Guild Wars 2

Dark Catalyst.1028:

Enjoying your no sub fee model? Lol. The entire game is designed around funneling as many players as possible into the cash shop by severely restricting loot and gold gained through simply playing the game.

$15 a month is worth NEVER seeing a “buy now” button on my UI or messages like in the OP in my chat box. Yeah, yeah, they have to make money so I’d rather just pay them a flat fee and hope they make a fun game with it.

To be Honest, I have found Myself slowly buying more from the gem store, I Know… it’s My weakness, I should just go all.." Gem store…Just say No." But I do think that paying a Monthly is a cheaper… more honest model. A straight " I pay you 15 bucks, you give me a game to play." Not …" hey hey, Look at this sexy skin for your armor… 800 gems."

I used to be One of those that said…" you do not HAVE to buy from ther gem store…it’s all fluff, and vanity."

My issue is The Gold. When earning Gold is hard, and any IN-game farm is eliminated as it is discovered, it Just starts to feel Like." No… you want Gold, we do NOT allow farming…but, we have Gold On sale at the gem store!!!"

I remember when buying Gold was a thing to be ashamed of…. Not embraced.

Dark Catalyst.1028:

thehipone.6812:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

I thought it was just a message in the chat box. There are flashing messages now? Does anyone have a screenie? I’ve not seen this.

To clarify, since it does not show up in the screenshot posted above –
the ad was just llike the previous announcements of – “Scarlet’s Minons are Attacking Frostgorge Sound!” big yellow text, right in the middle of the screen. It also showed up in the chat box.

Notification is fine. In-game mail would have been much better than this immersion breaker.

You can turn off the in game adds by paying a small monthly fee.

Watch it happen.

Many have been waiting for any of your predictions to come anywhere near true. Guess we just need to keep waiting.

Dark Catalyst.1028:

Xae Isareth.1364:

Dark Catalyst.1028:

Enjoying your no sub fee model? Lol. The entire game is designed around funneling as many players as possible into the cash shop by severely restricting loot and gold gained through simply playing the game.

$15 a month is worth NEVER seeing a “buy now” button on my UI or messages like in the OP in my chat box. Yeah, yeah, they have to make money so I’d rather just pay them a flat fee and hope they make a fun game with it.

It’s not really a question of ‘enjoying it’ not, P2P for everything simply isn’t viable for me.

I can’t stick to a single MMO. Right now, I’m playing GW2/TSW/(was playing)ESO/Defiance, choosing one on any particular day. So if I paid $15 a moth for all of them, that’s $60 a month on MMOs alone before other games, for something I spend, what 1-2 hours a day on average on?

That just won’t happen for me.

I can understand that since you seem to play several games. But GW2 has become so shameless with its cash shop, that I can barely stomach logging in or supporting them.

Until they stop spamming ‘buy gold here!’ on update messages, I won’t buy more gems either.

Guys what are you talking about?
i never received such a message … and i really woul have enjoyed it :<
The gem store isn’t the place where to “buy items to win” but simply the place where to “buy funny items and promote developers work”.
If you dont want to spend money use in-game golds, if you don’t want to farm use money… but if you don’t want to farm and spent money then… give me a good reason to sell you something that required hours of work?!
The game is Buy To Play; this means you pay 1 time for the game and then you can play all the time you want BUT developers aren’t 1 time paid to work on a game for their entire life… seriously stop with these flame.

For the guy above me, you can still farm, you just need to find new ways. “FARM” is against game rule only because this is the most “free time game” (→ “casual gamers”). Now if you want to farm you can still do it but you are only trying to play Gw2 how you where used to play WoW or free to play games. There is no need to farm in this game (except for leggendary and ascended, both non-essentials to get capped).

Also i want to encourage everyone to buy gems at least 2-3 times per years not because ANet paid me for this (XD) but just because buy gems is the only way we have to say thank you to developers. If you think that to develop a game, a world or a single weapon skin is easy and fast… please start to work at your own personal game (i did it… 1 month later i finished the first city XD then i stopped :<).

before to open another thread like this please think that you are only wasting moderator time and just flamming. That’s all for me, don’t get me wrong, i don’t want to attack you… simply be honest with yourselves.

