Outstanding Content = Frequent Gem Purchases

Outstanding Content = Frequent Gem Purchases

in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

Posted by: Taltevus.3289

Taltevus.3289

Let me start by saying thanks for having a look at the thread and yes it’s whopper.
Skip to the bottom for my personal questions if you must.

I am not outright against the Gemstore (without reason) I actually have quite a few purchases from the Gemstore. However, here’s the…thing as the title suggest.

Bottom line is. If I am not satisfied past a certain point I am not inclined to make purchases.

This seems like the normal thing people do. If you value your money but not the product you don’t buy it twice.

If you don’t like a phone you aren’t going to buy it a second time when your contract renews or if your phone breaks.
When you have bad service at a restaurant (not why you pay the server but why you pay the outrageous prices on the food) you’re not likely to spend your money there again.
When you buy a brand that does not perform to your what? Satisfaction…you return it or…cut your losses and the brand from your shopping list in the future.

Why wouldn’t/doesn’t this apply for GuildWars 2’s GemStore?

I was:

1.) More excited during the countdown of heart of thorns than I am now playing the game.
2.)I bought tons more stuff during that period than I ever will in the future (as the game stands now)

Why, because I value my money and the things I spend it on.

What I truly don’t understand is why ArenaNet made the decision to cause mayhem and dissatisfaction among their primarily customers secondarily players and expect… those people to continue to hand them money?

During all the PR for Heart of Thons when I saw the first elite spec. Chronomancer, and some other things I felt comfortable buying things in the Gemstore freely. It was at that point I wanted to support ArenaNet in what it was doing. I wanted GuildWars 2 to be my MMO. I wanted to feel the way people who play wow feel towards it but, towards Gw2.

A lot of my friends played MMO’s but I didn’t have one. Gw2 was actually suggested to me across a mutual friend on facebook.

So after seeing H.o.T and some of the in game stuff I was sure this is going to be The One. The expansion was kind of my sense of proof and then the shopping spree commenced, including preordering.

H.o.T is released

Lo’ and behold: (yeah laugh it up)
Rewards were taken away from the base game.
The entire system for H.o.T masteries was a disaster. period.
-including Hero Points
-including Elite Specializations
Problems in the pvp part of the game became even worse
Players were coerced into new content
Players were alienated from one another in more ways than they were brought together.
etc. etc.
(this is not including the previous issues with Gw2 before H.o.T)

Do I like Gw2. Yes.
Do I want Gw2 to be successful? Yes.
Then why am I not buying items for the Gemstore?

Because unlike the assumption that ArenaNet has made that people who are playing for free will become so magically enamored with GW2 they’ll buy the expansion (or game now); Currently, I feel GW2 is in no standing of being so awesome that I want to buy anything else from or for it (or ArenaNet). Currently it seems there are more things counting against the game than there are for it. More importantly I do not trust ArenaNet to make game benefiting decisions. The ship can go down…just not with my money.

There are many aspects of an MMO and the only thing currently that GW2 has for it is combat. I’m not sorry but, combat alone does not an MMO make. Nor does it make enough to warrant me spending hard earned money on a regular basis for it.

When the content is produced, and when it is outstanding, and I am satisfied…I’ll buy. It’s that simple. I have nor had qualms purchasing things when I believed #GW2itgetsbetter.

Yeah, ArenaNet needs to make money and they will no doubt but they would make more if they just did the right thing.

Questions

Do you follow the same model? Yes? No? Why or Why Not?
Why do you buy things from the Gemstore if you do?
Do you pledge allegiance to GW2 and make purchases regardless of the direction of the game? Do you think that’s reasonable or unreasonable?

(off topic)
Do you think lack of funds could cause the kind of problems GW2 experiences regularly?
Do you think more funds could fix that or…is it something else that is the cause of some of these issues?

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in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

Well, let’s ask a couple of questions.

How many people by percentage are actually not going to spend money in the gem store. I ask this because it seems those gem store gliding wings are all over the place. Someone must be buying them.

