I’m not sure how long they will be able to sustain this though. Their Achilles heel is a AAA MMO targeted to a mature audience. The Disney stuff might be tolerable for awhile but; it’ll get dumped really fast. Your average MMO gamers is over 30 and is demanding mature content.
There’s a market for it. There’s a market for anything.
It is my opinion that Guild Wars 2 contains a considerable adult audience that demands mature content. If Guild Wars 2 cannot provide it; that audience will disappear. What is arguable is the size of this demographic.
I’m not sure how long they will be able to sustain this though. Their Achilles heel is a AAA MMO targeted to a mature audience. The Disney stuff might be tolerable for awhile but; it’ll get dumped really fast. Your average MMO gamers is over 30 and is demanding mature content.
Considering that ‘mature content’ in video games is usually targeted at, and most successful with teenage boys, I sure as hell wouldn’t base an MMO around it.
MMO budget money is already flowing towards that market. Remember that MMOs have been around for about a decade. People are getting older. Their needs change.
Look at The Simpsons. It’s been around for 24 years. Do you think that show would still be around if they had continued to use Bart as the main character?
I’m not sure how long they will be able to sustain this though. Their Achilles heel is a AAA MMO targeted to a mature audience. The Disney stuff might be tolerable for awhile but; it’ll get dumped really fast. Your average MMO gamers is over 30 and is demanding maturefun content.
Fixed that for you. I’m an average MMO gamer over 30, therefore I’m as entitled to generalize about the entire demographic as you are.
I’m not generalizing. Its a fact. MMO’s are not appealing to younger audiences. They might buy the game; play it till level 10 or 20 then quit.
It probably has something to do with how the younger generations seek something for nothing and are too impatient to work towards something. The entitled generation. The ones that grew up with credit cards, smart phones and google.
I’m not sure how long they will be able to sustain this though. Their Achilles heel is a AAA MMO targeted to a mature audience. The Disney stuff might be tolerable for awhile but; it’ll get dumped really fast. Your average MMO gamers is over 30 and is demanding mature content.
Buying gems is supporting them. If many people support it; they will continue to do it. If no one supports it; they will change their business model. No company will continue to sell a product no one wants to buy.
But therein lies the problem. When the only way to obtain these skins is through the chests, The vast majority of people who want the skins will buy them, no matter how bad the odds are. The ones who close their pockets are reduced to those crazy people you see on street corners demanding an uprise, while the rest of the game, and good skins, continue to drift on by them.
It’ll leave the door open for company B to take company A’s market share using a better business model. Consumers support companies for a variety of reasons.
That support can change as quickly as people change their clothes.
In order to understand this you have to account for the human labor it took to create it. How much time would it take an artist to create a 3D model, paint it and animate it? Since this “product” is bits of data in a computer; it can copied. They can duplicate it as much as they want; effortlessly.
I do not regret buying the gems, I love this game, have been playing since beta, and will throw money to Anet whenever I can because in all my years of playing MMO’s, this one takes the cake. The team behind this game deserve every penny I have given them.
It’s just frustrating that a new, cool looking weapon set is released, but I can’t have it just because I’m unlucky. That’s how it feels right now. It’s not skill gated, it’s not time gated, it’s just the simple fact that the numbers didn’t add up for me. I would’ve spent as much money as I had to on the TP to get the daggers to finally complete my character, but I can’t even do that.
Halfway through I honestly wondered whether I was opening the wrong chests.
Buying gems is supporting them. If many people support it; they will continue to do it. If no one supports it; they will change their business model. No company will continue to sell a product no one wants to buy.
The solution would be for arena net to provide its customers the probabilities of winning the lottery. In addition; they should educate their audience about how statistics and probabilities work.
You may not be able to see this but; I’m actually laughing out loud.
You can also look at this from a different perspective. What is the actual value of this product?
In order to understand this you have to account for the human labor it took to create it. How much time would it take an artist to create a 3D model, paint it and animate it? Since this “product” is bits of data in a computer; it can copied. They can duplicate it as much as they want; effortlessly.
What ever you think the value of this “product” is; ask yourself if it would make sense to buy it at that price.
The target demographic is anyone above 13 and below 16. If there are adults who like that kind of stuff then they’re Disney adults. You know who they are. The ones that watch Disney movies.
Guild Wars 2 is targeted to a very casual and young audience so there will be a lot of goofy and childish things in the game. Until another MMO studio designs mature content for an adult audience we’re stuck with this one.
I think this is a better track for Lion’s Arch tbh.
I don’t understand how people can say that this song is beautiful. It sets a mood of sorrow and despair. What ever, what do I know? I’ll stay in Divinity’s Reach to keep my sanity.
Could the tunes be changed to something a little more upbeat and epic? Lion’s Arch music is very depressing and sets the kind of mood where you feel like nothing’s happening. This in turn makes players feel like doing nothing.
