Guild Wars 2

The complete lack of discussion with the community really doesn’t help this terrible change - it looks entirely like an extortion exercise that wasn’t announced or discussed because, well, it was never going to be accepted.

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.

12 pages of vitriol and anger. Is that enough to make it desirable to fix this ridiculous change?

Add 2 buttons. One to convert 20 gems, one to convert 100 gems, until you sort this out.

We drink to nostalgia, to the days come and gone
For the greatest Aggression that they have just done
We’ll drive out this Tricksters from this game that we love
With our blood and not our wallets we will take back our Home

Down with the GemStore! The killer of games!
On the day of your death we will drink and we’ll sing
We’re the children of Tyria, and we fight all our lives
And when the Underworld beckons everyone of us dies
But this land is ours and we’ll see it wiped clean
Of the scourge that has sullied our hopes and our dreams

Down with the GemStore! The killer of games!
On the day you revealed your true intention
We raised with pitchforks, and torches of our own
The Bashing yore missed, has just begun

It’s no dragon this time, but it is something far worse
A scourge that has sullied the last of our hopes

We drink to nostalgia, for lost merrier times
When the coming of Mad King meant fun and not This
When the player was happier
When we trusted your Team
When you cared about us
When you loved it too.

:(

Its amazing how everyone fails to see that ANet’s focus is the new players base and new $$$ markets for the game.

Syphist.6705:

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.

I’m more interested in how long it will take for articles about this to start showing up on gaming sites. If/when that happens I have a feeling it won’t be good for box sales/word of mouth.

Constructive:

• There should be an option to buy a custom amount of gems/gold at the exchange rate that calculates the cost based on the desired amount (opposite the way it worked before).
• I understand the familiarity of this system may make it more likely to be used by certain users, but the old system hardly warranted such a flawed change.

Reactive:

• Slow development and changes like this really make it seem like someone is trying to get as much profit as they can while spending as little as they can on the player experience.
• Trying to play this change off as purely motivated by improving the experience for new users is disingenuous at best and insulting at worst. Blunt honesty might not be desirable for you, but at least skip the justification and go straight to “we’ll take your feedback into consideration” if we’re going to pretend this change was intended to make this system more user-friendly.

OK, for an actual suggestion proposal:

When a player wants to buy/sell gems, have it show up as a sliding scale similar to how the normal TP works. The exchange rate is taken from the time when the Currency Exchange button is clicked. You can buy/sell as little as 1 gem, up to whatever upper limit you guys feel is reasonable.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Tulki.1458:

Immediately before this patch: 10g = 70 gems.

Immediately after this patch: 10g = 57 gems (going off the 400 gem exchange rate).

They tampered with prices to make gems more expensive at exactly the same time as they removed the price history and made 400 gems the lowest increment you can buy in. Did anyone else see this? No other holiday event has had that big a fluctuation before.

Hey Tulki,

I wanted you to know I went immediately to see if I could get an answer on this, and don’t worry, there was no “stealth nerfing” of gem costs. What happened is a common occurrence with new builds: A whole lot of people made exchanges when the new build went live. And as you know the conversions are market driven.

So that’s why you saw the seeming discrepancy in the exchange rate. All is well, and it will continue to ebb and flow according to the volume of exchanges, as always.

To be blunt, I don’t believe this. If no market adjustment was made, you have a pretty serious bug.

Immediately prior to patch the price for 100 gems was 15.50g
Within minutes of the patch being available, the price for 100 gems was 18.54g

That’s a spike larger, and faster, than any in the history of the game.
There’s nothing much new in the gem store, certainly nothing like the anniversary offers, or the much talked about Lich outfit. The anniversary offers brought a huge amount of trade and a huge amount of people trying to raise more gold to make one more exchange, map chat was full of it for days.

Gem API has been broken since patch. Coincidence? Another bug?

Look at the full price history over at http://www.gw2spidy.com/gem
Obviously this shows nothing since patch due to API breaking.

