Guild Wars 2

Why russian players can buy 800 for 10$ while european players must trade them for 10 €.
It’s ~ 23% more.

Ok, so. If I understand what you mean, which I am unsure what you mean… Simply saying, there will always be an unbalance. If you make it so the cast to gem value is real-world calculated, that means that that Russian players will be paying more for the same amount. Meaning Russian players are at a disadvantage. By making all countries pay the same price in local currency, that may not 100% rid the world of imbalance, but it enables everyone a chance at buying gems at a fair price based on where they live. Sure, people will always exploit anything that is even remotely exploitable… But that would require them to alter their Euros for whatever currency they would use is Russia. More of a hassle than most people care to go through. It is a step that does not eliminate exploitation, but does greatly help to reduce the unfairness caused by placing cash/gem on a pedestal equal to real life trade rates.

People in the UK pay 8.50, which is like €10,50. I find it a bit ridiculous that we’re charged that much extra just becuase we’re european.

This has been answered in another thread already. EU countries need to add VAT on top of all purchases, even digital. That’s 20% on top of the sales price.

I’m in a non-EU country, and we don’t add VAT. Except for e-books. So yeah, it’s not right to use a one-size-fits-all tax when some of the countries they sell in don’t collect the taxes they charge.

EU != Europe, just in case anybody’s wondering. There are around 180 countries outside ;)

Like Hedyn said, not all EU countries have the same VAT (or even any on that kind of product). Then there is the matter that currently the sum they are taking is more than sales price + 20% – you just can’t set a flat rate at 1$ = 1€, global finance doesn’t work that way.

1€ = $1.31. In addition to these skewed prices, some companies will add VAT on top. VAT is not something you bake into the price with exchange rate. Accounting generally requires each item separately. Those who operate out of the US can easily charge only dollar prices without taxes to every country which has a trade agreement with the US (this includes many EU countries). Even Gamestop manage to handle this better than ArenaNet and Valve!

Guys you really expect them to have a different price for gems each time the currency exchange values change? Name we one game that has sub prices that change according to exchange rates.

Anyhow, I hear gem cards are coming. If they are global you can buy them pretty much any currency you want, from the shop of your choice.

DruonGrawal.3596:

Like Hedyn said, not all EU countries have the same VAT (or even any on that kind of product). Then there is the matter that currently the sum they are taking is more than sales price + 20% – you just can’t set a flat rate at 1$ = 1€, global finance doesn’t work that way.

No not all EU countries have the same VAT, that’s why VAT for digital purchases is charged by the country the service is listed in (and the country they pay the tax to). ANet is listed in the UK and they use UK VAT of 20%.

What they could do is list all purchases in USD, so you would be paying 10 USD + VAT, which would be less than what we pay now, but wait until the Euro crashes hard and you might be paying more.

Frankly, you are whining because of maybe 80 cents of difference. What the heck do you do for a living?

Tom Gore.4035:

Frankly, you are whining because of maybe 80 cents of difference. What the heck do you do for a living?

Tom, we are complaining because these 80 Cents add up. It is 80 Cents on a 10 Euro purchase. It is more the larger the purchase gets. And it still has the potential to screw us over when the value of currencies change, because they just use that 1$=1€ flat rate. If we are lucky this works to our advantage, but it could also mean that at some point the divide will be even bigger than it is right now.

Besides, I am happy if you have a situation in life that allows you to not care about small sums of money at all. But to suggest that because you are doing well it is okay to add extra costs for anyone else is not a mindset that I will share regardless of my income.

DruonGrawal.3596:

Tom Gore.4035:

Frankly, you are whining because of maybe 80 cents of difference. What the heck do you do for a living?

Tom, we are complaining because these 80 Cents add up. It is 80 Cents on a 10 Euro purchase. It is more the larger the purchase gets. And it still has the potential to screw us over when the value of currencies change, because they just use that 1$=1€ flat rate. If we are lucky this works to our advantage, but it could also mean that at some point the divide will be even bigger than it is right now.

