You should be able to gift Gem purchases to friends and family

[Kewler.4985]

It is too hard and too expensive to buy physical gem card these days for gifts, and the game won't let you gift a gem purchase in the game. There should be a small box you could select when purchasing to designate gems as a gift just as you can bag slots. I sent this to support but they said I needed to mention it here so other players can give input.

"We have found that the best way for the Development team to gather and review player feedback and suggestions is through the official forums. We ask and encourage players to post their ideas in our forums."

So if you feel the same, please speak up and maybe they will hear us.

If I put this in the wrong forum, sorry.

[Danikat.8537]

The majority of gem store items can be sent as gifts. Look for a little box symbol in the top right corner when you hover the mouse over the item.

Some items can't be gifted, I think because it's things which can only be used a fixed number of times, like bank slots or crafting licences. If you want to give one of those to someone you know the best way is to give them the gold or money to buy it. Or if you're able to be in the same real life location have them log into their account and then you put your card details in (making sure you don't save them) to buy the gems.

[Kewler.4985]

Thanks for commenting, but you just proved my point when you stated, "Or if you're able to be in the same real life location have them log into their account and then you put your card details in." I have friends and family in different parts of the country I play with. If it's my B-day and they wanted to sent me a gift of an item that would be okay, but maybe I wanted something else? I feel being about to send a friend 2,000 Gems for them to spend any way they want would be awesome. Each B-day my daughter would buy me 2 Gem Cards to use, but with the outrageous cost of cards and low availability it is not sensible anymore. It would take nothing for them to add a "Gift" box to the "Buy Gem" screen.

[FrizzFreston.5290]

@Danikat.8537 said:The majority of gem store items can be sent as gifts. Look for a little box symbol in the top right corner when you hover the mouse over the item.

Some items can't be gifted, I think because it's things which can only be used a fixed number of times, like bank slots or crafting licences. If you want to give one of those to someone you know the best way is to give them the gold or money to buy it. Or if you're able to be in the same real life location have them log into their account and then you put your card details in (making sure you don't save them) to buy the gems.

I wouldn't suggest people to put their payment details in a third persons computer, as a solution.

Not to mention, within GW2 communities and friendships and such are international and being physically at a friends place isnt practical when there's a few hundreds if not thousands of km in between.

A different option could be buying gemcodes on the GW2 website, rather than a physical gemcard or buying gems ingame, in order to buy things on the gemstore.

[Danikat.8537]

@FrizzFreston.5290 said:

@Danikat.8537 said:The majority of gem store items can be sent as gifts. Look for a little box symbol in the top right corner when you hover the mouse over the item.

Some items can't be gifted, I think because it's things which can only be used a fixed number of times, like bank slots or crafting licences. If you want to give one of those to someone you know the best way is to give them the gold or money to buy it. Or if you're able to be in the same real life location have them log into their account and then you put your card details in (making sure you don't save them) to buy the gems.

I wouldn't suggest people to put their payment details in a third persons computer, as a solution.

Not to mention, within GW2 communities and friendships and such are international and being physically at a friends place isnt practical when there's a few hundreds if not thousands of km in between.

A different option could be buying gemcodes on the GW2 website, rather than a physical gemcard or buying gems ingame, in order to buy things on the gemstore.

That's why I said IF you're able to get to the same real life location. The OP specifically mentioned gifts for friends and family, people they probably see in real life at least occasionally, so I was just pointing out that it's an option. (Although I have friends I've known for years but never been able to meet in real life, and family technically but we don't buy each other gifts either.) Same with sharing card details, I assume anyone you're close enough with to buy them a gift is someone you could trust not to steal your card details, although that's why I said the person buying the gift should put the details in and not save them - that way the other person doesn't even have to know what the card details are.

It's not a universal solution, but it is one option, which could work for some people if Anet don't change the current options (or until they do).

[SinisterSlay.6973]

Giving gems would allow communities to have their own events with rewards more easily. That could be fun.

[DeanBB.4268]

I like the idea, but could it be subject to abuse of the RMT kind?

[Zaklex.6308]

Aren't they available from Amazon? Personally never having looked for Gem Cards I don't know the availability, but when I've seen them(at the few stores that used to carry them) the price was the same as buying from within the game itself...and I've seen Gem Card topics before, but usually about not being available at retail sites and some people say to look on Amazon, but be careful whom you buy from.

