Guild Wars 2

I have played and rooted for this game from the beginning – I also played gw1. I recruited friends to play this game and occasionally buy gems.

I keep TRYING to see the light in these updates that can be insulting, but this is really bad. It comes across as a BLATANT money grab. Let people convert the amount of gold → gems they want.

You need to address this.

Reddit is already on a warpath. This was a very bad change, and ANet REALLY should have known better from the start. I don’t know how they couldn’t have seen this going over terribly. Are they really that blind?

It would be nice to have input on things that so massively change how we play the game. I’m not talking new content, where we all are on the same playing field. I’m talking changing something we are used to.

This gem store conversion is just stupid. If I have 600 gems, and want something for 700 gems, I now have to get enough gold to buy at least 400?

Thank you, Anet, for giving us, yet again, a reason to hate how you do things. First traits, then the NPE, now gems. What is next, dungeons?

I think Anet thinks their players are stupid and easily confused. This is the reason for most dramatic changes, recently: user confusion.

Frankly, it horrifies me to think that the average GW2 player (according to Anet’s metrics) might be operating something as dangerous as an automobile, fork, or steak knife.

They are merging the topics so they have heard there is an issue….

Wonder if this will be 300G a commander tag colour all over again….

Really just need to bring back a variable option. Let us key in the amount of Gems we want and it can auto-calc the gold cost. Not sure why I had us keying in random amounts of gold to begin with…..

Never understood why people keep giving money to a company that doesn’t care. Even if they reverse the change, the damage has been done.

I lost hope in this game and tbh this is why I never spent a single euro after buying the game, it’s just not worth it.

Yep this is terrible.

If I spend $50 on gems to convert to gold, I should be able to spend those 4000 gems to convert to gold, and not have to (at current rate) spend 1923 gems for 250g twice, with 14 gems leftover.

Vice versa, if I want to convert gold into 250 gems for something in the cash shop, I should not have to buy 400 gems.

Terrible, terrible change, and a blatant money grab designed to force you to have leftover gems at any given time.

Oh wow, they went full out shady F2P business style with this one.

Easier to understand my kitten , its to make people spend more money as they actually want/need.

Syzygy.5031:

In fact, as a point of principle, I’m not even exchanging gold-gems until this is reverted ANet.

That won’t bother them. Not buying any gems with rl-mony will, however.

http://www.pcgamer.com/final-fantasy-xiv-heavensward-expansion-adds-new-race-classes-areas/

I think thats the path im going guys, and I really dont want too, im being asked too.

This limits players freedom – this was an unnecessary change that could only possibly benefit Anet.

Look, I get that hotdogs come in packages of X and hotdog buns come in packages of Y – but COME ON!

PLEASE REVERT

Astral Projections.7320:

Not a fan of this either. When I buy gems it’s an amount I need or a percent of my daily income. A set amount is too rigid and unwanted.

+1

I agree with everyone else. There is absolutely nothing positive gained from this change for anyone. We have lost two important functionalities here:

• Can no longer view the fluctuation in the price of gems
• Can no longer select how many gems or how much gold you want

These absolutely must be reverted; anything else is unacceptable.

The new gem exchange does not benefit ANYONE, there is NO valid reason to have ever changed it.

I always used to check the rate a certain way; I never hada problem with it, but I most certainly DO have a problem with this garbage new limitation.

I feel if they just offered 2 more options on both sides it would fix a lot of people’s issues:
buy 50s for 5 gems
buy 11s for 1 gem (the 11s is the variable part)
and:
buy 200 gems
buy 100 gems

also, a question:
if you buy 1g for 9 gems, I’m guessing it will cost you 9 gems. but do you get exactly 1g from that? or does it calculate the actual amount you should get and give you 1g22s88c? it looks like buying gems with gold uses the exact amounts. you should display exactly how much gold/silver/copper you get, not just rounded to the nearest gold.

Sailsd.9245:

Syzygy.5031:

In fact, as a point of principle, I’m not even exchanging gold-gems until this is reverted ANet.

That won’t bother them. Not buying any gems with rl-mony will, however.

No indeed, but I’m not buying either. But I wasn’t a big buyer, so I still doubt they’ll care.

I just really object to dark patterns.

