Guild Wars 2

So when I looked at the gem store soon after the update, I noticed that essentially all of the Town Clothes are going to be gone by next week. Appalled, I looked at the release notes and saw that “The Style category of the gem store is being streamlined”.

What does that mean? How is it being streamlined? Why does it involve getting rid of the town clothes that are currently in the store? Will we ever have access to the current clothes again?

As one of those people that highly values town clothes, this is making me really nervous. Please, Anet, can you clear this up for me(and whoever else might be asking the same question)?

I’d like to know as well.

The category really is long and clutter-y… I would hope that they separate the town clothes and armor skins…

But why remove?

Yeah this confused me as well. The style section of the gems tore definitely needs improvements but removing stuff from it is not an improvement.

I’m guessing they weren’t selling anymore. I always thought they were pointless and expensive. So I’m guessing now it’ll only be Costume Brawl and skins you actual use outside of town.

Well, the Roleplaying community uses town clothes extensively, so I can’t imagine they weren’t selling anymore /period/. If they’re turning them into skins for all classes you can use in combat… I suppose that’d make sense, but I’d still like to hear it from Anet.

I saved these clothes for times when I had extra gems to spend (which was not that often), so now that they have given me such a short deadline on ever seeing this stuff again, it makes me really sad.

Give a freaking warning, please.

Agreed, removing is a bad plan, especially with the decent shirts (could sure use more pants and boots options). Oddly they don’t seem to be removing the reading glasses? Or were those accidentally left off the list?

I had the same thoughts. Why remove it? generally removing items like these are bad. I don’t mind I guess because I have no interest, (I fear many do not) but why remove it?

I can understand that most players aren’t that interested in town clothes, but I /know/ a fair amount of people do… At the moment it feels as if we’re being punished for being the minority, and I can’t imagine at all how keeping those clothes on the gem store is so much of a hassle that they’re removing them, leaving those of us that love them bereft of access to them forever.

Maybe I’m over exaggerating, and they’re not being removed but just being converted somehow… Still, like I said, I’d really like to hear a direct explanation from Anet.

Call my a pessimist but I believe they will return at some point… with a price increase.

I was about to come here and make this exact same topic.

First, streamlining means making the shop easier to use. I was so excited when I first saw that term because I thought they were revamping the interface to add common sense quality of life improvements that would make shopping much more pleasant, like separating the items into categories and allowing filters by armor type or town clothing. Instead, I see that they are doing what they always seem to be doing—taking the option to access content away from players.

Second, what is the point of reducing the offerings? In real life, you don’t want to keep everything available in a store because there is a cost to inventory that sits there and doesn’t sell. However, this is a video game. The assets are still there and the server still has to process them, so the cost is there regardless of whether you maintain the offerings indefinitely. Even if they’re not selling well, each additional sale is free money at this point since the data for the product is still going to be stored on the server regardless of whether it is available for purchase or not. Real life stores try to get as much selection as possible when it costs them little because they know customers like choice. See Amazon for a real world example.

If this game is about cosmetics and having a wide variety of things to offer, then put some work into the cash shop and give us more things to choose from. Every time ANet removes options from the game, I get a little less attached to the game because it feels like the cash shop is not there to serve the customer (more options whenever you like) but rather to pump as much money from us as possible in the fastest time frame possible (buy now or lose the chance to get it ever again!). I’m not saying this is the intention, but that’s what it feels like to me. As someone who is more than happy to give this game money for a job well done, let me say that this game is making it very difficult for me to justify spending money.

EDIT: Also, if the goal is to goose sales, well that’s not working on me. I was going to buy the sunglasses when I expanded my bank, but now I’ll just do without. And if the plan is to add these items back in at a higher price when an unlockable armor locker comes out, well, I won’t buy any of those either. The items are overpriced as is. Had a locker been released today, I probably would have gone ahead and bought every remaining clothing item in the gem store that I didn’t have but now, no need to spend anything.

I saw this topic and would like to ask what happened to the Fancy Winter Outfit this year? That was one of the best sets of clothing I ever saw in the game, at least in my opinion.

Hopefully Streamlining means that they’re going to make categories or collapsible ones where you can more easily preview certain kinds of goods in the Style Section. Holiday items, Living Story items, Armor Skins, Weapon Skins, Town Clothes, Toys, Backpacks, etc…

I /expect/ we’ll see it on the gem store next week, TechWiz. Much like how the Halloween outfits were released a week after the Bloody Prince update.

Also, great analysis of what’s going on, Kojast. Couldn’t agree with you more!

I don’t buy town clothes myself, but I have to agree this is a strange move by ANet. The most likely reason is that these items aren’t selling anymore, and ANet wants to remove them so players don’t have to scroll through long pages of clothes anymore, but it still feels like a wrong decision. This isn’t a brick and mortar store, where you have a limited shelf space. Digital items can be offered for sale forever. I would have preferred that ANet instead revamp the store layout so there are new subcategories within the Fashion line. For example:

Style:
- Fashion Only
— Headgear
— Chest gear
— etc.
- Armor Skins
— Light
— Medium
— Heavy
- Costume Brawl
— Halloween
— Wintersday
— Standard

And of course, put in a Search function.

Even if they get rid of them now, they’ll probably offer them as a “one time purchase” again down the road at the same or higher price. They’ve done this in the past with items.

And I wouldn’t put it past them if they allow folks to buy gems to gobble these items up then say “oh, oops, our bad. That was a bad idea and we’ve decided to keep them in the shop. thanks for the purchases, suc— erm loyal fans.”

Time shall tell, huh?

Well… Over ten hours since I’ve posted this, and no reply. I’m almost positive Arenanet’s looked at this thread(I have it in good confidence that they read all the threads they can), so a lack of reply yet probably means we won’t be getting one.

I sincerely hope this isn’t the case.

I’ve always felt the RP/Immersion side of the game was well done. Though we never got the special hi-def screenshot feature back or OOC first person zoom, there are plenty of small details, walkable spaces and great NPC dialogues. I even agree with town clothes not being usable in combat but did the market for it die?

I must know more!

We ask for an explanation.

Alright, welp… 12 hours until we(apparently) lose those town clothes forever, and still not a word from Anet about why.

I just hope this isn’t as bad as it looks. :l

I think it’s to make people panic and buy them up, much like the way they retired the first set of mini pets.

Don’t worry, i’m sure you’ll see full exotic armor sets for sale in the gem store within the next 3 months. If not ascended mats. They need to get rid of the useless stuff before they bring in the big P2W sellers.

I wonder what is becoming of our town clothes and/or the system that I like, and if something will some day happen to the ones I am planning to buy now if I can get over the dislike of this move some time soon-ish. Nine hours soon-ish.

(I have been grinding for gold to buy gems all day… /sigh. Still not enough. Back to grind… At least I can use the gifting discount with my two accounts. >:D … ;_;)

There you have it, everyone. It’s just past midnight and all those town clothes are gone.

They put the Wintersday outfit up, at least. That’s something.