Devaluation of mini carlotta and prince thorn

Devaluation of mini carlotta and prince thorn

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Posted by: Malediktus.9250

Malediktus.9250

Why were these two miniatures devalued so much?
Last year you had to spend 500 gems + 1000 candy corn to get mini carlotta. This year you get her for 6000 Candy Corn or 700 Plastic Fangs.
Mini Prince Thorn costed 20000 Candy Corn. This year 6000 Candy Corn or 700 Shattering skulls.
Not only you ruined the exclusivity of these collectibles, but you also made them much cheaper than last year! I feel cheated.

Why you keep ruining miniatures, but refuse to bring back Halloween 2012 weapon skins like the Great Saw?

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Posted by: Malediktus.9250

Malediktus.9250

To make this case worse getting candy corn seems to be much easier than last year. The 5min Halloween daily gave me over 100. And there seems to be an exploit to get whole stacks of Shattering skulls and plastic fangs. Really great job Anet.
This update is an insult. Maybe you should get 3000 employes instead of 300 if you can only do this with 300 people.

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Posted by: Electro.4173

Electro.4173

I’d rather the stuff be too easy to get than too difficult. One of the major complaints about last year was how darned expensive everything was, considering its supposed to be a fun holiday event and not a grindfest.

I guess they could have added new stuff as the “cheaper” rewards and left the old stuff expensive, but… oh well.

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Posted by: Randulf.7614

Randulf.7614

It was ridiculous last year – there was never any need for such a high cost for a fun item and there was a lot of feedback about it which they have listened to for this year. This is a very welcome change to the rewards systemr, especially as it’s a short festival and meant to be a bit of fun.

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Posted by: Malediktus.9250

Malediktus.9250

I’d rather the stuff be too easy to get than too difficult. One of the major complaints about last year was how darned expensive everything was, considering its supposed to be a fun holiday event and not a grindfest.

I guess they could have added new stuff as the “cheaper” rewards and left the old stuff expensive, but… oh well.

The new items are more expensive (12k candy corn for the mini). They only devalued the old stuff. Not to mention I wasted 500 gems I bought with real money I can now get for less than 5g.

I am usually a big spender (spent 100s of € this year alone), but stuff like this makes me think twice if I want to continue with my spending habbits.

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Posted by: nekretaal.6485

nekretaal.6485

I spent a fortune on both of these. I am upset.

#24 leaderboard rank North America.

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Posted by: MithranArkanere.8957

MithranArkanere.8957

They are not skill rewards, but grind rewards, and account bound ones, and so they can’t be devaluated.

They just reduced the grind to get them. Not their value. Their value is the same. They say: “I grinded for this”.

By making their costs more reasonable, they are making them more available to those with less time to grind. Nothing else.

SUGGEST-A-TRON says:
PAY—ONCE—UNLOCKS—ARE—ALWAYS—BETTER.
No exceptions!

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Posted by: Zaxares.5419

Zaxares.5419

Just a heads-up that the 2012 skins are back too. Kinda. There’s going to be a game-wide raffle where every player who turned in Foil Wrappers to the skritt NPC in LA gets a chance to win one of the 2012 skins (from a limited pool of prizes). Foil Wrappers drop from both ToT bags (unsure of the drop rate) and from Black Lion Chests.

I don’t mind old items becoming cheaper too. I’ve never been a big believer in exclusivity, and to my mind, people who pay a premium to get stuff early are basically just paying for the privilege of showing it off early. They’ve now had 12 months with which to show off. It’s safe to say that anybody who was willing to pay the initial inflated prices has already bought them. The logical thing now for any business to do is to lower the price so that they hook more buyers in. People don’t blink an eye when new Apple gadgets get cheaper as time goes by. Why should digital goods be any different?

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Posted by: Behellagh.1468

Behellagh.1468

They’ve admitted that last year the candy corn requirements were seriously out of whack.

We are heroes. This is what we do!

