Gem Store Item Limit
Wishing we could pay for a DLC that makes all the actual gem store items (or at least most) available in game…
I tried searching (via Google) for the many other threads about this but couldn’t phrase the concept well enough to get any hits. However, I have seen the question of why ANet doesn’t keep things permanently available raised in thread after thread and the general consensus in reply seems to be “ANet has concluded, based on marketing data that they have and we don’t, that they make more money by making purchases feel more urgent.”
It’s a couple of reasons, based on human nature:
- “Familiarity Breeds Contempt” — if stuff is always available, we tend to appreciate it less. Sure, in reality, the item/service should be worth the same; in practice, that’s not how we humans see it.
- Impulse Purchasing — we’ve all done it: buy something because it’s next to the register and we sorta/kinda need it.
- Time Urgency — we also make different decisions when there’s less time to decide.
Or in other words, for the same reason that retail prices end in .99 instead of rounding up — it works in getting more people to buy.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
Removing items is a marketing ploy that a lot of game companies do. They have it temporarily, remove it and then eventually bring it back. When it comes back the people that didn’t buy it before remember that it left pretty quickly, so they perceive it to be another limited time offer (whether it is or isn’t) and make more impulsive decisions to buy stuff because it might not come back again ever.
It sucks but it is the way it is. Personally I wish that ~90% of the cosmetic items ever on sale in the Gem Store would either be put in permanently (perhaps behind a search feature so as to not clutter it up) or be put in the store on regular rotations so that if you miss it you wouldn’t even have to wait a year to get it back (still a long time though). I don’t agree with the practice of only selling some cosmetic items for a limited time and then never bringing them back, or bringing them back for only a few days and then taking them out again.
I don’t think items are for sale for limited times based on their worth, else we wouldn’t see new items up ‘For 7 Days Only’.
It’s a well-established, and profitable, sales mechanic.
It’s not just Anet, or even just games companies. A lot of companies do this because (apparently) it works.
It’s aimed at people like me who will look at things they sort-of like and say “Yeah, maybe I’ll get that some time” and then ‘sometime’ can easily turn into ‘never got around to it’. Whereas if it’s only available for a short period I’m more inclined to get it just in case I lose my chance.
Of course it doesn’t always workittenep thinking bits of the Strider’s and Viper’s armour sets look nice, but not quite enough to justify buying it and I still don’t have them. But I have bought other things, like the reading glasses and the bunny ears.
Danielle Aurorel, Dear Dragon We Got Your Cookies [Nom], Desolation (EU).
“Life’s a journey, not a destination.”
“Life’s a journey, not a destination.”
Wishing we could pay for a DLC that makes all the actual gem store items (or at least most) available in game…
Amen. Or a campaign / expac based game like GW1.
I just wish there was a backdoor to purchase things not currently listed. Like through chat codes or from the hero panel. Right click and select buy on gem store.
It’d be nice to see these things sorted out. Yes, some people fall for them, but how is “Limited time sale, 2 days only, nowhere near pay day and so brief that you’ll probably even miss that this item’s on sale!” nonsense supposed to help with selling the item? The same with making something unavailable for months at a time, I’ll simply give up on it and get an alternative that’s likely not from the gem store.