Guild Wars 2

Ok hear me out!

My other half has recently abandoned the GW2 world for another one called “Final Fantasy” (this is not a Final Fantasy Advert). What actually caught my attention was the incredible amount of classes and updates the game has had since launch… Closure and then relaunch. I had to wonder how, then the other half said “it’s a subscription game so they can afford it”.

Well if that’s all it takes then I propose that ANET add in an OPTIONAL Subscription for players who want to support the games development.

Obviously these supporters will expect something in return, so I figure with each monthly payment made they should receive something nice. Perhaps just an item from the Gem Store or a unique skin designed just for supporters.

The reward you get isn’t important, the important thing is that ANET would then have the funds they needed to hire more staff to allow for faster and better patches, updates and even expansions.

So my question to you guys is:

If there was an optional subscription which would you select and why?

1. I wouldn’t become a Supporter.
2. Support with £1.00-£5.00 p/mnth
3. Support with £6.00-£10.00 p/mnth
4. Support with £11.00-£20.00 p/mnth
5. Support with £20.00 or above p/mnth

Or you just buy stuff from the gem store.

I will go first with:

Answer… 2. Support with £1.00-£5.00 p/mnth
Because… That is all I can really afford right now and I’m eager to support the development of the game further than the current gem store.

The gem store IS your optional subscription. If you put in £8 as a 2month sub along your lines of thinking, then then support is achieved. They will not ever add in any kind of sub to this game, since that is the core reason so many people began playing GW in the first place. ANd optional is pointless given the cash shop

The gem store is your place to support the company financially

I will leave the game if they give special things to subscribers.

If you want to support the developers on a monthly basis, buy gems each month. There. You’re supporting the developers. No need to add in a subscription service.

Three problems:

1. ArenaNet already puts a lot of constant work into GW2. It just isn’t the stuff that you listed (despite the fact that we want that stuff.) So the theory that they are doing less for the game because they can’t afford it is kinda moot.

2. The game makes a ton of money from the cash shop, probably more than it would make if it was a sub based game.

3. GW1 had no sub-fees and very little as far as microtransactions until AFTER GW2 was planned. Up until that point it received 4 new classes, loads of new features, hundreds of new skills and 2 completely new world maps plus a very large expansion to Tyria’s map.

Honestly, this wouldn’t be too bad if the subscriber benefits are like a free selection of items depending on the month. But from a realistic standpoint, I’d say Guild Wars 2 seems to profit well enough from the gem store alone so a subscription isn’t really necessary unless they got something to offer that would peak my, and a majority of gamers’ interests without alienating those who don’t want to pay.

No, no, and no. If you want to support just buy gems with legit money on a monthly basis.

Up until April, I’d have said 2. But I refuse to support a game that sells a gemstore item on the premise that it will be useful periodically, then 12 months after the original introduction of the item, announce that there is absolutely no timetable for when that item will be usable again… but still refuse to offer refunds.

I refuse to support a game that took traits away and tried to sell them back to us at more than 500% of the original cost.

I refuse to support a game that chose to reset progression without so much as acknowledging the concerns of the community.

I really don’t manage to understand why people would rather have a full new model introduced to support the game rather than use the one already offered and simply buy gems on a monthly base…you really need the game to claim from you “PAY xxx$/€/£ NOW” instead of simply do the very same, without being told to? -.- Or is it just that some people claim to have a way to look “better” than the people who can’t afford sub fees?

“GW2 Supporter Subscription!”

No.

If you want a sub fee, you can just starts spending a set amount of money in the gems store each month

I buy gems.

My husband buys gems.

Anytime we get an update that we enjoy or approve of.

Beyond that, we continue to play, and I offer all sorts of comments on here.

We plan on purchasing the expansion, should they actually release it in box form.

Those are our contributions. That should be sufficient.

Pre-ordered for $60. Since then I’ve only purchased $10 in gems and that was only because there was a sale for character slots and I had just bought a precursor so I didn’t have much gold. A little over 2 years and only $10 after the initial purchase. If they released an expansion every year for $60, I would be happy to buy.

Optional subscription? No.

I go with releasing an expansion every year and get rid of the cash-shop.