All I need is 50 gems, so what? I need to fork out 70g or spend 10 bucks?

kitten that. RNG is punishing enough I’m not blowing 70g on gems I don’t want. and if I transfer it back into gold I lose out on so much? wtf is this bull!

turns remaining gems into gold and is done with buying gems

Count outfit is nice but not that nice, You want to make some easy cash A-net? recolour some holo wings or some kitten.

I learned how to multiply numbers in third grade… does this mean that your target audience is now those who could not successfully complete the 3rd grade? that is the only rationale I can come up with the justify this change as stated in the patch notes.

If this is the case will we see a lowering of the games rating soon? I can’t see the logic in simplifying things to below a third grade level if the game is rated 12+.

ArmoredVehicle.2849:

Never understood why people keep giving money to a company that doesn’t care. Even if they reverse the change, the damage has been done.

exactly. they showed their hand…..even with a a revert, there is no reason to believe they won’t do this type of shady dealing again.

silly Anet….you didn’t have to rig the conversion system.
if you wanted us to buy more gems….you just could have given us better cosmetic gem store items.

It’s a sad day when it should be a joyous occasion being that the mad king has returned. I Re-Logged excitedly for the halloween events ready for some Ghosts and Villagers. And since I missed the phantom mask last year I was thinking about exchanging some gold for gems and finally having it, But what do I find? They took the old way of exchanging gems and now we are forced to exchange gems in increments of 400…so rather then dropping 23 gold or so we have to pay roughly between 70-75 gold. Having set amounts on the exchange is very rigid and unwanted. It feels like Anet is becoming just another typical nickle and dime mmo and they’ve strayed away from what made it so great in the beginning. On a side note perhaps if they had spent the time creating new story content that they did creating this botched exchanged the game would be better and not be dieing a slow death.

I just wanted to thank Anet for proving my point I am making here for over a year, why a focus on the cash-shop is bad for the game and so they should get rid of that and focus on expansions.

While in all honestly I don’t even see how they think this change helps them selling more gems only that the numbers are not in line with the items so you are forced to buy more. Let’s say you want a the mini’s for 500 gems you need to buy 800 but because of the absurd gem-prices many people might not be able to buy that with gold so Anet hopes they will then buy it with money?

Anyway, have a read https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/A-focus-on-micro-transactions/first

So what we see here is just one example.

Not much more to say about it. Have said so much about the cash-shop focus and how it’s bad for the game. When I started with saying that most of the community was still against me, now most seem to be on my side.

Let’s hope Anet will understand this change was just to bad and needs to be undone.. (the freedom to select your own amount been taken away I mean)

So much disappointment, really.. why limit the exchange rate to 400 gems? just what happened to you GW2?, every single time an update arrives, there’s always a reason to feel either sad or angry because of poor made decisions like these. It’s going to be a sad halloween and I don’t even want to imagine what’s coming next.. Pay2Win model at full force? labor points? -_-

Why take away the choice to specify the exact amount desired in an exchange? A link below the overhaul to the old system, or something functionally similar?

The worrying trend of completely not getting their players continues.

This was really just a plain stupid move from Anet, can’t see any good or positive thing about this change, it’s just maddening stupid. No one asked for it, no one wants it, it’s just super kittened, sorry fo the foul language but that’s just how it is.

I hope they change this very soon / very quick, or they’ll have seen money from me for the last time in this game buying gems, this is just outragously stupid.

Im so furious about this im kind of shocked im getting so emotional lol

I am thinking this might actually be a bug. It feels a bit random to have 400 gems as minimum when there are gem-store items that costs much less. 100 gems seems more likely. So I would wait with all the raging (meh who am I kidding?) until we actually know if this is working as intended.

For the record I don’t like the current version of the change either.

OK, let’s try not to hide behind excuses like “it’s easier to use” this is obviously a business move.

From personal experience with similar situations I can guarantee most of the dev team all think this is super dumb as well, so let’s not get kitteny with them. What we do need to do is show that we’re on their side and that actually (surprise, surprise) devs do actually know a thing or two about their players and what is and isn’t a good idea.

Now, to the commercial team that I expect are the ones responsible for pushing this through, this is going to damage the game and it’s reputation. Yes it will look good for your targets and end of year reports because you know full well that there are people who will buy into this new method. If this is what you’re going for then fine, but just know that, as much as you may like to think there aren’t, there are a lot of people that actually do understand what you’re doing.

