Guild Wars 2

Just wondering—they pretty much are redefining the mold of MMORPG the way they’re doing it, and with no subscription fee and consantly new events how do you think they’re making enough money? The game itself is getting cheaper, too (sales n’ such) are they just doing THAT well that I shouldn’t be concerned for the company?

Yeah, never before have I felt a game was so good that I’d be concerned they weren’t charging enough. I just don’t want this to go away, lol

Well for a start from what I understand they are a small team. Add to the fact they made a ton off the intial sales I would say that alone should keep them going for a year or 2.

Then of course you can add to that the fact they have/had money from GW1 and also the sales in the Gemstore are always ongoing.

TBH to me it’s more “how could they not have cash?”

Rng chests and limited time item deals.

Cheap tactics can net you alot of cash.

Of course, it isnt as cheap as pay2win, so big upps to anet for staying away from that minefield for now.

They are making money the same way they did with the original GW. Cash-shop and Copies sold. Anet had NO problem making money for the 4 years they put out content for GW and still had no problem for the 5 yrs between GW’s last content release and GW2. They know what they’re doing.

You would be surprised at how much money some people throw at the gem shop. I myself have spent more then a years worth of a sub payment so far for items. Could think of it as a way to say thanks for the game using cash to but items or gems.

I don’t think RNG chests or what-not or gem store minis are a cheap tactic. They aren’t “preying” on people, they are simply doing what is statistically most profitable in order to maximize their ability to continue to hire and keep themselves churning out great content. It is your money, and you can put your money where your mouth is. I don’t buy RNG chests, but I buy permanent convenience items like the molten pick. I don’t buy RNG chests for skins, I buy skins that are guaranteed and for 600 gems on the store. If you can’t control yourself and buy $400 of gems for RNG chests and don’t get what you want, you need to seek help outside of the game, not blame ANet for your own mistakes.

I applaud their approach, I just hope they don’t forget about people like me. I would’ve spent 1200 gems on a fused weapon skin, but with them locked in RNG chests, I would never get one. I spend my money in accordance with that, and I think it’s the best way we can give ANet feedback.

UnrepentantProcrastinator.7420:

Every subscription based MMO was overcharging.

This.

WoW for example charges 10 pound approximately per month per subscriber.

With lets say an average of 10 million plus subs for just a year thats a income of 100 million pounds – MONTHLY.

Now take into consideration they have at least 4-5 years with that kind of sub number or more…
And the inital cost of development (supposedly) was around 60 million.

Now you see how overpriced that game really was.

Games make a lot of money from purchases today, and they aren’t nearly as expensive to maintain, as they were ten years ago. I also think a lot more people buy gems, then what is obvious, because there are plenty of things to buy that aren’t visible, like transmutation crystals, minis, or dyes.

Rising Dusk.2408:

I don’t think RNG chests or what-not or gem store minis are a cheap tactic. They aren’t “preying” on people, they are simply doing what is statistically most profitable in order to maximize their ability to continue to hire and keep themselves churning out great content. It is your money, and you can put your money where your mouth is. I don’t buy RNG chests, but I buy permanent convenience items like the molten pick. I don’t buy RNG chests for skins, I buy skins that are guaranteed and for 600 gems on the store. If you can’t control yourself and buy $400 of gems for RNG chests and don’t get what you want, you need to seek help outside of the game, not blame ANet for your own mistakes.

I applaud their approach, I just hope they don’t forget about people like me. I would’ve spent 1200 gems on a fused weapon skin, but with them locked in RNG chests, I would never get one. I spend my money in accordance with that, and I think it’s the best way we can give ANet feedback.

Completely agree those kind of people need serious help.

Completely disagree with anet not being at least partly responsible. Thats like the bullkitten a drug dealer would use to justify his job OR the even bigger bullkitten a weapons manufacturer would spin to look like the innocent party.

When theres a problem, it needs to be handled at its source. Otherwise your just helping those who are affected and not dealing with the real issue at hand.

Let me make myself clear, in no way would i blame anet for someone buying a ridiculous amount of RNG chests.
However i would take a look at the stragety anet has taken up to be a enabling factor into these peoples addictions.