RIP City of Heroes

(edited by Behellagh.1468)

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Posted by: Astral Projections.7320

Astral Projections.7320

Got both this year already. The chattering skulls and plastic fangs are dead cheap and altogether cost me about 6 -7 gold.

Thanks ANet.

(I told my guild about it too).

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Posted by: Zaxares.5419

Zaxares.5419

Yes. I will give plenty of kudos to ANet for listening to feedback about rewards this time around. The sinks are not only smaller and easier to access, but they also crucially put the loot drops back into the Labyrinth. ToT bags drop like rain, from what I hear, and the massive supply means that over the course of the two weeks, it should be easy for anyone actively playing to get what they want, either through direct farming or just buying it off the TP. And the large supply means that people who miss Halloween should still be able to buy the items throughout the year, just at a slightly more expensive price.

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Posted by: Lalocat.6793

Lalocat.6793

I was hoping they would be more reasonable this year and they are! Thanks for the change.

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Posted by: GreenAlien.5623

GreenAlien.5623

They were exclusive for a year. Thats more than enough time, so no reason to feel “cheated”..

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Posted by: Malediktus.9250

Malediktus.9250

They were exclusive for a year. Thats more than enough time, so no reason to feel “cheated”..

No. There is never enough time. I enjoy items becoming rarer and rarer over time as people quit and new players come.

My 500 gems (about 6,25€ real money!) + 1000 candy corn purchase turned into roughly a 5g item.
My 20k Candy corn investment (over 100g last year) turned into a 5g purchase.

I dont see this even as remotely fair.
Just as they ruined my Mini Monkey King which went from 2000 Gold to 3.5g.

I think I am going to contact the costumer support and ask for a refund of the 500 gems.

This is like adding a cheap recipe for the Greatsaw and Ghastly Grinning Shield to the value drops to 10g. I have 0 understanding of degrading cosmetic prestige items just because Anet is too lazy to make new ones.

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(edited by Malediktus.9250)

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Posted by: MithranArkanere.8957

MithranArkanere.8957

They were exclusive for a year. Thats more than enough time, so no reason to feel “cheated”..

No. There is never enough time. I enjoy items becoming rarer and rarer over time as people quit and new players come.
[…]

And Scrooge McDuck enjoyed swimming in coins. That doesn’t mean it’ right of fair for others… neither physically possible.

You can’t keep countless players from enjoying something because they had an unreasonable cost for it that kept it away from too many players before.

If it was something that required at least a modicum of skill like liadri. Or time and dedication. Then it’ll be wrong to make it much easier to get.

And it’ll also be wrong to make it a once-in-a lifetime thing.

But if its just something that is only behind a grind wall, and the wall gets lower, nothing was lost. They adjusted the costs to match the reality of the game. The game was simply improved.

SUGGEST-A-TRON says:
PAY—ONCE—UNLOCKS—ARE—ALWAYS—BETTER.
No exceptions!

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Posted by: Eowin Of Rohan.2619

Eowin Of Rohan.2619

• Devaluation of Thron has a reason : his introduction last year was as a candy sink, but this sink was failed (and Anet admitted it) as it was triple (x1000 candy corn need for existing recipes, +20000 and 15000 candy sinks with mini and bag, decrease by a big factor of the candy corn sources). So they tried to repair it, hence the cheaper price on Thorn (also because now Thorn is not that single goal you may have to use your corn : there are many new items). Problem of course is that it is not cool for people who bought one last year at its too-high price (but as someone said, those people enjoyed it and the +14k corn prestige for a year)

• Devaluation of Carlotta is a very bad thing as it was a real money thing. Worse : one of the minis that require buying a second pack. I think this one deserves a refund of gems (but not corn).