The logic of your question is how many people are going to stop buying compared to how many new people will be buying who didn’t buy before?

See you can’t please everyone. No game developer can. So some decisions you make will disenfranchise certain people and others you make won’t. Two examples.

For years people have been complaining about too many particle effects making it impossible to see what’s going on. A lot of people for a very long time. Now you have a few people complaiing about nerfs to their visual effects. It seems to me that those people might stop spending money on gems, if they’re really disenfranchised but far more people were helped by this change than hurt.

Another example is the hard content. Some solo players (not all) and some casual players (not all) find the jungle too difficult and too confusing and some of those will stop buying gems, or even stop playing the game. But other people have been asking for harder content for a very long period of time. I’m pretty sure there are more of them than casual players who aren’t happy. At the end of the day, you’re making the erroneous assumption that the bulk of the playerbase is negatively affected by some of these decisions.

There are groups of people who have legit complaints and some of those will be handled in time, but the time thing can’t really be avoided. That is to say changing a program this complex, even a little, takes time.

At the end of the day, you’re right, Some people will stop buying gems.

Shrugs.

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in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

Posted by: NayNay.7680

NayNay.7680

Before Heart of Thorns was launched, I was spending a little over $20 a month on gems to help support A-Net and Paid the $100 for the ultimate pre-order when it came time to do so. I don’t feel like I got $100 worth of content. For that matter, I don’t feel like I even got $50 worth of content. Most of the content that I already enjoyed was killed to direct people towards “Raid(s)” which require me to spend a lot of money on gems for gold for gear (why the kitten was it necessary to RAISE the price of ascended gear, anyways?)

In short: No. I will not be giving them any more of my dollars, and it hurts me to say that much because I loved this game and the people who made it. I DON’T love what’s happening to it.

HoT felt like a scam, to me. Honestly.

Ral Xarek | Asura Elementalist
Peacemaker Ral |Asura Mesmer

(edited by NayNay.7680)

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Posted by: Heart Beat.4987

Heart Beat.4987

I don’t know man. I’ve been leveling this new account and I’ve been seeing new players with bandit and crystal outfits left and right even though you say it doesn’t mean new players don’t spend cash on gem store items starting off.

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in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

Posted by: Senario.2038

Senario.2038

Simple, if they make a good game that is rewarding I will give them my money. If they don’t like they are doing now then I won’t.

Grinding Gear Games is one of the best examples of a game dev who does nearly everything right in terms of providing a good reward for their players and making the game fun to play first then having microtransactions for skins later. Path of Exile.

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in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

Posted by: Taltevus.3289

Taltevus.3289

Hey I didn’t read any of that, but I think it’s pretty neat.

That’s fine.

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in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

Posted by: Taltevus.3289

Taltevus.3289

Well, let’s ask a couple of questions.

How many people by percentage are actually not going to spend money in the gem store. I ask this because it seems those gem store gliding wings are all over the place. Someone must be buying them.

The logic of your question is how many people are going to stop buying compared to how many new people will be buying who didn’t buy before?

See you can’t please everyone. No game developer can. So some decisions you make will disenfranchise certain people and others you make won’t. Two examples.

For years people have been complaining about too many particle effects making it impossible to see what’s going on. A lot of people for a very long time. Now you have a few people complaining about nerfs to their visual effects. It seems to me that those people might stop spending money on gems, if they’re really disenfranchised but far more people were helped by this change than hurt.

Another example is the hard content. Some solo players (not all) and some casual players (not all) find the jungle too difficult and too confusing and some of those will stop buying gems, or even stop playing the game. But other people have been asking for harder content for a very long period of time. I’m pretty sure there are more of them than casual players who aren’t happy. At the end of the day, you’re making the erroneous assumption that the bulk of the player-base is negatively affected by some of these decisions.

There are groups of people who have legit complaints and some of those will be handled in time, but the time thing can’t really be avoided. That is to say changing a program this complex, even a little, takes time.

At the end of the day, you’re right, Some people will stop buying gems.

Shrugs.

Seeing the wings or other Gemstore items doesn’t necessarily mean they bought them with real world currency. You can convert Gold to Gems.

