Gem Store prices are unbalanced.

[Fremtid.3528]

@ReaverKane.7598 said:

@Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

@Linken.6345 said:

@Cuddy.6247 said:Came in here expecting a different rant. So I'll just throw in my opinion anyway: I don't think prices are that unfair. But I do think they need to rethink the increments they sell gems. 2000 gems for a mount, right? Well, I get the goat springer for myself. But I'm stuck at 1600 or 2800. My solution was to buy 4000 so I can get another mount (the datamined griffon looks like a solid winner already)...but it feels kind of sleazy that you can't tailor your shopping cart.

or you buy 1600 gems with cash and 400 gems with gold done.

Or purchase a Gem Card that gives you 2000 Gems. No Gems left over. You can often get a discount on the cost of the Gem Card (from Authorized Retailers), as well.

Well, in Portugal at least, none of the

two

authorized retailers sell gem cards. So it's not a widespread option. > @Ashen.2907 said:Do the authorized retailers sell them online maybe?

[ReaverKane.7598]

@Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

@ReaverKane.7598 said:

@Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

@Linken.6345 said:

@Cuddy.6247 said:Came in here expecting a different rant. So I'll just throw in my opinion anyway: I don't think prices are that unfair. But I do think they need to rethink the increments they sell gems. 2000 gems for a mount, right? Well, I get the goat springer for myself. But I'm stuck at 1600 or 2800. My solution was to buy 4000 so I can get another mount (the datamined griffon looks like a solid winner already)...but it feels kind of sleazy that you can't tailor your shopping cart.

or you buy 1600 gems with cash and 400 gems with gold done.

Or purchase a Gem Card that gives you 2000 Gems. No Gems left over. You can often get a discount on the cost of the Gem Card (from Authorized Retailers), as well.

Well, in Portugal at least, none of the

two

authorized retailers sell gem cards. So it's not a widespread option. > @Ashen.2907 said:

@ReaverKane.7598 said:

@Ashen.2907 said:

@ReaverKane.7598 said:

@Ashen.2907 said:

@ReaverKane.7598 said:

@"ZeftheWicked.3076" said:

It doesn't matter that you are buying it for the skin, they are still selli g it for convenience on top of that. I find some things too much to spend on a game, but others don't, and I don't wish to take that money from ANet. If you don't want to pay the price, move on.

Which is what i just did - rougly ~ 12 euros spent on LoL skin about half an hour ago, cause i had that amount to blow and wanted something fun. Had gem store more tame prices on tools (as i already have full set and am not desperate) i would toss that cash at a-net, but the better deal imho got my "fun fund" money today.

Just saying there are guys like me who would join in and chip in for the game, had the deals been better. If they're not, it's not that i won't spend at all. I'll just spend it elsewhere...

Exactly! IF the choice is:

• buy a new raptor skin for 25-30€or
• buy XCOM2: War of the Chosen for 39.99€ (less when Steam sales)Now guess why i'll be finishing XCOM 2 Campaign again in a couple weeks (i'm too busy to play either atm).Now if mounts were like 10€ each (~1000 gems)? I'd probably have bought 3 of them so far (Jackal, skimmer and springer, didn't like the peacock).

Agreed. I would totally buy three new cars if they were $100 each.

LOLThat's a sound logic. Does it compare to the game?No.Not even close...A car has specific costs in creating, materials, branding, distribution. And the cheapest you can buy a brand new car is usually around 10 000€.

Gem store items don't have material or distribution costs. Also, other "cars" already in the gem store, don't cost 2000 gems. Outfits are similar in scope and use, and cost one third of the mount costs. If you compare value and possible workload on all gem store items, mounts are clearly an outlier. Even permanent tools can be justified because of the savings in gathering tools.While mounts are just an outfit for a skill with some extra sounds. Compared to Character outfits that need to be redesigned 5-10 times (because racial and gender differences) the price difference is clearly exaggerated.

I was agreeing with you. Of course we, as consumers, would want prices to be lower so that we could buy more.

Are you sure that game production doesnt have specific costs?

Anet, last I heard, had between 300 and 350 employees. In their neck of the woods the average pay for a game dev is in the ballpark of $70k per year. The cost to employ is beteen 1.2 and 1.3. So (potentially):

70,000 x 350 x 1.3 = $31,850,000 in payroll alone.

You need to read again what i posted, because i was

very

specific.

@Cuddy.6247 said:

@Wolfheart.7483 said:

@ReaverKane.7598 said:

@Ashen.2907 said:

@ReaverKane.7598 said:

@"ZeftheWicked.3076" said:

It doesn't matter that you are buying it for the skin, they are still selli g it for convenience on top of that. I find some things too much to spend on a game, but others don't, and I don't wish to take that money from ANet. If you don't want to pay the price, move on.

