Guild Wars 2

I really want some feedback, and opinions here. I want to know if people feel the same way I do about how unappealing the Gem Store is.

If I’m going to spend real world cash that I had to work my butt off for, then I’d like something worth buying. I put aside lots of money for gaming. I’ve literally spent thousands on “Free” to play games. Champion skins for LOL, and Premium tanks in WOT, etc… Now here I am in GW2, and I’m looking to support ANET. I honestly feel that this is the best MMO going right now. I want to support them, and keep this thing going. The gem store sadly has little to nothing to offer.

$10 armor, and weapon skins that are one time use? Who needs em? Almost everything in the store is one time use or expires. I want permanent account upgrades, and items. Yeah, I bought bank tabs, and character slots, but now what? I got excited when I saw the Watchwork mining pick. I couldn’t wait to equip my characters with that. Then I saw that you couldn’t just “withdraw” it for each character. You had to either switch it over to each character when you log or buy like $100 worth of them for all your characters. It’s easier just to use the 4 silver ones. Why spend money on garbage like this?

Please Arena Net, consider re working the Gem Store, so it’s worth spending some money. I am willing to throw a ton of cash at this game, once there’s something to buy. The basic ore node is a cool idea. I’d like to see more stuff like that. Home instance upgrades, or maybe even an entire new home instance that you can buy, and upgrade. I’d gladly buy a Pick, Axe, and Sickle that was designed to be withdrawn from a special items tab on each character. I’d purchase tons of armor, and weapon skins if they could be withdrawn the same way. Remote bank, and trading post access on a permanent basis would definitely get me spending money.

I’m sitting here, with cash in hand just waiting for a reason to spend it. Anyone feel the same way?

But you could pass the pick though your bank to another character. True they spoiled us once they introduced the skins from achievement rewards. But skins are different than items. They, ANet, have been more than accomidating changing the Gem Store gathering tools from soul to account bound. Is passing it though your bank between characters so inconvenience? How often during a play session do you change characters?

A number of things you are suggesting are buy once, never again. That really doesn’t help ANet in the long run. Gem store skins needing transmutation crystals to shift them to new armor is exactly the kind of consumable that ANet rely on. Obviously, if the various sales so far this month has indicated, that boosters really aren’t that highly in demand even on sale. No it’s account unlocks like bank and bag slots, BLC keys still and truly impressive skins.

I do completely agree, but it’s simply not going to happen. GW2 has a great amount of convenience items, but you have to pay for convenience several times over if you have more than one character. And they do make money like that. How much more over account-wide upgrades I wouldn’t know, but they seem to be doing just fine having the system make you repurchase everything for each character.

Convenience gathering tools becoming too inconvenient to bank for your alts? Buy more!

Which is why I haven’t bought any, even after the soul bound versions were removed. I can’t be inconvenienced by something that’s supposed to be convenient.

Completely agree… I mean what do they have to lose by adding a couple more skins… It will only give the customer more options.

I agree too, though sadly the good suggestions don’t usually make it for some weird reason.

Same thing with a ‘race change item’ suggestion, ‘account bound dyes’, ‘dyeable weapons’, ‘legendary dyes’, the list goes on.

All good ideas, but they’re just ignored :-(

I spend plenty of money on the Gem Store. There’s a lot of good stuff in there. Plus, I get access to awesome bonus items like Mini Mr. Sparkles when I spend a lot.

I already spend a decent amount on the gem store… I would imagine that would at least double though if they made the skins more than a one time use.. I’d probably buy them all just to have them.

Yeah, I don’t understand why the gem store model is “low sales at high prices” rather than “high sales at low prices”. It would cost nothing (nearly) to make things account bound or unlocks, and they would sell hugely more because they’d then appeal to the collector market. Plus it seems sensible to make lots of people happy, rather than have so many people dissatisfied with the gem store.

I love GW2, and I really want it to do well (and will happily spend money to support it), but its become progressively more and more difficult to feel like a valued customer.

Convenience items I’d definitly pay for (and a lot more) if they’d be available for all my characters where-as currently I wouldn’t buy them at all since I play 8 characters on a regular basis. Mainly thinking along the lines of the gathering tools and bag slots.

