Guild Wars 2

Okay, firstly, I know this has come up before, but I haven’t seen it in a while and I’m revisiting it. Secondly, and more importantly, I think this would make ANet money. Thirdly, WXP is supposed to be made account bound soon, so this isn’t unprecedented.

I like collecting things, as do many players. If dyes were account bound, then I would collect them, it would have been a goal from the start (it actually WAS a goal from the start, including only using unidentified dyes to do so, until I realised they were character bound). If I was collecting dyes, then I would also invest money in gem store dyes (I’d even enjoy the luck factor, to a degree). In short, while I represent one player, by making dyes character bound, you have stopped me spending money in the gem store.

My solution:

1) Make unlocked dyes account bound.
2) Where an account has more than one of that any specific dye unlocked, mail one (or more if necessary) unused dye to their account. If the mail system can’t cope, introduce an NPC to do the job.
3) If (2) is impossible, then implement (1) anyway, and deal with cases where people owned many of the same expensive dyes individually via tickets, as was done with Flamekissed Armour. I believe a lot more players would be happy with the change than upset, and those that were upset could be appeased relatively easily in most cases.

Results:

1) People start collecting dyes, people buy more dyes with gems.
2) Specific dyes become more sought after, raising prices.
3) People only need one of each, balancing out (2).
4) A new type of activity has been introduced to the game for players with alts (dye collecting), making the game more fun for them.

God I wish….I have bought midnight fire twice, white twice, oil slick and pitch 3X each…..and molten, abyss, midnight purple….arghhhhhh. <Casso collapses in heap>

I actually agree, I have even stopped opening the “unidentified” dyes, because of this. It’s just too annoying to have a dye for one character but not for others.

I dont know if it’s even possible now with their core code. :/

Not likely to happen since that was how it was originally planned and it got changed. There will be even more unwanted common dyes. Price decrease might actually make them worth throwing into the MF.

At best I could see this happening with gem store only dyes but that would probably result in a price increase for those dyes.

Khisanth.2948:

At best I could see this happening with gem store only dyes but that would probably result in a price increase for those dyes.

I wouldn’t mind the price increase because those dyes would actually increase in value. I hate the current system where I only buy the dyes I specifically want for that character (and if I then change my look, the dye is basically wasted).

I really don’t know why the current system is in place. I can’t see it making more profit than the alternative (hopefully the infinite tools reflected this and will encourage such a change), particularly given that there is no incentive to buy a dye pack you don’t actually want “just to complete the set”. It also makes the game less fun for people with alts (or considering an alt).

While I would love to see this happen, I think the current system is far too entrenched (and much too profitable for ANet) for such a change to happen now.

Disagree. Maybe for future dyes, but not current ones. And this is coming from someone who has used a ridiculous number of the expensive ltd. ed dyes.

If we have to choose between account bound unlocks and tradeable dyes, I’ll go with the latter. But I really would like the unlocked ones to be account wide. I have over 2 bank tabs chock full of expensive dyes (I spent laurels on unid’d ones for quite a while) that I haven’t used because I can’t decide which alt gets them despite handwriting out what dyes I had and logging in on each alt to preview and then writing down which alt wanted them and how badly …

Same reason I still haven’t used my gas mask, in some ways, though the gas mask truly is unique and the dyes are just a bit hard to get more of.

Donari.5237:

If we have to choose between account bound unlocks and tradeable dyes, I’ll go with the latter. But I really would like the unlocked ones to be account wide. I have over 2 bank tabs chock full of expensive dyes (I spent laurels on unid’d ones for quite a while) that I haven’t used because I can’t decide which alt gets them despite handwriting out what dyes I had and logging in on each alt to preview and then writing down which alt wanted them and how badly …

Same reason I still haven’t used my gas mask, in some ways, though the gas mask truly is unique and the dyes are just a bit hard to get more of.

