Guild Wars 2

I thought about it… And I’d be more than willing to shell out $10 (or maybe even $15) for 30-days worth of added bonuses:
- Unlimited hair style changes.
- Unlimited transmutation charges.
- Mystic Forge from anywhere. (if you want to throw away items… why not be able to do it anywhere?)
- Banking from anywhere.
- Ability to summon a Black Lion merchant anywhere.
- Unlimited mining, lumber chopping, and harvesting for all characters.
- Easy transit to home instance.
- Home instance boosts (i.e. trees, mine nodes, and a garden).
- Magic Find boost. (But who’s kidding… it’s broken anyway.)

Other pay-to-play games already have many of these conveniences.

They’re all also already implemented in Guild Wars 2.
I’d just request a specific UI for this “prestige”… So that we don’t have to juggle silly items around on various characters.

In my opinion, this would greatly boost Gem Store profits and make the game all the more enjoyable.

None of the benefits are necessarily game breaking nor do they provide any sort of strategic advantage over people without this.

Just implement it in a way that all these benefits are provided for a time-limited period. That would be the hardest part. (And precisely why I think it’d be worth implementing a special UI for all this.)

For that much I doubt they would charge $10/800 gems. My guess that’s something like that would be priced at $60/4,800 gems, minimum. I could see 1 or 2 itms on the list being 800 gems.

I like the concept but don’t think the price would be anywhere near that, based on the type of prices they have for individual items on the list.

I agree with astral. The cost of these items, like permanent contracts and mystic forge conduit, are very high. The golem banker alone is 500 gems. The $10 monthly fee you speak of may actually decrease the demand of black lion chests. Since many bank, trading, merchant contracts & boosters, come from these chests. People might spend less on them, potentially loosing Anet sales, because thier contents are less valued now.

So now “plz make VIP” threads are replacing mounts’ threads?

Ah another subscription thread here too.

“Please give me these gem store items for free and a huge discount for the rest of the items!”

It just shows that the items are a bit overpriced since other games have those conveniences. But I am generally against VIP-status. It splits the community. Just let it as is. The one who pays has the advantage anyways.

Eric.6109:

So now “plz make VIP” threads are replacing mounts’ threads?

No. No they’re not. Sadly. I still curl into a ball when I remember three mount threads concurrently running on the first page. ;__;

Anyway, the idea of a subscription-like access probably doesn’t fit into their monetization scheme. The reason why games like WoW offer most cosmetics for in-game currency is because they already get the subscription dollars.

And, honestly, most visual changes, especially after max level, taper off once the player is happy with the look. Outfits are kind of a boon in that regard. They cost nothing to change into, set a character look from 1-79, then at 80, you get your max gear and reskin it.

Not to say I’m entirely against the idea of some kind of VIP status, but I don’t think ANet’s gonna go for it.

I think you are on the right track for a Black Lion item collection pack, but the items and their uses you mention are already well above what you specify for pricing. While I don’t think a hairstyle change any time you want for a month is totally out of the realm of possibility, the endless transmutation charges for a month would be. Some of the other things are out of the range of possibilities as well.

Minos.5168:

I thought about it… And I’d be more than willing to shell out $10 (or maybe even $15) for 30-days worth of added bonuses:
- Unlimited hair style changes.
- Unlimited transmutation charges.
- Mystic Forge from anywhere. (if you want to throw away items… why not be able to do it anywhere?)
- Banking from anywhere.
- Ability to summon a Black Lion merchant anywhere.
- Unlimited mining, lumber chopping, and harvesting for all characters.
- Easy transit to home instance.
- Home instance boosts (i.e. trees, mine nodes, and a garden).
- Magic Find boost. (But who’s kidding… it’s broken anyway.)

Other pay-to-play games already have many of these conveniences.

They’re all also already implemented in Guild Wars 2.
I’d just request a specific UI for this “prestige”… So that we don’t have to juggle silly items around on various characters.

In my opinion, this would greatly boost Gem Store profits and make the game all the more enjoyable.

None of the benefits are necessarily game breaking nor do they provide any sort of strategic advantage over people without this.

Just implement it in a way that all these benefits are provided for a time-limited period. That would be the hardest part. (And precisely why I think it’d be worth implementing a special UI for all this.)