Armors and Weaponskins how-ever, I think it would be a bad descision. 10 euros for a full armorset is far from bad, especially in a game with little vertical progression. I’ve purchased certain sets multiple times just to get some bits and pieces from it for mix-matching armor and bought plenty of Transmutation Crystals to look the way I want to look. If there’re more people like me it’s a wonderful market.

So I definitly wouldn’t go as far as calling the gemstone worthless, I might avoid certain purchases but I still bought plenty. And those I avoid, someone with 1 toon likely gets for completionist reason, where-as (s)he will be less likely to spend as much as I do on skins.

Yup, I am no game economist but the business plan of Anet definitely leaves me stone cold in terms of willingness of making purchases. The biggest issue are the skins. One time use only, and than the option to remove the skin from the armor by some crystal nonsense….eeeh..no thanks. I will never make such a purchase, but Anet cant seriously drop this system off because they trapped themselves hard. If they release a new skin that would be re-usable for the same gem store price as a skin that doesn’t offer this, they would effectively troll a large amount of customers that cant re-use the skin. A good example was the molten pick vs. watchwork pick..people were kittened off. And if they release it and even increase the price…people might not buy in because, IMO, the gem store prices are very high for what they do.

No, I think the gem store is great. It isn’t pay to win, and it doesn’t make it feel like a free to play game supported by a billion microtransactions. It’s good.

You know I was just going to make a thread identical to this but figured I’d see if anybody else felt the same first.

GW2 is the first MMO I’ve been hooked on since I became an independent adult. I’ve given MMO’s a good break for 3-4 years and back when I used to play them I could never afford ‘in-game purchases’ even though I really wanted to be able to.

I constantly scour the Gem Store looking for things to buy and all I can think is “Really, is this it? Am I missing a tab somewhere that lets me view all products rather than a limited selection”.

I know it sounds mad wanting to spend money on a game I’ve already paid for but I genuinely get a lot of enjoyment from the game and rather than spend it on naff games I pick up for £3 every month, I’d rather just spend £20 or so on GW2 and focus on that.

Eventually I bought the Black Lion introductory pack for 1600 gems and realised I’d been massively ripped off (although the boosters I got are starting to pay for themselves). My only other thought was to maybe convert into Gold as I could have got like 96g for 1600 gems but realistically I have nothing I need to buy with Gold yet and most things seem to require me paying with Laurels or Karma anyway (although I’m not 80 yet so I may change my mind). Even then though, I’ve heard top gear can take like 100g worth of crafting materials per item. If that means I need to convert 1600gems for each item I’d end up spending £100+ on some silly pieces of armour in a game!

I think ANet makes a lot of money on the gem store. Why offer things of value when you can get money my offering things of less value.

From a business perspective, if you can get 1 guy to buy the same item 4 times, you’re better off than if 3 people buy it once.

TooBz.3065:

From a business perspective, if you can get 1 guy to buy the same item 4 times, you’re better off than if 3 people buy it once.

They could charge a major premium if skins were available for permanent use. For instance, they could charge 1200 gems for a reusable skin where they charge 800 gems now for a one-time use. In that case, 3 people buying it is the same as 1 guy buying it 4 times.

+1 for “i’d actually buy things if they were unlocked for the account to withdraw as often as needed.”

TooBz.3065:

I think ANet makes a lot of money on the gem store. Why offer things of value when you can get money my offering things of less value.

From a business perspective, if you can get 1 guy to buy the same item 4 times, you’re better off than if 3 people buy it once.

From a business perspective, if you can get 1 guy to buy the same item 4 times, you’re worse off than if 100 people buy it once.

I haven’t made a gem store purchase in 6 months. If they switched to an unlimited withdraw per account system I probably would have spent at least $60+ in that same time frame.

Microtransactions in GW2 is making NCSoft millions, as per their quarterly reports. If one person didn’t spend $60, another person spent $600. That’s pretty good from a business perspective.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Microtransactions in GW2 is making NCSoft millions, as per their quarterly reports. If one person didn’t spend $60, another person spent $600. That’s pretty good from a business perspective.

This is fair, but I remain convinced that an account withdrawal style system would make them more money in the long run (especially if they charge a 50% premium for the upgrade) because it would lure in collectors and a lot of others who are remiss to spend money on one-time use skins. The real cost is in the development hours to implement the system, although that is something highly requested for PvE anyway and would probably make a lot of people happy in general.