• Why do they devaluate these things but not the 2012 skins ? The answer for 2012 skins is always the same but oddly doesn’t affect other items. Anet will have no probleme devaluatin gemstore items that were supposed to be one-time-only (special dies, BL skins …) or IG items that were also supposed to be one-time only but not as expensive (karka event items => shark tooth skins, shoulders, breahting masks)
This may feel like a very bad conspiration theory and I may be completely wrong (in that case, apologies; but I’d like to have a real explanation about why some very expensive items are not re-introduced “to keep their value for first acquirers” while some others less-expensive ones don’t have this rule ?) —-—> Very-very expensive items like the 2012 skins are the property of John’s fan club, the guys who are everywhere in the BLTC forum, and explained a lot of time how angry they would be if those items would return. The other supposedly-one-time items people may have invested in are owned by the average casual or non-trader players. Again , my conspiracy theory may be wrong, but it’s really how the double-standards feel now.

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Posted by: Malediktus.9250

Malediktus.9250

They were exclusive for a year. Thats more than enough time, so no reason to feel “cheated”..

No. There is never enough time. I enjoy items becoming rarer and rarer over time as people quit and new players come.
[…]

And Scrooge McDuck enjoyed swimming in coins. That doesn’t mean it’ right of fair for others… neither physically possible.

You can’t keep countless players from enjoying something because they had an unreasonable cost for it that kept it away from too many players before.

If it was something that required at least a modicum of skill like liadri. Or time and dedication. Then it’ll be wrong to make it much easier to get.

And it’ll also be wrong to make it a once-in-a lifetime thing.

But if its just something that is only behind a grind wall, and the wall gets lower, nothing was lost. They adjusted the costs to match the reality of the game. The game was simply improved.

120g was not unreasonable for an exotic miniature. In GW1 rare minis were prestige objects, I dont think why everyone should be entitled to get exotic minis (5g, thats like doing CoF 2-3 times) for a pocket change in GW2.
I find it quite sad the most valuable mini is the Mini Karka with only 1200g value after 2 years of being discontinued. 1200g is only a small fraction of the most expensive GW1 minis in comparison.

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(edited by Malediktus.9250)

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Posted by: silvermember.8941

silvermember.8941

They were exclusive for a year. Thats more than enough time, so no reason to feel “cheated”..

No. There is never enough time. I enjoy items becoming rarer and rarer over time as people quit and new players come.
[…]

And Scrooge McDuck enjoyed swimming in coins. That doesn’t mean it’ right of fair for others… neither physically possible.

You can’t keep countless players from enjoying something because they had an unreasonable cost for it that kept it away from too many players before.

If it was something that required at least a modicum of skill like liadri. Or time and dedication. Then it’ll be wrong to make it much easier to get.

And it’ll also be wrong to make it a once-in-a lifetime thing.

But if its just something that is only behind a grind wall, and the wall gets lower, nothing was lost. They adjusted the costs to match the reality of the game. The game was simply improved.

120g was not unreasonable for an exotic miniature. In GW1 rare minis were prestige objects, I dont think why everyone should be entitled to get exotic minis (5g, thats like doing CoF 2-3 times) for a pocket change in GW2.
I find it quite sad the most valuable mini is the Mini Karka with only 1200g value after 2 years of being discontinued. 1200g is only a small fraction of the most expensive GW1 minis in comparison.

Well this isn’t guild wars 1. Also it was expensive in guild wars 1 because most players only had only about 1-8 attempts per year with really really really low rates.

Also guild was 1 did not really have a global trading system for players to try and outbid one another, so the prices stayed artificially high. Also it didn’t help that the economy in guild wars 1 was completely kittened up after a while.

As u know im pro. ~Tomonobu Itagaki

This is an mmo forum, if someone isn’t whining chances are the game is dead.

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Posted by: Malediktus.9250

Malediktus.9250

Way to make up excuses. Anet said they will take everything we loved about GW1 and put it into an open world. (I know this promise was just a marketing ploy but still.) A MMO game without rare and exclusive items will quickly get boring for people who play it for thousands of hours.
Also the prices of some of the minis in GW1 were that high, because some of them only existed in double digit amounts. Kanaxai for example existed 28 times. Rarity like that is exactly what we need in GW2.

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Posted by: nekretaal.6485

nekretaal.6485

This is bull.

Of course, now that I remember it, they did take a gemstore mini and give it away to everybody for free during Wintersday last year.

