Would you like a GW 2 Optional Monthly Membership?

[Rysdude.3824]

I’d personally love some sort of VIP benefit.

[flog.3485]

The franchise of Guild Wars have always been established as a budget game in which every player who purchased it will be equal in playing it in any way shape or form.

 

Optional sub is already in the game with buying gemstore items every month with real money.

 

I would rather see the game fail delivering content like its has been doing so for the last 3 years than seeing devs trying to save it by implementing an optional/required sub.

[lokh.2695]

Hell No....that's all folks ;)

[BunjiKugashira.9754]

Some of your suggestions for vip benefits are just ridiculous.

- Reduced material amount for all crafting recipes

- - Currently the market is balanced. An elder wood plank costs as much as 3 elder wood logs. If you change this ratio even for a part of the community, these few players will buy elder wood logs and sell elder wood planks until the market has adjusted to the new ratio, earning millions of gold in the process. Crafting planks is no longer viable for anyone who doesn't have a subscription. If you apply this to all recipes, then crafting in general is no longer viable unless you have a subscription.

- - The new balance would effectively be a nerf to all crafting recipes, driving supply of finished goods up, while crashing demand for base materials into the floor. Base materials like raw ore and logs would drop to a few coppers each.

- Gold discount on Trading Post fees

- - Yup, let's make the rich even richer and drive the gold to gems ratio to the moon. Every good trader would exchange their gold to gems to buy the subscription and get the extra profits.

- - Scamming would run rampant as people advertise to sell your stuff at a discount, you just have to trust them and send the item first.

 

"By not getting the membership, you lose NOTHING." And that's where you're wrong. Once a membership exists, ANet has to balance their game around it, making it harder and harder to get specific items or skins without membership. The economy balances around the new benefits.

[Lord Kreegan.8123]

The "benefits" listed by the OP really aren't that attractive, to be honest. ANet could, I'm sure, look at other games that have hybrid schemes to get a clue about what they should do. It's a budget-balancing issue; they would not want to lose money in the process of offering any sort of subscription.

The benefits cannot create a disparate form of gameplay that disadvantages non-subscribing players, yet still be attractive to those players willing to subscribe. That's not an easy balance to obtain. Fundamentally, lots of the gold-sinks currently in game would have to be removed for subscriptions and subscribing players would need to receive some set number of gems every month on top of that. Much more than that would irritate those players who do not want to pay a monthly fee.

[Umut.5471]

Totally no. It would be against Gw2's concept. We like it for its sub-free/P2W-free B2P system.

And it would be unfair for people around the world who can't afford to pay $15/month.

For example my country's currency is worthless against US Dollars, so I would have to pay 4x-5x more than an American citizen. USD pricing is what keeps me from buying stuff via real money in game.

Thus, I prefer a good game like Gw2 instead of those subscription based games.

I'm ok with buying expansions tho.

[Dashiva.6149]

I am mostly against it, optional or not. In addition, the perks and benefits that the OP suggested would be too P2W and a big step in the wrong direction from what I percieve what Gw2 is.

 

**IF** (and that is a big if) there was an optional subscription avaiable, I would want it to be at a lower cost with _very minor_ cosmetic things available, like unique emotes and titles for example. I'm basically thinking of it like a Twitch subscription.

[zombyturtle.5980]

I wouldnt be against a membership if it just gave discounts on cosmetic items and some exclusive skins but having discount mats on crafting, DOUBLE harvesting, double daily chests, removal of all gold sinks, exclusive skills (henchmen) ect are all things i am totally against and would never want in gw2 for a sub or otherwise. Its a terrible idea as it turns PVE into P2W and potentially crashes the ingame economy.

[Phil.7369]

I'm not sure if you are trying to benefit GW2 or if this is a troll thread, but this "By not getting the membership, you lose NOTHING" is not true.

This is naive and if you think everything in this world is free and that the "others" will pay for your game while you keep playing for free is realistic.. then you've got a lot to learn.

What you propose looks interesting at first, but how long until GW2 goes down the ESO and Neverwinter road? How long until "New Episodes" become "15$ DLCs"?

How long until new power creep is locked behind subscriptions and non-gem convertable features? How long until gem store prices skyrocket and gem items too, because it is now the standard to have a ton of gems? (thanks to subscription benefits) And when cosmetic and special chests are now locked behind sub-based content? When new Masteries are now extremely demanding in terms of EXP and subbing is the only reasonable way to speed up the exp gain?