In that way all active players play a fair amount for the content and we can expect quality in the content not in the cash-shop. (If they do keep selling a few things like character slots and full make over kids I be fine with it.

Guhracie.3419:

I refuse to support a game that took traits away and tried to sell them back to us at more than 500% of the original cost.

This. This really soured the game for me. They slowed down the entire character progression by locking traits to levels 30, then 60, then 80 instead of 15, 40, and 60. I would’ve HAPPILY bought items from the gem store every couple weeks to support the game but they ruined it for me. Also it would help if the gem store actually had cooler items.

I never liked the idea of getting extra bonuses because I spent more money than someone else. I understand it but I don’t really like the idea.

I have spent more money on the gemstore than I care to admit and all I ever expected in return was the item I paid for. The gemstore is your optional monetary support.

Sounds like you want the China VIP system…

I do not. Not now. Not ever.

I buy gems when I can to support them because I love the game and enjoy the gem store items I get and the account upgrades (storage, character slots, etc. I do not support the OP’s idea.

Your better half is mistaken. It’s not that that other game can afford it and ANet cannot, it’s that the developer of that other game had a plan for furthering the game, is implementing it and you approve of its plan. ANet also has a plan for furthering the game and is implementing it. Some posters, including, I presume, you, just don’t like the plan. GW2 netted almost $6M per month in Q3, a time when dire predictions were being made in these forums about its health. While this amount is less than they made in Q2, it seems to me that’s still plenty to support operations, development and turn a tidy profit.

No sub, thank you, optional or not.

The idea as expressed is ostensibly to support development of content. However, I would have zero control over what content would be worked on. While I have zero control as it is, I can at least choose to spend money now if content I want is implemented, but don’t if what’s offered doesn’t interest me.

I believe in letting businesses make whatever business plan or monetizing scheme they desire. They’re going to anyway, so I’m essentially just riding the horse in the direction it’s already going. What I do not believe in is offering to throw more money at them if they don’t perform to my satisfaction. To do so essentially encourages businesses to under-perform, because customers will throw money at them anyway. This is kitten-backwards. It should be that businesses produce, then get paid, not they get paid and then produce.

IndigoSundown.5419:

I believe in letting businesses make whatever business plan or monetizing scheme they desire. They’re going to anyway, so I’m essentially just riding the horse in the direction it’s already going. What I do not believe in is offering to throw more money at them if they don’t perform to my satisfaction. To do so essentially encourages businesses to under-perform, because customers will throw money at them anyway. This is kitten-backwards. It should be that businesses produce, then get paid, not they get paid and then produce.

Well that’s the thing about MMO’s. They have to purposely cut certain things so that they have something worthwhile to sell to you in the cash store. Either that or they have to have a subscription fee. If there’s a subscription fee they’re guaranteed money so they have to just make sure they maintain servers and keep it interesting. If there’s no sub fees they have to earn money through cash shop, but to have good items in the cash shop they have to make the in game stuff slightly less good or slightly less functional. MMO’s with cash shops are inherently designed to almost satisfy the player so that they’ll buy something from the cash store to feel completely satisfied.

I"m not for a subscription. Though wealthy (in game) players should not rely on the gold to gem conversion for gem store items. They should be supporting the game and not leeching so much. We all know Anet is a business and that the game requires money to run on. Give a little if you play the game so much.

tofumon.5924:

IndigoSundown.5419:

— snip —

Well that’s the thing about MMO’s. They have to purposely cut certain things so that they have something worthwhile to sell to you in the cash store. Either that or they have to have a subscription fee. If there’s a subscription fee they’re guaranteed money so they have to just make sure they maintain servers and keep it interesting. If there’s no sub fees they have to earn money through cash shop, but to have good items in the cash shop they have to make the in game stuff slightly less good or slightly less functional. MMO’s with cash shops are inherently designed to almost satisfy the player so that they’ll buy something from the cash store to feel completely satisfied.

If you think the OP’s idea will mean that Anet will drop the store, you’re likely wrong. The store is a demonstrated revenue-producer. It wouldn’t go anywhere.

The OP’s idea might involve more money flowing in, but it might not be enough to dramatically influence development. After all, those who pay the sub are going to want something for their money. If that something is stuff that’s going in the store, then it’s possible the revenue gain will be somewhat offset because those people aren’t buying the item piecemeal. If the sub stuff is something new, then there will be production costs for it.

