Guild Wars 2

So, if they’re changing it what does that say? The information they go by isn’t that accurate.

Arenanet seem to be aiming to please a market that I as a player seem to not be a part of, I’m considered a veteran and seemingly just have to accept it because… new players.

Ugly customer service. Just really puts Arenanet in a negative light. Personally, I had plans for more gem purchases but after reading Gaile comments and players reactions I’m very much considering lessening or stopping further gem purchases entirely.

Adding a button after the fact, while nice they listen, still highlights a disconnect with their thinking. Why was it so hard to think/consider a button or other option there in the first place?

Clearly, this kind of things highlights that Arenanet is not capable of gauging what their players actually want.

slamfunction.7462:

bloodletting wolf.2837:

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.

Yup, i think a good long boycotting is called for here. They know how to fix it. But seriously, that “suggestions” line was PRICELESS! Someone needs to call EA and tell them they been trumped. ROFL

Should we trend a hashtag on twitter? Something along the lines of: #boycottGuildWars2?
I know a lot of people have already quit including myself but we should probably make it known that we are actively boycotting while spreading the word.

adventus.6532:

So, if they’re changing it what does that say? The information they go by isn’t that accurate.

Arenanet seem to be aiming to please a market that I as a player seem to not be a part of, I’m considered a veteran and seemingly just have to accept it because… new players.

Ugly customer service. Just really puts Arenanet in a negative light. Personally, I had plans for more gem purchases but after reading Gaile comments and players reactions I’m very much considering lessening or stopping further gem purchases entirely.

Adding a button after the fact, while nice they listen, still highlights a disconnect with their thinking. Why was it so hard to think/consider a button or other option there in the first place?

Clearly, this kind of things highlights that Arenanet is not capable of gauging what their players actually want.

The answer is obvious. They knew what they were doing and it was deliberate.

I’m sure their metrics told them some players might get upset over it and there were acceptable margins of loss, but as usual they continue to underestimate us.

The bad press got to them. You folks saying rants and tantrums don’t work… remember this!

Now we just need official word here

lugnutusa.3157:

Kotaku is now reporting that Anet is planning to change in response to the outcry:

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

Update: ArenaNet has responded with plans to update the Currency Exchange so players can use it as they wish. They offered the following statement:

“It’s clear that quite a lot of you would like to have greater flexibility in using the Currency Exchange. Our intention when we designed the new interface was to streamline large volume purchases, which make up the majority of transactions.

In light of your feedback, we will update the Currency Exchange so that you can decide how you want to use it. We will keep the new streamlined system and also offer a new “Custom” button on the panel that you can use to exchange any increment of gems or gold.

We anticipate rolling this out soon. Stay tuned!"

Has there been any word of this on the forums at all?

fellyn.5083:

adventus.6532:

So, if they’re changing it what does that say? The information they go by isn’t that accurate.

Arenanet seem to be aiming to please a market that I as a player seem to not be a part of, I’m considered a veteran and seemingly just have to accept it because… new players.

Ugly customer service. Just really puts Arenanet in a negative light. Personally, I had plans for more gem purchases but after reading Gaile comments and players reactions I’m very much considering lessening or stopping further gem purchases entirely.

Adding a button after the fact, while nice they listen, still highlights a disconnect with their thinking. Why was it so hard to think/consider a button or other option there in the first place?

Clearly, this kind of things highlights that Arenanet is not capable of gauging what their players actually want.

The answer is obvious. They knew what they were doing and it was deliberate.

I’m sure their metrics told them some players might get upset over it and there were acceptable margins of loss, but as usual they continue to underestimate us.

I really don’t believe they’re actually using gathered information. Just like they say they were testing the NPE for as long as they did.

