Guild Wars 2

fellyn.5083:

Wolfheart.1879:

11 Pages in the space of a few hours is quite a feat, and no doubt it will continue to grow. That is a very fast rate of growth. Perhaps that is a metric Anet would care to analyze?

Bigger complaint topics (e.g. My Greatest Fear), have taken weeks to reach such a level. That is to say nothing of the monster threads over at Reddit. All overwhelmingly negative. These are the places your precious new players go to look into the game before buying it, as well as word of mouth and reports from gaming news outlets, of which some may well pick up this story at some point. Keeping current players happy is a means to get new players in. Perhaps something for Anet to consider.

This is just ridiculous, and despite Anet devs saying there is no guarantees of changes being made (as they told to Gaile who kindly passed it on to us), if there are no changes, GW2 the game, and Anet the company could suffer. Just seems like we’re rolling into one kitten-up after another. Somebody get behind the wheel and put the brakes on.

You’re wrong. Apparently new players skip the forum altogether and go directly to the support ticket system.

And in numbers great enough to get major features of the game changed.

I must be. I had forgotten for the briefest of moments that Anet is infallible. Won’t happen again, I promise!

Thanks Gaile for the heads up, but that’s really not answering our concern : Why did you removed the custom amount of gems you want to buy/sell? You could have kept it there along with the new way to exchange currency.

Jeez, you keep saying “new player experience” along your latest change, but why won’t you make it so benefit BOTH type of players?

Are those changes meant to bring more cash into your pocket? Are you afraid of saying it? If it’s the case and you don’t have the guts to properly say it, it’s because you know it’s wrong, so don’t do it. So if you believe in it for a different matter, explain the thought process of it. Right now, the explanation (new players were confused) you told us for getting rid of the old system for that “simplified” version of the currency exchange tab isn’t enough for many of us.

Suggestion: allow players to enter whatever number they choose, starting at 1.

Nothing was broken. This was a (poor) solution to a non-existent problem.

There is a Business Analyst reading this entire thread somewhere in Bellevue screaming “I TOLD THEM, WHY WOULD NO ONE LISTEN” at his/her computer. Assuming said BA is either market-focused or customer-centric.

It’s very annoying. Here’s something i tried to do early. got 5,000 in this candy corn stuff but i was pretty much out of bank space. i have 580 gems, oh hey why don’t i spend a few gold to get that 20 gems that i need. nope, need 75g for 400 gems. that being the closest to what i need. I’m trying not to to spend any cash on this game for a few months. So i pretty much got stuck with selling some stuff or deleting stuff i didn’t want to delete so i could make room.

BobbyT.7192:

Like really? how am i suppose to get rid of these gems? i don’t like having leftovers gems after getting what i want from gem store? Either let me sell or buy the amount of gems i want,……. or sell me something worth 8 gems :P

1. Buy 800 gems for 152g 71s 79c
2. Buy 100 g for 726 gems
3. Buy 10 g for 73 gems
4. Buy 1 g for 9 gems

You now have 0 gems. So simple, and you can’t be overwhelmed!
Ignore the net loss, of course.

Best solution as said previously:

1. Have a “Custom Amount” button where we can put in however many gems/gold we want to convert
2. Bring back the “Conversation Rate Chart”

Those two along with what you have newly implemented for your given reasons would be the ideal solution to this conflict.

That being said, I also have to be vocal regarding the fact that this change was absolutely not required, the system was perfectly fine as it was. Any “QoL” update such as this should be communicated to us ahead of time, so that you can get our feedback. Right now what this resulted in is unnecessary headache, anger and disappointment from both the parties. Mind you, the reason we are angry is that we love this game with a passion, and you love making this game for us, so let’s all get on the same page

BlueZone.4236:

BobbyT.7192:

Like really? how am i suppose to get rid of these gems? i don’t like having leftovers gems after getting what i want from gem store? Either let me sell or buy the amount of gems i want,……. or sell me something worth 8 gems :P

1. Buy 800 gems for 152g 71s 79c
2. Buy 100 g for 726 gems
3. Buy 10 g for 73 gems
4. Buy 1 g for 9 gems

You now have 0 gems. So simple, and you can’t be overwhelmed!
Ignore the net loss, of course.

yeah, opening the exchange window and typing in “#” where “#” represents the number of gems I want to change into gold was quite hard and overwhelming.

Also typing in the amount of gold I wanted to spend on gems was equally hard. All hail our saviors of mental anguish.

