Guild Wars 2

What has been up with arena net these past few months. It’s been nothing but bad decisions after bad decisions. Just leave the game alone for kitten sake!

I am just barely hanging on to this game after 2+ years of waiting for:
notable improvements/changes to WvW, fixes to 2+ year old ‘bugs’ & hacking, permanent world expansions, non-recycled content etc.
I have never been this patient with any other game I’ve played!

I am at my wits end with the fact that you make so many important changes to this game without player feedback beforehand, & STILL implement huge changes with no Player Testing Server.

This change was an absolute smack in the face.
~ taking away our ability to buy in small increments
~ leaving us with useless gems that we paid for with no fair warning
~ taking away the information that enabled us to make informed decisions with our money
AND, (it looks like) screwing with the figures behind the scenes….. are you serious?? Did you really think this would fly??

The player confusion excuse…. ridiculous. IF anything, the old UI taught people something.

Suggestion:
Change it back to the old UI

If I wanna buy gems according to how much money I make each day or week, I should be able to do that. Like I have been for the past 2 years.
NO ~ forced ~ increments!

Here’s a suggestion, if it ain’t broke—-don’t fix it. Fix what’s actually broken like server lag and in-game bugs.

Here’s my suggestion:

Revert the kittening change. It was completely and totally unnecessary. Anyone with an odd number of gems is completely screwed now. And most of them likely paid for those gems. I know I personally have 190 gems right now that I bought with real world dollars, not ingame gold. What am I to do with that leftover amount? With your new system, I have wasted money. I have give you money for absolutely nothing.

Honestly, I had planned to cancel a sub to another game to hopefully renew myself with the GW series as I’m highly invested. Prior to this month, I was spend $20 a month in the gemstore just to support the game. No more. I’ll keep my sub in the other game and allow this game to pander to the most ignorant of possible playerbases. And I hate to sound that way, that I’m cutting people down, but if people couldn’t understand the previous system, then I fail to see how they even managed to install and launch the game in the first place. This is out of hand, way the kitten out of hand.

pelle ossa.9705:

Azure The Heartless.3261:

pelle ossa.9705:

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.

if you pay me i give you a lot of suggestions…. there is a reason for this huge ranting…..

Gaile arenanet have to find the right way for this , not the player , but seems you don’t want to do the right things for the player (veterans or news) but only for your profit…..

That reply is the last thing we need right now.

“We kind of need suggestions on what you want”

“Lol pay me, otherwise figure it out”.

This isnt digital minesweeper. Do something.

Suggestion: Add a 100 Gem option for people who like trading in small increments

Ideal suggestion: Put it back to how it was.

sarcasm detector off
I think arenanet is enough intelligent to know that the player want back the old system.

Obviously not, seeing as how they changed it in the first place and are asking “how can we fix it?”

I have always been a keen supporter of ArenaNet and Guild Wars 2, and I have frequently opened up my wallet to support this game via the Gem’s Store. Due to the difficult pricing on many of the gem store items, such as the 1,000 gem harvesting tools, but only being able to 800 or 1600. I’d buy 800, and then do a tidy top up of 200 gems through in-game gold. No wasted gems, and kept the balance looking tidy.

This is now an incredibly tedious task, as there’s a large margin of wasted gems that just cannot be used any longer (1-14, 26-49, 51-74, 76-99), which annoys me to no end. So from this point onward, I refuse to purchase anymore gems from the store until the gem exchange is either reverted, or updated to support smaller transaction amounts. I am appalled that there are players that got confused by the previous system over some simple math, and that Anet then decided to make such a change.

If new players that can’t do maths got confused, make an in-game guide of some sort to clarify the process. Far less development time for the dev’s, and an optional resource so the rest of us that can add numbers together, can get on with something that worked just fine.

Azure The Heartless.3261:

pelle ossa.9705:

Azure The Heartless.3261:

pelle ossa.9705:

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.

if you pay me i give you a lot of suggestions…. there is a reason for this huge ranting…..

Gaile arenanet have to find the right way for this , not the player , but seems you don’t want to do the right things for the player (veterans or news) but only for your profit…..

That reply is the last thing we need right now.

“We kind of need suggestions on what you want”

“Lol pay me, otherwise figure it out”.

This isnt digital minesweeper. Do something.

