Just add a 1, 25, 50, 100, 200 option and it will be all fine. I for one buy charges to change my look every now and then and im not gonna buy 400 gems when i only need 150
I will say this. I do not often use the currency exchange, but the ONLY time I would is in cases where what I want is, say, 400 gems, and I have 360 left over from previous purchases and need 40 gems to top me off. I would NEVER buy 400 gems or more in bulk, I have dollars for that. Just let people enter in however many gems they need, and let them know how many gold that would cost, problem solved.
“If you spent as much time working on [some task] as
you spend complaining about it on the forums, you’d be
done by now.”
I mean, I get that every other company does crap like this. And I know WHY they pull crap like this (hint; because it makes them a kitten-ton of money from people who just want to buy stuff and compel them to buy something ELSE down the road).
But this company was supposed to be different. That was your entire hook when you started this game, that you were going to do things differently. I have no doubt this “genius” idea was from some executive who wanted to encourage IRL money purchases by making the entry point higher than new players would likely have.
Nothing in video games deserves anger and rage, but it definitely deserves a lot of disappointment. You’re not seeing another cent from me, either, Arena.net.
You know in psychology where they present you with the worst options and allow you to remove one option thus making you accept the bad options?
I think Anet is doing this to us to make us accept these changes. Like the NPE, they lowered the elite skill from 40 to 30 and made the skill challenges account bound. This reduced the flame from the forums and made people gradually accept the NPE (judging from the forum posts).
For this gem conversion, I guess they will likely introduce smaller increments to accept this and still would not revert to the previous system where you can say convert my gold to 1 gem.
TL:DR – I hope there would be no compromise this time, just revert it to the previous system
What I don’t understand is what exactly was confusing about the old system? We were new players back in 2012 and when I joined this game nothing was confusing about it! NOTHING! That’s right, we were all new players once and never had problems! Did MMO players suddenly became DUMB or what?! No. This is just a way to force people spend more gold on gems. That means we run out of gold faster and we’re more likely to spend real money to get gold / gems. Don’t even try to sugarcoat it. This is a new low in GW2’s history. I am utterly disappointed.
You guys have GOT to start giving veteran players escape hatches out of these newbie-friendly UIs and user experiences. Escape hatches need to become a first-order concern.
I can understand that the changes have been made and why but the timing in my opinion is fairly poor since we have all been waiting a long time for content and finally when we get it it is the same as last year with some added bugs and then this comes on top of that. To me that can be forgiven.
But what I -do- mind very much is the added collector skritt with his need for wrappers. People go to visit him and are directly pointed towards the gemstore with a 25 gem candy to buy so they can use it and hand in the wrapper that is left without -clearly- mentioning that there are also other ways to get these wrappers and what exactly they can get with them. This means that unsuspecting players are more or less tricked into buying gems. Not only that but far more than the initial 25 gems.
Changes I would like to see:
Now I am -okay- with the change but there still need to be some adjustments. For instance the gem to gold conversion is far better of being standardised by the amount of gems instead of by the amount of gold because otherwise people are going to be left with single gems they can never use.
Ofcourse I would also appreciate if we could buy gems in bulks of 100 but I suppose that isn’t about to happen.
My suggestion: Have a button marked “Set custom amounts”, that takes you to the old screen. Add a “Return” button to the old screen to take you back to the new one.
My position: I rarely buy gems with gold. I’m casual, and rarely have much gold. I blow it on gear for my alts, or getting skins in-game. Right now, I actually have less than 18 gold. But I often exchange a few gems for gold to get that last little bit I need to get something I want from the market. It works (worked) great for me. Sometimes, I’d just take any leftover gems I had when it was a small amount, and exchange them all. Now, I can’t do any of that.
My rant: This is a very clear marketing ploy, it’s online marketing 101. This is hardly the first place I’ve seen it, and I’ve never really liked it but I’ve dealt with it when I had no other choice. The problem here is, I DID have a choice, until it was taken away. This part of the game has been made more hostile and predatory towards the players. There is no denying this, even if it did come with a cleaner exchange screen. (And for what it’s worth, the new exchange screen is pretty kitten nice. I like the totals that show at the top.) People are upset, not just at this but at this on top of all the other distressing changes that have been made in the last year. Anyone surprised by the backlash this instigated really isn’t paying attention.
With due respect,
Palador
Pretty much summed up my thoughts perfectly. Good suggestion as well.
Well, I have plenty gold. The game used to throw it at you. I can still farm more than a bit, but not the ez farm mode of recent daze.
But I digress. I do gold to gem for impulse buys. I also buy $10 jewels per month as a vote of confidence in the game. I would like to pay $15, but the increments are $10 – $20.
