Why get rid of the mount adoption?

Why get rid of it? This is the primary source for the largest chunk of mount skins in the game. Once this is gone the choice is very limited. Unless they are releasing another set of 30? It seems like a bad idea to lower the pool of mount options like this.

Artifical scarcity. It'll be back sooner or later.

was thinking of something else.

but to answer your question: they'll sell more this way

Because it makes players buy them now since they won't be back anytime soon. If they're there all the time, then there's less demand and more hesitation to buy said item. You see this effect all the time with other games. I.E, "I'll get it later. Oh snap. One day sale only!? Better get it now!"

And the company profits with a larger spike of income.

There's 30 mount skins in the set they are removing. You get 5 standard skins. There are 70 skins in total. So 65 unique skins and 30 come from this set. They are basically removing almost half of the available skins. It seems like a lot to just get rid of (for the time being).

My guess is it's the usual "artificial scarcity" thing - if an item is available all the time some people will keep thinking about getting it and never actually get there, and other people like the idea of having something other people can't have.

In this case (considering they flat out said when they started selling mount skins that they're either going to be from RNG boxes or relatively expensive because they barely make any profit on items under 500 gems due to people converting gold) I wouldn't be surprised if it's so people can't keep saving up gold and buying a licence whenever they have enough - they have to either get them quickly (which likely means spending real money) or miss out.

I assume it does mean we'll be getting another set of mount licences at some point in the future, possibly with the next Living Story release. Hopefully there will at least continue to be a cross-over period between the current one and the next one so people have a chance to choose between them.

(Also I'm sure these will be back at some point in the future, either with the current sale method or another format.)

I'm sure it is artificial scarcity, it just seems weird that they would discontinue so many at once. Like the Halloween skins and the Branded set make sense because they are 5 limited time skins. The special $25 skins also make sense. It's the chunk of 30 that makes me not like this change. But if they release another set of 30 I would feel just fine about it. Just taking 45% of the options out of the pool feels.... bad.

So you'll be forced to convert real cash/gold into gems and buy them before they disappear. (Worked on me at least)

I have a feeling nobody understands what I'm trying to say.

I think they do understand, I personally think it's a shame to remove things from the store in general.

However they do it because it causes people to buy now. ArenaNet know that they'll sell more gems both right now and when they come back in the future than if they leave them in the store all the time.

The choice won't be very limited either, there are 15 in the Istani Isles set and presumably at least one more set of 5 themed mounts and probably another 15 adoption licence set in the works.

@Pifil.5193 said:I think they do understand, I personally think it's a shame to remove things from the store in general.

However they do it because it causes people to buy now. ArenaNet know that they'll sell more gems both right now and when they come back in the future than if they leave them in the store all the time.

The choice won't be very limited either, there are 15 in the Istani Isles set and presumably at least one more set of 5 themed mounts and probably another 15 adoption licence set in the works.

If that's the case I'm perfectly fine with it.

They just added 15 new Mount Skins (using the same method of acquisition, and a different method of acquisition, to boot), so there is really only 15 less skins available than there were a few weeks ago.

I, too, am sure more Mount skins will become available (cycled in and out) as time goes by.

They want to stop vertical progression because they want to kill the game even more.

@Zalavaaris.5329 said:I have a feeling nobody understands what I'm trying to say.

Reducing the number of options in the store will make the next released set stand out that much more.

mount adoption license doesnt affect the number of skins available, it's the way it's sold

@crepuscular.9047 said:mount adoption license doesnt affect the number of skins available, it's the way it's sold

How does going from 65 to 35 not affect the number of available skins?

@Gemnaid.4219 said:They want to stop vertical progression because they want to kill the game even more.

Wait, what? How are mount skins considered vertical progression? How are they even considered any type of progression?

@Zalavaaris.5329 said:

@crepuscular.9047 said:mount adoption license doesnt affect the number of skins available, it's the way it's sold

it has been discussed by multiple gw2 youtube personalities, anet made 30 skins, they had 2 options

1. throw all of them out at once as RNG
2. drip feed the skins slowly at a slightly higher price and players can pick the ones they want

the effort goes in to make those 30 skin doesnt change, the time spent on creating the RNG system is probably equivalent to setting each skin as individual sales items when added up.

majority of the community hated option 1, because they dont mind paying a bit more to get the skins they want, but they dont want to spent more than they need to to get the skin because of the RNG.

As with all gem store items, anet will swap in and out items every now and then, if it's not on gem store it does not mean it has been removed from the game, it just means it is not available at this time because anet wants to get some sales from other items; anet only said they will not make anymore mount adoption license, and they did said the existing mount adoption license will remain in game.

it is also a marketing strategy that plays with consumers' psychology, if you make all your products available all the time, that takes away the feel of scarcityby putting gem store items up for limited time, it makes consumers have the urge to rush to buy it while it's up on the store; this also helps with gem store not becoming too bloated.

Although scarcity is a factor. Another one is the interest of arenanet as a company. To compare, Lets look at an average store. They are doing ok over the year and have decent cashflow. There is some minor loss, but it is not a big threat. Keep in mind that when a loss doesnt get problematic, it is considered an investment. At the start of the holliday seasons, this investment is earned back in almost a single day (in the US this is Black Friday). So the store is holding on and the peaks are all profit.

This curve of investment and sales is a lot more unpredictable for arenanet. The development requires a lot of investment and this is only turned into profit in peaks (and if the peak stays out, it often means the end of the studio). So they want regular cash flow. The gemstore provides this, but still it follows the peaks. A living world release always cause a peak in gemprizes, which indicates a peak in gem sales. So to want us to buy more inbetween releases to have a constant cash flow and not depending on the peaks. Depending on peaks is a risk and constant cash flow is much safer.

So... when McDonalds uses artificial scarcity they get rid of the McRib for a year, they dont cut half of their menu. That's my point

I think original license is too big. 30 skins with RNG factor and ridiculous pricing set the game on fire. With new istan license things changed a bit. For the better imo. Only 15 skins with option to buy individual ones (pricing is still ridiculous) feels like this new set is much more accessible. If that's how they're going to roll for now with new sets, I'm okay with it.

Artificial scarcity is obviously used with no other reason but to milk players. With 15 skins per set it feels okay. With original 30 skins it's not okay but they can't change it at this point.

@Zalavaaris.5329 said:

@crepuscular.9047 said:mount adoption license doesnt affect the number of skins available, it's the way it's sold

Because they will still be available , just not all the time like many other things in the store, they are rested to promote artificial scarcity = gem spikes = revenue spikes = money.You will still see them available, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow but someday.

I just hope when they do come back they don't play the gem hike trick on us and sell them at silly prices individually unless they change it to a similar scheme that we have with the istani set presently.