To use the mcdonalds analogy, yes it ridiculous to get fat and just blame mcdonalds. However its not so ridiculous to ask mcdonalds to calm down on the marketing of such fatty products in order to solve the larger problem.
When mcdonalds got sued by anyone and everyone, theres a reason they launched a healthy eating menu soon after.

GavinGoodrich.1382:

Just wondering—they pretty much are redefining the mold of MMORPG the way they’re doing it, and with no subscription fee and consantly new events how do you think they’re making enough money? The game itself is getting cheaper, too (sales n’ such) are they just doing THAT well that I shouldn’t be concerned for the company?

Yeah, never before have I felt a game was so good that I’d be concerned they weren’t charging enough. I just don’t want this to go away, lol

They did the same in GW1 for 8 years so its definetly working:-)

GW2 had a strong release and the trading shop is active and updated frequently so plenty of micro-transactions. Beyond this there is the whole concept of sustainability. I’m pretty sure Anet, like any other financially sound company, reviewed if they could afford to make a product with this type of business model and sustain it for multiple years. If they couldn’t they probably wouldn’t have made the game to begin with. Also there is a reason that most mmo’s are moving away from subscription fees it more times than not fails. Most mmo’s don’t have the proper fan following, man-power, and content creation warranting a subscription fee. I for one would never pay a subscription fee for any game. If I like your game I’ll purchase it at retail price and make appropriate in game purchases, but if you want me to pay monthly installments so I can have the privilege to play your game sorry but no thanks.

Wetpaw.3487:

screwing the ignorant playerbase w/a gambling problem

Im beginning to think this is not about people with gambling problems, Its about people who are mad that they cant get the cosmetic items they want for the money investment they want because other people are willing to buy black lion chests and make anet a bunch of money.

Would you be happier if they removed rng, but just charged 100$ per item? or how about if they made the cost increase the more people who buy it for a certain time frame? (aka first come first serve get it cheaper) What sort of economic model can you present which can actually pay for the development of all the free content the game offers, and profit so that its worth it to keep investing money in the game/development?

lets be honest, if anet needs to have a chest item be worth 1/50 chests in order to make the profit they need, how do you plan on making up that money? Its not really people with gambling problems buying these chests, its people who dont care if they blow 100-200 dollars on a game because they got money to burn. People with gambling problems are going to casinos and playing underground card games, not trying to get a skin in GW video game.

Oh no, here we go again…. There must be some high drops of broken records that I didn’t see because of the down time.

Server costs aren’t that much. You can check WoW server costs of blizzard on the internet, google it.

Parlourbeatflex.5970:

Completely disagree with anet not being at least partly responsible. Thats like the bullkitten a drug dealer would use to justify his job OR the even bigger bullkitten a weapons manufacturer would spin to look like the innocent party.

Your analogy is flawed because dealing drugs is illegal and gambling is not. You need to know what you’re getting into when you buy a BL chest, and if you can’t control yourself, it is naive to blame the vehicle for your own mistakes. Imagine a person buys a new car that can go 200 MPH, and that he has a need-for-speed, drives 200 MPH, and gets into a wreck because of it. Is it the car manufacturer’s fault for making it capable of doing that, or the driver’s fault for being unable to control himself? According to the law, it is the driver’s fault, and I agree with the ethics of that blame.

Anyway, I’d take ethics again in the local university if I wanted to debate it with others. Good day to you.

UnrepentantProcrastinator.7420:

Every subscription based MMO was overcharging.

No kidding. Blizzard makes more money than some small European countries! – You do NOT need that kind’ve money to run an MMO; your shareholder obviously will appreciate it, and there’s nothing wrong with making money.

But if you’re paying those kind’ve subs you’re being grossly ripped off – GW2’s monetisation uses a very different model, but it seems to be working.

GW2 has done a lot right in this for this game.

Pvp and pve are separate, and so there was no need for pvp and pve servers, which causes servers to die and then the need to consolidate them.

They have eliminated gold farming with the gem system. Every other mmo I’d log on and have spam mails, or in cities and towns you can’t even read a message because of it.

No subscription required. Biggest thing right yet. P2P is a dead form. MT games always have higher sub numbers, and a large part of those subs buy items. Also while items have a give a slight advantage, it’s not the way SWToR went where they’ve made content a MT item.

I lied the biggest thing they did right is it’s still just fun to play.