I’ve played several sub games. Most of them produce about the same amount of new stuff to do as GW2 does, some less. I’ve never felt the sub justified itself in any of those games. Big hunks of content come only as a paid expansion. Some of the expansions were worth the money.

The best game model, imo, was the original GW. Pay for the game, pay for new boxed content, minor store items. It’s not that not much different than what we have now, except Anet has not presented paid expansions. I’d happily consider paying for one of those. I don’t believe the player base needs to crowd-fund the production of an expansion, then pay for the box, especially since we would have no idea what’s being produced. I like to know what I’m spending money on.

all I know is FF14 has given their players a ridiculous amount of content, but I still love GW2 more, and im a life long FF fan

Ayrilana.1396:

Or you just buy stuff from the gem store.

the problem with support via buying stuff from the gemstore, is you are encouraging them to develop gem store items. If what you are giving them money for is stuff like classes, new zones, new game modes, features etc. There is no way to show them thats what you want.

Basically if you are running a business, and people come and buy cupcakes, you may think hey they like them! more cupcakes! ill make more. Then it turns out people were coming for the ambiance and the self made paintings you have on the wall. Then you wonder why all these new cupcakes you made arent selling very well.

Its not even really about money, its about priorities. A subscription game makes money by keeping you as entertained as possible for as long as possible. Therefore the focus is on content with high repeatability, the world, new content.

If you are cash shop focused, then your focus is on selling people things they want to have in the game. The game world is a mall.

DarkWasp.7291:

Three problems:

1. ArenaNet already puts a lot of constant work into GW2. It just isn’t the stuff that you listed (despite the fact that we want that stuff.) So the theory that they are doing less for the game because they can’t afford it is kinda moot.

2. The game makes a ton of money from the cash shop, probably more than it would make if it was a sub based game.

3. GW1 had no sub-fees and very little as far as microtransactions until AFTER GW2 was planned. Up until that point it received 4 new classes, loads of new features, hundreds of new skills and 2 completely new world maps plus a very large expansion to Tyria’s map.

gw1 was made in a buy 2 play fashion, their focus was on giving players a new game with the same basic mechanics. Their plan was similar to say, a streetfighter 2 or dark souls or assassins creed franchise.

Their overall goal would be to create a world that people want to come back to for new adventures periodically. Call of duty series is probably the most successful game with this model currently.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Your better half is mistaken. It’s not that that other game can afford it and ANet cannot, it’s that the developer of that other game had a plan for furthering the game, is implementing it and you approve of its plan. ANet also has a plan for furthering the game and is implementing it. Some posters, including, I presume, you, just don’t like the plan. GW2 netted almost $6M per month in Q3, a time when dire predictions were being made in these forums about its health. While this amount is less than they made in Q2, it seems to me that’s still plenty to support operations, development and turn a tidy profit.

No sub, thank you, optional or not.

The idea as expressed is ostensibly to support development of content. However, I would have zero control over what content would be worked on. While I have zero control as it is, I can at least choose to spend money now if content I want is implemented, but don’t if what’s offered doesn’t interest me.

I believe in letting businesses make whatever business plan or monetizing scheme they desire. They’re going to anyway, so I’m essentially just riding the horse in the direction it’s already going. What I do not believe in is offering to throw more money at them if they don’t perform to my satisfaction. To do so essentially encourages businesses to under-perform, because customers will throw money at them anyway. This is kitten-backwards. It should be that businesses produce, then get paid, not they get paid and then produce.

i agree somewhat, but reality is in that same time period ffxiv likely netted 30 mil. 15 dollars a subscriber, and here number to the tune of almost 3 million, even if this exagerated, lets assume 1.5 million, that would still give them 22 million a month versus 6.

as to not throwing money at them, well, in a subscription game you are paying because they have given you so much, its worthwhile to access it. Now if you think about it like that, if the gw2 world isnt giving you something you would be willing to pay for, then thats probably the biggest problem.

