Guild Wars 2

If you bought 5 bunches of 5 keys equalling to the bunch of 25 keys, the price would be 2250.

So how does Anet create a new bunch then try to deceive players saying they get 50% off on a bunch of keys @ 1560 gems.?

when I went to school 50% off was 50% not 30%.

If that was the case then why didnt Anet give 50% off on the keys that was already in the shop, instead of creating a new cash shop item in the form of a new bunch of keys and try pulling wool over players eyes. A bunch of 5 keys was always 450 gems 1 key was always 125, so why not give 50% off on those items? instead of trying to force players to part with more cash than they really need to.

Seriously?

Yes except you are being totally inconsistent compared with the other deals with obviously deceitful intent. Look at the fine transmutation stones:

-Normal price is 200/5, 360/10, 800/25. The base cost for one stone is 200/5= 40 gems per stone
-If you buy in bulk you get 800/25 = 32 gems per stone. This is [1-(32/40)]*100% = 20% off
-Yet you call buying 25 stones for 480 gems “40% off” (since 480/800 = .60). Yet if you used the same logic as your black lion keys you would call this “52% off” since the cost per stone is 480/25=19.2 and 19.2/40 = .48.

Haha, Jabberwock’s got you there.

I don’t mind saying “50% off” and using a comparison to the base price of an item to get that number, but it’s pretty deceptive to do the math one way for a less desired item and then do it a different, more favorable way for a more desired item in order to make the deal look “better” than it actually is (where “actually is” refers to “how we market the deals for the other items”).

Anet being deceptive? /gasp

Nice work Jabberwock.

What’s your answer for that Anet? you have to admit that it looks pretty deceitful.

I am glad you pointed this out though OP, because I would’ve never even looked at the math or noticed the discrepancy.

OK……

guys, do you realize what you’re saying?

Let me tell you sons.

Anyone who ever went in a shop know that when you see : 1 = 1$ 4= 3$ and 8=4$ mean you’ve had 25% first (buy 4) and 50% (buy 8 ) reduction. In real life, in a real shop where you see real people, that’s the way it worked.
That’s the way it works. Now, that’s your way : you make 50% decrease on 8 and since 4 cost 3 than 8 cost 6 but with a 50% it’s 3 in fact. kitten that sounds quite…ridiculous no?

Now, let’s see jabberwock’s math, which are correct btw.

1 stone cost 40 gems, that’s its base price.
Now, you can buy 25 for 480 gems right? which means a 52% price decreases for each gem, that’s definitely right.
Now then tell me why you’re arguing on the fact that they said 40% (obviously making a mistake) but doing in fact 52% ?

I guess we should ask them to be honnest, they said 40%, then they should do 40% and so, since that’s the way it always work, do this 40% on the base price.

So please Anet, i want to pay 25 gems 600 gems. That way, it will really be a 40%

You’re math are good, you’re conclusion is terrible, you’re market sens is tremendously horrible, but hey, 40% is 40%

Don’t dare telling me “they should use the logic they use on the stone but on the key” cause that’s irrelevant and even your mother would laugh at you saying such nonsense.

It’s called marketing, people.

By it’s very definition, it is deceptive.

If you do not know by now that 50% off almost never means that you get the exact same item then the week before for 50% less, you never been to a grocery shop.

Seriously.

1 key = 125 gems = 125 gems per key.
5 keys = 450 gems = 90 gems per key.
25 keys = 1,560 gems = 62.4 gems per key.

To me, saying ‘50% off’ is correct, it is indeed 50% less than the base price: 62.4 instead of 125.

Is it technically correct? Yes. Like all marekting.

Is it honest? No. Like all marketing, it is designed to trick you.

Can you expect black-friday-sales to be honest? No. This is how companies work.

Not wanting to flame, just to point out that given the fact that when these discounts were announced, the price of gems went up like 30-40% (on top of the inflation due to the event).
Of course they’ll explain that the price varies due to demand.
But to those players who don’t want buy gems for real money, where’s the discount if they buy gems today? Maybe the keys will be more expensive than 2 weeks ago even with this new discount.

Ask yourself if you would be happy if it read:

1 key = 125 gems
5 keys = 450 gems (28% off!)
25 keys = 1560 gems (50% off!)