Suggestion: Add a 100 Gem option for people who like trading in small increments

Ideal suggestion: Put it back to how it was.

sarcasm detector off
I think arenanet is enough intelligent to know that the player want back the old system.

Obviously not, seeing as how they changed it in the first place and are asking “how can we fix it?”

so you think arenanet is stupid?

As a person who rarely frequents the forums, and as someone who uses the gemstore rather frequently, I had to leave some feedback on this change.

I know my opinion is based on my own experience and my circle of friends who play GW2. However, in 1800 hours of playing, I have never come across a person who didn’t know how to use the old system. I know there’s a support ticket system, but I’ve seen so many questions asked on the map chat – most of which get a friendly answer within seconds – regarding pretty much every single possible topic about gameplay, gemstore, items, lore, missions, gems, and gold that I find it truly hard to believe this was a change based on player needs and requests.

If this was such a big problem, why can’t I find a single topic on it on the knowledge base? Isn’t that supposed to be the first stop for players needing support?

So, let me see if I understood the change:

1 – The graph showing the currency value fluctuation history has disappeared.

2 – The system went from a page where the player could adjust the currency to convert to and from, and a slider to fine tune the conversion down to the unit, to a system with several buttons and a crippled amount of conversion options.

So, Let me tackle number 1:

The currency fluctuations will still happen, and without a graph, veteran players will probably question the gem prices and claim Arenanet is tampering with them. That is already happening. New players, being new players who couldn’t understand the slider system, will probably fail to understand why do the gem value change, when and how. Won’t this lead to more support tickets along the lines of “Why did my 10 gold give me 57 gems today and 70 gems yesterday?”?

And onto number 2:

I can’t believe when you say that 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. What other shopping experiences are we talking about? Other MMOs? Every other shopping experience online and/or real world based? I’m asking because for me, a good shopping experience means I’m allowed to buy items in the quantities I want or fit my needs better. Yes, there are packages available and things can be bought in bulk, but please enlighten me: When was the last time a store forced someone to buy a large quantity of an item when it can be sold by the unit?

(I’m sorry, you can’t buy a single carton of milk anymore, you have to buy a box of 50)
(Sorry, you can’t buy a single bottle of this, you have to take 50)

If the idea is to make it look like other MMO shopping experiences then I have to say it is a massive leap backwards for a game that was supposed to bring change to the genre.

All that said, I honestly believe that the previous system is a direct upgrade of the current one. Some fake patch notes:

• endless conversion choices (convert any amount of currency you want!)
• graph showing value fluctuations and conversion rates (see how the prices are changing in real time!)

The only way I can make my point stronger is by voting with my wallet. I will not use the gemstore for as long as the conversion remains crippled. I value my shopping experiences and right now, the GW2 gemstore isn’t a place I want to spend my money on. I’m glad there are other shops around that understand what a good shopping experience is.

This is not a good move at all, We need the custom Gem option back, How Anet does it is up to them. I’ve had 3 friends decide to quit the game over this, Like walk into LA and give out all their items mats ect, Needs changed ASAP.

pelle ossa.9705:

Azure The Heartless.3261:

pelle ossa.9705:

Azure The Heartless.3261:

pelle ossa.9705:

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.

if you pay me i give you a lot of suggestions…. there is a reason for this huge ranting…..

Gaile arenanet have to find the right way for this , not the player , but seems you don’t want to do the right things for the player (veterans or news) but only for your profit…..

That reply is the last thing we need right now.

“We kind of need suggestions on what you want”

“Lol pay me, otherwise figure it out”.

This isnt digital minesweeper. Do something.

Suggestion: Add a 100 Gem option for people who like trading in small increments

Ideal suggestion: Put it back to how it was.

sarcasm detector off
I think arenanet is enough intelligent to know that the player want back the old system.

Obviously not, seeing as how they changed it in the first place and are asking “how can we fix it?”

so you think arenanet is stupid?

…. No?
I’m saying exactly what I mentioned. They determined there was a problem in a system that frankly wasn’t broken, and broke it trying to “fix” it. If they had believe the system was potent enough as it was, they would not have changed it in the first place.

I’m seeing some info about tickets coming in that are to the tune of “cant use gem store halllp” which makes sense somewhat, though.