Monetization basically boils down to giving people something they want to buy. I honestly think the initial plan for gw2, that they discussed before release would have been their most profitable plan.
buy 2 play, with small optional gem shop to fill in the gaps in earning. The monetization strategy right now, is basically an f2p model, and going further in that direction as we speak. I honestly wouldnt be too surprised if they went f2p, for f2p to work best, it needs to be free.

either that or they need to go back to a buy 2 play strategy. I know they didnt like the peaks and valleys of b2play, but thats the product they appear to be best at making.

phys.7689:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Your better half is mistaken. It’s not that that other game can afford it and ANet cannot, it’s that the developer of that other game had a plan for furthering the game, is implementing it and you approve of its plan. ANet also has a plan for furthering the game and is implementing it. Some posters, including, I presume, you, just don’t like the plan. GW2 netted almost $6M per month in Q3, a time when dire predictions were being made in these forums about its health. While this amount is less than they made in Q2, it seems to me that’s still plenty to support operations, development and turn a tidy profit.

No sub, thank you, optional or not.

The idea as expressed is ostensibly to support development of content. However, I would have zero control over what content would be worked on. While I have zero control as it is, I can at least choose to spend money now if content I want is implemented, but don’t if what’s offered doesn’t interest me.

I believe in letting businesses make whatever business plan or monetizing scheme they desire. They’re going to anyway, so I’m essentially just riding the horse in the direction it’s already going. What I do not believe in is offering to throw more money at them if they don’t perform to my satisfaction. To do so essentially encourages businesses to under-perform, because customers will throw money at them anyway. This is kitten-backwards. It should be that businesses produce, then get paid, not they get paid and then produce.

i agree somewhat, but reality is in that same time period ffxiv likely netted 30 mil. 15 dollars a subscriber, and here number to the tune of almost 3 million, even if this exagerated, lets assume 1.5 million, that would still give them 22 million a month versus 6.

as to not throwing money at them, well, in a subscription game you are paying because they have given you so much, its worthwhile to access it. Now if you think about it like that, if the gw2 world isnt giving you something you would be willing to pay for, then thats probably the biggest problem.

Monetization basically boils down to giving people something they want to buy. I honestly think the initial plan for gw2, that they discussed before release would have been their most profitable plan.
buy 2 play, with small optional gem shop to fill in the gaps in earning. The monetization strategy right now, is basically an f2p model, and going further in that direction as we speak. I honestly wouldnt be too surprised if they went f2p, for f2p to work best, it needs to be free.

either that or they need to go back to a buy 2 play strategy. I know they didnt like the peaks and valleys of b2play, but thats the product they appear to be best at making.

FF XIV has console though. I’m not sure if it was comupter only that it would be as much or even close to as much. No one really knows. That’s the problem with comparisons.

There are a whole lot of people out there who won’t play games on a computer, but still have consoles.

Vayne.8563:

phys.7689:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Your better half is mistaken. It’s not that that other game can afford it and ANet cannot, it’s that the developer of that other game had a plan for furthering the game, is implementing it and you approve of its plan. ANet also has a plan for furthering the game and is implementing it. Some posters, including, I presume, you, just don’t like the plan. GW2 netted almost $6M per month in Q3, a time when dire predictions were being made in these forums about its health. While this amount is less than they made in Q2, it seems to me that’s still plenty to support operations, development and turn a tidy profit.

No sub, thank you, optional or not.

The idea as expressed is ostensibly to support development of content. However, I would have zero control over what content would be worked on. While I have zero control as it is, I can at least choose to spend money now if content I want is implemented, but don’t if what’s offered doesn’t interest me.

I believe in letting businesses make whatever business plan or monetizing scheme they desire. They’re going to anyway, so I’m essentially just riding the horse in the direction it’s already going. What I do not believe in is offering to throw more money at them if they don’t perform to my satisfaction. To do so essentially encourages businesses to under-perform, because customers will throw money at them anyway. This is kitten-backwards. It should be that businesses produce, then get paid, not they get paid and then produce.

i agree somewhat, but reality is in that same time period ffxiv likely netted 30 mil. 15 dollars a subscriber, and here number to the tune of almost 3 million, even if this exagerated, lets assume 1.5 million, that would still give them 22 million a month versus 6.

as to not throwing money at them, well, in a subscription game you are paying because they have given you so much, its worthwhile to access it. Now if you think about it like that, if the gw2 world isnt giving you something you would be willing to pay for, then thats probably the biggest problem.

