Would you mind quoting your source? The weapons were offered repeatedly, for glory. Allow me to quote one of the many occasions to refresh your memory:
Hey, look, it’s Farsight Orb returning, for glory. And the first appearance of Staff of Madness, which also showed up later again, for glory.
Please get your stories straight. Repeating things like
over and over again doesn’t make them any less incorrect. Repeating them as justification for an unpopular decision feels exceptionally annoying.
Salty joined the team long after Staff of Madness was introduced (and Farsight Orb reintroduced). She is passing on received knowledge from those who were at I+2 before her. Blame the incorrect source, not the messenger relaying the info.
So, I appreciate that care is being given to not block progress by entirely paywalled weapons. That was a big part of my concern. I hope this practice continues into the future.
Now, obviously, I think it is better that a game that focuses primarily on collecting things would allow you to collect said things through gameplay without reaching the end of the line and saying nope, give dollars. But I also recognize that Gems of War, for whatever reason, has already staunchly decided to not be the type of game that allows players to reach new players to not ever reach 100% collection (only a few much older players can) since the inclusion of non-repeatable cosmetic pets already crossed this line. This will still be a dealbreaker against for some completionists even starting the game (if they know about it), but it matters far less that salient gameplay affecting choices are covered for the average player. I hope this is addressed at some point, as it is still something I have to bring up when I talk about the game or show the game to prospective players. But having all the other weapons in soulforge now, I am slightly more confident that if a younger me was just hearing about this game right now, that I’d still be willing to play it. With no way to get the old weapons, I had to give it a “do not recommend”, because a lot of the stuff I use in my daily gameplay is an “old weapon” and they’d have a fundamentally different experience without access. Now, I can give it a “this is a fun game, but don’t start playing if this bothers you” and then list a bunch of stuff.
My negative gut reaction here I think many others comes from slippery slope fallacy where if we start allowing this, then its only a matter of time before they decide to paywall other stuff. Which may hit hard on many of us who have watched the game go through a near complete transformation in terms of both core gameplay and monetization practices. But we also have to keep in mind that all these listed weapons, up to this point, were already paywalled past their initial release. This has already been going on for over two years now. And people actually welcomed when the $5 packs came back in the shops, full well knowing they were paywalled and only trophy items. If this is where the line is… well… again, I don’t think its “good” (and it is very clearly against the design philosophy of your lead designer), but maybe its not that bad.
But I should also note that early responses to the issue did not help here.
The old weapons are playable content. This content is pay gated. 90% of the current playerbase (or more) hadn’t even heard of the game when some of these weapons were available through in-game means. “Because we said they would only be available for glory that one time” is one of the weakest justifications for this practice that I’ve ever heard, in addition to being untrue. “Players would feel cheated if we made them available for free” is another extremely weak justification. Please, please stop doing this. We know this is the case of executive meddling pushing player-unfriendly practices that have found to be within a tolerable range in an effort to generate revenue, but don’t pretend they aren’t at least a little player unfriendly. I just hope the revenue it is generating is worth it.
“While they are playable content, they aren’t dominant or even generally very good choices, trending more toward trophy items, and we will make sure a cash purchase-only weapon will never power gate kingdom upgrades” (with the unsaid part being “therefore, we had to concede that it would be okay that we allow these to continue to be cash-only because the publisher thinks this will generate more revenue than still having the purchases but also having a free way to obtain them”) is still going to have some upset people, but probably much less upset. We should have started there. Much easier point to maintain, and much more relevant discussion comes out of it (how much is gameplay affected by this paywall, is it within reason, etc.).
It appears that you forgot to add Divine Protector to the list. Will this get addressed early or only after players start noticing the absence during the next Whitehelm event?
I also can’t help but notice that you avoided my question about how future cash shop weapon offers would affect the list.
Yeah next thing we know we’re gonna have a tier beyond Mythic troops. Yeah you can disenchant all those, never gonna happ- WHOOPS, THAT’S A SHAME!
Losing track of the number of times I’ve said that piece about -
Umm, so where was the out cry when this became a thing?
I’m blaming communication channels, whoever might be involved.
Good communication: “We made the person calling the shots aware that those weapons on the list were recurring offers for in-game currency, not premium content designed exclusively for the cash shop like originally thought. Good news everybody, all limitations from the Soulforge have been lifted, we finally live up to our promise of being entirely F2P.”
Good communication: “Please forget about all the excuses we’ve been making. Yes, we need some source of income, and those event weapons are currently it. This is the one and only reasons they won’t show up in the Soulforge. We realize this might not sit well, we also realize most of you are grown-up, so it was time to stop with the fairy tales. Sorry, we’ll improve our communication, and we’ll keep fighting to keep most content available without having to pay money for it.”
