Guild Wars 2

AlliedKhajiit.2794:

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?

Isn’t the removal of the API a huge myth? It’s still there.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2jzi0x/psa_gem_exchange_api_is_still_working_fine/

Gaile Gray.6029:

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

Will the graph be coming back?

I don’t know that. I will ask tomorrow and try to let you guys know.

Thank you.

xarallei.4279:

AlliedKhajiit.2794:

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?

Isn’t the removal of the API a huge myth? It’s still there.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2jzi0x/psa_gem_exchange_api_is_still_working_fine/

Ahh. Okay, thanks for the heads up. I don’t pay attention to reddit much, and I was going off the basis of gw2spidy because that’s what I used.

It still doesn’t explain that massive spike in price for gems, however.

hahahaaa gaile XD yaaaayyyyys all round

We had to make our point clear with a 1000+ post and countless locked threads and negative PR on various gaming websites that would scare away any potential consumers in the feature while damaging the image of the company.

It’s go loud or go home I guess. If that’s what it takes then that’s what it takes.

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.

Thanks for the update, I think this is all that most of us really wanted out of this exchange.

If I can make a suggestion though, in the future, if you guys are going to be making large alterations to the way your microcurrency is handled in the future. Just say something about it ahead of time. If you guys had just posted a screenshot of the upcoming changes before implementation and asked for some feedback then before rolling it out, a lot of this rage and PR could have been avoided. I know at my own job, it can be easy to get caught in the echo chamber of internal views and sometimes miss something that seems important to the customer.

Everyone here knows ANet and NCSoft need to make money. Most of us aren’t completely unreasonable. We want to see you guys be able to monetize without feeling like you’re just seeing us as giant talking wallets at the same time. It’s a symbiotic relationship. We want to see you succeed because it benefits us in the form of new content and a better game. You should want to see us happy and content so that we want to continue to play the game and to convince other people that it’s a game worth playing.

I would like to think it didn’t just take Kotaku to get involved to make this sort of change. The backlash is bigger than thing anything Anet had to deal with ever, big enough to get outside communities involved., Either way good news all around.

Again, I don’t think I could stress this enough, if there was any sort of communication on this sort of idea ahead of time, (like a month) mild rage & criticism would have been raised early (relatively compare to this gong show), changes could have been made, and most would be happy/ content/ not create a 1700 post thread in 24h.

People will always hate something, (welcome to the internet) i just think its best to keep in contained within the forum and not spread to media outlets :P

DarcShriek.5829:

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.

“People” is a generalized term, not everyone immediately goes into barbarian mode. Just because some do doesn’t offset that others did not and still tried to carry on under the notions Arenanet wants as to play by. I’m really tired of seeing people going “well, someone said a naughty ooohhhhh bad” and that becomes a focus.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Azhure.1857:

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

Absolutely!

I’m sorry we weren’t able to answer earlier, but it took a bit of time to research how best to address player concerns. I’m glad that this is going to be resolved in a way that will give players a great deal of flexibility, customization, personalization, the whole lot.

I was just thrilled when the devs said the custom option could be done. I think my “Yaaaay!” was heard in downtown Seattle.

From appearances, the best way to address player concerns would be to do absolutely everything the forum ever asks to be instituted (especially if they contradict) and apologize for inconveniences with a free precursor. Oh, and killing Trahearne, Kasmeer, and Marjory in one scene where they have no other function.

On a slightly more serious note – why in the heck wasn’t there a custom option somewhere in there in the first place?

Better question: Do you realize now there’s a trend where if people don’t like something, we will now see countless rage threads/stories all over the internet until it’s changed? Because that’s now twice it’s “worked” . . .

Gaile Gray.6029:

Azhure.1857:

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

Absolutely!

I’m sorry we weren’t able to answer earlier, but it took a bit of time to research how best to address player concerns. I’m glad that this is going to be resolved in a way that will give players a great deal of flexibility, customization, personalization, the whole lot.

