Gem store hurts PVE rewards？

[Tyncale.1629]

I think it is the non-gear progression mantra of the game that hurts the PvE rewards, not the gemstore that mostly sells skins anyway. And having a gemstore skin drop from a mob would only exite me somewhat for the Gold value, not because of the item itself.

Now looting a Reed Belt from some rare wandering Goblin in Dagnars Cauldron in Everquest that could drop the best + Wis item in the game at that point, that was exiting! :) Off course I did not run into that particular mob untill the game was already 6 years old, and by then gear progression had made that +6 Wis belt completely obsolete, so I guess that immediately shows the disadvantages of such a system. ;)

Even so, I was wildly exited when I ran into that mob, simply because it was so rare. Good times.

(NB Anet should definately stick with the non-gear progression so I can keep coming back to this game)

[arielwind.8921]

@alberte.2685 said:n the past year, the number of active users of FF14 has increased rapidly in Asia. One of the key reasons is that 90% of the mounts, props and pets in the FF14 are obtained through PVE content.The GW2 gem store has severely curbed the content that PVE can get rewards, resulting in a decrease in players.

It's not a because of Gem Store issue but a rack of Asia/OCX community and population.In Asian time, most of meta events can't even success like NA time. Really hard to group up in open world, dungeons, pvp, wvw. I think ArenaNet only care the balance of US mainland, so Asian prime time group contents are mostly devastated. That actually hurts Asian/Oceanic population.

[Antycypator.9874]

You can get something valuable from PvE rewards, sell it, convert gold to gems and then buy an item from gemstore.Why is it better? Because you can choose what to buy. It's not random loot (I'm not talking about BLC and lootboxes).Imagine this loot system:

• Low chance to get an outifit. You can play forever and never get it. Or get an outfit, but not that one you wanted.In GW2 you can just play PvE, earn gold and buy it.

[Ricky Da Man.5064]

Since living world started they have made gem store items first and then designed content around them.

[Gop.8713]

I'd answer 'yes' to the OP's topic question, but everything else in the OP is pretty much rubbish. It makes no sense at all to compare rewards in two mmo's with such vastly different business models. As others have pointed out, FFIV's entire game is only accessible through the 'gem store' . . .

[Offair.2563]

No it doesn't. Gw2 doesn't have subscriptions and anything you can buy in gemstore is accesible by trading gold to gems.

[ProtoGunner.4953]

The discrepancy of what we don't get as in game rewards compared to what is in the gem store is just insane: I told this many times and I tell this here once; give us at least a cool rare mount skin as in game reward. through raids, collections or whatever. You dish out a shitton of skins and not a single one can we get via in game rewards.

This is actually a huge missed opportunity. I remember in WoW, I played a lot only to get those new flying mounts. You still can keep the majority of those skins as gem store items, but please: you will get a better reputation and eventually a better revenue if you give us a cool reward now and then. This game is well known for 'shite' rewards and while people overexaggerate a bit I tend to sympathise with their emotions.

Imagine for example you get the soulriver glider from Gorseval as a rare reward, I actually would play more of those raids. Also, give us a questline/collection to get rare and cool looking mounts. This would keep people online for longer and also increase revenue due to the fact that people buy stuff from your in game store. Believe me, at least I would do that.

[kharmin.7683]

So, you want to take things out of the gem store, make them in-game rewards and believe that this will entice players to purchase more from the gem store? I can't really follow that logic.

[Rasimir.6239]

@alberte.2685 said:It can be considered that the third season map is almost a failure.You are talking about season 3 maps in this game? Like Bitterfrost Frontier, Lake Doric, or Siren's Landing? You must be playing a very different game than I do, since I always encounter tons of people, no matter which of those maps I visit or at what time. The maps certainly don't look like a failure whenever I happen to go there.

[Goettel.4389]

Could do with fewer assumption-driven polls.

[Hynax.9536]

Gemstore definitely does not hurt pve nor any other game mode.It is just sad that some stuff are gem store exclusive like mount skins and glider skins (not counting the legendary ones that can be obtained in game and are expensive af). They sure could develop some low quality, less shiny mount skins to be acquired via achievments, map/pvp currencies, laurels or other in game obtainable stuff ( i don't even care if it is behind a giant time-gate) and keep the high quality ones for gemstore, this is where they get money after all.

[AlexxxDelta.1806]

This logical fallacy that game needs cash store spam because it doesn't have a subscription is always amusing.

You know what would change if it had a subscription? Nothing.

Subscription games have stores with the same microtransaction spam. Even single player games have them at this point, with the best looking gear saved for the store.

And it has nothing to do with sustainability or "with devs having to eat" or "pay the bills". It all about squeezing the absolute maximum profit to support an almost unsustainable growth, mandated by investors and shareholders. Because being stable and sustainable is never enough, not when you can have more.

[Taygus.4571]

@AlexxxDelta.1806 said:It all about squeezing the absolute maximum profit to support an almost unsustainable growth, mandated by investors and shareholders. Because being stable and sustainable is never enough, not when you can have more.

This is the problem with every company today. If it's not growing, it's considered dying...there's no such thing(accepted) as stable profits anymore.

[kharmin.7683]

@AlexxxDelta.1806 said:This logical fallacy that game needs cash store spam because it doesn't have a subscription is always amusing.

