Guild Wars 2

Zaxares.5419:

I bought one for each of my 5 characters. For me, the convenience of never having to worry about buying picks ever again trumped everything else. I only maybe buy gems every 3 – 4 months, and only if there’s something I really want, so I could afford dropping the $50 or so for 4000 gems.

I think that if (and it’s a big “if”) ANet releases T7 or higher ore nodes in the future, there’s a good chance that the Molten Alliance picks will be upgraded to harvest those nodes too. The picks were sold on the premise that you’d never need to buy mining picks ever again, so we could argue that the MA picks should be upgraded to match that promise.

Yea they said they have no plans to create higher tier ore at the moment, nor are they working on it. If an update does come way down the road, these will still be really cool.

I got the pick before even knowing it had an animation, liked the idea of not having to bother with restocking picks.

The lava burst when you use it on ores is really cool.

Needs more cool pics! also, make the tree axe frost effect, and gathering maybe like poison effect.

I bought one for each of my characters aswell. It’s only for a limited time offer, and in a game thats about skins and looks, why wouldn’t you get one?

Before knocking it, you need to see the animation effect it makes. Legendary weps cost 2k gold & the only benifit from a cheaper alternative is a cool skin. For those that have the money it’s the same idea, 22g and never buy another pick again, and look amazing while mining. Sounds good to me. I’d rather buy it now then regret it down the road when they are no longer availible.

It seems a bit pricey for what you get. If instead you got a full set of unlimited harvesting tools that could be used on any character, well, that would be a different story. As it is, I’m passing on this.

I’m loving mine. Bought it without blinking.

A.net … I’ve been wanting to buy stuff in the store for ages. Got ton of gems because I want to support this brilliant game. Finally, something worthy comes up. It may not pay for itself in the long run but it’s a nice convenience thing:
- don’t worry about mining copper while doing daily in Queensdale,
- don’t need spare picks,
- don’t need level appropriate picks,
- awesome animation,
- the text implies legendary functionality on orichalcum+1 ores, which I’d expect.

Sure, the price is steep, but isn’t that the idea for a working cash shop. Convenience, flavor and no in-game advantage.

More items like that pick!

Make it Account Bound and I’ll buy one at once. Simple as that.

Healix.5819:

Since they’ve talked about one day increasing the level cap…

Got a link to that? I’d like to see what ANet actually said.

Nike.2631:

Healix.5819:

Since they’ve talked about one day increasing the level cap…

Got a link to that? I’d like to see what ANet actually said.

They did in several pre-launch interviews years ago. If you dig around in some old gaming news sites you can find it yourself.

Flood.6105:

A fool and his money are soon parted.

Lol, I spend $8 to $10 on lunch every weekday. I’m pretty sure I’ll get more enjoyment for my dollar with the pickaxe.

If it’s not $10 worth of cool for some folks that’s fine. There’s lots of stuff in the gem store that’s too expensive for me to want to buy, but I don’t think the folks that do buy it are foolish. It’s a game not an investment.

Healix.5819:

munkiman.3068:

Rajani Isa.6294:

If we could get a statement, one way or another, as to wether or not this will ALWAYS work on any mining node it would be great.

Hmm, unless i’m missing something, they haven’t said anything about a higher type of materials ever being introduced. So the worry that something is always going to work seems a bit misplaced.

Since they’ve talked about one day increasing the level cap, the odds of getting higher level nodes is more likely than not. Regardless of the level cap, I would imagine harder zones, such as the ring of fire, would have something above orichalcum level. They could even decide that ascended gear should be craftable and add special nodes requiring “ascended” tools.

If the pick was intended to be usable forever, they would probably be advertising it as such, since it would sell more. By leaving it unclear, those that hope it will last forever will buy it, whereas if they directly said it wouldn’t, some of those people would no longer want it.

Let’s look at it like this: the pickaxe will be just like the legendaries. They upgrade along with new tiers, such as it is with ascended and legendary weapons. You’ll also have those limited-time-only pickaxes that are upgraded with the new ascended tools.