Excuse for new player (you take months old players for new player it seems but whatever) is just a lie. If a player couldn’t make the old gem store work, it means he couldn’t even power on his computer, and less use it, or use a mouse or a keyboard. He couldn’t even eat or drink alone.

Deli.1302:

Also, why did you intentionally increase gem->gold price by ~25%? That’s a pretty hefty spike for just a new outfit and finisher and it happened immediately after the patch so I’m pretty sure it wasn’t player driven.

They didn’t. But because players are now forced to buy extra gems due to the package sizes, the number of gems purchased with gold is up sharply and the exchange is wired so more gems bought, higher the exchange rate goes. And since players can only sell gems for certain gold amounts, I imagine the opposite is also true, fewer gems are being sold to counter the spike. It’s now virtually impossible for a player to buy $25/2000 gems with cash and convert the total amount into gold.

Simzani.4318:

Excuse for new player (you take months old players for new player it seems but whatever) is just a lie. If a player couldn’t make the old gem store work, it means he couldn’t even power on his computer, and less use it, or use a mouse or a keyboard. He couldn’t even eat or drink alone.

There are parents to do that.

Proposition: Tickets are coming in by children who got GW2 as a gift and have a problem with basic math.

[/harshmode]

the new system is awful and no one was asking for it to change. I agree with everyone here who says to change it back. if Anet ABSOLUTELY FEELS that it HAS to change, how about a simple slider system? anything is better than what this was turned in to.

Azure The Heartless.3261:

pelle ossa.9705:

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.

if you pay me i give you a lot of suggestions…. there is a reason for this huge ranting…..

Gaile arenanet have to find the right way for this , not the player , but seems you don’t want to do the right things for the player (veterans or news) but only for your profit…..

That reply is the last thing we need right now.

“We kind of need suggestions on what you want”

“Lol pay me, otherwise figure it out”.

This isnt digital minesweeper. Do something.

Suggestion: Add a 100 Gem option for people who like trading in small increments. Optionally, add a 25 and 50 gem option to allow people who need that extra 25 for the Black lion key or are 50 gems away from a hood mask or whatever to get what they need without an extra 450-475 gems of work.

Ideal suggestion: Put it back to how it was. Doubt the metrics will allow this so let’s propose the former.

This “improvement” was the last thing we needed right now. If the devs are gonna penalize people for being mad its only gonna bring this game closer to Warhammer (RIP)

Made myself a habit of purchasing gems for 10 gold each day. So that one day, when I want smth, I don’t think “that’s so expensive!”. Now I can’t do that.
Today I purchased gems for the thing I needed, got a leftover of 200, and really not planning to buy gems soon.

In, taking into consideration 1 day – ANet made a right decision: I purchased 400 gems, not 200 I needed. 200 Gems profit!

But in how many days from now that profit will turn to loss, adding every day?

Brilliant.

Just adding my 2 cents here…. what do we do with the odd leftover amount of gems now sitting in our wallets? What if we want to buy only 200 gems, etc.? I vote for integrating the old system into the new system. Please fix this.

My wallet is closed until they fi this bull kitten. Anet seems to forget that we keep thier lights on!

Azure The Heartless.3261:

Simzani.4318:

Excuse for new player (you take months old players for new player it seems but whatever) is just a lie. If a player couldn’t make the old gem store work, it means he couldn’t even power on his computer, and less use it, or use a mouse or a keyboard. He couldn’t even eat or drink alone.

There are parents to do that.

Proposition: Tickets are coming in by children who got GW2 as a gift and have a problem with basic math.

[/harshmode]

You mean like they cannot multiply? For example they have 100 times 9 and it equals 733?

On a serious note, the idea behind the system is to be less confusing. Why is it more confusing then? I certainly have no idea why, as the screenshot shows, I would get 100 gold for 733 gems if 1 gold cost 9 gems.

That is confusing as kitten as each option offers different amounts of gold per gem.

Just throwing my voice in with those calling for a reversion to the old system, where we could watch the gem fluctuations and determine, on our own, how many gems we wanted at any given time.

If Anet needs money so bad then they should just make an expansion.

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!

Wtf. Am I the only one who think they have double standards here.

First of all…..why are we supposed to be doing your job. You guys need to fix the problem YOU created. This isn’t a suggestion thread nor should it be. You created a problem out of situation that wasn’t a problem. YOU GUYS should fix it. The suggestion or fix to this is quite simple and intuitive. Don’t give us that load of BS as to you guys will only listen to suggestions, when the answer is quite clear on how to fix it.