Which is what i just did - rougly ~ 12 euros spent on LoL skin about half an hour ago, cause i had that amount to blow and wanted something fun. Had gem store more tame prices on tools (as i already have full set and am not desperate) i would toss that cash at a-net, but the better deal imho got my "fun fund" money today.

Just saying there are guys like me who would join in and chip in for the game, had the deals been better. If they're not, it's not that i won't spend at all. I'll just spend it elsewhere...

Exactly! IF the choice is:

• buy a new raptor skin for 25-30€or
• buy XCOM2: War of the Chosen for 39.99€ (less when Steam sales)Now guess why i'll be finishing XCOM 2 Campaign again in a couple weeks (i'm too busy to play either atm).Now if mounts were like 10€ each (~1000 gems)? I'd probably have bought 3 of them so far (Jackal, skimmer and springer, didn't like the peacock).

Agreed. I would totally buy three new cars if they were $100 each.

LOLThat's a sound logic. Does it compare to the game?No.Not even close...A car has specific costs in creating, materials, branding, distribution. And the cheapest you can buy a brand new car is usually around 10 000€.

Gem store items don't have material or distribution costs. Also, other "cars" already in the gem store, don't cost 2000 gems. Outfits are similar in scope and use, and cost one third of the mount costs. If you compare value and possible workload on all gem store items, mounts are clearly an outlier. Even permanent tools can be justified because of the savings in gathering tools.While mounts are just an outfit for a skill with some extra sounds. Compared to Character outfits that need to be redesigned 5-10 times (because racial and gender differences) the price difference is clearly exaggerated.

I would argue that regular outfits have to be priced at the lower price point in order to achieve sales goals. An outfit competes with the vast number of armor skins in the game. So a player has a huge range of appearance options for their character making it less likely that they would choose a particular outfit. Mount skins are not the same as outfits from that perspective.

It's also a regular price on the market as far as I can tell. WoW mount skins that are in the store cost as much, if not more.

WoW's standard is also that they have like 100 mounts available in quests and drops, and only 10 in the store.Also pretty much

all

items on the WoW store cost similar money. They have single head-gear items for 15€.While in GW2 you have whole outfits for 800 gems. You have bundles with outfits, a weapon skin, back and glider skin for 2000 gems. And then a mount for 2000 gems. It's a matter of consistency.

Anyway, no use making excuses or trying to question prices any more. Time will tell who was right.

@Cuddy.6247 said:Came in here expecting a different rant. So I'll just throw in my opinion anyway: I don't think prices are that unfair. But I do think they need to rethink the increments they sell gems. 2000 gems for a mount, right? Well, I get the goat springer for myself. But I'm stuck at 1600 or 2800. My solution was to buy 4000 so I can get another mount (the datamined griffon looks like a solid winner already)...but it feels kind of sleazy that you can't tailor your shopping cart.That's part of the marketing strategy as far as i can see.

Payroll costs are as integral to, "creating," a product as materials.

Having access to a single mount in WoW costs as much as $180 per year in rent.

Well, again, i didn't say there were no costs. Only no material costs. Digital goods, sold through digital distribution have no "cost per item" only the initial development cost. After that is paid, everything else is profit. I could argue that even as little as 100 mounts sold for 1000 gems would probably cover the development costs of the mounts. All else is profit.

All else is profit only when all content is monetized. But, since we get a decent amount of content we don't have to lay out any cash for, then the items that

do

sell for cash must cover that, as well as the item itself.Well, there's the initial cost of purchase. Without detailed reports it's hard to tell, but i'd bet that game sales are good enough to achieve that. Also mounts aren't the only item sold, and premium mounts are definitely how they're paying for anything, since they're barely selling them.

In fact, i've been reticent to suggest this, but how i see it, the 2000 gems mounts are premium decoys (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pricing_strategies#Premium_decoy_pricing) for the loot box mounts. MO's initial statements seem to back that up, plus the fact that the jackal mount was released along with the loot box mounts, all seems to point that they're priced that high, not out of necessity, but as a way to focus people towards buying the potentially more profitable loot box mounts (since to get the actual skin, or even the actual mount you want to skin you'll probably end up paying over the 2000 gem cost anyway).I'm not saying that is exactly what Arena Net is doing, but from my point of view that's what it looks like. Their actual strategy and justifications will probably never surface beyond the generic "justifications" given in MO's statement.

Never the less, the harm is done, and GW2 has already took a hit to their reputation from mount-gate, and sadly little or nothing was done to remedy that.