They could send this to newcomers… but we know cash shop exists, and we know what’s on sale in gemstore every now and then. It kinda ruins their image, I agree.

Kjeldoran.3849:

Guys what are you talking about?
i never received such a message … and i really woul have enjoyed it :<
The gem store isn’t the place where to “buy items to win” but simply the place where to “buy funny items and promote developers work”.
If you dont want to spend money use in-game golds, if you don’t want to farm use money… but if you don’t want to farm and spent money then… give me a good reason to sell you something that required hours of work?!
The game is Buy To Play; this means you pay 1 time for the game and then you can play all the time you want BUT developers aren’t 1 time paid to work on a game for their entire life… seriously stop with these flame.

For the guy above me, you can still farm, you just need to find new ways. “FARM” is against game rule only because this is the most “free time game” (-> “casual gamers”). Now if you want to farm you can still do it but you are only trying to play Gw2 how you where used to play WoW or free to play games. There is no need to farm in this game (except for leggendary and ascended, both non-essentials to get capped).

Also i want to encourage everyone to buy gems at least 2-3 times per years not because ANet paid me for this (XD) but just because buy gems is the only way we have to say thank you to developers. If you think that to develop a game, a world or a single weapon skin is easy and fast… please start to work at your own personal game (i did it… 1 month later i finished the first city XD then i stopped :<).

before to open another thread like this please think that you are only wasting moderator time and just flamming. That’s all for me, don’t get me wrong, i don’t want to attack you… simply be honest with yourselves.

The game is a business. I love Kellog’s cereals, I like what they did for my breakfast, but I don’t send money to Kellog’s regularly for no reason to thank them. I give them money when they incentivise me to give them money for a solid product in return.

If I enjoy the game and see a hope in me playing for a long time, and there’s something good in the cash shop, I’ll pay for it, if not, I won’t. Like with Kellog’s I won’t give them money regularly for no reason.

I understand its a MMO, there’s continued development costs, but this is the business model they have chosen. They could have chosen a P2P model, or a DLC/expansion model, that was their choice, so I don’t have any responsibilities to support that.

you pay for Kellog’s at least 1 time per week XD and they don’t add new things to kellog’s (?) every week… so you pay for the same thing every week when it costs 0 to add nothing. while gw2 development cost surely more than 0 every day and you pay nothing every week (except when you buy gems).

You are right, arenanet decision was the B2P model, but also the best game can fail if no one support it. Do you want gw2 to fail? to become free to play (pay to win)? so stop with these threads and support, if you can (i’m not forcing anyone, just don’t attack them for so little) , and if you can’t simply enjoy the game with your B2P method and that message in the chat wich is not destroying your game experience (i hope…)

Xae Isareth.1364:

The problem isn’t with this one advert. If they read the forums at all, which they do, they’ll know that tension on the gem store at the moment is at an all-time high.

Yet what dot hey do? Oh that’s right! Let’s put an in-game advert at the players just to see how vexed they can reaaally be!

^This. I’m not one of the people that are crying out over the gem shop but it was rather foolhardy to advertise like they did at present.

thehipone.6812:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

I thought it was just a message in the chat box. There are flashing messages now? Does anyone have a screenie? I’ve not seen this.

To clarify, since it does not show up in the screenshot posted above –
the ad was just llike the previous announcements of – “Scarlet’s Minons are Attacking Frostgorge Sound!” big yellow text, right in the middle of the screen. It also showed up in the chat box.

Notification is fine. In-game mail would have been much better than this immersion breaker.

Problem with in game mail is that people will complain that it is taking up slots of their mail event though it would not. Or people would complain about having to delete it. Or complain that ArenaNet is spamming them.

But I do agree mail would have been better. Both for ArenaNet and the players.

lordkrall.7241:

Dark Catalyst.1028:

Enjoying your no sub fee model? Lol. The entire game is designed around funneling as many players as possible into the cash shop by severely restricting loot and gold gained through simply playing the game.

$15 a month is worth NEVER seeing a “buy now” button on my UI or messages like in the OP in my chat box. Yeah, yeah, they have to make money so I’d rather just pay them a flat fee and hope they make a fun game with it.