Instead of adding a little question mark that explained how it worked for new players with… let’s be honest here…. “above average” difficulties (because non of “us” ever had problems with it), Anet decided to make a buck on their back.

It’s quite funny in a way: “Hey your having difficulties there so let us help you, buy this 100 gems and we will give you 95 back and 5 as spare in case you want to buy more, in case you don’t… well, anyway it’s too complicated to explain to you since you’re a new player”

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!

How about a CDI on this topic? /sarcasm

I understand having easy buttons for usability, but you should really implement a “put in your own amount” button for experienced users, alongside the change.

I’m not blaming anyone in particular – you guys are just doing your jobs, probably for some generalized bottom line. But this seems like a massive oversight.

It’s a situation where having a Test Server would be downright essential. You would have heard feedback almost immediately on the problems of having it restricted to set numbers.

Namely: Leftover gems and small transactions.

It’s strange that the gem store team put Foil-Wrapped Candy in the store at a 25 gem cost, on the same day that the exchange overhaul happened. Means if you want to trade gold for gems to get one, you have to invest in 400 gems? Makes no sense.

The lack of choice for small numbers is just going to estrange tons of people who make use of the gold>gem exchange. I would guess that the gem>gold crowd won’t care as much, but they are still going to encounter the “strange number of remaining gems” problem.

On the positive side, I’m thoroughly enjoying the Halloween festivities. It’s just I expect more from you guys with a change like this.

You honestly need the community’s suggestions on how to reinstate the functionality that you just removed? Could you be any more patronising?

Gaile Gray.6029:

• 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.

As one of those players who has only ever bought gems in small denominations, and also as a player who’s never possessed more than 60G or so at any one time, I guess I won’t be buying gems ever again. What a great improvement to the system, well done!

Why do you people continue to chase new players at the cost of isolating your current players? Ever heard the expression ‘a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush’? Or if that’s too difficult to understand, maybe you should just try googling customer retention vs customer acquisition.

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.

Like the action they’ve taken in response to feedback on the (not so) new trait system? You’ll forgive me if I don’t hold my breath…

TLDR: screwing over your current playerbase yet again in order to chase the mythical new customer.

since Ive given up on getting a precursor Ive kind of stopped going to my legendary. I saw the new duds in the gem store and just had to have them. sold some mats to get up to the current new shiny gem exchange rate of 800 (sure, Id have 100 left over but oh well). the price for 800 was like, 154 gold. by the time I finished selling my mats it was up to 157. I was 3 gold shy. in the amount of time it took a guild mate to send me another 3 gold, it was up to 159.

so, what do I have to do now… just start throwing money at the screen until it falls over and tips in my favor?

this whole thing is no bueno.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Errant Venture.9371:

Add an option buy gems in 100 gem increments instead of making 400 gems the smallest denomination possible. Problem solved.

THERE! Thank you, Errant Venture — that’s a solid suggestion with a reasonable tone. Thank you.

There has been others. One suggested a slider bar, another suggested having BOTH interfaces. The Slider bar idea is nice, kinda like how it is in the Trading Post when buying bulk items 1-250 arrow up/down + sliderbar.

SleepingDragon.1596:

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.

Doing that one better and boycotting Guild Wars 1 & 2 completely from my hard drive until I see a SIGNIFICANT change in the way things are handled and some NEW content I am interested in. This kitten leaves such a bad taste in my mouth it may not ever happen though.

Just under 600 posts and 6000 views under 7 hours, a lot of negative feedback in game, on the forum, Facebook, reddit, twitter.
Very hard to find a positive comment about this new gem system, you see a lot suggestions on how to change, and the defenders that you usually see with any change in there giving constructive criticism or silent altogether, (even myself who I like to think that I’m more forgiving on most of Anets directions),
I didn’t think it was possible, something of a myth, something rare as having 2 Eternities drop for you on a white mob, but they did it. Anet was able to get the majority of the community to agree on something, o.O……. Don’t think that has ever happen in this company’s history.
It would have been a magical moment too, like seeing a bloody unicorn or a condi d/d thief, Too bad it’s about this. Even when ascended gear first came out, at least they had some of the fan based defend it.