I don’t really want to know who is going to stop. That is merely my disposition towards things as they stand now. You are right you can’t please everyone but you sure can offend them—and a lot of them. I am pretty sure however, I can say no one woke up and thought," man, I really hope the snatch the gold away from dungeons", then when to bed that day and prayed for more. If that’s the case, I am sure you could create the same level of satisfaction by the same magnitude as well.

While I can say this helps in some cases it does not really help in all cases:
Those it may aid:
*Players who stack
*Players who melee
*Zergs in pvp (finding the ausara in the particle-stack)
*Large scale boss events

I am completely fine with hard content but what I don’t support is black and white game design.

Raids have started off as this,“super hard content”, where on earth can they go? What direction can they progress if they are already pushing the limits of the game design? A gradient of difficulty would have done worlds of good.

Pro leagues have alienated a section of players
Raids have alienated a section of players

A linear function of difficulty would be simple. And where those players get stuck this is where they can be presented to learn, and better their skills. They could be diverted to other areas of the game.
Instead you have this black and white dynamic where it just divides and separates players in many areas of the game.

I mean look at Heart of Thorns there is absolute zero reason to buy it unless you have a level 80 character but of course you don’t have that option because of the bundled purchase. Why on earth would all these new players jump to buy it immediately?

Changing the program doesn’t take much effort, I presume they have people that love their job programming. However the designers are where a lot (majority) of that time is spent.

Also how can you determine many people have been asking for reduced particle effects. If you surmised this from the forums then buy the same logic the people on the forums (now) are the majority voicing discrepancies?

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in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

Posted by: Taltevus.3289

Taltevus.3289

Before Heart of Thorns was launched, I was spending a little over $20 a month on gems to help support A-Net and Paid the $100 for the ultimate pre-order when it came time to do so. I don’t feel like I got $100 worth of content. For that matter, I don’t feel like I even got $50 worth of content. Most of the content that I already enjoyed was killed to direct people towards “Raid(s)” which require me to spend a lot of money on gems for gold for gear (why the kitten was it necessary to RAISE the price of ascended gear, anyways?)

In short: No. I will not be giving them any more of my dollars, and it hurts me to say that much because I loved this game and the people who made it. I DON’T love what’s happening to it.

HoT felt like a scam, to me. Honestly.

I can understand this.
However again with what I said to Vayne. Black and white game design.
I am not sure about Ascended Gear I have never bothered making any…
This is even raised to an exponential degree concerning legendary weapons. Never.

I have yet to play raids. It’s like dungeons all over again.
Remember 2013? Running Dungeons was for the super elite and if you did anything otherwise you were wrong. I can’t be bothered in the slightest to go through that again.

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Posted by: Kal Spiro.9745

Kal Spiro.9745

I’ve been playing this game since early access. I bought the $100 expansion, because I felt it was the best price for what you get. I enjoy the game. I enjoy HoT. I don’t buy Gems if I can help it. I don’t need, nor usually like, the things in the Gem store. I’m not going to buy Gems to have them, I would buy them to get something specific. Also, if I can help it, I’d rather convert gold to Gems instead.

Nothing they have done, so far, has put me off their game. I’m not disenfranchised. I just don’t want to buy Gems because I don’t equate spending more money on the product as an indication that I like it. All that matters to me is if I think it’s money well spent, and when I do spend the money, I usually do think so.

Tarnished Coast Kal Spiro – Ranger (80), LB/S-D, Eagle/Wolf, Signet, M/S/WS #SABorRiot
|Daredevil|Ranger|Guardian|Scrapper|Necromancer|Berserker|Dragonhunter|Mesmer|Elementalist
|Deadeye|Warrior|Herald|Daredevil|Reaper|Spellbreaker

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in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

Posted by: Taltevus.3289

Taltevus.3289

I don’t know man. I’ve been leveling this new account and I’ve been seeing new players with bandit and crystal outfits left and right even though you say it doesn’t mean new players don’t spend cash on gem store items starting off.

