Guild Wars 2

I’ve seen in a lot of topics recently that state that the reason WvW is largely ignored is due to the fact that it generates almost no revenue for NCSoft; so why would they invest time to satisfy the player base that enjoys that game mode? It is true that NCSoft is in it for the money as for every normal company, especially game publisher companies. So that reason alone may be exactly why WvW is being ignored, it truly produces absolutely no obvious and direct revenue for NCSoft. Yes I specifically blame NCSoft as they are the publishing company that dictates everything ANet does.

NCSoft has always shown that if they don’t generate any revenue from a game or more specifically, a game type, they’ll neglect it. WvW is more or less one of the major reasons why my friends and I decided to buy this game and it is a major reason why I still play this game and I believe this to be very true for many others. WvW is also a major reason for guilds to be formed.

(Sure there is PvE but there is only so much for a guild to do in PvE that provides them with a nonstop activity. And yes, I know some of you will also say that guilds are for camaraderie and that is awesome, great for you…you get to talk with friends for a while, then what? Most likely you will log off because the game is quite boring and standing in one place typing the whole time can be done at a social networking website. A game is meant to be played and the forming of guilds is for people to play together. If guilds have nothing to do together as a large group, its purpose is near nonexistent.)

Back on topic (above paragraph is a counterargument for those who like to put in useless arguments), but sadly in order for WvW to be given any attention by NCSoft so that they could allow ANet to begin production for WvW improvements, WvW must have something that players would really want to buy from the gem store that is completely exclusive to WvW. So now I ask the WvW community, what items could possibly be sold in the gem store that would be exclusive to WvW’s purpose and that players would want to buy but also isn’t pay-to-win?

TL;DR: Read the last sentence on the above paragraph…

Edit: In no way do I want NCSoft to gain money that they don’t deserve but for the sake of WvW getting some attention, I feel that this should be discussed.

I agree, wvw has become rather stale with the same matchups and the same places to build siege every week. Edge of the mists is a great fun addition but its getting a bit full of politics and people screaming about match fixing which is kind of impossible but a map full of people screaming is an annoyance. WvW needs some new maps on rotation but as stated – anet gets nothing from it. I feel that WvW is the real endgame though, its where you just sort of get drawn to and it is a hell of a lot of fun. It needs refreshing and a tie in to the gem store would be great but i’m stumped as to what to add – maybe keeps get a different look if owned by your guild? different wall textures etc.

Hmm solution tie in to gem store… Map packs, for Pugs/guilds, both different for the style of play where the smaller guilds/pugs get type A and larger well established guilds get Type B, and later add type X Hardcore… Just a suggestion though :-P

Treebeard The Swift.9620:

I agree, wvw has become rather stale with the same matchups and the same places to build siege every week. Edge of the mists is a great fun addition but its getting a bit full of politics and people screaming about match fixing which is kind of impossible but a map full of people screaming is an annoyance. WvW needs some new maps on rotation but as stated – anet gets nothing from it. I feel that WvW is the real endgame though, its where you just sort of get drawn to and it is a hell of a lot of fun. It needs refreshing and a tie in to the gem store would be great but i’m stumped as to what to add – maybe keeps get a different look if owned by your guild? different wall textures etc.

Appearance changes sounds viable and refreshing but I’m just wondering, would it be just the skin of the structure being changed or would the layout too?

Sanrio.1453:

Hmm solution tie in to gem store… Map packs, for Pugs/guilds, both different for the style of play where the smaller guilds/pugs get type A and larger well established guilds get Type B, and later add type X Hardcore… Just a suggestion though :-P

Map packs would be cool but I feel would be hard to implement to WvW. It sounds more like a PvP change but with GvG. If ANet wants to get into the e-sports scene, this would undoubtedly be a better idea that what they are trying to do with sPvP right now. I find GvG to be a better watch for e-sports considering it would require more strategizing and more focus on team movement, placement, maneuvers, and also the individual.

It isn’t easy to come up with an idea that isn’t game changing or game breaking, with all rewards tied to the game and everything in the store is strictly cosmetic what are peoples motivation? The only thing I see that would be the biggest influence or incentive is a lion key strictly for the biggest in game chest in WvW and the key is only available in the store and the chest only in WvW and the rewards would have to be insane for people to want to open it!

If we are talking ways for them to make money it could not be something to that would split players up. The only ideas I have would be visual.
1. commander tag color changer- changes color of the tag
2. guild commander tag- makes it so only guild members can see your tag
3. tower/keep skins- when your guild claims a tower it takes the appearance of the chosen skin.
4. guild emblem/effects pack- random assortment of emblems and effects for your guild emblem
That is all I can think of right now. But I also don’t want to see WvW become exclusively for guild play because all those pugs people yell at and insult is one less player for your server.

Note: I’m a pug 95% of the time and I can solo towers but have still been called rally bait.

The easiest I can think of would be siege weapon skin that you can activate in a similar way you activate/deactivate a finisher. They already have some skins in uses for Dolyack and catapult throwing gifts for Christmas. They could just go wild with the idea…

That being said, there isn’t that much that is exclusive to PVE in the store anyway. A lot of what is sold is just as viable in all part of the game. If WvW is successful in keeping their players, it mean it keep them as possible customers too. We see a lot of people in WvW who use skins that were on sale in the store. Boosters are also just as good.