Just don’t buy minis from the gemstore ever.

As for the mini prince… I got him “cheap” when candy cobs were dropping during the battle for lions arch, but I still ended up paying 120ish gold for the kitten thing. This change is infuriating.

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Posted by: silvermember.8941

silvermember.8941

Way to make up excuses. Anet said they will take everything we loved about GW1 and put it into an open world. (I know this promise was just a marketing ploy but still.) A MMO game without rare and exclusive items will quickly get boring for people who play it for thousands of hours.
Also the prices of some of the minis in GW1 were that high, because some of them only existed in double digit amounts. Kanaxai for example existed 28 times. Rarity like that is exactly what we need in GW2.

IF you want to go down that idiotic bridge that has been burned multiple times.

Let me ask you this “how could ARenanet possibly know what EVERYBODY liked about guild wars 1 enough to put it into 2?” Because I can easily say guild wars 2 does in fact take everything about I like about guild wars 1 and puts it in an open world and there is not a kitten thing you can to prove otherwise, just like I can’t prove the reverse of it as well.

Let’ assume they lied, it shouldn’t have taken two years from the time that clearly marketing video came out to release to figure out that what they said was false. After all the beta weekend, all the articles it should have been instantly aparent that guild wars 2 couldn’t possible the same game as gw1 but in an open world.

As u know im pro. ~Tomonobu Itagaki

This is an mmo forum, if someone isn’t whining chances are the game is dead.

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Posted by: Labjax.2465

Labjax.2465

I would sympathize, but it appears to be a theme with you, lobbying for exclusive items to stay exclusive in whatever capacity you happen to own them or are going for them.

I find it hard to believe that this has anything to do with boredom, unless you somehow find it more entertaining to walk around feeling special than not?

Or words to that effect.

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Posted by: Malediktus.9250

Malediktus.9250

This game is about cosmetic progression. How am I supposed to “progress” if everything is easy to get at any time? Dont tell me legendaries, most of them look like they could as well be exotics to me. And the most expensive armor is 119g for a whole set lol. Thats like 1 day of farming for me, less if I combine with trading.

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Posted by: Astral Projections.7320

Astral Projections.7320

I would sympathize, but it appears to be a theme with you, lobbying for exclusive items to stay exclusive in whatever capacity you happen to own them or are going for them.

I find it hard to believe that this has anything to do with boredom, unless you somehow find it more entertaining to walk around feeling special than not?

^

This seems to be Malediktus’ theme song. “I’ve got mine and I think it’s exclusive so I don’t want others to get it now.” I’ve seen him posting this in multiple threads.

In the world there are people who are naturally inclusive and those who are naturally exclusive. ANet has decided to side here with the inclusive crowd. They aren’t going to change their way of doing things unless you can bring up a compelling reason why they should favor you over all the new people (and their money) who want these items.

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Posted by: Malediktus.9250

Malediktus.9250

I would sympathize, but it appears to be a theme with you, lobbying for exclusive items to stay exclusive in whatever capacity you happen to own them or are going for them.

I find it hard to believe that this has anything to do with boredom, unless you somehow find it more entertaining to walk around feeling special than not?

^

This seems to be Malediktus’ theme song. “I’ve got mine and I think it’s exclusive so I don’t want others to get it now.” I’ve seen him posting this in multiple threads.

In the world there are people who are naturally inclusive and those who are naturally exclusive. ANet has decided to side here with the inclusive crowd. They aren’t going to change their way of doing things unless you can bring up a compelling reason why they should favor you over all the new people (and their money) who want these items.

I dont think Anet is inclusive. Otherwise they would add more than 100 greatsaws and ghastly shields to the game. They just have hate for people who collect all kind of account bound items. These 100 skins wont even reduce the value of the Greatsaw by more than 10% if at all. But these minis lost more than 90% of their value for no good reason at all.
They are also not inclusive at all by increasing the old BLTC skins to 5-7 tickets or removing them entirely. They just cater to gold investors.