They don’t really funnel people into using the cash shop anyway. I have never felt that the game as pushed me towards the gem-store. I know it is there and I can use it if I want to, but I have never come into a situation where I have felt forced to use it.

Are you saying that you’ve never felt “pushed” into spending money on the game, or are you saying you’ve never spent money on the game?

no one else has noticed this weird trend?

+ the game opens in China
+ A horde of goldseller reappears
+ Black lion trader spam
+ Advertise on news exchange gold / gem
+ Collaborators anet appear much less on the forum

could be nothing but it’s really weird.

Aidan Savage.2078:

Xae Isareth.1364:

Devata.6589:

Maxite.6102:

I appreciated the message. I don’t constantly watch the gemstore, so a heads up was nice.

You are taking on like they repeatedly sent out a "Buy gems now, pls!!!’ spam. Thats silly. When it gets to that point, sure complain. But acting like this simple message spoiled your evening makes you look goofy.

Yeah very goofy if you forget for a moment that most of the negative stuff in the game is because the cash-shop focus. So no that sort of advertisement I do not like to see in a B2P game.

It’s the same with the giveaways to gem-buyers. The ‘we love you more’ don’t mind this game is sold as B2P not F2P still we love you gem-buyers more. And good job helping to destroy the game.. Keep up the good work because you know, we love your more. And now advertisements in your face in a B2P game. Extremely rude.

Anyway lets hope it’s indeed desperation and that the cash-shop sales are going even more down. That could result in a better game in the long run.

Knowing NCSoft, they’ll just shut the game down.

The problem isn’t with this one advert. If they read the forums at all, which they do, they’ll know that tension on the gem store at the moment is at an all-time high.

Yet what dot hey do? Oh that’s right! Let’s put an in-game advert at the players just to see how vexed they can reaaally be!

But hopefully, if the gem shop is indeed becoming unsustainable, then they’ll start thinking of DLCs and expansions.

The “problem” is players flipping out over the “focus on the gemstore” in the last month or two because there’s no living story content for them to latch onto and kitten about. How are the advertisements of new, and returning, items in the gem store any different than advertisements of new and returning items in say…. Walmart? Do you complain about all the advertisements at the outside doors when you walk in? Or do you ignore them like some players do what’s on the launcher and social media? And do you then flip out when they run an audio track to the general store announcing that there are new limited edition items as well as the return of previously popular items?

Nah I did go for this game because it was B2P not F2P and I started complaining about the cash-shop focus a long time ago. Have a look at my first post where I talked about the cash-shop. Back when the focus did not yet seem to high and I still believed GW2 was a true B2P game.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/archive/suggestions/Additional-Game-Version-Pay-Per-Month/first#post831775

Here is my first complain about the cash-shop focus.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/RL-rich-ingame-Rich-and-vice-versa/page/2#post1840985

That was April 2013. More as a year ago. Then I did still get many resistance but you are right lately finally more people start to notice that much of the thinks they dislike are connected to the cash-shop.

Well at least there is one nice thing about that. I can now say. “I told you so!”. You know to all those people who then where still disagreeing with me and by now left the game or are complaining about it as well.

I think Anet is trying to compete with the goldsellers, since technically…they are one too (gems to gold)……..

Smith.1826:

Are you saying that you’ve never felt “pushed” into spending money on the game, or are you saying you’ve never spent money on the game?

I have never felt pushed.
I have spent money on the game.

To clarify, since it does not show up in the screenshot posted above –
the ad was just like the previous announcements of – “Scarlet’s Minions are Attacking Frostgorge Sound!” big yellow text, right in the middle of the screen.

Right across the top of your screen? That’s just obscene and I hope more people TAKE THE HINT regarding this game.

The ad about previous armor skins being in the gem store, I consider to be more of a notice rather than an ad. Prior to the April patch, any skins you bought could only be used on one character. Now any skins you buy can be used on all your characters (assuming they can wear the armor type). So I just consider that to be a friendly notice that, hey, if you thought the cost of the skin was worth it for 2 characters but not 1, well now you can buy it again.

The ad for minipets is just obnoxious though.

So how would you suggest fixing the issue with people missing sales due to not reading mail/launcher/forums then?
Because people have been having issues with this since release and demanded that the information was added in-game.