Also, you say you want suggestions? Well lets look at the history of how players have suggested things to Anet and how long it took to be implemented. Countless players have suggested things to help improve the game since day one to Anet and how many of those suggestions did we actually get? Not many. And a lot of those suggestions shouldn’t have been needed and should have been quite intuitive for you guys to implement yourselves, rather then us doing YOUR job. It’s like you guys implement something with no QA and just think it doesn’t work, the players will decide what we need to do to fix it and that’s a bunch of BS.

Your reasoning for things is never smart for a lot of your decisions Anet. The transparency between players and the devs is also quite sad as well. You create CDI threads and we give countless suggestions on things that should’ve been in game from day one. Then what? We don’t know if any of the suggestions are even being considered on the other side, tested , or anything in that matter and wont know for the next 3-4 months until a patch hits. By then its too late and most of the time, and 90% of what we suggested, we don’ t get.

I know you are trying to be “professional” with your responses, but your reasoning for this unwarranted change, giving us the problem and expecting us to fix it by giving suggestions (which never works) and doing your job for you, has all warranted for the anger from the community. It is literally a slap in the face.

“Offer suggestions……..” Hahahahaha don’t give me that. When has that ever worked…..

Not digging through 28 pages of comments.

It’s simple – I liked buying little odd amounts of gems (like 7, 14, or 23) when I had what I felt was a little extra gold at the end of the day.

I can’t do that anymore. That makes it less likely that I’ll be buying gems with real cash to “fill out” my little stash of gems when I want to buy something from the gem store.

Revenue down, squeeze the community w/o adding anything substantial for us to support.
&
http://www.tentonhammer.com/editorial/guild-wars-2-gemgate

Keep up the good work NCsoft, I can see your making a great name for yourself with Wildstar and GW2.

Varonth.5830:

Azure The Heartless.3261:

Simzani.4318:

Excuse for new player (you take months old players for new player it seems but whatever) is just a lie. If a player couldn’t make the old gem store work, it means he couldn’t even power on his computer, and less use it, or use a mouse or a keyboard. He couldn’t even eat or drink alone.

There are parents to do that.

Proposition: Tickets are coming in by children who got GW2 as a gift and have a problem with basic math.

[/harshmode]

You mean like they cannot multiply? For example they have 100 times 9 and it equals 733?

On a serious note, the idea behind the system is to be less confusing. Why is it more confusing then? I certainly have no idea why, as the screenshot shows, I would get 100 gold for 733 gems if 1 gold cost 9 gems.

That is confusing as kitten as each option offers different amounts of gold per gem.

harshmodebackon();

Anet got tickets from children who cannot do basic math and decided to take advantage of it.

backoff();

Wetpaw.3487:

Revenue down, squeeze the community w/o adding anything substantial for us to support.
&
http://www.tentonhammer.com/editorial/guild-wars-2-gemgate

Keep up the good work NCsoft, I can see your making a great name for yourself with Wildstar and GW2.

This was all Arena Net (Americans). NC-Soft does no longer have a saying within GW2 as far as I know!

lordkrall.7241:

I think the change itself is rather good, but they need to fix the amounts and potentially also add the ability to add custom numbers. But the thinking behind the change as such is good in my eyes.

The thing about this situation is that it will rage like mad for a couple of days and then it will blow over, just like all the other times.

I doubt that, possibly would if it was an anomaly but that’s not the case at all, we have seen many such changes that were neither asked for or are very popular. How many times do you think people will accept this kind of behavior without completely giving up and moving onto other things. Let’s not forget this has become quite the norm for them lately and all of it comes in the middle of a major content drought to veteran players. Nothing about this was a smart move, and don’t for a minute think they didn’t make this adjustment full well knowing how it would play out because frankly that is pretty naïve!

They’re lying to your face.

It’s that simple.

i do like the look and idea behind the new UI but until they add an option to buy for a custom amount i wont be buying anymore gems.

I do not understand why people are asking for 100 gem increments. That is only going to create the SAME problem as we have now. At the minimum, we need a 50 gem increment as well, because there are tons of items in the gem store that cost 150, 250, and 350 gems.

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!

