Guild Wars 2

Right now I’m puzzled as to the removal of several items that have long been offered in the Gem Store.

This is without any prior notice of these being limited in availability, or any real explanation behind the move other than a simple “streamlining the Style category” note.

This is maddening—there’s already a lack of diversity in the style category.

There’s literally only one pair of town clothes boots purchasable separately in the Gem Store at the moment. Soon there will be none.

I would appreciate it if someone, preferably Anet staff, would please explain how removing town clothes from the Gem Store fits in with Anet’s goal of improving the game.

Seriously. Are there going to be new town clothes to replace the old ones? Or has Anet decided to give up on the Style category completely? I would like a better explanation, thank you.

Sincerely, Lyzran

Probably because of declining sales and wanting to make the gem store a little cleaner looking without AS much fluff

As with all fashion, the old season’s stuff is removed, so that the new season’s stuff can be brought in.

I suspect town clothes aren’t big sellers like they were in GW1. They are removing them and will probably start offering full armor sets (not just skins) in the next few months.

They will use the claim that the game is older now and it will help new players catch up.

1: DO NOT REMOVE EXISTING ITEMS. They’re not designed to be Limited.
2: ReDesign the Style category UI for browsing more & more items with the preview.
Not so hard to do…. use simple item-like boxes…
3: ArenaNet won’t like to answer any reasonable questions, as you see in the whole forum. Just Not. I may wonder Why…. Do you?

If sales of those particular items were high enough to justify their existence, Anet would not remove them. Therefore, it is likely that they are selling extremely poorly and Anet is removing them to make it easier to get to the items that are selling.

They don’t sell very well/ They should have made them as normal skins for gear.

because the seasonal skins are more popular. we need more of those.

Enjoyluck.2618:

They don’t sell very well/ They should have made them as normal skins for gear.

I think so too, but is removing them altogether really an answer?

tolunart.2095:

If sales of those particular items were high enough to justify their existence, Anet would not remove them. Therefore, it is likely that they are selling extremely poorly and Anet is removing them to make it easier to get to the items that are selling.

Wouldn’t removing items mean less profit? These are digital items we’re talking about.

pho.9412:

because the seasonal skins are more popular. we need more of those.

Seasonal skins may be more popular, but does removing town clothes really generate more sales of the already popular skins?

Smooth Penguin.5294:

As with all fashion, the old season’s stuff is removed, so that the new season’s stuff can be brought in.

It would be nice if that were the case, but I don’t see anything new as noted to be coming in.

Gamblit.5041:

Perhapes new items will come on tuesday.

We are still missing Christmas Costumes in the store like this ones:

I hope you’re right.

Town clothes were a good idea that was very poorly executed.

They tended to be one or more of the following.

1 – Completely inappropriate to the setting – (Eg modern clothing)
2 – Gimmick, silly items – (Eg Boxing Gloves, chef outfit)
3 – Incomplete – (Eg The shirts that should have had matching pants)
4 – Made you go bald – (Any of the hats).
5- Too seasonal – (Eg Witches outfit)

Pretty much the only decent pieces of town clothing were the smart winter outfits, which could be worn all year round at a push and were nice on asura as they actually gave them a skirt. I was really annoyed with the shirts, as I loved them and despite the pants being shown in the pictures…..the pants were not there, so wearing the shirt just looked daft. Clearly the pants exist as they were pictured on avatars.

As a roleplayer, I would have happily spent a lot on town clothes but instead found they were made for a target audience I just couldn’t understand. Had we seen beachware, wedding attire, a selection of nice casualwear and some technicians or mechanics clothes I am sure many a gem would have been purchased. City of heroes used to sell outfit packs and they made a mint on them. Lessons should have been learned there.

SeasThyDay.7398:

tolunart.2095:

If sales of those particular items were high enough to justify their existence, Anet would not remove them. Therefore, it is likely that they are selling extremely poorly and Anet is removing them to make it easier to get to the items that are selling.

Wouldn’t removing items mean less profit? These are digital items we’re talking about.

No.

They removed Flame and Frost dyes, Rox’s quiver, harvesting tools, and many other items that were introduced over the last year. If it was as simple as more stuff = more profit, no online store would ever remove anything.

Removing underperforming items clears up the space and makes it less cluttered, easier to navigate, and bringing back items for a limited time gives potential buyers a sense of urgency. If they know the items will still be there a year from now, there’s no incentive to buy them now but if they’re only available for a week, who knows when they’ll be back?

Town Clothes aren’t as popular sellers because most players prefer to run around in their armor, plus town clothes revert back to armor as soon as you get any damage, making it useless in zones outside of towns.

That said, I do agree that rather than removing them altogether, I’d prefer it if ANet just restructured the shop so it’s not as cluttered and difficult to navigate.

Magnus Steelgrave.6580:

Probably because of declining sales and wanting to make the gem store a little cleaner looking without AS much fluff

I’m kind of hoping it’s temporary, like they want to just get the low selling items off the list so people can navigate to the best sellers easier while they work on getting the gem shop more organzied, then bring them back that is done with.