I, as a customer, just don’t believe them anymore and that puts my desire to continue on with their service into serious consideration.

lordkrall.7241:

Vlad Morbius.1759:

Of course people have had issue with that as well, i think this is just a sum reaction to all the unwanted changes and the purported reasoning behind them. I don’t think treating your player base like they are imbeciles helped them at all and the complete lack of real communication for a very long time just added to the vitriol. There’s an old saying, don’t kitten on my cupcake and call it frosting, and that’s exactly what happened yesterday with this change, so hence the reaction.

Oh? I can’t remember pages upon pages of raging about the fact that you can’t spend exactly what you want or get the exact amount of gems you want with real money. But I suppose I might have missed it.

Buying with gems with real money and exchanging in game gold for gems—2 completely different issues. Nice try though.

Peachy Keene.9215:

lugnutusa.3157:

Kotaku is now reporting that Anet is planning to change in response to the outcry:

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

Update: ArenaNet has responded with plans to update the Currency Exchange so players can use it as they wish. They offered the following statement:

“It’s clear that quite a lot of you would like to have greater flexibility in using the Currency Exchange. Our intention when we designed the new interface was to streamline large volume purchases, which make up the majority of transactions.

In light of your feedback, we will update the Currency Exchange so that you can decide how you want to use it. We will keep the new streamlined system and also offer a new “Custom” button on the panel that you can use to exchange any increment of gems or gold.

We anticipate rolling this out soon. Stay tuned!"

Has there been any word of this on the forums at all?

I can’t find a single source to corroborate the claim on Kotaku – no reason for them to lie particularly, and its not beyond the realms that they would contact ANet directly. Still, probably take it with a pinch of salt.

They’ll change it, but I doubt we will get the progression graph back.

To be honest, as a GW"1" player, I feel bad for Gaile. She seems to be forced in the position of a talking head. She is better than that…

Today was a good day.

Leave it how it is, but put in 1 more option to enter any value you want like it used to be. Kinda miss the charts too but they aren’t needed.

SRoode.7318:

To be honest, as a GW"1" player, I feel bad for Gaile. She seems to be forced in the position of a talking head. She is better than that…

Agreed. I wish it wasn’t Gaile who said what was said.

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.

What “new” player has 80g sitting around to convert to gems? Stop throw dust in our faces with this BS. Be honest with your player base and tell them that you just become greedy. And stop asking for suggestion that you will NEVER, NEVER implement in game.

This is good(?) news but now we are left with the impression that either ArenaNet doesn’t have a basic and competent understanding of their own game economy and how players might be effected by this change or they knew exactly what they were doing, had solid financial reasons, and anticipating the inevitable backlash from the community chose to sneak it under the rug and pass it off as something that it was not.

So incompetent or shady. I respect ArenaNet too much to chalk this all up to an oversight or simple naivete and the only alternative take-away from this is going to leave a bad taste in my mouth for a long time.

There are some things we can take away from all this if the change does make it through.

The positives:

1. We are still somewhat empowered, and ANet does listen to us…though only after some substantial uproar(see negatives).

2. ANet still responds to bad PR, which means there is still hope for this game and NC/Nexon won’t just milk it for all its worth and let it die.

Negatives:

1. There were no communication with us on the official forums, and communication only came when Mike at Kotaku got involved (and he, not us was notified first).

2. It took a PR nightmare and multiple gaming sites calling them out to retract this change.

I am honestly shocked that they’re being allowed to revert this change (because I am convinced it was a higher-up decision).

I would just like to say thank you Anet for reading this thread (even when some views were lets say.. not so politely put) and trying to work on a solution and actually making changes. Im so glad to hear that you will be adding a custom button. This is my first and last comment on this matter. I hope to see you all online soon.

chemiclord.3978:

I am honestly shocked that they’re being allowed to revert this change (because I am convinced it was a higher-up decision).

I’m pretty shocked too. Though I doubt they’d retract something they said to a major gaming outlet (I hope I don’t have to eat my own words).

lordkrall.7241:

enaz.3489:

I think it is ridiculous to have to buy 400 gems at a time! They should have left it the way it was.

