Guild Wars 2

Please stop advertising gold for gems. It is having a adverse effect on some of the playerbase (Especially those that frequent the forums). I know you are trying to combat gold sellers by letting players who may not know that they don’t need to go to 3rd parties to get gold for real life cash. But I feel like the fact you are advertising it is creating some negative feeling in small vocal sections of the community. I also feel that some players may buy into the negative feelings that the small vocal sections of the community are feeling.

Basically please stop advertising gold for gems. I think it is doing more harm then good.

EDIT: Perhaps I needed to clarify. I am not against the gems → gold conversion I am 100% for it. I just don’t think it should be advertised in Evons post at the moment.

Except that was the whole purpose of having the exchange in the first place. The rate is high enough now that a $25 gem card is worth around 150 gold. Evon’s weekly post is all about what to buy with gems, preferably gems bought with cash, and gold is one of those things. Gold is the gift card of Tyria.

Here’s the problem in a nutshell. The Gold to Gems side of the exchange was set up to finance the Gem to Gold side. It’s designed so that as long as players convert gold rather than convert gems, the rate will rise, faster and faster, thus requiring more gold for similarly priced items from 6 months ago. This is an attempt to ween players from gold to gem and encourage them to crack open their wallets and pay some cash. But instead players are desperately looking for a way to get more in game gold to buy gems the buy the nifty doohickey just introduced at the Gem Shop. But the devs are NEVER going to increase the drop rate of coin into the game and nerf any activity that perverts gameplay for the almighty loot.

So we have this disconnect. ANet needs players to buy gems with cash. Doesn’t have to be a lot of players, but I assume they do have goals they are trying to meet in terms of quarterly income. And we have players who only want everything in the Gem Shop for “free” by earning in game gold. Except all the use of in game gold to buy items from the Gem Shop has now made it increasingly difficult to buy items from the Gem Shop using only gold.

Irresistible Force … Immovable Object

Your choices are spend a little money, complain about it or leave. Of course the 3rd choice leaves you only F2P MMOs with paywalls that deny you actual content, dress you in drab rags and give you a lunch sack size inventory or a P2P MMO with a monthly fee in the $140-180 a year range that will still charge you for exclusive DLC.

Behellagh.1468:

Except that was the whole purpose of having the exchange in the first place. The rate is high enough now that a $25 gem card is worth around 150 gold. Evon’s weekly post is all about what to buy with gems, preferably gems bought with cash, and gold is one of those things. Gold is the gift card of Tyria.

Here’s the problem in a nutshell. The Gold to Gems side of the exchange was set up to finance the Gem to Gold side. It’s designed so that as long as players convert gold rather than convert gems, the rate will rise, faster and faster, thus requiring more gold for similarly priced items from 6 months ago. This is an attempt to ween players from gold to gem and encourage them to crack open their wallets and pay some cash. But instead players are desperately looking for a way to get more in game gold to buy gems the buy the nifty doohickey just introduced at the Gem Shop. But the devs are NEVER going to increase the drop rate of coin into the game and nerf any activity that perverts gameplay for the almighty loot.

So we have this disconnect. ANet needs players to buy gems with cash. Doesn’t have to be a lot of players, but I assume they do have goals they are trying to meet in terms of quarterly income. And we have players who only want everything in the Gem Shop for “free” by earning in game gold. Except all the use of in game gold to buy items from the Gem Shop has now made it increasingly difficult to buy items from the Gem Shop using only gold.

Irresistible Force … Immovable Object

Your choices are spend a little money, complain about it or leave. Of course the 3rd choice leaves you only F2P MMOs with paywalls that deny you actual content, dress you in drab rags and give you a lunch sack size inventory or a P2P MMO with a monthly fee in the $140-180 a year range that will still charge you for exclusive DLC.

