1200 gems = 1 mount Skin (do you agree?)

I recently returned to the game and I find this, 1200 gems to select a mount to taste, while a random mount costs 400 gems (but eventually you'll end up spending more gems)Basically it has the price of 3 mounts (400x3 = 1200 = 15 $) 15 dollars for a skins seems excessive when the armor skins cost less than that (700 gems, less than 10 dollars).A correct price for me would be between 700-800 gems (the cost of 2 mounts)I never agreed with the Loot boxes, but I knew it was a way for them to also earn some money, but putting prices a bit inflated is not the answer either.I would like that in the next set skins to mounts think a little better at this. And if it is possible to abandon the idea of Loot boxes.After all, people who want to help in this game by buying gems end up discouraged when they do these things.Do not misunderstand, Guild Wars 2 is a very good MMO, but sometimes certain attitudes of companies end up discouraging the people who support the game.

And what do other people think, do you agree with the cost of the Mounts Skins?

Gold sink?

D:

I think they should be priced a little less exorbitantly, yes. Perhaps somewhere in the range of what you mentioned - 800 gems? That's a little more than a glider/backpack combo, which seems fair.

However, I don't know ArenaNet's reasoning behind the prices being the way they are. Perhaps they would lose money if they made mount skins less expensive. As it stands right now, though, without any knowledge of why ArenaNet did it this way, the pricing does seem rather over-the-top. (However, I do greatly appreciate the fact that we actually can choose which mount skin we want. That, in and of itself, is a really nice feature.)

@"Batel.9206" said:

However, I don't know ArenaNet's reasoning behind the prices being the way they are.

This is why

@kharmin.7683 said:

@"Batel.9206" said:

However, I don't know ArenaNet's reasoning behind the prices being the way they are.

Thanks for posting that! :) In light of that, I guess I'll alter my original thought: I don't like the prices; I wish they were less expensive; but I understand if it has to be this way, otherwise ArenaNet would lose money.

It's a skin and doesn't affect game play so really who cares. You don't need it, and skin sales are their main way to make income. If you play the game everyday and can't spend 15 dollars occasionally, well I don't know what to tell you about that lol. SUPPORT THE GAME!

I wouldn't care if they had the quality worth 15$USDBut the few they showed hardly seem like they're worth 5$.

EDIT: I just watched the rest of them from dulfy and none of them are worth close to 15$The jackrabbit is interesting, but not 15$ interesting.The mastiff, rabbit, and shark seem to be the only one that had work put into them, but they're still too expensive for what they are and the work done on them. 600 or 700 gems would have been fine for them.

If they actually had skins unlockable through playing and not just only gem store items, I wouldn't care as much. But the fact that there's zero (0) you can obtain without spending money is pretty scummy.

People can say "well just don't buy it", but cosmetic items or skins make the game more enjoyable, whether they're gem store ones or not. Devs that make and sell skins and don't put any in the game itself know exactly what they're doing.

Not as they are. The only one I even remotely liked was the mastiff. I can't see plunking down a $20.00 initial gem buy for it. I don't use the jackal enough to warrant that kind of price.

If any of them were really to my taste, I might consider it. So far, aside from the Wintersday skins, I haven't really liked any of them.

There are 5 (now 6) mounts. To buy a full set of just the ones you want (say, all of the flaming mounts*, to go with your fire elementalist) costs 7200 gems. Anet sells 8000 gems for $100. That's COMPLETELY INSANE.

They sell their Premium sets of 4 mounts at 2000 gems. A set of four standard, select-license skins would be 4800 gems (appx $60), . That's outright scalping.

With HOT, I liked to buy glider skins that matched my character themes. I have a different glider for each of my mains to match their costume. I think I bought 6 or 8 skins that way. To do the same thing with mount sets would cost $600. Haha, yeah. That ain't happening. Also, because I theme my skins, I don't see the point in buying anything other then a full set, because it would break the theme. Result this time is $0 spent on POF skins, compared to the 30-50 or whatever I did for the HOT gliders. Well done.

Anet sells 4-packs of premium skins for 2000 gems. They should offer a 1 or 2 time per account box of 4 mount selection licenses for that same 2000. That would be a reasonable price for a full set of skins IMO.

*the flaming mounts havn't been sold individaully yet. They should be. I would buy the heck out of a 4-mount set of just the flaming mounts at the 2000 gem price.

unlike other MMOs, GW2 offers the options to trading in your liquid gold into gems, and there is no restriction on what items you can spend your gems on; so it's lost revenue for anet.

If you decide to spend real money, by all means use real money, you are supporting anet to continue to pay their employees to continue to bring out new contents.I'm in support of anet to keep GW2 going and for the many years to come, so I dont mind forking out $100-$300 annually since there's no subscription fee to begin with.

at the end of the day, Vote with your Walletif you do appreciate the work anet devs put into the game, show a bit of appreciation and support by buying something small off gem store with real money

Yes, for selectable ones. We also have the packs (Branded, Spooky, etc), those are 320 Gems/skin and they look great. Also, I've said this before: other MMOs have mounts for $20+ and no way to earn cash shop currency in-game. In GW2, you can buy Gems with Gold. Not many MMOs allow this.