That would make it clear that the reference point was the single key. So all you can really blame ANet for is forgetting to advertise another discount… ;-)

why should they advertise that the reference point is the signle key when it’s obviously obvious?

People are looking after something to cry about, they even said “they said it’s 40% but in fact it’s 52% , they are deceiving us”. Something wrong here uh?

ovan.5947:

why should they advertise that the reference point is the signle key when it’s obviously obvious?

Because it’s honest and costs them nothing (unless you want to factor in the bandwidth cost of a sentenceful of ascii added to the item description)?

Its just slick advertising speak to make you think you are saving more than you really are. This game is going to put cash shops in all video games under regulatory scrutiny by the time they get done with it.

That’s ok though they are still to expensive at 1,560 per 25. $19.50…

^ This, I wouldn’t buy these keys for that much anyway. The random factor is a big turnoff for me, I’d rather pay more when needed and get exactly what I want.

Cod Eye.1632:

If that was the case then why didnt Anet give 50% off on the keys that was already in the shop, instead of creating a new cash shop item in the form of a new bunch of keys and try pulling wool over players eyes. A bunch of 5 keys was always 450 gems 1 key was always 125, so why not give 50% off on those items? instead of trying to force players to part with more cash than they really need to.

Seriously?

Agreed.

Anet, I’d actually give you $20 cash right now to purchase gems if I could I buy a 5 pack of keys at 50% which would leave me money to buy some transmute stones as well…

migu has it right.

The price of gems in gold has gone up about 40% in the last two days. The true discount of the keys is about 30% off the previous best price. That means: unless you use real money or you use gems bought more than a few days ago, you ARE losing money to buy keys today (as opposed to buying keys at any point in the past).

You would be much better off using real money, which doesn’t change value (obviously the intent), or waiting until gem prices settle back down to purchase keys. Then again, gem prices may never go down again, so that’s always a risk, too.

I’m not personally ragging on Anet as I am mostly indifferent on the matter. I will pay the price I’m willing to regardless of sales.

Still, if you were to see an add for Best Buy yesterday claiming “DVDs discounted 50%” for today and then went there today only to discover that you had to buy 25 of them to actually get 50% off, you would be annoyed, period. Particularly if you had to work the math out yourself to even realize this. You may very well be attentive enough to notice this detail and they therefor most likely won’t get the sale but you might feel as if they had made a weak attempt to manipulate you and that could be very unsettling. You might also hope that no other poor soul falls for this trick.

But we can learn from this that we must not let our guards down with Anet. They are still a business trying to make money, an understandable reality. It’s just a bit of a shame as it seemed as though they had the desire to build a relationship of trust with their consumer base and had been succeeding at this with many of their customers until this little fiasco.

ovan.5947:

OK……

guys, do you realize what you’re saying?

Let me tell you sons.

Anyone who ever went in a shop know that when you see : 1 = 1$ 4= 3$ and 8=4$ mean you’ve had 25% first (buy 4) and 50% (buy 8 ) reduction. In real life, in a real shop where you see real people, that’s the way it worked.
That’s the way it works. Now, that’s your way : you make 50% decrease on 8 and since 4 cost 3 than 8 cost 6 but with a 50% it’s 3 in fact. kitten that sounds quite…ridiculous no?

Now, let’s see jabberwock’s math, which are correct btw.

1 stone cost 40 gems, that’s its base price.
Now, you can buy 25 for 480 gems right? which means a 52% price decreases for each gem, that’s definitely right.
Now then tell me why you’re arguing on the fact that they said 40% (obviously making a mistake) but doing in fact 52% ?

I guess we should ask them to be honnest, they said 40%, then they should do 40% and so, since that’s the way it always work, do this 40% on the base price.