[Fremtid.3528]

@Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

@Fremtid.3528 said:

@Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

@Linken.6345 said:

@Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

@Linken.6345 said:

@"Cuddy.6247" said:Came in here expecting a different rant. So I'll just throw in my opinion anyway: I don't think prices are that unfair. But I do think they need to rethink the increments they sell gems. 2000 gems for a mount, right? Well, I get the goat springer for myself. But I'm stuck at 1600 or 2800. My solution was to buy 4000 so I can get another mount (the datamined griffon looks like a solid winner already)...but it feels kind of sleazy that you can't tailor your shopping cart.

or you buy 1600 gems with cash and 400 gems with gold done.

Or purchase a Gem Card that gives you 2000 Gems. No Gems left over. You can often get a discount on the cost of the Gem Card (from Authorized Retailers), as well.

I was under the impression that the guy could only buy 1600 gem cards or 2800 gem cards.

As far as I know, Gem Cards only come in 2000 and 1200 denominations, for $25 and $15, respectively. I have them sitting on my desk.

The best buy near me doesn't sell the $15 ones anymore :( it's only $25 ones for me from here on out. Or of course ingame gems. What i used to like is they didn't used to charge tax here for the first couple years if i bought gem cards so i would buy all my gems in cards to avoid the "tax" fee. But some sneaky lawmaker figured that one out and now they have to charge tax. It was nice though because buying them in store I would get best buy rewards on them as well so I would get like a $5 gift certificate every x amount spent on them. I'm close to one now even.

They don't charge tax (or shipping) from my Best Buy. I also use my rewards for Gem Cards (they have both online). I don't remember if I've ever bought them in-store, as the Cards arrive next day when ordering online. It's a good deal.

Yeah I think it was something they did in my state or something that made them charge tax on these specific "gift cards".

[ReaverKane.7598]

@Fremtid.3528 said:

@ReaverKane.7598 said:

@Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

@Linken.6345 said:

@Cuddy.6247 said:Came in here expecting a different rant. So I'll just throw in my opinion anyway: I don't think prices are that unfair. But I do think they need to rethink the increments they sell gems. 2000 gems for a mount, right? Well, I get the goat springer for myself. But I'm stuck at 1600 or 2800. My solution was to buy 4000 so I can get another mount (the datamined griffon looks like a solid winner already)...but it feels kind of sleazy that you can't tailor your shopping cart.

or you buy 1600 gems with cash and 400 gems with gold done.

Or purchase a Gem Card that gives you 2000 Gems. No Gems left over. You can often get a discount on the cost of the Gem Card (from Authorized Retailers), as well.

Well, in Portugal at least, none of the

two

authorized retailers sell gem cards. So it's not a widespread option. > @Ashen.2907 said:Do the authorized retailers sell them online maybe?

You assume that to ensure the availability of the gem cards on the authorized retailers i actually drove there and checked the display/asked some guy in person, instead of just checking their site...:+1:

[Fremtid.3528]

Well, you never know. You could try the other option that you didn't try.

[ProtoGunner.4953]

There are also people who simply don't care to blow 100€. I get that money in less than two hours of work. So why should I grind for hours. Anyway, I spent my few hundreds on this game, but lost mostly interest. Maybe every 3-4 months 10€ on it now.

[mtpelion.4562]

I do think that they monetized the unlimited use tools poorly. If they sold a basic unlimited tool (no effects, animations, or extra resources, just an unlimited orichalcum tool) for 300-500 gems and then sold skin sets separately (this is where you could then use transmutation charges to transmute your sickle into a "super orbital laser leaf trimmer 4000") for another 500-800 gems or so, I think that they would wind up generating more income than they do now because more people would buy more of them.

Hitting the sweet spot with your price point can be tricky, and I think that generally they are pretty good at it but there are a few outliers.

[Magnus Godrik.5841]

@ZeftheWicked.3076 said:

@"Magnus Godrik.5841" said:Is it unbalanced. I mean they charge 500 gems for premium gloves and people are fine with that. But 2000 for a premium mount and people just rage. The pricing is right on in my opinion. Don't forget you have the option to grind the gold or just simply outright buy it.

and many, maaany others...

Ofc i have the option to grind gold, and that's what i do if I really want it. I'm not mad about it.That's not my point. Hell i'm

better off

not wasting real money for these items and getting gems with gold instead.

What I am doing is being nice, and taking my time and effort (as a real life economist and a player) to let A-net know there's a big market right under their noses they're not tapping into. The poorer/F2P players, that aren't ingrates and given a good deal would happily throw few $ at the game to keep it going and flowing.But few very big mistakes with gemstore policies prevent that from happening, costing A-net a lot of money it's clearly not aware of.

