Guild Wars 2

Anet increasingly like their 75% sales. It’s led me to list some statements below. I would be interested to hear the extent to which you guys agree or disagree with any of them.

1. New players spend real life money in the Gemstore. Veteran players much less so.

2. Stuff in the game that veteran players would like to see change is not profitable to address so doesnt matter very much. They dont spend real life money anymore and will continue to stay around regardless of irks or unfulfilled wishlists because they have already got this far.

3. Due to the lack of subscription, the most important thing for GW2 financial prosperity is to continually attract and cater to new players.

4. Retaining and appeasing veteran players is less important in this business model than in games that have a monthly subscription.

5. Anet loves new players more than anything else in the world.

Retention of players is a problem all online games face, and with GW2 being a B2P game, game sales will be their priority, as it ensures a level of investment from the player, whereas gem store items are all optional investments.

In a Buy to play game, game sales will ALWAYS be the top priority, because it’s the most secure revenue stream.

Having said that, I feel ANet caters very well to all their customers, old and new. The sales are simply because of HoT’s release (I strongly suspect the base game to drastically drop in price once HoT is released).

More new customers and players overall = better sales potential of the expansion when it arrives

75% discount is proven by Steam for games whose sales have declined to a steady trough, primarily due to age.

Couple that with the upcoming expansion which will cost $£€, the more players with existing accounts, the more people likely to have some investment in the game and an interest in the expansion. Which leads to HoT making more money too.

Kedarrian.2905:

Anet increasingly like their 75% sales. It’s led me to list some statements below. I would be interested to hear the extent to which you guys agree or disagree with any of them.

1. New players spend real life money in the Gemstore. Veteran players much less so.

2. Stuff in the game that veteran players would like to see change is not profitable to address so doesnt matter very much. They dont spend real life money anymore and will continue to stay around regardless of irks or unfulfilled wishlists because they have already got this far.

3. Due to the lack of subscription, the most important thing for GW2 financial prosperity is to continually attract and cater to new players.

4. Retaining and appeasing veteran players is less important in this business model than in games that have a monthly subscription.

5. Anet loves new players more than anything else in the world.

1) I dunno… a lot of the gem store items seem to be aimed at old players who might have pangs of nostalgia. New players will look at Tormented, Zodiac, or Balthazar stuff and wonder what’s so special about it.

2) I think it’s more that a lot of “veterans” want GW2 to be more like GW1, which the developers of this game have already decided they DON’T want. As a result, requests to make GW2 more like GW1 are largely ignored.

3, 4, 5) I think you’ll find that’s true for pretty much ALL video games (and even all entertainment, really), regardless of what genre or style. Your “hardcore” fanbase is in a state of permanent decay almost from the moment it is formed. For most forms of entertainment, you can handle that decay for a while. But for video games (where the profit margin can be paper thin to begin with), you pretty much HAVE to be searching to expand your consumer base right from the start in order to stay solvent.

I don’t buy anything, as useless wings and clown costumes don’t interest me.

Alternate animations would sell like hotcakes, though. Definitely something that would cause my wallet to go full steam sale.

Tskales.2804:

I don’t buy anything, as useless wings and clown costumes don’t interest me.

Alternate animations would sell like hotcakes, though. Definitely something that would cause my wallet to go full steam sale.

I loved the animation sets in Aion, as well as the various emotes.

I’d love for ANet to sell emote/animation packs (I’m sure there are lots of charr out there who want to stand up straight, HINT HINT)

hope they don’t put price of 100€ for the expansion

1.) Opinion

2.) Opinion

3.) Opinion

4.) Opinion

5.) Opinion

Without any actual data to back up these opinions that is all they are and will ever be.

Kedarrian.2905:

4. Retaining and appeasing veteran players is less important in this business model than in games that have a monthly subscription.

Failure to retain players makes it far harder to attract new ones, especially considering GW2 has little advertising and relies on word of mouth.