But, yeah, they could add more specific stuff to WvW.

Another idea I just thought of would be NPC skins to claimed resources. Why not have garden gnomes to build your tower’s walls?

Treebeard The Swift.9620:

I agree, wvw has become rather stale with the same matchups and the same places to build siege every week. Edge of the mists is a great fun addition but its getting a bit full of politics and people screaming about match fixing which is kind of impossible but a map full of people screaming is an annoyance. WvW needs some new maps on rotation but as stated – anet gets nothing from it. I feel that WvW is the real endgame though, its where you just sort of get drawn to and it is a hell of a lot of fun. It needs refreshing and a tie in to the gem store would be great but i’m stumped as to what to add – maybe keeps get a different look if owned by your guild? different wall textures etc.

I like this idea! Or perhaps you unlock skins for siege weapons to make them look real funky and stuff when you drop them?

WvW is the end game, and well PvP as well, I wish they would just treat it as such. They are the only game mode where things dynamically change each time you log on.

PvE on the other hand, pretty much ends once you’ve completed the map (like living story). There is only so much you can do.. explore the map, complete the achievements, then what?

I honestly don’t see how they can squeeze more money out of living story content than they could from WvW/guild content if they really put their mind to it.

DeadlySynz.3471:

WvW is the end game, and well PvP as well, I wish they would just treat it as such. They are the only game mode where things dynamically change each time you log on.

PvE on the other hand, pretty much ends once you’ve completed the map (like living story). There is only so much you can do.. explore the map, complete the achievements, then what?

I honestly don’t see how they can squeeze more money out of living story content than they could from WvW/guild content if they really put their mind to it.

Legendary+ascended+ new skins from dry tops and stuff. Pve offers exclusive rewards for hardcore players and the thing with pve is that there is no competition. Without competition people look for cosmetics even more, while in wvw people lower settings for smoother fps thus rendering cosmetic pretty useless unless you have a beast of computer. The lag and fps are also the reason some players avoid wvw completely, while everyone enjoys pve to some extent since it is unavoidable.

DeadlySynz.3471:

WvW is the end game, and well PvP as well, I wish they would just treat it as such. They are the only game mode where things dynamically change each time you log on.

PvE on the other hand, pretty much ends once you’ve completed the map (like living story). There is only so much you can do.. explore the map, complete the achievements, then what?

I honestly don’t see how they can squeeze more money out of living story content than they could from WvW/guild content if they really put their mind to it.

This, I mean the title of the game says it all… It’s not called GuildEnvirontmentplay 2 … I mean we have that in pretty much Every MMO! I hope they read the forums and decide to focus on why this is and will continue to be the best game ever….. They have all the pve they need, I hope they start focusing on the PvP and WvW because that is there staple for the game!

Sanrio.1453:

It isn’t easy to come up with an idea that isn’t game changing or game breaking, with all rewards tied to the game and everything in the store is strictly cosmetic what are peoples motivation? The only thing I see that would be the biggest influence or incentive is a lion key strictly for the biggest in game chest in WvW and the key is only available in the store and the chest only in WvW and the rewards would have to be insane for people to want to open it!

This would be a good idea on the Keep Lords. Make the key cost say 250 Gems.

1) WvW xp boosters – There needs to be an incentive for them. The ranks and abilities are nice but after you get so far there is nothing left to spend them on. To remedy this, and make those kinds of boosters more appealing, there needs a new WvW trait lines that don’t end but get progressively more expensive with rank points.. Things like a Gold Find %, MF %, etc. Also, it would help if there was a way to showcase your WvW rank to add more appeal.

2) Unique Commander Tags – By this I dont mean simply different colors, different color tags need to be in the game by default. Having different kinds of purchasable icons though, could be appealing. Ones like a dagger icon, Charr face icon, Quaggan face icon, guild emblem icon, basic symbols, cross bones, and so on.

3) Infinite Use Siege Reskin Potion – Simply different endless potions that give you a special buff for a few mins, that any siege site you throw down has a unique look to it corresponding to the potion. This doesn’t change the stats of the siege and it would still say if it’s reg or superior, it just looks different and might fire a different looking projectiles. The looks of the siege last until it despawns or is destroyed.

Something like this in terms of different looks.

Sanrio.1453:

It isn’t easy to come up with an idea that isn’t game changing or game breaking, with all rewards tied to the game and everything in the store is strictly cosmetic what are peoples motivation? The only thing I see that would be the biggest influence or incentive is a lion key strictly for the biggest in game chest in WvW and the key is only available in the store and the chest only in WvW and the rewards would have to be insane for people to want to open it!

I agree with this as well. But the rewards from the chests may have to be weapons or back pieces because, as someone posted earlier, due to lag and a drop in fps, a lot of people lower their character model settings and the only things that aren’t affected by those settings are the back pieces and weapons.

Elithion.3761:

Sanrio.1453:

It isn’t easy to come up with an idea that isn’t game changing or game breaking, with all rewards tied to the game and everything in the store is strictly cosmetic what are peoples motivation? The only thing I see that would be the biggest influence or incentive is a lion key strictly for the biggest in game chest in WvW and the key is only available in the store and the chest only in WvW and the rewards would have to be insane for people to want to open it!

