Guild Wars 2

Dear Anet,

Why is it that you will put down Sales on the Gw2 game so often, and put in semi-sales on in-game gem shop items….

Yet you never actually put a sale on Gems themselves?

Many other FtP and Semi-FtP game models will often put their in-game currencies on sales in one for or another (30% off or 50% off or Buy and get extra for “free”).

So why not in Gw2? Obviously these sales couldn’t / shouldn’t be for the Gold to Gems conversions but if you’re strapped for cash why not put all the items in the gem shop for a week and then put Gems on sale instead of the items?

Thank you,
A curious person.

Gems keep the game alive. The repeated reduction of the up-front cost of buying the game is evidence of that fact that the up-front cost isn’t that important to them. If you are a softcore player coming into the game then hey guess what you just got yourself a ridiculously HUGE game for $20-$30. What an efficient spender! Otherwise, the gem store keeps the game growing even bigger.

For people who want the game to keep growing, the gem store is there to fund future projects. If you can’t spend money on gems then that’s cool, but realize that people using the gem store are the ones funding all these new releases and updates. And ANet has devised a cash shop system where people CAN spend tons of money on the game without breaking the game for people who can’t or just don’t want to.

And putting a sale on gemstore items is pretty much the same as putting a sale on gems.

If you usually have to spend about $10 to unlock a costume or armor skin, and something goes on sale so you can unlock the skin AND get another fun item, you just got more stuff per gems! Congrats! Your money got you more value during the sale.

More value per $1, more stuff per gem. It’s pretty much the same thing as putting a “sale” on gems.

Now if you’re saying you might want to buy gems in smaller quanities, say perhaps being able to buy 400 gems for $5 instead of having to spend minimum $10 every time for 800, then you may or may not have a good argument there and I’d say go ahead and argue your case.

I’m pretty sure gem sales to go NCsoft and then they fund ANet’s projects from their collective wallet.

i guess it does fall into the “why is 10$ the minimum” level of conversation but we’ve also seen a minor inflation to gem shop items.

From Transmutation stones to Charged – same amount of charges for more gems even when on sale.

Infinite gathering tools – upped in price due to “account bound” Old model no longer available for less gems..

Admmitedly some of this is Anet and NCsoft attempting to see just how much they can get people to pay to get a thing, and maybe we do just need lower barriers on gems from the cash stand point.

I guess i’m just tired of looking at the gem shop and trying to decide if i want to spend 20$ for the 900 Gem item, or start selling kitten from my bank (its almost always this)

Gem sales would be lovely but 5$ for 400 would be ok too i guess.

Lower the cost of gems isn’t gonna bring more players to the game (that might potentially buy gems). Lowering the cost of the game will.

Swish.2463:

Dear Anet,

Why is it that you will put down Sales on the Gw2 game so often, and put in semi-sales on in-game gem shop items….

Yet you never actually put a sale on Gems themselves?

Many other FtP and Semi-FtP game models will often put their in-game currencies on sales in one for or another (30% off or 50% off or Buy and get extra for “free”).

So why not in Gw2? Obviously these sales couldn’t / shouldn’t be for the Gold to Gems conversions but if you’re strapped for cash why not put all the items in the gem shop for a week and then put Gems on sale instead of the items?

Thank you,
A curious person.

You don’t really expect them to answer, do you? My guesses are:

• Game box sales? ANet is fishing for whale.
• No sales on gems. A gem sale is effectively a sale on everything. Companies rarely put everything on sale unless they are trying to reduce inventory (irrelevant with virtual items) or generate target sales numbers. Maybe they’re happy with the sales on some items but are not unhappy with sales overall?
• Other games do it? Hard to know without seeing those stores and the company’s sales’ breakdowns. Does the game store only add items infrequently? How often do the virtual items go on sale in addition to the “Get extra currency” sales? More importantly, what are the sales figures like for the various items in those stores?

The worst known effect of sales is that people stop buying outright and wait for sales; this is especially dangerous for vanity items which people do not need “right now” to survive – which is 95% of gemstore. So putting gems on sales is a very hazardous move which may result in long-term losses.

Just buy the gems and then wait for a sale for the item you want. It’s more or less the same as a sale on the gems themselves.

bonus gems for buying in larger quantity would be nice :

$10 – 800gems + 5% (40gems) = 840 gems = 84gems/dollar
$20 – 1600gems +7.5% (120gems) = 1720 gems = 86gems/dollar
$30 – 2400gems + 10% (240gems) = 2640gems = 88gems/dollar
$40 – 3200gems + 12.5% (400gems) = 3600gems = 90gems/dollar
$50 – 4000gems + 15%(600gems) = 4600gems = 92gems/dollar