Guild Wars 2

As an avid GW2 player, I want to see the game do well as I think we all do. I’m continuously disappointed with the gem store for a variety of reasons. But it’s a complicated issue with a variety of points to address ranging from impact of the economy to deviating from the company’s vision. At the end of the day however, GW2 is a real business, and I want to see it continue to succeed.

So, what’s the problem?
1. The extreme lack of actual stuff in the gemstore. I’ll divulge my idea shortly, but for example, find an axe in the gemstore. Could you? Zero? Maybe one (depending on when this post is read by you)? Why though?

2. The preview-ability of actual goods. For example, as of today 5/5/17, try to view that cute Mini Outlaw Puppy. Could you? Nope. In order to actually see what this mini pet looks like you either have to go to your wardrobe or drop the gems. What if you’re disappointed with what it turns out to be? Will that impact your future purchases? Youbetcha. Another example: The Bobblehead Laboratory. What if you’re a new player and never see this in action? Will you buy it? Probably not. It doesn’t preview as a typical item though, hmm. (More on this in my solution section).

3. The gemstore has severe issues with organization, and I’m sure that this issue alone has a significant impact on sales. If a player can’t find what they’re looking for, they’re not going to buy it.

4. The sheer lack of gem store traffic. While I don’t have the statistics that ANET has about gem store traffic, out of my several ingame surveys between active guilds (probably about 150 participants) only a handful of people said that they even look at the gemstore. Most said the only reason it’s viewed is because of it’s placement after pressing “O” to get to the Trading Post tab.

I see what you’re saying! Tell me more.
If you’ve been following along, I hope that you’re in agreement that there are issues and it absolutely could be done better. Maybe you have your own ideas of how it should be handled (throw them down in the comments below!).

There’s several steps to my solution and I’ll elaborate on them in a minute, but here are my proposed steps:
Step 1: Fill the gem store up.
Step 2: Improve preview-ability.
Step 3: Reorganize the gem store.
Step 4: Entice people to open the gem store regularly.

(PAGE 1 OF 3)

Let’s do it! Solutions

Step 1: Fill the Gem Store up
I’m not asking that ANET dedicate time to making more items because there are plenty of items, but people just do not see them. How many times do you go to the The Vaults? Most don’t even know about the unique mechanic of locking skins behind a closed gate until a certain number of new sets are added to the game opening up once locked areas. An incredibly cool mechanic but it is never explored. Check out these screenshots.
The enterance.
Inside.
While every item is obtainable. It’s very difficult especially the older the weapon sets, which cost more tickets. It’s very rare to acquire a Black Lion Chest Key and the drops from the chest are usually ticket scraps which combine eventually into actual tickets redeemable for weapons. I’m not asking for a change to this system as it provides a real RNG way to potentially acquire weapons, albeit very, very RNG. What I’m asking is that every single weapon be inserted into my revitalized Gem Store. Just as an example, new sets could cost $0.99 a weapon while older sets could cost $1.99, or whatever is deemed fit.

The second part of step 1 is do unhide items. For example, (as of writing this it’s summer) it may be summer right now, but don’t hide winter wear. Maybe summer wear could be cheaper during the season and winter wear prices increase and vice versa.

Part three is to stop limiting items. I understand that making things limited availability is the cliche cash grab technique because customers panic and pull their credit cards out, but come on. Because of how few items are in the store already, it’s incredibly annoying. That’s like going to a clothing store and they’ve removed all their shirts because they were a limited time offer. Then you have to go to another store to spend your money. In this scenario though there’s only one store, the gem store, and now you’re just annoyed. You want to replace your shirt, but there’s literally no selection, and you have no idea when or even if another item will come. Even worse, what if you’re waiting and waiting, and step away from the game a couple days and an item was added and now it’s gone. You’ve probably sworn off the gemstore now.

Step 2: Improve preview-ability
I’m going to combine features of two sections to make this happen.
1. Each tab should have a expandable list identical to the trading post that can help you search and refine categories. With the obvious addition of categories pertinent to that tab. The expandable list.
2. A preview window similar to the Style tab, but reversed. With the collapsable list noted above on the left and the preview window on the right. The preview window..
—Your typical weapons should have tabs for wielded, stowed, weapon only.
—Toys etc. would have a short repeating gif or video showcasing the item.
—Consumables would have larger image of the item with a lengthy description or it’s effect.
—Miniatures and armor would display as if viewed using the wardrobe.

Step 3: Reorganize the gem store
To start, the homepage main splash should be larger and the recent purchases info is arbitrary and unnecessary.