A game can sure as hell run on whales that's true. But it'll run a lot better if everyone is happily willing to chip in a bit of their $, rather then going by "you gotta be thiiiiiiis tall (money wise) to pass that gate" policy.

Well let's thank the whales because if it wasn't for them there probably won't be content or even yet, a GW2. And honestly it's probably better to pick up a few hours at work for cash then spending 10+ hours grinding for gold. But that's my opinion.

[mauried.5608]

Anets gem store is simply a shop.The shop sells stuff.The shop owner decides what to sell the stuff for.The concept of fairness or balance is irrelavant as the shop owner can sell their products for whatever they like.Theres nothing in the shop thats needed to play the game.Its simply a take it or leave scenerio.

[Obtena.7952]

@ZeftheWicked.3076 said:

@"Magnus Godrik.5841" said:Is it unbalanced. I mean they charge 500 gems for premium gloves and people are fine with that. But 2000 for a premium mount and people just rage. The pricing is right on in my opinion. Don't forget you have the option to grind the gold or just simply outright buy it.

and many, maaany others...

Ofc i have the option to grind gold, and that's what i do if I really want it. I'm not mad about it.That's not my point. Hell i'm

better off

not wasting real money for these items and getting gems with gold instead.

What I am doing is being nice, and taking my time and effort (as a real life economist and a player) to let A-net know there's a big market right under their noses they're not tapping into. The poorer/F2P players, that aren't ingrates and given a good deal would happily throw few $ at the game to keep it going and flowing.But few very big mistakes with gemstore policies prevent that from happening, costing A-net a lot of money it's clearly not aware of.

A game can sure as hell run on whales that's true. But it'll run a lot better if everyone is happily willing to chip in a bit of their $, rather then going by "you gotta be thiiiiiiis tall (money wise) to pass that gate" policy.

As a real life economist, you should know better than to suggest there is a problem with their prices without having the data you need to make that statement.

[HELLruler.4820]

Some prices are strange because you can buy gems with gold. Maybe gems cost too much real money, but I think most prices are fair

The only item in the shop that bothers me is the extra bag slots being character-bound instead of account-wide. I'd rather pay $10 to have all my characters get an extra slot than pay $5 for only one of them get it - and you lose the extra slot if you delete the character, aka you literally delete $5

[Zeivu.3615]

@ZeftheWicked.3076 said:Example:

PoF xpac - 30 euros. Pretty darn good deal for a good price. No complaints there.

Total Makeover kit - change any aspect of your character's looks save race. around 5 euros. Great deal for great price, customization is major part of GW2.

Perma harvesting tool - 12.5 EUROS (vinil record screech) - what? Better yet - what if you already have another perma tool of given type and the convinience part is out of the equasion? Then you're asked to shell out 25 euros for just a minor animation...Similar story with musical instruments...

If you want sales up, and player's happy, you should rebalance the prices of stuff in there. Not to mention the very high price in rl money for gems.As things are on more then one occasion i chose to grind for ingame gold and exchange it for gems, rather then throw a few $ at you, because of the high prices and low real money:gem ratio...

1. Total Makeover Kit is cosmetic and allows you to change your appearance.
2. Perm harvesting tools allows you to avoid a major gold sink on each toon that possesses them and will eventually pay for themselves if you use it enough.
3. There is no monthly subscription. That shit is expensive. Arenanet has to keep the lights on somehow. It's not going to happen.
4. You have no business talking for the entire userbase, let alone me.

@HELLruler.4820 said:Some prices are strange because you can buy gems with gold. Maybe gems cost too much real money, but I think most prices are fair

The only item in the shop that bothers me is the extra bag slots being character-bound instead of account-wide. I'd rather pay $10 to have all my characters get an extra slot than pay $5 for only one of them get it - and you lose the extra slot if you delete the character, aka you literally delete $5

Account inventory slots are already a thing?

[Leo G.4501]

@HELLruler.4820 said:Some prices are strange because you can buy gems with gold. Maybe gems cost too much real money, but I think most prices are fair

The only item in the shop that bothers me is the extra bag slots being character-bound instead of account-wide. I'd rather pay $10 to have all my characters get an extra slot than pay $5 for only one of them get it - and you lose the extra slot if you delete the character, aka you literally delete $5

You run into the problem of once you've purchased the max number of bags (you can only have 10 per character) then Anet cannot profit from selling bags to your entire account, including future characters created on that account. While I can agree that having cheaper bag slots would be great for me, it would be capping Anet's profitability on that particular item.

[mauried.5608]

Everyone in the world would agree that having things that are cheaper for them to buy would be fantastic.Sadly, it dont work like that.

