Guild Wars 2

Would it be possible to add rewards for purchasing Gem Cards at our local gaming stores? I know that the cards cost some small fraction of a cent probably to make, but I think it would bolster the sales of cards and help further support the game.

Nothing game breaking of course, but I was thinking maybe one of the following:

Mini 3 Pack (Currently 300 gems on store)
Dye Pack (Currently 200 gems on store)
5 Fine Transmute Stones (5/200 Gems on store)
Booster Multipack (300 Gems on store)
10 Unidentified Dyes
Maybe a Karma Consumable item? (Not sure if this would hurt anything too much.) Maybe 1 Jug, not sure. Although this might be considered p2w sort of, if so disregard :P

Any of those or perhaps special minis/items that can be found by buying the cards. Since NCsoft sold all their stocks to create a western company, maybe offering more US rewards and perhaps EU would get more gamers to buy gems in stores.

The items listed are just ideas, and maybe there are better/more ideas that fit as well. Or possibly every month it could change, who knows. I’m just curious if Arenanet would do something like this and what players think. Just so people know this is something that NCsoft does for the games Aion and Lineage II. The codes are sent via email and applied to the account. I’m not sure if Arenanet could incorporate this the same way but maybe there are better ways to do as well.

What do you think?

PS I know this is a “suggestion” but it applies directly to the Black Lion Trading Company.

Edit: I was just thinking Guild Influence couldn’t hurt as a reward, that would help smaller guilds for the new Missions. Maybe through consumables like we have now, a “Commendation” or w.e worth 1,000/2,000?

I’m assuming you are having a problem finding Gem Cards in your local retailer and/or that you are a cash Vs plastic consumer (or simply rather not enter their CC/DC number in a game).

Now I can see a “sale” on Gems for those buying online, 1) it’s easy to implement and 2) Anet is getting all the money from the sale as oppose to Gem Cards where the retailer and POSA service gets a cut.

And that’s the problem with offering deals on Gem Cards, ANet is already “losing” (as in not getting it all) money on that card. So it becomes a question of is ANet losing retail partners willing to carry the Gem cards and/or how much of the buying Gems for real money business is from Gem cards.

If the cards sell well enough, they don’t take up a lot of shelf or warehouse space, and the retailer’s cut if sufficient, I don’t see how they would be losing retail partners. Without that, a drop in retailers carrying the cards, I don’t see a reason they would want to boost the overall sales, from the retailer’s perspective, by bundling in goodies.

Now if there was a decline in bought Gems and the decline is significantly more prevalent to Gems from cards Vs direct purchase then maybe it’ll be something they would be willing to pursue.

Behellagh.1468:

I’m assuming you are having a problem finding Gem Cards in your local retailer and/or that you are a cash Vs plastic consumer (or simply rather not enter their CC/DC number in a game).

Now I can see a “sale” on Gems for those buying online, 1) it’s easy to implement and 2) Anet is getting all the money from the sale as oppose to Gem Cards where the retailer and POSA service gets a cut.

And that’s the problem with offering deals on Gem Cards, ANet is already “losing” (as in not getting it all) money on that card.

No, my local gamestop keeps them stocked specifically for me lol. The problem with the online store is that my card has been used on multiple account for NCsoft etc, and customer service has stated i can no longer use that card number for purchases via in game. So I usually go to my local store anyway, as I did when I played Aion (same problem with CS). This is also a problem with many others I’ve talked to, to the point where most people have said they can’t use their card at all.

But what I’m saying is that NCsoft who owns Arenanet “already” does this for Aion and Lineage II. The in game items wouldn’t hurt the economy really and would make purchasing them more worthwhile for gamers.

http://na.aiononline.com/posa

They sell gem cards? Where?

Ema.4953:

They sell gem cards? Where?

https://www.facebook.com/GuildWars2/posts/10151161572874209

US+ Gamestop as well. Old list I guess heh.

Not in Australia though oh well

Ema.4953:

Not in Australia though oh well

You don’t have any of those stores listed?

Ah yes, NCsoft and CCs. There were lots of problems in CoH as well with monthly limits and number of purchases in a single day. Not with every card or every player just enough that many found NCsoft’s online store annoying as heck.

Well Aion is a much older game and if NCSoft’s quarterly reports are right, has had a shrinking population of players recently. Which would be another reason to do such a program especially since it went from subscription to F2P with cash shop. Then again wasn’t Aion player data hacked early on?

Behellagh.1468:

Ah yes, NCsoft and CCs. There were lots of problems in CoH as well with monthly limits and number of purchases in a single day. Not with every card or every player just enough that many found NCsoft’s online store annoying as heck.

Well Aion is a much older game and if NCSoft’s quarterly reports are right, has had a shrinking population of players recently. Which would be another reason to do such a program especially since it went from subscription to F2P with cash shop. Then again wasn’t Aion player data hacked early on?

I had the monthly limit thing as well.. drove me nuts. Once it even locked my card, that was a long and not nice email lol.. I don’t remember a data hack problem for players, I’d say its about par with other MMO’s where players don’t know better and get phished or keylogged from websites. Aion is a bit run over with RMT at the moment, not my kind of game anymore. But they have had them(cards) since July of 2012 I think, honestly i can’t remember if they were free to play or not then. But I can definitely imagine they are losing revenue with that game being its all about the store..

I just think adding something small to the cards would help, in combination with better items on gem store could really help support the development of what players have been asking for. And money is always good motivation to fix bugs etc as well :P Not to say of course they should do that solely for that reason.

Geotherma.2395:

Ema.4953:

Not in Australia though oh well

You don’t have any of those stores listed?

I can access Amazon of course but the rest don’t exist in Australia. If I was going to buy it online I might as well just get them in game.

Ema.4953:

Geotherma.2395:

Ema.4953:

Not in Australia though oh well

You don’t have any of those stores listed?

I can access Amazon of course but the rest don’t exist in Australia. If I was going to buy it online I might as well just get them in game.

This is true, but don’t you have EBgames? Sorry never been to Aussie land ^^;