 

No thanks! I like GW2 the way it is, the best MMORPG right now for casual players. No pay to win, no cash-grabs and sub fees, no locked content behind pay features. If I want these things, I could just re-install ESO and pay 15$ every 3 months for their DLCs which are similar to our living world episodes, but instead you pay for them. I could re-install Neverwinter and start paying them to skip the HUGE grind behind power creep or I could sub to WOW and forget all that, but then every time I'd want to try something new outside of WOW, I'd have to fight with my self who'd be telling me "Your 15$ sub-fee is going to waste!"

 

 

[Nick Lentz.6982]

Sigh. Third time is the charm

Stop stop stop stop, holy shit stop.

 

You can pay what you want already.

 

 

Someday people will figure it out

[Edds.7681]

i buy gems every month or more when i can afford it. which i like to think im giving them a sub

[Camdal.6197]

What you're describing might not be as much P2W as A2L (abstain to lose). You'd had to work waaaaay harder to earn gold if you weren't a member and it'd screw the economy over.

[Ashen.2907]

So, some people spending money on the game would get advantages over other players spending potentially more on the game...no thanks.

[Solene.3067]

Bad idea in my opinion. The benefits and perks described in the OP would be completely over the top. This whole model reminds me too much of some other games with premium/VIP memberships. I would not play such a game anymore.

[Menadena.7482]

Remember 10-15 USD is over 100 gold depending on the market. I do not see much there that would offset it.

 

The closest FTP w/ an optional sub I can think of is ESO. There they have locked some rather essential (for GW2 players) things behind the sub so, no, I would not want this because it will eventually do the same. I prefer the idea of it being totally free (or BTP to remove restrictions) so if you are suddenly not there your only 'loss' is not getting your daily stuff done. Even with saying 'cancel at any time' remember that game memberships are usually at least a month at a time, if you suddenly are unable to login for a few days that time was paid for but you did not get to use it.

 

edit: The only "optional sub" I would even consider is flatly saying the sub is 100% of the items in the gem store and DLCs. No more, no less. Basically, if you spend more than the sub fee in gems it would be worth it, but if not you are better off continuing to still buy gems. I still do not think it would be a good idea though because it would tempt them to put pay to win things in the store rather than just cosmetics.

[Nilson.9865]

Seems like TS are not satisfied by spending his/hers gems on cosmetic items and toys. But in GW2 you can spend as many real money as you want, and you will be only but prettier, not better in something. Here we like and appreciate players who can coordinate other players, explain how to make some event right. Because heart matters, not 101 legendary skin, dps,rank in league or amount of gold.

 

[Bloodstealer.5978]

As I voted.. depends on what a vip sub would be granted above what a normal b2p player would get.

 

ANET already provide a lot more convenience to players as it is, so its hard to see what else a subscription could offer in terms of in game perks unless they lessen current convenience (which will likely cause a torrent of emotion here on the forums and lead to unnecessary unistalls..) so they would have to increase perks.. but that could be done via gemstore purchase like present so they stand to gain little or nothing, in fact could see them loose coin.

So its a minefiled for them now.. to introduce a dual model this late on with all the additions to the game we've had already might be more trouble than its worth.. butI am open to consideration of the idea.. I pay subs for 2 other MMO's, one for 12+ years and both offer dual access models so it can work, but those games offer much less to the standard f2p/b2p playerbase.

[MyPuppy.8970]

For a few bucks, less than 5€/$ per month, I might consider it for non game/economy breaking QoL improvements. More bags, bigger bags, bigger stacks of whatever, If I could play without opening my inventory after each loot I'd enjoy the game much more.

[Rezzet.3614]

I support it as long it doesnt affect much of the game for example sub only shared slots maybe give a blc key per sub month or something 15+% xp gain or something

[STIHL.2489]

> @"Cyrin.1035" said:

> Just to clarify to those I quoted, I don't mean to discredit your opinion in any way. I just want to make sure this idea of a monthly membership fee is really understood and considered before we just write it off completely because it's a sub. Sub = Bad word in GW 2.

 

Here is the thing, you could call it a pledge, or a payment model, or whatever you want.

 

If it gives a distinct advantage to the player who has it.. Players will either feel forced to buy it to be competitive, or they will feel alienated because they don't have it. And both will feel betrayed by Anet. Even the ones that do opt to sub.