I don’t think I said new players don’t spend gems.
However as I have suggested before. Having the item doesn’t mean you’ve payed real world currency for it. There is no way to tell.

I have Lyssa’s Regalia and the new…outfit (to date) The one with the skull and the leather and stitches and skull helm. Can’t remembered the name. The point, both of which I converted gold to gems to, “buy”, I have the Arbiter set too.

Working on the Grenth hood too.

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in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

Posted by: Taltevus.3289

Taltevus.3289

I’ve been playing this game since early access. I bought the $100 expansion, because I felt it was the best price for what you get. I enjoy the game. I enjoy HoT. I don’t buy Gems if I can help it. I don’t need, nor usually like, the things in the Gem store. I’m not going to buy Gems to have them, I would buy them to get something specific. Also, if I can help it, I’d rather convert gold to Gems instead.

Nothing they have done, so far, has put me off their game. I’m not disenfranchised. I just don’t want to buy Gems because I don’t equate spending more money on the product as an indication that I like it. All that matters to me is if I think it’s money well spent, and when I do spend the money, I usually do think so.

I was nearly put off playing altogether. Nearly.
I kind of settled in that I just am not going to enjoy the game as much as others will be able too. This sounds worse than the way I mean it to be portrayed.

I like your position though. Mostly that was what I was doing. When I was buying gems regularly it was only for specific things, anything I wanted but, not everything.

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Posted by: IndigoSundown.5419

IndigoSundown.5419

The MMO business is a numbers game. Companies make money — as many industries do — by selling to huge numbers of people. One player is barely on their radar.

The developer makes changes to the game they think will please more people than they kitten off. They know they can’t please everyone, though they try — sometimes. However, since the business is a numbers game, any given individual’s preferences don’t have a significant impact. Maybe a grass roots movement to withhold money-for-gems could have a significant impact, but good luck coordinating one and good luck getting large numbers of people to agree on anything.

Any individual can say that s/he isn’t going to spend any more money. Closing their wallet and telling the developer exactly why is really the only impact an individual can have. The reasons might be of concern to the developer, they might not.

All that said, I played the no-more-money-to-gems card some time ago. Anet continued to change the game in ways that I dislike. The problem with playing that card is that once played, it’s gone. I cannot play it the next time Anet makes the game a little worse for me. Well, actually, I guess one could, but not if one is honest with himself.

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Posted by: Taltevus.3289

Taltevus.3289

The MMO business is a numbers game. Companies make money — as many industries do — by selling to huge numbers of people. One player is barely on their radar.

The developer makes changes to the game they think will please more people than they kitten off. They know they can’t please everyone, though they try — sometimes. However, since the business is a numbers game, any given individual’s preferences don’t have a significant impact. Maybe a grass roots movement to withhold money-for-gems could have a significant impact, but good luck coordinating one and good luck getting large numbers of people to agree on anything.

Any individual can say that s/he isn’t going to spend any more money. Closing their wallet and telling the developer exactly why is really the only impact an individual can have. The reasons might be of concern to the developer, they might not.

All that said, I played the no-more-money-to-gems card some time ago. Anet continued to change the game in ways that I dislike. The problem with playing that card is that once played, it’s gone. I cannot play it the next time Anet makes the game a little worse for me. Well, actually, I guess one could, but not if one is honest with himself.

I’m not trying to boycott the game. I can’t help but feel bittersweet about the game.
At the tail of my post I note ArenaNet is going to make money regardless.

This is true about playing the no more money card. I know how the dynamic works. It works on the unsuspecting players. I was one of them…I was never on complete Arena Net can do no harm but…once I hit 80. I imagine what I felt…it was the same experience Eve had in the garden a real wonderful misery. Ha. God were my eyes opened.

Things just seem so extreme all of a sudden I don’t mean that in terms of difficulty but, I’ve never seen the forums in such a manner since I purchased the game…in 2013 about this time then.

What drove you to lay down the no more money card?

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Posted by: Mike.7263

Mike.7263

There are many aspects of an MMO and the only thing currently that GW2 has for it is combat.