I’m honestly wondering at this point if the Mad King hadn’t leapt out of the servers and taken control of Anet. Would explain a lot.

Plus, most apt update name to include this change. We’re spitting Blood, and Anet have plumbed the depths of Madness.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Ok, guys. Some of you are unhappy about this change, I can see that. BUT… quite honestly, most of you are sort of (I hate to use the word) ranting (sorry!) instead of offering suggestions.

I assure you, the team leader told me not 15 minutes ago, they will listen to suggestions.

• Does that mean you get everything you want? Probably not.
• Does that mean you should suggest something? Yes, of course! Because they’re expecting player input.

So you want lower increments? Think it through and present a suggestion! You want XYZ in the interface? Post that idea. You would rather see something else? Post what you think about that other thing. Please don’t get into the whole “I’m going to kick the devs and their little dogs, too” because it’s not doing you or us any good at all.

I’m not here to apologize. I’m here to communicate and right now, the communication is coming in without a whole lot of substance. Over to you for suggestions and constructive input!

Suggestions:

1. Make buying/selling gems like every other item in the gem store and let us set the prices for however many Gems we want to buy or sell.

2. Don’t force us to have to spend cash in order to get items we’d like to have. Many of us choose to spend here and there when we can afford to. Not everyone can farm for hours on end many days a week to get enough gold to buy 400 gems so they can hope for a chance of getting enough BL ticket scraps to get that 1 skin they want.

3. Give us sales on Gems periodically.

4. Last, and most importantly, stop making veteran gamers, who came here because this game was touted to be so different, feel as if you no longer care if they play or not by dumbing down the things we’ve all managed to accomplish.

I have bought gems before, with gold and with real money, and I personally don’t like this new system.
I don’t want to waste gold or money buy buying too many gems.

Maybe if there were a better variety of cheap and interesting things in the gem store, having spare gems wouldn’t feel like a waste, but that’s the way it is now, with most of the interesting items costing more than 400 gems.

9 years anet. 9 years between gw1 gw2 thats how long i have been playing. 4 accounts (all expansions) and 40 slots in gw1, 9 slots in one account in gw2. in all that time all that money i spent i have never been more upset over anything you guys pulled the this.

I really don’t know what you all where thinking (by this i mean the team), you have no clue as to what your player base is doing, everyone in my guild (40-45 players) are so kittened off that they all refuse to buy gems anymore with or with our gold.

I am sure that we are not the only ones, just lost respect from supporters of you company. use you heads and hearts not the company profit margin if you want your bottom line to be any good.

Thank you

one kittened off player

All that negative feedback can’t be good for the game, Anet. 12 pages already, massive threads on Reddit, what do you think new players will get from that?

What were you thinking? (I’m quite angry now, I love the game and this definitely hurts the game, sorry about that)

…and this shortly after that: http://www.tentonhammer.com/editorial/more-same-guild-wars-2

Blood and Madness, true true

chemiclord.3978:

I mean, I get that every other company does crap like this. And I know WHY they pull crap like this (hint; because it makes them a kitten-ton of money from people who just want to buy stuff and compel them to buy something ELSE down the road).

But this company was supposed to be different. That was your entire hook when you started this game, that you were going to do things differently. I have no doubt this “genius” idea was from some executive who wanted to encourage IRL money purchases by making the entry point higher than new players would likely have.

Nothing in video games deserves anger and rage, but it definitely deserves a lot of disappointment. You’re not seeing another cent from me, either, Arena.net.

Change it back.

Agreed. The stuff about players not being able to understand it? I don’t believe it. The stuff about "other shopping experiences? Sure, other games that sell virtual game currency using the same techniques.

The only thing that stops this kind of corporate behavior is widespread consumer refusal to accept it.

Dieallknow.1387:

9 years anet. 9 years between gw1 gw2 thats how long i have been playing. 4 accounts (all expansions) and 40 slots in gw1, 9 slots in one account in gw2. in all that time all that money i spent i have never been more upset over anything you guys pulled the this.

I really don’t know what you all where thinking (by this i mean the team), you have no clue as to what your player base is doing, everyone in my guild (40-45 players) are so kittened off that they all refuse to buy gems anymore with or with our gold.

I am sure that we are not the only ones, just lost respect from supporters of you company. use you heads and hearts not the company profit margin if you want your bottom line to be any good.

Thank you

one kittened off player

This. Almost identical play time and I bought 2 copies of several. Hope you guys enjoyed the vacations I helped pay for! Unbelievable the way you do your longtime veteran fans and biggest supporters. This is the first time in 9 years there is no GW game installed on my PC. Really shocked and underwhelmed. Nice job on killing the game death by a thousands cuts style.