So please Anet, i want to pay 25 gems 600 gems. That way, it will really be a 40%

You’re math are good, you’re conclusion is terrible, you’re market sens is tremendously horrible, but hey, 40% is 40%

Don’t dare telling me “they should use the logic they use on the stone but on the key” cause that’s irrelevant and even your mother would laugh at you saying such nonsense.

the difference on what you describe and current key situation is that those are usually temporary discount, where as the 5keys for 450 is a permanent thing, and thus cant really be called a “discount” in the first place, and thus at any time any individual would if he wanted 25 keys be able to buy them for 2250, or 90 gems per key, thus not making the 25 key deal 50% off

@arabeth: that is something they cant and should not account for however, since that is kinda the same as real life money currency exchange chance on a daily basis as well, and will affect the real price of any item bought with a foreign currency for you

There is also a saying " a bargain is not a bargain unless you need it or intended to buy it"

Nobody intended on buying 25 keys so how is it a bargain? you spent more money than you intended on something you didn’t intend to buy.

Also the prices of gems would of shot up with this sale thing so at the end of the day you haven’t saved anything.

At time of posting 68gems per1 gold, yes a real bargain. not.

I was interested and I would have bought a 5 pack, maybe two, if they were 50% off. But to create a new gem amount for a sale???
I am close but don’t have enough gems to buy the 25. Oh well. I don’t like the deal offered, I walk away and wait until something better comes along.

People, chill! it happens all the time in the real world that companies advertise a discount, but in order to get that discount you have to buy a bigger quantity. Arenanet is not doing anything wrong, in fact, they are being savvy. I am sorry if you didn’t look ahead a month ago and buy gems then for situations just like this… I did.
and I bought the 25 keys. I will let them sit in my bank until such a time as Arenanet adds items to the chests. We will see what they do for the Wintersday event. did I make a good buy? it remains to be seen,

I normally love ANet and support the company and both Guild Wars games strongly but describing this as a 50% off sale pretty deceptive advertising on ANet’s part.

I agree that it is 50% off the unit price however as others have stated, gems cost 50% more gold than they did a week ago so there is really no savings unless you bought gems a week ago anticipating the sale before it was announced.

Edited to reflect the fact that others did mention the change in gem cost and that it is really irritating and a downside to the game.

ovan.5947:

OK……

guys, do you realize what you’re saying?

Let me tell you sons.

Anyone who ever went in a shop know that when you see : 1 = 1$ 4= 3$ and 8=4$ mean you’ve had 25% first (buy 4) and 50% (buy 8 ) reduction. In real life, in a real shop where you see real people, that’s the way it worked.
That’s the way it works. Now, that’s your way : you make 50% decrease on 8 and since 4 cost 3 than 8 cost 6 but with a 50% it’s 3 in fact. kitten that sounds quite…ridiculous no?

Now, let’s see jabberwock’s math, which are correct btw.

1 stone cost 40 gems, that’s its base price.
Now, you can buy 25 for 480 gems right? which means a 52% price decreases for each gem, that’s definitely right.
Now then tell me why you’re arguing on the fact that they said 40% (obviously making a mistake) but doing in fact 52% ?

I guess we should ask them to be honnest, they said 40%, then they should do 40% and so, since that’s the way it always work, do this 40% on the base price.

So please Anet, i want to pay 25 gems 600 gems. That way, it will really be a 40%

You’re math are good, you’re conclusion is terrible, you’re market sens is tremendously horrible, but hey, 40% is 40%

Don’t dare telling me “they should use the logic they use on the stone but on the key” cause that’s irrelevant and even your mother would laugh at you saying such nonsense.

Oh no, not my market sens.

But seriously, if you can’t see the deceit you are kidding yourself. No, I would not be happy with them saying Fine Transmutation Stones are 52% off. I merely used an example to show that they KNOW how to advertise in a non-treacherous way, but in the case of the more popular black lion keys they purposefully chose not to do so.

And I forgot to mention the MOST misleading and inconsistent part.That is the fact that they DON’T note that 5-pack has a discount compared to a single key. Technically since it already existed previously and had the bulk discount they can say this, but it implies that the bulk discount is NOT factored into the Black Friday savings rate. However, the 25 pack is not consistent with this. If the 25 pack had existed previously there WOULD have been a bulk discount. So in the case of the 25 pack they group the bulk discount into the visible Black Friday savings rate. Then by a technicality they can still tell us it is correct since it is possible that the 25 pack could have existed before with no bulk discount (even though this is completely illogical as the smaller bulk quantity of 5 does). Thus when viewed side by side the 25-pack appears as if it should be 50% off of the 5-pack rate (or maybe even better since logically the 25-pack should have a better bulk discount). They used a loophole plain and simple to make the deal appear better than it is. Is it saavy? Yes. Is it morally sound? No.

