Is Arena Net to good to it's customers?

[xan.8936]

I buy gems every 2 or 3 months to support the game. But I think a lot players just farm gold and convert to gems for the items they want. In addition, A Net keeps adding more and more sources to make lots of gold compared to early on in the game. Living world updates and other additions to the game are free. No monthly fees and expansions every 3 years or so are only 30 or 40 bucks. Seem like Gw2 is the best value triple A game out there but I just hope it doesn't effect there bottom line down the road. thus effecting the games future years from now.

[DarkEmiLupus.2876]

Yes, they are. Anet should castrate everyone who converts gold to gems instead of buying them with real bling bling /s

[lokh.2695]

I would have quit this game a long time ago if it wasn't for it's fair form of monetization. It let's me spend money when I have it and feel like it instead of demanding a monthly fee regardless of my situation or relative happiness with the game.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Standard Editions at launch:

Core - $60

3 years later

HoT - $50

2 years later

PoF - $30

3+/4 years later

New Expansion - $?

 

Gold/Gem Gem/Gold conversion has been relatively steady (120/400 - 160/400) for years.

I think they are ok (maybe not great), or they would not be working on an expansion.

[Trinnitty.8256]

It still hurts, build templates price for every profession > price of all 3 game editions at launch.

[knite.1542]

They are good to a target audience.

[kharmin.7683]

Another veiled attempt at a subscription model thread?

[Khisanth.2948]

*looks over at the monetization for templates*

 

Would you like to have another go at the question?

[assasin oates.3018]

No, the entire system is based around exploiting whales with predatory sales tactics

[Hannelore.8153]

I think you're missing the part where I paid $150 total for the game over the last seven years, not counting gemstore purchases. I earned the right to buy gemstore items with gold a long time ago, (and I've spent more fair share of real money, too).

 

The system is fair because not everyone is equal and poor people can still enjoy the game by farming gold. Other games make the mistake of requiring subs, or only allowing wealthy players to buy premium items, this creates a community that is centric around spending and dissolves as soon as that spending isn't possible anymore (e.g in the current economy caused by the COVID-19 pandemic).

 

Entire games have failed and disappeared because of that flawed model.

 

(But I do think mount skins need to be cheaper. Everything else is priced very reasonably.)

[White Kitsunee.4620]

I've always thought they are too generous with giving out 1 year of free content with LW.

But I think that's more of a problem with the slow pace of expansions then lw itself.

 

That being said I dont think I'd really like too many more systems being monetized in game. This game was touted as being a mmo without a sub fee, so I think most of the people who play it prefer less monetization then more.

 

I think Anet should expand their merchandise to increase profits. Card games, clothing, statues ect.

 

[maddoctor.2738]

To my understanding, the more players buy gems with gold, the higher their price becomes. The gold->gem value is dropping, it used to be around 40 gold for 100 gems, now it's down to 30 gold for 100 gems. so more players are selling gems for gold than buying gems with gold.

[Just a flesh wound.3589]

What the OP is missing is that players don’t buy gems with gold from ANet. Gems bought with gold are gems bought from other players who paid real money for those gems in order to sell those gems to get gold. What ANet is doing is letting players legally sell gold to buy gems from other players in order to cut out gold sellers.

[Obliviscaris.6937]

> @"assasin oates.3018" said:

> No, the entire system is based around exploiting whales with predatory sales tactics

 

Oh and I'm sure capitalism just gave you such a _terrible_ life.

[Westenev.5289]

Gems are paid for by players who want the farmed gold, if I am not mistaken. This means ingame wealth is redistributed rather than added or lost when a player buys gold with gems and vice versa.

[maddoctor.2738]

> @"Westenev.5289" said:

> This means ingame wealth is redistributed rather than added or lost when a player buys gold with gems and vice versa.

 

Not exactly because the exchange rate isn't the same. For example, at this point 100 gems sell for 20 gold, but you need 30 gold to buy 100 gems, so it's more expensive to buy gems with gold, than converting your gems to gold. And that extra 10 gold is "wasted", so the gem exchange is a good way to reduce overall in-game wealth (much like the TP tax)

[Danikat.8537]

As other people have said all the gems bought with gold were originally paid for with real money, just by a different player who then used them to buy gold. It's basically a legal, in-game and safe way of gold selling.

 

The business model for this game does seem weird to me at times, mainly the way so much of the content is given away free if you log in at the right time but then you have to pay for some cosmetic or convenience items. I'm used to single-player games where it's (ideally) the other way around - you pay for content then get items free from playing it, or in some cases you pay for content then pay extra if you want new items. But this seems to work and I've certainly appreciated it over the years.

 

I pre-purchased the deluxe edition of the base game, and bought the ultimate edition of both HoT and PoF (separately) and over the years I've spent more than I care to think about buying gems. But I've also had periods where for various reasons I could not afford to spend money on games and I really appreciated that I was still able to keep playing and play the new releases when they came out. As much as it seems weird I really like that this business model gives me the freedom to pay when it's convenient for me, and gives me other options if I can't (or don't want to) spend real money, rather than having to pay when Anet decides it's time or stop playing.

[Cyninja.2954]

The question is to subjective to be stated that way. Obviously most players will argue that the game is to cheap, just right or to expensive depending on where they fall within the price sensitivity.

