[baseless speculation] Guys/Gals I think I know how to monetize the Legendary Armory...

[Omega.6801]

(Preface:Call me paranoid all you want. I know they said it woud be free. But I'd rather expect the worst and be proven wrong, than board the hype train and be disapointed. With build templates, we have an example of a high demand feature that got monetized into the ground. As this was the last big feature release when it comes to systems and UI, I assume the armory will follow this example. But how will they do it, now they said that "it will be free no worries"?)

 

To monetize a feature, it's easiest to "create the problem, sell the solution". So what are the problems of the armory system? I'm talking for myself here, other people might have other griefs but I think, from reading the threads about it, that many feel the same way.

The first problem is ease of access. As with legendary armor before build templates and the new item customization UI, if changing equipment using the armory takes forever or requires hundreds of click, it will be less convenient that having extra ascended gear and thus not used as much.
The second problem are skins. How will the armory work with skins? What if I want my condi bannerslave to look different from my heal firebrand or my hand kite revenant?

 

Now the first problem is hard to solve via the gemshop. People would serously lose their [()/%ç)/36!!] if the only way to speed things up or get an easy to use UI was the gemshop. Also this would bring microtransactions that are coupled with the armory and as we have been told "it's free you guys/gals, stop worrying".

The second problem however can be easily solved via the gemshop, would technically not concern the armory at all and would solve a few other problems people mention every now and then along the way.

 

I'm talking about "Style Templates". Just as the equipment tab has its equipment templates, the wardrobe tab could have templates for skin and dye setups. Every piece of equipment you equip will be reskinned to match the style templates setting. In the greedy version this will consume a transmutation charge, in a less greedy world, a transmutation charge is consumed when saving a skin to the template. This would solve the skin problem with the armory, and would give players the option to save different looks, even if they're not using the legndary armory. Characters may start with two templates for free, additional slots can be bought on the gemstore.

 

Just to get things right, I am not suggesting, that they add such a system and I'm not asking for monetization. But ever since they announed the armory I was thnking about how they plan to milk the feature for that sweet revenue while still keeping it "free m8s, no strings attached, it's free. have I said that it's free allready".

 

What do you expect? How would you monetitze this feature while keeping it """free"""?

[Astralporing.1957]

I'd rather not give them more ideas.

 

That saying, the wording they used is so weak they could probably monetize it in hundreds of ways while technically still keeping to the letter of their original statement. Remember, that they gave similar statement for build templates earlier - which did in no way prevented them from destroying that feature by "monetizing it into the ground" as you very aptly described.

Edited May 30, 2021 by Astralporing.1957

[The Fear.3865]

I have no idea how it is going to be but I think they don't really need to monetize legendary armory cuz equipment template is enough to force us to buy more slots in order to use the feature. 

 

I can already imagine how time consuming it will be to swap stats every time... 

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

If they announced, and released, a Style Template feature, that would have nothing to do with monetizing the Legendary Armory.  That would be a separate feature that doesn't require the Legendary Armory. 

 

Some QoL features are absolutely free, and some are not.  Of course, they are all optional; players must decide it they are worth the cost, if any. 

[Obtena.7952]

Considering how little Legendary gear is adopted, and that Legendary Armory might not even be a useful feature to everyone that has Leg. gear ... probably not worth the effort to monetize it in the first place.  

 

 

Edited May 30, 2021 by Obtena.7952

[Quench.7091]

Legendaries themselves are a source of income for ArenaNet. Gems → Gold → Legendary Item. It's one of those features that encourages people to buy gems, even though people don't think of it that way.

[Konjo.4981]

The way I think the Legendary Armory will work is this:

 

You will have a window with all unlocked legendary weapons / armor on your account in there (clean, without sigils/runes). You can then simply create unlimited clones of each legendary gear by dragging them into your inventory with the mouse cursor which will create a clone of the specific item. If it will work this way it will solve the problem of legendary pieces from the Legendary Armory having to look the same on all characters. It would mean that every character has to have their own sigils/runes though, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

 

If the Legendary Armory works this way, the only "problem" would be that having multiples of the same legendary will become useless. Twice-Told Legend will basically become available to everyone who has a single hand legendary weapon because you can clone infinite amount of legendary weapons. To fix that they might limit the amount of legendary weapons you can clone out of the Legendary Armory per-character based on how many of that specific weapon you have unlocked. So if you have 1 Bolt unlocked, every character can create 1 Bolt clone at max.

