The Gem Store and You

[TheOrlyFactor.8341]

What I buy with gems are things I have total control over. Occasionally this involves outfits but most of the time it's convenience and quality-of-life items like the copper/silver fed salvage devices, bank tabs, character slots, item slots, unlimited harvesting tools, and bundles. I want to know what I'm getting into before I throw money at Anet. I'm more than willing to shell out $25+/2000+ gems for something if I know what I'm going to get.

I also buy at least one $25/2000 gem card a month to convert into gold just because I can (and to support Anet in some way when there's nothing in the store that I want).

What I don't spend my money on is items where there's an element of chance involved, where I have no control over the outcome of what I'll get, so Black Lion Keys alone for chests and the Mount Adoption License system will never, ever see my money. I'd rather earn my keys through map completion. In fact, outside of a bundle or two that came with keys, I never once spent real money on keys.

[Dezzie.5903]

I buy a number of cosmetic items; outfits, character modification, etc. I've also gotten bank as well as bag expansion slots for my main when they're on sale. I shy away from RNG items. I might buy one just to show support but I'm not going to to sink lots of money into a slot machine.

I'm not a huge fan of ANet's tendency to bundle things. Like with the Winter fest mount skins. I'd happily pay 500-800 gems for the Raptor skin but I don't have the Jackal or the Griffon and hardly ever use the Springer or the Skimmer. Paying 1600 gems to access a single skin lumped in a bundle I just can't justify. (Oddly if ANet were offering the skins at 1600 gems each I might have been more likely to pay but because they've bundled them that implies each skin is worth ~400 gems by ANet's math so it feels like I'm overpaying if I'm just going to use one.) Offer things individually at a higher price then offer a bundled version at a discount. But just offering the bundle is silly. Retailers learned that long ago.

[DarcShriek.5829]

I've never bought gems.

[notebene.3190]

Roughly What I Got...I used to buy $10/mo in gems. I think all the way up until I took a break when HoT came out (for 15 months, and then came back, and have really been enjoying my time since about a year ago and wish I hadn't taken that long break). Now, I just buy in $20 increments when I need something.

I bought some character slot expansions originally, so I could have one of each class. I got about 1/3 of those characters a few extra bag spaces, the rest just 1 maybe? I have 4-5 bank expansions. I have all the shared spaces I can get.

I got the home nodes set when they were on sale sometime in the past year. Wood, ore, cloth, gathering. I got the bulletin board thing. I got all the rest of the things you can earn in game as well, cats, other LW3-4 nodes and such.

I have some outfits. Pirate, Jungle, Nature's Oath (Granola...I mean, it does sound like a cereal :p), Sunspear, Monk. I bought a 'lot' of town clothing back in the day, but exchanged it all for gems when they offered that service and got rid of town clothing. Town clothing was awesome. I bought back a town clothing and the khaki short clothing (even though I don't care for the shirt and boots they paired with it, it's livable for now) from the TP and converted them.

I bought a few gliders. I bought 2 sets of 'everlasting gobstopper' tools (one normal, one for the LW3 currency). I got a few minis along the way. Got the new holiday mount pack.

Bought a weapon skin or two.

Oh, and bought some of the full armor sets! Some of those are awesome, and more importantly, there are three I can think of that if you take a piece of each, it makes a great medium armor set! :)

I buy all the 0 price items! :#

What I Would/Wouldn't Get...I don't buy gamble keys, and wouldn't. I'm happy with the rare drops and the free-one-a-week method.

I'm very picky about outfits. I don't like things that are way too busy, and my character gets lost in them.

I'd buy more shared slots for sure, there isn't enough.

I wouldn't buy the gamble mounts. I'd like to buy individual mount skins that I like, and would rather not buy them in an entire pack (excluding things like holiday packs, which kinda make sense as a bundle, and especially offering them all for 1600, which I think is a good price).

If they built a system of 'character idle animations' where you could activate/de-activate idle animations, bought back the old ones, and started adding new ones that you could buy in the shop, I'd buy them.

I'd buy new emotes.

I'd buy armor sets, especially if they had pieces I was interested in that I could mix and match with other things.