Building off of idea in step 2. The Subsequent pages should be easier to navigate and refine searches. Similar to how the Trading Post can search for items or narrow categories down. The gem store needs to have a better way of refining searches. It’s insane that all weapon skins, armor skins, outfits, packages, etc are lumped into the style window with absolutely no rhyme or reason. It’s like going to a store but the only thing in the store is a large metal cage in the center and they’ve put every single item in that cage.

Newer added items should be pinned to the top, perhaps two weeks before it falls in line with the rest of the items. The remaining items should be displayed by popularity.

(PAGE 2 of 3)

Step 4: Incentivize people to visit.
-They did a great job of doing this at one time giving away boosts or keys or whatever for free but only for a tiny window. People would do map wide shouts to remind people to “get their free BLC key!” Or, “free booster on the gem store!”. While these were great, people stopped checking because free items stopped coming. This is probably the most effective way to get people in there. Perhaps a gift each week, but it expires in your inventory after a week, that way players can’t indefinitely stack these items and keeps people revisiting?

-Unadvertised sales. Instead of sales that last weeks. Have one item a day go 50% off or something. Give players a reason to want to check. Black Feather Wings are a hugely popular item and no one knows when they’re coming back. I’m sure there’s a huge population of people waiting for them. If they were in the gem store continuously players would continuously buy them and if there’s a random day that, that particular item could potentially be 50% off. You know I would be right there skimming through every single day waiting for it.

Wow, that’s a lot of information. What are some potential barriers?
Now, that we’ve explored some problems and possible solutions. I’ll acknowledge they may not be perfect and maybe there are even better ways; throw those bad boys in the comments below. What are some potential barriers?
—Disagreeing with the issue addressed completely. Maybe you view the gem store as fine? My only objective was to raise awareness and be a supportive person of ANET’s endeavors.
—It’s a lot of work. I suppose if it was easy it would have been done already. You would have to have someone design it, people program it, etc. And with the upcoming living store and expansion, I’m sure there are very few hands available. While this may be true, I still see it as a valuable use of resources. Maybe it could be put off for a while until resources become available, sure.
—You disagree with my marketing ideology. Like every games, sales and limited time offers are tried and true cash grabs. GuildWars2 tried to break away from nearly every preconceived ideology of how a MMO should be managed from no subscription fees to how they distribute content. I have serious reservations that a reorganization and revitalization of their cash shop would limit their sales. But as for growth, who knows, it can’t go anywhere but up.
—You hate GuildWars :*(

Well, thanks for sticking around everyone. Please let me know what you think.

(PAGE 3 OF 3)

You’ve definitely put a lot of thought into this. I like your ideas. Treat yourself to a cup of coffee

I think the price on BLTC weapons is probably way too low.

I don’t think the Recent Purchases is arbitrary or unnecessary. It’s a quick way to purchase oft-purchased items. Also, though not complete, an easy way to see what one has purchased previously.

Good luck.

The set up of the gem store is awful. My gripes, in no particular order

1) Absurdly narrow sliders that are difficult to grab with your pointer and stay on due to the how narrow the slider is.
2) the items are strangely set up. Sometimes new items are displayed on the home page, sometimes they’re not. Returning items are captioned as new and so are new items, leading to confusion if it’s actually a new item or if it’s an old but newly, returned item.
3) people constantly complain about missing sales yet ANet makes no effort to capture that lost money. They could have an email system set up, for example, where players can check off from a list items they want notifications for and ANet sends them an email when it arrives in the gemstore (and another email when it’s due to leave).
4) the art department could spend time reading the forums about criticisms on frequently complained about design topics, such as butt capes and hats removing hair, and design less items with these features.
5) Last but not least. the look is plain ole ugly. It looks like it’s made of old, rusted metal

Just a flesh wound.3589:

The set up of the gem store is awful. My gripes, in no particular order

1) Absurdly narrow sliders that are difficult to grab with your pointer and stay on due to the how narrow the slider is.
2) the items are strangely set up. Sometimes new items are displayed on the home page, sometimes they’re not. Returning items are captioned as new and so are new items, leading to confusion if it’s actually a new item or if it’s an old but newly, returned item.
3) people constantly complain about missing sales yet ANet makes no effort to capture that lost money. They could have an email system set up, for example, where players can check off from a list items they want notifications for and ANet sends them an email when it arrives in the gemstore (and another email when it’s due to leave).
4) the art department could spend time reading the forums about criticisms on frequently complained about design topics, such as butt capes and hats removing hair, and design less items with these features.
5) Last but not least. the look is plain ole ugly. It looks like it’s made of old, rusted metal

While I didn’t include it, I totally agree. The store looks very 2012. It’s dated and its age shows.