[Eloc Freidon.5692]

Permanent tools are about the only thing that makes sense in the gem store. Its the gross inconsistencies between cosmetics. Why do you think Mount skins are such a problem? Why does one hat cost 200 gems and another costs 600?

[Henry.5713]

The players are the ones at fault. People are more likely to spend money if they feel like it is out of free will or if they feel like the game is actually free nowadays.Nothing new in the MMORPG genre. Also, there are already complaints about having to pay for the expansions at all and everyone hates subscriptions and would rather see mount skins sold for $20 than pay of either of these.Not something I perticularly agree with. Would prefer to pay $100 for each expansion given the amount of hours of playtime they provided me with. Even a sub sounds fine to me if that it means that we no longer have to deal with lootboxes and overpriced skins but each their own. I am probably a minority in this.

[HELLruler.4820]

@"Leo G.4501" said:You run into the problem of once you've purchased the max number of bags (you can only have 10 per character) then Anet cannot profit from selling bags to your entire account, including future characters created on that account. While I can agree that having cheaper bag slots would be great for me, it would be capping Anet's profitability on that particular item.

That's true, but doesn't that happen to every other "account upgrade"? There's a limit to bank tabs, crafting professions, item stacks, character slots. I don't see why bag slots couldn't be account-wide

[Despond.2174]

If you play this game a lot and want it to continue, do what I do and mix it up between cash+in game farmed gold. It's not that bad, and when things are very pricey and based on gambling I just don't get them. The xpacs for this game are SO cheap in comparison to other MMOs, and we get free Living World maps for just logging in that other MMOs would probably charge DLC for. GW2 is really solid when it comes to their cash shop.

[Leo G.4501]

@HELLruler.4820 said:

@"Leo G.4501" said:You run into the problem of once you've purchased the max number of bags (you can only have 10 per character) then Anet cannot profit from selling bags to your entire account, including future characters created on that account. While I can agree that having cheaper bag slots would be great for me, it would be capping Anet's profitability on that particular item.

That's true, but doesn't that happen to every other "account upgrade"? There's a limit to bank tabs, crafting professions, item stacks, character slots. I don't see why bag slots couldn't be account-wide

You do have a point, but doing so would still be adding more hard-capped upgrades to the list of hard-capped upgrades.

[ReaverKane.7598]

@mauried.5608 said:Anets gem store is simply a shop.The shop sells stuff.The shop owner decides what to sell the stuff for.The concept of fairness or balance is irrelavant as the shop owner can sell their products for whatever they like.Theres nothing in the shop thats needed to play the game.Its simply a take it or leave scenerio.

I'd like to introduce you to economics 101 and the concept of supply and demand.@Obtena.7952 said:

@ZeftheWicked.3076 said:

@"Magnus Godrik.5841" said:Is it unbalanced. I mean they charge 500 gems for premium gloves and people are fine with that. But 2000 for a premium mount and people just rage. The pricing is right on in my opinion. Don't forget you have the option to grind the gold or just simply outright buy it.

and many, maaany others...

Ofc i have the option to grind gold, and that's what i do if I really want it. I'm not mad about it.That's not my point. Hell i'm

better off

not wasting real money for these items and getting gems with gold instead.

What I am doing is being nice, and taking my time and effort (as a real life economist and a player) to let A-net know there's a big market right under their noses they're not tapping into. The poorer/F2P players, that aren't ingrates and given a good deal would happily throw few $ at the game to keep it going and flowing.But few very big mistakes with gemstore policies prevent that from happening, costing A-net a lot of money it's clearly not aware of.

A game can sure as hell run on whales that's true. But it'll run a lot better if everyone is happily willing to chip in a bit of their $, rather then going by "you gotta be thiiiiiiis tall (money wise) to pass that gate" policy.

As a real life economist, you should know better than to suggest there is a problem with their prices without having the data you need to make that statement.

As a real life economist you'd also know that when there's so many people that complain about prices, there's bound to be some issues. In this case marketing issues, not economical ones.

@Zeivu.3615 said:

@ZeftheWicked.3076 said:Example:

PoF xpac

- 30 euros. Pretty darn good deal for a good price. No complaints there.

Total Makeover kit

- change any aspect of your character's looks save race. around 5 euros. Great deal for great price, customization is major part of GW2.

Perma harvesting tool

- 12.5 EUROS (vinil record screech) -

what

? Better yet - what if you already have another perma tool of given type and the convinience part is out of the equasion? Then you're asked to shell out 25 euros for just a minor animation...Similar story with musical instruments...

If you want sales up, and player's happy, you should rebalance the prices of stuff in there. Not to mention the very high price in rl money for gems.As things are on more then one occasion i chose to grind for ingame gold and exchange it for gems, rather then throw a few $ at you, because of the high prices and low real money:gem ratio...