Rising Dusk.2408:

Parlourbeatflex.5970:

Completely disagree with anet not being at least partly responsible. Thats like the bullkitten a drug dealer would use to justify his job OR the even bigger bullkitten a weapons manufacturer would spin to look like the innocent party.

Your analogy is flawed because dealing drugs is illegal and gambling is not. You need to know what you’re getting into when you buy a BL chest, and if you can’t control yourself, it is naive to blame the vehicle for your own mistakes. Imagine a person buys a new car that can go 200 MPH, and that he has a need-for-speed, drives 200 MPH, and gets into a wreck because of it. Is it the car manufacturer’s fault for making it capable of doing that, or the driver’s fault for being unable to control himself? According to the law, it is the driver’s fault, and I agree with the ethics of that blame.

Anyway, I’d take ethics again in the local university if I wanted to debate it with others. Good day to you.

Which is why i backed it up with a legal alternative ie – weapons manufacturers. Plus the legality (as grown ups we should all know) has nothing to do with the ethical implications to a global community.
Dealing one kind of drug might be illegal in one country and completely legal in another. It does not change the ethical value of the action.

Also if your going to use that point – Gambling in most countries is illegal for anyone below the age of 18. This game has a rating in which allows under 18s to play, therefore your legality argument holds little ground.

The car one is a good example ill give you that. However iv mentioned multiple times that its not to do with laying complete blame on anet or dealers, or car makers or whatever. Its acknowledging that these things contribute to a larger problem and for the problem to be dealt with, every side of the coin needs to contribute.

Ryuujin.8236:

But if you’re paying those kind’ve subs you’re being grossly ripped off

How are you being ripped of if you chose to pay it? If I chose to spend $100 on what I think should be a $2 watch I’m can’t complain that I got ripped off. In fact I probably ripped myself off not the other way around.

Obviously millions of people didn’t feel ripped off or they would not have paid the subscription for so many years to play it.

CoRtex.2157:

Server costs aren’t that much. You can check WoW server costs of blizzard on the internet, google it.

you could try but you’ll never get a true number, why? the costs are so small its basically a footnote under their expenses table in the annual report. Its also so small its grouped together with others costs as well – its that small.

Listening to WoW fanboys defend the constant monthly sub as server costs is so ridiculously stupid it makes me cry.

I’ll also go on to add the gem store is a amazing success, I know of people that budget $200 a month for the gem store. I’m a working adult as are most my friends and dropping $200 a month into a game we enjoy is nothing compared to how we can do the same one night drinking out in town.

Thobek.1730:

CoRtex.2157:

Server costs aren’t that much. You can check WoW server costs of blizzard on the internet, google it.

you could try but you’ll never get a true number, why? the costs are so small its basically a footnote under their expenses table in the annual report. Its also so small its grouped together with others costs as well – its that small.

Listening to WoW fanboys defend the constant monthly sub as server costs is so ridiculously stupid it makes me cry.

I’ll also go on to add the gem store is a amazing success, I know of people that budget $200 a month for the gem store. I’m a working adult as are most my friends and dropping $200 a month into a game we enjoy is nothing compared to how we can do the same one night drinking out in town.

When you do the maths and work out that over the last 10 years on average wow has made 60-70 million a month, nothing you can say can defend the income and price reasoning as anything BUT profit.

Parlourbeatflex.5970:

Also if your going to use that point – Gambling in most countries is illegal for anyone below the age of 18. This game has a rating in which allows under 18s to play, therefore your legality argument holds little ground.

Swore I wouldn’t keep the argument up, but I’ll drop this here as a last statement. In the US, which is the only country I am currently going to consider (Sorry EU friends, but I can’t make an analogy for countries I don’t know the laws of!), you have to have a co-signer over the age of 21 to get a credit card that you can use to buy gems. The same is true for bank institutions (could be a minimum of 18 years of age, but it’s not a huge deal for this discourse), which is required for a Paypal linked account. Basically, you either need to be an adult or have an adult co-sign and essentially vouch for your mental faculties.

If you are not legally an adult and are using real money on gems and have a gambling addiction, the real person you should be pointing fingers at is the person who co-signed your credit card or bank account. They need to be made aware of your addiction, and they need to pull control of your finances sooner rather than later. This is not ANet’s fault.

