[Suggestion] Can we buy gems in $5 increments please.

[SmirkDog.3160]

Having to spend $10 USD to buy 800 gems when I only want to buy something that's, say, 450 is a cheap tactic to make players spend more money. Why is $10 USD/800 gems the lowest amount we can buy. When so many things are 400 and under, why can't we get 400 gems for $5. I know it can be complicated to adjust pricing for digital currencies, but that seems like a pretty even split to me.

[Leablo.2651]

Payment processing fees are the likely reason a smaller amount is not offered.

[GrubySzymek.1362]

Easy. To make you buy more gems than you need. Companies do this all the time. It's intended practice and very unlikely to be changed.

[IndigoSundown.5419]

The points raised by both Leablo and Kheldorn are likely, and they are not mutually exclusive. The thinking is more likely to be:

• The credit company processing fee is X, so allowing charges of smaller amounts means a larger percentage of the charged amount going to them. If we restrict purchases to larger amounts, we get more money. The leftover gems on a small purchase will burn a hole in the customer's wallet and they might buy more gems as a result . It's a win-win for us.

than:

• Well, we can only afford to allow charges of at least $10 or the processing fees will kill us. It's really too bad that that means customers are going to have extra gems they might want to spend and might end up spending more.

[Sylvari.2953]

But why? Buy 800 Gems for $10 and save the remaining Gems for later so next time you want something from the Gem Store you don't have to spend money again. Ta-da!

[Brother.1504]

Hate to say it. Play one hour less a week. Work one hour more irl a week.

Problem solved.

[SmirkDog.3160]

@"Mea.5491" said:But why? Buy 800 Gems for $10 and save the remaining Gems for later so next time you want something from the Gem Store you don't have to spend money again. Ta-da!

That's not a solution, and not everyone has $10 USD to spend on the game. And spare me the lecture on "well if you can't afford $10 in gems blah blah blah" because that's not how money works. Sometimes the money you can spare is less than $10 USD and thus you can't buy a single thing.

@Brother.1504 said:Hate to say it. Play one hour less a week. Work one hour more irl a week.

Problem solved.

You really think everyone works jobs with hourly wages, huh.

It's not a matter of how much money a person has, it has to do with how much they should have to spend to get what they want. Do you pay more than you need with regular purchases so you can have store credit?

[GrubySzymek.1362]

@Brother.1504 said:Hate to say it. Play one hour less a week. Work one hour more irl a week.

Problem solved.

It works only in developed, western countries.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

It really isn't too difficult to save up the Gold to exchange for 400 Gems. If the extra $5 dollars is an issue, play and save Gold, instead.

[Sylvari.2953]

@SmirkDog.3160 said:

@"Mea.5491" said:But why? Buy 800 Gems for $10 and save the remaining Gems for later so next time you want something from the Gem Store you don't have to spend money again. Ta-da!

That's not a solution, and not everyone has $10 USD to spend on the game. And spare me the lecture on "well if you can't afford $10 in gems blah blah blah" because that's not how money works. Sometimes the money you can spare is less than $10 USD and thus you can't buy a single thing.

lol, I wasn't going to lecture you, take a chill pill. I'm also from a crappy country and can't afford the $15 monthly fee other MMOs have, that's why I prefer spending $10 on GW2 Gems when I can (every 2-3 months) and keep the Gems for later. It works for me. Alternatively, you could just convert Gold to Gems. If you do the meta events in Istan or Silverwastes for a couple of hours you can totally earn those 450 Gems in like 2 or 3 days.

[SmirkDog.3160]

It's funny that I asked for different increments of gems to buy and everyone's solutions are "play and convert gold to gems", because that's totally what I suggested. If the solution to buying gems was playing, they wouldn't sell gems to begin with, and ANet themselves would say "just play and convert gold to gems, there's no need to buy them".

[Zalavaaris.5329]

@SmirkDog.3160 said:

@"Mea.5491" said:But why? Buy 800 Gems for $10 and save the remaining Gems for later so next time you want something from the Gem Store you don't have to spend money again. Ta-da!

That's not a solution, and not everyone has $10 USD to spend on the game. And spare me the lecture on "well if you can't afford $10 in gems blah blah blah" because that's not how money works. Sometimes the money you can spare is less than $10 USD and thus you can't buy a single thing.

@Brother.1504 said:Hate to say it. Play one hour less a week. Work one hour more irl a week.

Problem solved.

You really think everyone works jobs with hourly wages, huh.

It's not a matter of how much money a person has, it has to do with how much they should have to spend to get what they want. Do you pay more than you need with regular purchases so you can have store credit?

There's a lot of things I want that I cant afford. It's a bummer.

[GrubySzymek.1362]

@"SmirkDog.3160" said:It's funny that I asked for different increments of gems to buy and everyone's solutions are "play and convert gold to gems", because that's totally what I suggested. If the solution to buying gems was playing, they wouldn't sell gems to begin with, and ANet themselves would say "just play and convert gold to gems, there's no need to buy them".

And people explained to you why it's unlikely to ever happen and suggested other solutions to deal with your issue. There should be "thank you" in there somewhere.

[Zaklex.6308]

@SmirkDog.3160 said:

@"Mea.5491" said:But why? Buy 800 Gems for $10 and save the remaining Gems for later so next time you want something from the Gem Store you don't have to spend money again. Ta-da!

That's not a solution, and not everyone has $10 USD to spend on the game. And spare me the lecture on "well if you can't afford $10 in gems blah blah blah" because that's not how money works. Sometimes the money you can spare is less than $10 USD and thus you can't buy a single thing.

~snip~

That's exactly how money works in a CONSUMER based economy, which is what the U.S. economy is based on...at it's heart the consumer drives the economy, so they want you to spend more than you have, not what you can spare.