Hmmm, I dunno, at the end of the day they seem to be making a lot of money. But if i would hazard a guess as how to make more? it would probably through real content. As for how to monetize it?
the classic sell for gems, many returning and players with decent cash flow would rather buy it for 40 dollars than spend 400 gold, or 400-80 hours and their ingame resource to get access.

another option, i think they should add, is a sort of vote with your dollars system.
If they dont want to charge because it will seperate the playerbase, they can give it for free, but essentially with this vote with dollars system make players who feel content is worthwhile show support.

when you have a patch that you like, you can buy a vote with dollars gemtype. These gems are slightly more expensive. say instead of 10$ for 800 its 10$ for 750 but, you can buy in increments of 1 as long as you are over 750.
Also they give special titles based on the patch you support.
i wouldnt put too much of actual value here, you wouldnt want people to do it for any other reason than to show support for whatever content just came out.

the advantage? this type of gem is voting with your wallet. Anet gets direct feedback on what people like, what they will pay for, and what engages them and keeps them coming. The success of things like kickstarter show that people will actively support something they like. they can even add a short message people can add to the purchase for better feedback
I believe this will encourage anet to make good content, and encourage people to support the type of content they like. Whats the difference between that and what we have now? messaging, and feedback.

anyhow just some thoughts

I don’t see the problem. It’s a win for all parties.

1) Anet gets their $$$.
2) The gem-buyer knows how much they are getting for their $$$.
3) More people buy gems due to this, so gold→gem price drops a little.

Yes well GW2 is still number 2 in income at NCSOFT for the games they list, excluding income from royalties which should popup next quarter under royalties. Just don’t expect GW2’s direct income to go up from China as listed in the quarterly report.

But I imagine that NCSOFT does have a preferred income per employee that they would like their games to hit. And if it wasn’t for China their first quarter would have been horrible. Worse in nearly 3 years.

But the thread is about advertising the Gem to Gold service. When I started at the beginning of December 2013, a $25 gem card got you about 25 gold.

Seriously, I just don’t understand why all these “negative feelings”?

The game has been released for almost two years and all that time everyone knows that you can buy gems with real money and convert them into gold. If you don’t like that, then why do you even play this game? And what is even more ridiculous, you agreed to the terms of the game, then try to discourage others from buying gold with gems through the gem store.

Buying gems with real money and selling them for gold is an important earning for ArenaNet, considering that the exchange rate is favoring that as time goes on. Of all the items that you can get for your gems, gold seems to be more and more favorable, especially when more people have been converting gold to gems than the other way around. The GW2 economy is designed to be balanced this way, ever since beta.

Seriously, I just don’t understand why all these “negative feelings”.

The game has been released for almost two years and all that time everyone knows that you can buy gems with real money and convert them into gold. If you don’t like that, then why do you even play this game? And what is even more ridiculous, you agreed to the terms of the game, then try to discourage others from buying gold with gems through the gem store.

Buying gems with real money and selling them for gold is an important earning for ArenaNet, considering that the exchange rate is favoring that as time goes on. Of all the items that you can get for your gems, gold seems to be more and more favorable, especially when more people have been converting gold to gems than the other way around. The GW2 economy is designed to be balanced this way, ever since beta.

Flissy.4093:

I don’t see the problem. It’s a win for all parties.

1) Anet gets their $$$.
2) The gem-buyer knows how much they are getting for their $$$.
3) More people buy gems due to this, so gold->gem price drops a little.

BINGO. Especially #3, which I’m interested in.

I think the negative feelings are from the people who can’t afford to purchase Gems with real money. That leads to jealousy of people like us who have made a lot of Gem purchases.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

I think the negative feelings are from the people who can’t afford to purchase Gems with real money. That leads to jealousy of people like us who have made a lot of Gem purchases.

They hurting themselves and the game while doing that by discouraging others from converting gems to gold:

1. Gem price keeps increasing relative to gold when they keep discouraging others from bringing down the price by converting the other way.
2. Without infusion of real income for ArenaNet, they hurt the game.