1. Total Makeover Kit is cosmetic and allows you to change your appearance.
2. Perm harvesting tools allows you to avoid a major gold sink on each toon that possesses them and will eventually pay for themselves if you use it enough.
3. There is no monthly subscription. That kitten is expensive. Arenanet has to keep the lights on somehow. It's not going to happen.
4. You have no business talking for the entire userbase, let alone me.

@HELLruler.4820 said:Some prices are strange because you can buy gems with gold. Maybe gems cost too much real money, but I think most prices are fair

The only item in the shop that bothers me is the extra bag slots being character-bound instead of account-wide. I'd rather pay $10 to have all my characters get an extra slot than pay $5 for only one of them get it - and you lose the extra slot if you delete the character, aka you literally delete $5

Account inventory slots are already a thing?Are they? Are they really?> @Leo G.4501 said:

@HELLruler.4820 said:

@Leo G.4501 said:You run into the problem of once you've purchased the max number of bags (you can only have 10 per character) then Anet cannot profit from selling bags to your entire account, including future characters created on that account. While I can agree that having cheaper bag slots would be great for me, it would be capping Anet's profitability on that particular item.

That's true, but doesn't that happen to every other "account upgrade"? There's a limit to bank tabs, crafting professions, item stacks, character slots. I don't see why bag slots couldn't be account-wide

You do have a point, but doing so would still be adding more hard-capped upgrades to the list of hard-capped upgrades.

Question is, is that a bad thing? Also they've shown often enough that they're willing to increase caps when they see a chance to profit (like when they increased bag slots to 12).

[Einlanzer.1627]

@Ardenwolfe.8590 said:While I don't disagree, I'm curious: how do you expect ANet to make money so they may continue to give you free content?

This is flawed reasoning. These are digital purchases, so Anet benefits more by releasing creative items at fair prices than they get by releasing different variations of the same thing and then trying to exploit player interest. See the recent controversy with mount skins, which are unarguably laughably overpriced to the point that it's very obvious to most player that it's an exploitative cash grab.

Even if people indulge this in the short term, it is more likely to drive players away over time than it is to attract more revenue. It's a typical corporate problem of trying to maximize short term profit (usually for the benefit of shareholdres) at all costs.

This is especially a problem with collectible items like gathering tools and skins. Overcharging for these while releasing them frequently will burn the absolute shit out of players until they get pissed off and stop supporting the game. If you're going to overcharge, it makes way more sense to do it with finite items that don't receive constant expansion.

[Zeivu.3615]

@ReaverKane.7598 said:

@mauried.5608 said:Anets gem store is simply a shop.The shop sells stuff.The shop owner decides what to sell the stuff for.The concept of fairness or balance is irrelavant as the shop owner can sell their products for whatever they like.Theres nothing in the shop thats needed to play the game.Its simply a take it or leave scenerio.

I'd like to introduce you to economics 101 and the concept of supply and demand.@Obtena.7952 said:

@ZeftheWicked.3076 said:

@"Magnus Godrik.5841" said:Is it unbalanced. I mean they charge 500 gems for premium gloves and people are fine with that. But 2000 for a premium mount and people just rage. The pricing is right on in my opinion. Don't forget you have the option to grind the gold or just simply outright buy it.

and many, maaany others...

Ofc i have the option to grind gold, and that's what i do if I really want it. I'm not mad about it.That's not my point. Hell i'm

better off

not wasting real money for these items and getting gems with gold instead.

What I am doing is being nice, and taking my time and effort (as a real life economist and a player) to let A-net know there's a big market right under their noses they're not tapping into. The poorer/F2P players, that aren't ingrates and given a good deal would happily throw few $ at the game to keep it going and flowing.But few very big mistakes with gemstore policies prevent that from happening, costing A-net a lot of money it's clearly not aware of.

A game can sure as hell run on whales that's true. But it'll run a lot better if everyone is happily willing to chip in a bit of their $, rather then going by "you gotta be thiiiiiiis tall (money wise) to pass that gate" policy.

As a real life economist, you should know better than to suggest there is a problem with their prices without having the data you need to make that statement.

As a real life economist you'd also know that when there's so many people that complain about prices, there's bound to be some issues. In this case

marketing

issues, not economical ones.

@Zeivu.3615 said:

@ZeftheWicked.3076 said:Example:

PoF xpac

- 30 euros. Pretty darn good deal for a good price. No complaints there.

Total Makeover kit

- change any aspect of your character's looks save race. around 5 euros. Great deal for great price, customization is major part of GW2.