Now they have added it in-game (it is not like it flashes constantly and disturb regular game-play) and now that is wrong as well?

I have played rather many hours today, and I haven’t really seen that thing at all. I have read the yellow text in the chat-window later on, but haven’t actually seen it on the screen. So I assume it is only there for a few seconds?

I’ve never seen any adverts like that, but I have ‘Game Messages’ turned off in all my chats, same with ‘Combat’ so I have a feeling that might fix it for you

lordkrall.7241:

So how would you suggest fixing the issue with people missing sales due to not reading mail/launcher/forums then?
Because people have been having issues with this since release and demanded that the information was added in-game.

Now they have added it in-game (it is not like it flashes constantly and disturb regular game-play) and now that is wrong as well?

I have played rather many hours today, and I haven’t really seen that thing at all. I have read the yellow text in the chat-window later on, but haven’t actually seen it on the screen. So I assume it is only there for a few seconds?

Do you not think about the answers before you ask the questions? Or are you only asking questions to seem sagacious and experienced?

Open gem store in game. See information on front page. TA-DA!

Darkobra.6439:

lordkrall.7241:

So how would you suggest fixing the issue with people missing sales due to not reading mail/launcher/forums then?
Because people have been having issues with this since release and demanded that the information was added in-game.

Now they have added it in-game (it is not like it flashes constantly and disturb regular game-play) and now that is wrong as well?

I have played rather many hours today, and I haven’t really seen that thing at all. I have read the yellow text in the chat-window later on, but haven’t actually seen it on the screen. So I assume it is only there for a few seconds?

Do you not think about the answers before you ask the questions? Or are you only asking questions to seem sagacious and experienced?

Open gem store in game. See information on front page. TA-DA!

He’s on loads of threads, defending Anet every chance he gets.

These ads are just the first step, things are gonna get worse over time.

Darkobra.6439:

Relshdan.6854:

they have to make money.

That’s why they sell the game and not just give it away.

would make sense for a stand alone one-time release…..not a constantly evolving MMORPG.

being snarky works better when you aren’t a moron.

Darkobra.6439:

lordkrall.7241:

So how would you suggest fixing the issue with people missing sales due to not reading mail/launcher/forums then?
Because people have been having issues with this since release and demanded that the information was added in-game.

Now they have added it in-game (it is not like it flashes constantly and disturb regular game-play) and now that is wrong as well?

I have played rather many hours today, and I haven’t really seen that thing at all. I have read the yellow text in the chat-window later on, but haven’t actually seen it on the screen. So I assume it is only there for a few seconds?

Do you not think about the answers before you ask the questions? Or are you only asking questions to seem sagacious and experienced?

Open gem store in game. See information on front page. TA-DA!

Why would I open the gemstore constantly to check for sales? It’s strong logic that if there wasnt a sale an hour ago, it’s very likely there will not be a sale now.

I mean, come on, really? I dont creep Dominos’ website every day to see when they have new deals on pizza, I trust them to have advertisements on TV (which I dont always watch/pay attention to), in the newspaper (cant remember the last time I bought one), and to send me emails with the deals they have. How is it any different to want anet to send me a message via the game chat when they have sales going on? I’m paying more attention to killing kitten or other game activities than I am to updates in the gem store.

Aidan Savage.2078:

Darkobra.6439:

lordkrall.7241:

So how would you suggest fixing the issue with people missing sales due to not reading mail/launcher/forums then?
Because people have been having issues with this since release and demanded that the information was added in-game.

Now they have added it in-game (it is not like it flashes constantly and disturb regular game-play) and now that is wrong as well?

I have played rather many hours today, and I haven’t really seen that thing at all. I have read the yellow text in the chat-window later on, but haven’t actually seen it on the screen. So I assume it is only there for a few seconds?

Do you not think about the answers before you ask the questions? Or are you only asking questions to seem sagacious and experienced?

Open gem store in game. See information on front page. TA-DA!

Why would I open the gemstore constantly to check for sales? It’s strong logic that if there wasnt a sale an hour ago, it’s very likely there will not be a sale now.

