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Well, to the extent that Guild Wars is opt-in, so is every game that forces you to pay to play it. You have to opt-in to give them any money at all.
Absolutely. Pay-for-perks has nothing to do with what you're getting, in my opinion. It's the fact that you can pay for them that is the defining factor, not what you're paying for.
You don't have to buy individual equipment. You can just buy entire characters, with all that equipment.
I completely agree with you on the fact that the sort of situation we're talking about is indistinguishable from people helping friends or donating gear to random newbies. Richard Bartle, whose opinion on this stuff is completely wacky in my opinion, is always trying to dodge this issue. He has an almost religiously anti-RMT (real-money-transactions) mindset, but never explains how it impacts a player any differently than someone giving stuff away to his/her newbie friends.
Well, I personally agree with you, but since you can simply buy whole characters, it's kind of moot. It just makes transferring stuff more odious, not impossible by any means.
For instance, check out one of IGE's partners:
Their whole business is buying and selling entire accounts, and they do a lot of it.
--matt
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