CMM.6712:

Dieallknow.1387:

9 years anet. 9 years between gw1 gw2 thats how long i have been playing. 4 accounts (all expansions) and 40 slots in gw1, 9 slots in one account in gw2. in all that time all that money i spent i have never been more upset over anything you guys pulled the this.

I really don’t know what you all where thinking (by this i mean the team), you have no clue as to what your player base is doing, everyone in my guild (40-45 players) are so kittened off that they all refuse to buy gems anymore with or with our gold.

I am sure that we are not the only ones, just lost respect from supporters of you company. use you heads and hearts not the company profit margin if you want your bottom line to be any good.

Thank you

one kittened off player

This. Almost identical play time and I bought 2 copies of several. Hope you guys enjoyed the vacations I helped pay for! Unbelievable the way you do your longtime veteran fans and biggest supporters. This is the first time in 9 years there is no GW game installed on my PC. Really shocked and underwhelmed. Nice job on killing the game death by a thousands cuts style.

Same here, I started in 2006. And now I’m quitting for good.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Hey there,

Here are a few tidbits from the team:

• A lot of newer players had trouble with the interface. That doesn’t apply to you, you’re veterans who have been around the conversion block a time or two. But newer players will benefit from the updated system.
• The goal was to make the Gem Store more like other shopping experiences, and if you think about it, there is more of that feel to it now.
• You may be surprised to know this (I know I was) but very few people bought gems at smaller denominations than the first one offered in the new system. That’s not to say they never did, nor that there wouldn’t be the desire to do so. But overall, the current options were selected based on player purchases in the past.
• The team is going to listen to your feedback and, if and when it’s practical and desirable, they can look towards adjusting the new system to better meet your needs.

So please keep your thoughts coming on the new system. Feel free to make suggestions but please, keeping them constructive would be very much appreciated.

Gaile, with all due respect, this is completly ridiculous. While I understand that math can be hard, having hard set denominations to choose from is a complete cash grab. You may hide it behind new players can’t math, but many of us are grown up who can figure it out. I do believe having denominations can be nice and easy to use, but for the love of God, give us an additional “other” where we can choose our own conversion. I know many players with left over gems between 1-49, 51-99 that are hosed in this new system.

I truely believe that the people who made this decision did it for the money, and left you guys to clean up their dirty work. But acts like this will not help thhe bottom line in the long run, it will only hurt it. When the end game is selling virtual hats for $9, that will have clipping issues on most characters but I digress, you are doing a complete disservice to your customers.

What made the previous system confusing/clunky was that the gold to gem conversion was working backwards. You had to keep tuning the amount of gold you put in to get just the number of gems you wanted, that’s not how it should’ve been.

It would be extremely simple and straight-forward if you instead were allowed to input how many gems you want and it tells you how much gold it costs, no confusion, no clunkiness and frankly I’ve always wondered why nobody ever saw how much better it would have been in the first place.

Mea.5491:

CMM.6712:

Dieallknow.1387:

9 years anet. 9 years between gw1 gw2 thats how long i have been playing. 4 accounts (all expansions) and 40 slots in gw1, 9 slots in one account in gw2. in all that time all that money i spent i have never been more upset over anything you guys pulled the this.

I really don’t know what you all where thinking (by this i mean the team), you have no clue as to what your player base is doing, everyone in my guild (40-45 players) are so kittened off that they all refuse to buy gems anymore with or with our gold.

I am sure that we are not the only ones, just lost respect from supporters of you company. use you heads and hearts not the company profit margin if you want your bottom line to be any good.

Thank you

one kittened off player

This. Almost identical play time and I bought 2 copies of several. Hope you guys enjoyed the vacations I helped pay for! Unbelievable the way you do your longtime veteran fans and biggest supporters. This is the first time in 9 years there is no GW game installed on my PC. Really shocked and underwhelmed. Nice job on killing the game death by a thousands cuts style.

Same here, I started in 2006. And now I’m quitting for good.

Same – I started playing about 6 months after GW1 came out. I have around 2.3k hours between both games and I’m starting to get really kittened at the things ANet is doing AND the excuses that they make up for it – it’s borderline insulting. Confusing for new players – who’s buying THAT story? I won’t say I’ll quit but I certainly have much less incentive to play and I certainly won’y buy any gems with real money.