There is also the possibility of buying gems at like Best Buy or something with gem cards, but if you’re making the kind of money as a minor to have an addiction to gems, well, hopefully someone from your family will notice and take action.

Anyway, no more from me!

EDIT: Apparently my link violates the sanctity of the word filter. Try this without the underscore: http://www.homebuyinginstitute.com/laws_.html

GavinGoodrich.1382:

Just wondering—they pretty much are redefining the mold of MMORPG the way they’re doing it, and with no subscription fee and consantly new events how do you think they’re making enough money? The game itself is getting cheaper, too (sales n’ such) are they just doing THAT well that I shouldn’t be concerned for the company?

Yeah, never before have I felt a game was so good that I’d be concerned they weren’t charging enough. I just don’t want this to go away, lol

They make a boat load off of gems.

Probably more than if they did a sub model to be honest.

if their is a player base of 500,000 at 15 dollars a month.

Thats 7.5 million in sub money a month.

Now say that you have that same 500,000 but free to play. Now say only about half of that player base buys gems and items from the store.

Say the average monthly purchase for half the player base is 30 -50 dollars. Pretty reasonable as some people only spend 10 bucks a month while others can spend hundreds of dollars.

That gets them the same income as a sub based model but with a influx of cash when they put new items in the gem store.

And when you have people with money to burn that want to buy items that cost several thousand gold, and have no problem dropping a few grand in gems on the game…. well thats how they make their money.

I’ve spent 600$ on this game over the months. (even got this game for a friend.) its more money then i’ve spent for any MMO, but I feel like I’m getting back for it.

Parlourbeatflex.5970:

When you do the maths and work out that over the last 10 years on average wow has made 60-70 million a month, nothing you can say can defend the income and price reasoning as anything BUT profit.

Good for them. The the point of developing, providing, and selling a product is to make a profit. I don’t recall ever seeing that they were a non-profit agency. By the way it looks like they are also involved in charity:

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2011-10-14-blizzard-entertainment-launches-world-of-warcraft-charity-auctions.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/192155/Blizzard_donates_all_Diablo_III_exploit_cakitteno_charity.php

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/setView/news/gameId/15/showArticle/26517

Oh and even more… NCsoft the parent company of Anet is also involved in charity .

http://gamesartandmusic.com/gaam-show-2/ncsoft-and-guild-wars-2/7456/

They have also been involved in the Draw The World Together charity campaign.

Charity, the definition of greed right? Fortunately many companies that make a decent profit regularly get involved with charities. Some would even argue that most major charities would be unable to function without significant donations from those profitable companies.

GavinGoodrich.1382:

Just wondering—they pretty much are redefining the mold of MMORPG the way they’re doing it, and with no subscription fee and consantly new events how do you think they’re making enough money? The game itself is getting cheaper, too (sales n’ such) are they just doing THAT well that I shouldn’t be concerned for the company?

Yeah, never before have I felt a game was so good that I’d be concerned they weren’t charging enough. I just don’t want this to go away, lol

Basically it’s the boil a frog principal. Paying $5, 15 times is much more easily digestible for the vast majority of us than paying $60 1 time. ANet can make more money, with a constant revenue stream from the Gem Store, than if they charged a subscription, simply because it’s so convenient, consistent and cheap.

ANet isn’t bad for this either, it’s not a zero sum situation, as if ANet wins and we lose just because they take more of our money. We profit from this model as well. Being freed from the shackles of $15/30days, regardless of personal life, time constraints or temporal interest in the game, and not feeling as though you “have to play because you paid”, or you “can’t play without dedicating 29 more days of play” is valuable, not only for our wallets but for our peace of mind. I can get more value from $20 in the gem store and a weekend off work where I actually want to, and have time to play all weekend, than I do from $15 a month, every month, regardless of what’s going on (not really regarless because the $15 made me feel like my MMO is more more important than RL sometimes.. that’s never good.

People buy gems…a lot of gems. And a dedicated team, ofcourse, but personally, I do not count the temporary events/living story as a content, sorry

pileofkyle.3769

Basically it’s the boil a frog principal. Paying $5, 15 times is much more easily digestible for the vast majority of us than paying $60 1 time. ANet can make more money, with a constant revenue stream from the Gem Store, than if they charged a subscription, simply because it’s so convenient, consistent and cheap.