I see reddit down-voting and flaming whenever someone brings up converting gem to gold through the gem store. Please support this cause by up-voting them back up whenever you see this happening in reddit.

DarkSpirit.7046:

I see reddit down-voting and flaming whenever someone brings up converting gem to gold through the gem store.

Good.

Rewards earned solely through gold sinks and credit card swiping are extremely lame. Call me crazy, but I like to earn things through actual gameplay; I’m glad to know that there are people out there that feel the same way I do.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

I think the negative feelings are from the people who can’t afford to purchase Gems with real money. That leads to jealousy of people like us who have made a lot of Gem purchases.

I have a lot of jealousy against people who make 1000’s of gold in the TP. I’m generally told to suck it up. I suggest these people do the same.

Flytrap.8075:

DarkSpirit.7046:

I see reddit down-voting and flaming whenever someone brings up converting gem to gold through the gem store.

Good.

Rewards earned solely through gold sinks and credit card swiping are extremely lame. Call me crazy, but I like to earn things through actual gameplay; I’m glad to know that there are people out there that feel the same way I do.

Depends on the game play. IMO gw2 has never rewarded fun gameplay. They have rewarded stacking and zerging.

Flytrap.8075:

DarkSpirit.7046:

I see reddit down-voting and flaming whenever someone brings up converting gem to gold through the gem store.

Good.

Rewards earned solely through gold sinks and credit card swiping are extremely lame. Call me crazy, but I like to earn things through actual gameplay; I’m glad to know that there are people out there that feel the same way I do.

Have fun playing after the servers are shut down!

Perhaps a lot of people are misunderstanding the purpose of my post. Due to it being detached from content and in attempt not to insult anyone.

I was asking them to hold off advertising the gems to gold conversion in the blog post. Not stop the ability to do it. I fully support the gems->gold and gold->gems conversion. It reduces gold sellers and provides a source of income. It also gives players another option to earn gold to get what they wanted.

I think whenever there is a nerf to income(like the changes to queens pavilion). That patch week ArenaNet don’t advertise gold to Gems conversion. It can give the more conspiracy theory minded players ammunition.

Flytrap.8075:

DarkSpirit.7046:

I see reddit down-voting and flaming whenever someone brings up converting gem to gold through the gem store.

Good.

Rewards earned solely through gold sinks and credit card swiping are extremely lame. Call me crazy, but I like to earn things through actual gameplay; I’m glad to know that there are people out there that feel the same way I do.

It is called paying so that myself and others (who are too lame to pay) can play the game.

You are asking a Company to not advertise their main source of income…..good luck with that….

anzenketh.3759:

I think whenever there is a nerf to income(like the changes to queens pavilion). That patch week ArenaNet don’t advertise gold to Gems conversion. It can give the more conspiracy theory minded players ammunition.

Conspiracy theorists don’t need ammunition, they make up their own.

Anet isn’t going to pay attention to them, anyway, so why would they be concerned? No one with half a brain takes them seriously. That would be like saying “shut down the forums so the trolls have nothing to do!” The forums are here for a reason beyond the trolls, it would be foolish to deny legitimate users a forum just because of this.

Advertising gems – gold conversion is good for business because more people read those announcements than the forums. And with the majority of conversion activity going in the other direction (buying “free” gems with in-game currency), the gems to gold rate is becoming more attractive to casual players while annoying grinders who get less gems every month for their gold.

The more people who know they can get gold for their real money instead of grinding boring content for hours on end (and using up very limited playing time not having fun), the better it is for everyone. Casuals can keep up with the grinders, and the hardcore players get more gems for their gold as the exchange rate begins to move in the other direction.

If you go outside, you might get rained on. Is this a reason to never leave your house?

tolunart.2095:

anzenketh.3759:

I think whenever there is a nerf to income(like the changes to queens pavilion). That patch week ArenaNet don’t advertise gold to Gems conversion. It can give the more conspiracy theory minded players ammunition.

