Guild Wars 2

Honest feedback? Suggestions? Allow us someway to buy small increments of gems and/or gold like the old system. If I had 699 gems and wanted a new pretty outfit I want to buy 1 ONE gem, not 400. Or if I buy 800 gems using real money and buy something from the store that cost 700 gems and I have 100 left over, but want to use 49 gems to buy gold for something off the Trading Post, make it possible.

I am a casual player, even when I started this game the old conversion system made sense, no need to nerf it. Even if a new player doesn’t understand we have a wonderful community that helps out with questions, ask, and it shall be known unto you.

Make it like the old system somehow. Allow US the ability to choose how much gold/gems we want, no set amounts, thank you.

It would really be as simple as a little button that says “custom amount” and for Anet to say “we screwed up, it won’t happen again.”. Just that and it would go back to the way it was before, but now we would have people praising Anets willingness to make changes that work for their players.

I play a couple of hours most evenings, for fun, and a little profit, I tend to get the odd shiney from the gem store by saving up odd amounts of gold, and purchasing gems in bits and spits, so now ive got 7 gems left, after chucking some cash at a magic carpet, in the same way that I have an odd number of transmogs left when they were changed. How exactly is this good?
odd values that I cant redeem, left around make me less likely to get anything, as I expect any I have left will become unusable after a further revision in the future…
I know I cant get 40 gems per gold any more ( yes I can remember that exchange rate) I liked being able to see what I was going to get at varying degrees of clarity.
Please go back to the old version, the new one is not really easier to use, as it gives no real flexibility, something that GW has always had, and doesn’t treat us like thinking adults, which is one of the things that GW had that made it appealing.
and yes, I have made my first post on this, nothing in the past has been bad enough for me to want to pipe up. When things are good, I tell my friends, when there poor or bad I tell the people im paying that I don’t like them.

Fernling.1729:

lordkrall.7241:

Do people really think that abusing the company and more specifically their employees will help?

Haven’t you noticed, it’s the only way for them to acknowledge the playerbase’s concerns.
Well, apparently support tickets by new players saying the currency converter is confusing seems to grab their attention too.

Maybe veteran players should start to send support tickets too and say the same thing. Or “there’s a bug in my TP UI, earlier it was possible to convert custom amount of currency but this is no longer possible. Please help!”.

We all know exactly why Anet made this change, and it wasn’t the prevent confusion among new players.

This Thread might be too confusing for new players. I think we have to shut it down.

Also:
Still no statement from Anet.

Bug report:

I have 800 gems. I want to buy a 700 gem item and sell 100 gems. How can I sell 100 gems? I don’t see an option to sell 100 gems.

This is just a stupid, kittened decision. I just thought about playing the game again after a few months (only logged in to get the LS activated), due to events, more free time and general boredom. This was completely fine! I can understand it might’ve been confusing for new people at first, but we all were new people at one point and all got used to it. It’s not rocket science.

This actually makes me doubt playing again, might seem like a stupid reason, but the fact I could get the exact amount I needed to buy something was great. Now that’s ruined. Wonder what else they’re going to ruin?

Gaile Gray.6029:

WindFall.1479:

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.

Regardless of the increments (though I also wish for smaller increments if this new system is here to stay), please keep in mind the pricing of current, new, and on-sale items. The system you have right now is inconvenient with anything priced at 500 gems, 900 gems, etc. This goes especially for items priced anything in between those 100 gem intervals (125 gems, 275 gems).

Hey everyone, whatever your opinion is on this new currency exchange, hyperbole doesn’t help. It wastes everyone’s time trying to read them and filter out the BS.

I understand what you’re saying, WindFall, and thanks for providing the team with a clearly expressed suggestion.

Please don’t take this to mean that increasing the price to multiples of 400 is acceptable either. Because it isn’t. It will truly make matters worse.

Southern.8973:

As has been discussed on the forums many times, ANet actually makes up to twice as much money by allowing Gold->Gem conversions than they would if they only sold Gems for RL $.

