Should Anet Monetize Content

[Adry.7512]

To be honest, this is an amazing game. It is filled with endless hours of content for those who look for it on their personal time, countless hours of map group content, etc. NCSOFT and anyone with an eye for quality/business knows this is a gold mine. Why hasnt this gold mine reached its potential? Constant restructuring on content delivery, lack of firmness and stability on the delivery. Changing the business model constantly is not healthy. Not referring to the free to play is perfect model, which attracts people into the game. I mean the monetization of the game could use some finesse. Why would you bundle up two Xpacs for one low price? Each Xpac offers content that would take the average person minimum 6 months-1year to complete the whole thing EACH.....so why? Sometimes you need to let content sit there and attract a flow. Refine the content, and let it sit there. 50 bucks may be a bit too much, but 30~ is fair for EACH Xpac, not both. Xpacs SHOULD NOT be delivered every year....this is something Arenanet tried doing for a few years, but it is not wise. Companies to rush content and deliver constantly become "ruled" by the community. Sometimes you need to "starve" the community per say to gain a thirst for new content BEFORE the new content is delivered. Ideally an Xpac should be once every 3 years roughly, especially with a game like this that delivers PVE content every couple months. Another thing this game may have realized lately due to recent pvp changes is that this game attracted mostly PVE affiliated players and ignored PVP. Nowdays PVP offers massive content, but due to it being ignored for so many years, it will take a long time to attract a stronger player base. PVP for many games is a backup for the game to lean on when developing content. It is normal for content creator to reach writers block or have financial difficulties. At times such as these, many games rely on their PVP content to keep players entertained while holding back on big expenses. Good PVP content can be a money saver for many MMORPGs if done right. Also this game relies solely on Xpacs to deliver PVE content....What about DLCs? Sometimes side projects can occur and may be delivered as a DLC. And please dont misunderstand, this is a thought, not something I believe should occur 100%. To sum up my thoughts, I believe that Arenanet is too flexible on their cash flow. I am not saying be greedy, but it would be healthier for Arenanet to monetize certain aspects of their content delivery better. It would not hurt and it would result in a less strict budget that would offer a lot more resources for future content.

For what the game currently has, such as Gem store cosmetics. This is cool, and most people dont want to play countless hours for all the cool stuff in the game. Gem store offers an easy way out, and this is fine, plus its effective. The community loves the gem store. I see people wearing more gem store skins than in-game skins. This should not mean that in-game items should be less cool, nor should it suffer. Gem store offers an easy way into fashion wars, and thats fine. Arenanet has used content to sort-off add gem store skins, such as mounts, capes, gliders, etc. Regardless, this is not enough, I am not complaining, I think its genius.....but they are NOT properly monetizing the content itself. More cash flow can be made if done properly and fair. I am not saying use my ideas, but ideas do need to occur. This is not enough for long-term market growth in the competitive world. The line between fair and unfair is thin, but you can always use the Roam approach. Gather ideas from current existing successful MMORPGs and apply it to GW2. That's what Roam did at its time, and look how successful it was. The only thing that destroyed Roam was Roam itself. Gather ideas from other areas, improve on them, and make them your own. While I love this game, I have concerns for its competitive growth in the market.

[Randulf.7614]

(due to merger reply is aimed at postdirectly above this one, not the poll)

I'm confused by some of your statements because they don't seem to apply to GW2 at all.

Anet actually resisted the idea of expacs and it was what 2 or 3 years before we saw one then another 2 before the next one. It has never aimed at one a year and the only reason we prob got them was because the true Living World (LS1) wasn't the critical success it had put so much on. With an expac at least a year away if not more, we can see expacs are 2-3 years between releases - like you request.

It has never relied solely in expacs to deliver content. It has done 5 Living World Seasons which are DLCs (you seem to say Anet doesn't do DLC, but actually this is exactly what it does do) and are different models to expacs and should not be confused with them (like I assume you are doing). Free for loyal players, paid for catch up. If they delivered only expacs - every 3 years and no living world in between, the game would have died. 3 years with no content in this day and age kills an MMO stone dead. Instead we get pretty rapid fire open/world story cadences, which already feel too many imo.