I agree with this as well. But the rewards from the chests may have to be weapons or back pieces because, as someone posted earlier, due to lag and a drop in fps, a lot of people lower their character model settings and the only things that aren’t affected by those settings are the back pieces and weapons.

Other things could be for levelling alts to specific levels, rare mini’s, incredible weapon skins… To keep in line with the store it would be like a Gigantor of a lions chest, and let’s face it people love Easter egg stuff :-D

Hmm… How about WvW Scoreboards? Since WvW is primarily a competitive environment, how about a weekly scoreboard that keeps track of whoever on a particular server has gotten:

1. Most Enemy Invader kills

2. Most Objectives Defended

3. Most Yaks killed/escorted

etc. etc. These scores are only visible to people on their own server. Every day, you could log on and see if you’re still the top Yakslapper on TC, for example, or whether your great rival “Beefy McYakslapper” has overtaken you during the night.

It would also be a way for individual players to gain fame and renown for doing things that match their playstyle. If you’re constantly in the Top 10 Camp Capturer and Yakslapper scoreboard, for example, you might gain a reputation as a good havoc player.

Zaxares.5419:

Hmm… How about WvW Scoreboards? Since WvW is primarily a competitive environment, how about a weekly scoreboard that keeps track of whoever on a particular server has gotten:

1. Most Enemy Invader kills

2. Most Objectives Defended

3. Most Yaks killed/escorted

etc. etc. These scores are only visible to people on their own server. Every day, you could log on and see if you’re still the top Yakslapper on TC, for example, or whether your great rival “Beefy McYakslapper” has overtaken you during the night.

It would also be a way for individual players to gain fame and renown for doing things that match their playstyle. If you’re constantly in the Top 10 Camp Capturer and Yakslapper scoreboard, for example, you might gain a reputation as a good havoc player.

That would be good and provide another level in which players can get more invested into WvW, but what are the rewards? and how does that provide a service that is able to be bought from the gem store?

Sanrio.1453:

Elithion.3761:

Sanrio.1453:

It isn’t easy to come up with an idea that isn’t game changing or game breaking, with all rewards tied to the game and everything in the store is strictly cosmetic what are peoples motivation? The only thing I see that would be the biggest influence or incentive is a lion key strictly for the biggest in game chest in WvW and the key is only available in the store and the chest only in WvW and the rewards would have to be insane for people to want to open it!

I agree with this as well. But the rewards from the chests may have to be weapons or back pieces because, as someone posted earlier, due to lag and a drop in fps, a lot of people lower their character model settings and the only things that aren’t affected by those settings are the back pieces and weapons.

Other things could be for levelling alts to specific levels, rare mini’s, incredible weapon skins… To keep in line with the store it would be like a Gigantor of a lions chest, and let’s face it people love Easter egg stuff :-D

In general, random but cool rewards for being dedicated to WvW would be interesting. Because of how unrestrictive WvW is in terms of appearances, it is a huge gold pot that can be easily tapped into :P I for one would buy the keys if it meant that it would give me access to exclusive WvW things.

Anet gives 2 kittens about WvW. WvW is about to be done. After 2 years of the same crap, might be time to move on to something better and fresh. Until we see solid commitment from Anet, WvW will be the same. Chances are, I will not buy their next product.

Prosecutor.1457:

Anet gives 2 kittens about WvW. WvW is about to be done. After 2 years of the same crap, might be time to move on to something better and fresh. Until we see solid commitment from Anet, WvW will be the same. Chances are, I will not buy their next product.

They don’t care because NCSoft doesn’t care. NCSoft doesn’t care because they don’t get money from it. What this topic addresses is how they can gain revenue from the game type so that the game mode can finally get some TLC that it so desperately needs.

random thoughts….

Personally I think that it would be very, VERY tricky to add items in the gem store that would be exclusive to WvW that would not be pay to win. However thinking on it a little… perhaps not…

I think having a “Keep” or “tower” skin would cause alot of issues technically. HOWEVER….

Siege skins… now we have something. 4 to 800 gems or so. for a Permenant skin that when you drop an arrow cart, It looks like a confetti cannon. will all the poof and stuff. (( think Quip )) Arrows themselves are the same. but send them all with a little oompa.

Catapults… water balloon launcher??

Flame ram… an actual Flaming Ram you tell to head butt the door?

Treb…. a Big giant that stand there and throws rocks and cows?

you get the idea.

Skinning keeps would be tough, But skinning Siege might be a far better way to go about it.

Personally i would also tend to agree that there needs to be some WvW EXCLUSIVE skins via either a metric crap ton of Badges. or Specific rank or.. whatever. Make them hard to get. so that when you see some one with it you know they have put in their time.

If you want to make money, personally i think the siege skins are the way to go. If you want to be more invested and have others be more invested. Give something that you can ONLY get in WvW.

Elithion.3761:

I’ve seen in a lot of topics recently that state that the reason WvW is largely ignored is due to the fact that it generates almost no revenue for NCSoft

Not sure why this idea has spread. Players that are primarily WvW still buy skins, new hairstyles, and spend gems to get Legendaries. WvW players have, in addition, finishers to buy (at the very least, these used to sell very well).

