG costume parties - and I am not at all tied to outfits being a marker of uber combat prowess.
Change my mind.
(You can't.)
Everything you're saying can also be accomplished through no cash shop. Sure it's not as easy as just spending $100 for an instant outfit, but no less applicable.
Just because an item is a little harder to get, it doesn't make it any less valuable for fashion in the way you apparently are trying to play the game.
How do you think Vanilla WoW machinemas had outfits for their characters? Vanilla WoW had no cash shop.
Edit: Adding onto Vhaeyne's comment, you could very easily just have an Ashes themed VRChat map and models to accomplish the same thing.
I don't like cash shops because of how they can devalue effort by making paying money equal to effort in regards to your characters appearance. This means if you did something very difficult and got very luck, people would be less likely to notice that.
Hopefully the tier system is implemented well enough where you still have to go through some of the effort to look as good through the cash shop.
Having a cash shop with only cosmetics is far better that having pay to win or pay to convenience.
Having the cash shop will generate far more money than a monthly subscription and a box cost would so the cash shop will help fund future work on the game. Whales spend a lot...
I would personally like an option to turn cosmetics off but then people who buy them would complain and be less likely to buy them.
It's probably the best tradeoff they can do where the sacrifice something in game to make more money but it still does sacrifice something in game. (Based on this game wanting to be more like the older MMOs)
I don't like cash shops because of how they can devalue effort by making paying money equal to effort in regards to your characters appearance. This means if you did something very difficult and got very luck, people would be less likely to notice that.
...
This is why I brought up the Emu scenario earlier in the thread.
Even some minor visuals can have stories behind them.
If I see someone with a scorpion pet in my Mountain-top node city I know they must have travelled far to a desert to obtain it. Or possibly they are a traveler from the Desert passing through. Maybe he bought the pet off a trader who got it from an animal husbandry scorpion breeder who lives in a Desert node biome?
It's the little details like that that seem insignificant, but make the world so much more impactful.
Sure, we could do without those kinds of details very easily and not have a bad experience because of it, but it's the kind of thing you appreciate when you see it.
If someone puts a skin over that scorpion to turn it into a salamander, it loses that immersive touch.
If the cosmetics are just palette swaps and pet/mount equipment like saddles then like I stated before in the thread that is not as big of a deal as I originally thought.
The real problem is not the cosmetics, is them being released before the game is even in alpha, I think that is what makes this so weird.
Would be cool if they slow down a little on nonstop releasing packs of skins and selling them for pre-orders on a pre-alpha game. And there are a lot of skins/cosmetics already, even long before launch.
I don't like cash shops because of how they can devalue effort by making paying money equal to effort in regards to your characters appearance. This means if you did something very difficult and got very luck, people would be less likely to notice that.
I understand your frustration, but have you considered something like FFXIV's Ultimate weapons. I use these as an example because achievement of obtaining one is something that has yet to be devalued. The game scales you down to the power level of the fight when you go to attempt these raids. The only thing that makes these raids easier is a slight increase in power from class adjustments from expansion to expansion, but it is debatable from class to class. They are also doing a numbers squish in FFXIV's next X-pack so they might be harder.
The point is that FFXIV has a cash shop, but the best appearances in the game come from high end raiding. This is something Steven has said he wants for Ashes. FFXIV is a game where you know a ultimate weapon when you see it and the achievement is respected by all who witness it. I see no reason why that can't be the case in Ashes.
I don't like cash shops because of how they can devalue effort by making paying money equal to effort in regards to your characters appearance. This means if you did something very difficult and got very luck, people would be less likely to notice that.
I understand your frustration, but have you considered something like FFXIV's Ultimate weapons. I use these as an example because achievement of obtaining one is something that has yet to be devalued. The game scales you down to the power level of the fight when you go to attempt these raids. The only thing that makes these raids easier is a slight increase in power from class adjustments from expansion to expansion, but it is debatable from class to class. They are also doing a numbers squish in FFXIV's next X-pack so they might be harder.
The point is that FFXIV has a cash shop, but the best appearances in the game come from high end raiding. This is something Steven has said he wants for Ashes. FFXIV is a game where you know a ultimate weapon when you see it and the achievement is respected by all who witness it. I see no reason why that can't be the case in Ashes.
As a fellow FFXIV player I can confirm this.
Hell, most of the cosmetics are earned through in game holiday events or the minigames hall.