@tolunart.2095:

Those items were limited edition items, that were clearly stated to be so, and therefore players knew to look out for their removal. Removing items that have been around for a long time with no expectation of removal will only backfire in the long-run.

Not knowing when these items will return, if they return, means that if they come back for another week it will come and go without players even knowing that it came and went.

A large part of making profit from limited edition items is successful advertising. If people are not made aware of these becoming limited items, then who will buy them?

It’s a complete failure in the advertising department. Nowhere in the announcements is there a thread dedicated to the removal of the clothes as they do with the infinite gathering tools, every time. The front page of the BLTC itself doesn’t even advertise that they are going away.

Anet might as well be trying to cover up the fact that these items are going away by failing to promote them.

Just wish they were usable in combat, that way the ones I have now aren’t useless.

I just want to say that I’m disappointed in Anet for the removal of these items, and no, I personally don’t find the Fancy Winter Outfit to be an adequate reason for it.

A quick buck is no replacement for a loyal dollar.

Why would Anet remove items based on how well an item sold? These items are digital and so don’t cost money to keep them in this gemstore. Also ain’t a wider variety of offered products better, or does Anet think otherwise?

Someone mentioned it already. It’s not to make less money; in fact, removing them will create the urgency that will drive sales toward the lower performing gemstore items.

Serenity.6149:

Someone mentioned it already. It’s not to make less money; in fact, removing them will create the urgency that will drive sales toward the lower performing gemstore items.

I’m pretty sure they didn’t expect to make any money off of removing the items, especially without advertising their departure from the Gem Store.

No, rather, this signifies a shift from long-term gemstore items to primarily seasonal based All-in-one outfits.

The reason they’ve done this is twofold. One, because people expect long term items to be around for as long as they like—thus, they wait to buy these items with gold, and not gems. And two, because the town items were sold separately…meaning that they were even easier to buy with gold in pieces.

If Anet removes this, players will have no choice but to buy seasonal items “now”. Meaning, more players will be forced to buy gems with real money.

They aren’t exactly hot-cakes are they? As soon as their gem-store exit is threatened, people will want to buy them as discontinued items are extremely popular amongst MMO players for “prestige” or “value” regardless of how hideous they are.

Flissy.4093:

They aren’t exactly hot-cakes are they? As soon as their gem-store exit is threatened, people will want to buy them as discontinued items are extremely popular amongst MMO players for “prestige” or “value” regardless of how hideous they are.

While true, I doubt that players would decide to buy these items with real money. The fact is, these items have been out for a long time, so removing them now doesn’t exactly make them “limited edition”. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see them come back down the road for a week or so, at an increased price.

SeasThyDay.7398:

Flissy.4093:

They aren’t exactly hot-cakes are they? As soon as their gem-store exit is threatened, people will want to buy them as discontinued items are extremely popular amongst MMO players for “prestige” or “value” regardless of how hideous they are.

While true, I doubt that players would decide to buy these items with real money. The fact is, these items have been out for a long time, so removing them now doesn’t exactly make them “limited edition”. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see them come back down the road for a week or so, at an increased price.

This will get people to buy them though. Even if they don’t pay with real money, theyll change their gold to gems and force the gold→gem ratio to change, and make each gem more expensive. This could lead to more people buying with IRL money for other items.

town clothing don’t sell so well because of what so many ppl already said, they can’t be used in combat so they become nothing more then some fluff with no use other then ether RP-ing or costume brawl.
RP-ing is quite something you need to get in to so if you’re simply not interested it makes it useless to you, costume brawl is something they should’ve never added other then in a specific arena. (i don’t see anyone doing it unless there is an event build around it)

make them like GW1, sell clothing that NPC’s are wearing, it sells them for at least 200% better.

ps. love to wear this:
http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/181/6/7/guild_wars_2__human_dress_2_by_yeewu-d3kjg4x.jpg

They removed them to start a buying frenzy before they were gone. They will bring them back in the future which will start a buying frenzy again.

$$$

What are “town clothes”?

Go to your Hero panel. Click the little top hat icon at the top. You will see a different outfit. You can hotkey set a toggle to go between armor and town clothes. The town clothes can’t be used in combat and tend to be more citified cloth outfits. Occasionally you can get more via the gem store so as to expand your wardrobe.

Donari.5237:

Go to your Hero panel. Click the little top hat icon at the top. You will see a different outfit. You can hotkey set a toggle to go between armor and town clothes. The town clothes can’t be used in combat and tend to be more citified cloth outfits. Occasionally you can get more via the gem store so as to expand your wardrobe.

I’ve been playing since launch and never noticed those before…
So they can’t be used in combat and have a very limited selection? Why not just make them armor skins and dump this concept?

mtpelion.4562:

Donari.5237:

Go to your Hero panel. Click the little top hat icon at the top. You will see a different outfit. You can hotkey set a toggle to go between armor and town clothes. The town clothes can’t be used in combat and tend to be more citified cloth outfits. Occasionally you can get more via the gem store so as to expand your wardrobe.

I’ve been playing since launch and never noticed those before…
So they can’t be used in combat and have a very limited selection? Why not just make them armor skins and dump this concept?