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(edited by Malediktus.9250)

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Posted by: calyx.9086

calyx.9086

This game is about cosmetic progression. How am I supposed to “progress” if everything is easy to get at any time? Dont tell me legendaries, most of them look like they could as well be exotics to me. And the most expensive armor is 119g for a whole set lol. Thats like 1 day of farming for me, less if I combine with trading.

No, it’s about cosmetics, there is no “progression” about it. Some people like legendaries, some people don’t. Some people like t3 armor sets, some people like mix n match.

To be progression, it has to be a series of steps with improvement from one to the next, and that doesn’t exist here, because being about aesthetics everyone has a different idea of what looks good to them and what they want their “end look” to be.

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Posted by: Labjax.2465

Labjax.2465

This game is about cosmetic progression. How am I supposed to “progress” if everything is easy to get at any time? Dont tell me legendaries, most of them look like they could as well be exotics to me. And the most expensive armor is 119g for a whole set lol. Thats like 1 day of farming for me, less if I combine with trading.

Which could be worth debating, except that you’re talking about items you already have and how you feel cheated because they’re easier to get for other people.

Or words to that effect.

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Posted by: Malediktus.9250

Malediktus.9250

This game is about cosmetic progression. How am I supposed to “progress” if everything is easy to get at any time? Dont tell me legendaries, most of them look like they could as well be exotics to me. And the most expensive armor is 119g for a whole set lol. Thats like 1 day of farming for me, less if I combine with trading.

No, it’s about cosmetics, there is no “progression” about it. Some people like legendaries, some people don’t. Some people like t3 armor sets, some people like mix n match.

To be progression, it has to be a series of steps with improvement from one to the next, and that doesn’t exist here, because being about aesthetics everyone has a different idea of what looks good to them and what they want their “end look” to be.

You are wrong about that one. There are clearly different amounts of efforts on the details on various items. Taste may be subjective, but the amount of details, effects, animations and rarity offer a clear path of progression.
Especially visible on the gem shop skins which Anet clearly spent more effort on than the average item you can earn ingame save a few exceptions such as legendaries.
A skin does not have to be of your taste to be a cosmetic progression of the item you want to use.

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Posted by: juno.1840

juno.1840

It’s account bound — it has no value. You cannot gain or obtain any currency value for it.

That’s why everyone is giving the OP a hard time — because the argument is flawed.

Part of me thinks that someone in ANet was thinking “hey, wanna see something funny? Watch this…”

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Posted by: Frostfang.5109

Frostfang.5109

ppl have been complaining about Grinding… and A-net have done something about it

Kima & Co

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Posted by: Malediktus.9250

Malediktus.9250

It’s account bound — it has no value. You cannot gain or obtain any currency value for it.

That’s why everyone is giving the OP a hard time — because the argument is flawed.

I already said before. Items have a value beyond their currency value.
I dont give a crap about the currency value of an item. Currency (both ingame and in real life) is just a tool to get what I want to have for me.
There are more values such as sentimental value or collectors value or functional value. And reducing the amount of resources to get an item by around 90% without even accounting for inflation of the required resources definetely also hurts the non currency values.
But I know that economic specialists like John Smith have no clue about things like that. Those people only care about currencies and metrics.

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(edited by Malediktus.9250)

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Posted by: Jabberwock.9014

Jabberwock.9014

And I don’t know who thought 700 chattering skulls was equivalent to 6000 candy corn… 700 skulls is like 3g while the candy corn is like 25g.

Get stoned whenever you want:
Endless Petrification Tonic

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Posted by: Zaxares.5419

Zaxares.5419

I already said before. Items have a value beyond their currency value.
I dont give a crap about the currency value of an item. Currency (both ingame and in real life) is just a tool to get what I want to have for me.
There are more values such as sentimental value or collectors value or functional value. And reducing the amount of resources to get an item by around 90% without even accounting for inflation of the required resources definetely also hurts the non currency values.
But I know that economic specialists like John Smith have no clue about things like that. Those people only care about currencies and metrics.