Sticking to LS when it comes out I guess…

Here is the SNAFU I see…

My wife has an odd denomination of 16 gems. How is she supposed use/augment those 16 gems?

The only thing I can come up with is putting it back the way it was. At this point that is 16 gems my wife can not use.

You want constructive criticism? Well I honestly don’t know how you expect anyone to be constructive here. You guys have been told in the past that the best way to do gold to gem conversion is to have custom gem integers and display the amount of gold required. The community have been saying this for a very long time and it, like usual, was ignored.

You should honestly be ashamed of this post. Once again you make a change to the system, that you know will not be accepted graciously, then try to claim that is for new players. This is a blatant lie and I cannot fathom how you expect us to believe this. I used to feel at ease when you replied to a community issue. I thought of you as our white knight. But this post reeks of corporate bs. Once again an outrageously greedy change was made to the game and we, the “vocal minority,” are being portrayed as overreacting. This is what happens when we invest money into a product we firmly believe in, one that likes to hype how involved they are in the community, only to have nonsense like this thrown into our faces.

These past few months have shown me just how unwilling ANet is to work WITH the community. We are being led to believe that our opinions and thoughts are being heard, yet we get next to nothing in return.

This change of yours has certainly had an impact on me. The 10 bucks I was going to spend on my next gem purchase is now, instead, going to the renewal of my FFXIV subscription.

Will I keep playing your game? Probably, as I have friends that play and don’t like leaving any story, no matter how contrived, unfinished. But you have assured me that my money is not going to improve the product in any fashion. Therefore this company will no longer receive said money.

You want some honest criticism and feedback? Tell corporate to get their hands off the strings and let you run your own kitten game. Period.

I am astounded by hearing this. Good job Anet! You have stepped one foot into the grave that you’ve digged for yourselves.

I’m usually happy to buy gems and support the game, get some shinies in the process, but this… the last few updates have been poorly managed, poorly thought out and poorly implemented. I’ll not be purchasing any gems, not getting any items from the store and will likely start spending more time on other MMOs.

Gaile, I think someone really wanted to test your skills by dropping this monster in your lap. Hopefully in the future you can help the dev teams to release at least one update cycle without inserting an unannounced “feature” that makes everyone go nuts.

The simple fix will be to adjust the increments… perhaps to match the ones for gold in the column sitting right there to the left. My brain actually screamed staring at those columns side by side.

Just to throw in a personal note, I’ve been buying gems in allotments of 25. It was like putting money in a piggy bank. I swear the first thing I did when I opened that UI was look for a 25 gems button.

I do think the community loves this game, but mistakes like these really hurt. Good luck, Gaile.

I am all for this.

This will make gem conversion simple to understand.

Just kidding, this change is bad and I am speaking as a paying costumer.

Wow, why do they waste time making stuff like that when all their energy should be making a GvG mode, Guild Halls, new WvW maps and new PvE world areas with dungeons?

You would expect after another year they would make at the very least a new PvP map, but no, it seems for them it’s “the new player experience” all the way.

Anyway, I don’t care at this point since I won’t ever buy anything on the gem store until they have new content to play.

DaShi.1368:

While I’m not surprised by Gail’s reaction to this, I think the forum’s response would be obvious. After its reaction to all the other NPE changes, it’s clear that this would never go over well and just add more fuel to the fire that is now burning brighter against the game. Given that, to ask for suggestions now seems a little disingenuous. Anet should have asked fro suggestions before implementing the system. They would have avoided angering their customers and come up with a better solution.

Unfortunately, the approach we are seeing here is one a company would take if they have no intention of making the changes players are suggesting. I do believe that this is probably an order from higher up at NCSoft, and Anet just has to deal with it also. Gail is simply doing her job and telling us what she’s been told to, while the execs hope that the rage will die down and GW2 won’t implode suddenly like so many games that got really greedy before it.

This game started ok, then it went off track now it seems to be going downhill fast… Considering all the money I spent buying gems I seriously don’t think I’ve got my money’s worth: I thought I was contributing for GvG and new hardcore content. Finally I don’t think I’ll be around much longer because NONE of that came along.

Mr Snotty Pants.3980:

What this reminds me of is the old gift card racket, where they wouldn’t cash out the change. So you’re stuck with a couple cents on the card and no way to get it out.
Either ANet is dishonest or stupid…

It’s an unethical business practice. It would be like being unable to use the left overs on a gift card.

I purchased Guild Wars 2 this past weekend at the recommendation of a friend. If this is how customers are treated I should probably uninstall before I’ve invested any more time and money into this game.