Town clothes are also used for costume brawl.

tolunart.2095:

mtpelion.4562:

Donari.5237:

Go to your Hero panel. Click the little top hat icon at the top. You will see a different outfit. You can hotkey set a toggle to go between armor and town clothes. The town clothes can’t be used in combat and tend to be more citified cloth outfits. Occasionally you can get more via the gem store so as to expand your wardrobe.

I’ve been playing since launch and never noticed those before…
So they can’t be used in combat and have a very limited selection? Why not just make them armor skins and dump this concept?

Town clothes are also used for costume brawl.

barely anyone does costume brawl at all, it’s used even less then the GW1 version.

I left out costume brawl because only the toy is used for that. I see brawl happening a lot in LA and DR, but I’m on a large RP server.

The current CDI thread contains many ideas on improving/replacing town clothes.

Regarding the OP, I agree. Better organization made more sense than flat out removal. I’m really hoping we’ll be getting a whole slew of new and interesting items to make up for losing the ones we had available. I toggle to town clothes all the time, at least when I have options that look like real outfits my character would wear.

You know one thing that would make more people use town clothes? Have the City Travel buff auto-apply to you if you equip them while in a city. Bam, everyone’s now using town clothes since it lets them move about quicker, and you know there’ll be people that will prefer to be in the cooler looking town clothes, so that’ll prob drum up some gem sales too.

Kamui.3150:

You know one thing that would make more people use town clothes? Have the City Travel buff auto-apply to you if you equip them while in a city. Bam, everyone’s now using town clothes since it lets them move about quicker, and you know there’ll be people that will prefer to be in the cooler looking town clothes, so that’ll prob drum up some gem sales too.

actually, the only way to see them being used is to make them available for combat, i don’t care about a stupid buff if it still makes it useless outside cities.

I said one thing, I’d also be just fine with being able to use them in combat.

tolunart.2095:

mtpelion.4562:

Donari.5237:

Go to your Hero panel. Click the little top hat icon at the top. You will see a different outfit. You can hotkey set a toggle to go between armor and town clothes. The town clothes can’t be used in combat and tend to be more citified cloth outfits. Occasionally you can get more via the gem store so as to expand your wardrobe.

I’ve been playing since launch and never noticed those before…
So they can’t be used in combat and have a very limited selection? Why not just make them armor skins and dump this concept?

Town clothes are also used for costume brawl.

It’s a shame that players that have been here since launch don’t know about town clothes, and what we do have is for costume brawl.
At beta, there was talk of town clothes being random drops.
Seeing the clothes the NPCs had made me a bit hopeful.

Couldn’t we just have that? Some of the clothes the NPCs have are great, and I wouldn’t mind seeing them on our toons sometime in the near future. The shirts that came out were strangely lonely with no bottoms or shoes to go with them except for the riding pants and boots.

chronometria.3708:

2 – Gimmick, silly items – (Eg Boxing Gloves, chef outfit)
5- Too seasonal – (Eg Witches outfit)

City of Heroes used to sell outfit packs and they made a mint on them. Lessons should have been learned there.

For the record, I make good use of both the chef outfit and the witch’s outfit on my (male) charr necromancer. The full chef’s outfit looks great on him, and when I change out the main part for the witch’s outfit but keep the hat/mask and shoes, he looks awesome.

But… yes. Very, very yes on them needing to learn from CoH.

The other thing about CoH and outfits is when you bought a costume pack, it was available on every character you have now and ever make in the future. Of course CoH isn’t around anymore that an argument could be made that they didn’t understand how to maximize income from a cash shop. But it garnered a lot of goodwill from their players.

Behellagh.1468:

The other thing about CoH and outfits is when you bought a costume pack, it was available on every character you have now and ever make in the future. Of course CoH isn’t around anymore that an argument could be made that they didn’t understand how to maximize income from a cash shop. But it garnered a lot of goodwill from their players.

GW1 waves at you, wondering why you’re talking about CoH while GW1 has it too.

Behellagh.1468:

The other thing about CoH and outfits is when you bought a costume pack, it was available on every character you have now and ever make in the future. Of course CoH isn’t around anymore that an argument could be made that they didn’t understand how to maximize income from a cash shop. But it garnered a lot of goodwill from their players.

I miss COH and all my costume packs – they made a ton of money off of me. It was a different paradigm though – your costume as a superhero or supervillain was a part of your character’s identity and had no effect on your skills. I loved having multiple costume slots and being able to switch them on the fly. COH is one of the few games that I dabbled in casual RPing.

GW2 is focused on different things. I enjoy the town clothes and toys, but without all the other support for customizing your look and ways to show it off, it’s not as engaging. In COH, you could create a completely unique look by mixing and matching different pieces and had complete control over the colors. A huge part of the game was developed to support messing around with your costumes, including earning extra costume slots and emotes when you switched between them. I don’t know if it makes sense to put that much development effort into making town clothes more appealing.

Why are town clothes being removed? Because rather than enabling them for combat, ANET wants to make a quick buck with little effort as possible.