[Danikat.8537]

It would be nice if they offered this, but as other people have said it's unlikely to happen.

It doesn't bother me because I know I'm always likely to buy more gems later on, so I just buy more than I need right now and keep the remainder until next time I want something. Sometimes it means I can get an item I want without buying gems at all.

If you're certain you won't ever want more gems, or you find it difficult to leave them sitting there until you need them, it's probably better to exchange gold for exactly the amount you need.

@"Kheldorn.5123" said:

@Brother.1504 said:Hate to say it. Play one hour less a week. Work one hour more irl a week.

Problem solved.

It works only in developed, western countries.

Not necessarily anything to do with developed or western countries. I'm in the UK and also in a job which does not allow over-time. If I work extra hours I get extra time off, not extra money, and even then I can only do it if there's a business need or with approval from my manager. I can't just randomly decide I'm going to stay late every day this week and not come in next Monday.

In previous jobs that did offer paid over time it still wasn't as simple as working whatever hours I wanted for extra money. There was only so many extra hours to go around and almost everyone wanted them, so it was usually shared out across the team. I could say I didn't want extra shifts, but I couldn't take all the extra shifts and leave everyone else stuck with just their base rate.

It's a nice idea that earning money in real life works like farming gold in a game - spend more time on it if you want more - but it's not always that simple.

[Majirah.5089]

@Brother.1504 said:Hate to say it. Play one hour less a week. Work one hour more irl a week.

Problem solved.

Unfortunately it doesn’t always works like this. In my previous job I was required to work 30-40 hours of overtime every week and not get a penny for that overtime. Joys of a salary job. In an hourly position that allows overtime this suggestion would work though.

Even so, the answer is simple. OP can just exchange gold to gems to get what is wanted. Doesn’t have to spend a dime on it. Or OP can have extra gems. This is a non-issue in my opinion.

[GrubySzymek.1362]

@Danikat.8537 said:It would be nice if they offered this, but as other people have said it's unlikely to happen.

It doesn't bother me because I know I'm always likely to buy more gems later on, so I just buy more than I need right now and keep the remainder until next time I want something. Sometimes it means I can get an item I want without buying gems at all.

If you're certain you won't ever want more gems, or you find it difficult to leave them sitting there until you need them, it's probably better to exchange gold for exactly the amount you need.

@"Kheldorn.5123" said:

@Brother.1504 said:Hate to say it. Play one hour less a week. Work one hour more irl a week.

Problem solved.

It works only in developed, western countries.

Not necessarily anything to do with developed or western countries. I'm in the UK and also in a job which does not allow over-time. If I work extra hours I get extra time off, not extra money, and even then I can only do it if there's a business need or with approval from my manager. I can't just randomly decide I'm going to stay late every day this week and not come in next Monday.

In previous jobs that did offer paid over time it still wasn't as simple as working whatever hours I wanted for extra money. There was only so many extra hours to go around and almost everyone wanted them, so it was usually shared out across the team. I could say I didn't want extra shifts, but I couldn't take all the extra shifts and leave everyone else stuck with just their base rate.

It's a nice idea that earning money in real life works like farming gold in a game - spend more time on it if you want more - but it's not always that simple.

You are in UK. You have a perspective of developed western country.

[sorudo.9054]

why even pay from Anet directly, they are always more expensive then 3rd party dealers.

[Etterwyn.5263]

@Brother.1504 said:Hate to say it. Play one hour less a week. Work one hour more irl a week.

Problem solved.

Yeah because I tell my boss when I want to work overtime on demand.

[Martimus.6027]

If a $5 total difference is an issue for you, financially, you have bigger life priorities you need to sort without worrying about online gaming.

[Ashen.2907]

@Martimus.6027 said:If a $5 total difference is an issue for you, financially, you have bigger life priorities you need to sort without worrying about online gaming.

If someone has made the effort to develop an entertainment budget, and sticks to their budget, then they are fine.

Sticking to a budget is sorting out life priorities.

[RoseofGilead.8907]

@Ashen.2907 said:

@Martimus.6027 said:If a $5 total difference is an issue for you, financially, you have bigger life priorities you need to sort without worrying about online gaming.

If someone has made the effort to develop an entertainment budget, and sticks to their budget, then they are fine.

Sticking to a budget is sorting out life priorities.

This.

[Martimus.6027]

@Ashen.2907 said:

@Martimus.6027 said:If a $5 total difference is an issue for you, financially, you have bigger life priorities you need to sort without worrying about online gaming.

If someone has made the effort to develop an entertainment budget, and sticks to their budget, then they are fine.

Sticking to a budget is sorting out life priorities.

Spending $5 or $10 on a game while you complain about the cost of it as you have to budget yourself is not sorting out life priorities. Nice try.

[mindcircus.1506]

@SmirkDog.3160 said:

@Mea.5491 said:But why? Buy 800 Gems for $10 and save the remaining Gems for later so next time you want something from the Gem Store you don't have to spend money again. Ta-da!

That's not a solution, and not everyone has $10 USD to spend on the game.

If 5 Dollars is not a problem but ten dollars is, you have bigger problems than the cost of gaming microtransactions and the cost of gemstore currency.

[Brother.1504]

@Etterwyn.5263 said:

@Brother.1504 said:Hate to say it. Play one hour less a week. Work one hour more irl a week.

Problem solved.

Yeah because I tell my boss when I want to work overtime on demand.

I suppose I assumed you know that you are in control of your own life. Your boss is exchanging payment for services. If you need more money for a fatter entertainment budget you can get another job on the side for a few hours a week. Anyway seems like this is some good practice to work on your life skills. It’s like doing your dailies or farming an achievement but with a much better reward track irl.