Bad communication: “At the risk of sounding like a broken record, those event weapons were a one-shot offer. We can’t possibly break our promise they won’t ever be available again, it would betray the trust the community is putting into us. We’ll add this to our growing list of achievements that show how much we fight for you, no matter how big the pressure.”
Bad communication: *Tumbleweeds*
Old weapons are available: superb ! Thank you i+2 
Old weapons that were free aren’t free anymore. I personally have no problems with that, as things chamge over time. Just because it was free in the past doesnt make it a precedent and tied engagement from the company. Just as when you buy a pizza from a new pizza store and they offer you free bonus stuff for a time period, but doesnt engage them to offer free stuff in the future. I see it as a past promo.
Most of the weekly paid weapons sucked, and now that old craftable weapons are available, people complain that paid weapons suck ? Why the sudden outrage?
That being said, outside of epic ingots, diamonds are the slowest accruing resource in the game and are utilized for other things such as crafting those mythic troops an individual has been unable to accrue otherwise.
My primary point was simply to point out the disparity between what resources were required to procure these weapons previously (glory only) to what they cost now. That is some significant inflation!
Many newer players as well as players on consoles never had an opportunity to purchase a great deal of these weapons when they were first offered.
Tho the weapons in soulforge never costed glory, to begin with. The glory weapons are the cash only weapons.
The weapons in soulforge are ex-event weapons, aquirable via event store with gems. Most of them used to be on tier 3 of the shop, so around 260-300 gems to get them.
From that point of view, 300 diamonds buy you the same weapon that 300 gems did back then.
Sorry, but I hadn’t logged in for quite awhile. Just refreshed my standings.
Sorry. 
The only weapon I’m missing is Three Sisters because I haven’t started leveling my Tidecaller class yet. 
As long as no cash-only weapons will ever be required for kingdom leveling, and as long as none of them ever become “meta” and feel needed, I don’t have a fundamental problem with “$5 trophies”.
However.
The reasoning that “it would offend people who paid $5 before” is silly. Things change and evolve in games. How many games have gone F2P after being paid games up front? If you paid cash for something, you wanted that thing enough to pay cash for it at the time, and you considered it worth the spend. If another player doesn’t consider it worth the spend, and years later has the chance to get it cheaper or for free, so what?
Ironically, with the newer iteration of Gem Sinks of War and every new event featuring sigils and a Gem shop and an exponential increase in “flash offers” ("upgrade your new Mythic for $35? great deal at 70% off!!..ya…go away), 505 should be interested in an inexpensive way to earn some community goodwill. This would have been such an easy win…but nope. Gotta hold out for those collectors/addicts who will toss $5 a pop at them, because even getting a little money beats getting no money, and it’s glaringly obvious that no new feature is put in without a money aspect anymore.
I’m happier than ever before that Zuul’goth and holiday-specific pets thoroughly broke my collectophilia. I spent the first 18 months or so in this game determined to collect ALL THE THINGS…but not anymore. I’m even missing 15 or 20 Delve troops and I don’t care one iota. Those who want the $5 Trophies can have them.
I’m not sure how emotionally invested I want to get with this discussion, because I doubt that the devs will change their minds about it. But I do feel like I should elaborate a bit on why I feel disappointed.
I actually have purchased one of those weapons in the past (back when it was still end-game viable), but I held off on other missing weapons in the naive believe that they might someday be made available through in-game currency again. Personally, I wish that everything (including pets, armor, etc.) was collectible through gameplay, and that cash transactions were for players who simply want to speed up the process.
I know some people have claimed that these weapons are useless, but I actually have played with at least one of them recently. Sure, they aren’t end-game cutting edge, but I enjoy building unusual, non-optimal teams for fun when I’m not doing high-level events.
Anyway, with things as they are, I have a choice to make. I may still end up purchasing the weapons. I’ll probably just hold off on my monthly Ring of Wonder until I’ve collected them all. However, I worry that by doing so I may be encouraging the devs to make more cash-exclusive items in the future.
While troops like Euryali, Marilith, etc. are indeed good true damage troops and troops I have incorporated into various teams, they are not a viable substitute for Crescendo. As you know, ever since the update that allows classes to be assigned to teams, class XP can only be gained by having the Hero actually present in the team. And since we get a new class every month, with a 5050 XP requirement to max out talents, using the Hero in every possible team is a must for players hoping to stay ahead of the curve. Crescendo is the only weapon that fulfills the needs of players wishing to 1) use their Hero to obtain class XP and 2) achieve a regular distribution of true damage.
You claim that Crescendo is not a meta weapon. It goes without saying that a weapon will not be meta when less than 5% of the playerbase owns it. If it had been a weapon unlocked through mastery, it would obviously see much more use, and would probably see meta-like use in teams focused on true damage. There is simply no substitute for what it does.