TheFantasticGman.9451:

1.) Opinion

2.) Opinion

3.) Opinion

4.) Opinion

5.) Opinion

Without any actual data to back up these opinions that is all they are and will ever be.

OP never presented any of what they said as fact, they even ask for reasons why people may agree or disagree with their opinion.

Kedarrian.2905:

Anet increasingly like their 75% sales. It’s led me to list some statements below. I would be interested to hear the extent to which you guys agree or disagree with any of them.

1. New players spend real life money in the Gemstore. Veteran players much less so.

2. Stuff in the game that veteran players would like to see change is not profitable to address so doesnt matter very much. They dont spend real life money anymore and will continue to stay around regardless of irks or unfulfilled wishlists because they have already got this far.

3. Due to the lack of subscription, the most important thing for GW2 financial prosperity is to continually attract and cater to new players.

4. Retaining and appeasing veteran players is less important in this business model than in games that have a monthly subscription.

5. Anet loves new players more than anything else in the world.

1. Disagree. When I can I spend 20-40£ a month to get the gemstore items that I like. Loving costumes, minis, sometimes finishers and at the moment got my eyes on quaggan mail carrier.

2. Disagree. Majority of things veterans wanted for years is being addressed with HOT. For example condition stacking, personal story and NPE traits change.

3. Disagree. Important for all MMOs. When MMO stops growing and player base starts shrinking, then you’re on your way to slow death. You don’t want that to happen, so new players picking up your game are always important.

4. Due to casual nature of GW2, it’s less important that players log in monthly. Meaning huge breaks are possible without losing out on much.

5. Every company loves new customers. Why do you sound so sour about that?

Kedarrian.2905:

1. New players spend real life money in the Gemstore. Veteran players much less so.

Might or might not be true. Veteran players are as likely to want the new shiny as new ones. They might or might not have the gold exchange for the gems, whereas new players are less likely to have a lot of gold. However, the gem-for-gold exchange is fueled by gem purchases, so someone is buying gems.

Kedarrian.2905:

2. Stuff in the game that veteran players would like to see change is not profitable to address so doesnt matter very much. They dont spend real life money anymore and will continue to stay around regardless of irks or unfulfilled wishlists because they have already got this far.

Retaining vets has always seemed to be a priority for ANet. They add, change and fix things in the game all the time. Those things may or may not be something that tickles the fancy of any individual vet — most of what they’ve added and changed has been neutral or negative to me — but it’s clear ANet has been working to retain vets. So, a big NO on this one.

Kedarrian.2905:

3. Due to the lack of subscription, the most important thing for GW2 financial prosperity is to continually attract and cater to new players.

The most important thing for games fueled by virtual stores is to have a sufficient pool of players that some of them purchase what’s in the store. This pool can and does consist of vets and new players. Attracting new players is important because no matter what a company does, some vets drop off over time. This happens in sub games, also. Look at the fluctuations in WoW player numbers based on time between expansions.

Kedarrian.2905:

4. Retaining and appeasing veteran players is less important in this business model than in games that have a monthly subscription.

See number 2, above. The effort and resources that have been put into updates for GW2 argues that vets are important to ANet. Don’t mistake player discontent based on a no-matter-how-much-gets-added/changed/fixed-it’s-never-enough mindset for the company’s indifference. Look at any sub game and you’ll see such discontent.

Kedarrian.2905:

5. Anet loves new players more than anything else in the world.

Analysis of this statement seems to indicate the OP is one of the players referred to in my response to #4, above.

Kedarrian.2905:

Anet increasingly like their 75% sales. It’s led me to list some statements below. I would be interested to hear the extent to which you guys agree or disagree with any of them.

1. New players spend real life money in the Gemstore. Veteran players much less so.

2. Stuff in the game that veteran players would like to see change is not profitable to address so doesnt matter very much. They dont spend real life money anymore and will continue to stay around regardless of irks or unfulfilled wishlists because they have already got this far.

3. Due to the lack of subscription, the most important thing for GW2 financial prosperity is to continually attract and cater to new players.