I mean, come on, really? I dont creep Dominos’ website every day to see when they have new deals on pizza, I trust them to have advertisements on TV (which I dont always watch/pay attention to), in the newspaper (cant remember the last time I bought one), and to send me emails with the deals they have. How is it any different to want anet to send me a message via the game chat when they have sales going on? I’m paying more attention to killing kitten or other game activities than I am to updates in the gem store.

People don’t appreciate intrusive advertising, anywhere in their lives. It’s incredibly rude and highly aggressive.

What ANet/NCSoft is up to now is intrusive advertising.

Fact.

Thankfully I don’t log in much any more to witness this garbage.

Couple this intrusive advertising with 2 years of fluff temporary content and constant gem store updates, while WvW and PvP get ignored and left to decay into nothingness with zero developer attention. It is just asking for consumer back lash.

Realist.5812:

Aidan Savage.2078:

Darkobra.6439:

lordkrall.7241:

So how would you suggest fixing the issue with people missing sales due to not reading mail/launcher/forums then?
Because people have been having issues with this since release and demanded that the information was added in-game.

Now they have added it in-game (it is not like it flashes constantly and disturb regular game-play) and now that is wrong as well?

I have played rather many hours today, and I haven’t really seen that thing at all. I have read the yellow text in the chat-window later on, but haven’t actually seen it on the screen. So I assume it is only there for a few seconds?

Do you not think about the answers before you ask the questions? Or are you only asking questions to seem sagacious and experienced?

Open gem store in game. See information on front page. TA-DA!

Why would I open the gemstore constantly to check for sales? It’s strong logic that if there wasnt a sale an hour ago, it’s very likely there will not be a sale now.

I mean, come on, really? I dont creep Dominos’ website every day to see when they have new deals on pizza, I trust them to have advertisements on TV (which I dont always watch/pay attention to), in the newspaper (cant remember the last time I bought one), and to send me emails with the deals they have. How is it any different to want anet to send me a message via the game chat when they have sales going on? I’m paying more attention to killing kitten or other game activities than I am to updates in the gem store.

People don’t appreciate intrusive advertising, anywhere in their lives. It’s incredibly rude and highly aggressive.

What ANet/NCSoft is up to now is intrusive advertising.

Fact.

Thankfully I don’t log in much any more to witness this garbage.

I wouldn’t be surprised if ANet implemented a VIP program in which one pays $5-$10 a month to not see ads and maybe get a few perks in game.

Realist.5812:

Aidan Savage.2078:

Darkobra.6439:

lordkrall.7241:

So how would you suggest fixing the issue with people missing sales due to not reading mail/launcher/forums then?
Because people have been having issues with this since release and demanded that the information was added in-game.

Now they have added it in-game (it is not like it flashes constantly and disturb regular game-play) and now that is wrong as well?

I have played rather many hours today, and I haven’t really seen that thing at all. I have read the yellow text in the chat-window later on, but haven’t actually seen it on the screen. So I assume it is only there for a few seconds?

Do you not think about the answers before you ask the questions? Or are you only asking questions to seem sagacious and experienced?

Open gem store in game. See information on front page. TA-DA!

Why would I open the gemstore constantly to check for sales? It’s strong logic that if there wasnt a sale an hour ago, it’s very likely there will not be a sale now.

I mean, come on, really? I dont creep Dominos’ website every day to see when they have new deals on pizza, I trust them to have advertisements on TV (which I dont always watch/pay attention to), in the newspaper (cant remember the last time I bought one), and to send me emails with the deals they have. How is it any different to want anet to send me a message via the game chat when they have sales going on? I’m paying more attention to killing kitten or other game activities than I am to updates in the gem store.

People don’t appreciate intrusive advertising, anywhere in their lives. It’s incredibly rude and highly aggressive.

What ANet/NCSoft is up to now is intrusive advertising.

Fact.

Thankfully I don’t log in much any more to witness this garbage.

---

Couple this intrusive advertising with 2 years of fluff temporary content and constant gem store updates, while WvW and PvP get ignored and left to decay into nothingness with zero developer attention. It is just asking for consumer back lash.