[Tumult.2578]

Over the last 5 plus years I've bought with cash and with in game gold to gem conversion. Plenty of items.That all stopped with the inclusion of pay to win mounts being allowed in core Tyria.I'm done spending cash on this game and I couldn't care less what anyone's opinion on this is.

[IndigoSundown.5419]

I got a BL Key via zone exploration a couple of days ago. This is the only way I get them as I don't farm the initial personal story, nor spend cash or gold to get them with gems. So, I open the package, and the contents are:

• An RNG Package Wintersday Present
• 2 RNG packages, crafting materials
• An RNG dye kit

Smh. Bad enough the chest itself is RNG.

[Wakthor Thorwak.2819]

i buy anything i can since im a collector but the 1 thing i buy the most is outfits, black lion keysi littlery waste gems on keys :P gotta get those skins :D

[juhani.5361]

I purchased the Unbound Magic tool set when it was on sale and the more expensive salvage-o-matic because it was there. Oh, and the parts of Living World Season 2 that I hadn't unlocked.

I don't mind outfits as a whole, but I really hate how sparkly and bling-y they are. If they don't have sparkles everywhere, they look like they need the entire Tyrian continent's supply of superglue to hold them up. I'd love some normal clothes. I'd probably pick up a few sets if the price was ok. Don't care about mount or glider skins.

[finkle.9513]

Im actually getting numb to the gem store, i think the lack of creative cooling looking items that fit with the original genera is really turning me off, actually when i look at the current crop of daft/ cartoony stuff, it makes me sad and i tend to not look much in the gem store these days.

[DearlyMe.5320]

What I BuySkins for gear, glider, and mounts. Outfits, usually if they look good without the hat. Gathering tools. Character slots for my never-ending ideas. Bank and inventory upgrades. Material storage. Sometimes I'll grab a key or some dye, if I have a small amount of gems left that can't buy me anything else. Make-over kits for freshly made characters. I wouldn't use most of the utility items beside what I already mentioned. I have plenty of transmutation charges saved up from map completion and opening black lion chests. I'll find a look for each character and rarely change them after. I like minis.

What I Don't Buy2000 gem mounts because that's way out of my price range for one skin. Waypoint package is pointless for me as I enjoy map completion and I have mounts to get anywhere I now need to faster. Finishers are also pointless, I'm mostly PvE.

What I Bought OnceI think I only got one outfit package. Usually they either contain something I don't want or something I already have, so it's not worth it. I have one musical instrument.

[DeanBB.4268]

I like things that enhance my account: nodes for home instance, shared inventory slots, bank tabs, salvage-o-matics, stuff like that. All the things that could be maxed (mat storage, bank tabs), are maxed. Stuff like that is an auto-sale to me.

I already have too many outfits and gliders, so a new one would have to be fantastic for me to buy one.

I have 31 characters on my main account, and the next time slots are on sale, I will add 2-3 more.

I have the home, DR, and Elon passes, and unbreakable tools, so don't need more.

I don't buy wings, minis, kites, fuzzy hats, boosters, travel toys, instruments and stuff like that.

I have bought keys in the past, but just farm them up now if I really want to open some chests. Multiple accounts = multiple farms/week if I want to take the time.

I will buy combo packs if there is enough in them to interest me, including keys.

I think I have already purchased all the armor sets, but haven't had much interest in some individual pieces, like a peg-leg.

I purchased all the insta-80's they offered.

No mountfits, yet.

[Manasa Devi.7958]

I bought bank tabs, character slots, shared inventory slots, storage expanders, copper salvage-o-matic, unbreakable salvage tools (I was very late to that party, I only bought them when they released a set without annoying animations), home instance nodes, some skins (no outfits).

I'll never buy outfits, random boxes, minis, finishers, mail carriers and 1 shot consumables. Basically, I don't get things I don't want, or things I consider not worth it.

[Prototypemind.4026]

I'll spend on convenience items, fun things like instruments, and on armor skins.

I will absolutely not buy outfits--customization is a huge part of what I want in my MMOs, and that kills it--and I will not buy RNG boxes ever. I won't support games that prey on their customers that way. Make items available for direct purchase and I'll never have a problem with it; force players to gamble to get what they want and we're done.