Guild Wars 2

Why? Why do you remove some item from the gemstore just to put it back later? You are playing with our mentality. You think it will make people buy it just because “oh my God, what if it is gone forever after this sale?”

Well, I think it would be much more cool for both old and new players to have all created items available ALWAYS, so we can truly CUSTOMIZE our characters whenever we want.

And why did you stop doing discounts on bank/inventory tabs?? I have a very strong feeling you will eventually put it back the second you take away the Account Jump Start bundle, so all the people who bought this bundle mainly for the sake of bank inventory, will feel like hitting their heads on against the wall.

I have lots of gems sitting on my account but somehow your selling strategy makes me feel like holding onto them as I feel like I would regret my purchase the moment you reveal some new item available.

You are selling pieces of pixels for a lots of real money and you don’t even let your customers to feel like they can trust you, that you don’t want to just rip us off.

Howgh!

Artificial scarcity.

ANet pays their bills with new account sales and cash bought gems. Items at the shop are based on cash value, never gold, and their shop policy on item availability and sales all boil down to what causes players to spend actual money on gems.

A returning item has pent up demand for it. The knowledge that it’s around for a limited time encourages fence sitters to buy now. That immediate need to buy may result in a cash purchase of gems. If an item was always around, why rush to buy it? Take time to save up enough gold to buy it via gems from the exchange. That won’t keep the lights on.

Same is true with sales. The knowledge that sales will happen will also build up demand. And as far as I know there hasn’t been a moratorium on bank tab/bag slot sales, there just hasn’t been one recently. And it’s not like they went on sale regularly.

And how many of those gems on your account you paid for with cash?

Edit: wrong there/their

Don’t worry about Anet. They earned my money – 2x …edit> ULTIMATE edition HoT.
Noktus: when i was talking about a few pixels I meant SKINS. The game is not just pixels, it is a complex program. And P.s. You forgot you actually get your eyes bleed out by mindlessly hoarding gold through farming 8 hours a day. I am not a kid to afford that.

I actually didn’t use gold for buying gems, ever.

I bought the gems, I want to spend them, Anet already has my money, but I don’t like the shop. Do you get it boys?

I’ve never understood the “it’s just pixels!” argument. It’s a virtual (non-physical) good. Saying it’s just pixels oversimplifies what the item actually is, implicitly (or explicitly) devaluing it. Unless you consider an mp3 “just a bunch of bits,” call it what it is, whatever your other feelings about virtual goods are.

I don’t think Anet’s artificial scarcity practices are heinously unfair. While it’s unclear if some items (bunny ears) are ever coming back, with most off-and-on items, it seems pretty clear that they come and go semi-regularly, even if it’s just for anniversary sales and holiday sales. (Using “sale” here like a bake “sale,” not like a Black Friday “sale.”)

There’s no technical reason why everything can’t be available all the time, but if what they’re doing is good for business, I don’t think it’s unreasonable, as long as they let people know when things are about to disappear for a while.

Also, they’ve never fully mapped out what was going on sale when, or had a regular pattern of storage discounts, so I wouldn’t blame that on the Jump Start packs.

Short version: If you like something enough for it to be worth your money/gold, buy it. If they introduce something new, it’ll probably be around long enough for you to get it then. No need to overcomplicate things.

@Mortifer

Then don’t buy gems when there isn’t anything you like at the shop. If there isn’t anything good, convert them to gold as you can always buy more gems when something comes up.

Edited to clarify who I was replying to.

Legit marketing tactic every business does.

If everything were available 24/7 a lot of people would simply have no desire/immediate need to purchase it. They would be like lazy couched potatoes; not ever bothering to buy anything because “oh, that’ll be in the gem store for agesss, I can simply save up in my own time…”

Also, this would produce a stale looking store for vets and people would complain about nothing “new” being in the gem store.

So, to get people more inclined to make immediate payments is to market a product as “limited edition”, “on sale” or simply bringing “old favorites” back because it will incentivize a consumer to buy it now or miss out.