When the price of Gems is relatively stable, that means that there as just as many gems going INTO the Exchange as there are coming OUT of the Exchange; hence, the stable price. The only way Gems get INTO the Exchange is someone specifically buys Gems (with RL Money) and sells those Gems for gold.

Another way you can think of it is like this – Every single gem that is used in the Gem Store was bought with RL $. Every single one. YOU may have used gold to buy them, but someone else had to use RL $ and put them into the Exchange in order for you to be able to buy them with Gold.

Without the Gem Exchange, they will have to rely solely on players who can afford to buy Gems JUST for Gem Store items. No more will they be able to buy Gems and sell them for InGame gold (Unless they make some arbitrary static exchange rate).

So if you really stop and think about it, when you buy Gems with InGame gold, you’re still generating a profit for ArenaNet because someone had to buy those Gems with RL $ and sell them for gold in the first place. If that option didn’t exist, then ANet would undoubtedly lose a lot of Gem Sales as I know a lot of people who specifically buy Gems JUST to trade them for gold (I have a Guildy who is buying enough Gems for 1,200g so he can buy a precursor right now. Seriously.) Those Gems will go into the Exchange, and someone else will be able to buy them FOR gold (at a total of a 28.5% transaction fee overall. It’s not a bad gold sink, either!).

You can tell yourself that, and it might even be true, but that’s NOT what a publisher sees.

They see people buying gems with gold > people buying gems with cash. And their immediate questions is, “How do I flip that equation?”

At it’s core, it shares the same flawed logic that game publishers have with “piracy = lost sales.” These people see someone NOT spending money, and assume that if the “free” option didn’t exist, they WOULD spend money.

I think we’ve lost Gaile 17 pages ago, or she just had no response.

Gems are confusing to new players. We should just take their money with no return.

Actually, Anet DOES make more money by allowing gold purchases because they take a cut of every Gem-to-Gold purchase.

Perhaps if they’ve given us a reason to actually SPEND money instead of crippling the game would’ve been a nicer course of action.

This is just an awful change.

I don’t buy gems with gold very often, as I usually have more expendable income than I do in game gold, but..

If an item I wanted was 25 more gems than I had currently, or 50 or 100, anything under 200 gems more than I currently had, I’d use gold, because it was flexible, while buying gems with money I always ended up exceeding what I needed.

Now both options exceed what I need.

Guess this is a good way to convince me not to buy gems, ever again. Period. I’m done as long as the system is like this.

I’ll take my money elsewhere and just leech in game.

What’s next? Raising prices on items by 1 gem so that items are 401 gems, 801 gems, etc, just to trick us into paying for an extra $5 worth of gems every time we want to buy something?

I used to think Arenanet was a fair company.

As it stands, the number of posts so far work out at more than a post a minute. It should be clear from that, that this isn’t a slight disgruntlement. This is a genuine issue Anet should recognise and start working through.

There is a lot of speculation that this is simply a money grab, and while there can be some merit there, simply because just to top up your gem stash to where you want it means either sinking a lot more gold than you need to just to get to your magic number (ok, you end up with more gems, but do you want those at the moment), or, if you haven’t the gold and want something that bad, you then have to buy gems. You pay over the odds for the number of gems you want, or you fork out the RL money.

Microsoft had a similar thing with their MS Points. Perhaps that was what Gaile was referring to as inline with other shopping forms. Perhaps someone should tell Anet how MS points are doing at the moment – they were gotten rid of in favour of a more transparent balance of actual money loaded into the account.

While I imagine the greedy side of Anet had an influence, I can also see that they were trying to solve a problem or confusion with the current system. That of inputting your gold and then coming out with what it will get you rather than inputting a gem number and getting the price back. But the “fix” is typical Anet of late. They start with a decent enough idea and good intentions, and just ride it off the cliff, going so overboard that the result does not really solve the initial problem and introduces new ones.