I was just thrilled when the devs said the custom option could be done. I think my “Yaaaay!” was heard in downtown Seattle.

“YAY!!! They’ll stop yelling at meh Q_Q”

lol wish you well.

I mean, I can illustrate it right now:

IllegalChocolate.6938:

We had to make our point clear with a 1000+ post and countless locked threads and negative PR on various gaming websites that would scare away any potential consumers in the feature while damaging the image of the company.

It’s go loud or go home I guess. If that’s what it takes then that’s what it takes.

. . . any major changes your developers make to the game from now on? Expect to do it under siege.

Ok, put the pitchforks down folks!
puts pitchfork and torch away

And I am not one that usually takes out the pitchfork so you know it had to have been bad to bring me out in full force, pitchfork and all. Even so, I tried to be polite when I got the pitchfork and torch out. Remember folks, be a polite, angry mob. It’s possible.

DarcShriek.5829:

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.

People are upset because they implemented first. The appropriate time to ask for community feedback on upcoming changes in generally before you roll it out to production. If you roll something out to production and then ask for feedback afterwards, that means the player base is stuck with whatever the bad decision is until it is patched.

Just because something can always be fixed later doesn’t mean you shouldn’t strive to get it right the first time, and in game development, that means at least having a bit of dialogue with your customer base. If they had come forward with a screenshot of the new system asking for any feedback or suggestions before roll out, I’m sure a ton of people would have commented about adding a custom amount feature.

And instead of blowing up, the entire thing would have been likely a complete and total non-issue.

IllegalChocolate.6938:

We had to make our point clear with a 1000+ post and countless locked threads and negative PR on various gaming websites that would scare away any potential consumers in the feature while damaging the image of the company.

It’s go loud or go home I guess. If that’s what it takes then that’s what it takes.

This sadly seems to be the case. If it isn’t an issue that blows up in mere hours, it never changes.

See: Engineer back packs, butchered Personal Story, etc etc

BTW i want my graph back too.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Ghostilocks.5312:

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

It’s nice to have this sorted out, even if it’ll take time to implement the change. But in the end, I feel that players will be patient while this change is enabled because the exchange and the customization will be great.

In the meantime, there’s candy corn to be had, kings to be back-talked, and so much more! <3 Halloween.

(And hey, I like your name a lot, btw!)

Let’s hope it doesn’t take the team until the end of Halloween to get this sorted, hopefully no one gets distracted.

Continued negativity even after Gaile’s last few statements is depressing to me. Meh.
Gaile, try not to take any of …. this… home with you.

I feel as though they should have seen this kittenstorm coming, but it’s good to see that they are atleast willing to respond to player feedback. Hopefully it doesn’t take too long to get fixed.

Azhure.1857:

Continued negativity even after Gaile’s last few statements is depressing to me. Meh.
Gaile, try not to take any of …. this… home with you.

I agree with you…
Even if I got mad about this, and still have some conflicting emotions regarding what happened, in the end, I don’t want to be angry with them.

I guess I’ll go back to the game now…

DarcShriek.5829:

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.

Have I read the forum?

Have you?

Have you read these forums since they opened up? Have you followed the development and post since well, since the beginning? History repeats itself with what works and what doesn’t work and the decision making process that happens before the design is instantiated.

Ascended gear was introduced without a prior CDI initiative or consultation with its player base on a neutral discussion ground. Guess what happened? It hit Gaming News with some insane negative PR, poor Mike O Brien took the bloody bullet for it.

The Watchwork Sprocket, guess what happened with that? exact same thing.

And now we got this. The result?

IT
HITS
GAMING
NEWS
AGAIN
AND
WITH
NEGATIVE
PR
AGAIN

The CDI initiative’s purpose is to allow everyone to collaborate on neutral grounds.

If Anet needs money from its playerbase, it needs a monetization CDI plain and simple.

We are here for the same reason Anet is.

They want to stay in business with a product they are proud of creating
We want them to stay in business with a product we are proud of supporting

The goals of the Company and Consumer is the same.