I realize that most companies use treacherous tactics like this (and I guess I was naive hoping Anet would be any less repugnant), but that doesn’t mean you should sit back and take it. If more people called out this kind of crap on a regular basis maybe the state of advertising wouldn’t be in such a sorry state.

Nexon influence. That is all.

EDIT: Sorry I should have elaborated – Nexon / Crystin Cox’s influence.

Azelroth.6801:

Nexon influence. That is all.

As for as I’m aware, Nexon doesn’t always do this. Last time I saw a Black Friday sale for a Nexon game, they took 20% off a bulk-package (i.e. multiple items sold at a discount), and they called it 20% off instead of calculating the base prices were the bulk-package purchased at its lowest rate. I don’t keep up-to-date with every game/website I look at, so perhaps that’s changed now.

I’m going a bit off-topic, though.

Nicolle Rodgers.4926:

You are receiving a discount when you buy 5 keys for 450 gems. The base price for one key is 125 gems. 125 X 25 = 3125. 1560 is slightly more than 50% off of 3125, so you are receiving a 50% discount off of the base key price of 125 gems, at 62.4 gems per key.

Why are we receiving a 60% discount off of the bulk rate for Black Lion Merchant Express then? Consistency in marketing is all we ask (no need to change the actual prices).

I never suggested that, I merely noted that since the bulk discount of the 5 pack is (correctly) not included in the Black Friday discount, the same should apply to the 25 pack (which should theoretically have a bulk discount, but doesn’t thanks to the loophole of it being a new category). The inconsistency should be solved by changing the listed discount of the 25 pack, not the 5 pack.

You seem to be stuck on the fact that the 25 pack is a new item and had no bulk discount. However that is the loophole. They created a new category for the purpose of taking advantage of this technicality, not just to encourage buying more at a time. I’ve noted many times that if the 25 pack had existed before it would have had a bulk discount.

Sorry, I ended up deleting my comment before I saw your reply – to clarify what Jabberwock is replying to, it’s the notion that they implied ANet should’ve listed the 5 pack discount as 28% off. Apologies for misreading.

Edit: That said, the inconsistency wouldn’t be solved by changing the listed discount of the 25 pack, because the 25 pack did not exist before the sale. So there is no way to solve the inconsistency because no other item has a brand new pack with a discount during the sale. It’d still remain inconsistent with the other sales simply because all the others were existing packs, so they had their own price to base the discount off of.

What they could’ve done is give the 5 key pack a 30% discount instead and not have a 25 key pack at all.

Heh, we have a battle of the edits here. You can see my previous edit for my answer to your new edit.

Edit: I completely agree with your final edit, that is what they should have done. But in the end it is the same as listing the current 25-pack as 30% off, the only difference being that you must buy 5 times as many keys at one time.

Jabberwock.9014:

Heh, we have a battle of the edits here. You can see my previous edit for my answer to your new edit.

Edit: I completely agree with your final edit, that is what they should have done. But in the end it is the same as listing the current 25-pack as 30% off, the only difference being that you must buy 5 times as many keys at one time.

Editception!

I don’t think the new 25 pack is a loophole, more a common marketing strategy of just offering a bigger discount for more items as an incentive to get people to spend a little extra. The onus would be on people to not buy more than they need in this case.

It may just be a difference in what we consider to be a bulk pack, in the end – if you consider a 25 pack to be 5 packs of 5, then the discount is 30%, but if you consider it to be 25 packs of 1, then it’s 50%. So you’d pick the discount to display based on that.

I would just personally have gone with offering a 30% discount for the 5 key bundle instead of creating a new one for the duration of the sale only. It would have looked less attractive, but there’d be no room for confusion then.

Oh noes, I can’t pay attention to what items are actually marked as discounts and I don’t understand the concept of bulk discount!