I’m usually the type of player who puts money into cash shops as I have more money than time, however this is just too shady for me. Speaking as one of your “new players” I think this implementation sounds horrible. Is horrendous treatment of the player base a recurring theme with this game?

This is a cross post from my comment on reddit and my first forum post, so be gentle.

@Gaile:

I don’t know how much power you have as CM, but I really didn’t think I’d hear this kind of message from you. You’ve been a trusted voice for the community for years, but why are you giving us obvious PR bullkitten reasons for a change that is so incredibly transparent?

A lot of newer players had trouble with the interface.

New players in your post = simpletons. Straight up. Nobody who can read would have trouble understanding the old interface after a minute of playing with it. How can you even know that they did? What metric is that? The fact that new players weren’t buying gems hand over fist? Or did someone take to the forums asking how to convert gold to gems? or Gems to gold?

Even if players were having trouble understanding the interface, a better solution would have been to let players type in the number of gems they want and have it spit out the gold value of that purchase.

But newer players will benefit from the updated system.

How? Anet is the only one that benefits from this change since it forces people overbuy gems, or forces them to pick up an amount with real money.

The goal was to make the Gem Store more like other shopping experiences, and if you think about it, there is more of that feel to it now.

If you mean feel like I’m getting nickeled and dimed, something I get enough of in real life, not needed in my free time thanks, then sure.

That’s not to say they never did, nor that there wouldn’t be the desire to do so.

Then why was the option removed entirely? If there was desire for the old type of exchange, and it ALREADY EXISTED IN THE INTERFACE, why was it removed?

The team is going to listen to your feedback and, if and when it’s practical and desirable, they can look towards adjusting the new system to better meet your needs.

If they cared about our “needs”, this change wouldn’t have been made, or at the very least, wouldn’t have eliminated the old system. As evidenced by past interactions with Anet, our needs couldn’t matter less. CDI’s are conducted to placate the community with no real likelihood of implementation, content development and schedules are hidden from the players because there probably isn’t any content being made for veteran players (please let me be wrong, and each update and change to the game just reinforces the fact that Anet is only concerned with new box sales and gem store purchases.

Another concern is the fact that now gold→gem conversion history is gone. Combined with this new change, that just REEKS of behind the scenes manipulations to slowly but surely make the gold to gem conversion rate worse. I would normally consider the idea conspiracy heavy, but given this latest gemstore change, it really doesn’t seem that farfetched.

Feel free to make suggestions but please, keeping them constructive would be very much appreciated.

There is no possible suggestion for this except don’t. Take it back. Don’t make this change. Prove that you actually value your veteran players, the ones who MAKE content that Anet doesn’t provide, the ones that put on community events, the ones that grind dungeons endlessly because they love this game. They already deal with the hideous amount of gold that gemstore skins cost, but this is adding insult to injury.

GW2 was already a casual game that only consistently rewards hardcore players (gold buys everything, casuals only get RNG or spend months grinding to afford anything). This change does nothing but promote outright buying gems. And its showing what Anet really thinks of its players.

Gaile, as a fan of the series since GW1 launched, as someone who has put thousands of hours in the world of Tyria, this game is starting to feel like a bad relationship. When I think of all the great times I’ve had in these games, I can’t help but think of all these little insults to the community. I can’t agree with the direction this game is going, and in complete honesty, I feel like its soiling the world of Tyria, and ruining the reputation that Anet built with GW1.

just have both if you really NEED to have this kitten… your new thingy and a slider thingy like usual and have it done with

Well it’s a good thing I got my Spooky trio and the phantom hood before this change set in. :P

This is going to be a pretty big wall for me to get over for my goal of trying to get 2 more character slots and the 2 armor skins I want. I can farm and grind for a few days to get to the amount of gold needed for 400 gems, but it’s not really, in my opinion, in the best interest of (by some players’ standards) a player with a low gold income. In the past in order to have enough gold for in game stuff, I generally had to limit spending to get just a few gems at a time. The gems would stack up, and I wouldn’t be broke.

As I see it most of these ‘improvements’ just limit and box people in rather than teach and instruct. Simplification is good, but limitation and simplification are two very different things. If you are really into teaching new players, just don’t ignore the systems people who have been here longer have used and never complained about (almost)….

Even if you do want to eventually limit players, the LEAST you could do is implement changes subtly and gradually. Like for that ‘new player leveling system’ which I am…not very pleased with (putting it mildly) but can still tolerate, take it ONE step at a time. Like level gate one skill in one update and another in the next instead of slapping it all in one update making everyone hysterical without any time to properly adjust to everything you present to them.