That is easy for me. I am in the process of unlocking every dye on every character. On certain characters before others. Excluding the gem store ones. Not going to bother with that kind of lottery.

certain dyes i could see being account bound but as stated earlier: it is profitable for anet to have people buying dyes from the gem store.

if they made unique dye for say a meta event then it better be account wide dye, maybe even with the exclusive dyes (as in molten toxic and such)

maybe even some rare dyes should be account bound (such as abyss and celestial)

crosknight.3041:

certain dyes i could see being account bound but as stated earlier: it is profitable for anet to have people buying dyes from the gem store.

if they made unique dye for say a meta event then it better be account wide dye, maybe even with the exclusive dyes (as in molten toxic and such)

maybe even some rare dyes should be account bound (such as abyss and celestial)

I would be happy if they made just rare dyes account bound. If I spend 30 gold for Abyss, it should be for everyone now and future. Everything else is affordable so just limit the account bound dyes to the rares….

I’ve acquired a grand total of 15 dyes, all from random Unidentified Dyes. Once I realized that each character had separate dyes, I lost all interest in the dye system and now just sell any that drop.

Collecting things for your account (mini pets, achievement points, home instance upgrades, etc.) is VASTLY superior to collecting things for your character because it allows you to play the way you want to, with whatever character you want to play on. Character bound stuff is a relic of the subscription age and has no place in a modern MMO.

As much as I would love for my characters to share a dye pallet I can pretty much guarantee you it will not happen. I have collected every dye on 1 character and buy select dyes on others. If they were account bound it would not make anet money. People who like dyes spend a lot on them and if they only had to buy them once then anet will lose sells in the long run. Just wait until a new race is released.. or a new profession then they can run a promo with all their exclusive dyes and rake in the money.

crosknight.3041:

certain dyes i could see being account bound but as stated earlier: it is profitable for anet to have people buying dyes from the gem store.

I think this is debatable. As I said in my OP, I specifically don’t buy gem store dye packs because they are character bound and it made me lose interest in collecting the set. There is no incentive for completionists with alts to grab any dyes other than the ones they want. Even for the ones who want to complete the set on alts, they can just say this:

Khisanth.2948:

I am in the process of unlocking every dye on every character. On certain characters before others. Excluding the gem store ones. Not going to bother with that kind of lottery.

There is already precedent that ANet acknowledge this kind of reasoning because the infinite gathering tools were made account bound. Outside of the gem store, WXP and an account locker are looking optimistic.

I am not sure what the stats are, so can’t say it IS more profitable for them to be account bound. I’m just throwing my hand up and saying “I don’t buy gem store dyes because they are character bound.”

Even if it was even financially for ANet, its a change that would make the game more fun for collectors, and also add more variety to the aesthetics that we see around the world.

I also gave up on collecting dye. I have spent a small in game fortune on dyes 4 celestial, 4 abyss, and I even sold my flame dye….. Cause I was sick of on lying having it on one person. If even go as far as saying if they change it don’t refund my money… It was how the game was then just open it up on all now….

I’m willing to take that as an answer.

Account bound dyes make the most sense from a player perspective, but Anet is obsessed with gold. As such it is likely that threads like this are seen as something to poke fun at among their ranks. A player with 5 characters that wants Abyss dye for each of them is far more likely to pay real cash for gold to buy the gems, than a player who could just farm the gold to buy one dye for his/her whole account.

tl:dr: It’s all about the money, dyes will never be anything but soul-bound

Dyes were originally supposed to be account-bound.

Read the original blog posts from ArenaNet of the Guild Wars 2 they envisioned.

It’s a much greater game than what we received.

Neural.1824:

Account bound dyes make the most sense from a player perspective, but Anet is obsessed with gold. As such it is likely that threads like this are seen as something to poke fun at among their ranks. A player with 5 characters that wants Abyss dye for each of them is far more likely to pay real cash for gold to buy the gems, than a player who could just farm the gold to buy one dye for his/her whole account.

tl:dr: It’s all about the money, dyes will never be anything but soul-bound

Judging from the rest of the things they do it seems more like they design everything under the assumption that most people only play one character anyway(LS rewards, ascended crafting, dungeon access, etc.). They are probably right and even have the data to back it up. Whether that justifies a particular design decision is up for debate.