Either way, they are both speculation. My thinking is that they will be upgraded since it is a very limited item.

tell me when you collect 55k ores…

And I say that compensated

Ratto.1572:

tell me when you collect 55k ores…

And I say that compensated

I collected 3 ores with a really cool lava effect… and I can do that for every ore node I see. I got what I paid for and am quite satisfied.

Pandemoniac.4739:

Ratto.1572:

tell me when you collect 55k ores…

And I say that compensated

I collected 3 ores with a really cool lava effect… and I can do that for every ore node I see. I got what I paid for and am quite satisfied.

Laaaaavaaaa. Also I use it on copper nodes, this is how I make giant krytan pennies. Just sayen.

Ok, so I saw one in action. I caved. Bought 1 only for my main. Pure vanity, as the economics of the item are rotten, but so cool. Sigh. “I feel so —- weak.”

JakHammer.7094:

Ok, so I saw one in action. I caved. Bought 1 only for my main. Pure vanity, as the economics of the item are rotten, but so cool. Sigh. “I feel so —- weak.”

Don’t feel bad – you are now part of the molten miners clique I had no intention of buying anything for a while, but I couldn’t resist either.

Pandemoniac.4739:

JakHammer.7094:

Ok, so I saw one in action. I caved. Bought 1 only for my main. Pure vanity, as the economics of the item are rotten, but so cool. Sigh. “I feel so —- weak.”

Don’t feel bad – you are now part of the molten miners clique I had no intention of buying anything for a while, but I couldn’t resist either.

I’ll echo that statement. Just too cool and convenient to pass up.

Buying the pick to support Anet.

agauos.8794:

Buying the pick to support Anet.

+1… I like the convenience of never having to remember to get lower-level picks when doing dailies in low-level zones, and the lava effect is cool. Plus it keeps the game going. ANet – please add more of these sorts of things; perma-sickles, axes, and salvage kits are definitely a no-brainer as far as I’m concerned, if they run in the same price range.

Nope…not paying ANet after being screwed over as much as I was with BLC for my attempts at fused tickets before quitting.

Yet another potentially huge seller squashed by insanely high pricing. They would probably have sold 100X as many at a third the price. Yep, they sure know what they are doing here at the Gem Store…

Fiontar.4695:

Yet another potentially huge seller squashed by insanely high pricing. They would probably have sold 100X as many at a third the price. Yep, they sure know what they are doing here at the Gem Store…

And yet there are already quite a few people that have bought several of them for their characters. So clearly it does sell quite a bit, even at the “insanely high pricing”.

Fiontar.4695:

Yet another potentially huge seller squashed by insanely high pricing. They would probably have sold 100X as many at a third the price. Yep, they sure know what they are doing here at the Gem Store…

What is with people projecting their own opinions on the entire playerbase, then concluding “Yup terrible sale, Anet would’ve made more money if they only catered to me.”

Seriously? Judging from the fact that Orichalcum had a pretty significant drop in price and all the anecdotal evidence on the forums, I imagine a ton of people bought it.

They have actual sales data. You don’t. You just end up sounding stupid and self-centered when you make conclusions like that without any evidence at all.

We actually kinda do have sales data, just look at the gems store explosion. Sure we don’t know exact numbers but it’s no coincidence that right after announce the gem prices blew up.

Ratto.1572:

tell me when you collect 55k ores…

And I say that compensated

The amount of Ore needed to “break even” with the pick purchase is a false economy.

People who buy it for looks of ‘cool’ factor don’t need to have it “pay for itself” but even if you are trying to justify the purchase in terms of an “investment” or as a “cost savings” you can’t pin it to the value of gold.

Instead, you need to look at the amount of time being saved by having it. With a single unending pick you don’t ever have to buy new picks. Buying new picks takes time. Owning an unending pick will save you time over the long run. If you have ever run out of picks while mining and had to go to a merchant or summon a merchant to buy more you have you know that having a never-ending pick is hugely worthwhile.

