Get rid of Transmute Charges and make all skins free to apply?

Grew out of another discussion. Make for the ultimate freedom in Fashion Wars! Dyes, Glider Skins, Mount Skins, and Outfits are already free to apply. Ehy not the rest? Maybe ANet sells more skins?

Edit - Wow, never knew folks round here in PvE land liked being EA-ed so much. Sure, pay money for QoL as opposed to content. Okay...

It basically is free for me already, since I've never bought charges, never come close to running out of them and never felt like I shouldn't transmute something to save the charges. I admit I only change my main characters skins every few weeks/months, but I also make a lot of temporary characters and I almost always transmute their equipment, even if they're just a keyrunner, because I have more than enough transmutation charges to do it and it's a chance to experiment with skins I don't normally use. (Problem then is finding something I really like and trying to resist the temptation to make yet another permanent character to keep using it.)

But the only downside I can see is that Anet would lose the money they currently make from selling charges and I find it hard to believe they make much, because as far as I know most players either never run out of charges or save them up/farm them and avoid transmuting more than they can do with free charges. I find it hard to believe there's enough people who don't know how to get them free and transmute frequently that they're selling a lot of charges. (They'll never make it public but I'd actually love to see the data on that.)

So basically it makes no difference for me, but I can't see any significant downsides to it either.

Sorry, no. Either support the game by purchasing gems to buy transmutation charges, or play the game and acquire them. The last thing ANet needs to do is toss out more free stuff.

The lost revenue would need to be made up from somewhere, and I'm not inclined to see where that new somewhere is.

What revenue? Most posts say people never run out.

I'm still ruminating on a suggestion for an Aesthetician craft. I'll probably make a thread on it but I never like to just abandon stuff. People complain all the time about how Anet abandons this or that and how they can't stuck to their guns. Well that's why I'd sooner suggest an improvement or addition to transmutation charges before suggesting they be abandoned.

@Kylden Ar.3724 said:What revenue? Most posts say people never run out.

People who post on the forums are not representative of the general playerbase population. For example (not claiming this is true, just providing an example of why bad representation means you can't use post data to arrive at conclusions):

More Casual = Less Likely to PostMore Casual = Less Likely to have lots of free transmutationsLess free transmutations = More Likely to buy transmutationsErgoMore Likely to buy transmutations = Less Likely to Post

Don't change what ain't broke.

Transmutation charges are 30gems each ( 11g at current Gold to Gems exchange ( 5/150 ) maybe Anet should just make them 10 gems each, given the number of outfits/skins they release,

Granted many older players wont even need them, i think i have close to 2500 sitting on my account, because i dont get into the skin wars, but sometimes i wonder if Anet lowered the pricing of a few things in the gem store they may actually see more income from people willing to buy them, even at the 5/150 doesnt cost alot, its 5 and you need 6 for a complete armor set, so you are out of luck there, sneaky marketing.

@mtpelion.4562 said:The lost revenue would need to be made up from somewhere, and I'm not inclined to see where that new somewhere is.

Out of the thousands and thousands of gems i have bought, i have never spent any at all on transmutation charges, i highly doubt the change OP is asking for would hurt Anet all that much, given the other massively profitable items the drop on the TP, ( mount skins, chairs, outfits etc )

I like the current system. And it is very easy to get transmutation charges, I got over 950.

While I will never run out of Charges I still don't transmute much simply for the reason that I could run out. First I give myself 25 charges as limit I don't want to drop below. Then I set the limit at 50, then 100 and so on. I never came close to the limit even once. They are a psychological border and therefore are in a way bad for the game were fashion is the end and all. I am not even alone with this.But it is a question of revenue. If the charges would not net a single dime, there would be no reason to keep them. They would then only be a hindrance for the players with no benefit. As sad as it is, they have to add to gw2 revenue somehow otherwise I think they would have gotten rid of them long ago.I still hope they disappear, I can't tell how much I dislike them.

For me, the current system is a hassle, and discourages regular changes. This is due not only to the need to decide whether to expend charges or not, but also to the time needed to change a look (clicking on as many as 13 items individually). So, no to free changes, as the multiple click requirement would still apply.

I would like a combined system with both charges and wardrobe slots that ANet would sell. The charges would change things in the wardrobe slots as they do now, but players could buy multiple slots and could switch between the various slots at will with one click and no additional cost. This would marry the versatility of the current skin system and the ease-of-use of the outfit system, allowing players to make their own "outfits" out of armor pieces, with weapon skins also tied to a given armor look.