The idea of having the bulk amounts as options is fine. Nice, and easy for a simple go to in those moments you want to buy big. But why in Grenth’s name did this added functionality (and a very nice addition it would have been too) come at the cost of the present, clunky but otherwise very good current system. Was there seriously no way to incorporate both? Surely in a meeting somewhere the decision was made to remove the old functionality and replace it with this. What was the rationale behind such a decision? And if it was just something that happened without that discussion, that is a very serious failure of quality assurance and basic design. Its easy to jump to conclusions that this was an intentional change to force more gem purchases. A dastardly ploy indeed, and if true very regrettable. But I’m still not convinced it wasn’t just bungling. And that is no less a concern.

And once more, many of these design errors (I still like to believe they were errors, even if I’m less convinced of that) could have been avoided if the feature was discussed in the weeks before the patch. This is why transparency is needed. Oversights and mix ups are fine if you discuss them with us before release, because then they are sorted before they hit live, and we feel great for having helped a little. We still have no real idea of what is coming or the direction the game is taking, except to say from the path it has taken so far, we are not convinced there is a jolly destination at the end. Communication with us, greater transparency with is and a greater respect to your players (that, intentionally or not, is seriously lacking at the moment) would do wonders, would actually create trust in you guys and avoid the negativity, both on this forum and in news reports like tentonhammer an joystiq, both of which have something about the current row. Are you guys so blind to the PR disaster that is being unleashed? Its a pandoras box. Its out there now and its not getting back in the box. The only way to save face and rebuild is to engage. For the sake of the game we love and the members of the company that, despite this still have some respect from the community, be proactive and work with us. Do not ignore us.

Peachy Keene.9215:

Jacobbs.9468:

Peachy Keene.9215:

There have been pretty much non-stop posts in this thread all day and yet the last “feedback” we got was 19 hours ago. Where are the devs?

Having lunch, duh!

I guess it’s taking a little longer than usual because they only wanted a couple of sandwiches but had to buy 400 of them.

Best addition to this thread all day!!!! LMAO!

i hope this kind of greedy updates will eventually backfire

Ahhahahahaha….

Left 2 months ago and still not regretting it.

Lachanche.6859:

i hope this kind of greedy updates will eventually backfire

Other games and companies making money hand over fist with exactly this same model tells me you are going to be tragically disappointed.

chemiclord.3978:

Southern.8973:

As has been discussed on the forums many times, ANet actually makes up to twice as much money by allowing Gold->Gem conversions than they would if they only sold Gems for RL $.

When the price of Gems is relatively stable, that means that there as just as many gems going INTO the Exchange as there are coming OUT of the Exchange; hence, the stable price. The only way Gems get INTO the Exchange is someone specifically buys Gems (with RL Money) and sells those Gems for gold.

Another way you can think of it is like this – Every single gem that is used in the Gem Store was bought with RL $. Every single one. YOU may have used gold to buy them, but someone else had to use RL $ and put them into the Exchange in order for you to be able to buy them with Gold.

Without the Gem Exchange, they will have to rely solely on players who can afford to buy Gems JUST for Gem Store items. No more will they be able to buy Gems and sell them for InGame gold (Unless they make some arbitrary static exchange rate).

So if you really stop and think about it, when you buy Gems with InGame gold, you’re still generating a profit for ArenaNet because someone had to buy those Gems with RL $ and sell them for gold in the first place. If that option didn’t exist, then ANet would undoubtedly lose a lot of Gem Sales as I know a lot of people who specifically buy Gems JUST to trade them for gold (I have a Guildy who is buying enough Gems for 1,200g so he can buy a precursor right now. Seriously.) Those Gems will go into the Exchange, and someone else will be able to buy them FOR gold (at a total of a 28.5% transaction fee overall. It’s not a bad gold sink, either!).

You can tell yourself that, and it might even be true, but that’s NOT what a publisher sees.

They see people buying gems with gold > people buying gems with cash. And their immediate questions is, “How do I flip that equation?”

At it’s core, it shares the same flawed logic that game publishers have with “piracy = lost sales.” These people see someone NOT spending money, and assume that if the “free” option didn’t exist, they WOULD spend money.

i dunno if the monetization guys are missing this key understanding. The system was probably made to eliminate people using any functionality to get around the 400 block increments.
the flaw in the old system was people buying gold to gems were getting around the buying in blocks psychology. Now, people will HAVE to participate in the kitten i got excess gems loop regardless of gold or real life cash. All the people who used gold to make change will no longer have that option.