Don’t get me wrong RD, I would also be happy if they had the GW1 system of multiple uses for skins. I’m just saying that if NCSoft is making tonnes of money, there’s little chance something will change.

I believe there’s more risk in lowering prices, and hoping for sales in bulk, than keeping the current model of premium pricing.

TooBz.3065:

I think ANet makes a lot of money on the gem store. Why offer things of value when you can get money my offering things of less value.

From a business perspective, if you can get 1 guy to buy the same item 4 times, you’re better off than if 3 people buy it once.

Agreed – to some extent. But the only things APPROACHING price-value equity on there are bank, stack, etc upgrades (and even those are too high-priced IMHO). NOTHING right now compels me to buy at current prices.

If they don’t wanna add new items (coding), just bump those prices down a bit.

I don’t suspect it will happen until people spending RL money (not gems from gold) slack a bit, though.

Look at the ticket scraps from the black lion chests, you only get one from maybe every 5 keys, and 50 to 70 of them to get a skin, so only 250 keys to save up (if youre lucky). Kind of pushes it from “Maybe il spend 20 bucks a month on this game if it gives me some cool skins and it will support a game i like at the same time” to "they want HOW MUCH money for simple things that i can only use on one character?!?!? "

Though considering the cost of these things is basically 0 (minus staff salaries) i bet they make plenty of money on it either way

KarateKid.5648:

TooBz.3065:

I think ANet makes a lot of money on the gem store. Why offer things of value when you can get money my offering things of less value.

From a business perspective, if you can get 1 guy to buy the same item 4 times, you’re better off than if 3 people buy it once.

Agreed – to some extent. But the only things APPROACHING price-value equity on there are bank, stack, etc upgrades (and even those are too high-priced IMHO). NOTHING right now compels me to buy at current prices.

If they don’t wanna add new items (coding), just bump those prices down a bit.

I don’t suspect it will happen until people spending RL money (not gems from gold) slack a bit, though.

They thing a lot you people seem to fail to grasp is that Anet doesn’t need everybody to buy things from the cash shop. They only need a few to buy from the cash shop, that is how games with cash shop make their money. The few generates most of the income for the majority.

Basically they just sent the message yesterday that they can edit our already-purchased goods whenever someone else on a forum complains about something, on a whim, so I am forced to draw the same conclusion as the OP’s title.

From what i hear about the Flame-kissed armor, it isn’t the first time, either.

I spent more than I should have in the Gem Store, so I guess in some ways I should be thankful that Anet gave me a reason to never buy from them again…

What Silvermember said.

Cash shops are designed to chase “whales”, the players who throw lots of money at a game without care. Creating items of significant value for those of us who carefully consider purchases and spend only moderate amounts is not as profitable.

It’s been a year and a half, without a great deal of change to how the cash shop functions. If it wasn’t working, Ms. Cox would have changed something by now.

Xirus.9675:

Basically they just sent the message yesterday that they can edit our already-purchased goods whenever someone else on a forum complains about something, on a whim, so I am forced to draw the same conclusion as the OP’s title.

From what i hear about the Flame-kissed armor, it isn’t the first time, either.

Indeed. Anet admitted there was a mistake made with the Flame-kissed light armor skin. Kudos to them for not only admitting the mistake, but then fixing it as well. Players who weren’t happy with the fix were given refunds.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Xirus.9675:

Basically they just sent the message yesterday that they can edit our already-purchased goods whenever someone else on a forum complains about something, on a whim, so I am forced to draw the same conclusion as the OP’s title.

From what i hear about the Flame-kissed armor, it isn’t the first time, either.

Indeed. Anet admitted there was a mistake made with the Flame-kissed light armor skin. Kudos to them for not only admitting the mistake, but then fixing it as well. Players who weren’t happy with the fix were given refunds.

They didn’t get refunded from what I’ve read.

That being said, it really wouldn’t be much effort to not thrust retroactive changes on people who already purchased skins from the Gem Store.

I’d rather not go for a refund. I, for one, have already included this armor as part of my character’s abilities on my blog: http://xirus11.blogspot.com/2014/03/nyxs-res-liber.html
I know I’m not the only one who integrated this armor with their character.
I know I’m not the only one who cares when someone screws with stuff after we buy it.
So don’t even try to act as if this fact makes me unique in any way. That would be a load of bull, pure and simple.