To be fair I have been “forced” to buy at least 800 gems every time I have wanted to buy gems since release. And yet no one seems to have had any issue with that.

I have an issue with it. The business model exploits human weakness to (potentially) get more money out of people than they’re initially inclined to spend. Unfortunately, there is no precedent in the gaming industry for exact amount sales of virtual items. They all use the same model. And it will continue in GW2 and other online games because consumers don’t care enough to do anything en masse about it.

Mr Vivi Ornitier.4271:

I would just like to say thank you Anet for reading this thread (even when some views were lets say.. not so politely put) and trying to work on a solution and actually making changes. Im so glad to hear that you will be adding a custom button. This is my first and last comment on this matter. I hope to see you all online soon.

Don’t be so quick to give praise back to them yet. Remember they pulled this stunt in the first place and thought it would be okay. And not only that but they haven’t said it was going to be changed in the only place that actually matters yet. These forums.

To be honest I don’t get the rage against Gaile. She didn’t say anything to justify rants against her. Most of what she said was just relaying info behind the decisions…which we may not have liked, but that certainly isn’t her fault. And she was right in that a lot of people were just raging and not being constructive at all.

Overall, I’m glad they made this decision. I was going to buy more gems with irl money for some mini pets last night, but decided not to after learning about this currency exchange BS. Once they implement this change to bring back customization, I might consider buying those minis again.

So, basically I’m glad they listened and are giving us our customization back. However, I’m still very disappointed that they didn’t see how this was problematic to begin with. It does make me think the Monetization department has their hand way too deep in this game. Guys you need to either ask for our feedback BEFORE you implement such changes or you need to ask someone other than the monetization department how they think the players will react. Someone there has to have a better handle on the community than that.

And please, for the love of GOD…..no more “it’s confusing” excuses. It’s not confusing. It’s really not.

if the gem numbers were 1, 10, 100, 1000 instead i’d be ok with it

kitten .5714:

chemiclord.3978:

I am honestly shocked that they’re being allowed to revert this change (because I am convinced it was a higher-up decision).

I’m pretty shocked too. Though I doubt they’d retract something they said to a major gaming outlet (I hope I don’t have to eat my own words).

I’ll believe it once they confirm it.

lugnutusa.3157:

Kotaku is now reporting that Anet is planning to change in response to the outcry:

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

Update: ArenaNet has responded with plans to update the Currency Exchange so players can use it as they wish. They offered the following statement:

“It’s clear that quite a lot of you would like to have greater flexibility in using the Currency Exchange. Our intention when we designed the new interface was to streamline large volume purchases, which make up the majority of transactions.

In light of your feedback, we will update the Currency Exchange so that you can decide how you want to use it. We will keep the new streamlined system and also offer a new “Custom” button on the panel that you can use to exchange any increment of gems or gold.

We anticipate rolling this out soon. Stay tuned!"

Very good news of course, but is Kotaku the new official way to realease information ? Forumers are not nice enough to get informations ?

Seriously, last time, collections lists leaked on the web, and it was considered as a “public release”, now we have to read Kotaku to have answers on the most active thread ?

At least, your communication skills matches your design decisions….

I’d like there to be smaller gold-to-gem conversion choices like 50 gems, 100 gems, or 200 gems so I can the buy amount of gems I want in increments that are reasonable. There are a lot of gem store items that fall below the minimum 400 gems and I would rather spend the rest of my gold for in-game items than to have it sit idly in the form of gems that I would not use.

kitten .5714:

Mike at Kotaku,

a PR nightmare and multiple gaming sites calling them out

Yeah, too true, but I’m down for rewarding good relations between vendor and customer. It may not have been the smoothest ride, but it goes to show that the community has some idea of what would be best for their own gaming experience (regardless of what that means for Anet internally as a surviving company).