What few things are on the Mogstation (cash shop) are often rotating or limited to a hairstyle or the clothes of a famous character from other FF games.
Ultimately you can tell at a glance what is from the store and what is from in game. And most of the coolest stuff is in game.
I just wish they'd stick with a consistent theme at this point, we have a bunch of weird, high fantasy cosmetics then suddenly we get Damocles armor? What? Absolutely idiotic.
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DygzMember, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One
Everything you're saying can also be accomplished through no cash shop. Sure it's not as easy as just spending $100 for an instant outfit, but no less applicable.
It could be accomplished through no cosmetic shop. True.
But, this topic is not about whether I would be OK with having no cosmetic shop.
I already told you that I pretty much ignore WoW's cash shop.
I support having cosmetic shops for the games that have them.
Cosmetic shop makes having costume parties and more players having a variety of cool fashion much easier.
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DygzMember, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One
Even some minor visuals can have stories behind them.
If I see someone with a scorpion pet in my Mountain-top node city I know they must have travelled far to a desert to obtain it. Or possibly they are a traveler from the Desert passing through. Maybe he bought the pet off a trader who got it from an animal husbandry scorpion breeder who lives in a Desert node biome?
It's the little details like that that seem insignificant, but make the world so much more impactful.
You will still be able to tell the difference between the Scorpion bought from the cosmetic shop and a Scorpion acquired in a Mountain-top node...unless the owner of the Mountain-top Scorpion chooses to obfuscate the appearance of his Scorpion with a cosmetic shop skin.
The little details will still be important.
Why that owner chose to use an illusion to hide the appearance may still have a story behind it. Maybe she bought the illusion off of a trader or maybe the Scholar's Academy gifted her the illusion.
As long as the cash shop skins are NOT COMPLETELY UNIQUE to the point where you can't find anything similar to them in game, then I can be content with it. It's when cash shop items stand out in uniqueness to in-game achievable is what I cannot support.
And that is exactly WoW's issue. Nothing in the shop is remotely achievable in game. And it's one reason in a laundry list of reasons for why I quit the game.
I really hope Intrepid only offer color/dye options and nothing else that makes them stand out from in-game achievables. This goes for ALL types of skins; mounts/gear/caravans/freeholds etc
I will not support anything more.
Then you are out of luck. No variants/reskin/recolor of the pack cosmetics/costumes can be found as achievable itwm in game
I'm not referring to the pre-order packs. I'm referring to post-launch, unique, cash shop cosmetics. I could care less about the uniqueness of the pre-order packs because there is no game yet, and there should be incentive to supporting the studio leading up to the game's launch.
So, I am OK having a limited list of unique skins available to the Alpha Andys and Beta Bills. It's when they start offering limited-time, completely unique skins that are cash-shop only AFTER launch that I'll start ranting to the studio.
Even some minor visuals can have stories behind them.
If I see someone with a scorpion pet in my Mountain-top node city I know they must have travelled far to a desert to obtain it. Or possibly they are a traveler from the Desert passing through. Maybe he bought the pet off a trader who got it from an animal husbandry scorpion breeder who lives in a Desert node biome?
It's the little details like that that seem insignificant, but make the world so much more impactful.
You will still be able to tell the difference between the Scorpion bought from the cosmetic shop and a Scorpion acquired in a Mountain-top node...unless the owner of the Mountain-top Scorpion chooses to obfuscate the appearance of his Scorpion with a cosmetic shop skin.
The little details will still be important.
Why that owner chose to use an illusion to hide the appearance may still have a story behind it. Maybe she bought the illusion off of a trader or maybe the Scholar's Academy gifted her the illusion.
I think you're misunderstanding, but that's because I used a bad analogy, not any fault of yours.
I was using pets as an example when it would have been more apt to use mounts, since it's mounts that are confirmed to have the cosmetics you can apply to them.
"Pets" isn't accurate because if they work like cosmetic pets from any other game they are just un-interactable npcs that just follow you around, and those kinds of things are fine to have as cash shop cosmetics (as long as they don't break the game theme)
My emu example was more in line with battle-companions, which after double-checking don't seem to be confirmed to have skins for them or not.
The "illusion" excuse, while could be argued as a valid one, feels to me like a convenient contrived reasoning after the fact to make an excuse for it.
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DygzMember, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One
edited April 2021
I was mostly thinking of mounts, since you had mentioned mounts before.