Sentimental/collectors/functional value would remain completely unchanged regardless of how cheap/expensive or common/rare an item is.

Sentimental value means that the item has personal meaning to you. Maybe it was gifted to you by your girlfriend. Maybe it was the first Exotic that you ever found. Maybe it was even because you spent hours farming for it. (Back in GW1, my Icy Dragon Sword fell into this category. Even as time went on and it became more and more common, I never threw it out because I remember the time, after hours of killing Ice Imps, that the sword finally dropped for me.) Sentimental value is not at all affected by an item’s price or rarity.

Likewise, if you’re collecting something, what’s truly important is that the item is part of your collection. The collection is incomplete without it. Even if the item became super easy to get later, it’s STILL part of your collection, so it’s still fulfilling its role.

By functional value, I’m assuming that you’re talking about the intended use for items such as picks etc. If ANet decided to change, say, the Watchwork Pick so that it no longer dropped sprockets (as an economic decision), then yes, you have the right to complain and ask for a refund because the item no longer does the task you bought it for. But if after 5 years ANet decided to slash prices for the Watchwork Pick and reduce it back to 800 gems, and you paid 1000 gems for it, the functional value of the pick is still exactly the same. It still lasts forever, and it still gives you sprockets.

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Posted by: hydeaut.1758

hydeaut.1758

I dont see this even as remotely fair.

It wasn´t fair last year, this year it is though.

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Posted by: Conski Deshan.2057

Conski Deshan.2057

It’s account bound — it has no value. You cannot gain or obtain any currency value for it.

That’s why everyone is giving the OP a hard time — because the argument is flawed.

It has value, the value is the work put in to obtain it which as the op points out has been significantly devalued.
Ascended armor is account bound, does that mean it has no value? are you telling me if it appeared on a vendor for 5g a pop there wouldn’t be an absolute riot?

Plus it was rarer last year as it was harder to get and rarity is a large part of value too.

[RoF] and [BL] guild leader
11x level 80’s 80+ Titles 2600+ skins , still a long way to go.

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Posted by: Erzmagier.7851

Erzmagier.7851

I don’t really care at all about Prince Thorn as last year’s candy corn acquisition was flawed. But everyone who spent real money on Carlotta is screwed. 500 gems compared to a few gold is ridiculous. A refund would totally be fair.

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Posted by: Malediktus.9250

Malediktus.9250

I dont see this even as remotely fair.

It wasn´t fair last year, this year it is though.

It was fair because noone forced you to get it. It was just a cosmetic reward for a lot of Candy Corn. If 100-200g or whatever the 20k candy corn were worth last year were not worth it to you, you obviously did not care enough about it.

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Posted by: Malediktus.9250

Malediktus.9250

Sentimental/collectors/functional value would remain completely unchanged regardless of how cheap/expensive or common/rare an item is.

Only the functional value stayed the same. If you can get it for a pocket change now it will loose all meaning to you and to collectors. An item which everyone can have is worthless to collectors. Why do you think some people specialize on lets say 100 year old stamps. The rarity and exclusiveness makes it attractive to them, otherwise they might as well collect recent stamps which are worth nothing because millions are printed of them.
Sentimental value is also destroyed if you had to work much harder for something than everyone else who was too lazy to get it in year 1.

I wrote a ticket to request a refund yesterday, still waiting for a response.

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Posted by: silvermember.8941

silvermember.8941

I dont see this even as remotely fair.

It wasn´t fair last year, this year it is though.

It was fair because noone forced you to get it. It was just a cosmetic reward for a lot of Candy Corn. If 100-200g or whatever the 20k candy corn were worth last year were not worth it to you, you obviously did not care enough about it.

Couldn’t the same be said about your rant. Nobody forced you to get it last year either so stop whining that it got easier.

But I suppose based on what others have said, your self worth is based on in-game items being exclusive or something sad like that. I don’t know, could be wrong. (ad hominem FTW).

As u know im pro. ~Tomonobu Itagaki

This is an mmo forum, if someone isn’t whining chances are the game is dead.