Khisanth.2948:

Neural.1824:

Account bound dyes make the most sense from a player perspective, but Anet is obsessed with gold. As such it is likely that threads like this are seen as something to poke fun at among their ranks. A player with 5 characters that wants Abyss dye for each of them is far more likely to pay real cash for gold to buy the gems, than a player who could just farm the gold to buy one dye for his/her whole account.

tl:dr: It’s all about the money, dyes will never be anything but soul-bound

Judging from the rest of the things they do it seems more like they design everything under the assumption that most people only play one character anyway(LS rewards, ascended crafting, dungeon access, etc.). They are probably right and even have the data to back it up. Whether that justifies a particular design decision is up for debate.

Dungeon access: Only one person in the party needs to have completed story mode to do explorable… (unless you’re talking fractals… Which is a completely different issue because of the associated gear-grind and Infusions, but the fractals were designed to be geared towards players that are into that sort of thing.)

Ascended crafting: In all honesty, it wasn’t that hard for me to get from 400 to 500 in leatherworking… And I think I should, in theory, be able to craft Medium armor for multiple characters if I want to. It’s just account-bound, not soulbound upon crafting, right?

You can also buy Damask, Elonian Leather, etc. from the TP… So time limitations are virtually non-existent. (Provided you have the coin to afford it.)

There’s no real reasoning behind leveling the SAME crafting profession on multiple characters to 500, in my mind. Why waste the materials and gold?

It’s the same in any other MMO as well… You have different crafting professions on different characters.

Also, the past two LS releases didn’t really have any “rewards”…
The first LS release (Frost & Flame) had an account-bound title, that no one seems to use anymore.

We have far too many back-item skins anyway… Do you really want to use the Anti-toxin Injector skin on every character?

Hmm, I could see a large crash in the market of the “Expensive/sought after” dyes,i know I’m not the only one with 6-7+ characters, all with Abyss/Black/Celestial/White Etc on each of them, it would add a massive supply (if they returned all the extra dyes)(and if they didn’t there would be outrage of people having wasted hundreds of gold), while the demand would probably remain similar (remember that most people actually already have them) (this is all speculation and my own thoughts on the matter)

They should make the Sunless, Flame and Frost and those sorts of dyes account bound IMO. Some of them are really nice dyes but the RNG in cash shop items is a can of worms no one likes, and it leads to ridiculous prices.

I got myself a Charred Dye from a gifted Flame Dye pack but holy kitten, it’s going for well over 100gold now. For a single dye. That’s anything but reasonable, given you have the RNG, Cash shop price and temporary nature to factor in all together.

-Donotwantface.-

Natsu Dragneel.1625:

Hmm, I could see a large crash in the market of the “Expensive/sought after” dyes,i know I’m not the only one with 6-7+ characters, all with Abyss/Black/Celestial/White Etc on each of them, it would add a massive supply (if they returned all the extra dyes)(and if they didn’t there would be outrage of people having wasted hundreds of gold), while the demand would probably remain similar (remember that most people actually already have them) (this is all speculation and my own thoughts on the matter)

See this is where it is hard to speculate without numbers. You may be correct. However, I suspect you are not particularly common in this regard. So while the supply may go up a bit, the demand would reflect it.

Moreover, it would suddenly make the dyes people don’t want MUCH more popular because people want them for completion. Not only would this mean that we might see more variety in dye use (because Abyss wouldn’t have as much “prestige”) but the extra value on low dyes would make gem store dye packs less of a gamble because you no longer get “worthless” dyes.

Without numbers though I have absolutely no idea where anything would go. I just know that it would encourage collection (which would encourage gem store purchases), and make players happy, which seems good enough reason to me.