In fact, my guess is that they spend more real money on gems than the average PvE player since WvW doesn’t net you nearly as much gold per hour as PvE so WvW players can’t convert as much gold to gems.

In fact, I think one can argue that WvW can make _more_money (relative to number of players) than PvE because it demands less dev attention. After two years of no new content, there are still people in WvW — would that be true of PvE? (Of course, there’s a limit to how far one can go in terms of giving zero support — WvW is currently in massive decline).

Ropechef.6192:

random thoughts….

Personally I think that it would be very, VERY tricky to add items in the gem store that would be exclusive to WvW that would not be pay to win. However thinking on it a little… perhaps not…

I think having a “Keep” or “tower” skin would cause alot of issues technically. HOWEVER….

Siege skins… now we have something. 4 to 800 gems or so. for a Permenant skin that when you drop an arrow cart, It looks like a confetti cannon. will all the poof and stuff. (( think Quip )) Arrows themselves are the same. but send them all with a little oompa.

Catapults… water balloon launcher??

Flame ram… an actual Flaming Ram you tell to head butt the door?

Treb…. a Big giant that stand there and throws rocks and cows?

you get the idea.

Skinning keeps would be tough, But skinning Siege might be a far better way to go about it.

Personally i would also tend to agree that there needs to be some WvW EXCLUSIVE skins via either a metric crap ton of Badges. or Specific rank or.. whatever. Make them hard to get. so that when you see some one with it you know they have put in their time.

If you want to make money, personally i think the siege skins are the way to go. If you want to be more invested and have others be more invested. Give something that you can ONLY get in WvW.

I would think both are able to be done without much difficulty. Looking at how skins and other cosmetic changes are consistently placed into the gem store shows that both are very plausible. However one thing that does cause worry is that player vs player environments tend to contain people who care more about how useful an item is in how it can improve their ability in a fight rather than cosmetics. In that sense, after a while, maybe more “useful” items may need to be added in gem stores but it still cannot present a pay-to-sin situation. That in itself may seem to be the reason why it is so hard to create items for WvW for the gem store. But whether difficult or not, it should be done as others have posted above, WvW and sPvP is more or less the end game of GW2, being the last consistent game mode available by far while still able to provide a new experience each time. After discussing this a few minutes ago with guild mates and friends, a main reason why many would stick to the game is the player vs player aspect. I wish ANet and NCSoft would see that. Your ideas though makes me laugh just thinking about it because it would be very entertaining to see an actual flaming ram replacing the normal flame rams. It would stem some interesting jokes to say the least.

Lord Kuru.3685:

Elithion.3761:

I’ve seen in a lot of topics recently that state that the reason WvW is largely ignored is due to the fact that it generates almost no revenue for NCSoft

Not sure why this idea has spread. Players that are primarily WvW still buy skins, new hairstyles, and spend gems to get Legendaries. WvW players have, in addition, finishers to buy (at the very least, these used to sell very well).

In fact, my guess is that they spend more real money on gems than the average PvE player since WvW doesn’t net you nearly as much gold per hour as PvE so WvW players can’t convert as much gold to gems.

In fact, I think one can argue that WvW can make _more_money (relative to number of players) than PvE because it demands less dev attention. After two years of no new content, there are still people in WvW — would that be true of PvE? (Of course, there’s a limit to how far one can go in terms of giving zero support — WvW is currently in massive decline).

I am willing to bet that what you say about WvW players buying more gems than PvE players is 100% correct but the fact is that it may not be so obvious. I doubt the company can see where those finishers are being used. They could think that the skins are used in PvE by RPers or by people wanting to just look cool and matching in the open world. And by looking at how they really want sPvP to become the next new cool e-sport, it seems that they would think finishers are used more by sPvPers. All those items are very generalized and they only see the amount of money that they make as people buy them (yes you could say the same for WvW too which is why “exclusive” WvW items can be done to differentiate where the playerbase’s interests are in). Items in the gem store that are obviously meant only for WvW may change that.

Lord Kuru.3685:

Elithion.3761:

I’ve seen in a lot of topics recently that state that the reason WvW is largely ignored is due to the fact that it generates almost no revenue for NCSoft

Not sure why this idea has spread. Players that are primarily WvW still buy skins, new hairstyles, and spend gems to get Legendaries. WvW players have, in addition, finishers to buy (at the very least, these used to sell very well).

In fact, my guess is that they spend more real money on gems than the average PvE player since WvW doesn’t net you nearly as much gold per hour as PvE so WvW players can’t convert as much gold to gems.

In fact, I think one can argue that WvW can make _more_money (relative to number of players) than PvE because it demands less dev attention. After two years of no new content, there are still people in WvW — would that be true of PvE? (Of course, there’s a limit to how far one can go in terms of giving zero support — WvW is currently in massive decline).

Hmm, look at the old PvE maps that haven’t been touched for 2 years. Not a lot happening there.

Personal Towers/Keeps

To keep dev time and effort to a minimum, simply offer all (or nearly all) of the current fortifications found in the PvE world for sale as blueprints on the gem store. This way, no new models have to be built; just repurpose the existing ones. Maybe new ones can be added later. For now, let’s just work with what we already have. Of course, closed gates would have to be added to all of them; but that shouldn’t prove too difficult.