Plus, you’re not taking into account the cost of runes, sigils, transmutes, upgrades, etc. when calculating said refund, even if it were an option.

This is pure insanity. My expectations are a product of numerous compromises, and are well within the bounds of reasonable expectations as a loyal customer of the Gem Store, and as a customer of any business – period.

Xirus.9675:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Xirus.9675:

Basically they just sent the message yesterday that they can edit our already-purchased goods whenever someone else on a forum complains about something, on a whim, so I am forced to draw the same conclusion as the OP’s title.

From what i hear about the Flame-kissed armor, it isn’t the first time, either.

Indeed. Anet admitted there was a mistake made with the Flame-kissed light armor skin. Kudos to them for not only admitting the mistake, but then fixing it as well. Players who weren’t happy with the fix were given refunds.

They didn’t get refunded from what I’ve read.

Players had to have contacted Customer Support to get refunds. See the following announcement:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/news/Flamekissed-Armor-Skin

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Xirus.9675:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Xirus.9675:

Basically they just sent the message yesterday that they can edit our already-purchased goods whenever someone else on a forum complains about something, on a whim, so I am forced to draw the same conclusion as the OP’s title.

From what i hear about the Flame-kissed armor, it isn’t the first time, either.

Indeed. Anet admitted there was a mistake made with the Flame-kissed light armor skin. Kudos to them for not only admitting the mistake, but then fixing it as well. Players who weren’t happy with the fix were given refunds.

They didn’t get refunded from what I’ve read.

Players had to have contacted Customer Support to get refunds. See the following announcement:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/news/Flamekissed-Armor-Skin

Thank you, i read this.
The issue is that they didn’t do this with the Zodiac gear. Instead of warning us, temp removing it, re-posting the changed version, and letting people who purchased it before keep the old version, or offer a refund – they just crammed the changes down our throat, and made a side note in the patch notes yesterday!

And all because a few people complained about the “chest area”. No legal risks or anything, just a few people raging about it on the feedback forum. It’s insane.

CrashTestAuto.9108:

Yeah, I don’t understand why the gem store model is “low sales at high prices” rather than “high sales at low prices”. It would cost nothing (nearly) to make things account bound or unlocks, and they would sell hugely more because they’d then appeal to the collector market. Plus it seems sensible to make lots of people happy, rather than have so many people dissatisfied with the gem store.

I love GW2, and I really want it to do well (and will happily spend money to support it), but its become progressively more and more difficult to feel like a valued customer.

That ^
100% dat.

I’m so on board with people that comes to realization that the gem store really needs improvement and what this guy said pretty summarizes the missing link between the gem store and the public.

I said this to a friend last night. They must hate money, ‘cause if they put in armour/clothing items like the ones that the NPCs wear, I am sure they would be swimming in money. I don’t know how many have asked, but I am sure its a significant number since people have been wanting these styles since before launch.

My only issue with the the harvesting tools is that they’re hardly ever for sale. I can’t always afford to buy them, but when I can they’re never up. >.<

At least the tools are account bound now and you can swap them. I have multiple level 80s, but I generally only play on my main (guardian) and my elementalist. Having these two with full bag slots and harvesting tools is worth it for convenience, but if I were to use any of my other toons I’d probably just swap the tools over for harvesting runs. Easy enough to start and end my run by WP to a bank.

As for armor skins, I want more quality skins. Ones that mix in well with other skins in the game. My main issue with this last zodiac skin is that you’re turned blue and can’t mix it with other sets. Then there’s the flamekiss set that was just reskins. There are a few good sets and I’d like to see more released.

I think the QQ over “withdrawing” armor skins is a bit much though. You’re buying one set of the skin, and 10$ isn’t terrible. Make sure you put it on the right armor and not some level 53 masterwork. If you change your mind down the road, use a transmutation crystal and voila.

Xirus.9675:

Behellagh.1468:

Xirus.9675:

Update: I have decided to keep playing Guild Wars 2. I simply will not be using the dysfunctional Gem Store until my concerns as a customer are addressed.

I’ll notify the media.

Honestly, you’re just ticked because they took away the phantom nipples. That is hardly in the same class as the Flame armor clone Human Cultural mistake, which is why you aren’t going to get a rebate. What’s next, being upset because they fixed clipping errors.

