Guild Wars 2

While I tend to never believe it when people say this, I actually did buy a bank slot within 24 (at the most 48!) hours before the sale was announced for the same-day.

I’d really appreciate warning next time, even if it was a day or two in advance, a la, say, Skin sales in League of Legends.

You were satisfied with the price when you did it. What’s the problem?

I think you may be missing the point – unannounced sales favor people who check in regularly and stay informed. Like dailies, they’re part of a strategy of rewarding frequent interest in the game. Their making a habit of saying “hey, nothing is going on for the next 48 hours, feel free to ignore us!” isn’t going to happen.

My example for LoL is that they have an announcement in the launcher a few days ahead of time. So your point is moot about it benefiting players who don’t check or log in every day. Besides, I do check every day, so what’s your point? I didn’t benefit.

I actually was rather reluctant and the funny thing was, I didn’t think they’d ever have bank slots on sale because there was no way to get them through the trading post. They implemented an item for it so they could. So that was kinda crappy IMO.

So then what happens with the people who end up buying something 1 day before the announcement of the item they purchased is going on sale?

Like I said, there’s a courtesy involved. They changed the mechanic of how you can obtain bank and bag slots. If I had known that this change was going to be happening, such as mentioning this change when they talk about upcoming patches, I would have had the foresight to wait until those ‘items’ would go on sale, as they always seem to eventually do.

Otherwise, it’s just nice to see that a sale is upcoming and not immediately upon us. That has been a fairly common occurrence in most games and in stores. In this instance, I would’ve been one who would have been able to save some money. It’s not going to catch everyone, but it gives a little bit larger of a window to have more people catch the sale.

Eternis.1746:

Like I said, there’s a courtesy involved. They changed the mechanic of how you can obtain bank and bag slots. If I had known that this change was going to be happening, such as mentioning this change when they talk about upcoming patches, I would have had the foresight to wait until those ‘items’ would go on sale, as they always seem to eventually do.

Otherwise, it’s just nice to see that a sale is upcoming and not immediately upon us. That has been a fairly common occurrence in most games and in stores. In this instance, I would’ve been one who would have been able to save some money. It’s not going to catch everyone, but it gives a little bit larger of a window to have more people catch the sale.

you seem to be missing the point. what about those people who buy something just before the sale is announced?

It doesn’t really matter if you announce it before or not, somebody will always be ticked off because there will always be someone who just bought the item going on sale just before the announcement, if it’s a day, a week or no announcement at all.

Eternis.1746:

My example for LoL is that they have an announcement in the launcher a few days ahead of time. So your point is moot about it benefiting players who don’t check or log in every day.

Moot you say? So if you knew that they always give a 48 hour warning, and you checked in and saw there wasn’t one, you couldn’t tell that you could skip the next day, possibly two with no possibility of missing a sale?

Buy another one.

Well, I agree with you. Although, I think it’d be preferable if they’d honor the sale prices of purchases made within a certain time period of the sale. Personally, I think it’d lead toward more customer satisfaction overall.

There’s literally no downside to announcing a sale a few days in advance. Sure, someone will still complain as someone always will, but it will be a courtesy towards the players and will give the appearance of being informative to the community. The enterprising business would jump on something like that.

Announcing a few days in advance would increase gem prices and therefore it’d cost more anyway.

Seveer.6421:

Announcing a few days in advance would increase gem prices and therefore it’d cost more anyway.

That is irrelevant to the people they are targeting for the sales. They are for people buying gems with real money. Sure they also benefit people who buy gems with gold but only those who plan ahead.

If they announced it 48 hours before, people that bought it 50 hours before would complain. There’s always going to be some point where people bought the thing before the sale was announced, whether it’s not announced until right when it happens or whether there is warning.

Minion of Vey.4398:

If they announced it 48 hours before, people that bought it 50 hours before would complain. There’s always going to be some point where people bought the thing before the sale was announced, whether it’s not announced until right when it happens or whether there is warning.

That. There’s always gonna be someone who bought it just moments before an announcement, or the sale itself going live, or whatever. It doesn’t matter if they give days, weeks, or months notice, there’s still going to be someone.

And from a business perspective, any advanced announcement at all is bad. The sale exists to encourage buyers who aren’t already intending to buy to do so. If you’re already willing to buy without the sale, you aren’t the “target” for the sale. They want you to pay full price because you’re already willing to. Giving notice in advance means that people who might have paid full price are just going to wait and not pay full price, which means less profit.

Rule of thumb:

If you’re the type of person that would get offended by something going on sale just after you purchase it, wait for it to go on sale.