If they actually had skins unlockable through playing and not just only gem store items, I wouldn't care as much. But the fact that there's zero (0) you can obtain without spending money is pretty scummy.

Convert Gold to Gems = get it without spending real money.........

I'm perfectly fine with it. IMO 1200 gems is not that bad to begin with for the choice and the quality of these skins.

Here's what I do that makes this not even beginning to be a "no" answer for me:
I just throw 100 gold at it that I put aside, which for me is about 3 days in-game salary. And I'll knock 400 gems off the price no problem (especially if I do my gold convert prior to New-Mount-Skin-Tuesday :wink:). Now "my favorite skin" is down to 800 gems, which just made it even better! :smile:

You figure Anet released the Istani Isles Mount Skins on March 27th. So that's like 4 months between this type of higher quality, selectable mount skin offer. If that pattern holds true, most folks should be able to put 100 gold aside between now and say - late November, then convert that 100g to 400 gems when it's favorable and BAMM! -- you're all set when the next group of these types of skins are released. You'll be able to at least pick your favorite skin and spend no more than $10 USD to obtain it. (You could even just start saving half of the Daily 2g we get, and you'd have about 120g to put towards the next licensed choice mount skin release.)

Anet gets to stay in business, I save a little money and get to choose which skin I like best.It's a slam dunk at point blank range for me! :+1:

Cheers!

No, not even slightly. People voting yes have too much money it seems. My issue is this, 1200 gems, so in between 800 and 1600/1700 whatever next is.

It basically says, this skin is second tier of gems, whatever that is in your local currency. They just plain and simple are not worth that much money. If they were 400 each, I would say you are just about scraping the value. 800 to me is even a stretch. Hell, if they were 1000 at least then you could get one and loot box a second. It is rather shady putting the price in the middle forcing you to pay for second tier gems.

Planetside 2 have player made skins, they are not hard to knock up. Weeks work at a push. Make more skin, make them cheaper, have more people buy them.

I do not know, because as the game doesn't have a sub income and it does need to make money to exist, it's no surprise that there are items in the gem store to buy. The pricing level and I think it's explained well in that post that was linked and so whether or not it's a fair price depends on whether or not you believe that Mike's being honest there. I have no reason to believe he's not but at the same time I do understand that people might find it too expensive also. It's just a price that works even if some people don't like it.

I mean clearly people are buying them, so it is working. All I know is that I haven't seen any skins I like enough to spend money on them. But that's my choice. What I really do NOT like and am totally against is RNG when spending real money. So the fact that this price has come to be as a solution for their RNG packs, that is more problematic to me. For me though the addition of RNG in the gem store is not a sign of healthy revenue streams but rather an attempt to fix it. Of course, that also begs the question whether or not you want people to spend more on gems if it means the game will last longer. That's a tricky element in this.

Aside from the RNG nature of the "normal" licenses, I can't say these prices are shocking since they are still cheaper. I have more issues with how much it costs to increase inventory per character or being able to buy expansions to increase stack size when you need thousands of some things when you do ascended crafting for example. That's more utility than fluff. But again, I do get that they need to make money somehow. That's why I'm on the fence on a lot of this gem store stuff.

After playing games like WoW, ESO, and Rift, GW2 has the cheapest mounts. ESO you are looking at $30+, WoW is at $25, Rift....RIFT. They added $100 mount boxes last year and pulled them after the uproar about it (they were still taking flak about best in slot gear being in the cash shop too). Their prices hover between WoW's and ESO's otherwise. GW2 mount cost is about $18. You also have the added bonus of gold to gems with their system. Yes, I'd like to see skins released that are available in game but I know how that will go. They'll be locked behind the raids and probably certain achievements then people will be upset about that (lord do I remember the WoW posts about the moose). I could probably dump the ore I have in my material stash and easily make up the gold to get the gems to buy the license according to gw2efficiency. If you really want a mount skin without spending real money, I don't get why people don't take advantage of the trader and withdraw materials, make things that sell and just work on it like that.

1,500 gems is 15 Euro of real money.

Other MMOs sell skins for 20 Euro a piece while asking for a subscription fee (World of Warcraft).

The pricing is fine for a cosmetic item which in no way affects game play.

@"Rhyse.8179" said:There are 5 (now 6) mounts. To buy a full set of just the ones you want (say, all of the flaming mounts*, to go with your fire elementalist) costs 7200 gems. Anet sells 8000 gems for $100. That's COMPLETELY INSANE.Actually it only costs 5100, which is the price for the total pack of 15 skins. If you want 5+ specific skins out of this set, you'll always be better off buying the bundle rather than the 5+ skins individually. If you choose to buy them individually instead, that's on you.

It's still around 65$ for the whole set, but that's considerably less than $100. If you do want to argue with facts, get your facts straight first, or you'll ruin your whole argument.