Here’s a suggestion…. Revert it back to how it was! It wasn’t broken and this is an unjustified change. Stating newer players didn’t understand the old system is just an excuse. Like I said in a previous post, my wallet is closed. Change it back and quit screwing up your game. And while your at it, have them revert the trait system back as well because that wasn’t broken either. Tsk Tsk Anet, I thought you were smarter than that. Maybe things are being dumbed down because your own game is too complicated for you.

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!

Gaile, you wanted suggestion.

Option 1

Add a check box/button to allow Advance/Expert/Manual mode that brings up an interface for entering exact values of either output (gems wanted/gold wanted) and/or input (gold to convert/gems to convert). Many pieces of software have such a check box/switch, even Windows.

Option 2

Several players pointed out there is a reason currency comes in the denominations they do, to reduce the number of coins/bills needed to exchange for something. Here it’s the number of transactions required to get what we want. So the 1/2/5/10 ratio is better than what you have for buying gems. And by that I mean 100/200/500/1000 gems and NOT 400/800/2000/4000.

Also an option when selling to enter the amount of gems we want to sell. As it is now it’s impossible to buy gems with cash and convert the lot to gold and it requires multiple transactions. In the end the player has a few gems left that can’t be used in the Gem Stop as well as not being able to cash them in.

Option 3

Total protonic reversal, aka putting it back the way it was.

Next patch:

Precursors and mystic forge weapons are too difficult and confusing for new players to buy off the trade post by inputting the amount of money they can offer on the trade post.

From now on, you must buy 3 precursors at once at a set price of 1500g each, and mystic forge weapons at set price of 300-1200 each depending on the rarity of the item. This will make it less confusing for new players.

Then players OBVIOUSLY complain.

Then Anet proceeds to say, offer suggestions please. We are listening only to suggestions to fix this issue WE caused. Thank you. All is appreciated.

Lmaoooooooooooooo…..

SmilingBandit.8079:

Gaile Gray.6029:

fellyn.5083:

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.

And yet in the history of this forum there has never been a post saying “the gem exchange interface is confusing me as a new player” or anything similar.

Really? You’re 100% certain there’s never been such a post? Good for you, then!

Concerns of this nature come in via tickets, when someone takes the wrong step, buys too many times, isn’t able to process the acquistion or exchange, etc. By the time someone’s on the forums, they’re usually comfortable with the systems.

So the best way to complain is not to write here but to write a ticket?

Ok! You can have this!

Please check back with your “LEGAL Department” if it is allowed to sell currency for real money and have a tiny bit of it beeing unusable. If the lowest conversion rate is 1g=8Gems and i have 7 Gems left over this would be a fault in the sold currency.

This might be not allowed by the country specific laws, for example in Germany i am quite sure i could demand a refund for the 7 gems in real money or revoke the full transaction as your product comes with a unfixable fault.

Try to considere this. Thank you!

Woo aint this some gold.

So far there’s an overwhelming voice that says this update is bull. The only dev “input” we’ve heard with in these 30 pages is that they are open to suggestions, which is basically a passive-aggressive way of saying “yea, nah. We’re not going to change it back but, look! We’re open to suggestions : ))))))))))”

So as they say: “The only winning move is not to play.”
No, literally, let’s just boycott gw2 till they realize they need to clean up their act.

I dont even care anymore. the rate at which people buy gems may just increase to bypass the gold conversion cripple. People in game that have that option arent just going to leave if they’re invested, and the people who it hurts most severely probably werent pumping money into the game to begin with.

If gem buyers, especially the ones that do not frequent the forums, do not suddenly go into hiding for people who may be converting gold, there probably will not be a change at all.

I was angry but now I’m just disappointed.

My Suggestion

CHANGE IT BACK. Before you chase all the loyal players away.

I put up with the bad handling of the new leveling system but this is not working and the UI confuses me more now than before it confuses my friend who just got the game.

LordDragonHeart.9352:

So far there’s an overwhelming voice that says this update is bull. The only dev “input” we’ve heard with in these 30 pages is that they are open to suggestions, which is basically a passive-aggressive way of saying “yea, nah. We’re not going to change it back but, look! We’re open to suggestions : ))))))))))”

So as they say: “The only winning move is not to play.”
No, literally, let’s just boycott gw2 till they realize they need to clean up their act.