Perma harvesting tool

- 12.5 EUROS (vinil record screech) -

what

? Better yet - what if you already have another perma tool of given type and the convinience part is out of the equasion? Then you're asked to shell out 25 euros for just a minor animation...Similar story with musical instruments...

If you want sales up, and player's happy, you should rebalance the prices of stuff in there. Not to mention the very high price in rl money for gems.As things are on more then one occasion i chose to grind for ingame gold and exchange it for gems, rather then throw a few $ at you, because of the high prices and low real money:gem ratio...

1. Total Makeover Kit is cosmetic and allows you to change your appearance.
2. Perm harvesting tools allows you to avoid a major gold sink on each toon that possesses them and will eventually pay for themselves if you use it enough.
3. There is no monthly subscription. That kitten is expensive. Arenanet has to keep the lights on somehow. It's not going to happen.
4. You have no business talking for the entire userbase, let alone me.

@HELLruler.4820 said:Some prices are strange because you can buy gems with gold. Maybe gems cost too much real money, but I think most prices are fair

The only item in the shop that bothers me is the extra bag slots being character-bound instead of account-wide. I'd rather pay $10 to have all my characters get an extra slot than pay $5 for only one of them get it - and you lose the extra slot if you delete the character, aka you literally delete $5

Account inventory slots are already a thing?Are they? Are they really?> @Leo G.4501 said:

@HELLruler.4820 said:

@Leo G.4501 said:You run into the problem of once you've purchased the max number of bags (you can only have 10 per character) then Anet cannot profit from selling bags to your entire account, including future characters created on that account. While I can agree that having cheaper bag slots would be great for me, it would be capping Anet's profitability on that particular item.

That's true, but doesn't that happen to every other "account upgrade"? There's a limit to bank tabs, crafting professions, item stacks, character slots. I don't see why bag slots couldn't be account-wide

You do have a point, but doing so would still be adding more hard-capped upgrades to the list of hard-capped upgrades.

Question is, is that a bad thing? Also they've shown often enough that they're willing to increase caps when they see a chance to profit (like when they increased bag slots to 12).

Yeah. The proper name is Shared Inventory Slot. They are 700 gems each if you just buy one. They are the most awesome thing ever if you have any teleportation items, consumables or unlimited salvage kits.https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Shared_Inventory_Slot

[Leo G.4501]

@Zeivu.3615 said:

@ReaverKane.7598 said:

@mauried.5608 said:Anets gem store is simply a shop.The shop sells stuff.The shop owner decides what to sell the stuff for.The concept of fairness or balance is irrelavant as the shop owner can sell their products for whatever they like.Theres nothing in the shop thats needed to play the game.Its simply a take it or leave scenerio.

I'd like to introduce you to economics 101 and the concept of supply and demand.@Obtena.7952 said:

@ZeftheWicked.3076 said:

@"Magnus Godrik.5841" said:Is it unbalanced. I mean they charge 500 gems for premium gloves and people are fine with that. But 2000 for a premium mount and people just rage. The pricing is right on in my opinion. Don't forget you have the option to grind the gold or just simply outright buy it.

and many, maaany others...

Ofc i have the option to grind gold, and that's what i do if I really want it. I'm not mad about it.That's not my point. Hell i'm

better off

not wasting real money for these items and getting gems with gold instead.

What I am doing is being nice, and taking my time and effort (as a real life economist and a player) to let A-net know there's a big market right under their noses they're not tapping into. The poorer/F2P players, that aren't ingrates and given a good deal would happily throw few $ at the game to keep it going and flowing.But few very big mistakes with gemstore policies prevent that from happening, costing A-net a lot of money it's clearly not aware of.

A game can sure as hell run on whales that's true. But it'll run a lot better if everyone is happily willing to chip in a bit of their $, rather then going by "you gotta be thiiiiiiis tall (money wise) to pass that gate" policy.

As a real life economist, you should know better than to suggest there is a problem with their prices without having the data you need to make that statement.

As a real life economist you'd also know that when there's so many people that complain about prices, there's bound to be some issues. In this case

marketing

issues, not economical ones.

@Zeivu.3615 said:

@ZeftheWicked.3076 said:Example:

PoF xpac

- 30 euros. Pretty darn good deal for a good price. No complaints there.

Total Makeover kit

- change any aspect of your character's looks save race. around 5 euros. Great deal for great price, customization is major part of GW2.

Perma harvesting tool

- 12.5 EUROS (vinil record screech) -

what

? Better yet - what if you already have another perma tool of given type and the convinience part is out of the equasion? Then you're asked to shell out 25 euros for just a minor animation...Similar story with musical instruments...

