gem store mini pets price complaint
Same old story, the gem store is way overpriced as soon as you figure out how much cash it is. I would spend a lot more in the store if I felt there was value for money, but as most things are such a rip off I keep my money in my wallet.
Some people choose to pay it which is why they charge that price.
/shrug
All businesses will raise a price to the level they get the maximum number of dollars for the item. Just because ANet is a game and selling pixels doesn’t mean they won’t do the same. They are a business like any other business and their goal is to make as much money as they can while putting out a game that (hopefully) satisfies as many of their customers as they can.
The gem store department is undoubtably run by its own group of people with marketing degrees and with experience in in game stores. The people you consider as being in charge, the Devs, are unlikely to have anything to do with it. It’s not their area of expertise.
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
ANet may give it to you.
It’s just the formula. Some games, especially in western f2p’s, believe it’s more profitable to sell items to the few that are willing to pay a whole lot (compulsively) compared to selling it for less to the many. Common, they run lab rats through mazes to figure this stuff out, it’s just the way it is now, the in-thing since the rise of f2p’s in the west. Yes, gw2 is suppose to be a b2p, but they put off paid expansions so this is what we got, at least since launch.
It’s not quite as straight forward as you described it Jia Shen, and there is a simple way to check. You can go to the minis page on the wiki and click on individual minis to see the price of the mini or the pack:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Miniature#Temporarily_available_miniatures
Most of the 3-packs actually cost 500 gems each and the first individually purchased minis (the Wintersday ones) were 350 gems each, but you could also get 3/5 of those free in-game.
Having said that I do agree that the individual ones are very over-priced compared to the packs, and especially now they seem to be moving away from selling packs at all (except when previous ones are re-released).
This more than anything else (even absurd account bound RNG drop minis) makes me seriously think about giving up collecting them every time a new one is released. Or at least restricting it to ones available in-game.
I’m very willing to spend money on this game, but not if I don’t feel like the items are worth it. Now admittedly even £4 (approximately 400 gems) isn’t a lot in general terms, but for a novelty item that only exists inside a game it’s pretty expensive.
Danielle Aurorel, Dear Dragon We Got Your Cookies [Nom], Desolation (EU).
“Life’s a journey, not a destination.”
“Life’s a journey, not a destination.”
You guys point out the obvious but what I’m getting at is they don’t need to charge so much when the lower prices yielded just as much revenue. This sort of thing bothers me. It’s like the movie theaters and charging $10 for a box of popcorn. They get a dozen or so people to buy it when at 1/4 of the price there could be 20 times that many people buying popcorn. Instead of ticking off 75% of the people who want to buy but see the price as outrageous they rather sell to the 25% will to spend way more than they have to. Isn’t the point of having virtual content to buy something the majority should enjoy rather than the minority? I mean why don’t we extend this logic to box sales and charge people $400 for the box? The reason is because then nobody would be playing the game. It is the same logic being used to justify 4 times the price of a virtual item from the price they established when the game launched. So if the logic fails for the one case then it must fail for the lesser case.
How do you know that they yield as much revenue with the lower prices. Since they are going up in price I would consider that proof that revenue increases with each price increase, even if the total number of sales decreases.
What a company looks at is the profit first. Number of sales is second.
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
ANet may give it to you.
None of these single pets were ever part of the 3 for X gems packs. If players are willing to spend money on these, kudos to ANet for maximizing their income.
We are heroes. This is what we do!
RIP City of Heroes
RIP City of Heroes
I think one mistake people make is they don’t see ANet as first and foremost a business to make a profit, but an entertainment and they think of the game as the Devs, who are people who love games and made the game because of their love for the genre, not a desire for filthy lucre.
Well, the part about the Devs may be true enough but the gem store is run by marketing degrees, calculators, graphs and power points. It exists to make as much money as possible by selling what it’s allowed to sell at whatever price gets them the most profit. They don’t consult with the Devs about the price of a mini pet or when to put in the next outfit and the Devs don’t discuss running the game with them.
Consider the gem store a business doing what business does best. Maximizing their profit.
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
ANet may give it to you.
They don’t consult with the Devs about the price of a mini pet or when to put in the next outfit and the Devs don’t discuss running the game with them.
Consider the gem store a business doing what business does best. Maximizing their profit.
Sure they do, not only price but drop rates in-game if that item is meant to be dropped as well. Like BL keys, they sell them and they drop or reward. This is all lead dev decisions, back room conferences, publishers and investors, psychologists and marketeers. It’s pretty much what has been since people saw the numbers that WoW drew, then 1000’s of titles saturated the market with all kinds of schemes to tap that money potential. Things were different in times past, but this is the bulk of the industry now.
I get what you’re saying and it is, undoubtedly, a big increase.
On the other hand, I don’t really mind contributing, within reason, especially as the game is basically F2P after the initial purchase price (which, let’s face it, is probably not much more than the price of a single, non-updated game).
But, my position on all this is kind of assuming (or, in the hope that…) the entire game will be properly maintained and updated and any issues corrected.
After all, not many people are going to want to spend a lot of RL money, in the gemstore, if they find that isn’t the case.
As, in the longer run, you will of course tend to buy more stuff, to accessorise an already good, well-functioning, enjoyable game, than you will a game with issues that continue to be unaddressed.
My other issue, ATM, is that I have more than a sneaking suspicion that if I spend RL money in the gemstore I am, basically, financially subsidising a group of players with bad attitudes.
Many of whom don’t even want to bother playing with newer players (and when they are forced to, are often extremely rude), only run things like dungeons for the rewards and simply won’t allow people to play the way they prefer, around them.
That is an issue for me.