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Posted by: Astral Projections.7320

Astral Projections.7320

Sentimental/collectors/functional value would remain completely unchanged regardless of how cheap/expensive or common/rare an item is.

Only the functional value stayed the same. If you can get it for a pocket change now it will loose all meaning to you and to collectors. An item which everyone can have is worthless to collectors. Why do you think some people specialize on lets say 100 year old stamps. The rarity and exclusiveness makes it attractive to them, otherwise they might as well collect recent stamps which are worth nothing because millions are printed of them.
Sentimental value is also destroyed if you had to work much harder for something than everyone else who was too lazy to get it in year 1.

I wrote a ticket to request a refund yesterday, still waiting for a response.

There have been cases where someone bought something in the gem store right before a sale. The answer I’ve seen about refunds in this case is, they give refunds if it’s a matter of hours between the buying and the sale. Since in your case it’s been a year, the likelihood of you getting a refund is probably about zero. Whether or not you get one, I hope you post the result for future reference in similar situations.

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Posted by: juno.1840

juno.1840

It’s account bound — it has no value. You cannot gain or obtain any currency value for it.

That’s why everyone is giving the OP a hard time — because the argument is flawed.

It has value, the value is the work put in to obtain it which as the op points out has been significantly devalued.
Ascended armor is account bound, does that mean it has no value? are you telling me if it appeared on a vendor for 5g a pop there wouldn’t be an absolute riot?

Plus it was rarer last year as it was harder to get and rarity is a large part of value too.

No the value is in how much you enjoy it, because there is no monetary value otherwise.

If you don’t like the item, then you shouldn’t have invested the time to get it. If you find the mini awesome, then great.

The enjoyment value didn’t change. What changed is how many players can now share that enjoyment. In a way you are selfish for not wanting to share the joy of ownership.

Part of me thinks that someone in ANet was thinking “hey, wanna see something funny? Watch this…”

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Posted by: Malediktus.9250

Malediktus.9250

I dont see this even as remotely fair.

It wasn´t fair last year, this year it is though.

It was fair because noone forced you to get it. It was just a cosmetic reward for a lot of Candy Corn. If 100-200g or whatever the 20k candy corn were worth last year were not worth it to you, you obviously did not care enough about it.

Couldn’t the same be said about your rant. Nobody forced you to get it last year either so stop whining that it got easier.

But I suppose based on what others have said, your self worth is based on in-game items being exclusive or something sad like that. I don’t know, could be wrong. (ad hominem FTW).

Normally NPC vendor prices are static and do not change over time. Especially not becoming cheaper. I realized the possibility that the vendor could come back, but based on anets track record it was out of question to become cheaper since the price was not a bug. So how would I know this could happen?

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Posted by: calankh.3248

calankh.3248

I don’t really care about the candy corn I lost with Carlotta, but I would like the three gemstore minis back or the gems. I only bought one pack and transformed them to make the spider. It makes me sad that if I’d have waited I could have one this year pretty cheap.

I don’t mind other people have access to it, it’s a cool mini. But I wouldn’t have transmuted them if I’d known it was going to be accessible this year.

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Posted by: Zaxares.5419

Zaxares.5419

Only the functional value stayed the same. If you can get it for a pocket change now it will loose all meaning to you and to collectors. An item which everyone can have is worthless to collectors. Why do you think some people specialize on lets say 100 year old stamps. The rarity and exclusiveness makes it attractive to them, otherwise they might as well collect recent stamps which are worth nothing because millions are printed of them.
Sentimental value is also destroyed if you had to work much harder for something than everyone else who was too lazy to get it in year 1.

I wrote a ticket to request a refund yesterday, still waiting for a response.

I disagree. I feel that if a collector feels that their collection is “ruined” just because it’s suddenly cheaper or easier to get now, then they weren’t really interested in that item as a collection in the first place. All they wanted was something rare/expensive that only THEY (or a select few) had; a trophy to show off to others as a means of displaying their wealth or status. As soon as that trophy ceases to become a status symbol, they are no longer interested in it.