It doesn't matter what the cosmetic is - you will be able to recognize a store cosmetic if you know what the accent details of the store cosmetics are and wish to be able to distinguish them from non-store items.
Ashes is a high fantasy setting.
We should not be surprised that lots of characters choose to use illusions.
That is not an excuse - it's an expected result of being set in a high fantasy world.
One of the things I like about the current shop is that, when I see a character using a skin with the specific colors used with the items in the current shop, I will understand that it's someone who was around before launch, so we have something more in common than with other players. It may be very likely that I know the player even if I don't recognize the character.
And that fosters in-game socialization.
I think that's reaching a bit far to find a positive. But, i have less of a problem with the kick starter cosmetics and then the cash shop in the future. Limited time cosmetics for supporting the game at it's earliest makes sense to me, but again they have soooo many cosmetic packages now that it's kind of ruined the charm already and we aren't even at launch.
2 nuances to be made:
1. The fact that they are indeed limited time cosmetics, means that not everyone is buying them, and that others will wait to find something they genuinely like.
With that you're not necessarily flooding your server with people who have them. Especially considering that, let's be honest, we people in the forums/website/cash shop will be a vast minority in the game's population at launch.
Those you'll see with them, you'll know they were long time fans and that they are cosmetics. Nothing is going to necessarily make it an angering or game ruining experience.
2. It ruined the charm * for you *
No, not for me. For every one, and especially, every one.
Yes, for you. I dont plan on spending a dime except for my subscription, and I dont care what other people are looking like. You cant generalise a group of people by yourself, because that never ends well.
MrMilotMember, Leader of Men, Kickstarter, Alpha One
Gear/items/mounts that looks awesome was a big time factor for me teaming up and needing a group to get.
Venturing out perhaps with others and investing time to get the look and or gear i wanted felt very rewarding as it was not easy to do.
If myself or others can look the way we want instantly it takes away a lot of motivation and appreciation for myself and others looking cool. Why do that quest? Why do that dungeon again? Why leave town?
I feel like people will participate in the world less in some aspects and just glance over things with less appreciation for what they represent or get or a unrealistic visual representation of a player friend or foe as to their Level/Gear/Commitment to the game. Thanks for reading.
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DygzMember, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One
We have towns and cities to build and defend. A touch more meaning than just looking cool.
We focus on questing to look cool because that's the only thing games had to offer back in the day.
"When I was a boy, we had to walk 3 miles to fetch water. Now people can just fetch cold water from the door of the fridge."
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MrMilotMember, Leader of Men, Kickstarter, Alpha One
We have towns and cities to build and defend. A touch more meaning than just looking cool.
"
I agree there is more to the game but this topic was about the cash shop.
''In the future we didnt even have to put in any effort we just paid for it''
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DygzMember, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One
edited May 2021
It's still about the cash shop.
The cosmetic shop is not going to take away a lot of motivation to explore and play the game.
We will have considerably more motivations to explore the world and play the game than just trying to acquire a cool costume.
So, those points about how a cash shop will diminish motivations to explore and play are moot.
Why do the quests and why leave the town? Because we have cities to construct and defend.
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MrMilotMember, Leader of Men, Kickstarter, Alpha One
We have towns and cities to build and defend. A touch more meaning than just looking cool.
"
As you said we have quests/cities to construct and defend and yea you get rewarded COOL LOOKING ITEMS for your efforts.
To have a cash shop with ALSO COOL LOOKING ITEMS takes away forcing people to contribute and participate to look cool. Im not saying cosmetics are the be all end all but it all adds up.
You have cities to construct and defend and yea you get rewarded for your efforts.
To have a cash shop with the same rewards will not help your point.
Who said the cash shop will have the same rewards?
If the only point of constructing and defending cities is cosmetics, then the game is literally just a fashion simulator.
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MrMilotMember, Leader of Men, Kickstarter, Alpha One
edited May 2021
If similar cosmetic rewards for your effort can just be bought some people wont make the effort and that may include doing constructive things or participating the whole point of the mmorpg. thus the issue
I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong here but aren't the in game achievable costumes unique, so not in the cash shop? If they're unique then how is the cash shop costumes devaluing in game ones?
My negatives with cash shop cosmetics are that it almost entirely removes the appeal of gear collecting and transmogs. Also they enable people to be lazier. "I got my cool costume, I don't need anything else."
