Guild Wars 2

I worked at a company whose president gave a speech to the workers that was something like, “We don’t make a little profit from each <widget> we sell. We only start to make a profit after we sell enough <widgets> to cover all of annual costs. Until we do that, we are operating at a loss everyday.”

I’m sure NCSOFT is carefully looking at cash shop metrics quarter to quarter, hence the March and June sales push, and as long as they are seasonally stable they won’t interfere with ANet’s long rage plans.

Nerelith.7360:

Galen Grey.4709:

Like others have said the game needs to financed somehow so the question is what they’re doing fair or unfair?

Some have claimed welcome to a non subscription game… so lets analyse this statement. They never release more then 1 armor/costume set a month. How much does it cost? something like $9? nearly 1/2 a subscription not just that but they dont release a new one every month so you’ll get some free months to. Doesnt seem unfair to me.

Some claim it should bearnable in game, not sure if the issue is cost or if its because they’d like to have goals to work towards. If its the former then well like we’ve been saying the game needs to be financed somehow. That being said you got the option to play the game make the gold and use conversion to buy it without spending any real life money. if its the later every single release had some new skins that are earn able.

At the end of the day think about the greater picture, what are you asking for exactly? a subscription that has you pay twice as much every single month? A cash shop that includes nothing you’d like to buy? Everything has its pros and cons.

The current system is a balance between all of these. You dont have to pay a penny if you dont want to but if you still want the nifty costume you’ll need to pay more of the game. You dont have time / dont want to pay enough to get the nifty costume. Pay a portion of a regular subscription and get it anyway while at the same help financing the game we love. You dont want to either of these? that fine you will not have any disadvantage by not owning this costume. You want ingame rewards, there are some of those as well.

Its not perfect of course, not saying it is… The price for this balance is you cannot bet the satisfaction of having this costume as a trophy for beating this content. There is the goggles and scarf that which is obviously not the same thing but we all know its absolutely impossible to have everything in life.

I would not have any issues with the current system, except for one.

Being able to buy in-game gold with Gems.

It places the developer in a position where they have a conflict of interest.

There will, and have been times when the developer has to decide whether to do what is best for the in-game economy… and what is best for gem sales, or gem to gold conversions.

While no one can prove that they always or even usually or mostly go on the side of " well it’s best for gem sales so let’s do this, even if it hurts the in-game economy" as far as i am concerned, there is an appearance that the main motivating force is " it’s best for gem sales."

So while some can come up with what appear to be good “in0game world” reasons for nerfing the gold and component drops of “open world” farming, and Diminishing returns, the only thing I can go by is my experience.

My experience in open world component and gold farming is not enjoyable.

Now while the only criteria is not " Am I having fun?" I need to ask…" is my fun being saccrificed for a greater good?" I have to know, the greater good is " the in-game economy" then I can accept that my fun is being saccrificed for something worthwhile to me.

Unfortunately, since the developer also sells Gold for gems. And they have as one of the motivating influences." Increase Gold sales… and sell gold." That conflict has me wondering.

The moment of concern, that my fun may be being saccrificed " For Anet’s Bottom line." is enough for me to " watch… and monitor." while seeking other venues for my pleasure.

they dont just sell gems for gold though they sell gold for gems too which works in reverse. ergo with the same argument they’ll sacrificing profits for player enjoyment.

I personally dont see this as being the case. They did plenty of things for the good of the game which were bad for their bottom line (crafting off bank, wallet, dyes made tradeable) and they have stuff in gem shop that by no way they’re pushing people to buy like say XP booster.

You dont need to push anything in my opinion for stuff like gems→gold to sell because plenty of people want things now and are willing to pay to get things now.