4. Retaining and appeasing veteran players is less important in this business model than in games that have a monthly subscription.

5. Anet loves new players more than anything else in the world.

at this point they have made most of the money they can make off the 60 dollar product. Also, 15 dollars per sale is a lot of cash. When they sell a real box, they probably dont see much more than that due to distribution/packaging/retailer profit.

they are selling HoT soon, at which point they will probably have to sell both as a package deal soon after. Possibly including season 2. Better to get 75% of gw2, however much of season 2 they buy, and HoT later, rather then sell them all at once for less later.

hmmm…wait a minute…

(pulls away the curtain)

oh…another veiled “GW2 dying thread”

I think one of the big reasons for ANet offering the discount: they hope to grow the player base to increase pre-orders for the expac: buying now gives people time to develop L80 characters, which are then ripe for HoT.

I’m sure some of the other things matter, too: many new players will spend more on gems than a lot of veterans (although plenty of veterans spend a lot already), more new players means a more vibrant community, etc.

However, it isn’t logical to assume ANet prefers new players “more than anything” — if veterans don’t enjoy the game, new players aren’t likely to buy the game even for 75% off. Worse, if veterans don’t stay, neither will new players (not for long), which means a problem for selling gems worse than failing to get new players.

tl;dr it’s more complicated than the OP seems to believe.

I would have thought veteran players are more likely to buy things from the gem store.

I’m much more likely to spend extra money on a game I’ve already put a lot of time into, because I know I like it and I’m likely to keep playing it. Whereas a brand new game I might find I’m not that into and then I never actually get to use the items/DLC I’ve bought.

And with new skins specifically there’s also the fact that veteran players are more likely to have collected, used and gotten bored with the skins they like that are available in the game itself, whereas new players will still be unlocking them, or may simply be unaware of what’s available and don’t want to buy skins until they know what the options are.

My opinion is these sales are two fold.

One, GW2 is nearly a 3 year old MMO that requires you to buy in to play and they are looking for a 2nd wave of players who didn’t buy it at $50 when it was on the shelves in 2012. At $10 it’s at Steam impulse buy prices. School is nearly done, get them hooked before the summer Steam sale.

Two, they are priming the pump to sell HoT. Can’t sell an expansion if players don’t already own the base game.

Danikat.8537:

I would have thought veteran players are more likely to buy things from the gem store.

I’m much more likely to spend extra money on a game I’ve already put a lot of time into, because I know I like it and I’m likely to keep playing it. Whereas a brand new game I might find I’m not that into and then I never actually get to use the items/DLC I’ve bought.

And with new skins specifically there’s also the fact that veteran players are more likely to have collected, used and gotten bored with the skins they like that are available in the game itself, whereas new players will still be unlocking them, or may simply be unaware of what’s available and don’t want to buy skins until they know what the options are.

This also is true.

One of the things that also needs to be taken into consideration is the quality of the products that are on the shelf in said item shop in a game and the price points associated with it.

A clear example is a lucky draw item in this game being the black lion chest. In its current state I wouldn’t buy it due to the price point vs the average value roll of each associated chest. I also don’t like to gamble for something I want, which is the black lion skins. If however the dice rolls guranteed atleast a scrap, you would def being seeing atleast a good chunk of money a month from me alone as someone who has committed to this game since launch. We can argue that I can just buy gems, convert to gold, and get the skins I want that way but the reality of the situation is that as me who has the money AKA the consumer, the company should be doing everything in their power to make it as easy as possible for me to hand them the dollar bill, rather than having me go through additional hurdles to get to that point. This is the essence of consumer relationships.

Now that’s not to say that the monetization team isn’t learning or leanin in that direction as evidenced by the sudden boost to the ticket scrap rate in chests.

As far as I’m concerned, there is too many factors to really pull an absolute as to which end of the spectrum is more favorable without looking at the details. One thing I can say of course is that if those chaos weapons weren’t so poorly done that could have been a lucrative black lion ticket season at least from me.