Neither of those points should really affect my game experience. Costumes in general hide the gear you're wearing and I dislike that. However, it's a different topic
Comments
Like I said.
I would prefer without to an amount of 50$ a month. I am not joking. I would pay that for my own account and any close friend who can't afford it. To me it would be like going to a theme park once a month, but I go like 6 to 8 hours a day. Easy decision, why would I not bring a friend if they were in need.
I understand that prospective exists, but I don't think those players alone would motivate Steven to put in a cash shop. I think being successful enough to stay independent is a bigger motivation. I think it is just hard to effetely communicate that as the head of a company to your prospective customers. What ever words he uses will get picked apart.
I have admitted in past threads that I could be wrong about all this, and Intrepid could just be greedy. I just have not seen the evidence yet.
If I had more time, I would write a shorter post.
*shrug* get fucked
this thread won't change anything. not people's opinions, or the way the cash shop is implemented in AoC. That means that if I don't feel like reading four pages of arguments, I don't have to. Besides, if the five minute post that I made after reading the OP and skimming through the asmon video is 'rehashing arguments', then none of the arguments here were very interesting in the first place.
I got into RPGs 40 years ago because I'm an actor.
Cosmetics are great for MMORPG costume parties - and I am not at all tied to outfits being a marker of uber combat prowess.
Change my mind.
(You can't.)
40 years ago there were less avenues for people to spend time acting for fun. We now have all sorts of places outside of RPGs you could spend time acting things out. Youtube,Twitch, VR Chat, Ect... If you had a goal to maximize time spent having fun acting. Would you not want to prioritize other options?
Not asking to challenge you, just curious.
If I had more time, I would write a shorter post.
MMORPG costume parties are great for YouTube, Twitch, etc.
Life doesn't always have to be about maximizing everything.
Everything you're saying can also be accomplished through no cash shop. Sure it's not as easy as just spending $100 for an instant outfit, but no less applicable.
Just because an item is a little harder to get, it doesn't make it any less valuable for fashion in the way you apparently are trying to play the game.
How do you think Vanilla WoW machinemas had outfits for their characters? Vanilla WoW had no cash shop.
Edit: Adding onto Vhaeyne's comment, you could very easily just have an Ashes themed VRChat map and models to accomplish the same thing.
Hopefully the tier system is implemented well enough where you still have to go through some of the effort to look as good through the cash shop.
Having a cash shop with only cosmetics is far better that having pay to win or pay to convenience.
Having the cash shop will generate far more money than a monthly subscription and a box cost would so the cash shop will help fund future work on the game. Whales spend a lot...
I would personally like an option to turn cosmetics off but then people who buy them would complain and be less likely to buy them.
It's probably the best tradeoff they can do where the sacrifice something in game to make more money but it still does sacrifice something in game. (Based on this game wanting to be more like the older MMOs)
This is why I brought up the Emu scenario earlier in the thread.
Even some minor visuals can have stories behind them.
If I see someone with a scorpion pet in my Mountain-top node city I know they must have travelled far to a desert to obtain it. Or possibly they are a traveler from the Desert passing through. Maybe he bought the pet off a trader who got it from an animal husbandry scorpion breeder who lives in a Desert node biome?
It's the little details like that that seem insignificant, but make the world so much more impactful.
Sure, we could do without those kinds of details very easily and not have a bad experience because of it, but it's the kind of thing you appreciate when you see it.
If someone puts a skin over that scorpion to turn it into a salamander, it loses that immersive touch.
If the cosmetics are just palette swaps and pet/mount equipment like saddles then like I stated before in the thread that is not as big of a deal as I originally thought.
Would be cool if they slow down a little on nonstop releasing packs of skins and selling them for pre-orders on a pre-alpha game. And there are a lot of skins/cosmetics already, even long before launch.
I understand your frustration, but have you considered something like FFXIV's Ultimate weapons. I use these as an example because achievement of obtaining one is something that has yet to be devalued. The game scales you down to the power level of the fight when you go to attempt these raids. The only thing that makes these raids easier is a slight increase in power from class adjustments from expansion to expansion, but it is debatable from class to class. They are also doing a numbers squish in FFXIV's next X-pack so they might be harder.
The point is that FFXIV has a cash shop, but the best appearances in the game come from high end raiding. This is something Steven has said he wants for Ashes. FFXIV is a game where you know a ultimate weapon when you see it and the achievement is respected by all who witness it. I see no reason why that can't be the case in Ashes.