If, as you all have pointed out with your long winded mathmatical calculations, you dont feel they are providing what they advertised.. then simple dont give them your money. Thats how we would do it in the real world, no? Put your money where your mouth is.. if you dont like the deal.. dont purchase it!

This is why consumable stuff is not worth buying no matter how cheap it is. Most people will always be upset over the price vs what they got. To be honest when a volume pricing exists and you are going to offer 50% off or whatever then the discount should apply to the volume price if you are going to require a purchase in volume to get the discount. And is why these complaints were made from what I see.

Honestly, in my opinion, these chest are not worth it no matter how cheap the keys are to get them. And the cost in gold for gems will go up as long as inflation occurs. And since gold is constantly generated it is inevitable so you can’t reasonably judge a discount’s worth based on that, in my opinion. If one doesn’t make an effort to earn gold then one won’t have any to spend. Sort of like in the real world. Inflation just happens slower but you still need to make an effort to earn enough money to continue to pay for stuff you want/need. I wouldn’t buy gems with gold right now on anything not permanent to your account unless you are loaded with gold.

neon.4863:

Jabberwock.9014:

Heh, we have a battle of the edits here. You can see my previous edit for my answer to your new edit.

Edit: I completely agree with your final edit, that is what they should have done. But in the end it is the same as listing the current 25-pack as 30% off, the only difference being that you must buy 5 times as many keys at one time.

Editception!

I don’t think the new 25 pack is a loophole, more a common marketing strategy of just offering a bigger discount for more items as an incentive to get people to spend a little extra. The onus would be on people to not buy more than they need in this case.

It may just be a difference in what we consider to be a bulk pack, in the end – if you consider a 25 pack to be 5 packs of 5, then the discount is 30%, but if you consider it to be 25 packs of 1, then it’s 50%. So you’d pick the discount to display based on that.

I would just personally have gone with offering a 30% discount for the 5 key bundle instead of creating a new one for the duration of the sale only. It would have looked less attractive, but there’d be no room for confusion then.

The 25 pack is certainly an incentive to buy more at a time, I agree. However, if that was its only aim, they still would have listed it as 30% off. As it is, it is plain to see that it is also used as a device to make the sale sound better than it is. There is no point in the argument that the 25 pack could either be “25 singles” or “5 5-packs”. It is more keys in bulk than 5, and thus should have a the same or greater bulk discount, period. However, they are treating it like there is no bulk discount just so they can make meet their “50% off!” goal without actually meeting it (since all they do is include the bulk discount in what should be the segregated listed Black Friday discount).

And for those telling me to vote with my money, that argument doesn’t really hold water. I actually like the deal itself (30% off is still pretty good) and am still considering buying a few gems to support development of the game (which I feel they have done an excellent job on overall despite my critiques). Honestly the only thing holding me back is the fact that this marketing is so dishonest that I would feel bad rewarding it. And that is what I’m posting for: I want Anet to know that they don’t have to stoop to this level just to make money. And let’s face it, being actively vocal about something you’re upset with is a lot better than passively waiting and blindly hoping something will be done about it. It’s like only voting yourself in an election versus spreading the word to get other people to vote in addition.

@Jabberwock

Just to clarify: what you are saying is that, instead of have a discount for the sale, they’re just adding a new bulk offer discount (in this case, 50% off for 25 keys, like the 28% off for 5 keys) and trying to pass it off as a sale?

That if there was normally a 25 key pack available, it’d just have this price as a regular bulk discount?

So it’s just a regular bulk discount and not a sale discount?

Sorry to be repetitive – just trying to understand where you’re coming from since we seem to be misinterpreting each other here.

Close. What I’m saying is they are including what the bulk discount should be in the listed Black Friday 50% off figure. Not all of it but a good portion. If they were to only include the Black Friday deduction itself the listed sale would be 30% off or slightly less.

And you can now see my earlier problem. The 5-pack does not display any sale implying that the bulk-discount is not part of the Black Friday sale itself (and this is consistent with all the other item sales as well). The only inconsistency is the new 25 key pack.

Okay, so what you are saying is that if the 25 pack existed prior to the sale, it wouldn’t cost 3125 gems (so it wouldn’t be a “25 singles” pack). There would already have been a bulk discount, probably greater than the 28% discount for the keys. Thus why there’s no 50% discount for the sale – because the pack wouldn’t cost the full 3125 in the first place.

