Guild Wars 2

This isn’t meant to sound inflammatory and it’s not at all a hate message. It’s a show of supreme dissapointment at how the custom arena idea has been implemented. Custom Arenas were supposed to be something everyone could enjoy (I assume) and a way for people/guilds to play with their friends without the complications/zerging of hotjoin or the “seriousness” of tournaments. Instead, we got something more like this…

- Anet: Hey guys! Custom Arenas finally dropped, enjoy!

- Me: Haha nice! I can’t wait to fina-… wait. These cost gems?

- Anet: Yep! =D

- Me: But.. Um, I play 95% PvP. I don’t have much gold to convert to gems.

- Anet: Oh that’s OK. Half the cast of Street Fighter can’t even afford shoes. You’ll get used to it.

- Me: Er, well.. Does that mean we’ll be getting a chance to earn Gems from Tournaments again? That’d be awes-

- Anet: Nope. =D

- Me: … OK, how about gold? It’d be awesome to know that I still have some form of
progression for my character in PvE bec-

- Anet: Nope. =D

- Me: …. Should I even ask if Laurels-

- Anet: Ha! Yes! You can use your Laurels to buy Unidentified Dyes which you can then sell for gold! We strive to make it easy and seemless for players to blahblahblah.

- Me: …

- Anet: …Just pay us the ’effin cash, dude.

- Me: Fine! Here! /creditcard

- Anet: Thanks! You are now the proud renter of a Custom Arena! You blahblahblah

- Me: Um.. Renter?

- Anet: Yep. You can now buy time cards every month for MORE gems to keep your custom arena open.

- Me: I. Have. To. Pay. A. MONTHLY SUBSCRIPTION!? FOR A FRACTION OF THE ENTIRE GAME!?! THAT DOESN’T EVEN GET HALF AS MUCH CONTENT AS PVE!?!?!?!

- Anet: That’s a lot of exclamation points and question marks.

- Me: OK, well I guess I can afford to keep this going for a month, then take a break, then come back to it when I-

- Anet: Actually.. If you don’t pay on time, you lose the arena and have to buy a new one.

- Me: /weep

- Anet: There’s sparkly-luxury-tissue paper in the Gem Store too. =D AND a self-playing-pity-violin!

Please please correct me if I’m wrong about this. It feels really backwards that the people who focus mostly on PvP, and thus don’t have much cash, have this carrot dangled in front of them. Its not so bad for guilds, obviously, but still. What was the intention behind this Custom Arena system?

Hey Aelodyn,
I understand the frustration…
Think about it this way though.
Each map requires some bit of hardware on the ANet servers to be running.
I’m not too sure about this, but each custom arena needs a different machine running for it to be going.
That costs money to keep and maintain.
Furthermore, once someone buys a custom arena and they stop playing the game… whats the point in keeping that machine on when it can be used for something else?
This is probably in order to avoid having massive amounts of waste processing over the years and they don’t want to have to deal with having to pick and choose through which servers are active and which ones are inactive because that gets messy.

Mash Hog.5672:

Hey Aelodyn,
I understand the frustration…
Think about it this way though.
Each map requires some bit of hardware on the ANet servers to be running.
I’m not too sure about this, but each custom arena needs a different machine running for it to be going.
That costs money to keep and maintain.
Furthermore, once someone buys a custom arena and they stop playing the game… whats the point in keeping that machine on when it can be used for something else?
This is probably in order to avoid having massive amounts of waste processing over the years and they don’t want to have to deal with having to pick and choose through which servers are active and which ones are inactive because that gets messy.

If that’s the case it’s definitely understandable to a degree, but then why not make it so that the arena stays open for a certain amount of time and if there’s inactivity for a period of … lets say 2 months, then it shuts down. Someone who payed cash for the arena and then had to pay cash every. kitten . month. Shouldn’t have to then pay cash AGAIN to re-open the arena.

Reason for my frustration is that even if that’s true Someone who plays PvE 80% of the time and only dabbles in PvP can better maintain their custom arena than a diehard PvPer. No way that’s fair.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Mash Hog.5672:

Hey Aelodyn,
I understand the frustration…
Think about it this way though.
Each map requires some bit of hardware on the ANet servers to be running.
I’m not too sure about this, but each custom arena needs a different machine running for it to be going.
That costs money to keep and maintain.
Furthermore, once someone buys a custom arena and they stop playing the game… whats the point in keeping that machine on when it can be used for something else?
This is probably in order to avoid having massive amounts of waste processing over the years and they don’t want to have to deal with having to pick and choose through which servers are active and which ones are inactive because that gets messy.

If that’s the case it’s definitely understandable to a degree, but then why not make it so that the arena stays open for a certain amount of time and if there’s inactivity for a period of … lets say 2 months, then it shuts down. Someone who payed cash for the arena and then had to pay cash every. kitten . month. Shouldn’t have to then pay cash AGAIN to re-open the arena.