And this wouldn’t have happen if anet had actually communicated with us about this before hand. If we had known even a month before that a system like this was in the works, feedback could have been given, changes could have been made, and this mess could have been avoided.
Would there have been a lot negative feed back in the mean time? Yeah it would, a vocal minority would hate it, but that would have been contained to the forums, and I would think I would be a lot better then was is going on now, because I don’t think this is a vocal minority anymore.

I got to ask, is what your getting now really worth keeping the current policy over?
Sure, let say you make changes based on current feedback and bam, most are content.
All goes back to normal, life goes on.
But what happens when the next feature comes without warning and it too isn’t fit for purpose? Another change that makes your community question your business practices and good will towards your players. Is that backlash worth it? Would you rather not have a few people on the forums mad at you than a good chunk of the player base? I just don’t know.
I might be hyping this up more than it actually is, being caught up in the anger, maybe I am underestimating the amount of negative feedback u guys have gotten in the past, but I’ve following anet since factions (WHERES MY CANTHA) and I have never seen it this bad, plus I don’t rant as often as I should.

PS, meant to post this in the anets lack of transparency thread

Gosh, did that really happened? I shouldn’t have slept!

There was a needed option to buy an exact amount of gems before, because guessing wasn’t very parc tical. But this, it’s pretty ridiculous! Who in Tyria required that?

It’s seems like for each step forward, ANet makes one or two steps backward. It’s sad to see time and resources wasted on such illogical and useless changes.

GW2 December patch notes.

“Removed the ability to exchange Gold to Gems due to its complexity on new players. You can now obtain in-game Gems only with a swipe of your credit card.”

The idea is good, nice to see what ya get before you buy, but it’s the min of 400G that just…kill it. Now if it had 1,10,25,100, on there as well…then yeah it would work well. Doing that would prob be easier then redesigning the whole thing anyways. Save time and make the playerbase happy again. Win/win.

Edit: OR just have the Gold to Gem conversion match the numbers for the Gem to Gold conversion.

Although I haven’t complained about it previously, I have been extremely doubtful of all the reasons that Anet has given for the silly changes they have been making lately. This change undermines my trust in any of the reasons you give for any changes.

I can only interpret this as a tactic that has been deliberately introduced into the game to get players to spend more on gems than they actually want to. I don’t believe that it was changed for the sake of convenience. I am losing my trust in your company.

Stop this garbage.

Give me honest reasons for wanting to financially support your company – such as seeing more changes that benefit me (an experienced MMO player who wants more content!) rather than the eternal dumbing down for the morons that seem to now be your target customers and the petty money grubbing.

oh ANet, just when we were getting on the right track, u have to come and spoil the moment.

Sometimes I truly wonder what you define as a player, because from recent “updates” I think your definition of player equates the English language definition of Chimpanzee; and Ease of Use seems to mean Absurd Basicality.

This was a terrible design decision, only dwarfed my the nerve of defending it.

Its things like this, that push people away. GW2 has such potential, but at some point the patience to admire said potential will run out amidst latent disregard for the returning customer.

“it is better to have 1000 players for 10 years, than 10,000 for 1.”

This change does not aid the loyal, it is a blight on an already controversial subject in the realm of cash shop games.

I have approximately 670 gems, with the new increment system it ensures some of my gems will never be used. This change is unfortunate and it was unnecessary. If I need 130 gems to buy an 800 GEM item, as I’ve already bought the 670, I should have that option.

Gaile while I feel bad for you because your going to get the front end of this. Can you please stop referring to the team leader of the microtransactions division with that ambiguous tone. We know who she is, and what she does at the company. Crystin Cox has done several pre-laucnh interview and we know she still works there. We know she has the final say when it comes to these things, and she has not said a peep since the first time things went wrong in the gem store (Recipe: Dragon’s Revelry Starcake). Or when the conspiracy theories that supposedly surround her started to inflate. If Ms. Cox wants to up front with us on this issue then let her. I would love to hear from her instead of her dodging issues. Especially when she constantly using third party entities to answer for her.