Assuming there was a 25-pack available normally, and assuming it’d be more advantageous than 5 5-packs, we could say it could be, say, ~35% off, and cost 2000 gems. Which means the actual sale discount in this particular example would be 22%. (The actual discount they would apply is irrelevant so we can speculate with just about any discount here.)

Thus, looking at it from that angle, 50% sounds misleading, and the best way to make it seem less misleading would be to consider the 25 pack would normally have the exact same discount or more than the 5 pack – which means the actual sale discount is 30% off or less.

(Again, sorry for being a tl;dr broken record, I just want to make sure I fully understand the argument before I continue attacking points you never made.)

I agree with all of the above, and I see where you’re coming from now. I still consider 50% to be a valid/accurate discount – under the exact circumstances that they listed it (when compared to the price of buying 25 individual keys, or considering it a pack of 25 singles). Maybe not the most honest/least misleading, but it’s still correct. It’s the model most stores out there would adopt. People should be paying more attention to the prices than the discount tags, one way or the other. But yes, as with most marketing, it can be considered misleading.

Similar to how taxes where I live work – they say the tax for utility bills is 25%, but that’s 25% over the final price of the bill. So if you pay $100, it’s $25 in taxes. Which means the price without taxes is $75. Which means you’re actually paying a 33% tax. 25% and 33% are both accurate depending on how you look at it, but 25% obviously looks better for them, and can be perceived as intentionally misleading (I know that’s how I perceive it, anyway).

Yes, it seems we are on the same page now. Your utility example I also believe is intentionally misleading. However it’s not quite as bad since it is something you have to pay whether you like it or not, so the “false advertising” can’t force you into paying for something you wouldn’t otherwise.

Anyways, I agree this kind of deceptive marketing happens a lot in general, but I think it’s a sad state of affairs and not something that should be accepted without blinking an eye just because it’s the new status quo. I guess I just hope that Arenanet doesn’t continue to go down the unfortunate path of all these other companies, since there is something to be said about principled companies in this day and age.

I actually believe it’s worse since in the case of a discount, you’re getting less of a discount, but you’re still getting an advantageous deal – in the case of a fee/tax, you’re at a disadvantageous position from the start, so being misleading about just how disadvantageous it is is pretty rotten. Or maybe I just think that because I have to pay these abusive taxes. :p

Personally I just wish they did away with the randomness of items altogether. Let me pay for exactly what I want, even if I may end up having to pay more. I prefer paying more for a certainty than a bargain for a chance. Or, at least, make drop rates (edit: for gem store random stuff only) equal across the board and let us trade with each other for what we want. Making us get stuck with stuff we won’t ever use is a dealbreaker for me.

Umm Nicole. Let me re-say what you said.

You are receiving a discount when you buy 5 keys for 450 gems. The base price for one key is 125 gems. 125 X 25 = 3125. 1560 is slightly more than 50% off of 3125, so you are receiving a 50% discount off of the base key price of 125 gems, at 62.4 gems per key.

Now If you look at all the other items that you sell that are bundled they all get cheaper the more you purchase at one time in order to make them more attractive to buy. What you saying is that you changed the price of this higher bundle in order to make your discount look more attractive. If you buy 5 bundles of 5 it comes to 2250 gems. Then based on the system that youve made the bundle of 25 should be cheaper than 2250, but you claim that the past price is 3125. How about being honest and not using cheap scams to seem like your giving a discount. And if you dont believe me look at all the other 25 bundles and see if they are less than 5 stack of 5 bundles. I mean honesty is the best policy or stuff like this happens and you lose all credibility. Like Example: Fine Trans Stones.. buy 5 pay 200 gems.. buy 10 pay 360 gems.. buy 25 pay 800 gems.. or Basic Stones.. buy 5 pay 125.. buy 10 pay 225… buy 25 pay 500.. Hmm I think your lame excuse on how to explain away the 25 prices and how you got 50% off is bogus to the extreme and you should be ashamed.