If you want great MMORPG combat, play TERA. GW2 combat is only halfway between WoW and TERA.

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Posted by: Labjax.2465

Labjax.2465

I hate to say it because I love it when games feel like an experience where developers listen, but…

Sometimes I wonder if Anet listens to their players too much. Now before you get out the pitchforks and rant at me all about how Anet hardly listens at all, keep in mind that I’m not talking about listening, as in “giving players exactly what they asked for,” I’m talking about listening as in “giving players a general concept they asked for, made with limited resources and a distinctly human team.”

There is a lot of flack about raids being in the game at all, but there was a CDI for them. There is flack about masteries, but there was a CDI for horizontal progression. People asked for variations on these things in passionate and lengthy detail.

And Anet more or less said, “Ok, it’ll take a while, but we’ll consider it.” And then they did it.

Problem is, every new feature has to fit into the rest of the game. If you shoehorn it in, it looks horribly out of place. So what happens? Anet team molds the concept to fit into what already exists in GW2. In the process, the “in a vacuum” concept that players thought they wanted ends up looking quite different.

On top of that, you end up with more and more segmented development resources for all the different features and systems. And unless every new feature/system produces profit to match its maintenance and growth (which is unlikely) that means the dev team gets thinner and thinner in scope and it becomes ever harder to continue building a game that looks unified in its goals and design.

The result, as I am seeing it, is a veritable theme park / talent show kind of experience, where the game is both very much the same in every feature and very much like crossing a line and walking into a different game; the result of a concerted effort to maintain a unified vision, despite making a game with teams that are off in Nebraska, Alaska, and Zimbabwe (figuratively speaking).

In other words, despite their (seeming) intentions, the game looks more and more like a hodgepodge over time. This is not necessarily all good or all bad, but it does create this weird atmosphere where somebody can absolutely be loving the game one minute, only to cross an invisible line and be hating it the next. Reason being that the line between varying visions is so paper-thin and hard to see.

A good example of this in my eyes is the design regarding account-bound and soul-bound features and items. To me, the game tends to be inconsistent on this position; some aspects are all about account-bound freedom and some seem to go into soul-bound territory, justified on reasons that would otherwise be dismantled in favor of account-bound in another part of the game. This actually makes a lot of sense in the context of numerous teams working together on the same game, with limited time and effectiveness in communicating with each other.

One team goes on their interpretation or gets word from team leader / manager X. Then the other team gets their version of the story. And next thing you know two teams are working on two fundamentally different design philosophies; philosophies that may well make perfect, reasoned sense within the context of what their team is designing, but looks somewhat odd when added to the big picture.

I’m sure Colin and others in similar positions do what they can to keep the vision unified, but if there’s a never-ending list of features and teams to keep track of, they could be (and probably are) looking at a nightmarish organizational task.

Or words to that effect.

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Posted by: Taltevus.3289

Taltevus.3289

There are many aspects of an MMO and the only thing currently that GW2 has for it is combat.

If you want great MMORPG combat, play TERA. GW2 combat is only halfway between WoW and TERA.

I’ve sort of looked at Terra but…not really in depth. A few months ago an acquaintance (specifically that) had a try to get me to play it. He had actually left Gw2. Only for the reason that it wasn’t what he thought would succeed Gw1. He explained something to the effect in sum that…there was more freedom to how you could burst someone. While he was describing it, the only relative thing I could think of were Mesmers who use Mantra of Distraction religiously.

However once he said free to play, my stomach sank but, I don’t know I guess that’s not really a good metric to judge all free to play’s by.

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Posted by: Mike.7263

Mike.7263

He explained something to the effect in sum that…there was more freedom to how you could burst someone. While he was describing it, the only relative thing I could think of were Mesmers who use Mantra of Distraction religiously.

In its most action-packed moments, TERA combat feels less like an MMORPG and more like an ARPG. GW2’s new action camera is a step in that direction, but it doesn’t even come close.