ANet isn’t bad for this either, it’s not a zero sum situation, as if ANet wins and we lose just because they take more of our money. We profit from this model as well. Being freed from the shackles of $15/30days, regardless of personal life, time constraints or temporal interest in the game, and not feeling as though you “have to play because you paid”, or you “can’t play without dedicating 29 more days of play” is valuable, not only for our wallets but for our peace of mind. I can get more value from $20 in the gem store and a weekend off work where I actually want to, and have time to play all weekend, than I do from $15 a month, every month, regardless of what’s going on (not really regarless because the $15 made me feel like my MMO is more more important than RL sometimes.. that’s never good.

+10000 This the most well thought out, logical perspective on this debate I have seen so far.

GavinGoodrich.1382:

Just wondering—they pretty much are redefining the mold of MMORPG the way they’re doing it, and with no subscription fee and consantly new events how do you think they’re making enough money? The game itself is getting cheaper, too (sales n’ such) are they just doing THAT well that I shouldn’t be concerned for the company?

Yeah, never before have I felt a game was so good that I’d be concerned they weren’t charging enough. I just don’t want this to go away, lol

Money from the gem store, the game is riddled with mechanisms clearly forcing players towards buying gems. Whether thats a good or bad thing is up to the player. Personally I think its a bad thing, probably unsustainable in the long term, because of the reputational damage.

Lol +1 to everyone who can turn ANY topic into a “RNG box” discussion and completely derail it. /golf clap

CoRtex.2157:

Server costs aren’t that much. You can check WoW server costs of blizzard on the internet, google it.

137k/day

Why go so far?

Ask yourself how GW1 kept existing on its own for so long?
There was no gem store or any other vanity items for a VERY long time. (3 to 4 years at least, since release)

Parlourbeatflex.5970:

Rng chests and limited time item deals.

Cheap tactics can net you alot of cash.

Of course, it isnt as cheap as pay2win, so big upps to anet for staying away from that minefield for now.

I don’t see the difference to be honest, at least pay 2 win gets you something, in GW2 its mostly junk, i know a lot of players hate pay to win but all this RNG feels just as much a scam to me as any Pay to Win item games..

Actually this feels worse..

Parlourbeatflex.5970:

Parlourbeatflex.5970:

Also if your going to use that point – Gambling in most countries is illegal for anyone below the age of 18. This game has a rating in which allows under 18s to play, therefore your legality argument holds little ground.

Swore I wouldn’t keep the argument up, but I’ll drop this here as a last statement. In the US, which is the only country I am currently going to consider (Sorry EU friends, but I can’t make an analogy for countries I don’t know the laws of!), you have to have a co-signer over the age of 21 to get a credit card that you can use to buy gems. The same is true for bank institutions (could be a minimum of 18 years of age, but it’s not a huge deal for this discourse), which is required for a Paypal linked account. Basically, you either need to be an adult or have an adult co-sign and essentially vouch for your mental faculties.

If you are not legally an adult and are using real money on gems and have a gambling addiction, the real person you should be pointing fingers at is the person who co-signed your credit card or bank account. They need to be made aware of your addiction, and they need to pull control of your finances sooner rather than later. This is not ANet’s fault.

There is also the possibility of buying gems at like Best Buy or something with gem cards, but if you’re making the kind of money as a minor to have an addiction to gems, well, hopefully someone from your family will notice and take action.

Anyway, no more from me!

EDIT: Apparently my link violates the sanctity of the word filter. Try this without the underscore: http://www.homebuyinginstitute.com/laws_.html

In Australia we can purchase Mastercard / Visa Gift cards from Shopping malls, post offices and similar you basically put money on it $10-$1000 and it works exactly like a credit card until said money runs out, then you throw them away and buy a new one..

Anybody of any age can purchase them..and use them in Guildwars 2.

https://www.woolworthsmoney.com.au/wowm/wps/wcm/connect/WowMoney/WowMoney/Prepaid+Cards/

Dante.1508:

Parlourbeatflex.5970:

Rng chests and limited time item deals.

Cheap tactics can net you alot of cash.

Of course, it isnt as cheap as pay2win, so big upps to anet for staying away from that minefield for now.

I don’t see the difference to be honest, at least pay 2 win gets you something, in GW2 its mostly junk, i know a lot of players hate pay to win but all this RNG feels just as much a scam to me as any Pay to Win item games..