Switching to such a system might well produce more revenue for ANet. There might be a reduction in the sale of charges, or not, or even an increase. Also, the sale of the wardrobe slots would produce revenue.

IMO they are getting a bit over the top with this, even the skins you buy from the gem store still need charges.i think that, with the armor skins already at quite a high price, a free-to-apply condition is something to make up for high prices.

@Kylden Ar.3724 said:What revenue? Most posts say people never run out.

if people never ran out, this discussion wouldn't be taking place.

They are one of the things you get from Black Lion Chests. I wvw regularly. I also do map comp. I suspect others on the forum do as well, which is why we have oodles of the things.

But I know folks who like doing neither, and for them, each one they get from opening a blc is precious and awesome. My youngest daughter currently has /2/. I was flabbergasted. How can you only have 2?? She raids. Fractals. Dailies. That's it unless I drag her out to do something else. Anecdotal, I know, and no, she does not spend gems on them directly, but she does occasionally buy keys. To her the tc in the chests have value, and they are common, and she might get something cool. Removing them would lower the chests to my level(I almost never get anything cool, and most other things have no value to me) Which means she wouldn't buy keys.

@sorudo.9054 said:IMO they are getting a bit over the top with this, even the skins you buy from the gem store still need charges.i think that, with the armor skins already at quite a high price, a free-to-apply condition is something to make up for high prices.

Who is to determine if the prices are high? Seems to me that ANet has a better idea of the price point than anyone one of us.

most people who are against it it's because they have lots of them because they never even use them in the first place.

More like get rid of Trans Charges but make skin application cost some coins like in ESO. I'd say a few Silver (5-10) per piece. It would be a decent Gold sink too.

I can see both sides of the fence on this. However its unlikely to happen because it could cause problems with individuals that have purchased them in the past. Its like purchasing beer and taking it to the bar giving it to the bartender an then having to buy the beer back from him. Just seems wrong right? But in a micro transaction game that has no monthly fee every nickel and dime helps. I wouldn't hold my breath on this.

Voted yes just because, as there was no option to have it cost silver instead. But Mea has the right idea. Just make it cost silver. 2-3 silver a piece or something, doesn't need to be expensive. It is just cosmetic changes, not like we are changing our stats or anything.

A simple cheap money sink and caters to both groups that want/don't want them removed. Just do a currency replacement for the old transmutation charges, and turn them into silver or something. This way, you don't just lose them, and instead get silver in return. 1 silver = 1 transmutation charge. Or just have it cost Karma. 10 Karma a piece or something, so we have something to spend our excess Karma on.

With as many people talking about having thousands of these things stockpiled, it's safe to assume transmutation charges are not a money maker for Anet. There is plenty of other things players are spending their money on rather than transmutation charges. It is more than viable to remove them completely and make them cost silver/karma instead. It's an unnecessary restriction among all the others we already have, that we just don't need.

@coso.9173 said:most people who are against it it's because they have lots of them because they never even use them in the first place.

Well no, not necessarily.

Transmutation charges are generating revenue. That is a logical assumption since if they were not generating revenue, Arenanet would have already altered the system to either be free, or more restrictive. Highly dependent on how much revenue is currently generated. The same happened with Black Lion Keys where they were removed from the level 10 story farm as to encourage more sales.

The only factor we are not aware of is: how much revenue do transmutation charges generate?.

Now if we assume that any reduction in revenue has to be compensated for with other intrusive or undesirable changes to the game, or with Arenanet making less revenue, this boils down to:

• people are not affected by the transmutation charges currently and don't care
• people are affected by the transmutation charges currently and don't care
• people are not affected by the transmutation charges currently but don't want this changed as to have something else cost money or be inconvenienced
• people are affected by the transmutation charges currently but don't want this changed as to have something else cost money or be inconvenienced
• people are not affected by the transmutation charges and are fine with this changed accepting that the loss in revenue will have to come from some where else
• people are affected by the transmutation charges currently and are fine with this changed accepting that the loss in revenue will have to come from some where else

As it stands, there is enough reasons to not want this system changed on both sides of the spectrum (both affected and unaffected players).

The currently probably best alternative would be to remove transmutation charges and replace them with direct gem cost for transmuting. The couple of silver ideas fall short in generating enough revenue unless the gold cost was made significant enough to increase gem sales. Which in turn would again make players unhappy since now they will have to spend a ton more gold on cosmetic changes which otherwise could have been gained via in-game means like WvW, Spvp or map completion and increasing gem gold cost.