Besides, I am happy if you have a situation in life that allows you to not care about small sums of money at all. But to suggest that because you are doing well it is okay to add extra costs for anyone else is not a mindset that I will share regardless of my income.

As you said yourself, it might be that it might work to your advantage at some point (especially if Euro crashes hard). I am pretty sure I won’t see you here complaining about that then?

Only a few months ago USD rate was around 1.22. At that point you were practically paying exactly the same amount in USD and EUR (with the taxes excluded).

Like I said, the only solution for ANet would be to charge everything in USD, but I believe they would have to do all the transactions from US if that was the case.

No, they are free to work with a curreny of their choice. Some companies already do this and advertise with “one world, one price” slogans and similar.

Even if they did charge in USD we would still have the same problem, as most of us don’t have USD sitting in our bank accounts. The exchange rate would still affect what we would effectively pay for the service.

These exchange rates are far less than the current 80 cents. I paid MMORPGs in USD from Ultima Online days onwards, there is no problem doing that in Europe these days.

Sorry if I didn’t explain it more clearly. What I meant is that it would not matter if you could purchase gems in USD. The effective price (in what you pay in EUR) would still be affected by the currency exchange rates. Today you might pay 80 cents less, but for example with currency rate of 1.20 (very possible in the future with Euro uncertainty) you would be paying the same amount and if Euro crashes real hard you might have to pay more than with their current conversion of 1 USD = 1 EUR – VAT

I know that using USD as a base will make me affected by exchange rates. And that is exactly what I want: I want the real exchanges rates, good and bad. Because they are more fair than a fictive flat rate. For the last five years the Euro has been stronger than the Dollar and people in Europe had to pay more in places that used the 1$=1€ mantra.

Is there a possibility that the roles may reverse at some point? Yeah and that is okay: This is not about always paying the cheapest price, it is about paying the same price as everyone else. Exchange rates and VAT are things that are out of Anets influence and I don’t mind paying them on top as long as they are measured correctly. A flat rate just makes things easy for the supplier, but usually ends up adding extra cost for the individual user browsing the store.

Ok I think I understand where you’re coming. But I don’t think Arenanet will change their policy as long as the difference between the currencies stay approximately at the current level. Maybe they will adjust the pricing if the currency rate rises or falls suddenly.

And with the gem cards, we can always choose to buy with whatever currency we like.

Anyways, even putting aside exchange rates, purchasing power and average wage differs a lot between countries as well.

There is no single price that can be “fair” to everyone – ANet is better off treating every region on its own merits, and price the gems for maximum sales & profit. (the gems are a product to be sold, after all.)

Treating the whole market the same is part of what makes Good Old Games popular. They have the right idea – despite being a European company they base all prices in dollars. Probably makes it easier when they pay the US companies for licenses too :)

I’d only accept a 40% price difference (what it amounts to after calculating exchange fees to Euros, since we don’t use Euros here) if the company had a business presence physically in the country. Setting up a store which sells digital products to another country costs nothing extra; there’s no toll gate where they pay Internet tax for the bits to cross the border. Everything gets here without the government getting involved. Half the countries in Europe (at least) have no more buying power for the average citizen than the US anyway.

Just in the past year the Euro has fluctuated wildly – it’s been at 20% more value than its lowest, and is now right in the middle of that. Neither dollar nor Euro has been particularly stable against my currency either.

The simplest solution would be to just charge $10 USD

Coming from a non-american, I don’t see a problem with this. We are all paying EXACTLY THE SAME AMOUNT, which is 10 usd, not 10 euro or aud, etc. etc.

Sales taxes and such is something Arenanet obviously can’t control, but it would actually be fairer to just charge 10 usd for all countries. Makes more sense.

Mexay.4521:

The simplest solution would be to just charge $10 USD.

And then your bank would charge you an extra £2.50 for an international purchase, no thanks.