It’s all about the money, a business needs to make money via good marketing schemes. So far this obvious one works because people splurge gems/money on returning items/limited time only items.

Why don’t you just buy stuff you like? Just because soemthing might never come back doesn’t matter if you don’t want it in the first place.

I never will buy many items from the gemstore, I just get the stuff I like and do it when its available.

ProtoJ.1736:

Artificial scarcity.

Unrelated to Black Lion store updates, but this phrase reminded me of something that’s bothering me about you guys. If anet is holding back on updates on the game in general, so that they could show it one of these days as “progress”, then beware, your customers may lose patience and may try out other games when they tire of waiting for your “updates”. It’s like a scam kickstarter project, the ones who will show updates once every two months or so, and the project goes on and on, and the backers are starting to wonder when it will finally finish, then the developers will “give in” to the demands, and they will release a kittenty product, and then they will blame the backers because they were impatient with the 3 year project. Deliver the goods anet. We can wait, as in a fine dining restaurant, we can wait, reserve for months if you will, but be sure the food you are serving us is worth the wait (I know you are not serving food, it’s just an analogy -.-).

They take items out so they can put them back on the market without a discount.

Heaven forbid a b2p game that charges nothing monthly have any business tactics so they can continue to provide service.

It’s everyone’s right to rant about whatever pet peeve they choose. I think, however, it’s not worth the energy to try to rally others to the cause on this one — ANet is just following marketing strategies and reward strategies of other games and industries.

For example, without “artificial” scarcity, people grow complacent about rewards and stop thinking of them as special. Remember when you started playing and how glad you were to get rares? Remember how welcome the change to guarantee a rare (or even two) for world bosses? Nowadays, veterans get a rare and think “oh meh.”

If anything, ANet is terrible about using artificial scarcity — if they really wanted to get people hyped about the game and make more money, they would be more predictable about a lot of this stuff. If you are going to have a one-day sale (e.g. wings), you want to let the community know about it in advance, so you get as many potential buyers to the gem shop as possible.

Regardless, people aren’t likely to change their mind about whether this “anniversary sale” should be called a “sale” or whether it’s a reasonable (or unreasonable) marketing strategy. For example, I wish ANet would do more interesting things with the gem shop and yet I don’t really care that much that they haven’t (as of yet) with this anniversary.

tl;dr on earth, everyone can hear you rant, even though it’s unlikely to change what happens next.

Illconceived Was Na.9781 – Thank you for your input. You put it right. That’s why I titled my topic ‘rant’. They do it, because they can, and they actually have to. I don’t like it, it makes me feel uneasy about my purchases, but I can’t do anything about it.

Coulter.2315:

Why don’t you just buy stuff you like? Just because soemthing might never come back doesn’t matter if you don’t want it in the first place.

I never will buy many items from the gemstore, I just get the stuff I like and do it when its available.

Not everybody can afford to buy some stuff he or she fancies the moment they put it in… sometimes it even takes several MONTHS until a person finds extra money for something so needless as “virtual goods”. You are a very lucky person that you can throw money onto your display anytime you like something. Congratulations.

One-day sales that are unannounced, like the wings, is another matter. I don’t want to go into it. It’s not like I would get some fair treatment by white knights in such discussion.

Malediktus.9250:

It pays, but abusing the weaknesses of human minds (free will does not exist) is hardly an honest business modell.

Thank you for seeing my point

I didn’t read everything posted after the op (too lazy). anyway, I’m looking to buy a character slot from november and Anet never discounted it, at least from that day. I’m sure of it because I check the tp every single day. They stopped to discount upgrades and started to put more and more vanity items since this would cause the rise of the gems price. once hot comes out: bam, everyone will probably need some sort of upgrade to their account and will be spending gems after it, while the gems price is still high.

Just to clarify: before this “manuever”, the gems price was 30g lower, and this is like 9-10 months ago. When they stopped for 15 days to put items in the gem store, the price of the gems dropped from 80g to 60g. In 15 days. That’s why they now put on the gem store a couple of skins and tools and those 2-3 bundles. And bang. Gems price is back to 79-84g.

