Guild Wars 2

Here is why. Bought World 1 boom box with my leisure money. Won’t have any more for another week. World 2 boom box expires in 2 days.

Bad for you, great for them. And by great, I mean profitable. Nothing says “you must buy this now” like “available for a limited time only”. And that’s exactly why we’re getting Living Story updates every two weeks…so you have a reason to log in and (they hope) buy one of their temporarily-available cash shop items.

The thing is who of us actually are those cash bags that can dish out money every time there’s a limited time gem store item? And why wouldn’t those people dish out that money if the item wasn’t limited?

Mirta.5029:

The thing is who of us actually are those cash bags that can dish out money every time there’s a limited time gem store item? And why wouldn’t those people dish out that money if the item wasn’t limited?

Because then it wouldn’t be rare or limited and thus lose some of its “value”.

It’s kinda smart for the addicts, but what about someone just coming back to check things out? That would have been cool to get oh well, cya!

But that seems to be the theme of gw2, a temporary mmo with temporary content and what not. Seems like an odd strategy, but wtf does random old me know lol =D

It provides a sense of urgency from the consumer. If someone was considering buying an item but had not committed to it the limited time frame can play a factor in their decision.

Most items have made a comeback; Boombox 2 probably will, as well. I’m thinking it will be seen again when SAB makes a return for World 3, if not before. If you can’t wait, maybe you could exchange some gold for gems?

darkace.8925:

Bad for you, great for them. And by great, I mean profitable. Nothing says “you must buy this now” like “available for a limited time only”. And that’s exactly why we’re getting Living Story updates every two weeks…so you have a reason to log in and (they hope) buy one of their temporarily-available cash shop items.

Thi$.

All the temporary stuff is meant to milk the players for money, nothing else, Anet doesn’t care if it’s conveinent for us.

Hell they’re not gonna stop with temp content either, because they only listen to their metrics.

Pretty much everything so far has come back at least once. It’s a dissappeareance, yes, but I doubt it’s permanent.

Thats because anet wants to take advantage of impulse buying. Very basic sale trick. Just paste sales! Limited stock! and Collect the whole set! labels on stuff and more people will buy it.

Sure, some people will buy it even if it is not limited time but they will consider holding back since it will be always available. However, it is important for a commercial business to get money asap. Better early than late.

Knote.2904:

All the temporary stuff is meant to milk the players for money, nothing else, Anet doesn’t care if it’s conveinent for us.

Hell they’re not gonna stop with temp content either, because they only listen to their metrics.

Milk the players for money. Another way of saying that is to get some sales. When someone tries to sell something in the real world, when JC Penny puts something on limited time special, I don’t see people screaming that they’re trying to milk they’re customers. They are, however, trying to get customers to spend money.

You make it sound like it’s a seedy thing to do, when businesses in the real world, even your local supermarket, will run limited time specials to make something more appealing.

Milking the players indeed.

All I get is an image of an old farm hand with an Anet t-shirt, pulling the udders of us unfortunate cows. lol

Another reason these items are limited time only is that it makes you think twice about spending real cash vs in game cash. Lets say this boom box as an example was to be perm. You could say to yourself right now " I like that I am going to get it but I don’t want to spend real cash so I will just earn enough gold in game over the next month or so to buy it".

With this thinking Anet would have less of a chance to make real cash. It sucks for you that you will miss the opportunity this time around due to probs with cash in real life. But perhaps to plan ahead for future items you can just save up in game cash to have ready for something like this if it happens next time something comes out that you really want if again you don’t have the real life cash to spend at the time even if you DO want to buy it with real cash.

Vayne.8563:

Knote.2904:

All the temporary stuff is meant to milk the players for money, nothing else, Anet doesn’t care if it’s conveinent for us.

Hell they’re not gonna stop with temp content either, because they only listen to their metrics.

Milk the players for money. Another way of saying that is to get some sales. When someone tries to sell something in the real world, when JC Penny puts something on limited time special, I don’t see people screaming that they’re trying to milk they’re customers. They are, however, trying to get customers to spend money.

You make it sound like it’s a seedy thing to do, when businesses in the real world, even your local supermarket, will run limited time specials to make something more appealing.

Milking the players indeed.

All I get is an image of an old farm hand with an Anet t-shirt, pulling the udders of us unfortunate cows. lol

Have to agree with Vayne. Hell, even grocery stores have ‘limited stock’ ‘one day only’ items that once they’re out, they’re out. You snooze, you lose.

How about the mass rushes when new gaming platforms come out? You get slammed with launch day “limited quantity” “limited time bonus” etc etc when we’re expecting the new platform. It’s not any different.

and then we have….Black Friday sales! Woo there’s a day to hide at home and venture out only if you absolutely have to.

I ask myself why every time someone uses a real world example vs a video game, seriously get real.

Temporary is the staple of GW2.

Some department stores will run promotions that get people excited, for example, $25 off your order but you maybe, kinda, sort of need to spend $100 to qualify.

Or the grocery store with a week-long coupon to save a total of $10 on an item but in small text explains that you need to purchase at least 8 of the mentioned items.

When there’s a condition that has to be met, and requires you to obtain or spend more, there’s some milking going on.