I do love this game. Best ever for serious casual play (heh!)
But if I didn’t have a head start, these changes might make me reconsider my purchase. To be honest I don’t have any idea how all of these NPE events are intended to retain new subscribers.
Transparent attempt to squeeze more money out of the player base.
-10/10 don’t want.
Honestly it’s like they just sit there and go “Hey, you know what would be funny?”
And stop treating new players like they can’t fill a bucket with water, using them as an excuse for idiotic decisions isn’t fair to them.
Yep, it is incredibly insulting. They’ve begun using the new player experience to excuse every bad move. New player dumb, new player smash!!
Anet, new player doesn’t mean moron. If for some reason typing out gold to get a gem amount was confusing then all you needed to do was allow the player to type out a gem amount and get a gold cost.
1/10 bad feature is blatantly designed to milk money.
You know in psychology where they present you with the worst options and allow you to remove one option thus making you accept the bad options?
I think Anet is doing this to us to make us accept these changes. Like the NPE, they lowered the elite skill from 40 to 30 and made the skill challenges account bound. This reduced the flame from the forums and made people gradually accept the NPE (judging from the forum posts).
For this gem conversion, I guess they will likely introduce smaller increments to accept this and still would not revert to the previous system where you can say convert my gold to 1 gem.
TL:DR – I hope there would be no compromise this time, just revert it to the previous system
Agreed. I was already telling myself that I would be happier if they would have increments of 100.
You’re right. We shouldn’t settle for anything less than at least as good as it was before.
Adding my voice to the echos of the wailing masses.
A UI update for the gem store is fine, but removing the ability to trade for small increments of gems was not only unnecessary, but rude to your established players.
I tell you what though, give players the ability to post gems to the trading post directly for whatever amount and increment they wish, and we’ll see which players prefer.
Yeah, NOT a fan of this new system. This plays to Anet’s favor of always having a oddball gem surplus in limbo that is not able to be used, particularly so if you buys gems to convert to gold. PLEASE revert it back to the old system and let us be able to specify and /or round up our gem purchases to the desired amounts needed for purchases.
The new players are just going to have to utilize their grey matter a little more and figure it out like we all did 2 1/2 years ago. Stop coddling them and irritating your established players.
It’s not hard putting a button where you can specify a custom amount right? …right?! Don’t give some BS that “it’s harder than it seems”, no it isn’t and do not take advantage that the general masses don’t know how to code.
The new currency exchange WOULD be fine, if it was a new sub tab. Adding the quick exchange is cool and all, but it forces players to convert 70-80g to 400 gems just to buy a booster, phantom hood, or a Foil-Wrapped Candy… How do we know if we are buying gems during the peak or not? Oh right, we can’t because the price graph is gone…
Look, I know that you want to make the game as comprehensive as possible, and I completely understand that desire, but you’re taking this thing to the point where it’s insulting even to a simpleton’s intelligence.
I’ve moved past the ridiculous new leveling system—mainly because I’ve already maxed out all of my characters and couldn’t really find a reason to complain—but what exactly was so damn complicated about the currency exchange that you had to reduce the whole thing to a single-click transaction? At least put a bloody slider on there for those of us who would like a little more freedom. Or an extra “Custom Amount” button at the bottom that displays a slider and/or an input field where you can manually enter the amount in a similar fashion as before.
Whoever is making these decisions in your team needs to take a step back and realize that oversimplifying everything can be just as bothersome to your players as making things overly complicated. I’m not a 10-year old kid or handicapped (which is not to say that there’s anything wrong with that). I don’t need you to hold my hand every step of the way and spoon-feed me the content. I’d much rather have some room to breathe, thank you.
I know that this is a minor gripe and in the end this particular change won’t affect much, but as it seems to be a trend that has started even before the release of the game and is now reaching new heights, I felt like I should say something.
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.
Have both systems, just make the one vets used more hidden, you’ve already got the work done for it.
Also for the new player experience, add a 100 gem increment.
Currently most of the playerbase views this change as a terrible attempt at a long term money grab.
Sylvari Elementalist – Mystree Duskbloom (Lv 80)
Norn Guardian – Aurora Lustyr (Lv 80)
Mia A Shadows Glow – Human Thief (Lv 80)
I would also point out that the removal of the exchange history graph like this is going to be a problem. There’s already been accusations of ANet playing around with the exchange rate. Given the way they removed the graph, that’s only going to get worse. It honestly looks like something’s being hidden, it’s only natural that people will suspect that.
But I digress. I do gold to gem for impulse buys. I also buy $10 jewels per month as a vote of confidence in the game. I would like to pay $15, but the increments are $10 – $20.
My local GameStop and Target both sell $15 gem cards. Try checking places like that, and you might find what you want.