Actually this feels worse..

pay to win means that I absolutely have to spend real money on the game (which I don’t have) to even stay on par with other people. In here all I have to spend is time and because I actually enjoy spending my time this way I’m fine with that.
Also many times I actually wanted stuff that’s in the gem store. I like minies, I like cute skins (like quaggan backpacks), the only thing I dislike is RNG items on the store.
I can access all the content that’s enjoyable without having to spend money and can spend money on skins if I feel like it.

Roman Legionary.6715:

CoRtex.2157:

Server costs aren’t that much. You can check WoW server costs of blizzard on the internet, google it.

137k/day

Yeah something like that. and they make ATLEAST 2million a day with wow. I think it’s between 3&4 mil. but it could be lower these days. Didn’t saw any data from the last 3 years. But i guesse they are doing fine with MoP.

CoRtex.2157:

Roman Legionary.6715:

CoRtex.2157:

Server costs aren’t that much. You can check WoW server costs of blizzard on the internet, google it.

137k/day

Yeah something like that. and they make ATLEAST 2million a day with wow. I think it’s between 3&4 mil. but it could be lower these days. Didn’t saw any data from the last 3 years. But i guesse they are doing fine with MoP.

WoW is in a slow decline, but still profitable, even if they fudge their numbers, as some people have stated. Regardless of what is happening today, Blizzard is quite a success story, a company that took a small, specialized niche in the video game industry and pretty much turned it into a household word. They are up there with Amazon and eBay.

Which is why so many companies want to follow in their footsteps. A game that has even 1/10th of WoW’s player base is still profitable.

While I agree that sub games are overpriced, they are so not doing something magical, let me tell you. In other games that are not sub based which I will call F2P those companies make more permanent content and they do it often. There are boxes in those games (with far less RNG mind you) which means they keep more of their players for longer.

There’s also one other thing those other titles have the Anet does not, and that is the non-manipulated means of getting loot/cosmetics/pets etc in the content with far less pain and struggle making the acquisition alot more fun. (you actually get what you want without the content disappearing or it taking months upon months to get to your goals or buying into the RNG game with RL money).

PWE has miles of better benefits to their gameplay even with the concerns over the prices of their store items in the beta NWO, and they have a better economic model then Anet’s highly manipulated and over iniflated TP.

tigirius.9014:

While I agree that sub games are overpriced, they are so not doing something magical, let me tell you. In other games that are not sub based which I will call F2P those companies make more permanent content and they do it often. There are boxes in those games (with far less RNG mind you) which means they keep more of their players for longer.

There’s also one other thing those other titles have the Anet does not, and that is the non-manipulated means of getting loot/cosmetics/pets etc in the content with far less pain and struggle making the acquisition alot more fun. (you actually get what you want without the content disappearing or it taking months upon months to get to your goals or buying into the RNG game with RL money).

PWE has miles of better benefits to their gameplay even with the concerns over the prices of their store items in the beta NWO, and they have a better economic model then Anet’s highly manipulated and over iniflated TP.

i’d say give it time, NWO’s cash shop will probably turn into something like GW2’s cash shop over the span of like, 4 months

remember, GW2’s cash shop started out like that too, with just exp boosters, a few skins that weren’t in the black lion box and nothing noteworthy inside the box themselves

and over time, the price of gems gradually went up from the previous 30s per 100 gems to the current price of 4g per 100 gems, as well as tickets for untradable skins in the box themselves

i personally don’t mind GW2’s current cash shop model since nothing in the cash shop as of right now gives a clear and distinct advantage over players who don’t pay with real money, although the molten pickaxe did make me raise an eyebrow for a brief moment

in neverwinter you can’t get the best gear without paying in the cash shop.

Also I think someone worked out that you need to use the molten pick about 5000 times to break even on the 4 silver per ori pick. The price is mainly for the effect :p

Tigirious, those other games have loads of rng but it’s put into stuff you actually need to progress.

I remember having to raid for months to get my gear in wow, and in vanilla I never managed to get enough fire res to start MC. You have rose glasses.

If I want good gear in gw2 there are many paths, crafting/dungeons/karma/gold

tigirius.9014:

While I agree that sub games are overpriced, they are so not doing something magical, let me tell you. In other games that are not sub based which I will call F2P those companies make more permanent content and they do it often. There are boxes in those games (with far less RNG mind you) which means they keep more of their players for longer.