I love how posts like yours, which are condescending, and the definition of rude, never get infracted.

Thanks for proving my point. Really…

Oh, and nice ad hominems. You really know how to make a strong case for why Guild Wars 2 should just edit people’s armor retroactively after purchase, and just silence customers when they post their concerns about this trend. You make such a strong case by trying to prove that I’m just being some creepy perv for wanting anatomically correct boobs! Those people in Europe are creepy pervs, too! There’s a lot of countries, and even US cities, that have whole populations of creepy pervs who want nipples and skin to not be censored! Reality is so scary! Ahhh!!! How have we survived as a species???

Yep – way to grossly oversimplify things to try to make my concerns sound petty and irrelevant. Acting that way to other customers is sure to attract new players to the game.

I also love how you basically took two little lines out of a wall of text and only responded to that. Classy. Everything about your response is just so classy – not rude whatsoever… >_>

Way to keep the love coming, Anet.

Sorry if I’m mistaken but I believed that was the gist of your various deleted posts. Since all they “fixed” was the normal map and a little bit of clipping through the armor under the breasts I simply classify that as an overreaction.

You have to understand the game got it’s various game ratings in the US, UK, EU and Australia based on the existing content and the presumption that it’s not going to change. IF, the change was done to eliminate any doubt that the zodiac armor is an energy field projected from bits of armor and not translucent blue shrink rap with bits of armor like some soft porn fantasy film then it was done to protect the ratings of the game. Anyways the underlying models are Barbie and Ken accurate, which is saying they’re not. So there isn’t anything you could see if the blue was a translucent layer.

By being upset you are implying that the minor changes ruined the look you were looking to achieve when you bought it and that the selling points were a hint of nipple and areola, which the change in the normal map eliminated. And to be honest, looking at the pics from the closed zodiac thread, I don’t see an difference in the coverage of the armor bits as some have implied.

So I consider this to be an uproar over nothing. Certainly not anything to heap abuse on the ANet art team or any forum members who may disagree with your take on the situation.

Behellagh.1468:

Xirus.9675:

I love how posts like yours, which are condescending, and the definition of rude, never get infracted.

Thanks for proving my point. Really…

Oh, and nice ad hominems. You really know how to make a strong case for why Guild Wars 2 should just edit people’s armor retroactively after purchase, and just silence customers when they post their concerns about this trend. You make such a strong case by trying to prove that I’m just being some creepy perv for wanting anatomically correct boobs! Those people in Europe are creepy pervs, too! There’s a lot of countries, and even US cities, that have whole populations of creepy pervs who want nipples and skin to not be censored! Reality is so scary! Ahhh!!! How have we survived as a species???

Yep – way to grossly oversimplify things to try to make my concerns sound petty and irrelevant. Acting that way to other customers is sure to attract new players to the game.

I also love how you basically took two little lines out of a wall of text and only responded to that. Classy. Everything about your response is just so classy – not rude whatsoever… >_>

Way to keep the love coming, Anet.

Sorry if I’m mistaken but I believed that was the gist of your various deleted posts. Since all they “fixed” was the normal map and a little bit of clipping through the armor under the breasts I simply classify that as an overreaction.

You have to understand the game got it’s various game ratings in the US, UK, EU and Australia based on the existing content and the presumption that it’s not going to change. IF, the change was done to eliminate any doubt that the zodiac armor is an energy field projected from bits of armor and not translucent blue shrink rap with bits of armor like some soft porn fantasy film then it was done to protect the ratings of the game. Anyways the underlying models are Barbie and Ken accurate, which is saying they’re not. So there isn’t anything you could see if the blue was a translucent layer.

By being upset you are implying that the minor changes ruined the look you were looking to achieve when you bought it and that the selling points were a hint of nipple and areola, which the change in the normal map eliminated. And to be honest, looking at the pics from the closed zodiac thread, I don’t see an difference in the coverage of the armor bits as some have implied.

So I consider this to be an uproar over nothing. Certainly not anything to heap abuse on the ANet art team or any forum members who may disagree with your take on the situation.

I’m just concerned that this will become a trend – someone complains about something on a forum, and suddenly the skin gets changed for -everyone- to suit their rage. They could change the skin without forcing those changes on people who have already purchased the armor. Heck, if it was offered as an optional update, I may very well have made a whole blog post out of it, and been happy with the update, explaining that her skin armor got thicker or something.