Essentially they are trying to increase gems sales through any source, and in the short term it will probably work.

The gold value spike, well that could work against them, high gold prices may lead players not to want to buy things, on the flip side, gem to gold being more attractive may cover those costs.

imo, lower gold to gem ratios would probably be more profitable overall, but thats just theory.

I did find the new system to be…strange? But I think the solution to it would be rather simple!

I appreciate the set amounts of gems/gold for set amount of gold/gems, I think that it does simplify things and tell you directly how much it will cost for 400 gems, etc. without you needing to do the maths for it, which IMO is a convenience! However, it is also extremely limiting, but I don’t think that would be too difficult to solve. I highly appreciated being able to fine-tune how much I wanted to convert x currency into y. My suggestions are as follows:

-Bring back the ability to go for exactly how many gems/gold you want. This does not necessarily mean you have to also remove the new interface; it only means that you have to add it as an additional option.

-Return the charts to the interface. Perhaps tab it, if it might make it cluttered. I personally didn’t use them very much, but that’s because I have been a fool. I know that they are a valued part of watching currency conversions, and so I think that they are something that would be a benefit to the majority of the playerbase. They might be a little confusing for new players, sure, but I don’t think that newer players would pay attention to them, either! Especially if it is tucked away somewhere—like, as aforementioned, a tab.

-Add a confirmation screen. “Trade a amount of b for c amount of d?” should stave off most accidents.

-Make the minimum amount of gems you can purchase (conveniently, through the system that was put into place) something like 100 or 200. It would give players a baseline, and besides it is a nice and small number.

As I said I think it’s not a bad change persay, but removing options is always limiting. Sometimes it’s good, but not here. Bringing back the old options while keeping this system in place is a good compromise!

Funny how they changed this during the Blood and Madness update, cause now most people agree this change is Madness and they are looking for Blood.

I remember how it was when I started to play this game and I wish I was one of those new players who can easily spend 80+g on gems, yuuuuuuuuup.

Kitiara.2706:

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.

Where are you finding all these new players that are so easily confused by things like skills, traits, utilities at lower levels, and now how gems/gold conversion works? The loony bin? An elementary school? If you are having to dumb down the game to this extent, maybe the rest of us would rather they dont come here. I know what dumbing down the game did for WoW, I would prefer this game didnt repeat that mistake.

She has lost all credibility with her posts in this thread, imho.
Sure some have ranted, but many have offered solutions that would work. Just another yes person.

Lachanche.6859:

i hope this kind of greedy updates will eventually backfire

It’s backfiring already. Player inactivity is rising even with this event.
Funny cause I think the plan was to slide this through along with the Halloween event (which is rehashed btw) so that the wave of players that come back use this new system.

Reminder to everyone to spread the word in-game and boycott gw2. It’s the only thing that will work.

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!

Prices of Gemstore items go up in increments of 25’s. If you absolutely must stick with this system, 25 should be the lowest denomination of gems you can buy, followed by 50, then 100.

If you have those denominations available, people can at least use it to come up with the number of gems they need for something.

Like say you have an item that costs 700 gems and another that costs 250 gems that I’d want.

So maybe I buy $10 worth of gems with cash, that puts me at 800, I buy the 700 gem outfit and now I want that flying carpet… but I only have 100 gems. I don’t want to spend more cash for just 150 gems, so I might opt to do this with gold… wait.. I don’t have enough gold to buy 400 gems at once.

I guess I just don’t get to get that item under this system.

If you had lower denominations available, I could click to buy 50 gems, and then click to buy 100 gems. There, I spent $10 and some gold and got the things I wanted.

Under this current system? I’m not going to spend the $10, because I can see outright how you’re trying to squeeze me for an extra $5 on top. I don’t like companies trying to milk me like that, so I refuse to do business with them.

LordDragonHeart.9352:

Lachanche.6859:

i hope this kind of greedy updates will eventually backfire

It’s backfiring already. Player inactivity is rising even with this event.
Funny cause I think the plan was to slide this through along with the Halloween event (which is rehashed btw) so that the wave of players that come back use this new system.