There’s also one other thing those other titles have the Anet does not, and that is the non-manipulated means of getting loot/cosmetics/pets etc in the content with far less pain and struggle making the acquisition alot more fun. (you actually get what you want without the content disappearing or it taking months upon months to get to your goals or buying into the RNG game with RL money).

PWE has miles of better benefits to their gameplay even with the concerns over the prices of their store items in the beta NWO, and they have a better economic model then Anet’s highly manipulated and over iniflated TP.

PWE, really? I barely know where to begin.

As for the new game’s shop…wait two or three months after launch, then come and tell me how benevolent PWE is. lol

emikochan.8504:

in neverwinter you can’t get the best gear without paying in the cash shop.

Also I think someone worked out that you need to use the molten pick about 5000 times to break even on the 4 silver per ori pick. The price is mainly for the effect :p

Tigirious, those other games have loads of rng but it’s put into stuff you actually need to progress.

I remember having to raid for months to get my gear in wow, and in vanilla I never managed to get enough fire res to start MC. You have rose glasses.

If I want good gear in gw2 there are many paths, crafting/dungeons/karma/gold

off topic for a moment, i managed to get 400 armorsmithing, huntsman and weapon smithing, and the only thing i learned from that is that crafting in gw2 is not profitable unless you farm all the materials yourself

it costs 3.89 gold for a berserker orichalcum imbued inscription, which is one of the materials needed to create an exotic weapon

the price of that alone is about as much as the berserker weapon that you make from it already

Anyone know how much Anet make Q1?

I dont’ really know but I’d say wait for the Q2 report. And see how much money they make. Maybe the cashshop is actually making decent money.

The purpose of a cash item shop is to extract the maximum amount of free cash from each player. Someone who might have balked at $15 a month may not have a problem buying one or two items a quarter where someone where petty cash isn’t a problem could go hog wild and pimp out their character’s look, inventory space and other conveniences.

The trick however is to get on average a certain amount a month/quarter, steady cash flow is always a plus. And one way to help with that is to make the game easy to get into. That’s the heart of most F2P MMOs, it’s F2P, but they have to earn a bit more to cover the game’s initial development cost. At least with GW2 that is ideally handled by the game’s price (well really you are just paying for an account since you can install the game as much as you want). Nexon for instance says they shoot for $15 a month on average from 10% of the active population. However the B2P status of GW2 would also reduce the total population pool so I don’t know the level of participation they would considered to be the minimum.

What we do know is that in the first three months of the year the game had sales, box and cash shop, of over $33 million US. Now that would be equivalent to income from around 750K monthly subscription with no box sales. I would say that’s doing alright. I think that’s better than EVE which is the only other subscriber only game other than WoW I can think of.

laokoko.7403:

Anyone know how much Anet make Q1?

I dont’ really know but I’d say wait for the Q2 report. And see how much money they make. Maybe the cashshop is actually making decent money.

They have said it IS making good money.

laokoko.7403:

Anyone know how much Anet make Q1?

I dont’ really know but I’d say wait for the Q2 report. And see how much money they make. Maybe the cashshop is actually making decent money.

Here is a link to current NCsoft stock prices on the Korean exchange. I find it of some interest that it has been rising in the last few days:

http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/chart?symbol=036570.KS

Actually stock price is never a decent indicator of profit. It’s an indicator of confidence in the company and many factors other than profit can affect that.

Behellagh.1468:

Actually stock price is never a decent indicator of profit. It’s an indicator of confidence in the company and many factors other than profit can affect that.

I agree and I corrected my mistake via edit. I realize that indicators can result from things like anticipation of a new product release and so forth.

So consider myself corrected. However it is interesting the rise in value the last few days.

This is the report I get from the internet. Don’t know how accurate it is.

http://news.mmosite.com/content/sharing/2013-05-13/ncsoft_released_q1_earning_report.kittenml

The report says 32.8 million USD in Q1 2013. I dont’ even know how GW2 make that much. Either the report is wrong or GW2 is still making good money from boxsale or gemstore.

There is no breakdown on how much is boxsale and how much is cashshop so i suppose that is left for speculation.