About those packets: the one that includes 10 keys, 30 dyes, 2 bank tabs, 2 inv. slots and 15 trasm charges, imho is honest. with the 2 bank tabs / inv. slots you cover the buy price. the rest is like it’s free. and I dropped 1 black lion ticket and 4 scraps, + many rare dyes, boosters, etc.. 1 bl weapon skin is 85g worth (taxes already applied), so it’s like you have another big discount on the bundle.

I think the new kits are generally well designed, targeting the new player but still being attractive to vets. It does give players help especially with the XP Boosters but it also exposes them to two systems that may encourage them to spend more money at the Gem Shop.

First transmutation charges lets them play with the skinning system outside of buying a Gem Shop skin which has the first transmutation built in. And this goes alongside the dyes they get as well.

Second of course are Black Lion Treasure Chests. With 5 keys will likely to get one scrap, which is useless but may encourage their collection which means more key sales, as well as the BLTC true purpose as a Gem Shop sampler. They’ll get some other boosters, maybe a makeover kit, some dyes, a mini, a backpack skin, etc.

Always remember that the game’s monthly income comes from cash gem purchases so that’s why these sales at the Gem Shop are so important.

I think they should just add stuff and leave it then make more stuff and leave it ECT they there are sever times they did one day sales and I would of bought skins if they where still up on payday so they lost out on that.

Mortifer.2946:

Malediktus.9250:

It pays, but abusing the weaknesses of human minds (free will does not exist) is hardly an honest business modell.

Thank you for seeing my point

The problem is that point is totally fallacious. If free will doesn’t exist & people do things because they have no real choice, then the business can’t be dishonest since the creators of that business model had no choice in creating it.
You can’t say people’s minds have an insurmountable weakness then only apply that where it fits your argument.

I never understood why Anet does that. Its not like they have limited shelf space to store their digital items. To me it makes more sense to have everything available all the time so that the players have more stuff to buy…

There have been many times when an item that I want debuts on the gem store, but didn’t have the money that week. So the next paycheck I have some extra funds and the item i wanted is gone. So i use that money to buy something from another game. (LoL champ skins usually…) …

That money could have been Anet’s but they lost out..

It increases demand, and thus sales, of the items. That’s why they do it.

Mortifer.2946:

You forgot you actually get your eyes bleed out by mindlessly hoarding gold through farming 8 hours a day. I am not a kid to afford that.

I actually didn’t use gold for buying gems, ever.

I bought the gems, I want to spend them, Anet already has my money, but I don’t like the shop. Do you get it boys?

I understand your frustration, but you have to realize that there’s a fair chunk of the player base who does use gold to buy gems, ANet’s strategy of flash sales and artificial scarcity is to target a segment of those players who don’t hoard gold/grind gold quickly to encourage them to buy gems with cash instead. Leaving store items up permanently would mean that segment has time to gather gold to buy gems, thus losing them as a potential source of revenue.

Sure, it would be nice if everything was up all the time and ANet could just subside off the subset of players who voluntarily roll their credit cards, but that really isn’t possible unless the company is completely self-contained and self-publishing with no shareholders to placate every month.

Welcome to sales. Fear of Loss (even temporary loss) is a strong push tactic.

With the new sales of today, am I the only one
1) thinking that the price of gems is reaching a scam level and
2) wondering how anet can be at loss or near it with the price increasing by something like 47500% from the release of the game?

Ciome.1075:

With the new sales of today, am I the only one
1) thinking that the price of gems is reaching a scam level and
2) wondering how anet can be at loss or near it with the price increasing by something like 47500% from the release of the game?

Gem prices have not changed since release.

The conversion rate of Gold to Gems is dependent entirely on player conversions. .

DarksunG.9537:

Mortifer.2946:

Malediktus.9250:

It pays, but abusing the weaknesses of human minds (free will does not exist) is hardly an honest business modell.

Thank you for seeing my point

The problem is that point is totally fallacious. If free will doesn’t exist & people do things because they have no real choice, then the business can’t be dishonest since the creators of that business model had no choice in creating it.
You can’t say people’s minds have an insurmountable weakness then only apply that where it fits your argument.

