Guild Wars 2

Legendary items currently on the trading post cost around 1400 gold. With the current ~ 100 gems to 1.45 gold exchange rate and with 4000 gems costing $50.00 it comes to $1250.00 for enough gems to purchase a legendary.

It would be nice to have a Black Lion Credit service with the option to purchase this many gems on credit and pay it off over several months. $1250 worth of gems, at 15% interest, could be paid off over 12 months at ~ $120 a month.

This would help those players, which through regular gameplay will never see 1400 gold, acquire a legendary. Thanks for your time and consideration and for a fun and beautiful game.

There are plenty of reasons why this is a bad idea.
Those who will never see 1400 can still get a legendary by playing the game. Almost everyone can get one sooner or later, and the cheaper ones are no more than 600 which can be bought in increments (precursor, lodestones, recipes)

That being said, the option already exists. No one forbids you from taking out a loan or overcharging your credit card to buy gems. That’s between you and your bank company. However I strongly discourage you to ever do such a stupid thing. Don’t spend money you don’t have! Every man knows there’s only 1 thing that merits a private loan and that’s the house you intend to live in for the rest of your life.

marnick.4305:

Those who will never see 1400 can still get a legendary by playing the game. Almost everyone can get one sooner or later, and the cheaper ones are no more than 600 which can be bought in increments (precursor, lodestones, recipes)

Purchasing gems and trading them for gold is as valid a route to a legendary as any other route. If it wasn’t we wouldn’t have an exchange rate, and you wouldn’t be able to sell them on the TP. I’ve killed sparks and Jormag’s claw ele’s until my eyes bled and never saw a single lodestone drop. Not everyone will get a legendary “sooner or later” this game is too heavily governed by an RNG.

marnick.4305:

That being said, the option already exists. No one forbids you from taking out a loan or overcharging your credit card to buy gems. That’s between you and your bank company.

Most companies that offer high dollar items, electronics stores, furniture stores, the automotive industry, offer their own credit. They would also be able to offer lower interest rates than most credit cards. ArenaNet would take a much lower risk by offering credit in that there is no physical property to repossess if someone were to default. It would be a smart business move on their part. Why should credit card companies make money off of purchases from ArenaNet instead of them offering credit themselves?

Don’t spend money you don’t have! Every man knows there’s only 1 thing that merits a private loan and that’s the house you intend to live in for the rest of your life.

Credit is fine so long as a person doesn’t accept more credit than they can afford to pay back. The world’s current economic crisis is because of people’s purchase of homes on credit, and not because they took credit, but because they took more credit than they could afford to pay back.

Olfinbedwere.5049:

Purchasing gems and trading them for gold is as valid a route to a legendary as any other route. If it wasn’t we wouldn’t have an exchange rate, and you wouldn’t be able to sell them on the TP. I’ve killed sparks and Jormag’s claw ele’s until my eyes bled and never saw a single lodestone drop. Not everyone will get a legendary “sooner or later” this game is too heavily governed by an RNG.

That’s not true and you know it. Even if you don’t have much luck farming, you can still at least farm gold for those things.

Most companies that offer high dollar items, electronics stores, furniture stores, the automotive industry, offer their own credit. They would also be able to offer lower interest rates than most credit cards. ArenaNet would take a much lower risk by offering credit in that there is no physical property to repossess if someone were to default. It would be a smart business move on their part. Why should credit card companies make money off of purchases from ArenaNet instead of them offering credit themselves?

Because it’s a dick move, and most companies doing so are rightfully criticized for it. Car companies get big protests because their loans are unfair, and walmart loans are hurting families because people will overspend on necessary things. They both also further customer loyalty and work towards targeted spam. Very, very bad ideas. Those things hardly exist in the sane world (Europe).

Credit is fine so long as a person doesn’t accept more credit than they can afford to pay back. The world’s current economic crisis is because of people’s purchase of homes on credit, and not because they took credit, but because they took more credit than they could afford to pay back.

So you suggest a model where someone pays 120 dollars a month for a year. Like that’s not more than they should be able to pay back? You do realize the only people who’ll do this are actually the people who can’t and shouldn’t buy stuff that costs 9000 dollars? How about a 16yo stealing their mom’s credit card and overcharging it for a stupid sword?

It’s not only a stupid idea, it’s dangerous.

marnick.4305:

That’s not true and you know it. Even if you don’t have much luck farming, you can still at least farm gold for those things.

I earn about 2g a day playing and in 700 days I could have 1400g, but that’s two years and in two years legendaries are going to cost 2400g if not more. There is no way a casual player could keep up with this game’s inflation.

marnick.4305:

Because it’s a dick move, and most companies doing so are rightfully criticized for it. Car companies get big protests because their loans are unfair, and walmart loans are hurting families because people will overspend on necessary things. They both also further customer loyalty and work towards targeted spam. Very, very bad ideas. Those things hardly exist in the sane world (Europe).

Some people in the world are just stupid, but that’s no excuse to restrict access to services for the rest of us. I’d back you up on suggesting people should have to take home economics classes from middle school through high school so they could make educated decisions throughout their adult lives, but I can’t back you up on suggesting credit is bad for everybody on the basis that some people are dumb. And ultimately people don’t have to use credit if they don’t want to. Plus, as you suggested, people can use their credit cards now to purchase gems at what I’m sure would be a much higher interest rate than ArenaNet would be able to offer.

marnick.4305:

So you suggest a model where someone pays 120 dollars a month for a year. Like that’s not more than they should be able to pay back? You do realize the only people who’ll do this are actually the people who can’t and shouldn’t buy stuff that costs 9000 dollars?

