Guild Wars 2

i’m enjoying many aspects of this game except the way y’all have implemented the gem store and crafting. i understand that the entire in-game economy is designed around getting players to spend $, and i don’t mind tossing $ at this game, but overall the gem store items/offerings seem too skimpy for the price and crafting is way more frustrating (more cost and time effective to buy item(s) outright as well) than “fun”.

with that written, here is some food for thought on making gem purchases more valuable/desirable and crafting more “fun” for players while also being more profitable to you (arenanet/ncsoft).

gem store stuff…
• name change.
• appearance change (ok make over kit coming).
• more armor skins.
• weapon skins.
• weapon and armor aura/particle effects (legendary items would need an additional non-game breaking hook to do this).
• pve mounts (also obtainable through event/loot drops, accomplishments and all in-game currencies).
• double the current time of boosters.
• post-holiday event item offerings (inflated gem cost rate)

crafting stuff…
• “½ mats needed (1minimum) to craft x (non-legendary )items” booster. 30min timer
• ability to craft unique weapon skins, armor skins, back pieces/packs, capes, visible jewelry and bags,”floating elemental jewelry” (see elementalist creation screen), food that provides temporary skills and traits, armor/personal auras, weapon particle effects, …
• improved perks and bonuses for focusing on 1 crafting profession.
• runes and sigils level 61-80
• craft for self or sale mechanics. example… crafting for self option would require less mats, provide an additional unique bonus to the item and be bound to the character or account.

final thoughts…

stop being cheap if you want players to keep spending $. there are much better ways to earn $ while rewarding players and enhancing their experience all at the same time. one example… i’m fairly certain you would make more $ overall (while leaving a lot less bad tastes in players mouths) by selling the halloween weapon and armor skins on the gems store than you did with the “buy key for random chance” scheme.

keep player retention, “fun” factor and willingness to continue to fork over $ in mind for the long term. there are many ways to make economy and crafting improvements for both you and the players, but it’s not through the current greed- gouge-grind- guessing-gambling wars 2 gameplay.

*disclaimer… these are just ideas, not the ultimate economy fixer uppers. the underlying message about the current state of the game economy is my main focus here.