It bundles the expacs together to bring more people in and make it easier to catch up. It would be foolish to have an MMO with so much content which is less and less populated, yet fully priced. Much better to lower or give it away with new content and bring the players in or back. You say learn from other MMO's, but this is what many MMO's actually do. And it works.

The gemstore likely funds most of this game, with the occasional big peak with an expac. It could prob tweak the gemstore to be better, but ultimately what will drive the income is the quality of the content and fairness to multiple game modes. The better that is, the more satisfied players will be and the more they will repay with hard earned money.

As for pvp, well pvp has never been the bread and butter money winner for an MMO. I agree it should not be neglected (and there is little doubt it has been), but pvp doesn't drive the income anywhere near the kind of levels pve does. And that has been true for almost every MMO

[saye.9304]

check massivelyop.com for latest ncsoft financial report:well ncsoft financial report is out for q1 2020 and things look bad for gw2 again, aion numbers are as bad as wild star but ncsoft is not puling plug on it yet maybe because its korea company and home support, i do not know but gw2 is doing pretty embarrassing for second quarter in a row, specially considering this Q was the pandemic Q, and many companies including ncsoft benefited from it, ncsoft has doubled their profit during pandemic but not from aion and gw2, like i said gw2 even during pandemic Q was still did embarrassing, a little better than last Q but still pretty bad, god's willing and hopefully pandemic is going to be over and that means thing will get worse for gw2.yeah they have to do something or future does not look good for gw2 base on financial report, and cantha expansion is far away, a year at least, even with expansion its temporary boost for gw2, they need something much more solid to help them or like i said things will get bad for anet, as matter of fact it is already bad, they need to do something and they need to do it now.

[Randulf.7614]

@saye.9304 said:check massivelyop.com for latest ncsoft financial report:well ncsoft financial report is out for q1 2020 and things look bad for gw2 again, aion numbers are as bad as wild star but ncsoft is not puling plug on it yet maybe because its korea company and home support, i do not know but gw2 is doing pretty embarrassing for second quarter in a row, specially considering this Q was the pandemic Q, and many companies including ncsoft benefited from it, ncsoft has doubled their profit during pandemic but not from aion and gw2, like i said gw2 even during pandemic Q was still did embarrassing, a little better than last Q but still pretty bad, god's willing and hopefully pandemic is going to be over and that means thing will get worse for gw2.yeah they have to do something or future does not look good for gw2 base on financial report, and cantha expansion is far away, a year at least, even with expansion its temporary boost for gw2, they need something much more solid to help them or like i said things will get bad for anet, as matter of fact it is already bad, they need to do something and they need to do it now.

Surely Lockdown would be Q2? Most western zones didn't really start locking down until mid-late March and then fully through and ongoing into May. Unless I'm misunderstanding the Q dates, surely that is Q2?

[artcreator.4859]

I do agree with the xpacs and updates should be slowed down a bit, taking longer development time to release. The living world stuff can feel rushed, and these new maps/story are honestly just not as good as the normal maps for core Tyria or the xpacs. I would rather wait 6 months for a great map and great story missions to be added then wait 3 months for an alright map with alright story missions to be added. Once this contents in, it's in forever, regardless of how good it is.

In the meantime, some minor PVP love would go a looong way (as you said). 1 new map for PVP, and perhaps a new reward track would be amazing, heck even a new hero for stronghold would be amazing. maybe 1 small wvw event like a limited barrier siege blueprint would be cool, something even smaller then that would be good aswell. Small things would go a long way is all I'm trying to say.