Monetization basically boils down to giving people something they want to buy. I honestly think the initial plan for gw2, that they discussed before release would have been their most profitable plan.
buy 2 play, with small optional gem shop to fill in the gaps in earning. The monetization strategy right now, is basically an f2p model, and going further in that direction as we speak. I honestly wouldnt be too surprised if they went f2p, for f2p to work best, it needs to be free.

either that or they need to go back to a buy 2 play strategy. I know they didnt like the peaks and valleys of b2play, but thats the product they appear to be best at making.

FF XIV has console though. I’m not sure if it was comupter only that it would be as much or even close to as much. No one really knows. That’s the problem with comparisons.

There are a whole lot of people out there who won’t play games on a computer, but still have consoles.

if making a console port would really be guaranteed to increase your earnings that much, everyone would/should be doing it. The fact that more companies arent, probably gives a clue that they dont think it would be worth the investments.

I highly doubt they would go back on, or even change/alter a pre-release promise of no monthly fees.

More chance of a triple precursor drop I’d say.

phys.7689:

Vayne.8563:

phys.7689:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Your better half is mistaken. It’s not that that other game can afford it and ANet cannot, it’s that the developer of that other game had a plan for furthering the game, is implementing it and you approve of its plan. ANet also has a plan for furthering the game and is implementing it. Some posters, including, I presume, you, just don’t like the plan. GW2 netted almost $6M per month in Q3, a time when dire predictions were being made in these forums about its health. While this amount is less than they made in Q2, it seems to me that’s still plenty to support operations, development and turn a tidy profit.

No sub, thank you, optional or not.

The idea as expressed is ostensibly to support development of content. However, I would have zero control over what content would be worked on. While I have zero control as it is, I can at least choose to spend money now if content I want is implemented, but don’t if what’s offered doesn’t interest me.

I believe in letting businesses make whatever business plan or monetizing scheme they desire. They’re going to anyway, so I’m essentially just riding the horse in the direction it’s already going. What I do not believe in is offering to throw more money at them if they don’t perform to my satisfaction. To do so essentially encourages businesses to under-perform, because customers will throw money at them anyway. This is kitten-backwards. It should be that businesses produce, then get paid, not they get paid and then produce.

i agree somewhat, but reality is in that same time period ffxiv likely netted 30 mil. 15 dollars a subscriber, and here number to the tune of almost 3 million, even if this exagerated, lets assume 1.5 million, that would still give them 22 million a month versus 6.

as to not throwing money at them, well, in a subscription game you are paying because they have given you so much, its worthwhile to access it. Now if you think about it like that, if the gw2 world isnt giving you something you would be willing to pay for, then thats probably the biggest problem.

Monetization basically boils down to giving people something they want to buy. I honestly think the initial plan for gw2, that they discussed before release would have been their most profitable plan.
buy 2 play, with small optional gem shop to fill in the gaps in earning. The monetization strategy right now, is basically an f2p model, and going further in that direction as we speak. I honestly wouldnt be too surprised if they went f2p, for f2p to work best, it needs to be free.

either that or they need to go back to a buy 2 play strategy. I know they didnt like the peaks and valleys of b2play, but thats the product they appear to be best at making.

FF XIV has console though. I’m not sure if it was comupter only that it would be as much or even close to as much. No one really knows. That’s the problem with comparisons.

There are a whole lot of people out there who won’t play games on a computer, but still have consoles.

if making a console port would really be guaranteed to increase your earnings that much, everyone would/should be doing it. The fact that more companies arent, probably gives a clue that they dont think it would be worth the investments.

Not all games would transfer over well.

i’m not so sure the op gets how the funding circulation between customer, anet and ncsoft actually works ….
you already have the possibility to spend money on the game, why would it need subs?

I won’t mind to pay for my MMO.My entiry MMO history was paying for this or that MMO lol.It won’t be different here if Anet added it.Some people can afford it other don’t.

The 3 million figure for FFXIV is registered players, not active subscriptions. Actually it’s 2.3 million outside of China as of mid August and 1 million pre-orders for the Chinese release also mid August. It probably reached 4 million since then. But again, not active subscriptions.