If these changes are implemented and we receive this with open arms a la prodigal son, it only serves to encourage “positive change by the suggestion from the community” (whether community is the forums or if it has to go to gaming site personalities)

The biggest toughie is probably the inevitable poster who flames, complains or even trolls when things go the wrong way and actually rants beyond Anet’s assessment that a customer experience can be improved by the change they are shouting.

Their shouting drowns out amicable (and hopefully effective) discussion. Then again, this is the Internet, so it should be expected by all parties involved. Gotta take that with a grain of salt and sift down to the heart of the matter.

P.S.
What if I told you this entire process was a PR move gather attention to the gem store? :P

Here’s my question.

Why can’t they just like I dunno, talk with us before making decisions. I would have thought they would have learned by now that every time they make these design choices without consulting their player base something like this pops up. Generally when a person accidentally sticks their hand on a hot stove top they pull back before serious burns happen. Its like they stick their hands on the hot stove top, get burned, don’t learn anything, and then stick their hand on it again.

I’m going to be real honest here – the damage has been done. First the trait and npe debacle that effected me not at all but effected several of the people I play with. Second the announcement that they are considering removing white swords in WvW. Then you have the mess that this thread was created for. Anet will have to do something pretty stellar to get me to play and pay regularly again. It just seems like maybe this game isn’t for me anymore.
I will say that I feel pretty badly about how Gaile was treated in this thread and the anger against her was pretty uncalled for.

i wasn’t going to comment again but i will just this once XD my point for thanking them is this we actually actively changed the game for the better for players. yes it was a messy way for it to have happened people shouting at each other comments from people who have admitted to quitting the game and just wanting to add their piece but for us people who are actually playing the game right now this is a great change they changed something to help the noobys which it will and they are adding a custom button for us vets its a win win just a shame it had to go down so brutally. ive said it before polite, clear communications both way is the key

xarallei.4279:

To be honest I don’t get the rage against Gaile. She didn’t say anything to justify rants against her. Most of what she said was just relaying info behind the decisions…which we may not have liked, but that certainly isn’t her fault. And she was right in that a lot of people were just raging and not being constructive at all.

She was the one red poster, so she became a scapegoat. She also gave the thread the kind of responses that you would expect for a random QQ thread with 5-10 people raging. Probably not realizing in the process just how many people were upset about the change.

She got unlucky, basically.

lugnutusa.3157:

Kotaku is now reporting that Anet is planning to change in response to the outcry:

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

Update: ArenaNet has responded with plans to update the Currency Exchange so players can use it as they wish. They offered the following statement:

“It’s clear that quite a lot of you would like to have greater flexibility in using the Currency Exchange. Our intention when we designed the new interface was to streamline large volume purchases, which make up the majority of transactions.

In light of your feedback, we will update the Currency Exchange so that you can decide how you want to use it. We will keep the new streamlined system and also offer a new “Custom” button on the panel that you can use to exchange any increment of gems or gold.

We anticipate rolling this out soon. Stay tuned!"

I wonder where did kotaku get this.
And why devs did not post it in this thread… probably were afraid to confuse new players itt, yupyupyup.
Also no word about graphs. I just hope that if they “accidentally forget” about it there will be some site where we will be able to track gem prices anyway.

Well, I am not going to repeat what has been said 100 times in this thread.
But I felt like voicing my opinion because this is an important matter.

I am usually fine with many changes that Anet makes and I can understand a lot of the changes they’ve made as I have had a little inside into the MMO business world myself a few years back.
But once you talk money, things are getting serious.

The current changes to the shop are an outrage. Its a straight punch in the face for every customer. It needs to be reverted immediatly because changes like these are usually putting the company (and the game) in a bad light and a hint for worse to come until a game has been milked to death.

Sadly the worst part of it all is that Anet itself is probably defenseless since this is a change comming from NCsoft. Even Anet has to make a certain profit/year and if they fail to achieve the goal they were given changes like these happen.

Games have become a serious business and are all about profit, even GW2. The times where games have been made for the gamer and with him in mind are long gone.