The music is suppose to set the mood you want to bring to your audience.
If I’m in a town filled with activities where people are partying and having fun; you certainly don’t want the current tune. If Lion’s Arch is suppose to be a lounge where people lie down and watch the grass grow then you can ignore this post.
I can farm for an hour in cursed shore; open 80 bags and not get a single crystalline dust. Demand? Yeah right.
The drop rate was deliberately lowered substantially.
Arenanet is trying to find ways to get us to buy gems. Either they’re greedy or desperate for revenue. Sooner or later this is going to backfire in their faces.
Gem store gambling is a great business decision and I hope Anet continues with it to encourage exclusivity with certain items. The fact that you guys keep buying chests when there is a low chance just shows how much it’s working.
There will come a time when it’s no longer going to work. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
Myself, I spent the gold I had saved and bought a few gems to try and ended up after 97 chests with no ticket.
Nobody put a gun to my head and made me spend what I did, but I will say that after that many boxes opened, I feel slightly jipped only having 4 hair style kits and a few boosts to show for the number of boxes I opened. But lesson learned, I won’t ever participate in an RNG fiasco like this.
This is exactly the reason why this business model will fail in the long term. I have seen businesses come and go through out my time. The ones that disappeared were the ones that unintentionally chased away their own customers.
Genuine question .. are Rox’ eyes going to look like that? Right now, she looks like a comic-stylised character. I’ll have a hard time taking her serious, and importantly; immerse myself in the lore you’re writing into the game.
Thanks.
The reason you don’t care about this character is because they have no personality. There is no back story to them. Where they come from, why are they’re here, why they’re important.
These characters just come out of no where, have no back story and no personality.
In a way I feel kinda bad for the artists and writers who created this wonderful world that many of us enjoy only to have it turned into a giant psychology experiment on how to get people to buy the most gamble boxes.
GW2 does have some amazing artists. Beautiful worlds; so much potential wasted.
Writers?
I don’t care about what they say because I don’t care about the characters. A story is told by the characters. If the characters have no lore and personality then there is no story. No one will care about a story being told about a character no one cares about. Would you listen to someone that has no personality? Someone that doesn’t even show that he is human? No emotion; monotone, lifeless characters.
Game designers? Ouch.
Probably the Achilles heel of Guild Wars 2. This is what makes people stick around. Build a game so boring to play that the players are just standing in major cities doing nothing. It’s only a matter of time until another game gets their attention; then in the blink of an eye they’re gone.
Crit damage on armor and weapons have a huge budget cost. You’re much better off getting crit damage on armor sockets like orbs and jewelry like back pieces, accessories, rings and amulets.
You see; the designers of WvW wanted large epic battles without understanding the server infrastructure costs associated. The engineers stepped in and created a solution to the problem.
Unfortunately, there’s another problem that took its place. This is not something that an engineer can fix; this is only something the designers can fix.
Now they have to redesign WvW to encourage players to spread out over multiple areas and reduce overcrowded gameplay.
They will never tell you the drop chance of ANYTHING in Guild Wars 2. That’s their whole business model. They can adjust the drop rate of anything they want to whatever they want anytime they want without us noticing.
The more rare something becomes the higher the need to buy gems.
The more infrequent the drop rate; the longer the player plays the game.
This business model only works on a younger and ignorant target market. Hello T rating.
When designing a dungeon you have to know what toolbox the player has. If those items are allowed to stay; the designer has to account for them and design the content assuming every player in the group has them. Which then forces the player to use them.
Those items wouldn’t be optional anymore; they would be required.
Acsended gear is a carrot on a stick used to keep people playing their boring PVE. Arenanet probably believes that WvW players don’t require incentives.
Because people are saps for gambling. People will want these skins, and won’t let loosing a lot of money stand in the way. As long as people do this, expect to see more of it…
I understand the concept of the casino. How would this concept work for a store that would sell durable goods like clothing and electronics?
Usually, when I walk into a store and want to buy something; I exchange my money for what I want to buy.
Why is it that they design a system that makes the customer roll dice for a chance to get what they want? The store keeps our money even if we don’t get what we want.
They’re vanity items. They’re supposed to be expensive.
If they are just vanity, then remove level restrictions, remove stats and put them in the gem store like other vanity items for a similar price.
If anet put them on the gem store for £85 a set, there would be uproar….but thats exactly what they have done by pricing them like this.
Oh wait, they are not just vanity.
If the armor was on the gem store it would be more expensive. 1 gold used to get me about 200 gems back when I purchased tier 3 cultural. Now I get 47 gems with that same gold.
They could open up sPVP to the modding community and let players develop their own maps, game types, gear and setup dedicated servers with their own ruleset.