Even if you always manage your picks perfectly you are still spending your time in the game purchasing them when you could be doing other activities that make gold that would pay for the purchase of the pick.

Anyway, the whole idea of trying to tie the value of the gems to gold and then claiming it takes 4000 or 5000 uses to have it “pay for itself” doesn’t work. What if gems cost more tomorrow? Or less?

I think the pick is great value for what it is. Plus it has awesome cool factor!!

whiran.1473:

Anyway, the whole idea of trying to tie the value of the gems to gold and then claiming it takes 4000 or 5000 uses to have it “pay for itself” doesn’t work. What if gems cost more tomorrow? Or less?

I think the pick is great value for what it is. Plus it has awesome cool factor!!

Also, since I payed cash for my gems, the folks doing the calculation would have to use the gems->gold conversion rate, not the gold->gems rate.

Regardless, it’s tough to make the case that the pickaxe is worth it just as a replacement for regular tools. I agree with you whiran, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me to calculate how many times you have to use it. How long does it take to get your return on investment from a permanent bank access contract at 200 or so gold?

I don’t think that’s how most folks decide the value of a thing. They look at the thing, they look at how much it costs, they look at their budget, they think about other things they could get with that money, and they decide if whatever appeals to them about it is worth it. For a lot of folks, the picks don’t merit the cost simply because they would rather have that 25G or $10 to spend on something else.

I’m fortunate that $10 is a sweet spot for me – I don’t really think that hard about purchases around $10 if I haven’t already blown my entertainment budget (i.e., Steam isn’t having one of their big sales). If it was $20, eh maybe I would have thought about it a bit more but bought it anyway. Everyone’s sweet spot is different. I’m sure Warren Buffet doesn’t blink at ordering a $100 kittentail um, drink before dinner.

It replaces something you buy by the stack with something with endless uses. What other way would you calculate the value than to calculate how many uses you need to break even? Plus, you don’t buy all stacks at once, you buy them as needed. As others have pointed out, there is no guarantee that there won’t be a higher tier ore in the future that these won’t work on. This just increases the odds that you won’t actually recover the cost of your investment.

Currently, trading gems for gold is really the only way to reliably support the game with out high odds that you are being ripped off in one way or another. If you couldn’t spend cash for gems that can then be converted into gold, these things would be much more subjective. However, we can calculate an actual break even point on these and I just don’t see it ever making sense for the vast majority.

Ursan.7846:

Fiontar.4695:

Yet another potentially huge seller squashed by insanely high pricing. They would probably have sold 100X as many at a third the price. Yep, they sure know what they are doing here at the Gem Store…

What is with people projecting their own opinions on the entire playerbase, then concluding “Yup terrible sale, Anet would’ve made more money if they only catered to me.”

Seriously? Judging from the fact that Orichalcum had a pretty significant drop in price and all the anecdotal evidence on the forums, I imagine a ton of people bought it.

They have actual sales data. You don’t. You just end up sounding stupid and self-centered when you make conclusions like that without any evidence at all.

Why would these have any impact on the price of Orichalcum? Unless, of course, not having to replenish mining picks has just made mining node bots that much more efficient?

So many businesses fail due to poor pricing it isn’t even funny. Some people are just so obsessed with getting the highest margin per sale that they lose sight of the fact that they would make a lot more money via volume with a more reasonable price point.

These are all virtual goods with pretty much zero per item cost. A price point difference of 50% is likely to have an exponential impact on units sold. For many items offered, there is no objective way to calculate value. Here there is. It should be pretty obvious that if they had priced these so that the average player would see them pay for themselves in, say, 3 months of normal game play that not only would the sales be exponentially higher, but the pricing has the real potential of developing good will with customers AND enticing players to buy gems that have mostly resisted the temptation to this point.