Just remember, devs will be able to tell you better than anyone how to secure your player base for the long haul, but if it’s a high yield but heavy churn you want then this is the right way to go about it. This may be the right direction for you to go but it is disappointing and sad to see more and more games go this direction.

blackysharky.7581:

This was really just a plain stupid move form Anet, can’t see any good or positive thing about this change, it’s just maddening stupid. No one asked for it, no one wkittent, it’s just super kittened, sorry fo the foul languag ebut that’s just how it is.

I hope they change this very soon / very quick, or they’ll have seen money from me for the last time in this game buying gems, this is just outragously stupid.

They’ve lost any future purchases from me even if they do revert it. This complete lack of any comprehension of what their player base wants and/or can handle is just a terrible joke at this point.

OP, how many more times can the word “BUY” be put in one image before people get the picture?

It reminds me of the film They Live tbh.

I’m disappointed in this change. At first I was excited about it, because the new exchange screen looks nice and it does give me a quick idea of how much certain increments will cost me. Then I realized I could /only/ buy in those increments, which is just plain anti-consumer. If it’s a question of confusion, I don’t see why they can’t offer custom amounts alongside the fixed amounts.

I know there are sales reasons for fixed amount sales, but there’s no way to look at this, from a consumer standpoint, and say “My experience is better for it,” when fixed amounts are the only option. I know that lots of people on staff care about the consumer experience, but I’m disappointed that, one way or another, this happened.

Also, no longer displaying gold-gem rates over time is just inconvenient. Now I have to check GW2Spidy for that information, because having it on the page, in-game, where I need it, is no longer available.

It’s getting to the point that I dread any content or “feature” patches because they always come with crap like this.

I just bought gems two days ago. I spent a bunch and had 500 left over. Rather than buy something already in the gem store, I saved it and figured if the new outfit(s) I wanted cost more than 500, i’d trade gold for gems.

Skarg.6834:

Ah so it was intentional.
Had been debating if I was going to spend cash or exchange for Courtier outfit since that_shaman’s preview. But instead Anet found the point I am unwilling to spend money on this game anymore.

That is my reaction exactly. There have been problems in the past, annoyances, things that have been unfair or whatever, but never in the two years that this game has existed has there been anything so egregiously moneygrabbing at the expense [pun intended] of the player. This is sucking the fun out of this update for me- I discovered the exchange thing just before I was about to go and play some of the mini games, and I am seething, so mad that I can’t even calm down to have the fun I’ve been looking forward to for weeks.

I am not an Anet hater, and most of the things I have complained about, they have either fixed or it turned out to be a good thing.

This had better be in the former category. There is no way, NO WAY, I am going to exchange for 400 gems at a time when I don’t need that much. There is no explanation that will satisfy me as to why they didn’t make the exchange be for 1, 10, 100, 400 gems instead of 400, 800, 1200, 2000. The ONLY reason that even makes SENSE is “so people don’t have to click the 400-gem button so much”. That is ludicrous.

I am so incredibly disappointed and frustrated, especially since I just supported the game by buying gems in expectation of cool stuff coming out that I was excited to see, and I don’t have any way of “taking back” that financial statement of support. Writing this and hoping to god a dev sees it is my best chance.

terrible just terrible

Just one more comment. Lets not get ahead of ourselves. The sky is not falling.

Relshdan.6854:

ArmoredVehicle.2849:

Never understood why people keep giving money to a company that doesn’t care. Even if they reverse the change, the damage has been done.

exactly. they showed their hand.....even with a a revert, there is no reason to believe they won’t do this type of shady dealing again.

silly Anet....you didn’t have top rig the conversion system.
if you wanted us to buy more gems....you just could have given us better cosmetic gem store items.

And they even did so, right alongside this heap of manure. I was really excited for the count outfit, I’m saving up gold for something else so I thought just this once I’d perhaps ease up on my policy of not buying gems with money because of the personal story’s massacre.* Right up to the point when I nevertheless went to check the rates just to see how much they’d gone up with the update. And then I flipped my kittening kitten.

There goes another payment from a customer. If you give with one hand but shoot a gun with the other, people will likely be uninterested in what you’re giving.

*Which is still unfixed and uncommented on.

Sigh… even if they actually revert this change, I’ll still feel really disappointed about how Anet still handle drastic changes like this, there’s always (almost mandatory) a poor made decision from their side and we have always to deal with it and either fight an uphill battle against it or accept it and try to forgive or see the positive side of it.. a sad halloween for Tyria indeed.