It was the fact that they -forced- these changes -retroactively- on -past purchases- that has destroyed my trust of the gem store.

In most MMO’s, they do the things I’ve just described. It’s not that hard to respect customers’ past purchases…

They could edit the skin to have her boobs flailing everywhere and I’d still be upset. And not a single moderator even bothered to say a word to me when I messaged them. There’s simply no justification for that…its just rude, and as much as I’d like to believe that I’m overreacting, that simply isn’t the case. I can’t accept this precedent. Most players can’t. It doesn’t matter how “small” or “petty” or “pervy” or “proper” the change is, and if you were actually reading that thread, you would see that I was not the only one concerned about this trend.

They. Forced. It. On. People. Retroactively. Who. Had. Already. Purchased. This. Item.

I don’t know how you could possibly miss that this was the primary reason for my concerns, as I have used the words “forced” and “retroactively” more times this week than in my entire life. -_-

And I was incredibly happy with Guild Wars 2 and Anet until I found out that they did this.

They could have at least given us fair warning, and the option to get a refund.

I’d at least be happy if I knew I could get a refund for this, or even if a mod or cs person messaged me back when I messaged them on this site. They didn’t do that.

They just deleted and banned and silenced and forced. That is my issue.

This is about the principle of not forcing changes on other’s purchased goods, and poor customer service. As far as I’m concerned, they could have made the nipples pokey, and I’d still be here.

If they didn’t mention it, would anyone have noticed right away if at all?

See I look at it as a "bug" fix. It’s just as if they fixed a clipping issue someone pointed out. They didn’t add more armor or move armor as some suggested in the zodiac thread. I’m sure nobody at ANet thought about it until someone pointed it out. And after a long look and consideration they told the art department to tweak it just to be safe. That’s why I didn’t see it as a big deal. If the top of my head peeked through the top of my hat and they fixed it, would I be upset? No. Even if I didn’t mind before it likely bothered others.

The flamekissed armor was clearly a misstep that they admitted too quickly and they understood why players who paid a lot of gold for their Tier 3 cultural armor would be upset that anyone could now buy a "nicer" variant with gems and at the time and with gold bought gems also cheaper. Now zodiac armor simply brought up the time honored chain mail bikini for females Vs full plate for males issue. Are the armors practical or simply cosmetic. If they only had practical armors in the game everyone would either look like a tin can, a leather fetishist or a walking quilt.

We had something like this happen back in City of Heroes. It was a trick of the shader combined with the mesh but it sure darn well looked like the game was having a wet spandex contest. But since the cleverer among us dumped the textures before and after and there wasn’t any art asset there, it was an artifact of the mesh + normal map + shader. Also it was more noticeable the darker the color was, white wasn’t revealing while black "hinted" at something. There was no drama, no rage quits, no vowing never to buy another thing from the game.

But I do understand your point. You are concerned that the masses may be able to alter an item significantly after purchase if they make a loud enough noise. And the only real case of that was the light flamekissed armor which was quickly caught and refund system put in place if the owners didn’t like the change. Personally I would have rebated the cost and strip them of the item immediately but I don’t run ANet’s business.

Behellagh.1468:

If they didn’t mention it, would anyone have noticed right away if at all?

See I look at it as a “bug” fix. It’s just as if they fixed a clipping issue someone pointed out. They didn’t add more armor or move armor as some suggested in the zodiac thread. I’m sure nobody at ANet thought about it until someone pointed it out. And after a long look and consideration they told the art department to tweak it just to be safe. That’s why I didn’t see it as a big deal. If the top of my head peeked through the top of my hat and they fixed it, would I be upset? No. Even if I didn’t mind before it likely bothered others.

The flamekissed armor was clearly a misstep that they admitted too quickly and they understood why players who paid a lot of gold for their Tier 3 cultural armor would be upset that anyone could now buy a “nicer” variant with gems and at the time and with gold bought gems also cheaper. Now zodiac armor simply brought up the time honored chain mail bikini for females Vs full plate for males issue. Are the armors practical or simply cosmetic. If they only had practical armors in the game everyone would either look like a tin can, a leather fetishist or a walking quilt.