Given the current cheapest cost of 32 gems per crystal (when buying in bulk of 25) and accounting for easier access thus promoting more potential use, nothing below 20 gems per transmutation is realistic. Given the current exchange rate of 37.5 gold per 100 gems, this would place a single transmutation at around 7.5 gold (12+ gold at 32 gems) before any adjustment for higher gem-gold exchange values. So no, a couple of silver will not cut it.

@Cyninja.2954 said:

Transmutation charges are generating revenue. That is a logical assumption since if they were not generating revenue, Arenanet would have already altered the system to either be free, or more restrictive.

That is not necessarily true. ANet could be keeping the system as is because charges serve as a minor reward. In a game genre where a subset of players gauge everything by rewards, that alone could justify not altering the system.

That said, though, keeping their status as rewards fits neatly into the rest of your rationale in place of revenue.

sadly, not EVERYTHING is about revenue, not even for a company. it's also about finding a way to keep your clients/playerbase happy. if they make everything about revene not caring about anything else everyone will leave and the game is done.so you can't just ignore what people want, instead of only thinking about money. MMO comparisons are inevitable, and it's been a good while since most of them changed to much more friendly systems of cosmetic changes.GW2 isn't terrible or anything, but could definitely improve on this. a good option would be for instance at least to sell them by the unit, instead of forcing us to buy 5 at once. if the price for 5 is around 150 gems, which is around 50g, then the price for 1 would be 30 gems or 10 gold, which is already much better.this way players get easier access to something without spending an afternoon getting money or the means to buy 5 of them when they might only need 1, and arena still gets money from it.

@IndigoSundown.5419 said:

@Cyninja.2954 said:

Transmutation charges are generating revenue. That is a logical assumption since if they were not generating revenue, Arenanet would have already altered the system to either be free, or more restrictive.

True, that would also be a possibility. Again disfavoring changing the current system though.

@coso.9173 said:sadly, not EVERYTHING is about revenue, not even for a company. it's also about finding a way to keep your clients/playerbase happy. if they make everything about revene not caring about anything else everyone will leave and the game is done.so you can't just ignore what people want, instead of only thinking about money. MMO comparisons are inevitable, and it's been a good while since most of them changed to much more friendly systems of cosmetic changes.GW2 isn't terrible or anything, but could definitely improve on this. a good option would be for instance at least to sell them by the unit, instead of forcing us to buy 5 at once. if the price for 5 is around 150 gems, which is around 50g, then the price for 1 would be 30 gems or 10 gold, which is already much better.

True, but given the amount of things already free with this title, that is a very hard case to make. Even more with the gem-gold exchange which relies on incentives for people to buy gems for direct use or conversion to gold (unlike many competitors where premium currency is only purchasable, the restrictions in other areas are vastly worse or there is subscription or optional subscription fees).

The current system also fits with the theme that everything in-game can be acquired via play (WvW and Spvp reward tons of transmutation charges while pve generates a lot more gold which can be exchanged to gems for purchase).

You can't simply come in and say: well they should make customers happy and revenue is not always important, when a vast majority of content delivered is free.

@coso.9173 said:this way players get easier access to something without spending an afternoon getting money or the means to buy 5 of them when they might only need 1, and arena still gets money from it.

Sounds like the perfect item which is:

• not required to enjoy the game play
• creates incentive to either spend money on gems, or in game currency on exchanging gold to gems, which in turn benefits the gem-gold exchange towards more gem purchases
• is just annoying enough to not be game breaking

Sure, better options for more custom purchases might be beneficial. Kind of redundant in this case since chances of a person needing exactly 1 charge and never having any use for the other 4 is very low.

I like the current system for several reasons:

• Charges are easy to obtain by playing the game (they are in-game rewards for leveling, logging in throughout the month, etc.)
• They're available for purchase for those who don't wish to wait/play through content (very cheap as well)
• They speak to the underlying war in Guild Wars, which is the fashion war - Consider them ammunition for the battle

They're a steady source of income for Anet, much like the dye kits. You can purchase them with cash, or you can play the game and earn them for free if you're willing to wait, but you can get them in a number of ways and at your own pace. Making skins free to apply takes away this income and doesn't inspire people to complete the content that currently awards them.

If anything, I'd say add them as loot/rewards for areas of the game that don't see as much action as they used to.