(edited by Mike.7263)

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Posted by: nacario.9417

nacario.9417

Theres alot of fluff added to gemstore I would LOVE to buy, but then I tell myself “by next week or month something else similiar will be added that I want”, so all in all I stopped buying as it’s all fluff. Instead I try to og for skins that are hard earned, and hopefully in time Ill have a leg armor and backitem that works as glider.

Power Ranger PvP
I used to be a power ranger, now not sure anymore

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Posted by: IndigoSundown.5419

IndigoSundown.5419

The MMO business is a numbers game. Companies make money — as many industries do — by selling to huge numbers of people. One player is barely on their radar.

The developer makes changes to the game they think will please more people than they kitten off. They know they can’t please everyone, though they try — sometimes. However, since the business is a numbers game, any given individual’s preferences don’t have a significant impact. Maybe a grass roots movement to withhold money-for-gems could have a significant impact, but good luck coordinating one and good luck getting large numbers of people to agree on anything.

Any individual can say that s/he isn’t going to spend any more money. Closing their wallet and telling the developer exactly why is really the only impact an individual can have. The reasons might be of concern to the developer, they might not.

All that said, I played the no-more-money-to-gems card some time ago. Anet continued to change the game in ways that I dislike. The problem with playing that card is that once played, it’s gone. I cannot play it the next time Anet makes the game a little worse for me. Well, actually, I guess one could, but not if one is honest with himself.

I’m not trying to boycott the game. I can’t help but feel bittersweet about the game.
At the tail of my post I note ArenaNet is going to make money regardless.

This is true about playing the no more money card. I know how the dynamic works. It works on the unsuspecting players. I was one of them…I was never on complete Arena Net can do no harm but…once I hit 80. I imagine what I felt…it was the same experience Eve had in the garden a real wonderful misery. Ha. God were my eyes opened.

Things just seem so extreme all of a sudden I don’t mean that in terms of difficulty but, I’ve never seen the forums in such a manner since I purchased the game…in 2013 about this time then.

What drove you to lay down the no more money card?

Ascended crafting. I’d rather watch paint peel than craft something that requires a mats list longer than my arm. I do still play the game, so I’m not boycotting it — but I’m not paying cash for gems. I suppose I could play the I-won’t-buy-gems-with-gold card, which indirectly provides money to ANet. However, that protest would not even register as a minuscule reduction in the amount of gold needed to buy a gem, and have zero impact on ANet revenue.

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Posted by: Einlanzer.1627

Einlanzer.1627

My philosophy, and my general experience with other people both tell me this – people are more willing to spend money the more you meet them in the middle with high quality content they don’t have to directly pay for. This especially applies to anything that fits into a “collectible” type category.

The main problem with over-emphasizing real money transactions over in-game rewards is that you are essentially asking players who like to collect things to spend exorbitant amounts of money to get anything, and that isn’t going to work. People will get turned off and not buy anything, and then probably stop playing the game.

When you utilize a cash shop as something that supplements a game rather than the primary method of providing “collectible” content, you are way more likely to get more purchases from players who are just looking to expand their collections from what they’re getting in-game. This is mostly because you’re reducing their paywall to have fun and incentivizing them to expand their collections.

The problem with GW2 is that they keep pushing the gem shop more and more into the primary method of acquiring collectibles, and they simultaneously are not releasing free content at an adequate pace for people not to be disincentivized from participating.

Releasing an expansion with only 5 new armor models and then throwing cheaper-to-make outfits into the gem store at an unprecedented pace immediately after asking people to pay $50 for $20 worth of content is a very dubious marketing strategy. They are going to lose business with this method, if they haven’t already.

(edited by Einlanzer.1627)

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Posted by: Eirdyne.9843

Eirdyne.9843

My issues with Heart of Thorns grow daily. It has more faults than virtues, though I do enjoy it.