We had something like this happen back in City of Heroes. It was a trick of the shader combined with the mesh but it sure darn well looked like the game was having a wet spandex contest. But since the cleverer among us dumped the textures before and after and there wasn’t any art asset there, it was an artifact of the mesh + normal map + shader. Also it was more noticeable the darker the color was, white wasn’t revealing while black “hinted” at something. There was no drama, no rage quits, no vowing never to buy another thing from the game.

But I do understand your point. You are concerned that the masses may be able to alter an item significantly after purchase if they make a loud enough noise. And the only real case of that was the light flamekissed armor which was quickly caught and refund system put in place if the owners didn’t like the change. Personally I would have rebated the cost and strip them of the item immediately but I don’t run ANet’s business.

Thank you… breathes massive sigh of relief

Sorry for getting so defensive, but its been more of a pain in the neck than it should be trying to get that point across to people, and I’ve been dealing with loads of wonderful stress elsewhere, too. Between chronic [a few years, only diagnosed recently] sleep apnea, and idiots encountered while doing activism for different causes on social networks, and then this nonsense, I’m surprised that my brain isn’t oozing out of my ears. -_-

[and this is just the past week. This has actually been, by far, the best week for me yet this year, too(with the exception of playing guild wars 2, of course)…Fun times >_< ]
Guild Wars 2 and Skyrim have been a major source of stress relief for me. So its one heck of a relief to finally get my point across to someone, and not feel so alienated Thank you again for providing said relief.

I really do hate dealing with conflict and drama, period. It’s just that when things hit so close to me, I can’t just sit back and not stand up for my rights, and the rights of those around me…

Then I hope you understand why I replied to “Update: I have decided to keep playing Guild Wars 2.” with my sarcastic remark. See I don’t know you from Adam and that statement implies that somehow your participation in this game is worth some note. I see it the same as someone who declares the party can now start since they arrived. Basically an egotistical, self important diva and I really hate those. I can’t put into words how much I loath people who believe their opinion simply matters more than the rest of the masses.

I had an experience a week ago with someone who thought rules didn’t apply to him and I simply couldn’t smack him upside the head but my seniors insist that we have to grin and bear it because the people he represents are simply too important to our little non-profit. So I still have a nerve frayed by that and seeing something similar here got you the sarcasm cannon pointed in your direction. Sorry about that.

Behellagh.1468:

Then I hope you understand why I replied to “Update: I have decided to keep playing Guild Wars 2.” with my sarcastic remark. See I don’t know you from Adam and that statement implies that somehow your participation in this game is worth some note. I see it the same as someone who declares the party can now start since they arrived. Basically an egotistical, self important diva and I really hate those. I can’t put into words how much I loath people who believe their opinion simply matters more than the rest of the masses.

I had an experience a week ago with someone who thought rules didn’t apply to him and I simply couldn’t smack him upside the head but my seniors insist that we have to grin and bear it because the people he represents are simply too important to our little non-profit. So I still have a nerve frayed by that and seeing something similar here got you the sarcasm cannon pointed in your direction. Sorry about that.

Yea, I understand, and no worries. I wholeheartedly respect the company as far as their rules go. My opinion is just as valid as anyone else’s, and if they just changed it without doing the retroactive nonsense, or gave a warning, etc, I would have never even bothered visiting the feedback thread and raging there. I also don’t consider myself important [actually, most people would say that I have major self-esteem issues, and that I apologize too much >_< ]

I just know that basic common sense dictates that a dealer shouldn’t key a car two weeks after its been sold, and skins in a game work the same way. It may be a minor change, but the principle still applies. My ego and existence are irrelevant compared to integrity and principles – it wasn’t my intention to sound egotist. I just have a very strong opinion on this matter, and it seems silly that anyone would think that they had a right to dictate something I bought and now own. I don’t tell anyone else how to live their lives, or what they should and shouldn’t like, buy, etc., so idk why others feel the compulsion to do that with me and other people.

I think everyone in the US, UK, Australia, and some parts of the EU have their nerves pinched for reasons not limited to this game in particular. I’m gonna take my melatonin here, and hope that tomorrow Anet decides to tell me that they, at least, aren’t changing this armor anymore. I would also hope that neither of us gets infracted, when its clear that this was just a misunderstanding fueled by mind-numbing stress and insomnia – two problems that each individual in every “first world” country is sharing right now.. I really, really don’t want to have an issue with anyone, let alone the company that made my favorite MMO.