Reason for my frustration is that even if that’s true Someone who plays PvE 80% of the time and only dabbles in PvP can better maintain their custom arena than a diehard PvPer. No way that’s fair.

No arguments here,
PvPr’s need a better way to either make gold or gems so that we are able to purchase our custom arenas.
I have to pay 30-50g every 20 days just to keep my Guild PvP Arena up!
That’s more than 1g/day!

Usually when you have an active custom arena there are multiple people who are playing on it.
You could try to have those people chip in as well… but that is still no excuse for the lack of integration for the PvPers.

There should be something as laurels => gems.
We should also be able to earn gold through PvP…

Will not only benefit the PvPers but also the PvEers

Mash Hog.5672:

Hey Aelodyn,
I understand the frustration…
Think about it this way though.
Each map requires some bit of hardware on the ANet servers to be running.
I’m not too sure about this, but each custom arena needs a different machine running for it to be going.
That costs money to keep and maintain.
Furthermore, once someone buys a custom arena and they stop playing the game… whats the point in keeping that machine on when it can be used for something else?
This is probably in order to avoid having massive amounts of waste processing over the years and they don’t want to have to deal with having to pick and choose through which servers are active and which ones are inactive because that gets messy.

Nope. Pretty sure each custom arena is just a set of processes running on one of their big blade servers.

That was pretty funny to read, although it’s true

Justin ODell.9517:

My understanding is we just want to gate the number of custom arenas because it’s a non-negligible cost to run. I don’t know if we ever expected this to be a major way to monetize PvP.

This isn’t my area so I’m probably wrong. :P

Could we get some official (or unofficial, I’m really not that picky) response as to if PvPers will have the ability to purchase and maintain their Custom Arenas without having to go into PvE to get gold?

You have to admit, the dye thing is kind of a kitten way of monetizing PvP! :P

Justin ODell.9517:

My understanding is we just want to gate the number of custom arenas because it’s a non-negligible cost to run. I don’t know if we ever expected this to be a major way to monetize PvP.

This isn’t my area so I’m probably wrong. :P

That makes sense, and I wasnt trying to imply some kind of sinister scheme on Anets part, but its unbalanced how people who spend more time in PvP have less ways to aquire and maintain a custom arena than those whou mostly PvE.

Justin ODell.9517:

My understanding is we just want to gate the number of custom arenas because it’s a non-negligible cost to run. I don’t know if we ever expected this to be a major way to monetize PvP.

This isn’t my area so I’m probably wrong. :P

That’s still no excuse for permanently deleting custom arena ownership after a certain period of time. There’s no possible excuse for that.

I wish there was some way to convert Influence into Gold. You can then boost the influence gain from PvP and work with that.

Is nobody else baffled at the fact that he was able to talk to the entire company at once? And that was their reply? Boy, Anet sure sounds mean.

From a business perspective, it would be very, very inefficient to have hundreds/thousands of empty custom arenas lying around all the time. So essentially what Justin said. The price is probably closely tied to population and how many custom arenas we can actually use.

If most custom arenas are full, the price would probably drop a bit, or go on sale (I believe they did a few weeks ago, actually). If most are empty, the price would likely rise a bit.

But why does there need to be a price at all? Why can’t you create a custom room to play in that closes automatically when the last person leaves?

I know the mechanics aren’t the same, but take a FPS or fighting game or … most other online games for example: You make a custom room, play for a bit, and then leave when you’re done. Instead of kicking everyone right there and then, the room just closes when there’s no one in it anymore.

A simpler system like that would be a lot more fair and easy to manage if it’s possible to implement.

Sooooooo Funny..

Justin ODell.9517:

My understanding is we just want to gate the number of custom arenas because it’s a non-negligible cost to run.

So if that is the point why do have the pve people it so much easier to get the money to get a arena? In pve and wvw you get atleast drops and gold in spvp you get mmmhhh well….
So for the spvp crowd making it very hard to get that amount of money seems like flawless logic to me….not

Guild halls for tokens that we can buy with glory maybe?

Wildstar, Everquest next … COMING SOON !

Finally !

I’m the only one to wait since more than 1 years a new game mode in pvp ?

I finally find it, in an other game !

Ty for réactivity anet ! Enjoy

Custom arenas are just terribly made.
Anet needed something to monetize PvP, and custom arenas, honestly, where a good place to choose to do it.

BUT.
Custom arenas don’t do anything.
They literally dont’ solve a single issue GW2 has had short of ‘a place to duel’…

When custom arenas were coming out, from what I saw….
People were ecstatic because they thought they could seriously tweak maps to make new gamemodes.
People were ecstatic because they thought they could get a way to create servers for certain skill level of players (casual maps, competitive, exc.) since Anet’s match setup is broken (not matchmaking).
People were exstatic because the game might lean towards being more social like custom servers are in other games….