If monetization is the greasy wheel, the oil is the CDI.

Azhure.1857:

Continued negativity even after Gaile’s last few statements is depressing to me. Meh.
Gaile, try not to take any of …. this… home with you.

I agree. I think she should repost the announcement of the change one more time for visibility then close the thread. The change back is in the works and there isn’t much more to be said in this thread.

Yeah, a monetization CDI probably isn’t going to happen . . . and if it does, it’s not going to be useful because of how charged the atmosphere is around it.

You know, I really do feel for Gaile, she is, after all, just the messenger here and we have been riddling her full of our bullets. It was not Gaile’s decision to make this change and she is just communicating to us what the other devs tell her. Could she have said a couple things better? Maybe. But working in customer service myself, when a manager tells me to say a specific thing to an angry customer and I do, the customer might not like how I was told to say it or perceive it wrong. It can get tricky, but I believe that Gaile, and maybe even Anet isn’t to blame for this debacle glares at NCSoft

On a side note, I remember the good ol’ days in Guild Wars 1 when I would be playing and someone in my guild would yell out that Gaile’s in so and so a city and we’d flock to hear what she had to say. Now we’re just flinging poo at her, sorry Gaile :-(

Azhure.1857:

Continued negativity even after Gaile’s last few statements is depressing to me. Meh.
Gaile, try not to take any of …. this… home with you.

The thing is, lets say you cut off someone’s legs and they’re all like “what the hell man, you just cut off my legs!” and you’re all “yeah well, new players don’t like legs, come at me bro”. But then two days later you’re all, “Oh man, what was I thinking, here dude, have your legs back”, do you think legless guy is going to be a happy man?

You don’t get to break stuff then get applauded when you fix it. Just don’t break stuff in the first place.

(Besides, the only reason we got our legs back is because this whole thing was getting coverage in the latest issue of legs weekly, don’t fool yourself, if it was just some angry legless guys Anet would have kept ignoring it)

BobbyT.7192:

Gaile Gray.6029:

Azhure.1857:

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

Absolutely!

I’m sorry we weren’t able to answer earlier, but it took a bit of time to research how best to address player concerns. I’m glad that this is going to be resolved in a way that will give players a great deal of flexibility, customization, personalization, the whole lot.

I was just thrilled when the devs said the custom option could be done. I think my “Yaaaay!” was heard in downtown Seattle.

“YAY!!! They’ll stop yelling at meh Q_Q”

lol wish you well.

Do you, sir, have ANY idea how hard it is to get coffee stains off a monitor screen?

Grumbles while looking for a soft cotton cloth..

Azhure.1857:

Continued negativity even after Gaile’s last few statements is depressing to me. Meh.
Gaile, try not to take any of …. this… home with you.

No one is trying to be mean to Gaile for the sake of it, a lot of people were just mad at the company and she was just the unfortunate shield for the blunt force of all this. It just a reality of PR, i’m sure a lot of people wish she didn’t have to take all of of it, and talk to the developers directly.

Some are still made at Anet that something like this happen and that they need to build back up the trust that has been tarnished.
I for one don’t think something like this won’t happen again, unless they change how they communicate with the community.

The sooner we could see back the custom option the better, for all of us really.. even if the graph takes a bit longer, there is an uneasy urgency for these changes to take effect. I’m glad they listened at the fanbase but they really need to address this change as soon as possible.

BobbyT.7192:

Azhure.1857:

Continued negativity even after Gaile’s last few statements is depressing to me. Meh.
Gaile, try not to take any of …. this… home with you.

No one is trying to be mean to Gaile for the sake of it, a lot of people were just mad at the company and she was just the unfortunate shield for the blunt force of all this. It just a reality of PR, i’m sure a lot of people wish she didn’t have to take off of it, and talk to the developers directly.

Some are still made at Anet that something like this happen and that they need to build back up the trust that has been tarnished.
I for one don’t think something like this won’t happen again, unless they change how they communicate with the community.

this.
I was afraid that some other dear member of the team would have to defend this change, good thing the first answer we get after that, is about the solution.