Already called my guild and told them that I wouldn’t be on and why. They agree with me so we will move on to something else until Anet decides to knock off the foolishness.

I like the new UI for the gem to gold, and vise versa. I do not like the fact we cannot itemize on the number of gems or gold we want. If i want 200 gems, I want 200 Gems. If i want to dump X gold into 50gems, that is what I want to do. I do not want to farm 74g for 400 gems at any one time. And the same goes from Gems to Gold. If i want to even my gem count out from 74 to 70, I want to be able to take those 4 gems and buy the correct amount of gold with it. Its how I WANT to play.

Its too cookie cutter and it feels like the change is saying ‘*players – You are too STUPID to pick and choose how many gems, or how much gold, you want…so we’ll do it for you!*’

It’s really no different then the Trait changes and the leveling changes. Before to long, all skills are going to be stream lined into 4 basic types (Control/Lock down, Attack, Healing, Defense) and we will all be using the same stick and board and the game will be dull and boring.

GIVE US BACK GW2!!!!

Retain the preset system for those you think won’t be able to understand it, and add an alternative that doesn’t force “Veteran Players” to be locked in to specific amounts, or with excess gems they can’t liquidate for gold.

Problem:
The new system is restrictive and limits choice. Players are forced to buy more than is needed for the items they want, and are unable to exchange the excess gems to gold without left over gems. The market graph has been removed, which removes an element of transparency to the system, which is problematic for those who want to make purchases with confidence.

New players rarely have access to enough gold to make the lowest gold to gem conversion, and those that do have access to enough gold surely have a keen understanding of game systems and/or gem purchasing mechanisms. If the “ease of use” is to encourage gem purchases with cash, and conversions to gold, the amounts available guarantee a remainder that is useless and a loss for the player (they paid for 400 gems, but are unable to convert the full gem amount into gold, and thus have a remainder of gems that are useless for future purchases, i.e., 1-3 gems).

Solution:
Return flexible options to players. The vast majority understand the system, and feel upset and alienated with this change. Many do make conversions of small amounts, especially to make up for the discrepancies between gem purchase amounts and item pricing, which is of course an intended system to encourage more sales.

— Add a slider that allows players to adjust for precise conversions (Important: not limited to set amounts). This allows players to see the conversion ratio, and offers precision so players are not left with excess gems, nor are they forced into spending a significant amount more that they can or wish to.

— Add a text input field, again, for precise conversions. You can even hide it behind a “Advanced option” or “Other amount” button. This will lead to an additional tab/window/field that provides input fields like any other currency converter (the google currency converter, for example).

If you’re really doing this because of the few players who opened tickets for “accidental” purchases, perhaps add a confirmation screen. “You are about to exchange X gold for X gems. OK / Cancel”

- Re-add the market history graph. This allowed players to make informed decisions based on value patterns, and it was an interesting aspect of the conversion besides.

Yeah…I’d rather spend my money on a subscription like EVE – Online, then be forced to spend it on some stupid system made by greedy…people. Least CCP ( corp that runs EVE) listens to their player base input. They run 2 servers, test server and the main game server, works great for 10+ years. You will NOT get a single cent or gold piece out of me till y’all wise up. Bonus if ya fire/replace the person(s) that even came UP with this horrible idea, cause they have no future outlook which is needed to run ANY company.

Esmee.1067:

followed by thinking it is a clever move from a business perspective

It is not cleaver, it is sleazy, scummy behaviour and incredibly transparent. Anet’s customers already seem to be a bit annoyed with developments. Combine that annoyance with being treated like idiots more and more (concern mentioned by the OP), then further acting like a sleaze ball is just showing a lack of respect for the customers.

Sure, this might still be a successful business move (appealing more to “idiots” could be profitable, as idiots are more likely to waste their money on poor purchases, which the gemshop provides an abundance of opportunities for stupid purchases). It’s just that many people would appreciate a bit more honesty.

Actually I like the new interface. It’s great if you want to get one of the short, short list of amounts. It’s fine.

Now that I’ve covered the positive. Bring back some way to get a different amount. I happen to have 340 gems right now and I don’t want to have to buy 400 gems with gold to make a 500 gem purchase. When I wanted something that I wasn’t quite close to (like now) I would happily hit the gem store and buy gems with cash to support ANet. But this is just highway robbery.