You dont seem to understand it. It is as if you said there should be no law and order system just because murdering someone was not your free will. There is something called “nudging” which influences what your brain (nothing more than a powerful organic computer) will do, similar to actio and reactio in basic physics.

These Gem Shop sales always spike the exchange rate since it’s movement is based on the balance of Gold vs Gems added to the exchange by players. Players convert their gold hoard into gems to buy these items, especially popular returning items like Kasmeer’s Staff and the White Wings Skin. In the past the rate quickly drops once the sale is over as players buy gems and convert them into gold.

Right now it’s about 12.7 gold per $1€ of gems. A $25 Gem Card is worth around 320 gold.

CandyHearts.6025:

Heaven forbid a b2p game that charges nothing monthly have any business tactics so they can continue to provide service.

That argument went out the window the moment they started doing expansions. This behavior is more something you’d expect from a F2P. They’ll never get a $1 from me for gem store nonsense.

Mortifer.2946:

You are selling pieces of pixels for a lots of real money

I’ve never understood this type of logic. I’m a writer, but I don’t sell “pages with letters on them.” I sell stories that takes months to write, and several months more to edit into a somewhat decent book I can be proud of. Same goes for ANet. They outfits in the store aren’t just pixels. They are hours and hours of hard labor. Isn’t that worth a few bucks, if you like said outfit? For that matter, isn’t every game just a bunch of code and pixels put together?

SHM.7628:

CandyHearts.6025:

Heaven forbid a b2p game that charges nothing monthly have any business tactics so they can continue to provide service.

That argument went out the window the moment they started doing expansions. This behavior is more something you’d expect from a F2P. They’ll never get a $1 from me for gem store nonsense.

Yet another type of logic that’s completely lost on me. GW2 is a B2P game, so ANet isn’t “allowed” to make expansions? Really? Or do you mean they can make all the expansions they want, as long as they sell them piece by piece in the gem store? Sorry, I just don’t understand what you are trying to tell us. No offense.

Guild Wars 2 requires a one-time purchase, and that’s it. Now you can play all you want for free. Now it’s been three years since launch, and they are finally making an expansions. How on earth is that a bad thing, just because they have a gem store? I… don’t… get… it… scratches head Are you saying you’d prefer if we never got new areas, never got a new profession, never got masteries, never got specializations and so on? Or should they sell all that individually in the gem store? Nevermind, I’m too tired to try to make sense of this logic of yours.

Edit: What about games with a subscription, like WoW? Is it ok that they charge a lot of money every month so you can play AND charge extra for expansions?

If people are willing to pay for it, it isn’t a rip off.

I disagree, also, with OP re: having all items always available. I think it would make everything less exciting were everyone able to get it.

Ciome.1075:

With the new sales of today, am I the only one
1) thinking that the price of gems is reaching a scam level and
2) wondering how anet can be at loss or near it with the price increasing by something like 47500% from the release of the game?

In case you didn’t realize it, gems that you buy with gold are from players buying gems with real money and selling the gems to other players for gold. If the gem prices go up, it’s because there are more people buying gems with gold than players selling gems to get gold. In other words, there are less gems for you to buy with gold and their price goes up.

ANet set up the gold to gems system at launch with a pool of gold and gems to start with but after that any new gems and gold going in or out of it are from players.

I’m fine w their strategy. As long as in this 21 day same thing they dont discount the stuff they recently bundled negating that savings or after putting up those molten tools days later discount another version to 700 gems or something making people regret buying those.

Sounds like they are marketing their items perfectly. It doesn’t matter if they discount stuff now or later or bundle things now or later or if things are a better deal later on than now. Any store can do this, GW2’s gemstore is no different.

You need to weigh your options carefully. If you don’t like the idea that something you buy may go no sale later, then don’t buy it period. They can’t take the money out of your wallet. As long as people keep buying stuff, they will continue to do it.

It’s there marketing strategy. They feel that creating an artificial demand makes quick decision purchases.