Edited May 31, 2021 by Konjo.4981

[Pacificterror.7805]

Additional copies outside the original you own have to be unlocked via gems. 1 additional copy "checked out" of the armoury at any one time=5 bagillion gems etc etc

 

That's probably the easiest and 'hottest' thing I'd see selling.

[Sarrs.4831]

Can't they just monetize the expansion? 😞

[BlueJin.4127]

Based on the info we have now, my guess is that the armory simply allows players use legendaries on a character’s equipment templates, even if that legendary is equipped on another character’s equipment template. No downloading 2 copies of legendaries if you only own 1. And, possibly, if you want to use different wardrobe skins for different characters, you’ll need to own multiple legendaries of the same slot.

Edited May 31, 2021 by BlueJin.4127

[Mungrul.9358]

As I noted in the Ascended Armory thread, they won't necessarily need to directly monetise the Legendary Armory, as simply adding it to the game will tempt more players in to Legendary acquisition.

And a significant percentage of those players will choose to bypass the material costs by spending cash in the gem store to convert it to gold.

[Manasa Devi.7958]

15 hours ago, Obtena.7952 said:

Considering how little Legendary gear is adopted, and that Legendary Armory might not even be a useful feature to everyone that has Leg. gear ... probably not worth the effort to monetize it in the first place.  

 

 

There's a measure of indirect monetization if the armory turns out to work conveniently, that won't require any extra dev effort. I for one would get me some extra character slots, which seems better value for money than extra gear and build templates. Some people will get those templates.

[anduriell.6280]

32 minutes ago, Mungrul.9358 said:

As I noted in the Ascended Armory thread, they won't necessarily need to directly monetise the Legendary Armory, as simply adding it to the game will tempt more players in to Legendary acquisition.

And a significant percentage of those players will choose to bypass the material costs by spending cash in the gem store to convert it to gold.

Which will make the gold more expensive as result making the exchange not worth it unless Anet mingle with the exchange values. 

 

Most players would just farm the materials, is not that difficult after all. 

[yann.1946]

19 minutes ago, anduriell.6280 said:

Which will make the gold more expensive as result making the exchange not worth it unless Anet mingle with the exchange values. 

 

Most players would just farm the materials, is not that difficult after all. 

This is not how the exchange rate works though. If gold becomes more expensive then that means thats the price "people" are willing to pay for the gold.

[anduriell.6280]

Just now, yann.1946 said:

This is not how the exchange rate works though. If gold becomes more expensive then that means thats the price "people" are willing to pay for the gold.

ok, what i meant is the more gold you buy with gems the less gold you get for the same amount of gems. As such making gold more "expensive".

 

[Manasa Devi.7958]

11 minutes ago, anduriell.6280 said:

ok, what i meant is the more gold you buy with gems the less gold you get for the same amount of gems. As such making gold more "expensive".

 

That situation never lasts long, because plenty of people pounce on the opportunity to get cheap gems with gold.

[yann.1946]

47 minutes ago, anduriell.6280 said:

ok, what i meant is the more gold you buy with gems the less gold you get for the same amount of gems. As such making gold more "expensive".

 

i understand what you meant, but it wouldn't make the price not worth it. The price will stabilize to one where it is worth it for enough people.

[Lottie.5370]

On 5/30/2021 at 2:37 PM, The Fear.3865 said:

I have no idea how it is going to be but I think they don't really need to monetize legendary armory cuz equipment template is enough to force us to buy more slots in order to use the feature. 

 

I can already imagine how time consuming it will be to swap stats every time... 

 

When you change stats on a legendary there is a little tick box next to it that you can tick to change the stats of every other legendary of the type (armour, weapons or trinkets) to the same stats. It's swapping runes, sigils and infusions that's the annoying part.

[The Fear.3865]

5 hours ago, Lottie.5370 said:

 

When you change stats on a legendary there is a little tick box next to it that you can tick to change the stats of every other legendary of the type (armour, weapons or trinkets) to the same stats. It's swapping runes, sigils and infusions that's the annoying part.

Thank you lol

[Eloc Freidon.5692]

They are already monetizing the legendary armory by making template, build, and storage slots overpriced.