[saye.9304]

@Randulf.7614 said:

@saye.9304 said:check massivelyop.com for latest ncsoft financial report:well ncsoft financial report is out for q1 2020 and things look bad for gw2 again, aion numbers are as bad as wild star but ncsoft is not puling plug on it yet maybe because its korea company and home support, i do not know but gw2 is doing pretty embarrassing for second quarter in a row, specially considering this Q was the pandemic Q, and many companies including ncsoft benefited from it, ncsoft has doubled their profit during pandemic but not from aion and gw2, like i said gw2 even during pandemic Q was still did embarrassing, a little better than last Q but still pretty bad, god's willing and hopefully pandemic is going to be over and that means thing will get worse for gw2.yeah they have to do something or future does not look good for gw2 base on financial report, and cantha expansion is far away, a year at least, even with expansion its temporary boost for gw2, they need something much more solid to help them or like i said things will get bad for anet, as matter of fact it is already bad, they need to do something and they need to do it now.

Surely Lockdown would be Q2? Most western zones didn't really start locking down until mid-late March and then fully through and ongoing into May. Unless I'm misunderstanding the Q dates, surely that is Q2?

ok let just say Q2 is the pandemic Q for gw2, what about after pandemic is over?you can not see bigger picture? pandemic temporary boost, expansion temporary boost, they need something more solid to keep them going for years without pandemic, currently the numbers look bad for gw2, anet need to do something about it with pandemic or without it.

[Randulf.7614]

@saye.9304 said:

@Randulf.7614 said:

@saye.9304 said:check massivelyop.com for latest ncsoft financial report:well ncsoft financial report is out for q1 2020 and things look bad for gw2 again, aion numbers are as bad as wild star but ncsoft is not puling plug on it yet maybe because its korea company and home support, i do not know but gw2 is doing pretty embarrassing for second quarter in a row, specially considering this Q was the pandemic Q, and many companies including ncsoft benefited from it, ncsoft has doubled their profit during pandemic but not from aion and gw2, like i said gw2 even during pandemic Q was still did embarrassing, a little better than last Q but still pretty bad, god's willing and hopefully pandemic is going to be over and that means thing will get worse for gw2.yeah they have to do something or future does not look good for gw2 base on financial report, and cantha expansion is far away, a year at least, even with expansion its temporary boost for gw2, they need something much more solid to help them or like i said things will get bad for anet, as matter of fact it is already bad, they need to do something and they need to do it now.

Surely Lockdown would be Q2? Most western zones didn't really start locking down until mid-late March and then fully through and ongoing into May. Unless I'm misunderstanding the Q dates, surely that is Q2?

ok let just say Q2 is the pandemic Q for gw2, what about after pandemic is over?you can not see bigger picture? pandemic temporary boost, expansion temporary boost, they need something more solid to keep them going for years without pandemic, currently the numbers look bad for gw2, anet need to do something about it with pandemic or without it.

I don't disagree with that nor did I disagree with that, I was just pointing out the pandemic hasn't yet shown to have damaged the sales which you said it has. We can't analyse the pandemic effect right now because it is unknown to us.

It's difficult to know what to do with an 8 year old MMO game and pull it out of a hat "now". Interest will always dwindle and income with it. The expac will spike it no doubt, but the days of those older, bigger incomes are likely gone for the game. What it needs to focus on is good, quality, substantial content in as many areas of the game as it can and making less mistakes. It clearly misjudged the community mood on templates for example and delivered in a way that doesn't appear to have gone down well at all.

We also don't know what the expectations are for the game's sales are like over the longer term. The longer an MMO goes on for, the cheaper it seems to be to sustain and the less income it should expect to get. That's why we see so many of the really older ones still going even with low dev teams and low populations. I don't think Anet needs to be panic stations right now, but yes it needs to deliver across the board to keep the game healthy and improve its relationship with the community, which I am not always convinced is a healthy one.

[saye.9304]

@Randulf.7614 said:

@saye.9304 said:

@Randulf.7614 said:

@saye.9304 said:check massivelyop.com for latest ncsoft financial report:well ncsoft financial report is out for q1 2020 and things look bad for gw2 again, aion numbers are as bad as wild star but ncsoft is not puling plug on it yet maybe because its korea company and home support, i do not know but gw2 is doing pretty embarrassing for second quarter in a row, specially considering this Q was the pandemic Q, and many companies including ncsoft benefited from it, ncsoft has doubled their profit during pandemic but not from aion and gw2, like i said gw2 even during pandemic Q was still did embarrassing, a little better than last Q but still pretty bad, god's willing and hopefully pandemic is going to be over and that means thing will get worse for gw2.yeah they have to do something or future does not look good for gw2 base on financial report, and cantha expansion is far away, a year at least, even with expansion its temporary boost for gw2, they need something much more solid to help them or like i said things will get bad for anet, as matter of fact it is already bad, they need to do something and they need to do it now.