That said, even if active subscriptions are much lower than registered players, they still have a steady revenue stream going.

Here is an interview where the director explains why he thinks sub fees are better for the game.
http://venturebeat.com/2013/06/17/final-fantasy-online-director-defends-monthly-subscriptions-in-the-golden-age-of-free-to-play-exclusive/

With a subscription base, if you get maybe 400,000 members, you know that you’re going to have the money from that monthly subscription for the next month. You also know that you’re going to have 400,000 this month, and it’s not going to go down to 200,000 users next month. That type of jump really doesn’t happen with a subscription model. So you know that you’re going to have a steady income. Because you have a steady income, you can plan ahead further. You can make sure you have staff members to create that new content. By creating new content, you’re making the players happy. If they know this game is going to keep creating new content, they’ll continue to pay their monthly subscription fees. So rather than going for the huge $100-million-a-month hit that you might get with the free-to-play model, having that steady income allows us to provide a better product to the players.

There’s more, but I didn’t want to quote the whole article.

I don’t want GW2 to have a sub fee of course. I think they should have gone with regular expansions. It would have had a similar effect as having a sub fee. Players would know Anet is continuing to develop new content so they are more comfortable sticking around. Maybe between expansions, they’d throw some money into the gem store. Living World would have a place in this. Have LW seasons between expansions to keep players interested. The problem is that as far as we know, we are only getting LW and those content updates are smaller than the community wants.

phys.7689:

Vayne.8563:

phys.7689:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Your better half is mistaken. It’s not that that other game can afford it and ANet cannot, it’s that the developer of that other game had a plan for furthering the game, is implementing it and you approve of its plan. ANet also has a plan for furthering the game and is implementing it. Some posters, including, I presume, you, just don’t like the plan. GW2 netted almost $6M per month in Q3, a time when dire predictions were being made in these forums about its health. While this amount is less than they made in Q2, it seems to me that’s still plenty to support operations, development and turn a tidy profit.

No sub, thank you, optional or not.

The idea as expressed is ostensibly to support development of content. However, I would have zero control over what content would be worked on. While I have zero control as it is, I can at least choose to spend money now if content I want is implemented, but don’t if what’s offered doesn’t interest me.

I believe in letting businesses make whatever business plan or monetizing scheme they desire. They’re going to anyway, so I’m essentially just riding the horse in the direction it’s already going. What I do not believe in is offering to throw more money at them if they don’t perform to my satisfaction. To do so essentially encourages businesses to under-perform, because customers will throw money at them anyway. This is kitten-backwards. It should be that businesses produce, then get paid, not they get paid and then produce.

i agree somewhat, but reality is in that same time period ffxiv likely netted 30 mil. 15 dollars a subscriber, and here number to the tune of almost 3 million, even if this exagerated, lets assume 1.5 million, that would still give them 22 million a month versus 6.

as to not throwing money at them, well, in a subscription game you are paying because they have given you so much, its worthwhile to access it. Now if you think about it like that, if the gw2 world isnt giving you something you would be willing to pay for, then thats probably the biggest problem.

Monetization basically boils down to giving people something they want to buy. I honestly think the initial plan for gw2, that they discussed before release would have been their most profitable plan.
buy 2 play, with small optional gem shop to fill in the gaps in earning. The monetization strategy right now, is basically an f2p model, and going further in that direction as we speak. I honestly wouldnt be too surprised if they went f2p, for f2p to work best, it needs to be free.

either that or they need to go back to a buy 2 play strategy. I know they didnt like the peaks and valleys of b2play, but thats the product they appear to be best at making.

FF XIV has console though. I’m not sure if it was comupter only that it would be as much or even close to as much. No one really knows. That’s the problem with comparisons.

There are a whole lot of people out there who won’t play games on a computer, but still have consoles.

if making a console port would really be guaranteed to increase your earnings that much, everyone would/should be doing it. The fact that more companies arent, probably gives a clue that they dont think it would be worth the investments.

It could also be because the large companies behind the popular consoles might insist on some creative control and that the developer (ANet) or publisher (NCSoft) would not want to give up.