Give buyers a “showroom” where they can take a virtual tour of each model. Possibly make them astronomically expensive to (a) encourage guilds to pool resources to purchase them and (b) discourage glutting the maps with these new fortifications.

Then, add construction packs, resource packs, whatever-you-want-to-call them to the gem store. Each blueprint will require X amount of Y resources to build (could be multiple resources; lumber, masonry, etc.). Each pack is usable once per WvW match and will recharge at the start of the next match. A single player can purchase multiple packs if they wish.

Once in WvW, a player can throw down the blueprint which lays out a barebones foundation for that fortification. A player may only place one blueprint in all of WvW; regardless of what map they’re on. It would work similar to the traps; you can only place one at a time. Unlike the traps, though, the foundation will persist even if you leave the map on which it was placed. If you try to place a second blueprint, the game will ask if you want to delete the previous blueprint that was placed; but only if the former blueprint has not been constructed yet. If any construction has taken place on the first blueprint, the second one can not be placed at all.

Furthermore, the foundations can not be placed:

1) Within a certain distance of the existing supply camps, towers, keeps, Stonemist Castle, or any other player-placed foundation.

2) To block existing access paths. For example, no blocking off the archway entrance to Vale camp.

3) Along Dolyak caravan routes.

Players then use their gem-store-purchased resource packs to begin construction of the fortification. A progress meter or counter will display the number of resource packs of each type needed to complete construction and how many have been put into it to date. Any allied player can do this; not just those who are members of the same guild as the player who placed the foundation.

On completion of the construction, the fortification’s heraldry, banners, icons, etc. will use the banner of the guild the player was representing when they placed the blueprint. It will not change even if the player switches guild representation after placing the foundation.

There will be no NPC guards associated with the structure. However, its walls and gate can be upgraded just like the current towers and keeps of WvW and siege can be built inside. Dolyaks, though, will not make supply deliveries to the new fortification; even if the blueprint was placed along a Dolyak’s route (assuming this was even possible). Instead, players will have to run the supply in themselves and deposit it into the supply depot.

These new fortifications do not contribute to PPT. Rather, they will provide guild influence every 15 minute tick while they remain owned by the server to which the associated guild belongs. If the fortification comes under attack and there are guild members who belong to the fort’s guild helping to defend it, that guild will earn one guild merit for each successful “Defend the Tower/Keep” event that concludes there. Also, the amount of guild influence earned scales with the number of upgrades at the fortification.

If, on the other hand, the fortification is successfully captured by an enemy server, all the guilds represented by the players who participated in the siege earn guild influence and possibly merits, too. Enemies can not claim the tower/keep for themselves, though; this is to prevent in-fighting on a server over who gets the privilege of claiming it when multiple guilds (as represented by their members) participated in the capture.

If the server to whom the tower was originally allied manage to capture the fortification back, then the guild originally associated with the structure returns to earning guild influence.

(continued)

This topic makes a kittenumption, that it is true that WvW players don’t generate revenue.

My personal belief is that the company isn’t asking the right questions of their data. The long-time near daily WvW players (might as well call yourselves hardcore) are forced to either buy gems for gold or farm gold in PvE to afford WvW. It can then make us look like PvE players. Maybe they break us out from the PvE players and maybe they don’t. Just my belief that they don’t adequately break us out in their analysis.

Or maybe it really is true that we don’t spend as much as PvE players.

Dont forget GW2 got only 2 groups of players.
1) PvE/WvW players as Anet did not distinguished them from start and I doubt they started later
2) sPvp

Hule.8794:

Dont forget GW2 got only 2 groups of players.
1) PvE/WvW players as Anet did not distinguished them from start and I doubt they started later
2) sPvp

Yeah. This is almost certainly correct, and a major part of the problem.

(continued)

Lastly, the guild which is associated with the tower/keep may issue an open challenge to any guild that wishes to accept. This can take the form of a banner outside the fortification or an NPC herald to interact with, etc. Once a guild accepts the challenge, they can pass into the tower/keep (even though their server doesn’t control it)

The lord’s room of the tower/keep is enveloped in a shield that prevents anyone from entering the room and attacking the lord while the GvG is taking place. Perhaps the shield extends to the entire tower/keep so as to sequester the GvG taking place within from the rest of WvW.

From there, we can spin off new suggestions of what the GvG parameters will be, the mechanics of managing the GvG within the confines of the personal tower/keep, and rewards for the victors (if any, beyond bragging rights).

In closing:

1) Adds a considerable number of WvW-specific gem store items which – in the case of the construction packs – will need to be purchased in rather large quantities. NCSoft profits and maybe we see improvements made to WvW beyond just this suggestion.

2) Gives players pride-of-ownership and a sense of accomplishment in constructing their own personal tower/keep.

3) Adds more variety and strategies to the WvW maps; if only marginally. The new personal towers/keeps won’t always be of the same type nor in the same location match to match.

4) Gives guilds an option for earning guild influence and possibly guild merits while playing WvW.

5) Adds an option for a form of GvG.

6) Avoids pay-to-win as the personal towers/keeps do not contribute to PPT and have other restrictions on placement which prevent them from being used to troll a server (enemy or allied).