Really? You’re claiming a single message during what’s basically holiday content is intrusive? Once is no different than me knocking on your door and letting you know there’s an F5 tornado spotted in the area. Intrusive is me knocking down your door and screaming it in your face repeatedly. Or are you talking about the advertisements they post on their facebook page, twitter, or homepage? Idiotic. No one forces you to read them. It’s as idiotic as complaining about Walmart advertising sales on their webpage, inside their brochures/flyers, and in their god kitten commercials.

Relshdan.6854:

Darkobra.6439:

Relshdan.6854:

they have to make money.

That’s why they sell the game and not just give it away.

would make sense for a stand alone one-time release…..not a constantly evolving MMORPG.

That’s what a subscription is for.

Remember that attitude years ago “Subscriptions are a rip off, MMOs aren’t expensive to run, never pay a sub!!”

Now its “Give the poor developer all your money, they’re a BUSINESS and entitled to your pennies! How dare you complain!”

Talk about stupid.

Give them an inch and they’ll take a mile.

U.S. is experiencing the loss of our freedoms at a very high rate in the guise of safety and security – I don’t know if it’s working or not due to the lack of transparency in our government, they could be stopping terrorists left and right or there may not be any doing anything in the first place. I’m actually more terrified of the children than terrorists these days, I don’t want to go anywhere near a school, they have guns now and no control of their emotions!

Anyway, where does it stop? I would rather have it message me as I have already said earlier like Evon Gnashblade in chat or through Email. And yes, in bright yellow text the message popped up right in the middle of the screen for a few seconds as it was being placed into the chat box like the new build messages. But as has already been said, we get it through the forums, facebook, twitter, reddit, (insert other random sites here), and the GW2 launcher itself. Next they’ll be leaving messages on my phone, texting me, emailing me outside of the game, leaving me PM’s on the forum, and sending me snail mail!

If only there was an incentive to buy gems in the first place, perhaps a discount, scavenger hunt coupons for gems, find uber secret XX in-game for 400 gems, weekly something or other for gems. The more gems I have, the more gems I want but there’s little incentive to acquire more with my non-existent cash.

Gamification is what draws gamers into things they may or may not be interested in. If you make a game out of getting discounts on purchasing gems with real money and/or provide additional venues for getting gems, then maybe, just maybe we’ll take the bait and eat all the gems. The only problem is that you keep taking things away from the gem store; seasonal right… as if digital stuff is related at all to seasonal production lines, not to mention the fact that Tyria doesn’t seem to have seasons at all in the first place.

Aidan Savage.2078:

Really? You’re claiming a single message during what’s basically holiday content is intrusive? Once is no different than me knocking on your door and letting you know there’s an F5 tornado spotted in the area. Intrusive is me knocking down your door and screaming it in your face repeatedly. Or are you talking about the advertisements they post on their facebook page, twitter, or homepage? Idiotic. No one forces you to read them. It’s as idiotic as complaining about Walmart advertising sales on their webpage, inside their brochures/flyers, and in their god kitten commercials.

If you’re going to try argue something, please have it make sense, don’t just throw a bunch of words together in a confusing mess in the hopes it will halt a response.

- A tornado warning is obviously not an advertisement.

- The reason you go to a company website is to see their catalogue and deals, nothing more, nothing less. So your repeated use of this ‘example’ is utterly meaningless.

- T.V stations have an established history of needing ad revenue to operate. If you watch T.V you acknowledge that ad-breaks exist. There are ad-free alternatives for the same content if you do not like ad breaks. There is an exception to this I will note further down.

- Choosing to subscribe to a company Facebook/twitter/whatever is a choice you willingly made so you could see frequent updates about anything and everything. It was not forced upon you. Nor is it required to run their products/services. You can simply unsubscribe to never see it again.

- No one is forcing you to open a brochure or pamphlet or read a flyer. That isn’t intrusive advertising. However, if someone is trying to force one into your hand, that is intrusive advertising.

Now that we have the basics of advertising and consumerism out of the way.

Here are some examples of intrusive advertising:

- YouTube ads that pop up anywhere on top of the video while you are in the middle of watching it (Not the pre-video ad). Lets say I’m watching a documentary in another language, that has subtitles, then one of those stupid ads pops up, blocking the subtitles at the bottom of the screen. Intrusive.

