Guild Wars 2

Yes, the price of gem store items in real money terms is ridiculously overpriced if you compare it to any other game ($20 in gems can get you all of two armor sets, but in other games that would be a modestly-sized DLC or small expansion), but you also have to keep in mind most other games don’t let you buy store currency with in-game currency either (if you want a set of cash shop skins, you have to spend money on it). Theoretically you only have to spend as much money on GW2’s cash shop as you want and supplement the rest with gold-gem conversions, but in practice this is only practical for players who can make gold fairly easily, which is rarely the case for new players.

It may seem bad now (it certainly seemed bad to me when I first started playing and that was when gem-gold conversion was only at 45g for 400 gems), but it won’t seem as bad down the road. Best advice I can give is be very patient, limit how many gems you buy a month (average $10~$15 and treat it like a pseudo subscription), only buy store items when they’re on sale (or limited-time and likely not to return for a year), and just focus on having fun instead.

zoejo.2317:

A lot of you make the assumption that “if they lowered the gem price, more people would buy, therefore they would profit more”.

May I remind you that this conclusion is, unless you’re an exception, completely baseless except for your intuition. Nothing wrong with that. But know that ArenaNet, as a company, has people dedicated to data analysis and advanced statistics that demonstrate inequivocally that a certain price is better. If they run the prices they run, it’s probably because that’s where the profit is. And we can’t legitimately blame them for that.

After almost 3 years of selling gems to players that number in the millions, they can now run very accurate linear regressions that predict the most profitable prices. That is more evidence than any of us can provide to back up our opinions.

While the price might be too high for your budget, Anet sells for a whole community. It’s irrelevant whether you, as an individual, can afford it or not. Profit is predicted based on the behaviour of the population.

Ah, but does this analysis take into account people who are gradually worn down by the price?

By that, I mean (for example) people who might cough up, to begin with, but who then realise they can’t carry on like that and who then gradually drift off and/or go back to another game.

I doubt it.

I bet they just think “successful sale” and don’t think any further.

Unlike a sub game, they don’t even have a “reason for leaving” form for people to fill in.