This is kinda ironic when I think about it, though. You say you want to let players ease into game play when you yourselves throw curveballs in the form of nerfs and limitations, immediately challenging players with something they were (at least in terms of expectations) unprepared for.

Also as other people have mentioned, by the time a person has the amount of money required for 400 gems, they probably wouldn’t be a new player anymore….

But I’m sure you get enough of that, so I apologize. I’m sure at least some complainers don’t wish for you and your pets to die, it’s just the frustration of constant changes to systems we grew on and loved are being replaced with almost completely different ideas will wear on our patience.

I agree with other people when we say we want smaller amounts of gems available for purchase. It would make everything substantially easier.

A lot of newer players had trouble with the interface.

Who?

I’m genuinely curious about how ANET gathers their metrics, but the implications as of late have been very questionable with regards to the changes directed at “new players” .

Actually, I like this as an option to buy in bulk if you wish. However that being said, not everyone can afford to buy that many Gems at one time. Allowing an option to still buy smaller amounts as in the past would make this excellent.

What an awful idea.

Yaaaayyyy new awesome outfit, 700 gems, ok cool i can buy that, let me convert gold to gems for a sec. ZOMG wtf is this shiz. i need 700 gems only! why i have to waste another gold (THAT I WORK SO HARD FOR IT) for 100 gems that I DO NOT NEED???? you make me upset. really upset!

So, people want to be told outright that Anet just wants to make more money and they feel this is one of the best ways to do that? In what manner will that sound…reasonable? Especially, when that is probably (as Gaile mentioned) not the only reason? Idunno. I don’t think any of us want to hear that and in the end, anything we suggest otherwise will most likely help us and hurt their bottom line compared to this change. Sometimes companies have to eat that loss to satisfy customer need, sometimes they don’t. It definitely sounds a lot like they are trying to match cash shop monetization standards of other games with this purchase scheme. I think their logic was, if it works there, it will work here. It’s a pretty safe bet if those other companies haven’t tanked immediately from consumer backlash. Although, as chemic said, Anet did hint at being different in this regard. Thinking back, they set stated limits on the types of items acquired in the cash shop…but not how. Clever girl.

Edit: Example: Sony Online Entertainment using a similar system with station cash. And I’m sure you can find examples of other companies still in operation using the same method recently adopted by Anet. Not a justification from me. Just…trying to offer more perspective at the consumer climate in which Anet operates.

Another update, another middle finger to the players.

drowze.3709:

My first reaction when opening the new Gem-Gold exchange UI was this:

“Ok, streamlined presets that make for easy one-click purchases; alright, not bad. Now how do I buy a custom amount of gems?”

I honestly thought I overlooked the button that lets me input a random amount of gems. That’s why I came to the forum to double-check.

So having a button “buy custom amount” added to the current interface would feel a lot more natural to me.

Edit: Clicking the button would spawn a popup window, where you put in the amount of gems you want to buy and it shows you how much it would cost you in gold.

How did this not come up at a meeting about changing the gem conversion UI? It’s simple, straight forward, fair to players and convenient.

This is a real slippery slope I have seen other game companies go down. It gets to a place where it’s hard to go back. Where do you draw the line with it? There must have been some real division at the company over this. I know I wouldn’t have kept my mouth shut about it. I implore you guys to remedy this. This system is flagrantly trying to extract more gold out of players to purchase more gems than they need. It’s pretty gross. I’d really appreciate this post being printed and displayed on a bulletin board at the office please. You can do better and moreover should want to do better.

They are really just trying to get paid for putting out a good product and are stuck with a policy of no subscription. I think if this game came out right now the people in charge would put a subscription on it for sure. This is a just a new way to get subscription money, who knows maybe they are being greedy but I doubt it. I think they should get good money for this game.

Unfortunetly though I’m trying out other games now. I’m sure the living story stuff is for some people, but not for me. This is what gw2 is now and people have to honestly ask themselves if the guild wars franchise is for them anymore. For most of people I’m sure it still is, but I don’t see this game bringing anything to the table that I’m interested in for the foreseeable future. It’s like people who buy mac’s, can’t blame them for their preference but I know when something is not for me.