Zoso.8279:

Just one more comment. Lets not get ahead of ourselves. The sky is not falling.

Yes but only because ANet doesn’t control it, it would yoyo depending on how much money was to be made if they did.

This is so disheartening, all the more since I love this game and I know ArenaNet employs some of the most creative and intelligent people in the business. This was not an oversight or an accident…this was thought through carefully by people who understand better than we how this will impact the player-base and the game economy.

This was meant to weed out those who exchange gold for gems in small increments instead of buying in bulk with real money. Since the gold to gems rate is based on how much is bought with gold as opposed to actual currency they might be anticipating that the gold to gems rate will go down to compensate slightly.

Whatever the rationale, it was carefully thought out to eliminate people like me from buying gems. I still love the game but I’ll miss the gem store.

This is completely ridiculous, they need to bring back the old conversion system asap.

This is the type of thing which makes me want to never ever spend money on this game again.

i really dont like this. i want to get 200 gems, not 400.

the older system as better, i liked being able to see which direction the prices were going. why did they even redo it? it was fine.

and thats why we cant have nice things…

kitten you, you greedy corporate kitteners

that’s all there is to say about you after this change

If you could stop hiring monkeys to decide this kind of “improvements”, that would be great.

boycott using any gems or anything from the gem store. we can live without it guys.

this was a BIG messup ANet

Sounds like they’re doing this for PRECISELY the reasons people are complaining now… getting stuck with 199 gems and other odd numbers.

Another problem I had noticed with the old system was if the rate shifted as you were trying to hone in on that right number, and you’d wind up with say 401 or 399 or some odd crap.

Personally, I’d suggest more intervals (say in bunches of 200 gems), and add a one time purchase that allows people to get to one of those even numbers so that they aren’t permanently stuck with an odd number of gems.

One of the biggest laws of the world, keeps being broken by Anet. Can’t they see it. DON’T FIX WHAT AINT BROKE. People repeat this very often for a good reason. It’s one of the best guidelines that exist. But time and time either money needing ncsoft, way of ‘the good path’ Mike obrien, or even just the Cash shop team, thinks that their ‘weird, not fit for release’ plan will work because they can’t open themselfs to why the current gamers of gw2 like the gamers in the first place. So they keep on changing and changing not seeing the mistakes they make.

For the love of god, leave the ‘safe the business’ overwhelming emotions out, and just keep the ‘very good game that doenst need fixing, but just new content’ alone. Stop changing existing (good) content. For the love Tyria. Please be finally enlightened that you are going the wrong way. Thanks.

Why on earth did you put this change in anet. I Normally purchase a gems with cash and fill out the remainder with gold but without 100 gem option I dont think ill be buying gems anymore.

Well, I don’t know how to feel about this. I’m glad that I did my conversion before this horrible change… but I’m not so glad about giving money to Anet if they think this is acceptable.

Who thinks up these things? The old system was bad enough. It always seemed backwards having to goof around with putting in gold or gem numbers in an effort to hit the exact end result we wanted. Why couldn’t we just enter the amount of currency we desired and have it tell us how much it would cost in the opposing currency?

This system is even worse. If I want 375 gold, as an example, I now have to hit the server with nine transactions (1×250, 1×100, 2×10, 5×1). That doesn’t seem like intelligent design to me, even though it fits right in there with the “let’s make the players click a lot” design philosophy.

The gem “tiers” are terrible considering many items in the gem shop sell for less than 400 gems (or multiples thereof). I suppose the yet to be implemented brilliant fix will be to adjust the prices of all items to multiples of 400 gems, rather than designing a well-thought out and simple system that allows the players to convert their currency to the true numbers they want!

Dear Anet,

we’ve been together since 2005 and everything was going so well, but i noticed over the last ~2 years that you have changed. Maybe it’s my selfishness for wanting Addons for which i want to pay, or that i still want to have my homeserver which i have choosen insteat of megaservers, or that i want a balanced pvp and wvw, or it is the fact that i still want to fight other guilds with my guild in our own personal Guildhall, or that i simply want to choose how much gold i spend on gems. Well i guess iam just to selfish, so this is it. It’s not you, it’s me.

Dear
Random Player 1234

PS: Actually it is YOU, not me.