 

Compared to most competitors, yes GW2 is far lighter on the wallet than pretty much any other major western MMORPG. That's a nice USP, but unfortunately also attracts a crowd with less ability or desire to spend money.

 

The only really substantial question is: does the revenue generated allow for continued development and support of the game? The answer to that question so far has been: it's enough to sustain the game. As such one could argue that the pricing is okay (without making hypothesis about where the game could be with way higher revenue and potentially more staff, since revenue and money can be diverted to other studio efforts). Should this situation change, the obvious answer would be: the revenue was not enough (which can be due to a multitude of factors, only one of which is revenue per player).

 

Last year right after the layoffs, these forums were full of concern and even topics about donating to Arenanet to save GW2. The fright of the game closing down (or even only going into maintenance mode) made a lot of vocal price sensitive players take a step back, since most don't actually want the game to be shut down, even while not actively supporting it via money.

[Zoid.2568]

It takes many hours to farm gold for 2000 gems. It's about 608 gold for 2000 gems and to farm all that gold will take you a few weeks and you have to farm constantly.

 

Speed farming fotm is the best for gold and you can get like 10-15 gold per hour in higher tiers. If you get 15 per hour then you have to farm for 40 hours to get 608 gold and if you play for 2 hours everyday, then you will have that gold in 20 days.

 

Farming 8 hours everyday, if you have that time you will have it in 5 days.

 

 

Most people won't farm all this gold for a new cool armor set etc or they don't know how to speed farm gold, so they spend real money on the gem store.

[Strider Pj.2193]

> @"Hannelore.8153" said:

> I think you're missing the part where I paid $150 total for the game over the last seven years, not counting gemstore purchases. I earned the right to buy gemstore items with gold a long time ago, (and I've spent more fair share of real money, too).

>

> The system is fair because not everyone is equal and poor people can still enjoy the game by farming gold. Other games make the mistake of requiring subs, or only allowing wealthy players to buy premium items, this creates a community that is centric around spending and dissolves as soon as that spending isn't possible anymore (e.g in the current economy caused by the COVID-19 pandemic).

>

 

This. Added to that, the amount I have spent since launch on the actual games (not gems or gold) compared to what a new player would need to spend to buy the game plus all expansions (-living story) is significantly different.

 

That is not a complaint, as I am happy with my purchase and have seen the game evolve over the years, but don’t think that I should be hit based on the ‘cheapness’ of the current game.

 

But gems if you want to support the game.

 

I do from time to time as do many others.

 

I want that option, and not have it essentially be forced on me,

 

 

[Turkeyspit.3965]

It strikes a perfect balance.

 

Some players have more money than time. Other players have more time than money. Both types of players can enjoy the gem store, just by taking different paths.

 

If players didn't buy gems to sell for gold, players wouldn't be able buy gems with gold.....and if nobody is buying gems with gold, then nobody could buy gems for $$$ and then sell them for gold. Both parties are needed for this ecosystem to work.

 

I'm confident a large chunk of their revenues still comes from those who buy gems with $$$ to then spend on the store, but any way you look at it, all three types of players work to support the game.

 

[Shadowmoon.7986]

It employs lootboxes, no it is just as evil as other game companies.

[Teratus.2859]

I have no complaints personally, been playing Gw2 since Beta and Gw1 for years before that.

 

Any issues i've had with the game have been handled well and quickly (such as me foolishly buying a bank expansion slot while having maxed slots >.<)

Their generosity to players and genuine passion for this game is more than enough to make me happy with my years playing gw2 happy enough to support the game with cash to gem purchases when there are things I want to buy and happy enough to indulge on those expansion ultimate editions when they come out ^^

I have no regrets about any money i've put in this game, Anet deserved every penny.

[Excursion.9752]

They are fair to us. I don't feel spoiled by no means and in games like this the economy corrects itself eventually. But everything is bound to slowly raise its just how economics typically works. On the flip side of that there are hidden gold sinks everywhere in this game so it may stay pretty steady for a while.

 

The one thing I wish this game or any game for that matter had is an option of selecting which game mode you would you like to see your money go towards. So when you are buying gems or converting gold to gems it should let you suggest what area of the game you would like to see improved. I feel there has been a pretty big chunk of monies missing because of the treatment to the competitive areas of the game PvP and WvW.

 

So being able to pick something like Balancing, Living Story, Open World, Dungeons, Fractals, Strikes, Raids, PvP, WvW this would let ANET know if they choose not to work on those areas of the game they have the possibility of losing that income permanently. I feel that kind of feedback would be helpful with giving some guidance to what the Devs should be working on. Not that this would be their primary focus but it would let them know that they need to show some love to.

 

So when it comes down to it I believe player retention is key to making money and for people to keep buying and converting gems. Knowing where to focus your efforts would help figure out how to distribute the workload properly.

 

[lare.5129]

> @"xan.8936" said:

> I buy gems every 2 or 3 months to support the game.

thanks for support!

 

> But I think a lot players just farm gold and convert to gems for the items they want.

ofc. Not all have good job, not have job at all, students, .. But They give something another - they update game from singleplay to mmo. This is big gift too us too.

 

> Seem like Gw2 is the best value triple A game

yes, it is.