7) Doesn’t require much dev time and effort since the models for the towers/keeps already exist as well as the current mechanics governing towers/keeps in WvW.

I personally have bought gems with real money for gold (for craft-leveling a few toons gear for them), several server transfers, a few armor skins, several finishers, a set of town clothes (that didn’t work for awhile in WvW), and toys (that also didn’t work for awhile in WvW).

Why? I can afford to spend the money but not the time to grind PvE over playing WvW.

Read the GlassDoor reviews for ArenaNet.

The devs are wonderful and have tons of solutions of their own. They’re being held back, however.

I like a few ideas in this thread. In particular:

1. Adding a special Black Lion chest, that can be dropped by Keep Lords. WvWers would buy keys in the Gem Store.

2. An endless trait line to spend your rank points for receiving more gold (in %) for every event you are doing in WvW. A good reason to buy Wxp-boosters.

3. Some cool looking skins for siege weapons in the Gem Store.

WvW is the only reason I am still playing this game, although I enjoy the other parts like PvP and PvE aswell. Please don’t let WvW die, Anet.

Jarrix.8234:

Read the GlassDoor reviews for ArenaNet.

The devs are wonderful and have tons of solutions of their own. They’re being held back, however.

Aye, it isnt that we arent buying enough things with gems. In fact people are, it’s not just PvE players who want skins.

But sadly it doesnt matter how much money we spend on gems, as said above, if you read the reviews, the problem is the management; they dont have a clue! And if you read the reviews it’s pretty cleasr why all the old devs have left.

Once you read those reviews you know that this game is right now just choking on it’s last few breaths, spitting out a living story update every two weeks. But that isnt enough, what is the point of releasing an update only to see your graph spike for a couple of days and then drop back down as players can finish the content in a few hours and so go back to their other games.

It’s a sad state of affairs and it seems the staff are too scared of standing up to the management to tell them they dont have a clue and doing things wrong. And for those that have tried the management simply do not want to hear it.

Remember that Everything is Awesome.

Elithion.3761:

……. So now I ask the WvW community, what items could possibly be sold in the gem store that would be exclusive to WvW’s purpose and that players would want to buy but also isn’t pay-to-win?

TL;DR: Read the last sentence on the above paragraph…

Edit: In no way do I want NCSoft to gain money that they don’t deserve but for the sake of WvW getting some attention, I feel that this should be discussed.

i will quote only on this and i will answer in personal base , not what i am hearing from others.

personal i want from devs to put some logic in their actions ….

examples :

1.. maintenance oil …. materials cost : 25 gold . what it offers ? for 5-10 min everyone take for 1,5 hour something that alone can craft / buy with 10 silver .

why someone to craft or buy something with so huge materials cost for only 1,5 hour ? to help others ? are you kitten me dear dev ?

2. trinkets . there some situations where an exotic trinket + upgrade has better and more useful stats than ascended . i am not going deep on this but there are and posted in official forums too.

3. wvw rewards : all rewards are not changed at all after eotm …. the only reason to stay in wvw maps is for server’s pride , not for rewards .after megaserver system this pride is going lower day by day ….

4. armor looks . personal view : armors in TP. except krytan , everything is total garbage . there is not an single armor look to make feel a player for his character a real medieval warrior . all are fancies , lights and not as good as the most of dungeon armors.

5. salvage wvw weapon/armor . i really can not find a single reason , why can not salvaged something that the player spend gold to take it …. lower the materials incoming to not pass the gold cost dear dev , do not forbid it please .

6. exotic vs ascended stats : the time and money that someone spends to craft ascended is not noticed anywhere in game . right now a 10 men with exotic overkill 5 men with ascended ….easy . this is a real bad game design example .there are more but i don’t want name them now .

7. professional behavior : i don’t want see again photo from devs to play with anet icon in any wvw server. this behavior lowers the respect for them . you want involved ? create a /gm chat and speak with anyone by this way when you want to communicate with players like all other mmo companies do. there is a reason for this distance between players and devs / gm . this called professional behavior.

8,9, etc …. i can write wall of texts but i stop here.

so for the main question what i want from them to buy ?

the answer is: fix the problems that created your illogical stance against players / game and i/we ( this is something that most of people say ) will buy gems again . we will find ways to spend them or not ….. until now , i bought gems only to help the game , not because i really need them ……

Ultimaistanza.4793:

1) WvW xp boosters – There needs to be an incentive for them. The ranks and abilities are nice but after you get so far there is nothing left to spend them on. To remedy this, and make those kinds of boosters more appealing, there needs a new WvW trait lines that don’t end but get progressively more expensive with rank points.. Things like a Gold Find %, MF %, etc. Also, it would help if there was a way to showcase your WvW rank to add more appeal.

2) Unique Commander Tags – By this I dont mean simply different colors, different color tags need to be in the game by default. Having different kinds of purchasable icons though, could be appealing. Ones like a dagger icon, Charr face icon, Quaggan face icon, guild emblem icon, basic symbols, cross bones, and so on.

3) Infinite Use Siege Reskin Potion – Simply different endless potions that give you a special buff for a few mins, that any siege site you throw down has a unique look to it corresponding to the potion. This doesn’t change the stats of the siege and it would still say if it’s reg or superior, it just looks different and might fire a different looking projectiles. The looks of the siege last until it despawns or is destroyed.