- All of those things you mentioned I agree with and also one big thing really irks me and that is how they price stuff. When you buy gems with real money, they intentionally price everything in the store so that you either wind up with too much or too little gems (and in the case of too much, you rarely have enough left over to buy anything meaningful). That problem along with the other stuff is what turns me away from the gem store. And I’m no stranger to dropping money on a game but I haven’t bought gems in almost 3 years and don’t see myself doing it anytime soon unless they do some major changes. Things are overpriced that shouldn’t be, and mis-match priced to how gems are sold. The easiest solutions are to either adjust how many gems you get per bundle bought, offer a wider variety of gem packages, or just make the item prices more “even” so they line up better with the gem packages.
- Lastly I hate how “limited time” some items are. I can understand things like the gathering tools going through a release cycle so they can get new models in to sell, but there are cosmetic items that are not seasonal items that disappear from the store without explanation.

So this is just my gripes about it I figured I would throw into the pot. They are losing money from someone who is more than willing to throw money at them if they can just sell me something that appeals to me or do it in a way I feel my money and time are being valued.

I don’t quite understand, why you rack your brain upon something that’s game seller’s sole task. There are employees at Arenanet who are paid for this. If they cannot come up with something useful and profitable, it’s nothing we, the customer, can do about. It’s not our task. Our task as customer and gamer is to buy stuff and play the game and have fun with playing the game. The shop is already as greedy and evil as it can – it doesn’t need become even more greedy and more evil.

Silmar Alech.4305:

I don’t quite understand, why you rack your brain upon something that’s game seller’s sole task. There are employees at Arenanet who are paid for this. If they cannot come up with something useful and profitable, it’s nothing we, the customer, can do about. It’s not our task. Our task as customer and gamer is to buy stuff and play the game and have fun with playing the game. The shop is already as greedy and evil as it can – it doesn’t need become even more greedy and more evil.

Providing customer feedback is an important way of improving your business. They may have people who manage this but without any input they may see it as fine. Even I would probably throw a fiver at the game every once in a blue moon if it was maintained better.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

4) the art department could spend time reading the forums about criticisms on frequently complained about design topics, such as butt capes and hats removing hair, and design less items with these features.

All fine points, but this one stands out. It’s impossible to cater to all tastes, but there’s been a vocal minority that, given the level of engagement in the forums, indicate that’s where the biggest possible buyers might be. So yes, taking note of the compliments and complaints in the forums should guide a lot of the design teams direction.

But we did get magic carpet gliders, so . . maybe they’re listening?
(brb, leaving work to go buy glider skin)

Raziel.8072:

- All of those things you mentioned I agree with and also one big thing really irks me and that is how they price stuff. When you buy gems with real money, they intentionally price everything in the store so that you either wind up with too much or too little gems (and in the case of too much, you rarely have enough left over to buy anything meaningful). That problem along with the other stuff is what turns me away from the gem store.

I tend not to be overly bothered by the “extra” gems left over, but I know it irks people about the gem store. Where I end up having an issue is that, for example, if I have 140 gems left over, it doesn’t buy much of anything (because it’s all over-priced), but if I go to convert it to gold, I still get ripped off. It’s maybe for a few silver to 1g, but that rounding error is stealing my money. My actual, paid-for currency.
Even more insulting is that buying gems with gold is a very exact process, when it should be traded in by the hundred. It’s kind of offensive that speedrun farmers and market manipulators get what they want (precision gold→gem conversion), but paid customers get stolen from.

UnitedChaos.8364:

The Subsequent pages should be easier to navigate and refine searches. Similar to how the Trading Post can search for items or narrow categories down. The gem store needs to have a better way of refining searches. It’s insane that all weapon skins, armor skins, outfits, packages, etc are lumped into the style window with absolutely no rhyme or reason. It’s like going to a store but the only thing in the store is a large metal cage in the center and they’ve put every single item in that cage.

Newer added items should be pinned to the top, perhaps two weeks before it falls in line with the rest of the items. The remaining items should be displayed by popularity.

It’s basically the Steam/iStore/DriveThruRPG problem, in gem-store form. And they’re not even toting as many items as something huge like Steam does. But yes, the searching/finding method is awful. Some categories could probably be collapsed, and tools included to aid in finding faster.

Rauderi.8706:

It’s basically the Steam/iStore/DriveThruRPG problem, in gem-store form. And they’re not even toting as many items as something huge like Steam does. But yes, the searching/finding method is awful. Some categories could probably be collapsed, and tools included to aid in finding faster.

A poorly designed one. I’m assuming they don’t want a refining system because if they did it would emphasize how small a selection there is.

I’m not saying I called this.

But I called this.