On the build up to Heart of Thorns I went a bit Ascended Crazy, crafting everything from weapons to armor. This was probably the best thing I could have done for myself and I’m glad I made the decision to do so ahead of time. It is presently impossible to reasonably get Ascended Gear. This is exactly what happened to Trials of Atlantis in Dark Age of Camelot. That company had to remove the expansion entirely as a result of people being unable to get exactly the same 5% extra armor/weapon stats simply because their guild/way of playing didn’t allow for it. This meant a lot of small guilds were simply cut from the game and a lot of large guilds survived. The result was the creation of entirely separate server where the 5% + armor/weapons and the expansion itself removed.

Do I see this happening for Guild Wars 2? No. This game uses mega servers and the deep silence again by Anet says the communication up until now was just PR. We’re probably back to where things were before Heart of Thorns. I forget who said it above, but ya, it was scam pretty much. I remember laughing when Heart of Thorns was advertised as “the first gem sale”. Add up what you got and the extra $50 for the game was just gems.

I really expected Heart of Thorns to be a lot worse than this, but differently. My understanding of Heart of Thorns was that we were going to be getting just two maps and a raid. The reason for this was the trailer with Ritlock wandering around some desert and the beta taking place entirely in Verdant Brink. Verdant Brink had been been stated to be made up of four biomes.
So, I think a lot of us that got that impression were a bit confused when Verdant Brink ended in vines at the floor and then discovered 3 more maps. Dragon’s Stand was a pleasant surprise and in general the Verticality (layers of each map) were a good advancement to video games. This is something we haven’t seen in games since Dark Age of Camelot and never since.
Unfortunately, the maps are mostly one-directional and vertically “diagonal and down”. Auric Basin is basically boredom and a nonsensical event. It wastes the whole map. Verdant Brink is fun, but like most things in Guild Wars 2, you can’t get any use out of it until you’ve already hit max level for its content: Advanced Gliding, Jumping Mushrooms, Nuhoch Wallows, and Stealth Detection.

The lack of new random drop armors and weapons has really not gone over well with people. Again, it goes back to bad communication from Anet. They said we’d be getting 60+ new skins. We did, but in other MMOs that means whole sets of armor and weapons from all the new dungeons, etc. Instead it’s just a lot of grinding some events or crafting. Even Ascended Armors have no new skins. So, that was total bankruptcy.

In Guild Halls, Scribing, and the cost of it all has killed the joy of whatever they might have brought for most people. “Hey! Look, new content!”. “Haha, tricked you! Pay 3500 gold to this one person to get the stuff you need. They won’t bale or anything the moment you do… no one ever does that.”
So yea, as the saying goes, “Anet logic.”

Answers

Do you follow the same model?
No?

Why or Why Not?
I make enough money I’m not terribly upset with the gem store’s impact to myself. On the other hand, my friends don’t make nearly so much as me so… kind of hard to talk them into having anything to do with this game. Anet’s clearly milking us for all we’re worth. Now that the veteran players have gotten wise to their schemes it looks like they’re trying to top the old content we got used to hardcore leaving new players just coming in to slam into that ceiling before they do it again. I hope Blade & Soul fails miserably. Fair justice to NCsoft for all this really.

Why do you buy things from the Gemstore if you do?
Mostly because 0% of anything is attainable from the game.
With gold loot removed from the game and all other content nerfed into the ground I won’t be spending nearly so much money on it. They snuffed out everyone joining and already here with this expansion the way the gem store is set up now. There’s no in game. They really ought to change this game over to Second Life with the way they are working the markets. If they don’t want to make gaming content they ought to at least focus on selling clothing, animations, hairstyles, and Guild Hall decorations/customization.

Do you pledge allegiance to GW2 and make purchases regardless of the direction of the game?
Would you pledge allegiance to any anonymous entity that wants your money and faith? – if you’re religious, sorry. I wouldn’t.

Do you think that’s reasonable or unreasonable?
- I’d like to see the game succeed, but NCsoft clearly has the idea of killing the games in the third year or even earlier if a new shiny bobbles their head that way. I don’t think that company can conceive of a model that doesn’t involve disloyalty to its consumer base.
(off topic)
Do you think lack of funds could cause the kind of problems GW2 experiences regularly?
Do you think more funds could fix that or…is it something else that is the cause of some of these issues?