What bothers me the most is how I felt this clouded cool things going on, like what John Smith is doing with the hunt for a new Mystic Forge recipe, which I recommend everyone giving a look at.

You all want the graph back… After this, do you REALLY believe the graph?

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

I mean, I can illustrate it right now:

IllegalChocolate.6938:

We had to make our point clear with a 1000+ post and countless locked threads and negative PR on various gaming websites that would scare away any potential consumers in the feature while damaging the image of the company.

It’s go loud or go home I guess. If that’s what it takes then that’s what it takes.

. . . any major changes your developers make to the game from now on? Expect to do it under siege.

L
O
L

You’re suppose to make changes to better improve your service not to sabotage it
You’re suppose to make changes to better serve your consumer pool not drive them off
You’re suppose to make changes to better make your business approachable

Let me provide you with some links to better paint a picture since this is a new concept for you.

http://www.businessknowhow.com/marketing/satisfaction.htm
https://blog.kissmetrics.com/true-love-with-customers/
http://www.microsoft.com/business/en-us/resources/marketing/customer-service-acquisition/keep-your-customers-happy-and-coming-back-for-more.aspx?fbid=lYVmLFyw1h_
http://www.impactbnd.com/blog/the-importance-of-keeping-your-customers-happy

Coursera also provides free business lectures available for all. Allow me to provide that for you!

https://www.coursera.org/courses?search=business

perhaps some text books would help?

http://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2/177-5773784-1183610?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=business

You are aware that they are a business right? I just want to make sure you know that.

IndigoSundown.5419:

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.

So we are just dropping the minimum gem purchase issue now for cash to gem transactions? I remember someone mentioned that credit card sales have a minimum purchase requirement and I really didn’t know what they meant. I know a little about merchant transactions and card companies but not a lot and came across this http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/credit-card-minimum-payment-purchases-law-1282.php

What I took from the article was that merchants like NCSOFT/ANET/SONY/etc. aren’t required to set minimum purchase amounts but do so to avoid all the transaction fees from numerous small transactions. So, unless I’m still missing something, Anet doesn’t have to set minimum gem purchase amounts to be 800 gems and we can have something similar to gold to gem conversion. But yeah, people don’t have the will to fight this particular industry standard. Again, unless I missed something about this minimum purchase requirement someone brought up, it doesn’t have to be this way and people could fight to change this as well.

Edit: Also, shock and awe that Anet is eating the loss by changing the system back (compromise really). Happy in a way. But still shocked.

IllegalChocolate.6938:

You are aware that they are a business right? I just want to make sure you know that.

Oh, I know they’re a business. Thanks for informing me of that (with links!). Now, shall I be clear what I mean? Let’s see, shall we . . . twice now we’ve had a case where the forum turned itself upside down, along with Reddit and elsewhere, until someone blinked. The Commander tags thing was easy, and simple, and it could almost be argued to have been a setup so we had the illusion we could change the course of events.

Now it’s worked with this, which is also a rather subdued change overall – just add a “custom” place. Simple enough change on the user-end and maybe even possibly one on the coding end.

So, what do you think will happen if their next big announcement isn’t liked by the forums? I predict we’ll see this all over again.

I buy gemcards and I do so to support Anet but I like to slowly convert gold into gems. I don’t want to dump 100g at once, but 10g is easy to forget about. Please fix it.

Acinonyx Rex.8609:

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.

1) No. She really DOESN’T have to accept ranting, to be perfectly honest. If you’re being rude and belligerent, a company has every right to throw you out. Being a customer does NOT give you carte blanche to behave as terrible of a little kitten as you want.

2) She’s a kitten community manager, not a developer. There’s absolutely nothing she can promise without the nod from someone higher up the chain. If all they say is “we’re working on something”, that’s all SHE can say.

I’m gonna miss being able to convert my remaining gems into gold after purchasing items that don’t cost multiples on 100.