Conspiracy theorists don’t need ammunition, they make up their own.

Anet isn’t going to pay attention to them, anyway, so why would they be concerned? No one with half a brain takes them seriously. That would be like saying “shut down the forums so the trolls have nothing to do!” The forums are here for a reason beyond the trolls, it would be foolish to deny legitimate users a forum just because of this.

Advertising gems – gold conversion is good for business because more people read those announcements than the forums. And with the majority of conversion activity going in the other direction (buying “free” gems with in-game currency), the gems to gold rate is becoming more attractive to casual players while annoying grinders who get less gems every month for their gold.

The more people who know they can get gold for their real money instead of grinding boring content for hours on end (and using up very limited playing time not having fun), the better it is for everyone. Casuals can keep up with the grinders, and the hardcore players get more gems for their gold as the exchange rate begins to move in the other direction.

If you go outside, you might get rained on. Is this a reason to never leave your house?

Mostly I just got tired of reading the conspiracies and seeing them up-voted thought that people was actually believing the conspiracy theories so I made this post.

I don’t reddit.

Just because you paid for the box doesn’t mean that you paid for the all servers, all the artwork, and dev work for X number of years to come. ArenaNet staff are real life human beings who need to pay mortgages, bills, and support their families, which implies a constant income. Where is this money going to come from if you have stopped paying them after buying the box?

Persecuting those players who are:

1. Supporting ArenaNet’s efforts in developing this game throughout.
2. Bringing down the cost of gems by converting gems to gold.

….would just be hurting the player community, including yourself. It is like holding your left hand with your right hand, then slapping yourself with it.

It’s just the OP has noticed, and I assume others like myself have noticed, screen shots of that notice being posted in all the treads dealing with perceived poor loot or the removal of train champs in starting zones. And yes it’s being used as ammunition.

But a lot of that animosity is the side effect of the false belief that a player can easily get everything from the gem store for free. Key word, easily.

It’s in pursuit of this false belief that leads to grinding which in turn launches rants against grinding. If you ask why they grind they will say to earn gold to buy enough gems to buy that thing at the Gem Shop or to buy that high demand item on the TP whose drop rate is truly rare so naturally it’s priced as high as the market can bear.

Now maybe other MMOs (WoW) everyone can eventually get access to all the “good” stuff if they run raids enough times but this game hearkens back to the days of loot tables in the back of the DMG coupled with a TP that allows players to sell what they don’t want to players who do. Everyone who wants a +5 Holy Avenger aren’t going to get one dropped on them if only they play long enough.

Behellagh.1468:

….. If you ask why they grind they will say to earn gold to buy enough gems to buy that thing at the Gem Shop….

And these guys are probably also the ones who complain that gem prices are too high and rising. Guess what, because people are discouraging others from buying gems with real money to bring down the price. Without them, the gem price would keep on rising with no limits.

Other than supporting ArenaNet, players who bought gems with real money are also keeping gold sellers out of business. Remember? The ones who keep messaging and annoying you in the game?

Fine if you don’t praise them for supporting your game, but you should at least stop persecuting them.

Behellagh.1468:

It’s just the OP has noticed, and I assume others like myself have noticed, screen shots of that notice being posted in all the treads dealing with perceived poor loot or the removal of train champs in starting zones. And yes it’s being used as ammunition.
..

It started happening so much and so many people were clicking the +1 button on them that I got annoyed with it and made this thread basically requesting that ArenaNet not give the trolls ammunition. I still think the advertisement is a good think. I still think Gems to gold is a good thing. But I do not think it is a good idea to sell it during a week of a nerf.

DarkSpirit.7046:

Behellagh.1468:

….. If you ask why they grind they will say to earn gold to buy enough gems to buy that thing at the Gem Shop….

And these guys are probably also the ones who complain that gem prices are too high and rising. Guess what, because people are discouraging others from buying gems with real money to bring down the price. Without them, the gem price would keep on rising with no limits.