Most of the services you mentioned are available from BLCs in a consumable or permanent manner. So it would take alot of incentive away to buy keys, which is propably one of their highest sales items.
So why would they devalue it?

Let’s think up Titles that could come with this item

I’ll start:

Hands Up, Everyone that likes ME!!!!

No thank you

Message Body length must at least be 15.

That’s basically a VIP fee.

No fees.

GW should be “pay once”. Once per new new face. Once per skin. Once per toy or tool. Once per new piece of content.

That’s basically a monthly fee for a bunch of items that have very limited supply and are worth thousands of gold on the BLTP.

What I would consider is a fair offer.
Most of us bought pre-purchase and pre-orders double the price they sell these times, and those weren’t even giving those minimal kind items that you’ll get now at half price.
Upgrading would cost 2000 Gem, jeez.

So, what about to give some real care to those who was loyal, supporting from the beginning?

RoyalPredator.9163:

What I would consider is a fair offer.
Most of us bought pre-purchase and pre-orders double the price they sell these times, and those weren’t even giving those minimal kind items that you’ll get now at half price.
Upgrading would cost 2000 Gem, jeez.

So, what about to give some real care to those who was loyal, supporting from the beginning?

The Digital Deluxe and Collector’s Edition are worse than the Heroic Edition (other than the swag in the Collector’s Edition, if that catches your fancy). The Digital Deluxe bonuses are all one-time, non-transferable, character-specific rewards (bar the mini). Additionally, the Digital Deluxe is offered in-game.

The Heroic Edition, which came out months after both of these versions, offers one single item that alone is more beneficial to a player starting out (heck, I didn’t upgrade out of 15 slot bags until about a year into the game) in addition to netting them over 800 gems in swag. So by buying the game, you get an 18 slot bag (~2-3g’s worth, iirc [keep in mind, around release, this would actually be even higher]), and over 800 gems (well over 100g’s worth, at the current market value [to be fair, near release, this would be around 1g’s worth]).

The Digital Deluxe Edition will get you (disregarding the Heroic slapped on nowadays) a mini (does nothing unless running Ranger runes), an elite (which is arguably useful if you have no skill points for an actual elite, but still requires level 30), and a 2 week banker for each of your characters (soulbound). The Digital Deluxe version is $20 more, or 2000 gems (2000 gems is NOT $20, it is $25). Ignoring the Chalice of Glory and Tome of Influence because they are not significant in any form, shape, or way.

The only advantage to getting the Digital Deluxe Edition would be for Keyrunners (storing keys/gear), people who want a Summon Elite but don’t have one from their race, which is Norn, and people who forgot to save up enough Skill Points to get an Elite.

The reason why the 2 week banker is insignificant is because the 2 week duration is pitiful and you can’t move it from character to character. Sure, if you could move it from character to character, anyone with the Digital Deluxe would “permanently” have a 2 week banker, assuming they had a spare character slot, but most people hate moving gear, mining tools, salvage kits (assuming you have 250/infinite versions), and food/potions from character to character.

Also, most new players will forget to use their Elite, along with other skills.

Basically, for all the legacy players, Anet turns their back and says: “Here, newcomer, have some cookies. Don’t worry, there’s plenty to go around, but we’ll share them with you guys only!” Which, the new player doesn’t quite understand but takes and eats and forgets about it entirely thinking everyone has it, when that’s not true.

Of course, the actual benefit of the boosters is much more than simply getting “10 Experience Boosters”. If you knew what you were doing, you could convert those “10 Experience Boosters” with a little bit of money and a single skill point into a whopping boost of 250% bonus experience. If you add in a little bit of karma and/or coin, you can get an additional 10-25% bonus, and with a helpful guild another 10-15%.

That means within an hour or two of starting the game, assuming you’re near peak hours and able to find a big guild, you’ll be able to get a bonus exp of 290%. This means you’ll be getting a total of 390% normal experience. I forgot if this stacks with “Exploration Bonus” aka “That Bonus For Killing Things That Haven’t Respawned In A While”, but if it does, that’s pretty big… not that most people know how to do any of this.

And after many tangents, that’s how I interpret it.