Makeovers are ridiculously priced!

Even Activision's WoW gives almost free changes (little in game cost) with barbers, why do you charge us so much?

Activision's WoW charges a subscription.. People really need to stop using a huge studio with tons of money coming in as a comparison

Makeovers theselves im on the fence with. I can see arguments for and against the high cost being reasonable on both sides

Having said that and despite not having access to their sales data, but I would be surprised trans gear charges are bought in high quantity given they are given away so freely in game. It would be something I'd like to see a restriction lifted from so we could change as and when we want without a currency

It is not really much good you have to do very to gems to buy them

I think the OP is talking about makeover kits, which are only available from the gem store (at 350 gems each) or black lion chests and only rarely from in-game sources (like achievement chests). You can of course convert gold to gems to buy them but that will be expensive.

Using the OP's logic I could say it's cheaper than Elder Scrolls Online's equivalent appearance change token, which costs 1,000 crowns (or about £5.50, compared to £3.70 for a makeover kit), but I'm not sure that's really a helpful comparison even if ESO does use a similar business model.

I can't say the price has ever bothered me, but then I'm almost never tempted to buy the kits because I don't like to change my characters appearance much. I'll swap their equipment skins all the time, but I don't give them a new face very often because I tend to have a clear idea of who they are and what they should look like and changing that would be weird to me. I've done it a few times, but rarely enough that I always had a free kit to use when I wanted it (and at least twice it was when I'd just created the character, but wanted to use an exclusive hairstyle or face).

It would be interesting to me to find out how often those kits actually sell, and if Anet thinks the price is a barrier to some people, but it's highly unlikely they're going to give us that information.

I've never spent gems for makeover kits; I've had plenty via achievement chests and the occasional drop from the BL chests (the keys of which I get from map completion of weekly L10 story runs).

@Kirin.7306 said:Even Activision's WoW gives almost free changes (little in game cost) with barbers, why do you charge us so much?

The hairstyle kit is cheaper than the makeover kit as an FYI. Of course that is just hair.

@Kirin.7306 said:Even Activision's WoW gives almost free changes (little in game cost) with barbers, why do you charge us so much?

Well, it’s actually much cheaper than WoW if you’re buying a makeover kit (350 gems), since that let’s you change everything but race and class, in addition to some of the unique options, for 350gems, which is about $4.40 where wow charges $15 for the same service, in a game that has a sub fee.

The hairstyle kit (the equivalent to the barber shop, + a little extra) is 250 gems, and is more expensive than WoWs, and is $3.12 which translates into roughly 52g or so if you decide you don’t want to spend money on it.

That being said, GW2 doesn’t have a monthly fee, and there are other ways to obtain the hairstyle kit, such as from map rewards, daily log ins, achievement points, I’m pretty sure there’s a few collections, etc.

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:I've never spent gems for makeover kits; I've had plenty via achievement chests and the occasional drop from the BL chests (the keys of which I get from map completion of weekly L10 story runs).

This. I do feel that the Gem prices for many items are too high, but given that I can acquire them from in game sources (BL Chests + keys from LV 10 story completion each week) or by using in game gold to purchase gems, I'm alright with it.

One idea I really liked but which might be tricky to implement is for the style NPCs who let you preview changes (can't remember the name, begins with an A) to charge by the number of changes made, with the price of a makeover kit as a cap.

Maybe with different prices based on the type of edit. For example picking a new face or hairstyle is 50 gems, changing your hair colour is 20 gems, changing your eye colour or moving a slider is 10 gems each etc. and if you get up to 350 gems (the price of a kit) you don't pay any more even if you make more changes.

That way people who just want to make 1 small adjustment don't need to buy a whole kit (or use up one they've got), and might therefore be willing to do it more often.

@Kirin.7306 said:Even Activision's WoW gives almost free changes (little in game cost) with barbers, why do you charge us so much?

While I do think there needs to be more options (like selling the permenant ones instead of them being extremely rare BLC drops only) would be good, the comparison with WoW is flawed. WoW charges a monthly subscription and Anet does not.

@Randulf.7614 Ncsoft, Anet parent company, is probably the largest gaming MMO company or the second largest after Blizzard. There is no way in hell they lack the resources. However, since they do not charge subscription they gotta make money in another way.

@otto.5684 said:Ncsoft, Anet parent company, is probably the largest gaming MMO company or the second largest after Blizzard. There is no way in hell they lack the resources. However, since they do not charge subscription they gotta make money in another way.

NCSOFT doesn't have anything to do with GW2, except to own ANet (and siphon off some of its profits). They no longer publish the game. Near as I can tell, some non-development functions that used to be handled by NCSOFT are again handled under ANet's auspcies, e.g. Support & Legal & HR.In other words, for the purposes of this discussion, it's irrelevant the resources available to NCSOFT.

@Danikat.8537 said:One idea I really liked but which might be tricky to implement is for the style NPCs who let you preview changes (can't remember the name, begins with an A) to charge by the number of changes made, with the price of a makeover kit as a cap.The Aesthetician.

Seems improbably unless the costs are pretty high, otherwise it would likely undermine what little incentive there is to buy kits at all.(I'm not at all against an a la carte menu; I just don't see ANet putting in the effort to make it so.)

Welcome to Guildwars 2 This is not Activision WoW here and never will be.

The cost to name change is worse, especially if you used one of those kits to change drastically, like gender....

@Udolpho.1209 said:The cost to name change is worse, especially if you used one of those kits to change drastically, like gender....

I only wish I could use the ‘total makeover’ kit to change race as well, but of course, that effects personal story too much.

Having 8 Totals, and 10 hairstyle kits (along with a name change contract) all from BL chests and some loot chests, I only wish I could either sell them, or have a reason to use..

Weird.

So far, for me, the cost of makeovers has been zero dollars.

Come again? Just go do map completion and you'll have enough black lion statuettes to get yourself total makeover kit for free. There's one in big achievevment chests. And while i have major gripes with gem store prices (2k gems for a single mount skin???), makeover kits are dead last on the list of offenders. Heck lesser skins (like face masks) cost same, while providing a single skin unlock, vs kit's ability to re-design your character from ground up with ability to use numerous bonus faces, colors and hair styles...

And there's 0 rng in it. You design your look, for hours on end if you like, for free (at beautician npc) and then only need to "burn" the kit if you want it finalized. Of all gemstore shanennigans, kits are extremely fair imho.