Not to say what your doing is bad. Since this is what you do all the time, and it’s your job. However it would been nice to know this was in the works before it went live. Like a month ago. So public reaction could have been controlled, by getting community feedback way before it went live.

Baltzenger.2467:

We drink to nostalgia, to the days come and gone
For the greatest Aggression that they have just done
We’ll drive out this Tricksters from this game that we love
With our blood and not our wallets we will take back our Home

Down with the GemStore! The killer of games!
On the day of your death we will drink and we’ll sing
We’re the children of Tyria, and we fight all our lives
And when the Underworld beckons everyone of us dies
But this land is ours and we’ll see it wiped clean
Of the scourge that has sullied our hopes and our dreams

Down with the GemStore! The killer of games!
On the day you revealed your true intention
We raised with pitchforks, and torches of our own
The Bashing yore missed, has just begun

It’s no dragon this time, but it is something far worse
A scourge that has sullied the last of our hopes

We drink to nostalgia, for lost merrier times
When the coming of Mad King meant fun and not This
When the player was happier
When we trusted your Team
When you cared about us
When you loved it too.

:(

Think Im going to play Skyrim for a few weeks, and login once just so I don’t have to pay for the next episode of living story.
It’s too bad, I was starting to get back into spvp.

Aries Of Ragnarok.1365:

Now if it had 1,10,25,100, on there as well…then yeah it would work well.

If they give us something that goes down to 1 gem, this was just a stupid blunder on their part. If they don’t, this is a dishonest money grab.

Here’s rooting for stupid blunder!

What in the bleeding HELL is this?? This new gem system is absolutely AWFUL. I do NOT WANT TO BUY 400 GEMS AT A TIME!!! What was wrong with the old way? I just like to take a little gold when I have some extra, and buy gems with it. This is so stupid, ANet. Change it back, it’s absolutely useless this way. There was absolutely NOTHING wrong with the old way of buying gems whatsoever. There was nothing confusing about it either. A player would buy the gems, and it would round up or down to the cost. Oh WOW SO DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND. I guess we must all be idiots. Change it back—everyone HATES THE NEW UPDATE. Yes, I’m yelling.

looks like they took the money grab ideas from archeage lmao.

I saw in another thread Arenanet wanted constructive player feedback about this change, so this thread is dedicated towards it.

Only post constructive feedback, I know this has angered a lot of people, so let’s give Arenanet the feedback they asked for and if they hold true, we shall see the changes we need.

I’ll start…

It’s simple, bring back the old way, but keep this way as well. I’m going to hope Arenanet have done this purely because they wanted to make it better for the players, not as a marketing scheme.

Even keep the same UI, and at the bottom have a option to click “advanced” or something which brings up the ability to add your exact number of gems you wish to buy.

Yes, it must be to help clueless new players, because new players DO start out with the 75G that is needed to buy the minimum amount.:P
Please, don’t insult our intelligence even more than you already have. It’s painfully, pathetically obvious that this is another way of trying to make cash purchases of gems the only viable option. Why not remove the “convert gold to gems” entirely, since that’s very obviously what you would really like to do? Works in GW1, and would be far less condescending.

The currency exchange function change was almost certainly not done because players found it too confusing, or it was too complicated to use, or any similar reasons.

It was done to encourage more players to purchase additional gems. It’s all about the gem store revenue. They don’t think you’re an incompetent idiot. They think you’re a wallet.

It’s probable they did bounce around some other reasons for doing what they did, but these decisions get made based off of increased revenue potential, and everything else just serves as a means of trying to justify why it’s a good change overall.

The Patch Release Notes state:

Quick exchange options for both currencies are now visible on the front page of the Currency Exchange.

So, I’m wondering what and where is/are the page(s) that are subsequent. Are we missing some options/functions? There is only one page to the currency exchange that I can find….

We are considered stupid cash cows… I can smell an incoming patch note

Due to new players being confused by the game amount of free “content”, subscription fees of 800 gems will be required to keep on playing.