Surely Lockdown would be Q2? Most western zones didn't really start locking down until mid-late March and then fully through and ongoing into May. Unless I'm misunderstanding the Q dates, surely that is Q2?

ok let just say Q2 is the pandemic Q for gw2, what about after pandemic is over?you can not see bigger picture? pandemic temporary boost, expansion temporary boost, they need something more solid to keep them going for years without pandemic, currently the numbers look bad for gw2, anet need to do something about it with pandemic or without it.

I don't disagree with that nor did I disagree with that, I was just pointing out the pandemic hasn't yet shown to have damaged the sales which you said it has. We can't analyse the pandemic effect right now because it is unknown to us.

It's difficult to know what to do with an 8 year old MMO game and pull it out of a hat "now". Interest will always dwindle and income with it. The expac will spike it no doubt, but the days of older, bigger incomes are likely gone for the game. What it needs to focus on is good, quality, substantial content in as many areas of the game as it can.

We also don't know what the expectations are for the game's sales are like over the longer term. The longer an MMO goes on for, the cheaper it seems to be to sustain and the less income it should expect to get. That's why we see so many of the really older ones still going even with low dev teams and low populations. I don't think Anet needs to be panic stations right now, but yes it needs to deliver across the board to keep the game healthy. I don't think there is much disagreement there

dude i did not say it was pandemic Q, it is in the ncsoft financial report maybe because pandemic started for korea sooner? they had it before eu/na?yes there is something to do and i would do it if i was in charge. " remove gold to gem conversion" yeah there i said it, ton of people wont like this and some might attack me for it but reality is, this system is hurting the game badly.as for older mmos having low expectation, we do not know what is ncsoft expectation for gw2 is, maybe they keep gw2 around like they did aion who knows, or they might pull the plug. and this uncertain future is what makes me worried, we do not know what is gonna happen if anet and gw2 continue with bad numbers. they might survive for another 5 years like this or they might not, this uncertain future is the problem.

[Adry.7512]

@Randulf.7614 said:I'm confused by some of your statements because they don't seem to apply to GW2 at all.

Anet actually resisted the idea of expacs and it was what 2 or 3 years before we saw one then another 2 before the next one. It has never aimed at one a year and the only reason we prob got them was because the true Living World (LS1) wasn't the critical success it had put so much on. With an expac at least a year away if not more, we can see expacs are 2-3 years between releases - like you request.

It has never relied solely in expacs to deliver content. It has done 5 Living World Seasons which are DLCs (you seem to say Anet doesn't do DLC, but actually this is exactly what it does do) and are different models to expacs and should not be confused with them (like I assume you are doing). Free for loyal players, paid for catch up. If they delivered only expacs - every 3 years and no living world in between, the game would have died. 3 years with no content in this day and age kills an MMO stone dead. Instead we get pretty rapid fire open/world story cadences, which already feel too many imo.

It bundles the expacs together to bring more people in and make it easier to catch up. It would be foolish to have an MMO with so much content which is less and less populated, yet fully priced. Much better to lower or give it away with new content and bring the players in or back. You say learn from other MMO's, but this is what many MMO's actually do. And it works.

The gemstore likely funds most of this game, with the occasional big peak with an expac. It could prob tweak the gemstore to be better, but ultimately what will drive the income is the quality of the content and fairness to multiple game modes. The better that is, the more satisfied players will be and the more they will repay with hard earned money.