If I had more time, I would write a shorter post.
As a fellow FFXIV player I can confirm this.
Hell, most of the cosmetics are earned through in game holiday events or the minigames hall.
What few things are on the Mogstation (cash shop) are often rotating or limited to a hairstyle or the clothes of a famous character from other FF games.
Ultimately you can tell at a glance what is from the store and what is from in game. And most of the coolest stuff is in game.
But, this topic is not about whether I would be OK with having no cosmetic shop.
I already told you that I pretty much ignore WoW's cash shop.
I support having cosmetic shops for the games that have them.
Cosmetic shop makes having costume parties and more players having a variety of cool fashion much easier.
The little details will still be important.
Why that owner chose to use an illusion to hide the appearance may still have a story behind it. Maybe she bought the illusion off of a trader or maybe the Scholar's Academy gifted her the illusion.
I'm not referring to the pre-order packs. I'm referring to post-launch, unique, cash shop cosmetics. I could care less about the uniqueness of the pre-order packs because there is no game yet, and there should be incentive to supporting the studio leading up to the game's launch.
So, I am OK having a limited list of unique skins available to the Alpha Andys and Beta Bills. It's when they start offering limited-time, completely unique skins that are cash-shop only AFTER launch that I'll start ranting to the studio.
I think you're misunderstanding, but that's because I used a bad analogy, not any fault of yours.
I was using pets as an example when it would have been more apt to use mounts, since it's mounts that are confirmed to have the cosmetics you can apply to them.
"Pets" isn't accurate because if they work like cosmetic pets from any other game they are just un-interactable npcs that just follow you around, and those kinds of things are fine to have as cash shop cosmetics (as long as they don't break the game theme)
My emu example was more in line with battle-companions, which after double-checking don't seem to be confirmed to have skins for them or not.
The "illusion" excuse, while could be argued as a valid one, feels to me like a convenient contrived reasoning after the fact to make an excuse for it.
It doesn't matter what the cosmetic is - you will be able to recognize a store cosmetic if you know what the accent details of the store cosmetics are and wish to be able to distinguish them from non-store items.
Ashes is a high fantasy setting.
We should not be surprised that lots of characters choose to use illusions.
That is not an excuse - it's an expected result of being set in a high fantasy world.
Yes, for you. I dont plan on spending a dime except for my subscription, and I dont care what other people are looking like. You cant generalise a group of people by yourself, because that never ends well.
https://knightsofember.com/forums/members/winner909098.54
Venturing out perhaps with others and investing time to get the look and or gear i wanted felt very rewarding as it was not easy to do.
If myself or others can look the way we want instantly it takes away a lot of motivation and appreciation for myself and others looking cool. Why do that quest? Why do that dungeon again? Why leave town?
I feel like people will participate in the world less in some aspects and just glance over things with less appreciation for what they represent or get or a unrealistic visual representation of a player friend or foe as to their Level/Gear/Commitment to the game. Thanks for reading.
We focus on questing to look cool because that's the only thing games had to offer back in the day.
"When I was a boy, we had to walk 3 miles to fetch water. Now people can just fetch cold water from the door of the fridge."
''In the future we didnt even have to put in any effort we just paid for it''
The cosmetic shop is not going to take away a lot of motivation to explore and play the game.
We will have considerably more motivations to explore the world and play the game than just trying to acquire a cool costume.
So, those points about how a cash shop will diminish motivations to explore and play are moot.
Why do the quests and why leave the town? Because we have cities to construct and defend.
As you said we have quests/cities to construct and defend and yea you get rewarded COOL LOOKING ITEMS for your efforts.
To have a cash shop with ALSO COOL LOOKING ITEMS takes away forcing people to contribute and participate to look cool. Im not saying cosmetics are the be all end all but it all adds up.
Who said the cash shop will have the same rewards?
If the only point of constructing and defending cities is cosmetics, then the game is literally just a fashion simulator.
If I had more time, I would write a shorter post.
My negatives with cash shop cosmetics are that it almost entirely removes the appeal of gear collecting and transmogs. Also they enable people to be lazier. "I got my cool costume, I don't need anything else."
Neither of those points should really affect my game experience. Costumes in general hide the gear you're wearing and I dislike that. However, it's a different topic