Guild Wars 2

Why can’t we vouch Gems to back WELL SPECIFIED (community suggested/ anet approved) projects which the gw2 communities think should be completed. (More balance patches, unused trait overhauls, UI improvements, …)? That way we can directly finance the betterment of this game at an increased speed (more devs can be hired). I think it’s a good way to stop/slow the dying of of certain game modes because of neglect (devs seem to have other priorities/unaware of important grievances) and a good way to figure out what players truly find important.

example:
1) A community requests a change/overhaul somewhere.
2) Anet accepts it as a worthy project, puts it on a list in the gem store and names a price next to it. (ex: 200 000 gems)
3) Players can then vouch gems in the gem store (locking up those gems as long as they want to back the project, but still retrievable if they dont want to back it anymore) to back a project and once the total amount of gems vouched by the community reaches the Anet requested price, Anet can accept the project, remove all the (at that time vouched) gems out of the players accounts and do what was promised.

I’m not sure what ‘vouch Gems’ means, but anyone can purchase Gems to support ArenaNet.

As far as the community agreeing on what should be completed? Well, that was tried with the CDIs, and although somewhat successful in a general way, everyone pretty much had their own idea on how things should be implemented. It took a lot of time, and, since we’ve not seen it return, I’m guessing more time and resources than it was deemed worth.

I’m sure the Devs are aware of the player feedback.

Good luck.

I think it is a great idea, Satenal: don’t try to adjust every detail with Anet, just point them what we consider worthy of our money, and direct our support directly into that.
If enough people vouches for it through the game, Anet put a team to work on that. If not, you keep your gems, and Anet is still supported.

There will be a lot of rough edges to smooth before implementing something like this, but IMO no doubt it is worth the effort.

I think it’s a very bad idea for a community to “direct” a developer like that. Who would they listen to? How would they prioritize the requests? What if the ideas really are not in the best interest of the game? Who makes these decisions? And, if a request isn’t fulfilled, how is the community to respond?

If I divided correctly, 200,000 gems = $2500 USD. That’s what, a week or two pay for one person? Yeah… no, not happening. And do they hire someone with the “if the community supports you” condition?

If you want to support the developer, then buy gems with real money.

Essentially, kickstarting – this shows promise, but also has the same potential pitfalls – people not getting what they expected, delays, frustration, and it not actually coming to fruition after collecting money. Think new legendaries, all over again, except this time the people who ‘paid’ for them can 100% say/show that they put money directly towards this.

I think it would need a few things to be successful:
1) some bonus reward/title to indicate you supported, since many features/requests will be QoL type things that everyone benefits from. If it’s a request for a gemstore item – either the item itself, or a discount on it.
2) a tracker w/ a high level status, or expected delivery date.
3) the gems get taken when the ‘project’ is funded/closed, and are earmarked but not otherwise taken before – perhaps with a warning if you go to spend them (or a setting that prevents spending committed gems).
4) a suggestion area to actually collect these suggestions – we could even allow people to put in suggestions directly to get gems to show support, but there would need to be an ‘acceptance’ period when Anet says it’s something they could do and set the project, where people could re-pledge or back out.
5) most importantly, and least popular – either 100% of the gems, or some X percentage of the gems, should need to be from direct purchase. I know all gems come from purchases (or so it is said), but I don’t think we should be encouraging gold farmers and grinders to set the direction of the game with purely converted gems. The purpose is to provide new revenue to support new/additional projects, and the gems purchased for gold have effectively already been bought. Also, if this gained traction and worked with converted gems, it would likely drive up the price of gems, which means that people buying gems to get gold would buy fewer gems. It’s in Anet’s best interest for gems to be worth gold, but not be worth -too much- gold, simple fact. If someone has deep pockets and want to buy a legendary, they shouldn’t be able to do that with the lowest gem purchase.

Kickstarter is a great way for players to invest directly into games that they have interest in. I admit I back a number of projects that I found of interest and wanted to support as a gamer.

I do know some people use the ingame store to directly invest in GW2 already and will spend more when happier and less when not with game direction.

I like this idea but can see issues since I think the player base would see this more as why they are looking for more regular game expansions. Since gems can be bought also with in game gold there is also that issue that would addressed since these I assume would need to be gems purchased via cash.

The other downside here is also you could have features released that most players wouldn’t want but a few players with more disposable income would want. Resulting in features that drive people away. Business wise this may seem ok if someone just looked at the numbers but if you don’t manage your playerbase for the long haul then you end up with no players.

@cyn – Good points all. I do like your feature 4. Course I think more communication by itself would go a long way. I think they would see even more community brainstorming if they shared more that was in development. A dedicated suggestions area would also be a nice to have. Its been fun at times going back thru peoples older suggestions and seeing things that have appeared in game later. Yes maybe I am twisted. So be it.

Good gaming to all!

Kickstarter is a great way to kick start new projects, many of which don’t come to fruition.

However, it’s a terrible way to run a studio. Fan interests wax & wane, priorities change, technical issues arise (and sometimes the solutions create opportunity for changing the game fundamentally). It takes months to design, plan, test, and implement (not to mention maintain) and some ideas work well with others, some work against each other.

And even if that wasn’t true, a large part of the community wouldn’t participate for one reason or another, and so those who contribute aren’t necessarily the best ones to decide on things.

You want something? Suggest is here and encourage your friends to endorse it. Gem purchase not required to enter.