As for pvp, well pvp has never been the bread and butter money winner for an MMO. I agree it should not be neglected (and there is little doubt it has been), but pvp doesn't drive the income anywhere near the kind of levels pve does. And that has been true for almost every MMO

Ok....maybe you werent around when everything happened. Anyways, the first Xpac was in 2015 (not 2-3 years ago). Prior to the Xpac, GW2 was going through long periods of content droughts and a lack of endgame content to sustain the drought. And since the rest of your response is tethered around that statement, this basically sums up my response.

[Adry.7512]

@saye.9304 said:check massivelyop.com for latest ncsoft financial report:well ncsoft financial report is out for q1 2020 and things look bad for gw2 again, aion numbers are as bad as wild star but ncsoft is not puling plug on it yet maybe because its korea company and home support, i do not know but gw2 is doing pretty embarrassing for second quarter in a row, specially considering this Q was the pandemic Q, and many companies including ncsoft benefited from it, ncsoft has doubled their profit during pandemic but not from aion and gw2, like i said gw2 even during pandemic Q was still did embarrassing, a little better than last Q but still pretty bad, god's willing and hopefully pandemic is going to be over and that means thing will get worse for gw2.yeah they have to do something or future does not look good for gw2 base on financial report, and cantha expansion is far away, a year at least, even with expansion its temporary boost for gw2, they need something much more solid to help them or like i said things will get bad for anet, as matter of fact it is already bad, they need to do something and they need to do it now.

My thoughts exactly. They need to better monetize their content.

[Adry.7512]

@artcreator.4859 said:I do agree with the xpacs and updates should be slowed down a bit, taking longer development time to release. The living world stuff can feel rushed, and these new maps/story are honestly just not as good as the normal maps for core Tyria or the xpacs. I would rather wait 6 months for a great map and great story missions to be added then wait 3 months for an alright map with alright story missions to be added. Once this contents in, it's in forever, regardless of how good it is.

In the meantime, some minor PVP love would go a looong way (as you said). 1 new map for PVP, and perhaps a new reward track would be amazing, heck even a new hero for stronghold would be amazing. maybe 1 small wvw event like a limited barrier siege blueprint would be cool, something even smaller then that would be good aswell. Small things would go a long way is all I'm trying to say.

Me too honestly. It would massively increase profits and lower costs, plus GW2 has a massive amount of content, enough to keep players entertained while large higher quality content is released. I REALLY dont mind paying for DLCs if it means high quality and more extensive in-depth exploration of lore.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Posters have been saying that the game is doomed if things don't change for 7+ years. Not sure what makes this quarter any different, especially with better income than last quarter.

[Donari.5237]

@Adry.7512 said:

@"Randulf.7614" said:I'm confused by some of your statements because they don't seem to apply to GW2 at all.

Anet actually resisted the idea of expacs and it was what 2 or 3 years before we saw one then another 2 before the next one. It has never aimed at one a year and the only reason we prob got them was because the true Living World (LS1) wasn't the critical success it had put so much on. With an expac at least a year away if not more, we can see expacs are 2-3 years between releases - like you request.

Ok....maybe you werent around when everything happened. Anyways, the first Xpac was in 2015 (not 2-3 years ago). Prior to the Xpac, GW2 was going through long periods of content droughts and a lack of endgame content to sustain the drought. And since the rest of your response is tethered around that statement, this basically sums up my response.

I think you misunderstood Randulf. 2015 was 3 years after launch, so it was 3 years before we saw one. The announcement of HoT started the content drought as ANet moved all its efforts to working on the expansion.

As to your OP, I may be misunderstanding your big blocks of text and you do say "don't be greedy" but it sounds like you're calling on ANet to charge more money for more things. If they start monetizing things previously offered for free, you bet there will be loud cries about greed. They get enough grief for charging for LS chapters if a player didn't log in while the chapter was live.

I can't say I'm sure they have a thoroughly competent Marketing division -- there've been some fairly mindboggling moves from them on that front -- but I'm sure that people outside the company without access to the numbers and stats regarding cashflow can't give meaningful unsolicited advice.

[Adry.7512]

@Donari.5237 said:

@Adry.7512 said:

@"Randulf.7614" said:I'm confused by some of your statements because they don't seem to apply to GW2 at all.