They could offer 0% interest and stretch it out over 2 years, that’d be about $50 a month. A lot of people probably already spend more than that.

How about a 16yo stealing their mom’s credit card and overcharging it for a stupid sword?

Kids can steal their mother’s credit cards now and overcharge it for a stupid sword. If you call MasterCard and tell them that happened they’ll file charges against your child. If ArenaNet offered credit and this extremely rare incident occurred I’m absolutely sure they could easily track the purchase, recover the gold/item lock the account and cancel the balance, a much better solution than you’ll get from any credit card company. And what’s stopping a kid from stealing a card running it up $50 at a time for gems now? Nothing. My suggestion wouldn’t create this problem, it would create a better avenue to solve the problem without having to bring criminal charges against someone’s kid.

Leaving the arguments marnick already put up (which are all valid), how do you think such a system would work? GW2 is a game that is shipped worldwide.

So you are suggesting a credit system operated by a gaming company that should span the whole world? Thats just to show how completely absurd that idea is when you even try to consider legal involvements etc. I am sure Anet will happily spend a few years to plan the necessary infastructure required for something like that- did you ever go through the process to aquire a credit at a bank?
Or even when you bought that 400€ tv on rates? And you want to offer that to several million players with different currencies?

If you want a credit get a VISA card

goldi.3129:

…, how do you think such a system would work? GW2 is a game that is shipped worldwide. So you are suggesting a credit system operated by a gaming company that should span the whole world?

I believe GW2 is currently available to America, Europe, Australia & New Zealand, Africa, and the Middle East. The credit laws for these countries aren’t that dissimilar. They mostly require the disclosure of interest rates, fees, commissions, obligations, the annual percentage rate of charge or, failing that, the total amount that the consumer must pay for credit.

I believe African credit lenders have slightly more requirements in that they must assess consumers’ ability to repay before granting credit. I believe that simply requires lenders run a credit check before lending which is fairly simple.

ArenaNet ultimately would have to make the decision whether to offer credit to players from every country or only select countries depending on the credit laws of those countries. Online games have tackled global market difficulties before and often offered different services or altered products to the different markets this would be no different. ANet execs would have to weigh possible revenue from such a service vs. the cost of implementing it. I believe the revenue would be substantial.

goldi.3129:

…did you ever go through the process to aquire a credit at a bank? Or even when you bought that 400€ tv on rates? And you want to offer that to several million players with different currencies?

It was a pretty simple credit check and signing of paperwork last time I bought something with in-store credit. It wasn’t that big of a deal. It’s obvious ArenaNet is capable of offering a service and a product to several million players with different currencies and different laws or they wouldn’t have been able to launch the game in those countries.

[quote=1058699;Olfinbedwere.5049
It was a pretty simple credit check and signing of paperwork last time I bought something with in-store credit. It wasn’t that big of a deal. It’s obvious ArenaNet is capable of offering a service and a product to several million players with different currencies and different laws or they wouldn’t have been able to launch the game in those countries.

[/quote]

They are offering a product depending on one time payment for aquisition with the option to add further small payments where you excahnge money directly for virtual goods.
You can not compare that to the complex credit process with interest etc. You mentioned it yourself- you did paperwork and a simple credit check.
Now multiply that for several million players, add security meassures against scammers and gold sellers. I still don’t see the problem of charging your mastercard for it if you want a credit for a virtual good.

goldi.3129:

They are offering a product depending on one time payment for aquisition with the option to add further small payments where you excahnge money directly for virtual goods.
You can not compare that to the complex credit process with interest etc. You mentioned it yourself- you did paperwork and a simple credit check.
Now multiply that for several million players, add security meassures against scammers and gold sellers. I still don’t see the problem of charging your mastercard for it if you want a credit for a virtual good.

Well, why do electronics, furniture, car dealers and others offer their own credit and why do people so often take them up on that offer? It’s because they’re usually able to offer better interest rates and incentives. Could you imagine somebody charging a car on their MasterCard?

Every one of us did Electronic “paperwork” when we registered for the game and when we purchase gems from the gem store, it wouldn’t be any different for a credit approval. They could probably even go through a third party credit service and not have to worry about how it works at all.

The idea was just a suggestion I made, originally in the suggestions forum, after calculating how much I’d have to spend on gems to buy a legendary off the TP and thinking to myself, too bad I can’t buy that and pay it out over time. I don’t think there’s any doubt that Anet would benefit from such a feature.

EDIT: And I doubt “several million” players would use the feature, but if that many did Anet would make a mint.

marnick.4305:

Those who will never see 1400 can still get a legendary by playing the game. Almost everyone can get one sooner or later,

I wanted to be very rude about this, but I decided to hold off.

Look, the BASE probability of a precursor from a chest is something like 0.001%

Then you add in the ludicrous DR that about half the population has (the same reason that same half can’t even break 3-digit gold figures and is being slowly bled by waypoints alone), and you’re looking at 0.00001%

now at the base amount, you would take about 10 years before the probability began to approach 1.0

at the DR amount you’re more likely to be struck by lightning while simultaneously being blown up by a suicide bomber in the back of your personal hatchback on second street in sioux city iowa at exactly 5:35:34 PM, central time on any given wednesday.

They will find life on mars before most of us see a precursor of any type actually show up in our personal chest loot.