Let’s be honest, Anet did not even announce or mention it anywhere which lead me to think its probably nothing they are proud of either.

But, There is hope!
Because quite frankly what many people seem to forget is that whatever changes they bring, by the end of the day they are depended on us, our money and loyality to the game.
The simple and only solution available right now is to boycot the current system until it is being reverted. Because if the current system fails to improve Anet income its likely to get changed, believe me on that.

Note: I am currently thinking of creating a topic with this in mind (in greater detail) because this post is probably getting lost in the flood anyway.

kitten .5714:

1. There were no communication with us on the official forums, and communication only came when Mike at Kotaku got involved (and he, not us was notified first).

Because Kotaku is a heavy hitter. Bad PR on Kotaku reaches millions of people, a lot of them potential new customers..

Daily Unique Visitors: 502,402
Monthly Unique Visitors: 15,072,060

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that the opinion(s) of a site like that has more weight than the entire forum-base put together.

If they change it or not – they’ve shown their true colors.

You can bet they’ll keep trying. They’re just reformulating their strategy now.

Also, the fact that they communicate with an outside site first itself is a slap in the face.

Well, if it wasn’t for all the rage on these forums and on Reddit, Kotaku wouldn’t have reported about anything to begin with. So it’s not like we didn’t have an impact. But yeah, it’s not surprising that Anet made their move after the gaming sites got involved.

xarallei.4279:

To be honest I don’t get the rage against Gaile. She didn’t say anything to justify rants against her. Most of what she said was just relaying info behind the decisions…which we may not have liked, but that certainly isn’t her fault. And she was right in that a lot of people were just raging and not being constructive at all.

Gaile is certainly a nice person, but as a community mannager she did 2 big mistake the same day.

1. She didn’t realize how many players were upset, and she didn’t accept the ranting. Yes it was ranting, and it was her job to listen to it and deal with it. In the same post she said she did not have to apologize, but actually that’s exactly her job. When her company does something wrong she has to apologize for it and hope customer will understand.

2. She said to Kotaki that they will do domething, but didn’t tell us first. I think that’s a second big mistake, and it’s a lot for the same day.

Against, I have nothing personnaly against her, we all do mistakes everyday, and Gaile did such a great work back in GW1. We really love her, and maybe that’s why we are so angry. We are angry against Anet decision because we love GW2, and a little angry about Gaile reaction, because we love her.

Edit : OK, second mistake is now irrelevant. And as I said mistakes can happend.

kitten YEA! Thank you guys.
Combining both systems was the best option!

Edit: Only thing left to do is alter the exchanges rates again to work against the passive inlfation.

I hope you also make the old diagram visible again.

Now it comes down to how they communicate both options on the screen.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Here’s an update for you:

It’s clear that quite a lot of you would like to have greater flexibility in using the Currency Exchange. Our intention when we designed the new interface was to streamline large volume purchases, which make up the majority of transactions.

In light of your feedback, we will update the Currency Exchange so that you can decide how you want to use it. We will keep the new streamlined system and also offer a new “Custom” button on the panel that you can use to exchange any increment of gems or gold.

We anticipate rolling this out soon. Stay tuned!

~~~~~

Sorry for the delay in posting this, but out of respect to our international community, we wanted to be able to post in several forums at once.

So what about the removal of the conversion rates from the API? What about the graphs? What about the mysterious ~25% jump in gem prices from gold→gems that NO other update has ever seen, and based on the fact that so many people are boycotting the kitten out of the gem store that makes clear evidence the prices were tampered with?

Gaile Gray.6029:

Here’s an update for you:

It’s clear that quite a lot of you would like to have greater flexibility in using the Currency Exchange. Our intention when we designed the new interface was to streamline large volume purchases, which make up the majority of transactions.

In light of your feedback, we will update the Currency Exchange so that you can decide how you want to use it. We will keep the new streamlined system and also offer a new “Custom” button on the panel that you can use to exchange any increment of gems or gold.

We anticipate rolling this out soon. Stay tuned!