But they did nothing.
No one wanted token SPvP servers they could rename (and eventually cut skyhammer from.)
No one will pay for that.
And so they failed and Anet wasted a few months of time…

Ok, I have no idea how sever stuff etc. is working.

Why does it “cost” (on hardware / software / monetary side) more, when some people enter a (private) battleground, then when those people neter a dungeon?

i guess cause this privat thing have to be always there – even when noone is in

Proven.2854:

I wish there was some way to convert Influence into Gold. You can then boost the influence gain from PvP and work with that.

Well, you can buy Toxic boxes and sell the spores, but thats not exactly profitable.
The dyes you can make in PvP arent sellable as far as I know, and thats pretty much all there currently is.

Dissapointing :/.

Me and my guild were super excited for the custom arenas, because we just wanted a fun place to hang out on a map we wanted without randoms joining and randomly slapping us…

Well, it was alot of fun, for a month!

Gem prices went through the roof, and the few of us werent able to farm enough gold (most played omly pvp… So they literally had 0 gold).

I ovcasionally wanted to record/just hang out with a random friend and duel or something. “Hey, we can go to my guild’s custom arena, so we can duel without being interupted by randoms” – “OMG thats so awesome and usefull I wish I had a custom arena C:”

But 100 gold, or 20 euro per month, thats just insane :/.

-> add weapon/armor skins that are archives only through pvp but can be used in pve (like zenith skins)
-> add some decent way of making money in pvp
-> everyone suddenly wants to do pvp
-> add skins, icons and what not in gem store
-> ???
-> profit

after trying everything possible in game, at the end it is all about skins in gw2, i don’t understand why anet isn’t even trying to abuse that in pvp when it could be profitable for players (bigger community) as for anet (more $$$ from gem store)

yet for some reason they decided to go awkward way and make $$$ from custom arena…

Zomaarwat.3912:

The dyes you can make in PvP arent sellable as far as I know, and thats pretty much all there currently is.

The unidentified dyes you can forge are account-bound, yes – but if you identify them, they become standard dyes and can be put on the TP. Not even slightly reliable as a source of income, but if you hit on some of the rarer ones you can get a bit of gold back for your efforts.

i was thinking of buying the Custom Arena starter kit and then i found this thread. thank you to OP for highlighting this…..

i didn’t know there was a grace period of less than 2 weeks. shame really. if they (ANET) must put a grace period, make it 2 month. 2 weeks is just putting off potential customer like me. i’m holding from buying it for now. i’m not a hard core PvPer, but i like to PvP sometimes, and really love if i could just PvP with just my friends, but this… hmmmm….

Justin ODell.9517:

My understanding is we just want to gate the number of custom arenas because it’s a non-negligible cost to run. I don’t know if we ever expected this to be a major way to monetize PvP.

This isn’t my area so I’m probably wrong. :P

personally i think the monetization of the sPvP custom arenas are working as intended.

i still see a lot of custom arena in the sPvP game browser list.
this means there is a demand and paying for paying for the custom arena with gems.

i suggest that you guys do the same for guild halls.
i.e. buy guild hall starter kit with gems
i.e. buy guild hall time token with gems

monetize!

I let my custom arena lapse.

Going by the GDC presentation of how the world servers system is virtualized and the cloud is able to spawn and despawn virtual systems as needed, the idea of saving a custom arena being a cost issue makes no sense. One row in a custom arena database should be able to pop it in and out of existance, as needed.

Log-wise, if a custom arena is not being used, it’s not going to be filling up some storage space with log files.

If this isn’t how the custom arenas are deployed, then the method of deployment needs to be reviewed.

Whether custom arenas are well implemented, from a game perspective, is another story..

.. but having to keep paying to maintain it felt too much like a subscription cost for me.

The token system makes sense, but not the expiration.

garethh.3518:

Custom arenas are just terribly made.
Anet needed something to monetize PvP, and custom arenas, honestly, where a good place to choose to do it.

BUT.
Custom arenas don’t do anything.
They literally dont’ solve a single issue GW2 has had short of ‘a place to duel’…

When custom arenas were coming out, from what I saw….
People were ecstatic because they thought they could seriously tweak maps to make new gamemodes.
People were ecstatic because they thought they could get a way to create servers for certain skill level of players (casual maps, competitive, exc.) since Anet’s match setup is broken (not matchmaking).
People were exstatic because the game might lean towards being more social like custom servers are in other games….

But they did nothing.
No one wanted token SPvP servers they could rename (and eventually cut skyhammer from.)
No one will pay for that.
And so they failed and Anet wasted a few months of time…

this was also my understanding from announcement to patch day.
i still would say i’d buy one if they give us the features needed.
i did some suggestions in a post several months ago how it could/should have been, never got an answer if it is even possible (but i think it is)
CA as they are right now are just not reasonable to buy/rent

i found my suggestion-thread
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/i-would-buy-a-custom-arena-if/first#post2534629

i think those are not bad and would find many advocates