Reminder to everyone to spread the word in-game and boycott gw2. It’s the only thing that will work.

Get on their FB page!!!!

you know what could have a better explanation for new players maybe a tutorial or a “quest” to explain, Crafting.

Probably over 70% of new players dont even know they can change professions for a fee.

I’d like to add my voice to the chorus requesting that the new gem store be reverted. At least include a separate tab or way to get back to the old gem store.

And, please add this change to the many changes that have been added unilaterally and then must be fixed afterward. Please, Anet, if you had previewed this during it’s design and iteration phases, we could have helped make it great and functional.

phys.7689:

i dunno if the monetization guys are missing this key understanding. The system was probably made to eliminate people using any functionality to get around the 400 block increments.
the flaw in the old system was people buying gold to gems were getting around the buying in blocks psychology. Now, people will HAVE to participate in the kitten i got excess gems loop regardless of gold or real life cash. All the people who used gold to make change will no longer have that option.

Essentially they are trying to increase gems sales through any source, and in the short term it will probably work.

The gold value spike, well that could work against them, high gold prices may lead players not to want to buy things, on the flip side, gem to gold being more attractive may cover those costs.

imo, lower gold to gem ratios would probably be more profitable overall, but thats just theory.

This is true, but for THAT to work, they need to make the gold → gems and gems → gold as inconvenient as possible. Because what was happening was even with people who bought gems with RL cash would more often than not shift their excess gems to gold as people were using gold to get exactly the number of gems they wanted.

Let’s not forget the OTHER half of that new window. You notice how it’s not at all intuitive? This entire revamp is all about making sure EVERYONE has those odd number of gems to start the entire OCD cycle.

So Anet, stop being so quiet. We are waiting for reasonable answer from You guys. Prove that not only our money counts for You.

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.

…newer players will benefit from the updated system.

I’m sorry if I’m coming across as rude but no matter the way or the times I look at it, that statement looks like a blatant and shameful lie.

No new player nowhere in the world has the amount of gold needed for the least expensive conversion. It takes weeks for a brand new player to gather the gold needed for the 400 gem conversion, at which point they are no longer new players and had plenty of time to familiarize themselves with the game systems. And that including sliders, currency conversion and how the trading post works in general. It also means they had time to interact with other players who are usually very helpful.

However, we’re not here to discuss what a new player is or is not. But do not disguise what looks like a clear monetization decision by insulting the intelligence of your newer players.

The post doesn’t include a suggestion because the 30 pages of posts before it should be enough for any developer who actually has a trust relationship with their fans. Which doesn’t seem to be the case here.

I’m also looking forward to an explanation as to why I can’t find a single reference to the currency conversion system in the knowledge base. Am I not searching correctly?

I still cannot understand how an issue big enough to trigger a change does not have a single article on the knowledge base. Makes me wonder how big of an issue it really was.

Ok. I think you guys(Anet) are playing the “let’s give a total senseless reason for our new way of doing things that’s better for the company and worse for the players” game. I’m not buying it.

This is not some tiny detail about how the damage is dealt or exp gained. This is how we choose to use our money. And you’ve selected the option of FORCING us to use the amount YOU want.

Let’s talk about this from a game designer point of view.

You saw a problem.
Problem: New players can’t understand the exchange system.
You solved it
Solution: Simplify by using pre-chosen amounts for the exchange.

Ok after this step there are 2 ways to your way of thinking.
1- You saw that this creates a problem with the players as they don’t always want to use these pre-chosen amounts.
2- You didn’t see any problems with this method of solution.

If it’s the second case then please hire someone qualified for the game designer position.

But I think it’s the first case. You saw the problem, you KNEW the problem. But it’s not a problem for you. It’s exactly what you want.

Here’s a simple solution if you REALLY did this change to give new users a simpler experience:

Add an ADVANCED tab. Make it so that we can reach our old exchange page through this.

Heck, here’s a better suggestion: Add this “advanced exchange rates” option into the options menu. Make it unchecked by default. So that new players can’t see it and veteran players will know where to look for it.