~~~~~

Sorry for the delay in posting this, but out of respect to our international community, we wanted to be able to post in several forums at once.

Greates moment of the day actually :*

Now please fix the Lunatic Inquisition that has became a toxic mess XD

Gaile Gray.6029:

Here’s an update for you:

It’s clear that quite a lot of you would like to have greater flexibility in using the Currency Exchange. Our intention when we designed the new interface was to streamline large volume purchases, which make up the majority of transactions.

In light of your feedback, we will update the Currency Exchange so that you can decide how you want to use it. We will keep the new streamlined system and also offer a new “Custom” button on the panel that you can use to exchange any increment of gems or gold.

We anticipate rolling this out soon. Stay tuned!

~~~~~

Sorry for the delay in posting this, but out of respect to our international community, we wanted to be able to post in several forums at once.

Will the graph be coming back?

Gaile Gray.6029:

Here’s an update for you:

It’s clear that quite a lot of you would like to have greater flexibility in using the Currency Exchange. Our intention when we designed the new interface was to streamline large volume purchases, which make up the majority of transactions.

In light of your feedback, we will update the Currency Exchange so that you can decide how you want to use it. We will keep the new streamlined system and also offer a new “Custom” button on the panel that you can use to exchange any increment of gems or gold.

We anticipate rolling this out soon. Stay tuned!

~~~~~

Sorry for the delay in posting this, but out of respect to our international community, we wanted to be able to post in several forums at once.

Thank you, Gaile, for an official response here on the forums.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Here’s an update for you:

It’s clear that quite a lot of you would like to have greater flexibility in using the Currency Exchange. Our intention when we designed the new interface was to streamline large volume purchases, which make up the majority of transactions.

In light of your feedback, we will update the Currency Exchange so that you can decide how you want to use it. We will keep the new streamlined system and also offer a new “Custom” button on the panel that you can use to exchange any increment of gems or gold.

We anticipate rolling this out soon. Stay tuned!

~~~~~

Sorry for the delay in posting this, but out of respect to our international community, we wanted to be able to post in several forums at once.

Well, I’m glad you restored my faith. I really wanted to believe in you guys. Though I am still very wary after this whole ordeal. I’m worried about monetization getting their grubby hands on the game too much. Please beat them with a stick when they get too aggressive. Just joking of course. Maybe. O_O

I love you guys, I really do. But sometimes you do really goofy things. Please talk to us first.

IllegalChocolate.6938:

Here’s my question.

Why can’t they just like I dunno, talk with us before making decisions. I would have thought they would have learned by now that every time they make these design choices without consulting their player base something like this pops up. Generally when a person accidentally sticks their hand on a hot stove top they pull back before serious burns happen. Its like they stick their hands on the hot stove top, get burned, don’t learn anything, and then stick their hand on it again.

Have you read this forum? Did you read the post where the devs were called kitten? If this forum wants civil discussion, then it needs to be civil. Instead the people here immediately go into barbarian mode at the slightest hint of an infraction.

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

Gaile Gray.6029:

Here’s an update for you:

It’s clear that quite a lot of you would like to have greater flexibility in using the Currency Exchange. Our intention when we designed the new interface was to streamline large volume purchases, which make up the majority of transactions.

In light of your feedback, we will update the Currency Exchange so that you can decide how you want to use it. We will keep the new streamlined system and also offer a new “Custom” button on the panel that you can use to exchange any increment of gems or gold.

We anticipate rolling this out soon. Stay tuned!

~~~~~

Sorry for the delay in posting this, but out of respect to our international community, we wanted to be able to post in several forums at once.

Will the graph be coming back?

Hopefully, but if not I can live without it; the graph at https://www.gw2tp.com/gems is much more customizable and concise anyway.

I’m just thankful they listened.

Thank goodness they listened. The mistake was starting to look like it would kill any fun to be had from the halloween event.