- T.V ads that pop up on the screen whilst a program is running (Not ad-breaks). Say I’m watching football (American or Australian) or ice hockey, and during the fast paced action, an advertisement overlay pops up and blocks a quarter of the screen for 10 seconds. Intrusive.

- Forcing a brochure/flyer/pamphlet into someone’s hand. Intrusive.

Basically, intrusive advertising is when product promotion is forced directly in front of someone’s vision or into their personal space.

What ANet is doing in game with the chat box and the big notification in the middle of the screen is intrusive advertising. Just like a YouTube ad that pops up in the middle of a video, or an advertisement overlay during a T.V show instead of during an ad-break.

There is no law or rules against these advertisements. But the consumers have dictated to companies what is socially acceptable for advertising and you can read up on it anywhere on the internet, most companies abide by this, some like ANet choose to ignore it at their own expense.

I hope I could enlighten you about consumerism and advertising.

+1 Realist. Well done.

I didn’t mind it. It was a once off message, and I think it could actually have been a useful heads-up to people who don’t pay attention to forums, the login window messages etc.

Personally I haven’t seen any message from ANet in game promoting the Gem Shop or the Gem to Gold. Not at login, not during zoning and not during general play. Maybe I’m in the wrong place at the wrong time or I don’t have that chat channel mapped to my main.

But players have complained on the forums that they hadn’t seen the limited time return of certain popular items to the Gem Shop thus missing them, regardless of news posts or info on the launcher about them. Maybe this is a way ANet is trying to make sure players are notified.

Yes something of this sort is technically intrusive. It is also useful, asked for (sort of), and infrequent. I dont see it as much of an issue. If it does bother someone dont they have the option to turn off announcements ?

Behellagh.1468:

Personally I haven’t seen any message from ANet in game promoting the Gem Shop or the Gem to Gold. Not at login, not during zoning and not during general play. Maybe I’m in the wrong place at the wrong time or I don’t have that chat channel mapped to my main.

But players have complained on the forums that they hadn’t seen the limited time return of certain popular items to the Gem Shop thus missing them, regardless of news posts or info on the launcher about them. Maybe this is a way ANet is trying to make sure players are notified.

If there is something you are interested in in life, you seek out the information yourself, you do not wait for it to magically come to you, because that doesn’t happen.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the ratio for gem store disinterest : interest was something like 10,000 : 1. It isn’t worth it for a company (with limited/dwindling audience) to annoy 10,000 people, to mildly please 1, especially when the 1 already has tools at their disposal to find what they need.

Interesting. So when the only source of LS story were out-of-game blog posts they couldn’t include the story/plot (!) in the game, but apparently they can include the Gem Store ads? Wow.

The Gem Shop aka cash shop is what pays the bills post launch. Without a steady stream of income from the Gem Shop through gem purchases, the game folds. They may alter that approach at some point, one stock analyst reports an expansion in 2015, but as of now and since the game launched, selling gems for cash rather than annual paid expansions or a subscription is the income model they chose.

Love it or hate it, that’s the way it is. Complaining that they promote it, whether buying gems for items or for gold, is a waste of time. They simply cannot alter their income model quickly, not so soon after a launch in a major market.

Devata.6589:

It’s the same with the giveaways to gem-buyers. The ‘we love you more’ don’t mind this game is sold as B2P not F2P still we love you gem-buyers more. And good job helping to destroy the game.. Keep up the good work because you know, we love your more. And now advertisements in your face in a B2P game. Extremely rude.

Oh come on .. really ? Do you also complain that you never get free drinks in a bar or restaurant where you never give any tips, while the regular guests that always give good tips gets sometimes maybe a free drink ?

Beldin.5498:

Devata.6589:

It’s the same with the giveaways to gem-buyers. The ‘we love you more’ don’t mind this game is sold as B2P not F2P still we love you gem-buyers more. And good job helping to destroy the game.. Keep up the good work because you know, we love your more. And now advertisements in your face in a B2P game. Extremely rude.

Oh come on .. really ? Do you also complain that you never get free drinks in a bar or restaurant where you never give any tips, while the regular guests that always give good tips gets sometimes maybe a free drink ?

I did give good tips by buying the Collectors Edition. The way to give a good tip in a B2P game. They simply never wanted to sell me another drink so while willing I was not able giving them another tip.