Homitu.7216

For me personally, I was hoping to receive email notifications so that I didn't have to log into the game or forums to check. I've taken time away from GW2 from time to time, and I've missed out on items that I surely would have bought had I known about them because I didn't have the discipline or desire to continue to log into GW2 or the forums to check every week. I haven't dropped gems on things I wasn't waiting for; I just ended up not dropping gems at all because I flat out miss the items I was waiting for (which was my point as to why this is a bad thing for Anet.) But I recognize I'm not necessarily representative of other players. Other players may do as you suggest and actually drop more gems when the items they're waiting to go on sale simply don't go on sale. I actually hold off, whereas other players may give in and just spend more gems. If more players behave in that manner, then it's actually beneficial for Anet to NOT put the desired items on sale and let us know about it.

My suggestion (and I apologize if this has been brought up before - I did a search and didn't find a topic) is to create a "watch this item" button for all gem store items to allow players to receive notifications when the watched item goes on sale - or, in the case of seasonal/occasional items, the players will receive notifications when that item returns. I feel this simple suggestion could be mutually beneficial to both the player-base and Anet. For the player, the benefit is obvious, they'd never miss the items they're looking out for in the gem store, either for a sale or for a recurring item to make a return. I'm speaking from experience in that I've missed several sales I've been waiting for, and have also missed the returns of several items I had been waiting for. For Anet, they 1) get access to a mass player survey indicating the items they're most interested in, which can inform their future sale and gem store item release decisions, and 2) would gain the transactions of players (like me) who would have otherwise missed the items/sales and not purchased anything. Of course, a financial analysis would need to be performed on the advantage of putting a popular item up on sale (and having more players purchase it at the cheaper price) versus leaving it at a higher price (and having fewer players purchase it, but at the higher price).