If you want sales up, and player's happy, you should rebalance the prices of stuff in there. Not to mention the very high price in rl money for gems.As things are on more then one occasion i chose to grind for ingame gold and exchange it for gems, rather then throw a few $ at you, because of the high prices and low real money:gem ratio...

1. Total Makeover Kit is cosmetic and allows you to change your appearance.
2. Perm harvesting tools allows you to avoid a major gold sink on each toon that possesses them and will eventually pay for themselves if you use it enough.
3. There is no monthly subscription. That kitten is expensive. Arenanet has to keep the lights on somehow. It's not going to happen.
4. You have no business talking for the entire userbase, let alone me.

@HELLruler.4820 said:Some prices are strange because you can buy gems with gold. Maybe gems cost too much real money, but I think most prices are fair

The only item in the shop that bothers me is the extra bag slots being character-bound instead of account-wide. I'd rather pay $10 to have all my characters get an extra slot than pay $5 for only one of them get it - and you lose the extra slot if you delete the character, aka you literally delete $5

Account inventory slots are already a thing?Are they? Are they really?> @Leo G.4501 said:

@HELLruler.4820 said:

@Leo G.4501 said:You run into the problem of once you've purchased the max number of bags (you can only have 10 per character) then Anet cannot profit from selling bags to your entire account, including future characters created on that account. While I can agree that having cheaper bag slots would be great for me, it would be capping Anet's profitability on that particular item.

That's true, but doesn't that happen to every other "account upgrade"? There's a limit to bank tabs, crafting professions, item stacks, character slots. I don't see why bag slots couldn't be account-wide

You do have a point, but doing so would still be adding more hard-capped upgrades to the list of hard-capped upgrades.

Question is, is that a bad thing? Also they've shown often enough that they're willing to increase caps when they see a chance to profit (like when they increased bag slots to 12).

Yeah. The proper name is Shared Inventory Slot. They are 700 gems each if you just buy one. They are the most awesome thing ever if you have any teleportation items, consumables or unlimited salvage kits.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Shared_Inventory_Slot

I think you're not understanding the context of the quoted. The person that you're replying to was talking about making character bag slots unlocked by account rather than by character (so buying the upgrade would open up a bag slot for every character on your account rather than the singular character). Shared inventory slots is a singular slot that is added to the base inventory of every character. One is increasing inventory of every character by 1 (not really, since if occupied, it's occupied for every character) while the other is increasing how many bags each character can equip.

I'd say, however, comparing the price of a shared inventory slot to a bag slot unlock should show the relative value and thus how unlikely an account bag slot upgrade would seem.

[Obtena.7952]

@ReaverKane.7598 said:

As a real life economist you'd also know that when there's so many people that complain about prices, there's bound to be some issues. In this case marketing issues, not economical ones.

Except people complaining about prices is not indicative of issues, or even indicative of a problem; anyone that can't or doesn't want to pay the price for something is obviously going to have negative feelings about the cost; that doesn't mean there is a marketing or economic issue there.

Did you know the price of any good is whatever the market will bare? That's basic economic stuff. If 'enough' people pay the price for the goods that Anet sets for them, then THAT IS the price. I don't know what enough is, but what I do know is that if enough isn't enough, Anet will do something about that because they have in the past.

I can hardly think we have someone with a RL economics background complaining about the pricing AND claiming Anet has done the pricing 'wrong' without sales, revenue, cost and other financial data to make the conclusion. Considering that economics is just the science of exchange, that is just garbage science.

[Obtena.7952]

@Einlanzer.1627 said:

@Ardenwolfe.8590 said:While I don't disagree, I'm curious: how do you expect ANet to make money so they may continue to give you free content?

This is flawed reasoning. These are digital purchases, so Anet benefits more by releasing creative items at fair prices than they get by releasing different variations of the same thing and then trying to exploit player interest. See the recent controversy with mount skins, which are unarguably laughably overpriced to the point that it's very obvious to most player that it's an exploitative cash grab.

Even if people indulge this in the short term, it is more likely to drive players away over time than it is to attract more revenue. It's a typical corporate problem of trying to maximize short term profit (usually for the benefit of shareholdres) at all costs.

This is especially a problem with collectible items like gathering tools and skins. Overcharging for these while releasing them frequently will burn the absolute kitten out of players until they get pissed off and stop supporting the game. If you're going to overcharge, it makes way more sense to do it with finite items that don't receive constant expansion.

It's hardly flawed. There is a cost to make those things they sell in the GS and Anet needs to sell a number of them just to cost the costs, not to mention fund other projects, overhead, etc ... . They are footing the bill to run the game on a server ... that is a cost they need to cover for US ... so unless you are proposing we go back to a server-cost covering model (i.e., monthly subs), then that point is very strong.