Seriously ipan? Back off. She didn’t exhibit “poor behavior.” People just flipped out on her because they didn’t like the message she had to relay. That’s not poor behavior on her part. Anet does not have to tolerate rude and obnoxious people. You can be critical and not a jerk.

Dual.8953:

I’m gonna miss being able to convert my remaining gems into gold after purchasing items that don’t cost multiples on 100.

Read Gaile’s messages. You’ll be able to do that just fine. They are going to implement a “customize” button for those of us who don’t want to use the newbie default exchange.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

IllegalChocolate.6938:

You are aware that they are a business right? I just want to make sure you know that.

Oh, I know they’re a business. Thanks for informing me of that (with links!). Now, shall I be clear what I mean? Let’s see, shall we . . . twice now we’ve had a case where the forum turned itself upside down, along with Reddit and elsewhere, until someone blinked. The Commander tags thing was easy, and simple, and it could almost be argued to have been a setup so we had the illusion we could change the course of events.

Now it’s worked with this, which is also a rather subdued change overall – just add a “custom” place. Simple enough change on the user-end and maybe even possibly one on the coding end.

So, what do you think will happen if their next big announcement isn’t liked by the forums? I predict we’ll see this all over again.

Correct me if I’m wrong but I believe the consumer base will approve of changes made with utmost integrity. Actually now that I think of it I don’t ever recall a consumer backfire on any design that was made for the sake of the consumer pool when it is executed properly.

How about we try that?

I know its an outlandish concept for a lot of people but I honest to the six believe it is a working design!

IllegalChocolate.6938:

~snip~

^When crazy people get hold of a web forum.

The problem still remains about the exchange rate. I have been playing since beta and haven’t had much more than 200 gold at a time ever. The exchange rate isn’t the same in both directions. I don’t feel I get enough gold from gems and I don’t have enough gold to buy gems at the ~3 times the price of selling gems for gold. It would be more fair if the gems to gold conversion was the same as buying gems, as then i might consider selling gems for gold if i got the current rate of buying gems with gold.

nightwulf.1986:

IndigoSundown.5419:

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.

So we are just dropping the minimum gem purchase issue now for cash to gem transactions? I remember someone mentioned that credit card sales have a minimum purchase requirement and I really didn’t know what they meant. I know a little about merchant transactions and card companies but not a lot and came across this http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/credit-card-minimum-payment-purchases-law-1282.php

What I took from the article was that merchants like NCSOFT/ANET/SONY/etc. aren’t required to set minimum purchase amounts but do so to avoid all the transaction fees from numerous small transactions. So, unless I’m still missing something, Anet doesn’t have to set minimum gem purchase amounts to be 800 gems and we can have something similar to gold to gem conversion. But yeah, people don’t have the will to fight this particular industry standard. Again, unless I missed something about this minimum purchase requirement someone brought up, it doesn’t have to be this way and people could fight to change this as well.

Edit: Also, shock and awe that Anet is eating the loss by changing the system back (compromise really). Happy in a way. But still shocked.

That is correct. I’ve charged as little as 1¢ on my Visa just a few weeks ago, in fact. (Bought a cell phone for a penny on a 1-year contract via mail order).. Was either that or spend 50¢ on a stamp to send them a penny in an envelope. (just kidding, they required the credit card payment).

Mom-n-Pop shops often require a minimum charge because credit card processors have a “per charge” fee along with a “percentage of the sale” fee — Often like 25¢ per charge and 2% of the total fee. So if you charge $1.00 on your credit card, it costs that store 27¢ to run the charge – eating up any profit the store would have made on that sale. (if you charge something small, like something that costs 10¢, it would actually cause the store to LOSE money as they’d still have to pay 25¢ to allow you to charge 10¢.)

With a minimum charge of $10, it’s much easier for the store to pay the 45¢ fee (25¢ + 2% of $10 (20¢)) and still make a profit on the sale. but it’s by no means required to have a minimum – that’s up to the individual business.