Anet actually resisted the idea of expacs and it was what 2 or 3 years before we saw one then another 2 before the next one. It has never aimed at one a year and the only reason we prob got them was because the true Living World (LS1) wasn't the critical success it had put so much on. With an expac at least a year away if not more, we can see expacs are 2-3 years between releases - like you request.

Ok....maybe you werent around when everything happened. Anyways, the first Xpac was in 2015 (not 2-3 years ago). Prior to the Xpac, GW2 was going through long periods of content droughts and a lack of endgame content to sustain the drought. And since the rest of your response is tethered around that statement, this basically sums up my response.

I think you misunderstood Randulf. 2015 was 3 years after launch, so it was 3 years before we saw one. The announcement of HoT started the content drought as ANet moved all its efforts to working on the expansion.

As to your OP, I may be misunderstanding your big blocks of text and you do say "don't be greedy" but it sounds like you're calling on ANet to charge more money for more things. If they start monetizing things previously offered for free, you bet there will be loud cries about greed. They get enough grief for charging for LS chapters if a player didn't log in while the chapter was live.

I can't say I'm sure they have a thoroughly competent Marketing division -- there've been some fairly mindboggling moves from them on that front -- but I'm sure that people outside the company without access to the numbers and stats regarding cashflow can't give meaningful unsolicited advice.

Sometimes they can give advise. Businesses function in terms of costs vs net income....based on the income that is left after costs, results in future growth, whether that be in new projects, new games, an Xpac, etc, basically anything other than the regular costs. GW2 currently dishes out a huge sum of content on a yearly basis. They dish out a map, new story, etc. every 2 months. This is good for a rich company, but its not for a company that does not yield significant quarterly income. There are many ways to monetize a game....yes it may be unfair if done in an unfair manner. But a lot of times the term unfair can be thrown around very loosely. I believe that they can monetize content in a fair manner. There may be a bit of a backlash because the population is used to something else, but if its done right, the longterm profits will show, and the players will flock to it. Fairly monetizing content is fine, and it works. A game with this amount of content needs to find a way to monetize it before it eats itself from the inside. Meaning, its not profitable, the company is starving per say. It is like an athlete that is pushing himself/herself too hard, but not giving its body enough nutrition, the athlete will crash or pass out, and the athlete's performance will dwindle.

[Adry.7512]

Before voting please read description. This is assuming that Anet will abstain from any P2W models. There will be no P2W, but there will be more monetizing of content. This does not mean that players wont have access to anything unless they pay massive amount of money, but money will be required for big content (Ex: 10-35 dollars depending on the size of the content). Please consider the fact that GW2, while having massive amounts of content and a healthy playerbase that love the game, still manage to profit on the low-end in their quarterlies. They have been suffering on this subject for many years and it may effect the game's growth and longevity in the future. If you love the game and want it to continue to grow and provide us with content, and maybe even future games, then consider this before voting. Sometimes change can be hard and dangerous. But in this poll let us assume that the change wont be destructive and instead it will be fair and sustainable, while also abiding by the poll descriptions.

If you have an idea not listed, please feel free to describe it below.

[Linken.6345]

It have survived for close to 8 years soon so no reason it cant continue and only reason it struggles is diverting of resources that ended in failed projects.

[Tsakhi.8124]

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Also, we all know how "fixing" things in MMOs go: fix one thing, a model, a level, a class, whatever, and you break a lot more than you fix. Add to that, you can't please everyone. The idea of monetizing is not a good thing for the future of this game.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

There's already a choice for supporting the game: Buy Gems.
No need to force players to do so.

Also, you already have a thread (on the front page) on this topic.

[maddoctor.2738]

Money is already required for big content drops (expansions). The only real question in regards to monetizing the game is: "where is the next expansion?"

[Cyninja.2954]

1st, the options provided on the pole are bad. If one is in favor of better/different monetization but disagrees with the 2 provided, there is no way to vote.