Sigh…

Okay, so increments. I sorta get it. But why 400? There are plenty of items you are selling for that aren’t multiples of 400. So really, please detail to us why anyone sane thought that would be a good number to set the increment. Now, if you can’t explain this, I hope you can understand why people are thinking that this is a really bad change and are upset and stop pretending that you don’t know why, because there’s been quite a few things done lately that have been absolutely patronizing.

It just seems like every time I want to put down some to buy gems, that something like this has to happen.

Sindex.9520:

Gaile while I feel bad for you because your going to get the front end of this. Can you please stop referring to the team leader of the microtransactions division with that ambiguous tone. We know who she is, and what she does at the company. Crystin Cox has done several pre-laucnh interview and we know she still works there. We know she has the final say when it comes to these things, and she has not said a peep since the first time things went wrong in the gem store (Recipe: Dragon’s Revelry Starcake). Or when the conspiracy theories that supposedly surround her started to inflate. If Ms. Cox wants to up front with us on this issue then let her. I would love to here from her instead of her constantly dodging issues. Especially when she constantly using third party entities to answer for her.

Not to say what your doing is bad. Since this is what you do all the time, and it’s your job. However it would been nice to know this was in the works before it went live. Like a month ago. So public reaction could have been controlled, by getting community feedback way before it went live.

becareful! that is a super duper taboo names! i got infracted and 2 weeks ban just by saying her names LOL!

They need to bring back the option to set a certain amount of gems

Please, bring back the old exchange,seriously… what if i just want to get 200 gems ?

Signed

hmm kinda interesting side effect, the gold to gems price will spike as players refuse to buy gems and start spending gold.
Then more people will change gem to gold for the good rates.
anet wins, players lose.
the only way to really stop anet from profiting is to completely boycott gems, whether the source be gold, or gems.

but ehh i think the pushback will be too negative, in the long run, if something doesnt change i see less and less people being a part of this project.

BobbyT.7192:

Just under 600 posts and 6000 views under 7 hours, a lot of negative feedback in game, on the forum, Facebook, reddit, twitter.
Very hard to find a positive comment about this new gem system, you see a lot suggestions on how to change, and the defenders that you usually see with any change in there giving constructive criticism or silent altogether, (even myself who I like to think that I’m more forgiving on most of Anets directions),
I didn’t think it was possible, something of a myth, something rare as having 2 Eternities drop for you on a white mob, but they did it. Anet was able to get the majority of the community to agree on something, o.O……. Don’t think that has ever happen in this company’s history.
It would have been a magical moment too, like seeing a bloody unicorn or a condi d/d thief, Too bad it’s about this. Even when ascended gear first came out, at least they had some of the fan based defend it.

And this wouldn’t have happen if anet had actually communicated with us about this before hand. If we had known even a month before that a system like this was in the works, feedback could have been given, changes could have been made, and this mess could have been avoided.
Would there have been a lot negative feed back in the mean time? Yeah it would, a vocal minority would hate it, but that would have been contained to the forums, and I would think I would be a lot better then was is going on now, because I don’t think this is a vocal minority anymore.

I got to ask, is what your getting now really worth keeping the current policy over?
Sure, let say you make changes based on current feedback and bam, most are content.
All goes back to normal, life goes on.
But what happens when the next feature comes without warning and it too isn’t fit for purpose? Another change that makes your community question your business practices and good will towards your players. Is that backlash worth it? Would you rather not have a few people on the forums mad at you than a good chunk of the player base? I just don’t know.
I might be hyping this up more than it actually is, being caught up in the anger, maybe I am underestimating the amount of negative feedback u guys have gotten in the past, but I’ve following anet since factions (WHERES MY CANTHA) and I have never seen it this bad, plus I don’t rant as often as I should.

PS, meant to post this in the anets lack of transparency thread

You know what buddy? We might just need to go to starting zones and ask ourselves to new players what they think, teach them how to use the forums and such. If these confused new players exist at all, we should be able to find them.