Sarcasm, delivered with a
delicate, brick-like subtlety.
As someone, a consumer who spends regularly on the gem store, I find this change inconvenient for me.
I ask that I be given the options I am used to and I ask that I be given the initial products that I had agreed to support with my dollar to begin with.
actually forget it, warframe has an archwing update tommorow and I’ll just go play and spend my money on that instead..
you know…
THE GAME THAT HAS GUILD HALLS AND GVG? OOOOOOOOOOH!!!!!!!
Several other people have brought it up, but the lowest amount of gems available to buy with gold being 400 does not make sense with this supposedly being for new players, as new players aren’t generally going to have that kind of money. The explanations given for this don’t exactly add up…
As it stands right now I can click to buy 9 gems 250 times and get 2250 gems, or I can click once and get 1865 gems. That is called Highway Robbery in most circles.
I have 800 gems left over from a gift card I got last Christmas, I wont be asking for them again, that is for sure. I will never buy gems. and I wont convert my gold to gems either. Thank you Anet.
No, you’re confused. You can click to SELL 9 gems 250 times (and get 250 gold). I had to figure it out too the first time I looked at it; the left hand side lets you SELL gems FOR gold, the right side lets you BUY gems WITH gold.
11 Pages in the space of a few hours is quite a feat, and no doubt it will continue to grow. That is a very fast rate of growth. Perhaps that is a metric Anet would care to analyze?
Bigger complaint topics (e.g. My Greatest Fear), have taken weeks to reach such a level. That is to say nothing of the monster threads over at Reddit. All overwhelmingly negative. These are the places your precious new players go to look into the game before buying it, as well as word of mouth and reports from gaming news outlets, of which some may well pick up this story at some point. Keeping current players happy is a means to get new players in. Perhaps something for Anet to consider.
This is just ridiculous, and despite Anet devs saying there is no guarantees of changes being made (as they told to Gaile who kindly passed it on to us), if there are no changes, GW2 the game, and Anet the company could suffer. Just seems like we’re rolling into one kitten-up after another. Somebody get behind the wheel and put the brakes on.
Divinity’s Reach is home to some top-tier criminal masterminds.
The kind of people who will set an orphanage on fire after locking themselves inside it.
11 Pages in the space of a few hours is quite a feat, and no doubt it will continue to grow. That is a very fast rate of growth. Perhaps that is a metric Anet would care to analyze?
Bigger complaint topics (e.g. My Greatest Fear), have taken weeks to reach such a level. That is to say nothing of the monster threads over at Reddit. All overwhelmingly negative. These are the places your precious new players go to look into the game before buying it, as well as word of mouth and reports from gaming news outlets, of which some may well pick up this story at some point. Keeping current players happy is a means to get new players in. Perhaps something for Anet to consider.
This is just ridiculous, and despite Anet devs saying there is no guarantees of changes being made (as they told to Gaile who kindly passed it on to us), if there are no changes, GW2 the game, and Anet the company could suffer. Just seems like we’re rolling into one kitten-up after another. Somebody get behind the wheel and put the brakes on.
They’ll fix this metric when they start deleting and infracting posts for being too critical and not worshiping the great anet gods.
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.
Suggestion:
Small checkbox on that page: “Toggle Advanced Mode.” Advanced Mode is the old mode.
That way current users do not lose any functionality and new users won’t be confused. They click “Advanced Mode” at their own peril and get something more advanced showing as a result. Uncheck the box to make it go back to your new system here.
Bonus: Make it so you have to check the box each time you load the page. Yes, it will be a slightly annoying step for experienced users, but it would guarantee that your proverbial “newer player” doesn’t get stuck in Advanced Mode. Tabbing to something else and back in would just show the new mode.
I don’t know who these “new players” are that they catering to, but it sure as hell sounds like they’ll have to start thinking of adding a feature that reminds these people to breathe “in” and “out” soon enough because it sounds like they seem to lack even basic human skills.
When this kind of system with 400 gem increments goes in at the same time as an item that costs 700, I kind of have to wonder if it’s outright malice or if the guys who set the prices and the guys who “streamlined” the conversions aren’t talking.
And honestly, neither is a comforting thought.
While I can understand that for some players the old system might have been confusing, there’s no reason it couldn’t have been kept alongside some pre-decided chunks of gems, like we have now. And the graph that shows the highs and lows of prices. This would give everyone more options instead of removing them.
So in way of suggestions: Restore graph, restore custom pricing/conversion, keep some presets for newbies or the lazy to use. Congratulations, you’ve streamlined it and everyone is happy.