IllegalChocolate.6938:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

IllegalChocolate.6938:

You are aware that they are a business right? I just want to make sure you know that.

Oh, I know they’re a business. Thanks for informing me of that (with links!). Now, shall I be clear what I mean? Let’s see, shall we . . . twice now we’ve had a case where the forum turned itself upside down, along with Reddit and elsewhere, until someone blinked. The Commander tags thing was easy, and simple, and it could almost be argued to have been a setup so we had the illusion we could change the course of events.

Now it’s worked with this, which is also a rather subdued change overall – just add a “custom” place. Simple enough change on the user-end and maybe even possibly one on the coding end.

So, what do you think will happen if their next big announcement isn’t liked by the forums? I predict we’ll see this all over again.

Correct me if I’m wrong but I believe the consumer base will approve of changes made with utmost integrity. Actually now that I think of it I don’t ever recall a consumer backfire on any design that was made for the sake of the consumer pool when it is executed properly.

How about we try that?

I know its an outlandish concept for a lot of people but I honest to the six believe it is a working design!

Was it executed properly though? i know a lot people get will get upset with anything (internet). but 1700 post in a day would not be over nothing

Gaile, thank you so much for letting us know! Adding the custom amount fixes all of my issues with it.

johnsonade.9547:

IllegalChocolate.6938:

~snip~

^When crazy people get hold of a web forum.

http://www.tentonhammer.com/editorial/guild-wars-2-gemgate

If I classify as crazy then there’s alot of crazy people in this world with vocal ability.

I wonder how long it will take PCgamer to post one? rock paper shotgun?

Gaile, thank you for your efforts in bring this too the developers.

When the change roles out we can mark this as one instance where by Arenanet did listen.

IllegalChocolate.6938:

We had to make our point clear with a 1000+ post and countless locked threads and negative PR on various gaming websites that would scare away any potential consumers in the feature while damaging the image of the company.

It’s go loud or go home I guess. If that’s what it takes then that’s what it takes.

It’s just a rule of life. I much prefer having civil discussions and believe that most disagreements can be solved this way. But when kicking up a stink is so much more effective, that’s exactly what’s going to happen.

Southern.8973:

That is correct. I’ve charged as little as 1¢ on my Visa just a few weeks ago, in fact. (Bought a cell phone for a penny on a 1-year contract via mail order).. Was either that or spend 50¢ on a stamp to send them a penny in an envelope. (just kidding, they required the credit card payment).

Mom-n-Pop shops often require a minimum charge because credit card processors have a “per charge” fee along with a “percentage of the sale” fee — Often like 25¢ per charge and 2% of the total fee. So if you charge $1.00 on your credit card, it costs that store 27¢ to run the charge – eating up any profit the store would have made on that sale. (if you charge something small, like something that costs 10¢, it would actually cause the store to LOSE money as they’d still have to pay 25¢ to allow you to charge 10¢.)

With a minimum charge of $10, it’s much easier for the store to pay the 45¢ fee (25¢ + 2% of $10 (20¢)) and still make a profit on the sale. but it’s by means required to have a minimum – that’s up to the individual business.

That’s kind of what I figured. Then the people who keep saying that cash to gems is different need to wise up. I’m glad people got what they wanted in this case, a victory is a victory. But there is still an air of hypocrisy here in the fight for monetary justice when it comes to people’s disdain for cash to gem transactions. It’s still going to be more attractive for Anet to alter in the in game economy to move people to buy gems with CC transactions. This is only one aspect of that design.

ipan.4356:

Where’s the apology on behalf of Anet for the attempt at a shameless money grab, eh Gaille?

And for your previous poor behavior?

……ArenaNet Forum Communications Team Lead……she has nothing to do with the decisions made by NCsoft or Anet, and nowhere near the top of that totem pole. Express concerns to the guys/gals that continue to lead this game…in the direction and state it’s in now (twitter is a good start, gaming sites, and NCsoft).

You don’t go after the mailman when your cell phone bill comes in wrong, go to the source.