Something like this in terms of different looks.

for siege skin im afraid they would use the scorpion cannon thing from eotm >_>

IMO the lack of new elements/mechanics in game, also limit the expansion of the TP.
Looks the game was developed to be a basic game at beginning and after release stuff would come to improve the game over time.
LS got fixed (looks like it), whats next? WvW? :]

Declarations of War — Create a new instance like OS or simply replicate a randomly selected portion of a WvW map and load it into an instance. Allow guilds to declare war with another guild and these guilds will be given a new option on the WvW borderland list to go into this newly generated borderland. Allow it to work beyond server boundries like the mega servers.

You then sell these Declarations in stacks of ten. You can then distribute these Declarations to anyone you want in your guild and when someone with the declaration joins the new map it is consumed and that player can queue for that map for the remainder of that week.

This way guilds can war each other without a gem investment and this does nothing but maybe add some excitement to the normal WvW scene (perhaps introduce special WvW only finishers that activate against waring guilds). Or they can buy the above mentioned tickets and their guild members can queue up to a private borderland and have a week long GvG.

To OP:
I believe your opinion is biased and wrong and here’s why:

First off, NCsoft does not make the decisions about GW2. It’s solely in the hands of ANET. So your continuous use of their publishers name as basis for your argument completely invalidates your post.

However, I do think there is some merit in the argument. The more a department (in this case WvW) generates in revenue, the better the chance that particular department will have a team of developers devoted to it. Right now, it seems that the indications are the WvW team consists of 2-3 people who are not solely focused on it. If there is a larger playerbase participating in WvW and providing the company (ANET) with revenue, then they would look into increasing the support for that game type.

In any case it’s a chicken before the egg conundrum. Would the players sacrifice more for better support later? Would ANET sacrifice more resources now for more players later? I don’t think either would do so at this point in time. It’s starting to look like we should wait for an expansion before we see meaningful changes to the WvW system.

Skins for siege weapons and stuff isn’t a really great incentive to enter and stay in WvW either.
Rewards for winning and penalty for losing should be bigger I think.
Do you have sleepless nights because you’re afraid the enemy will capture everything? Probably not. So make it that WvW actually matters, cause it barely matters right now.
Server bonus is cool, but you are still enjoying them even when you are losing and they don’t make the game unplayable either. Server pride? completely meaningless.

I was thinking about some server wide discount if you were too win.
Which has to have a bigger effect than the current server bonus.
Siege weapons and repairing walls could require 20~50% less supply in the next match up for a few days.
But to give pve players an incentive too, something like lowering the required dungeon tokens by 20%, maybe fractals too (though then the fractal shop has to be revamped first) Crafting requiring 20% less mats instead of x% to get critical craft/gather 1 extra node..
And possibly even lowering cash shop items by 10%.
To avoid everyone transfering to a winning server some features like increased cooldown on transfering or no transfer allowed during the discount period have to be added too.

From the FA shoutbox:
“too bad we can’t put guild mottos on banners in keep/twrs. Imagine us all having #sendmagtoT3 in every banner”

WTB in the gem store.

An anti-finisher. Been suggested before but I’ll add it here.

This would be awesome. It wouldn’t have any actual efffect on gameplay – its just a visual effect.

An anti-finisher of a jack in the box, or a butt farting at you, or a great big middle finger would be sweet to throw up at someone when you get stomped.

And even I would buy that in the Gem Store!

Altie.4571:

To OP:
I believe your opinion is biased and wrong and here’s why:

First off, NCsoft does not make the decisions about GW2. It’s solely in the hands of ANET. So your continuous use of their publishers name as basis for your argument completely invalidates your post.

However, I do think there is some merit in the argument. The more a department (in this case WvW) generates in revenue, the better the chance that particular department will have a team of developers devoted to it. Right now, it seems that the indications are the WvW team consists of 2-3 people who are not solely focused on it. If there is a larger playerbase participating in WvW and providing the company (ANET) with revenue, then they would look into increasing the support for that game type.

In any case it’s a chicken before the egg conundrum. Would the players sacrifice more for better support later? Would ANET sacrifice more resources now for more players later? I don’t think either would do so at this point in time. It’s starting to look like we should wait for an expansion before we see meaningful changes to the WvW system.

However income from the games they publish is held by them (NCSoft). Where that revenue is allotted would possibly be determined by them as well, would it not? The basis of my argument and what my whole post is trying to get at is that WvW is largely ignored because it generates almost no revenue. Or at least none that blatantly indicates that WvW players are the ones spending.

Because there is no way that makes a clear line stating WvW players are buying gems for the sake of playing WvW, it could be seen that the gems are being bought by people who wish to use them in PvE or in any other game mode that isn’t WvW. If I failed to make it clear earlier, you have my humble apologies but I will say this again, the point of this topic/post is to ask the community what items would they be interested in buying from the gem store that is obviously meant to be used in WvW but would not break the “balance” that is established in game (basically not pay-to-win).

Johje Holan.4607:

An anti-finisher. Been suggested before but I’ll add it here.