We are really talking about two things here. Loss of potential revenue due to poorly calculated sell price and loss of good will, which can have serious implications for the future of the game, that occurs when people come to view the gem store as nothing but a big rip off machine. IMO, who ever is running the shop is probably costing the company millions in lost revenue and damaging the long term prospects for the game due to the continual generation of ill will.

I mean, for crying out loud, what is with the mentality that a cash shop item isn’t worthy of being sold unless it is in some way a rip-off for customers? Why can’t they just sell things people want at prices that are fair and actually entice people to buy who might not otherwise because the value is so apparent?

Fiontar.4695:

Why would these have any impact on the price of Orichalcum? Unless, of course, not having to replenish mining picks has just made mining node bots that much more efficient?

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/bltc/Price-of-Ori/first#post1849902

There you go. John Smith basically stating that the assumption “not enough people have bought the pick to cause an Ori mining rampage” is wrong.

Also munkiman makes a very good point. The spike in the Gem/Gold exchange is also a pretty good indicator of the item’s popularity.

Fiontar.4695:

So many businesses fail due to poor pricing it isn’t even funny.

Yes. But…

Fiontar.4695:

IMO, who ever is running the shop is probably costing the company millions in lost revenue and damaging the long term prospects for the game due to the continual generation of ill will.

…It’s just that you’re projecting your opinions onto the general populace and claiming the company is losing “millions” without ANY data to back up your claims.

Which makes you sound really stupid, especially when indicators that we can see (impact on ori prices, Gem/Gold exchange) seem to show that this item is pretty hotly coveted. Will it sell more if it’s cheaper? Of course. But will that increase volume make up for the loss in the reduced price, and what will be the economic impact when you remove an important gold sink (purchase of gathering tools) from a larger portion of players?

Fiontar.4695:

I mean, for crying out loud, what is with the mentality that a cash shop item isn’t worthy of being sold unless it is in some way a rip-off for customers? Why can’t they just sell things people want at prices that are fair and actually entice people to buy who might not otherwise because the value is so apparent?

Just a quick glance at this forums shows at least 5 people who does not think the purchase is a rip-off in any way, shape or form. Can you please stop projecting your idea of “fair prices” to the entire population?

Fiontar.4695:

It replaces something you buy by the stack with something with endless uses. What other way would you calculate the value than to calculate how many uses you need to break even? Plus, you don’t buy all stacks at once, you buy them as needed. As others have pointed out, there is no guarantee that there won’t be a higher tier ore in the future that these won’t work on. This just increases the odds that you won’t actually recover the cost of your investment.

Currently, trading gems for gold is really the only way to reliably support the game with out high odds that you are being ripped off in one way or another. If you couldn’t spend cash for gems that can then be converted into gold, these things would be much more subjective. However, we can calculate an actual break even point on these and I just don’t see it ever making sense for the vast majority.

There was a couple other things mentioned beyond the ROI factor, which apparently some people enjoy overlooking and that’s totally fine. But i’m not one to nickle and dime myself out of a convenience item.

That said, there is the fact that “which you can buy, by the stack” will make it a worthwhile investment, there’s been more than once that i’ve need one more slot, but i’ve had a copper set of picks taking up my valuable bag space.

Second is the cool factor. Sure i can buy a 3 times the size cubic zirconia of the price of a diamond, but i’ may just opt for the diamond, since it has value beyond the scope of what my roi is and of course, it makes my wife happy, which is win win for me.

lordkrall.7241:

Fiontar.4695:

Yet another potentially huge seller squashed by insanely high pricing. They would probably have sold 100X as many at a third the price. Yep, they sure know what they are doing here at the Gem Store…

And yet there are already quite a few people that have bought several of them for their characters. So clearly it does sell quite a bit, even at the “insanely high pricing”.

Four of them, thanks.
Pretty much the only thing stopping me from outfiting more of my stable of 14 characters is that they might come up with different themed ones later, and I’d rather buy, say, 4 ice-theme picks when they come out rather than 8 fire-themed picks right now.