[sorudo.9054]

@Zaklex.6308 said:Aren't they available from Amazon? Personally never having looked for Gem Cards I don't know the availability, but when I've seen them(at the few stores that used to carry them) the price was the same as buying from within the game itself...and I've seen Gem Card topics before, but usually about not being available at retail sites and some people say to look on Amazon, but be careful whom you buy from.

uhmm, amazon isn't exactly the best part to buy anything at all.

i always go to igiftcard, lower price then Anet and certificated to be save. ;)

[Zaklex.6308]

@sorudo.9054 said:

@Zaklex.6308 said:Aren't they available from Amazon? Personally never having looked for Gem Cards I don't know the availability, but when I've seen them(at the few stores that used to carry them) the price was the same as buying from within the game itself...and I've seen Gem Card topics before, but usually about not being available at retail sites and some people say to look on Amazon, but be careful whom you buy from.

uhmm, amazon isn't exactly the best part to buy anything at all.

i always go to igiftcard, lower price then Anet and certificated to be save. ;)

Which is why you have to be careful whom you buy from at Amazon...if buying from Amazon direct I don't think you'll have a problem, it's the third party sites that use I would be leery of. Not that I buy from there anyways, I'm still old school and go to brick and mortar stores.

[Rzhaman.8275]

Honestly, this should definitely be a feature. At the moment, gift gem cards are overpriced compared to in-game purchases, so Anet is just missing purchases. You can already purchase other things in-game as a gift, why not gems?

[Quench.7091]

It couldn't hurt too much. There's not much of a difference between giving somebody gems directly vs. handing them the code online after buying a gem card. Both codes and in-game gifting have the same issues.

One thing Nintendo does is they sell codes digitally on stores such as Amazon, but it would be more convenient to handle this within the game. That's another alternative I feel more companies should explore. GW2 should explore this option, as there's actually gem cards on Amazon that are being resold at a huge markup by resellers. Digital codes on that store front would break that up.

Edit 1: Oh wait, it seems as though they did put a digital code up! That's good. The physical gem cards had some serious price hikes. The digital code looks to be the same price as the in-game store prices. The only drawback I see is that the code may take some amount of time before it activates after purchase.

https://www.amazon.com/Guild-Wars-Gems-2000-Online/dp/B08R21J9P7

Edit 2: I tested this link and gem code myself. It's sold by Amazon.com and not another party at the time of this writing. Worked fine.

[Super Hayes.6890]

I guess this could be usefull, but I've had zero issue finding gem cards as all the Walmarts around me carry them. I grant you that COVID-19 has made it more ideal to make purchases from home but hopefully that issue won't exist forever.

[kharmin.7683]

Lucky for you. I have never seen a gem card in any store around me.

[Fuchslein.8639]

Also it is not possible to gift new players episodes or stuff like this. A function for gem-gift would be really helpful. Especially since it's already a big risk factor that the payment data can be saved, what would be a risk factor in giving away gems?

[Joote.4081]

Yeah what happened to gem cards. I used to ask for them every Birthday and Christmas but now you just can't buy them. You should at least be able to buy them from the official site.They must be getting that much money they are trying to slow us down from giving it to them.

[Luthan.5236]

Personally I do not like to buy gem cards. I think buying directly ingame is safer. The thing with the bank tabs, etc. where you can only have a limited amount: Totally makes sense that they don't want you to be able to gift them. Would mean work for the support if someone accidentally gifted when the other player can't use anymore. And an automated system to check this might take more work. (And it might affect the privacy of the other player you are gifting to. If that way you could notice when he has maxed bank tabs or other stuff. But he maybe does not want others to know that. :D)

Gifting gems directly ... might be a problem if people with hacked bank accounts, paypal, credit card or whatever ... try to buy with 1 account and then gifting it to a 2nd one. More to keep track of.

[Quench.7091]

@Luthan.5236 said:Gifting gems directly ... might be a problem if people with hacked bank accounts, paypal, credit card or whatever ... try to buy with 1 account and then gifting it to a 2nd one. More to keep track of.

Actually, I don't think this would be the issue. If a person had your information, they could just buy a ton of gems and then sell the gems for gold, then give the gold to their other account to buy gems with. They could also just gift themselves items purchased with gems.

Perhaps what they're afraid of is increasing the likelihood of people trading gems for gold through the mail rather than the secure method of doing so? There's actually a bit of a gold sink. About a 245 gold difference between buying gems and selling gems. If a person could buy gems to sell for gold directly, they could be making 757 gold for 2000 gems instead of 512 gold. Unmoderated gem trading could make things messy.

[Luthan.5236]

Yeah. That could be a reason. + more support requests from people that get scammed. (Where they also made the trading post as only "official" method for trading items <-> gold.)

[Jukhy.2431]

I use the paysafe option in gemstore, could work for this too. Altho sadly it has limited number of countries listed found here: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/paysafecard-now-accepted-in-gem-store/Basically you look up nearest kiosk/store that has paysafe, go there, ask for it and pay the sum you want. You'll get a receipt with a code on it worth the sum you paid. Then you use it to pay your gem purchase, so it's kinda like buying a gem card or a store gift card.Personally I use the paysafe direct but only cause it's easier since I mostly buy stuff for myself. Requires you to get mobile app, make an account and you use that to select a sum. In this case the receipt is only a backup since the amount goes to your paysafe account.