On the down side: Many times I wanted an item now and would have bought it, but by the time it comes back I lost interest.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Ciome.1075:

With the new sales of today, am I the only one
1) thinking that the price of gems is reaching a scam level and
2) wondering how anet can be at loss or near it with the price increasing by something like 47500% from the release of the game?

In case you didn’t realize it, gems that you buy with gold are from players buying gems with real money and selling the gems to other players for gold. If the gem prices go up, it’s because there are more people buying gems with gold than players selling gems to get gold. In other words, there are less gems for you to buy with gold and their price goes up.

ANet set up the gold to gems system at launch with a pool of gold and gems to start with but after that any new gems and gold going in or out of it are from players.

I know how the system works, don’t worry. What I’m saying is: let’s think about the gems like they’re petroleum. When the “pool” was almost “empty” since the Mid East nations were not willing to sell it anymore to Europe, prices raised. This is somewhat similar to how gold/gems work imo. So, when the price was exaggeratedly high, nations (aka Anet) reduced the cost for the citizens (aka us) by imposing a reference price.

What I mean is: I’m not saying that the system was designed in a bad way, but do we have to expect that the price of gold to gems will raise more and more and more again without control over the years? Gems are already pretty expensive now imo, and I wouldn’t like to log in during halloween 2018 (3 years to arrive to 95g/400gems, and I’m doing the example 3 years ahead) and find a price like 180-190g/400gems.

BattleCat.2098:

Mortifer.2946:

You are selling pieces of pixels for a lots of real money

I’ve never understood this type of logic. I’m a writer, but I don’t sell “pages with letters on them.” I sell stories that takes months to write, and several months more to edit into a somewhat decent book I can be proud of. Same goes for ANet. They outfits in the store aren’t just pixels. They are hours and hours of hard labor. Isn’t that worth a few bucks, if you like said outfit? For that matter, isn’t every game just a bunch of code and pixels put together?

SHM.7628:

CandyHearts.6025:

Heaven forbid a b2p game that charges nothing monthly have any business tactics so they can continue to provide service.

That argument went out the window the moment they started doing expansions. This behavior is more something you’d expect from a F2P. They’ll never get a $1 from me for gem store nonsense.

Yet another type of logic that’s completely lost on me. GW2 is a B2P game, so ANet isn’t “allowed” to make expansions? Really? Or do you mean they can make all the expansions they want, as long as they sell them piece by piece in the gem store? Sorry, I just don’t understand what you are trying to tell us. No offense.

Guild Wars 2 requires a one-time purchase, and that’s it. Now you can play all you want for free. Now it’s been three years since launch, and they are finally making an expansions. How on earth is that a bad thing, just because they have a gem store? I… don’t… get… it… scratches head Are you saying you’d prefer if we never got new areas, never got a new profession, never got masteries, never got specializations and so on? Or should they sell all that individually in the gem store? Nevermind, I’m too tired to try to make sense of this logic of yours.

Edit: What about games with a subscription, like WoW? Is it ok that they charge a lot of money every month so you can play AND charge extra for expansions?

Clearly we disagree and that is fine. MMOs have changed greatly in the past years. They are moving away from subscription models. Many that have subs go F2P in a couple of years.

Frankly, I like the B2P model. It keeps the riff raff out. However, if I buy the game and expansions then I expect the in game goodies to come from gameplay not a gem store. I’m not opposed to them selling a few convenience items but that should be the extent of it. The hero skill pack of GW1 is a perfectly reasonable example of this.

I think they are price gouging for what they are selling anyway. They sell RNG keys and time lapse purchases like bank golems and boosters. How you defend this behavior for a B2P is beyond me. You don’t understand my logic? Buddy, I don’t understand yours!

Just my 2 cents.

B2P pays for the game’s initial development and not the day to day bills.

I just wanted to point out that studies have shown that as far as our brains our concerned, Virtual and Physical are identically rewarding.

@SHM if you think paying keeps the “riff raff” out then you’ve obviously never played WoW.

Terrible communities are nothing to do with the price.