NCSofts Q1 2020 numbers are out. The numbers are not great. GW2 is up 9% to last quarter, but down 25% YoY (just as a small FYI, NCSoft DOUBLED their YoY revenue thanks to other titles). Maybe Q2 will look better for GW2, with more people staying home. Overall no real boost to be noticed yet, and that is concerning.

Expect more and more monetization and maybe a complete change to the business plan with the next expansion, IF revenue does not pick up (hoping nothing worse happens, like cutting resources or further downsizing). Unfortunately, relying on option purchases, temporary players and free content only barely pays the bills.

Meanwhile, older games which have transitioned to mobile have really picked up traction, front-runner is Lineage 2.

Main strength of GW2 remains: it is NCSofts biggest title in the West.

Last thing of note, Tencent has picked up publishing of Guild Wars 2 in China. That will mean better exposure, but also potentially more pressure if the game does not produce good numbers. We will see.

[maddoctor.2738]

@"saye.9304" said:well ncsoft financial report is out for q1 2020 and things look bad for gw2 again, aion numbers are as bad as wild star but ncsoft is not puling plug on it yet maybe because its korea company and home support

Correction here, Aion (and Guild Wars 2) earned in the last quarter (Q1 2020), more than Wildstar earned in 5 quarters, probably more. NCsoft isn't pulling the plug on games that easily

Wildstar shutdown in Q4 2018Wildstar wasn't included in any quarterly report between Q2 2017 and Q4 2018, that's 6 quarters with no presence until closureWildstar was included in "other sales" in Q4 2016 - Q1 2017Last quarterly report that included Wildstar was in Q3 2016 and Wildstar had 1097 in earning.The previous 4 quarters were like this: Q3 2015: 1727, Q4 2015: 2668, Q1 2016: 1282, Q2 2016: 2203It's easy to assume that Wildstar was removed from the report because it was doing worse and worse in future quarters.

So yeah Aion is nowhere close to shutting down

[Josiah.2967]

I am what is known as a whale. I would leave. My fiance is a whale too... We would go to WOW.

To us, we justify our high spendings so others can play who might not have the opportunity.

Yes, I am the guy that randomly gives gem gifts to guildies. The feel good or charity spending mentality goes away when a shift like this happens.

I have no doubt arenanet knows this.

They could easily do a special sale while everything is available in the gemstore for a week at normal price and they would make a killing.

[Adry.7512]

Interesting....the votes are pretty overwhelming. It appears (from this small sample population of the game) the community would much rather keep everything the same and risk the longevity of the very game they invest countless hours into, than to accept anything different than what they are currently fed. Thank you guys for the feedback, I was just curious. Nevertheless, I hope this does NOT discourage the developers from making any monetization changes. You cant please your current community and that is normal, no MMORPG company ever can....but you can have them adjust to whatever YOU believe is better for the game. Goodluck to the dev team.

[Adry.7512]

@maddoctor.2738 said:

@"saye.9304" said:well ncsoft financial report is out for q1 2020 and things look bad for gw2 again, aion numbers are as bad as wild star but ncsoft is not puling plug on it yet maybe because its korea company and home support

Correction here, Aion (and Guild Wars 2) earned in the last quarter (Q1 2020), more than Wildstar earned in 5 quarters, probably more. NCsoft isn't pulling the plug on games that easily

Wildstar shutdown in Q4 2018Wildstar wasn't included in any quarterly report between Q2 2017 and Q4 2018, that's 6 quarters with no presence until closureWildstar was included in "other sales" in Q4 2016 - Q1 2017Last quarterly report that included Wildstar was in Q3 2016 and Wildstar had 1097 in earning.The previous 4 quarters were like this: Q3 2015: 1727, Q4 2015: 2668, Q1 2016: 1282, Q2 2016: 2203It's easy to assume that Wildstar was removed from the report because it was doing worse and worse in future quarters.

So yeah Aion is nowhere close to shutting down

This correction does not change the fact that GW2 is not doing well. The worry is the longevity of the game.

[Tsakhi.8124]

EH, this post was kinda awful. Sorry about that. Remove if need be.