As it is one thing to help subsidise nice, patient players, who just happen to not have a lot of spare cash, ATM; but quite another thing to find yourself subsidising obnoxious, tight, greedy people, with no patience, or respect, for other players (including the very people who may very well be subsidising them).
Of course, the two issues are very much connected, as a lot of the justification for their behaviour is down to the game design itself.
“Turns out when people play the game, they don’t admire your feet at all.” sephiroth
(edited by Tigaseye.2047)
They don’t consult with the Devs about the price of a mini pet or when to put in the next outfit and the Devs don’t discuss running the game with them.
Consider the gem store a business doing what business does best. Maximizing their profit.
Sure they do, not only price but drop rates in-game if that item is meant to be dropped as well. Like BL keys, they sell them and they drop or reward. This is all lead dev decisions, back room conferences, publishers and investors, psychologists and marketeers. It’s pretty much what has been since people saw the numbers that WoW drew, then 1000’s of titles saturated the market with all kinds of schemes to tap that money potential. Things were different in times past, but this is the bulk of the industry now.
Do the lead devs concern themselves with the drop rate on items that also sell in the gem store? I would think that would belong to the marketing department, not the Devs. It’s the marketing people, psychologists, etc who have the education about how to price things and how to put teasers in game to spur purchases. I doubt the lead Devs, who have only a layman’s education in this area are allowed to override the people who have gone to college and gotten a degree in this field, the people they specifically hired to handle the gem store and the income that comes from it.
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
ANet may give it to you.
Do the lead devs concern themselves with the drop rate on items that also sell in the gem store? I would think that would belong to the marketing department, not the Devs. It’s the marketing people, psychologists, etc who have the education about how to price things and how to put teasers in game to spur purchases. I doubt the lead Devs, who have only a layman’s education in this area are allowed to override the people who have gone to college and gotten a degree in this field, the people they specifically hired to handle the gem store and the income that comes from it.
Lead devs are generally designers, they cover a broad aspect to development, including all the development formulas in regards to marketing etc. Things like that with out a doubt don’t pass under their radar, but are a part of it.
You just don’t always see it, it’s not so transparent, even in companies that claim that they are transparent. Such as the internal leak CCP had some years back, “greed is good”, resulting in a company shakeup. Companies are not so internally disconnected that it is unknown or uncontrollable where as if one department doing one thing and the other doing their own other thing. It’s all design decisions, every little segment of every little thing going on with the game.
They don’t consult with the Devs about the price of a mini pet or when to put in the next outfit and the Devs don’t discuss running the game with them.
Consider the gem store a business doing what business does best. Maximizing their profit.
Sure they do, not only price but drop rates in-game if that item is meant to be dropped as well. Like BL keys, they sell them and they drop or reward. This is all lead dev decisions, back room conferences, publishers and investors, psychologists and marketeers. It’s pretty much what has been since people saw the numbers that WoW drew, then 1000’s of titles saturated the market with all kinds of schemes to tap that money potential. Things were different in times past, but this is the bulk of the industry now.
BL Key drop rates changed as soon as they put something in the chest worth getting, skin tickets. Before then keys dropped as random loot with a much greater frequency including map clearing rewards and as a drop from a BL Chest itself. Pre ticket it would be common to open 7 or 8 chests with 5 keys because keys dropped that frequently.
We are heroes. This is what we do!
RIP City of Heroes
RIP City of Heroes
Hopefully I have not been misunderstood as one not willing to support the game by spending money. Because that would be incorrect. I have supported and will continue to support. But now my options have been reduced. Because I refuse to pay for a massive price hike that isn’t justified by some uncontrollable circumstance like the value of the dollar going down from inflation of like 100 times ($1 is only worth 1 penny) in 3 years. Which I don’t even thing has happened in the history of the nation.
How do you know that they yield as much revenue with the lower prices. Since they are going up in price I would consider that proof that revenue increases with each price increase, even if the total number of sales decreases.
What a company looks at is the profit first. Number of sales is second.
The financial sheets. Their prices went up but they aren’t making any more money. This is obvious to conclude that with increased prices less is being bought. So the only people hurt here are the people who expect reasonable prices as they were when the game launched.
None of these single pets were ever part of the 3 for X gems packs. If players are willing to spend money on these, kudos to ANet for maximizing their income.
That is irrelevant they set the price precedence of a single mini pet with the launch of the game and the price of getting 3 of them at once. If you bought trading cards in the store on launch day of a given trading game and then not long after that they cut the number of cards in third you get in the pack you would see a huge outcry from people on how they are gouging their customers and the likelihood is the company either goes back to the old model or sticks to their guns and lets the huge customer base that is mad stay mad and never buy the product again. Aside from that as mentioned in reply to the first quote income isn’t being maximized here since with the price increase profits are the same.
They went from 3 random from a set to specific ones. How much would you have spent if these were just rares or exotics from a 3-pack just to get them? Likely much more than the current asking price. Of course you would have tons of dups of common minis you could sell and get a fraction of the gold back you spent on a 3-pack. But it’s not about the gold/cash is it, it’s about …
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We are heroes. This is what we do!
RIP City of Heroes
RIP City of Heroes
(edited by Behellagh.1468)
I have bought only one mini from the gemstore because i just love the mini fox kit. (I love foxes, cant help it). but I try and buy each month 800 gems (not even 100 swedish crown so very doable) and sometimes i use them sometimes i do not. mostly i buy account upgrades or something. I do not find the prices very high. but that is me. Anet is a business and must make some money somehow. i am glad i can contribute (in a way) to this. Without the gemstore (and it is changing prices) we have decent servers and a really big team working on all of what we get. basically for free.
If nothing else the gem store does one thing. Make public gem—$$ conversion and gem—gold conversion prices.
So, depending on the market, 1 gold is about equal to a dime. It really puts things in perspective when you and hemming and hawing over getting something.