Baltzenger.2467:

BobbyT.7192:

Just under 600 posts and 6000 views under 7 hours, a lot of negative feedback in game, on the forum, Facebook, reddit, twitter.
Very hard to find a positive comment about this new gem system, you see a lot suggestions on how to change, and the defenders that you usually see with any change in there giving constructive criticism or silent altogether, (even myself who I like to think that I’m more forgiving on most of Anets directions),
I didn’t think it was possible, something of a myth, something rare as having 2 Eternities drop for you on a white mob, but they did it. Anet was able to get the majority of the community to agree on something, o.O……. Don’t think that has ever happen in this company’s history.
It would have been a magical moment too, like seeing a bloody unicorn or a condi d/d thief, Too bad it’s about this. Even when ascended gear first came out, at least they had some of the fan based defend it.

And this wouldn’t have happen if anet had actually communicated with us about this before hand. If we had known even a month before that a system like this was in the works, feedback could have been given, changes could have been made, and this mess could have been avoided.
Would there have been a lot negative feed back in the mean time? Yeah it would, a vocal minority would hate it, but that would have been contained to the forums, and I would think I would be a lot better then was is going on now, because I don’t think this is a vocal minority anymore.

I got to ask, is what your getting now really worth keeping the current policy over?
Sure, let say you make changes based on current feedback and bam, most are content.
All goes back to normal, life goes on.
But what happens when the next feature comes without warning and it too isn’t fit for purpose? Another change that makes your community question your business practices and good will towards your players. Is that backlash worth it? Would you rather not have a few people on the forums mad at you than a good chunk of the player base? I just don’t know.
I might be hyping this up more than it actually is, being caught up in the anger, maybe I am underestimating the amount of negative feedback u guys have gotten in the past, but I’ve following anet since factions (WHERES MY CANTHA) and I have never seen it this bad, plus I don’t rant as often as I should.

PS, meant to post this in the anets lack of transparency thread

You know what buddy? We might just need to go to starting zones and ask ourselves to new players what they think, teach them how to use the forums and such. If these confused new players exist at all, we should be able to find them.

Seems like their excuse for every change these days.

My suggestion is the following :

Why the Dev don’t show us what they want to do BEFORE putting it in the game ???

That way we can work TOGETHER to improve things BEFORE it go live and AVOID this crazy nonsense forum.. you know …

communication
[kuh-myoo-ni-key-shuh n]
The art and technique of using words effectively to impart information or ideas.
The exchange of thoughts, messages, or information, as by speech, signals, writing, or behavior.

together
[tuh-geth -er]
with cooperation and interchange between constituent elements, members, etc: we worked together.

I feel like this is something they must’ve foreseen, and that this change is not at all for quality of life, it’s to make more money, and they probably figured out the amount of people who would stop buying gems because of this would no where near offset the amount of extra profit they will be making, I’m hoping, but I’ll be suprised, if we see this reversed :/

If the ANet staff is in anyway surprised by the negative reaction of the forum then it’s because they have their eyes firmly fixed on the metrics and are not thinking about individual players.

It should have only taken a few minutes thought to realize that taking away options is bad. That making people buy large quantities of gems penalizes those that buy small numbers at a time. It penalizes the new players. How many new players have the minimum of 70 to 80 gold needed now to get any gems at all? It means the new players can’t buy a few gems at a time to work toward a purchase. In addition, it also penalizes the veterans whose play style isn’t farming the game for gold but playing the content for fun.

I don’t consider myself poor in game but being forced to make a minimum of 70-80 gold if I want to purchase any at all makes me think not just twice but 3 or 4 times. There are many in game without the necessary gold to buy 400 gems at a time. This knocks all those people out of the loop and leaves them outside of the gem store window, looking in.

This should never have gone through without an option to put in a custom number.

As for very few exchanges being under the 400 gem mark, my most frequent purchase was 150 gems for 5 transmute charges that I would always use gold to gem exchange on, I find it hard to believe I’m the only one out there. Personally, I think this is a way to encourage people to use credit cards instead of gold exchange, probably because there are enough players tired of the gem store cash grabs or just tired of the game period and not using either method. You have a huge player base that loved this game and loved gw1 that is just bored now; get real content and we’ll gladly pay for expansion.

