Guild Wars 2

Is there some magical reason that all gem store items aren’t on sale at the same time all the time? I mean at this point why not just make them available all the time. I doubt the artificial demand that anet is trying to create by not having them available is amounting to much, and its just annoying as none of the items are exclusive and you know they will be back at some point anyways, It’s just very annoying having to wait.

As has been stated countless times before, it is a successful and oft-used marketing strategy. Likely, if it did not ‘amount to much’, no one would use it.

well its succeeding in annoying the crap out of me, doesn’t make me want to purchase it more by having to wait, it just annoys me. If these items were super exclusive i would understand it. But they always return.

In fact it makes me not want to play the character I want it for, until I get it so I guess for me it makes me want to play less.

Three reasons:

1) Having everything on there at once makes for a very long list to scroll through and fewer opportunities to announce items. Meaning people might get bored or overwhelmed looking through them all and never come to one they’d like, and it won’t be advertised on the website, Facebook etc. so they won’t see it that way.

End result is fewer sales.

2) Some people (like me) have a lot of items we sort-of mostly like…maybe for one character…but maybe it’s not exactly right. If that item is always available people might sit on the fence forever thinking they’ll get it one day and never actually doing it.

End result is fewer sales.

3) It’s possible to buy everything in the gem store with gold and even the most casual, occasional player will accumulate gold gradually. So if everything was always available people could save up their gold and buy it without spending any real money. Which results in fewer sales.

Whereas if things are only available temporarily then only people who already have the gold to hand or can make it very quickly will have that option (especially because if it’s a popular item the exchange rate will jump up). Other people are likely to use real money instead.

So whilst it seems counter-intuitive removing items periodically and then bringing them back later actually does improve sales.

(It works in real life too. For example one year Cadbury’s Creme Eggs were sold all year round – they actually sold less in total than when they were only available around Easter.)

I for one have had the adverse response to those “returning” items. Something I wanted 2 months ago isn’t as appealing anymore once it’s released.

An outfit that I wanted for my sylvari ele is no longer needed because I’m now playing my human necro. Or Caithe’s Bloom no longer appeals to me because I got my hands on a skin in game that I like better. My impulse buying has been stymied by lack of availability of the item.

skigorn.7910:

I for one have had the adverse response to those “returning” items. Something I wanted 2 months ago isn’t as appealing anymore once it’s released.

An outfit that I wanted for my sylvari ele is no longer needed because I’m now playing my human necro. Or Caithe’s Bloom no longer appeals to me because I got my hands on a skin in game that I like better. My impulse buying has been stymied by lack of availability of the item.

agreed I’ve never been susceptible to stuff like black Friday or midnight releases of whatever, where people are standing out doors like a pack of hungry hyena’s. I guess were in the minority though as ppl charge forward like cattle when something that wasn’t available comes back suddenly and unexpectedly, and for those of us who aren’t susceptible to hype its just annoying and actually makes me not want to purchase it when it is re-released out of annoyance and protest.

there’s something to be said for convenience as well. Having items available all the time is convenient, and ppl pay for that as well.

You see this on Netflix as well. I’ve been watching multiple series when suddenly the licensing on them expires at the beginning of a new month and it says this is no longer available, even though I was in the middle of watching it. They do the same with movies where I see a movie and I’m like “Oh I’ll watch that in a couple of days”, and then i come back the next day and its no longer available. Its extremely annoying and makes me want to cancel my subscription, not hype me up for more stuff later.

skigorn.7910:

I for one have had the adverse response to those “returning” items. Something I wanted 2 months ago isn’t as appealing anymore once it’s released.

Sure, people have different values, different opinions. As US President Lincoln said,

You can market to some of the people all of the time.
And market to all of the people some of the time.
But there is no marketing technique that works on all of the people, all of the time.

(I might have taken a liberty or two with the actual quote.)

When attempting to increase revenue, retailers don’t usually worry if they annoy a few people as long as they can maintain their numbers for extender periods of time. (Although some will overdo it and end up killing their gooses laying golden eggs.)

So the question isn’t if, “you, for one have an adverse reaction” — it’s whether sales are higher in the long run by using artificial scarcity. The answer appears to be: yes, sales are higher when items aren’t always available.

To review, there isn’t just one reason, there are several

• Artificial scarcity increases revenue in the long run.
• Artificial scarcity increases demand (a retailers version of “familiarity breeds contempt” — we don’t value what is always there)
• Reducing offerings makes it easier to see what’s available today.

Jumpin Lumpix.6108:

skigorn.7910:

I for one have had the adverse response to those “returning” items. Something I wanted 2 months ago isn’t as appealing anymore once it’s released.

An outfit that I wanted for my sylvari ele is no longer needed because I’m now playing my human necro. Or Caithe’s Bloom no longer appeals to me because I got my hands on a skin in game that I like better. My impulse buying has been stymied by lack of availability of the item.

agreed I’ve never been susceptible to stuff like black Friday or midnight releases of whatever, where people are standing out doors like a pack of hungry hyena’s. I guess were in the minority though as ppl charge forward like cattle when something that wasn’t available comes back suddenly and unexpectedly, and for those of us who aren’t susceptible to hype its just annoying and actually makes me not want to purchase it when it is re-released out of annoyance and protest.

there’s something to be said for convenience as well. Having items available all the time is convenient, and ppl pay for that as well.

You see this on Netflix as well. I’ve been watching multiple series when suddenly the licensing on them expires at the beginning of a new month and it says this is no longer available, even though I was in the middle of watching it. They do the same with movies where I see a movie and I’m like “Oh I’ll watch that in a couple of days”, and then i come back the next day and its no longer available. Its extremely annoying and makes me want to cancel my subscription, not hype me up for more stuff later.

I think this is the key: some people aren’t susceptible to this type of “hype”. I never understood why people would wait in line for hours or overnight for the new iPhone – its not like you won’t be able to get it later. I always wait until the new thing is on sale, I don’t have to have it the minute it is first available.

I think you guys are confusing two different things. Periodically removing stuff from the gem store doesn’t target people who want to get the new thing ASAP because it’s new. That’s already covered by releasing new things.

It’s a way of getting people who are tempted but not quite to the point of actually purchasing an item to get on and make a decision. Kind of like if you walk past a restaurant every day and tell yourself it looks good and you should eat there, but because it’s nearby and you could go there any time you never actually make the effort until it’s closing down and you’re about to lose that chance.

(Or for a more relevant example it’s like when I went into town to buy Morrowind, but then realised the limited Edition of Wind Waker was actually limited and they only had a few left – so I bought that instead. It’d been on my list of games to get since before it came out, and I was going to get around to it sooner or later but as soon as I realised I could lose the free bonus disc it jumped to the top of the list. Which worked out well because next month the Game of the Year Edition of Morrowind came out.)

Of course it’s not completely the same with the gem store because most things do come back sooner or later (although there are exceptions), so you’re not likely to lose your chance completely. But it could be weeks, or months or years until it comes back, so it can seem like the much better choice to get it now.