Rutan.3854:

I really want some feedback, and opinions here. I want to know if people feel the same way I do about how unappealing the Gem Store is.

Wait what? But… you know the second sentence contradicts the first?

Rutan.3854:

$10 armor, and weapon skins that are one time use? Who needs em? Almost everything in the store is one time use or expires. I want permanent account upgrades, and items.

That would be nice, but it doesn’t bother me too much (although yeah being able to reuse skins even if only on a single character would be a big improvement… here’s hoping ANet get’s around to creating that wardrobe some of us have been waiting for).

If anything I’d rather call for an end to the temporary items in the gemstore, a lot of good items come and go, and when they go the Gem Store feels a bit empty.

Anybody that is concerned with this change actually raised a ticket and asked for a refund?
Im pretty sure, they will give it to you.

I’ve always felt that for a game that is so focused on RL gem sales that the gem store itself was incredibly underwhelming. The sheer lack of product gives one the impression of walking into a store in the mall that only has 10 or 12 product for sale on a whole bunch of empty shelves.
Why it is they are so obsessed with selling items one time for a short period of time is beyond me. It leaves new players feeling left out, and only makes current players that happened to be short on money that month mad. For what? The chance that someone will splurge and pay an extra $20 so they can get a special axe for more than one character?

gem stores seems fine to me. build up some gold, some sweet armor or weapon skins. There is no way to please everyone but they do a decent job of it. If gem store had been purely real money I’d of been a bit annoyed but allowing players to get gems with gold is very nice

Anet is trying to avoid making this P2W while still pulling in profits to fund themselves

No problem with the gemstore myself except. Why oh why do they feel the need to limit the selling time on weapon skins. I couldnt care less if a million other people got the same skin as me as long as i can get what i want.

Neural.1824:

I’ve always felt that for a game that is so focused on RL gem sales that the gem store itself was incredibly underwhelming. The sheer lack of product gives one the impression of walking into a store in the mall that only has 10 or 12 product for sale on a whole bunch of empty shelves.

Exactly!

Neural.1824:

Why it is they are so obsessed with selling items one time for a short period of time is beyond me. It leaves new players feeling left out, and only makes current players that happened to be short on money that month mad. For what? The chance that someone will splurge and pay an extra $20 so they can get a special axe for more than one character?

My theory goes like follow: if they have the items permanently players will be able to farm gold and exchange it for gems. If they have the items temporarily, players who are not able to farm sufficient gold will have to buy gems.
Of course this is probably not a good strategy. However since ANet has been doing this ‘march sales’ thing it’s possible that they’re seeing what impact discounts have on sales, does it increase real money sales or simply gold→gem trade in. I’m guessing that if these sales shows a increase in real money sales, then ANet might decide to stop with temporary items (thus slowly increasing the amount of available items or time) and rather use discounts instead.

CureForLiving.5360:

Neural.1824:

I’ve always felt that for a game that is so focused on RL gem sales that the gem store itself was incredibly underwhelming. The sheer lack of product gives one the impression of walking into a store in the mall that only has 10 or 12 product for sale on a whole bunch of empty shelves.

Exactly!

Neural.1824:

Why it is they are so obsessed with selling items one time for a short period of time is beyond me. It leaves new players feeling left out, and only makes current players that happened to be short on money that month mad. For what? The chance that someone will splurge and pay an extra $20 so they can get a special axe for more than one character?

My theory goes like follow: if they have the items permanently players will be able to farm gold and exchange it for gems. If they have the items temporarily, players who are not able to farm sufficient gold will have to buy gems.
Of course this is probably not a good strategy. However since ANet has been doing this ‘march sales’ thing it’s possible that they’re seeing what impact discounts have on sales, does it increase real money sales or simply gold->gem trade in. I’m guessing that if these sales shows a increase in real money sales, then ANet might decide to stop with temporary items (thus slowly increasing the amount of available items or time) and rather use discounts instead.

I think thats what this march sale is really about. You announce your having 1 day sales on 1 item day for a month and people who missed something or want to get more before it disappears again will suddenly rush for gems. meaning a increase in real money. thats the reason for limited time items. they can resell things later without any work and get a new flood of cash if it was popular.