MauledKitten.8096:

Is horrendous treatment of the player base a recurring theme with this game?

Pretty much, yes. Guild Wars 1’s ArenaNet was much more professional than… Whatever this is.

It’s tragic. Greed and laziness seem to have taken over.

The core game is great, but there is a lot wrong with how they handle pretty much everything.

I don’t mean to come off as aggressive or rude, but I have a giant list of things about this game that irks me, and it only gets worse. The sad thing is that a majority of my problems are with what they’ve taken away; not what they haven’t delivered. For example, this new gem conversion stuff. I have a giant list, but I don’t want to continue ranting (more or less).

Baltzenger.2467:

BobbyT.7192:

Just under 600 posts and 6000 views under 7 hours, a lot of negative feedback in game, on the forum, Facebook, reddit, twitter.
Very hard to find a positive comment about this new gem system, you see a lot suggestions on how to change, and the defenders that you usually see with any change in there giving constructive criticism or silent altogether, (even myself who I like to think that I’m more forgiving on most of Anets directions),
I didn’t think it was possible, something of a myth, something rare as having 2 Eternities drop for you on a white mob, but they did it. Anet was able to get the majority of the community to agree on something, o.O……. Don’t think that has ever happen in this company’s history.
It would have been a magical moment too, like seeing a bloody unicorn or a condi d/d thief, Too bad it’s about this. Even when ascended gear first came out, at least they had some of the fan based defend it.

And this wouldn’t have happen if anet had actually communicated with us about this before hand. If we had known even a month before that a system like this was in the works, feedback could have been given, changes could have been made, and this mess could have been avoided.
Would there have been a lot negative feed back in the mean time? Yeah it would, a vocal minority would hate it, but that would have been contained to the forums, and I would think I would be a lot better then was is going on now, because I don’t think this is a vocal minority anymore.

I got to ask, is what your getting now really worth keeping the current policy over?
Sure, let say you make changes based on current feedback and bam, most are content.
All goes back to normal, life goes on.
But what happens when the next feature comes without warning and it too isn’t fit for purpose? Another change that makes your community question your business practices and good will towards your players. Is that backlash worth it? Would you rather not have a few people on the forums mad at you than a good chunk of the player base? I just don’t know.
I might be hyping this up more than it actually is, being caught up in the anger, maybe I am underestimating the amount of negative feedback u guys have gotten in the past, but I’ve following anet since factions (WHERES MY CANTHA) and I have never seen it this bad, plus I don’t rant as often as I should.

PS, meant to post this in the anets lack of transparency thread

You know what buddy? We might just need to go to starting zones and ask ourselves to new players what they think, teach them how to use the forums and such. If these confused new players exist at all, we should be able to find them.

I would think they would be confused just on the amount of kitten that is going on right now.

Another note, was totally going to make a troll tread claiming to be a new player confused with the new system making no attempts to hid the fact that I’m not. you know get the ball rolling faster. But thought I put that effort into something more constructive.

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.

The suggestion is pretty clear I think.

Revert it back to the way it was.

Revert the change entirely. There. Done.

Sithaco.4673:

I feel like this is something they must’ve foreseen, and that this change is not at all for quality of life, it’s to make more money…/

They are making money on the back of people that are confused, so it’s ok…

I just looked closer and now I’m really feeling like this change was rushed without proper examination at all. Every single amount has a “buy” button for more gems… it’s the height of redundancy and wasted UI real estate.

Those buttons make sense for the LEFT side, where you exchange gems for gold. The RIGHT side, where you exchange gold for gems – why would you put the buy gems buttons there? You already have a big one, saying Buy More Gems right at the bottom of the row.

The word Buy is listed 10 times on that page and at least 4 of them make no sense in their placement at all. I am having a really hard time not taking this as blatant money-grabbing design.