I really should not have gotten on this warpath before work. It’s going to take forever to calm my ire enough to focus…

[[Calming Breathing]]

As many have already said, this is a disastrous move, and an obvious cash grab. Why could we not have just added in the set amounts to the existing system? Why are there not smaller set amounts for people who don’t have 70g++ to throw around (10, 25, 50, 100)? Excellent points have been made about people who only need some small number to reach their goals… I wish I could deny that Anet cares so little about their player base.

New players are just that— NEW. Have you no faith in their ability to learn a system? They’ll have to learn this system, too, you know! You do not need to dumb a game down like this for people to want to join and play it— your original player base loves/loved it so much that they recommended it to others… didn’t they?

Please, for the love of little kittens, consider the ideas laid out in this thread, and save your players from leaving!

• Smaller increment amounts (10, 20, 25, 50, 100?) Additionally, please reconsider the ability to input one’s own amount. That’s what made the gem store so friendly before, in my humble opinion— the ability to put away small amounts over time to ‘save up’ for the things you wanted.

Just… Just see KELVRIN’s post a few above here, on page 12.

I’m taking a break from GW2, for this IS, surely, madness.

[[Drops the mic]]

Wanted to add my displeasure with this also. I will NOT be buying any more gems until I can choose how many I want (whether it is only 1 or 1,000). This is totally crazy. Losing the graph is much like the BLTP losing the “total received after fees deducted” amount from the old version. It seems with every “update” ANet is going to greater lengths to hide how much they are extracting from us for everything we do.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Ok, guys. Some of you are unhappy about this change, I can see that. BUT… quite honestly, most of you are sort of (I hate to use the word) ranting (sorry!) instead of offering suggestions.

I assure you, the team leader told me not 15 minutes ago, they will listen to suggestions.

• Does that mean you get everything you want? Probably not.
• Does that mean you should suggest something? Yes, of course! Because they’re expecting player input.

So you want lower increments? Think it through and present a suggestion! You want XYZ in the interface? Post that idea. You would rather see something else? Post what you think about that other thing. Please don’t get into the whole “I’m going to kick the devs and their little dogs, too” because it’s not doing you or us any good at all.

I’m not here to apologize. I’m here to communicate and right now, the communication is coming in without a whole lot of substance. Over to you for suggestions and constructive input!

This whole post is living, breathing proof of why the playerbase doesn’t think ANet has either 1) transparency or 2) good communication.

It’s not a matter of “It’s done, so don’t complain. Instead suggest improvements.”

It’s a matter of why this even shipped in the first place. It shipped with out any … wait for it … communication or transparency.

The fact that this change generated instantaneous, near-universal outrage proves that the devs DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT THEIR PLAYERS WANT.

Nearly every rant here is completely justified. ANet screwed up on this one. It’s only one of many times where this is happened. A post saying, “Say something nice,” is not appropriate at this time.

What is appropriate you may ask? A post saying, “We screwed up. We’re fixing it ASAP.”

And, by the six gods, stop shipping changes to the existing game without a heads up.

You know what would be a great idea? Instead of having gem>gold bundles, why not vice versa the old system?

Something like this:

Insert how many gems you want: 100
That’ll be 13g (or whatever).

EDIT: Actually, this is better: http://i.imgur.com/rJBgusf.jpg (credit goes to encarton from reddit)

Iason Evan.3806:

drowze.3709:

My first reaction when opening the new Gem-Gold exchange UI was this:

“Ok, streamlined presets that make for easy one-click purchases; alright, not bad. Now how do I buy a custom amount of gems?”

I honestly thought I overlooked the button that lets me input a random amount of gems. That’s why I came to the forum to double-check.

So having a button “buy custom amount” added to the current interface would feel a lot more natural to me.

Edit: Clicking the button would spawn a popup window, where you put in the amount of gems you want to buy and it shows you how much it would cost you in gold.

How did this not come up at a meeting about changing the gem conversion UI? It’s simple, straight forward, fair to players and convenient.

This is a real slippery slope I have seen other game companies go down. It gets to a place where it’s hard to go back. Where do you draw the line with it? There must have been some real division at the company over this. I know I wouldn’t have kept my mouth shut about it. I implore you guys to remedy this. This system is flagrantly trying to extract more gold out of players to purchase more gems than they need. It’s pretty gross. I’d really appreciate this post being printed and displayed on a bulletin board at the office please. You can do better and moreover should want to do better.

It’s not a slippery slope at all. It’s pretty blatant and in your face.

Add things to the gem shop that cost less than 400 gems or aren’t divisible by 400. Make it you so can only buy gems in chunks of 400.

There are only a few reasons for this. To get people to spend more gold on gems than they want to and to get them to spend more money on gems than they want to.