 

This will result in people who would spend money on the game ONLY spending the Pledge amount, because they feel forced to do so, whereas they may have bought 50 in gems this month, they will only pay the Sub because they feel cohered to spend it. Thus while Anet is making money it is losing potential profit.

 

Equally so.. If i doesn't offer a competitive advantage, then.. there is very little motive to buy it beyond supporting the company, and the people that would do that.. already do that.

 

At this point in the game it really is too late for Anet to try and shimmy this in.. Won't put it past them to try.. and would love to see the aftermath of doing so.. but at this point.. it has a better chance to sink the game then save it.

 

Now some games have been built from the ground up with a Optional Sub system, they make it very clear that this is the way the game is, and they make it work, because it's designed to be that way. Kudos , but they built the game with the idea of an optional sub, just tacking that kind of thing on later.. there is a very small window of pulling it of right, and way too much that could go wrong.

[Its Nerfing Time.1495]

People can voluntarily cut off their hands and feet and flail themselves off a cliff - doesn't mean they should do it nor is it a good idea.

 

This is a bad idea, one which should be topic locked as no further discussion needed. Your "opinion" is vastly outnumbered (and not to mention wrong), as people do not want crap like this nor P2W aspects brought in.

 

 

[Crome.5316]

I wouldn´t buy that.

In terms of fun/gamneplay GW2 felt like a downgrade from GW1.

Jumping und graphics are nice but it lacks in depth.

 

[FANY.6524]

Firstly, let me say that I really don't mind optional "perk" memberships. ESO, for example, has one that I don't mind and find decent enough that I would pay it. It allows the following:

 

* Full access to all DLC game packs available in the Crown Store - new zones, quests, dungeons and more!

* Unlimited storage for crafting materials.

* 1500 crowns per month to spend on the in-game store (Paid Members Only).

* Double Bank space for your account.

* 10% increase to Experience & Gold acquisition, Crafting Inspiration, and Trait Research rates.1

* Double Furnishings and Collectibles space in player housing.

* Exclusive ability to dye costumes.

 

These are relevant options for a game like ESO, but they wouldn't work for GW2. (We can increase our material storage, bag slots, bank space, etc already, and many of us already have. We already get an increase in gold acquisition, and - considering how much of the grind is to make gold anyway - this would be an extremely controversially option for GW2.)

 

**No cost to use waypoints, no crafting license fee, no coin cost for salvaging** - These are actually really minimal benefits that wouldn't sway my opinion at all.

**Reduced material amount for all crafting recipes** - I would actually say a giant NO! to this. It seems like a great idea, but I'm not down for this kind of "leg up".

**Discount on all gem store items** - I would rather receive the amount of gems equal to the sub. Like in the ESO membership - it's $15 and gives you $15 worth of currency.

**Discount on expansion releases** - No.

 

I mostly don't care for any of the perks you listed, and some of them were a giant NO!

 

I like the idea of getting rewards for subbing for x amount of time and receiving perks like extra shared account slots or character slots or maybe an exclusive mini or mount skin. (This would be similar to the FFXIV veteran program, or whatever it's called.)

 

An option to use IN-GAME CURRENCY to buy said membership would be necessary, imo. I find that being able to exchange gold for gems to buy things that other people buy with real money is a HUGE bonus to GW2. There have been plenty of times that I've wanted something but didn't have the real-life funds to afford it, so I just tossed some worthless game gold at it. I don't see why a membership couldn't be the same. OR! The ability to sell a membership "token" on the market (like WoW or Tera). One option would allow anyone to get it, the second option would allow increased revenue but could end up costing players way more gold.

 

I can't really think of anything that would make a GW2 membership special or not "unfair". I wouldn't want extra daily bonuses, increased exp, increased gold acquisition, discounts on gem store/expansions...

 

I would really only want the gems... LOL. Because all I really want in GW2 is STUFF and THINGS, so I give GW2 a "faux" membership and buy gems every month. :)

 

...sorry this post is all over the place.

 

 

[Zedek.8932]

I am here to support the game when it offers me something. We are both in a customer/service provider relationship.

As said, I'd pay 20€ for a suppressed pistol with corresponding sound. That's 1/3 of a full-price, 200-staff game. But else, nope.

 

If aNet **FORCES** me to pay a monthly fee, I'd immediately do it though.

 

Excelsior.

[DarcShriek.5829]

Oh look, another request for discount prices disguised as a subscription request. It's always gimme, gimme, gimme.