This is horrendous. The old system wasn’t confusing AT ALL. With the new system I’m confused about if I’m paying 75 gold to get 400 gems or if I’m paying 400 gems to get 75 gold…this is terrible. The old system worked perfectly. I don’t know what all this rounding talk is about, whenever I used it I put in the exact amount of gems I wanted and the exact amount of gold needed came up…how is that confusing?
This change makes it harder to buy gems with gold (and vice versa), which was a core selling point/tenet of the game at launch. Quality of life change means making it easier for players to do simple tasks – not harder.
If I want to exchange 500 gems for gold, I don’t want it to say ‘nope, only 431 or 676 gems’. (For example)
The other way around, if I want to buy 200 (or 500) gems with gold, I don’t want it to say ’nope, you can buy 400 or 800 gems (For example)
If you must keep this new interface to prevent new players becoming confused, fine. At least add an extra tab for ‘the veterans’ for custom exchanges, just like the old system. This way, both parties are happy.
I don’t understand this whole confusing to new players thing: Weren’t we all new players once (both to gw2 as well as the gaming world in general)? Didn’t we figure out everything as we went? What’s stopping new players from going the same road as we did? Why do they have to be fed everything with a baby spoon? Also, just an fyi, not everyone like to be spoonfed everything, that includes newer players. Some people like that curious feeling of starting a new game and learning the ropes as they experience new thing, crazy I know.
While I’m not surprised by Gail’s reaction to this, I think the forum’s response would be obvious. After its reaction to all the other NPE changes, it’s clear that this would never go over well and just add more fuel to the fire that is now burning brighter against the game. Given that, to ask for suggestions now seems a little disingenuous. Anet should have asked fro suggestions before implementing the system. They would have avoided angering their customers and come up with a better solution.
Unfortunately, the approach we are seeing here is one a company would take if they have no intention of making the changes players are suggesting. I do believe that this is probably an order from higher up at NCSoft, and Anet just has to deal with it also. Gail is simply doing her job and telling us what she’s been told to, while the execs hope that the rage will die down and GW2 won’t implode suddenly like so many games that got really greedy before it.
What this reminds me of is the old gift card racket, where they wouldn’t cash out the change. So you’re stuck with a couple cents on the card and no way to get it out.
And who profits from that?
I know no one cares, but I’m holding off logging in until this gets resolved. I haven’t liked the other for new player changes, but this is ANet making a blatant grab for my wallet.
Remember — you need 75 gold to convert at the lowest levels — new players don’t have 75 gold — right there something stinks of treason. Either ANet is dishonest or stupid…
11 Pages in the space of a few hours is quite a feat, and no doubt it will continue to grow. That is a very fast rate of growth. Perhaps that is a metric Anet would care to analyze?
Bigger complaint topics (e.g. My Greatest Fear), have taken weeks to reach such a level. That is to say nothing of the monster threads over at Reddit. All overwhelmingly negative. These are the places your precious new players go to look into the game before buying it, as well as word of mouth and reports from gaming news outlets, of which some may well pick up this story at some point. Keeping current players happy is a means to get new players in. Perhaps something for Anet to consider.
This is just ridiculous, and despite Anet devs saying there is no guarantees of changes being made (as they told to Gaile who kindly passed it on to us), if there are no changes, GW2 the game, and Anet the company could suffer. Just seems like we’re rolling into one kitten-up after another. Somebody get behind the wheel and put the brakes on.
You’re wrong. Apparently new players skip the forum altogether and go directly to the support ticket system.
And in numbers great enough to get major features of the game changed.
I’m personally just confused. Do they not want communication with their monetization choices? I feel like a CDI on monetization needs to happen.
If the goal here is to increase revenue average per head why can’t they just like… I dunno… make design choices that people agree with so people feel more secure about voting with their dollar.
I don’t mean to point out the obvious here but generally the most secure way for a company to earn revenue is through a firm and sturdy consumer base. I mean just look at lineage, it’s NCSoft’s strongest contender and its not even a 3D game.
Unfortunately, the approach we are seeing here is one a company would take if they have no intention of making the changes players are suggesting. I do believe that this is probably an order from higher up at NCSoft, and Anet just has to deal with it also. Gail is simply doing her job and telling us what she’s been told to, while the execs hope that the rage will die down and GW2 won’t implode suddenly like so many games that got really greedy before it.
I have absolutely no doubt it is. However that still doesn’t explain the lack of communication prior to releasing it. Creating a simple thread like: “Hey guys, we have decided to switch the gold/gem conversion to fixed amounts instead of free conversions. How do you think this should be implemented?”
This would have eliminated the vast majority of the shock and rage posts in this thread.
Like really? how am i suppose to get rid of these gems? i don’t like having leftovers gems after getting what i want from gem store? Either let me sell or buy the amount of gems i want,……. or sell me something worth 8 gems :P