This would be awesome. It wouldn’t have any actual efffect on gameplay – its just a visual effect.

An anti-finisher of a jack in the box, or a butt farting at you, or a great big middle finger would be sweet to throw up at someone when you get stomped.

And even I would buy that in the Gem Store!

I’d buy that for all the times that I got surprise-runned-over by a zerg while roaming, just for laughs haha.

Some things on top of my mind, especially catered to WvW players but nonetheless useful in PvE too:

- A special Satchel which occupy just 1 slot in the inventory, in which a player can store a full equipment set (armor, trinkets, weapons) and with the right click + equip swap all the equipment that the player is wearing at the moment with the one inside the satchel. Since WvW players usually bring with themselves at least 2 equipment sets (for example, one useful when roaming and the other one when zerging), this item would be a nice addition.

- Full retrait/equipment change, a player can buy single slots in which to store a complete setup (traits + equipment) that can be changed as fast as two clicks of the mouse. The equipment must be in the inventory ofc, and ckittene the equipment inside a Satchel if the player has one.

- Permanent sigils/rune on items. For a charge, you can add another sigil/rune on a piece of equipment which can be used forever. For example, on my weapon I can equip first a sigil of Fire, then buy the gem store unlock, use it on the weapon, and then add another sigil, for example a sigil of Bloodlust. After that, I can switch freely on that weapon between Fire and Bloodlust.

These ideas stem from the fact that WvW players are the ones most “obsessed” (in a positive way) with build performance, and a lot less interested in skins, which, as pointed out by other people in this same thread, usually can’t be fully appreciated since most players lowers the settings to get the most fps out of the game.

I’m sure other things useful with build change comfort can be thought, without resorting to the pay-to-win mentality.

Ropechef.6192:

random thoughts….

Personally I think that it would be very, VERY tricky to add items in the gem store that would be exclusive to WvW that would not be pay to win. However thinking on it a little… perhaps not…

I think having a “Keep” or “tower” skin would cause alot of issues technically. HOWEVER….

Siege skins… now we have something. 4 to 800 gems or so. for a Permenant skin that when you drop an arrow cart, It looks like a confetti cannon. will all the poof and stuff. (( think Quip )) Arrows themselves are the same. but send them all with a little oompa.

Catapults… water balloon launcher??

Flame ram… an actual Flaming Ram you tell to head butt the door?

Treb…. a Big giant that stand there and throws rocks and cows?

you get the idea.

Skinning keeps would be tough, But skinning Siege might be a far better way to go about it.

Personally i would also tend to agree that there needs to be some WvW EXCLUSIVE skins via either a metric crap ton of Badges. or Specific rank or.. whatever. Make them hard to get. so that when you see some one with it you know they have put in their time.

If you want to make money, personally i think the siege skins are the way to go. If you want to be more invested and have others be more invested. Give something that you can ONLY get in WvW.

Oh.

blinking

Oh. blink blink (sideglance…)

You mean put some imagination into the upgrades to keep players happy in WvW?

Pshaw! Fantasy-Land.

2 years and waiting.

Really great ideas in this thread – too bad Anet and NCSoft don’t care that some of their own users are some of the most imaginative and creative people they aren’t utilizing.

Duh.

Terrible that games aren’t smart enough to use the talent and ideas of those who love the games that, in reality, are just a framework that needs fleshing out, badly.

Anet not making money on WvW? What the heck am I using my finishers on in PvE? And, really the only thing that pushes me to spend to get Asc gear is WvW.

Galandil.9641:

- Permanent sigils/rune on items. For a charge, you can add another sigil/rune on a piece of equipment which can be used forever. For example, on my weapon I can equip first a sigil of Fire, then buy the gem store unlock, use it on the weapon, and then add another sigil, for example a sigil of Bloodlust. After that, I can switch freely on that weapon between Fire and Bloodlust.

I would love this.

I would even pay for something cosmetic like changing my “yeah I have full map completion” star with an icon representing my WvW rank.

Ultimaistanza.4793:

1) WvW xp boosters – There needs to be an incentive for them. The ranks and abilities are nice but after you get so far there is nothing left to spend them on. To remedy this, and make those kinds of boosters more appealing, there needs a new WvW trait lines that don’t end but get progressively more expensive with rank points.. Things like a Gold Find %, MF %, etc. Also, it would help if there was a way to showcase your WvW rank to add more appeal.

2) Unique Commander Tags – By this I dont mean simply different colors, different color tags need to be in the game by default. Having different kinds of purchasable icons though, could be appealing. Ones like a dagger icon, Charr face icon, Quaggan face icon, guild emblem icon, basic symbols, cross bones, and so on.

3) Infinite Use Siege Reskin Potion – Simply different endless potions that give you a special buff for a few mins, that any siege site you throw down has a unique look to it corresponding to the potion. This doesn’t change the stats of the siege and it would still say if it’s reg or superior, it just looks different and might fire a different looking projectiles. The looks of the siege last until it despawns or is destroyed.

Something like this in terms of different looks.

This, there is no incentive for WVW ranking boosters when the majority of the rewards are relegated to green and the odd yellow item. Rewards should get better as you progress not worse.

Sell a “raid leader” tag in the gemstore that it only visible to a guild. Roll in profit.