But all that said, I do sympathise with your loss of the 500 gems, and I do hope you get your refund.

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Posted by: Malediktus.9250

Malediktus.9250

I dont think they even read my ticket properly:
“Thanks for contacting the Guild Wars 2 Support Team.

Before we can make an assessment of this situation, we would like to obtain additional information from you to about the item or items in question. Please respond with the following information:

Date and exact time of the purchase. (as close as you can remember)
Your time zone
Exact name of the item or Items you want to be refunded.

Once you have provided this information we will investigate and let you know if it is possible for us to refund your items. We hope to hear from you soon.

Regards,"
I basically provided all those information as close as possible as I can after this year passed in my initial ticket. Guess I will answer back and hope it helps.

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Posted by: Malediktus.9250

Malediktus.9250

I got an answer to my next ticket:
"Thank you for contacting the Guild Wars 2 Support Team.

At this time, we are unable to fulfill your request. However, please feel free to contact us in the future if we can help you with other issues or concerns.

Regards,"
This sounds highly stupid. Guess I will tune down my Gem purchases again for the next few months. So not refunding me these 6,50€ worth of gems will result in 100s of € I wont spend. Sounds like a good deal for Anet.

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(edited by Malediktus.9250)

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Posted by: Astral Projections.7320

Astral Projections.7320

I got an answer to my next ticket:
"Thank you for contacting the Guild Wars 2 Support Team.

At this time, we are unable to fulfill your request. However, please feel free to contact us in the future if we can help you with other issues or concerns.

Regards,"
This sounds highly stupid. Guess I will tune down my Gem purchases again for the next few months. So not refunding me these 6,50€ worth of gems will result in 100s of € I wont spend. Sounds like a good deal for Anet.

Just out of curiosity, how common is it for a company to give a refund for a product sold a year ago and used freely and at will by the purchaser for that year? A product whose “damage” is only within the mind of the purchaser?

A company can choose how they wish to sell its products and change the terms of how they sell them. They aren’t required to consider how previous purchasers from a year ago feel about making a product cheaper or easier to get.

In other words, if you buy something and a year later it goes on sale or they decide to give it away as a freebie, that’s their decision and they don’t need to consider your feelings or give you a refund.

You spent, what, 500 gems for this? That’s $6.25€ You got that much value for a year. A meal at MacDonald’s can cost more.

(edited by Astral Projections.7320)

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Posted by: Gibson.4036

Gibson.4036

Things are more expensive when they are new. Decreasing their cost over time is a business’ way of maximizing return.

1. Sell a new thing at a premium as long as there exist people willing to pay that cost.
2. When sales drop significantly, offer moderate discounts to get people to buy who were originally on the fence.
3. Release something new and shiny, and significantly discount the original item for people who are very conservative about their money.

It’s not like this is an unsual concept.

Other than GW2, I’ve never paid more than $7 for a video game, because I’m content to wait two to three years and pick it up on a Steam mid-week madness sale. I’m playing the same game (actually, sometimes an improved game due to patches/mods) you spent $50 on back when it was released. Does that upset you? Does it “devalue” the experience you had with the game?

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Posted by: Malediktus.9250

Malediktus.9250

“Things are more expensive when they are new. Decreasing their cost over time is a business’ way of maximizing return.”
Except Anet earns nothing by reducing the price from 500 Gems to a miniscule amount of Candy Corn or plastic fangs. Only thing they achieved is making the people who bought this with gems last year angry.

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Posted by: Chabo.7498

Chabo.7498

“Things are more expensive when they are new. Decreasing their cost over time is a business’ way of maximizing return.”
Except Anet earns nothing by reducing the price from 500 Gems to a miniscule amount of Candy Corn or plastic fangs. Only thing they achieved is making the people who bought this with gems last year angry.

Why would they be angry they have had a year to reap the benefits of owning the miniature. Surely a similar analogy would be a game going free-to-play or having a huge discount a year after game was released. Should all those early purchasers be angry too?

Roaming/Raid Mesmer