Other than supporting ArenaNet, players who bought gems with real money are also keeping gold sellers out of business. Remember? The ones who keep messaging and annoying you in the game?

Fine if you don’t praise them for supporting your game, but you should at least stop persecuting them.

Dark, I’m all for encouraging players to buy gems with cash. I thought that was clear in my first post.

Behellagh.1468:

Dark, I’m all for encouraging players to buy gems with cash. I thought that was clear in my first post.

Yes I know. I was not referring to you specifically when I said “you”.

Well you included a quote from me so … you can understand why you seemed to imply me.

Behellagh.1468:

Well you included a quote from me so … you can understand why you seemed to imply me.

Yeah my bad.

Wow a lot of you supporters have really talked yourself into believing this one…

Amazing…. NCSofts/Anets psych department is probably eating this kitten kaboodle up.

blakdoxa.7520:

Wow a lot of you supporters have really talked yourself into believing this one…

Amazing…. NCSofts/Anets psych department is probably eating this kitten kaboodle up.

For starters, you really should read your posts out loud before you click submit, maybe then you’d see how childish they sound. Second, the advertisements are to get the point across that there’s a legitimate method to buy gold for cash that does not resort to going to questionable websites, putting your identity and bank accounts at risk, and putting your account at risk for a T&C violation and subsequent termination. Third, until such fools stop buying gold from bot companies, you can either put up with the advertisements, stop reading the advertisements, or step away from the game.

blakdoxa.7520:

Wow a lot of you supporters have really talked yourself into believing this one…

Amazing…. NCSofts/Anets psych department is probably eating this kitten kaboodle up.

Better than being psyched by gold sellers into buying gold from them instead of ArenaNet. You would be paying for more of their annoying bots and spams instead.

I have to admit that I have a somewhat selfish interest in hoping that players continue to be stubborn and not buy gems with cash. I want the exchange rate to rise to the point where I can get 10g for 100 gems, so I can start selling gems for gold.

blakdoxa.7520:

Wow a lot of you supporters have really talked yourself into believing this one…

Amazing…. NCSofts/Anets psych department is probably eating this kitten kaboodle up.

You are certainly not wiser than the people that choose to spend THEIR money. It is such a childish mentality to have and maybe you should stop projecting.

silvermember.8941:

You are certainly not wiser than the people that choose to spend THEIR money. It is such a childish mentality to have and maybe you should stop projecting.

It depends on how much you value your own time. In terms of time spent farming, you spend less time per gold through real money than you spend in boring farming in the game.

The questions I have are:
Why does the majority of the player base swear by converting their gold to gems for any and every gem purchase? Does spending $10 seriously hurt you? If you love playing a game, why wouldn’t you want to support it by purchasing items?
I personally have never converted gold to gems and purchased all my gems since beta. I have no regrets because I not only don’t mind spending $10 any time but I know that it supports the company since the amount of work they put into the game isn’t free. And even though they would love the money, they still recently reimbursed all my purchases of any multiple gear sets prior to the wardrobe at my request, totaling over 8000 gems. They didn’t need to do that but they did and honestly it’s service like that which bring me back to purchase more.

SaintSnow.6593:

The questions I have are:
Why does the majority of the player base swear by converting their gold to gems for any and every gem purchase? Does spending $10 seriously hurt you? If you love playing a game, why wouldn’t you want to support it by purchasing items?
I personally have never converted gold to gems and purchased all my gems since beta. I have no regrets because I not only don’t mind spending $10 any time but I know that it supports the company since the amount of work they put into the game isn’t free. And even though they would love the money, they still recently reimbursed all my purchases of any multiple gear sets prior to the wardrobe at my request, totaling over 8000 gems. They didn’t need to do that but they did and honestly it’s service like that which bring me back to purchase more.

Not everyone playing the game has that much money to spend on gems. What they lack in cash, they make up with the ability to make money ingame. Of course, it does lead to people kittening about prices of things in gold like the Upgrade Extractor.