As a week one adopter of Gems of War on Xbox, and someone who has logged in each week of the game’s existence, I feel like I am being punished for the system that I happen to play on. Indeed, if I had been a PC player in the same situation, I would already own all these weapons and thus wouldn’t have to waste time pleading my case. Part of the blame lies in the fact that console players were never made aware (until now) that the same weapons they were asked to spend money on had been previously offered to their PC/mobile brethren for “free”. None of my guildmates – many of whom themselves have been playing the game ever since it came out on console – were aware that those weapons were ever made available for glory on PC/mobile. If we had known this, it would have most assuredly been something we wanted incorporated as part of the whole console synching process years ago. Given how long that process took, offering an old event weapon for glory every couple of weeks would have been a trivial task. Now, when the justification for omitting these weapons is that players were previously given the opportunity to obtain them using in-game currency, and a large portion of your playerbase was never truly afforded that opportunity, it would be a huge slap in the face not to be extended the same courtesy (and yet another perceived jab at console players, who don’t feel like always been treated with the same level of importance).
You asked for a specific example of how not having those weapons has impeded my progress in the game. Playing with less-than-ideal troops for YEARS is a significant impediment (and I would argue a much bigger obstacle than the narrow kingdom-leveling impediment you’re asking for now). Most kingdom levels award things that impact you once a day or once an hour, while having to use substituted troops in nearly every PvP or pet rescue battle impacts you the entire time you play. I can only imagine how many more resources I would have gained had I had access to Crescendo during my 9,037 uses of Crimson Bat (according to Lyya’s website), or how much faster my current pet rescue battles would go.
Please do the right thing, and give console players (at least, if not ALL players) the one-time ability to purchase old event weapons for glory. It’s the only fair way to ensure that all players have been treated equally and afforded the same opportunities. Thank you.
Sometimes I do wonder the very human nature of greed. Look, you don’t have the old event weapons. Now you have them in Soulforge. Sure there is 1 weapon from each kingdom you will need to purchase if you want to complete your collection BUT they are not as strong as the one you can craft.
Let us be grateful of what GoW is… A good balance between the free and pay elements. You will hardly find any other games out there that can balance these out.
Magius out…
While I am still disappointed at the way the old weapon availability has been addressed, I really appreciate the more detailed explanation @Saltypatra, thank you. I know this change is something that you have fought for passionately, and it is ultimately good for the game that newer players have access to them: I’m sure many will be happy and express their appreciation once the best event weapons start appearing in the Soulforge.
I hope you haven’t been personally hurt by any comments made in these threads, it was never the intent… But I think we have learned that loudly complaining about things is the most likely way for player-friendly changes to be eventually made. While I personally do not enjoy investing time doing so, expressing our disappointment as clearly as possible is our only chance to influence the game’s future direction. This change, and several others, would never have been implemented otherwise.
So please know that me, and I think most of us raising objections, overall enjoy the game and are appreciative of the effort you and the dev team invest on a daily basis. We will keep pointing out things that could be improved (sorry), just because we are passionate about the game and wish for it to be the best it can be… But please don’t take it as a sign that we’re an ungrateful community, even if sometimes things snowball into a situation such as this (usually when our hopes are raised by an announced feature, then dashed by the final implementation into the game).
And thank you again for the clear responses and clarifications in your last few posts, understanding the reasons behind the decision always helps 
I don’t think you’re sorry. You either @Tydda 
But once those flash sales start, I’m two purchases away 
In the end this is like, partially satisfying. Personally I don’t like having items gated behind money-only at all.
DK armor doesn’t bug me, though, which is kind of contradictory. I don’t feel like exploring why.
I just feel like some of the nightmare scenarios like, “This cash-only weapon is what’s stopping many players from reaching kingdom power 20” are so far away I wonder if it isn’t better to kick the can down the road and bring it up then. I don’t think it’s approaching in the next year, or the one after that. That gives us 2 years to think about it. Once I divide the required cash over 2 years we’re back down to my spending threshold and I sort of tap out.
People were actually expecting that weapons that have been purchasable with $ for a long time now will suddenly become craftable? Interesting. I thought it was rather clear that the intention was to bring back weapons that were not available in any way, the ones from event shops. Which is what they did.
I for one am happy with this. I bought quite a few of the weapons with money, for collection and “support the game” purposes and I’ll probably buy more as they come up. And my guild mates who missed out on useful weapons like Earth’s Fury, which can make a huge difference in an event or delve, can finally hope to get it.
Seems I hadn’t logged in for a while either. I’m 3 weapons short. Eggsplosion, Silent Night and Slay Bells.
But looking at stats numbers don’t add up. Says 241/251 fully upgraded weapons, though all owned but 3 doomded weapons are. 
https://gowdb.com/xbox/extras/leaderboards/weapons?sort=count-desc