You know what would change if it had a subscription? Nothing.

Actually, I think a lot of casuals would leave, so that's a negative change that would occur.

[Game of Bones.8975]

tl;dr Sorry if everyone has brought this up a dozen times already.All of the mounts, their abilities, and gliding abilities came from PvE content. I'm sure these are only the first things that came to your mind, but I wanted to address them.I'm sure what you meant was to acquire new 'skins' you have to buy them in the Gem Store.Making your character look good is optional and made up of little details that people pay for keeping the game afloat.

[AlexxxDelta.1806]

@Taygus.4571 said:

@"AlexxxDelta.1806" said:It all about squeezing the absolute maximum profit to support an almost unsustainable growth, mandated by investors and shareholders. Because being stable and sustainable is never enough, not when you can have more.

This is the problem with every company today. If it's not growing, it's considered dying...there's no such thing(accepted) as stable profits anymore.

True but it's even worse with "trendy" industries like this. Gaming is the big draw in entertainment business right now. That attracts a lot of "locusts" who have probably never touched a gamepad their whole life and yet make the decisions to serve their short-term profit needs.

WoW, for example, was perfectly able to "pay the bills" without a cash store. But seeing how easy it was for f2p games to milk players through MtX, Activision wanted a piece of the pie.

@kharmin.7683 said:

Actually, I think a lot of casuals would leave, so that's a negative change that would occur.

I meant no change in terms of gem store offerings. Yes, some people would leave and I would be one of them. The current iteration of the gem store is annoying enough to me, I couldn't stomach a game that has that and a subscription on top of it.

[Hybarf Tics.2048]

My way to protest armor now is to play as a Revenant ghost rider. Revenant is my new main so it fits me well.https://imgur.com/F1UcZSDhttps://imgur.com/wUX3UgLhttps://imgur.com/ZEQYsw6https://imgur.com/11DHU6y

[Vyrulisse.1246]

Yes it does. Anyone who says otherwise is blind honestly.

[Yamazuki.6073]

I would prefer playing which ever content I want to at the given moment, convert the gold to gems to get what I want; as opposed to being forced to possibly doing something I absolutely don't like just for a skin.I also find it very unlikely most people complaining have even bothered to unlock most of the skins/gear that can be earned through pve currently, to be complaining there's a lack of them.

[Conncept.7638]

Oversimplification of the issue, the gem store does not inherently cause in game rewards to suffer, nor does the development or presence of gemstore items compete with in game rewards.

The gem exchange, on the other hand, does exactly that.

The ability for players to convert in game rewards to real world currency necessitates that in game rewards stay low enough that players cannot convert enough in game rewards that the gem store is no longer profitable.

On the other hand, the conversion system also makes it so everything in the gem store is, in a way, an in game reward. Earn gold, convert it to gems, buy what you want, ta da, you earned that by playing the game.

[TheGrimm.5624]

There should be things to work toward in the store and in game. A good balance between the two is important.

[Drakz.7051]

A game needs to have more earnable in game stuff than what is in the cash shop.

Anet is just putting too much into the cash shop but sadly it's probably the only way they can keep the game going.

And "earn gold by doing what I want" really just means doing whatever meta content earns the most none stop.

It also promotes only doing the most profitable content and leaving other stuff high and dry because the reward isn't worth it, leading to seemingly dead areas.

[Substance E.4852]

@Antycypator.9874 said:You can get something valuable from PvE rewards, sell it, convert gold to gems and then buy an item from gemstore.Why is it better? Because you can choose what to buy. It's not random loot (I'm not talking about BLC and lootboxes).Imagine this loot system:

• Low chance to get an outifit. You can play forever and never get it. Or get an outfit, but not that one you wanted.In GW2 you can just play PvE, earn gold and buy it.

MMO's focusing on being dreadfully dull part time jobs is why the genre is effectively dead in the West

@Yamazuki.6073 said:I also find it very unlikely most people complaining have even bothered to unlock most of the skins/gear that can be earned through pve currently, to be complaining there's a lack of them.

Most of the pve skins in the game were part of the game's launch 7 years ago and many look so bad they could be gw1 gear

Modern BLC weapons often have higher poly counts than an entire set of vanilla armor

[Defias.1892]

I agree with the two guys above me. More, maybe at least 30-40% of cosmetics should be earnable via in-game events. I understand that it's their primary source of revenue, and that legendaries are available, but having cooler in-game earnable cosmetics is important for keeping casual players on the hook. Also, I wish people would shut the kitten up about FFXIV. That game is a snorefest single-player JRPG

[Tyncale.1629]

@"Substance E.4852" said:

Most of the pve skins in the game were part of the game's launch 7 years ago and many look so bad they could be gw1 gear

Modern BLC weapons often have higher poly counts than an entire set of vanilla armorTrue. Some very early armor sets like Winged and Feathered armor actually look like they could come from the BLC, but you can just see Anet thinking, "yes, those looked way too good for free skins, let's dial down the poly's and Art bigtime in the future of the game". Goes for weapons too. And that's how you wind up with ugly low poly sets like https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Chak_Axe.jpg You may or may not like the "clawy" theme but it is obvious that this is not a BLC quality weapon.

Most of the map-themed weapons are like that: the Theme itself is often nice and fitting but the Art and polycount is horrible.