All you need to do is add a custom field just like every ATM that ever was. Ok, you’ve put in the $40 $60 $100 fields, that’s fine. But add a row so I can deal with these small amounts of gems that get left over when I buy something that isn’t priced in 400 gem increments.

I cannot in any way imagine how this is an improvement as it stands.

Except perhaps for ArenaNet if they convince folks to buy 400 gems when all they want is 180.

I guess I’m not going to get my minis this Halloween. I’m very, very disappointed. Too bad this wasn’t announced so I could have bought them before now. Every time a change is made, I just feel like I’m being taken advantage of.

One more reason, along with unfortunately many others, to not play Guild Wars 2 anymore.

Phantom Hood for 200 gems. A good deal IMO. Oh wait, I have to buy twice that number because that’s the lowest denomination.

That’s a typical thought process going through a fair number of people’s minds.

“Save it for later”.
As I mentioned before, why can’t I hang on to my gold instead? Of course, you want people to spend money instead, over and above saving leftover gems for later.

I’m not however that unreasonable enough to not consider that Anet would like to bump profits through this. I’m not going to begrudge a company’s desire to make money.

-BUT-

For the love of God be transparent. Be forthright about it. Don’t for a second think you can pull a fast one over today’s gamer crowd, because warranted or not, there will be a response.

SUGGESTION:
In principle, any compromise would be bad (for us) as I’ve said earlier. But I’ll live with fixed, albeit, smaller increments. Something like 10s up to 100s.

BETTER SUGGESTION:
Show us, and justify to us, how you can balance making (I would say force but Gaile’d get all defensive and call us ranty again) people spend money (within reason) with people buying gems with their in-game gold. You don’t want gem trades to just occur from gold and would like more monetary injection? Let’s see the (dare I say it) graph.

Because the old system functioned pretty much the same way. People who didn’t like the scales opened their wallets anyway. And those with gold spent said gold in amounts they chose. So again, why was this changed?

BECAUSE

Simple greed. Only made worse by weak attempts to excuse it with “new players” and “complexity”.

+1 signed

I dont know, but i kinda feel like not taking serious…
I mean come on, for example: why the hell should i get 400 gems when i only need 50 at the moment for whatever reason.
Now I cant see the gem/gold ratio for the last weeks either.
How old do you think i am? 8?

Please change it back the way it was and give us back our freedom to choose the exact amount we want…

thanks

Aries Of Ragnarok.1365:

Yeah…I’d rather spend my money on a subscription like EVE – Online, then be forced to spend it on some stupid system made by greedy…people. Least CCP ( corp that runs EVE) listens to their player base input. They run 2 servers, test server and the main game server, works great for 10+ years. You will NOT get a single cent or gold piece out of me till y’all wise up. Bonus if ya fire/replace the person(s) that even came UP with this horrible idea, cause they have no future outlook which is needed to run ANY company.

I don’t think you understand the variety of business tactics used in cash shops across the mmo genre if you think the person who came up with this has no future outlook.

nightwulf.1986:

Aries Of Ragnarok.1365:

Yeah…I’d rather spend my money on a subscription like EVE – Online, then be forced to spend it on some stupid system made by greedy…people. Least CCP ( corp that runs EVE) listens to their player base input. They run 2 servers, test server and the main game server, works great for 10+ years. You will NOT get a single cent or gold piece out of me till y’all wise up. Bonus if ya fire/replace the person(s) that even came UP with this horrible idea, cause they have no future outlook which is needed to run ANY company.

I don’t think you understand the variety of business tactics used in cash shops across the mmo genre if you think the person who came up with this has no future outlook in any company.

If they actually wanted this to happen, then they got the right people. Thus that comment is null. lol

I think change of the GEM conversion system was very unfortunate. It just added one more obstacle to prevent players to use the system.

But what extremely facinates me is the MAGIC they did with prices. It skyrocketted from 14.5 G / 100gems to something above 20G.

graph from tentonhammer.com
[img]https://cdn.tentonhammer.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/GemSpike.png?itok=ewbTE1uZ[/img]

Still waiting on an answer as to how this is supposed to help new players when the lowest amount of gems costs more gold than a new player would reasonably have. Not expecting one, TBH, but still waiting…

“Ok, let’s change it back” is a 5-minute hallway meeting. Why haven’t we received that update yet?