Anet, you want positive criticism. There you go, 2 suggestions to take into consideration.

Please answer accordingly to your paid customers. Prove me wrong on this.

Izdubar.9540:

Look like an underhanded rat-fink marketing move to me.

Smells like one too.

I’m guessing this is what comes from having a “monetization lead” from scummy Nexon on your team. /slowclap Crystin Cox

I wish more people were in the know about this. Its not just that she is in a lead position, its that about the same time she came aboard, Nexon bought a large stake in NCsoft. Which for those that do not know was towards the end of beta. Which all goes along with the design goals up till that point being in stark contrast to what we have gotten since the game went live.

This to me is like Nexon found a game that had a great reputation from its predecessor with a large fan base and then bought it with the sole purpose of milking it for as much money as they can, even if it kills the game. Then moving on to the next project. Kind of like what Nexon does with every other game they have been involved with.

This is what makes me mad about GW2. It was a great game with the potential to go strong for years. The Nexon mentality is to make as much money as fast as possible for the short term, with as little investment as possible. It makes the few people at the top a lot of money but it doesn’t create games that go strong for years.

My suggestion to fix this is a simple one, that I think most have already voiced support for; hit the rollback switch. Just put the system back the way it was. It wasn’t broken. It wasn’t hard to use.

There comes a time that you must make people take the learning curve, rather than simplifying something into lack of choice. Instead of this current system, simply make very easy to read, understand and find Help buttons for those who are somehow unable to use the old, perfectly good system.

Lobo Dela Noche.5127:

Izdubar.9540:

Look like an underhanded rat-fink marketing move to me.

Smells like one too.

I’m guessing this is what comes from having a “monetization lead” from scummy Nexon on your team. /slowclap Crystin Cox

I wish more people were in the know about this. Its not just that she is in a lead position, its that about the same time she came aboard, Nexon bought a large stake in NCsoft. Which for those that do not know was towards the end of beta. Which all goes along with the design goals up till that point being in stark contrast to what we have gotten since the game went live.

This to me is like Nexon found a game that had a great reputation from its predecessor with a large fan base and then bought it with the sole purpose of milking it for as much money as they can, even if it kills the game. Then moving on to the next project. Kind of like what Nexon does with every other game they have been involved with.

This is what makes me mad about GW2. It was a great game with the potential to go strong for years. The Nexon mentality is to make as much money as fast as possible for the short term, with as little investment as possible. It makes the few people at the top a lot of money but it doesn’t create games that go strong for years.

Quoting this for emphasis to ANET, because all this time I’ve generally considered the above sort of commentary to be conspiracy theory nonsense, and though not always happy with the decisions made by ANET have more or less trusted them. This latest change, along with the blatantly false excuse about it being for new players (who, again, would not have enough gold to take advantage of it), have made me change my mind on that.

Regardless of your reasoning for making this change, and regardless of whatever PR spin you’re going to put on it, you need to take a hard look at how badly this change is eroding player trust. At this point, even if you completely reverted it, I don’t think it would fix everything. I know there’s a good chance after this I’ll always be wondering with every change whether you guys view us as actual players, or just ambulatory wallets.

To the developers, community managers, and all the other folks at Arenanet who labor every day to make this a great game— thanks for what you do. What I’m about to say isn’t aimed at you, because I truly believe you just want to make the best game possible and I doubt this change was your idea. I work in a corporate setting too, and sometimes I have to grit my teeth and defend management’s decisions even when I strongly disagree with them. It’s never fun.

That said, please convey our frustration and disappointment to the people who are responsible for this change, because it’s awful. I know I’m not the only person who’s lost trust in this game and its direction— the complete communication blackout on long-term development, combined with some really bad design decisions, has left a bad taste in my mouth. If the game were in a great place otherwise I doubt this would be as big of a deal, but folks are feeling uncharitable right now because we seem to be getting nothing but bad news (or no news). And lately there’s been this odd trend of implementing terrible “fixes” to seemingly non-existent problems. But whereas the changes to traits and the NPE just seemed kind of baffling, this one seems depressingly straightforward: it looks like a blatant money grab. Maybe you had good reasons for this change, I don’t know, but it doesn’t matter— what matters is how it’s perceived. The best thing you can do is revert the change, gather community feedback on actual improvements for the currency exchange, and then implement those improvements. And the sooner, the better.