There is an extremely small chance that new players did have trouble with the exchange UI. But I doubt it would be a big enough concern to the devs to make any changes to it unless there was an ulterior motive.

I can’t wait to see how much they lose from this. They are obviously thinking we are a small group of people, I think they underestimate us.

It needs to be reverted back to the way it was.

Makes me a little sick to see this kind of thing from Anet.

Glad I’m on a spending freeze with this game.

Hey Gaile,

Thanks for trying to bring reason into this chaos.

• You may be surprised to know this (I know I was) but very few people bought gems at smaller denominations than the first one offered in the new system. That’s not to say they never did, nor that there wouldn’t be the desire to do so. But overall, the current options were selected based on player purchases in the past.

Thinking back, I know I rarely bought less gems in one go, but I mostly did try to buy the specific amount of gems I needed/thought useful at the time, which often were more or less than 400/800/1200. Currently I’ve got 795 gems on one account, 115 on the other, after purchasing some stuff on sale that I hadn’t calculated into my previous gem conversions. I was considering getting a new character slot soonish, but to top of the 5 gems I’m short, the new system would make me “waste” gold on 395 extra gems that would then be sitting in my account wallet with nothing that I feel worth buying (at the moment) in that price range.

Gaile Gray.6029:

• The team is going to listen to your feedback and, if and when it’s practical and desirable, they can look towards adjusting the new system to better meet your needs.

So please keep your thoughts coming on the new system. Feel free to make suggestions but please, keeping them constructive would be very much appreciated.

I wasn’t really happy with the old conversion, because it would only let me input coin, but I’d have to play around to figure out the right amount of coin to get the number of gems I wanted. In that way the new system of choosing the amount of gems to buy (rather than gold to spend) is preferable. What I would wish to see (especially considering the thoughts I’ve outlined above) is an additional option to free-form input the number of gems I want to buy. Let me exchange gold for 705 gems, so I’ve got enough for my new character slot and the new outfit, or 505 if I decide to go for the krytan armor skins instead. Don’t make me feel I need to “waste” my gold on gems I can’t currently use just to get the gems I want.

The same goes for the gem-to-gold exchange, really (even though I never use that ): allow people to put in the exact amount of gems they want to convert, to give those left with uneven gem amounts a chance to spend it all instead of being left with “useless” gems that they have no means to convert down.

There was absolutely zero reason to do this. The loss completely overshadows the gain. You guys catered to noobs because they couldn’t do math? Now you make everyone else suffer. Decisions such as this only strengthen the reason as to why I know gw2 will never be nothing more then a less than average game due to the fact your company consists of designers and teams that all concur with decisions such as this.

HOW COULD YOU THINK THIS WAS A SMART IDEA………………………………..

I have to spend more gold to get something I want and then lose gold on top of obtaining the item.

Example:

I have 150 gems. I want a hair style kit but I also want to buy my Gift of Incinerator. I have 400g. I now have to spend 75g to gain 400 gems to buy something that is 250 gems. Then convert the remaining back to gold and lose gold on top of that. Now I cant afford my gift because I lost out on more gold then needed.

Your logic Anet on a lot of decisions you guys make when it comes to developing your game is quite laughable. I want to be nice, but at the same time, it seems vocal and critical is the only way to get your attention.

Everyone should boycott and avoid the gem store altogether. If we can all avoid it like a disease without a cure, we might succeed in Anet coming out with a cure. It’s sick right now and only good for ripping off the new players. Older players know better and preferred the much better experience with more freedom of choice.

I can’t decide if this new game funds conversion is Anet’s way of trying to simplify the process (which… it does the total opposite, actually) or… just ween more real life money out of us.

Anet, stop trying to fix things that aren’t broken.

Yeah, didn’t see this coming.

/sarcasm

When did Bobby Kotick and Jay Wilson start working at Anet?

(btw, they’re going to delete this cominomment, as they’ve been doing with a lot of negative comments)

I really wants to know where did they all got this so called ‘survey’ about changes for new player. give me their account list and i will asked them one by one myself if they really wants this changes or not. and i will listen all their complains about old features. i was a Noubs too once. been playing since BWE 1. I can even figure it out how to change dye seeds to dye in a day just by running around and listen to NPC and read the kitten descriptions. oh yes i was clueless about everything in this game and there is no such thing as guide long ago, but hey, i turned out to be OK. so who is this dumbazzes who keep buying this game? if you can’t play a simple MMORPG like GW2 then go play ludo or something less challenging.