Btw, double-check how much you'd pay for 5 or 6 mount skins of choice in other games ... I suspect there's not many where you'd get that many mount skins for 65$ or less.

Disclaimer: I don't intend to pass judgement on whether or not these mount skins are priced "fair". I don't really care, as the default mount skins are fine for me (my mounts don't get out much due to getting motion sick while riding them).

@Cyninja.2954 said:1,500 gems is 15 Euro of real money.

Other MMOs sell skins for 20 Euro a piece while asking for a subscription fee (World of Warcraft).

The pricing is fine for a cosmetic item which in no way affects game play.

WoW is not a great example because most of the skins there are earnable in game. SWTOR would be a better example since 95% of the skins come from their cash shop and you do need to have a sub to gain access to endgame content and then still have to pay for pretty much every skin. You can buy them from other players with in game currency but someone has to buy them first regardless.

ANet needs to make money just as every other company does.You could also ask the question "80.000 € = 1 Porsche?" and my answer would be the same: If you don't like the prices, don't buy it or wait for a sale.

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@Cyninja.2954 said:1,500 gems is 15 Euro of real money.

Other MMOs sell skins for 20 Euro a piece while asking for a subscription fee (World of Warcraft).

The pricing is fine for a cosmetic item which in no way affects game play.

True, and if GW2 had a subscription we would also have in game mount skins. The fact that premium cosmetic items get sold in a subscription based game is significant enough though, and at a premium price higher than in GW2.

The model in SWTOR does come a lot closer to GW2 with it's cartel coins and offering players to sell cash shop items (I personally prefer the gold-gem conversion but the principle is similar). Then again, SWTOR is nothing more than a F2P cash grab at this point, not sure people would want GW2 to move in that direction only to get cheaper mounts.

@Rasimir.6239 said:Actually it only costs 5100, which is the price for the total pack of 15 skins. If you want 5+ specific skins out of this set, you'll always be better off buying the bundle rather than the 5+ skins individually. If you choose to buy them individually instead, that's on you.

That's still 2x what they charge for a set of 4 Premium skins. Why should I pay that much when I only want 4 anyway? Also, the math would double if the original mount license set ever gets a selection option (it has 30 instead of 15 mounts), so it would still apply then. They themselves have priced their premium skins at 500 each (the sets of 4 for 2000). How on earth is a common reskin worth twice that?

4 Mount Skins = 2000 gems1 Mounts Skin = 1200 gems

Makes no sense.

Mounts in every game are made to be an obvious cashgrab. Why are you surprised?

@Rhyse.8179 said:

@"Rasimir.6239" said:Actually it only costs 5100, which is the price for the total pack of 15 skins. If you want 5+ specific skins out of this set, you'll always be better off buying the bundle rather than the 5+ skins individually. If you choose to buy them individually instead, that's on you.

They're offering skins in different packages and at different price points, most likely to target different audiences. For me for example, if I ever were to get into mount skins, the 2k/5 sets aren't attractive, because if I want to invest in mount skins, I want variety. Buying the 5-pack for 2k gems would force 5 skins of the same theme on me, while the adoption licenses allow me to grab differently themed skins.

The 5-skin packs are obviously aimed at people that prefer themed skins and are willing to invest just to "round out the set", while the adoption licenses are aimed at people who prefer variety, and the 2k per mount skins are aimed at those who like it flashy. Makes perfect sense to me.

@GDchiaScrub.3241 said:Gold sink?

@crepuscular.9047 said:unlike other MMOs, GW2 offers the options to trading in your liquid gold into gems, and there is no restriction on what items you can spend your gems on; so it's lost revenue for anet.

@"Mea.5491" said:Convert Gold to Gems = get it without spending real money.........

This myth needs to end. Anet do not sell gems for gold. Never have, never did.What Anet does is to have a market place where players can sell gems to other players, and anet takes a 40% cut. It is called gold selling, and unlike other MMOs Anet has created a legal venue for gold selling where they can tax it heavily. It is a good deal for everyone involved but its not lost revenue for anet.

Player A buy gems for 21$.They put it in the gem store and and get 1.2k gold temporarily from the bank, and now there is 13.44$ worth of gems there after Anet tax.Player B buys the gems for the 1.2k gold that player A wanted, and put it into the bank and restore the balance sheet. They end up with the 13.44$ worth of gems that remained after taxes.

Buying gems for gold nets Anet 140% revenue compared to just going to the store and buy it there. The bank always win, and they will get the money somehow. It is either from gold selling where you as a player work for hire in the game to other players, or through your credit card. One way or an other you are a revenue source for Anet.

A bit upside of all this is that Anet has a direct incentive to go after illegal gold sellers since those are lost revenue. We the players get a better economy and safer game, and Anet get to have a monopoly on gold selling and tax it. People who want to farm gold and sell it to other players for gems can do it and buyers have a legit method to buy gold for money. Everyone wins. Lets just not pretend that its "lost revenue". The service to trade money for gold is the single biggest revenue source in the game for Anet and 40% tax is a huge one.