I did like the many “new players” and sent them ingame support ticket about it. They seem to take tickets seriously compared to posts on forums or the internet in general.

Yep, this is a stupid change.

Would it really be so hard to poll the player base via survey before making unwarranted changes?

Why is the gaming industry still stuck in the dark ages when it comes to UX?

The necessary improvements are obvious. For instance, allow us to enable the old gem conversion UI from game options. Or, hell, just level gate it since that’s your thing.

Sadly Anet (or whoever makes these kinds of decisions for them) is in a no win situation. The bad publicity is out and the game’s image is already (further) tarnished even if by some miracle they do decide to mend the UI or revert it.

Well this mess is now on Kotaku’s front page now. Anet is going to get publicity for this whether they like it or not.

http://kotaku.com/guild-wars-2-players-angry-over-currency-exchange-chang-1649519173

I bet an Arenanet reply will come SOON…like this.

Guys, this thread is too big and too much suggestions for us to go through or dig.
We will look into into this SOON, in the meantime, please keep forwarding suggestions for another 6 months.

Revert, please.

One other thing – this is like begging players who do not have enough gold to buy 400 gems to go to an illegal gold seller and break the rules of conduct.

Bad anti-player idea.

All customers can do in this particular case is: Stop purchasing Gems.

The only way to stop the greed.

Sleepwalker.1398:

I bet an Arenanet reply will come SOON…like this.

Guys, this thread is too big and too much suggestions for us to go through or dig.
We will look into into this SOON, in the meantime, please keep forwarding suggestions for another 6 months.

Or they’ll create a CDI thread to talk about it.

kitten .5714:

The necessary improvements are obvious. For instance, allow us to enable the old gem conversion UI from game options. Or, hell, just level gate it since that’s your thing.

Sadly Anet (or whoever makes these kinds of decisions for them) is in a no win situation. The bad publicity is out and the game’s image is (further) tarnish even if by some miracle they do decide to mend the UI or revert it.

Well this mess is now on Kotaku’s front page now. Anet is going to get publicity for this whether they like it or not.

http://kotaku.com/guild-wars-2-players-angry-over-currency-exchange-chang-1649519173

they attempt to get more new players with that change, and they happend to actually do the inverse, if there was a possible buyer thinging should i buy the game or not, well they find their answer.

Tristar.2687:

All customers can do in this particular case is: Stop purchasing Gems.

The only way to stop the greed.

Uninstalled 1 & 2. Still here because of time and money invested. Is this going to be the Titanic or we going to sail off into the sunset? The silence is deafening.

Please readd the Buy X amount option, I don’t like having leftovers when I don’t need them.

I’m pretty sure we can all move past the new player excuse at this point. Anyone harping on it at as some key element is going to be seen as irrelevant to the discussion as a whole. You are tilting at windmills. Gaile already explained that there were multiple reasons and not just the one stated on the patch notes and it should have been obvious that there was more at play here than just that. If you want to talk about how to fix what you think is broken here, you have to be talking about cash to gems, gold to gems, and gems to gold. All three of these things are more relevant to the discussion than the confusion for new players, although not entirely unrelated. You can be angry at their language, but just know that you are playing the game they way they want you to when that is all you can criticize.

The great thing is how Anet literally has no waay of backpedaling out of this.

Even a full retraction and reset will cause everyone to wonder why they did it in thhe first place. They’ll have to explain why they LIED to everyone.

There is no plausible answer other than, ‘We want more money and didn’t want you to notice.’

Please, just move on to a new game.

GW2 ‘golden age’ was year 1 (sadly, I missed even this, as I literally started playing right around year 1 and I’ve seen nothing but decline in game quality).

Star Citizen looks incredibly awesome.

ipan.4356:

Please, just move on to a new game.

Please take your own advice and stop posting on the forums since you quite clearly have no sort of interest in the game?