As far as the refund goes, they already have your money. They got that from you when you bought the gems. What they gave you is basically store credit (gems) for a purchase you returned (duplicates) after buying them with a gift card (gems) that you purchased with cash (ingame interface or via gem card).

Also, I’ve bought 3 outfits, a total makeover kit, 4 bag slot expansions, a bank slot expansion, 2 “toys,” and the digital deluxe upgrade. That’s roughly 5300 gems. And I think I bought another 1000 gems worth of keys and dye packs for the lulz. Roughly 4k gems were bought with gold.

BTW – They did stop advertising. The TP message today didn’t have that advertising.

I love the new random messages in the middle of my screen telling me what is new on the TP. Nothing intrusive about that at all… Next will be a marquee banner that scrolls by on your mini map…. wait…. what?… Ken shut up.

Aidan Savage.2078:

Not everyone playing the game has that much money to spend on gems. What they lack in cash, they make up with the ability to make money ingame. Of course, it does lead to people kittening about prices of things in gold like the Upgrade Extractor.

As far as the refund goes, they already have your money. They got that from you when you bought the gems. What they gave you is basically store credit (gems) for a purchase you returned (duplicates) after buying them with a gift card (gems) that you purchased with cash (ingame interface or via gem card).

Exactly my point, if you lack any finances to spend $10 and decide to take the free route to an item, why do you kitten and moan about the “gold price” equivalents? You chose that route in the first place to get it free. If you honestly want it, spend the cash or don’t whine at all.
Also I know the refund was in gems. That’s what I said and I’m glad they did this because I much rather have my gems than a bunch of useless skin sets that I already have. I thank them for their generosity.

FYI:

The info about the current gem/gold ratio wasnt included in Evons newsletter about the new items in the gem store today:
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/new-ancestral-outfit-and-mini-jaguar-cub-in-the-gem-store/

One of the reasons that I chose to play this game is because it has a gem store to convert real money into gold. I can’t stand farming in the game for 10,000 times over and over. When I have to repeat an activity that I don’t enjoy for thousands of time, then it becomes like ‘a job’. I don’t want to have to come home to a second job when my real job is already taxing enough.

So if you don’t want to fork out the cash, then go farm. If I choose not to farm, then I fork out the cash for my gold. As long as the obtaining said item (i.e. gold in this case), has nothing to do with skills but it is just a function of time, then that is not a problem. Otherwise, kids with no real life responsibilities would always be richer in the game than adults who do, since they have more time. With the gem-gold conversion, it has that potential to even out.

Behellagh.1468:

……
+5 Holy Avenger….

Rather have the +5 Defender myself….. ;D

no, they deserve to, and should, advertise. or would u rather pay a monthly fee? i wudnt.

if advertisments bother people then they are in the wrong part of the world (and thus the wrong part of the internet.

I don’t see an issue in the conversion of gems <—> gold. Both options satisfy either party. EVE has been doing this forever, you can buy PLEX with currency in game, or buy a PLEX w/ RMT and convert it into ISK. It’s a win win.

I’ve converted gems into gold, and vice versa. I don’t understand the hate for supporting an IP you like… o.O

Duke Nukem.6783:

no, they deserve to, and should, advertise. or would u rather pay a monthly fee? i wudnt.

if advertisments bother people then they are in the wrong part of the world (and thus the wrong part of the internet.

The advertisements did not bother me. For the most part they were unobtrusive/informative. What did bother me was the timeing and some players ran away with it and their tin foil hats.

I’m okay with the ads; I just ignore them mostly. I’ve never seen the gems to gold exchange as appealing since the Gem Store offerings are the only reason I keep gems on hand anyway, and I rely on farming or lucky drops for my gold. Never been “rich” in this game and probably never will be., and I’m okay with that. Having 100 gold on hand makes me feel rich enough. Don’t need to convert cash to gold to feel like I can buy something.