That’s a little extreme. It’s not a scam; you’re not actually being robbed of any money. You are getting a discount, it’s just less in practice than it sounds in theory. The 25 key bundle is still cheaper than 5 bundles of 5. They are giving a discount… just a smaller one depending on how you look at it. It’s still a deal, and still a good deal, just not as good as it sounds at first glance. You can argue about the morality of the marketing strategy, but calling it a scam is flat out incorrect. It’s only a scam if they are tricking you into paying more than what you should. They’re not. The information is there, in plain sight: 50% off based on a price of 3125.

All stores do this. It’s the customer’s responsibility to check if the discount is actually worth it in practice.

What’s actually really shady is what local stores are doing for “Black Friday” where I live (we don’t actually have Black Friday). Netizens have begun calling it “Black Fraud” – basically they are advertising huge discounts when in reality they bumped the prices of the items up, and the “discounted” versions are actually more expensive than when not on “sale”.

That’s scamming. This is just somewhat misleading marketing in comparison.

So after the sale the bulk rate of keys are going to go up to the price before the 50% reduction of 3120 gems? I don’t think so.

Yea this is consistent with borderline shady marketing practices imho. Please remember this, ANet, when it comes to your gem store… it is not a game. Yea the items are for a game, but you are dealing with people’s pocket books and playing marketing word games will only make customers mad… not appreciative. It was still a discount on the keys… but not nearly what you indicated.

Well done to the community posters that pointed this out and is keeping ANet honest.

Sad, I was sure that all keys got discount and now keys still same price =( If discount only for one kind of pack – show on first page only this pack and not all.
Anet getting “best” ideas from all F2P games how to climb into wallet of playes…

This just furthers my notion that people will make a stink about anything. I wish complaining was as cathartic for me as it is for you guys.

The price was clearly marked. If you always bought keys at the bulk rate, you are saving 30.67%. If you bought them at the single rate, you are saving slightly over 50%. There was no hidden information.

As far as the “treachery” goes, it’s at roughly at the level of a supermarket marking their chips 50% off of the marked retail value, when they never sell at the retail value. The exasperated face the supermarket managers will make when you take this up with them, is the same one I’m guessing ArenaNet has on right now.

(this is not a legal claim or legal advice or any legal anything. It is just to show the legal situation in Sweden, interpreted by me)

In Sweden, one is not allow (it is illegal) to have a permanent sale. You can not have a buy 5 and get 30% off and then promote that as a sale if its done in a permanent state. One is perfect allowed to sell 5 and have the price be set 30% lower, but, not as a sale. Thus, if one were to have a 50% sale and promote it as such, it would have to be clear for what the base price it is targeted for. buy 1, or buy 5.

Cod Eye.1632:

So after the sale the bulk rate of keys are going to go up to the price before the 50% reduction of 3120 gems? I don’t think so.

Nope. The pack was a sale special. The key sale is now over, and the pack is no longer available.

Nicolle Rodgers.4926:

You are receiving a discount when you buy 5 keys for 450 gems. The base price for one key is 125 gems. 125 X 25 = 3125. 1560 is slightly more than 50% off of 3125, so you are receiving a 50% discount off of the base key price of 125 gems, at 62.4 gems per key.

If someone were to intentionally set out to destroy their reputation RE: cash shop sale prices, they might apply this logic. Most people may never read this thread or realize what the OP realized, but many of those that do will forever view the cash shop discounts with an eye for dishonesty. Research has shown that if a customer turns off to a brand or product due to a perception of unfairness, it’s almost impossible to ever get those customers back!

I’m hoping the explanation is one of an oversight in the math used that they now realize was wrong and will never be applied to any future sales price mark downs.

I have been and continue to be a huge fan of the game. I do buy and spend gems on an ongoing basis, in large part out of a desire to support the game. I view the above as an example of cash shop shenanigans and if it becomes an ongoing habit, I can’t see myself buying another gem infusion moving forward. (I was already ticked off that only the new 25 key bundle was discounted, now that I see why it was done this way, to obfuscate the way the “discount” was calculated, I’m just more dismayed)!

Don’t play games with pricing, or players will stop playing your game. Simple.

First post brings an immediate response from a dev.
20 posts (not counted) later, still no reply…

I can see where this is going