I can't help but feel sympathy for ANET

[Saniyah.1984]

> @"vesica tempestas.1563" said:

> Nah, mature people understand games cost money to run and devrlop, and are willing to pay if they are entertained by a product. Unfortunately there is a certain modern breed of player that literally act like parasites in the truest sense of the word.

>

>

 

Mature people know that "everything need to be in moderation, including moderation" Earning money is what companies do, but over the back of your customer, is probably not a gud idea. I avoided many games from companies that have bad reputation like that. I think many people are starting to feel the same way. Like hmm EA many people would avoid EA stuff becaue of their reputation? Anet has so far been ok with charging for the right stuff and not going too far(The first mount gamble) was a step too far. Templates would be two times too far. People may not quit the game because gameplay is still fun, but will become more reluctunt to paid for anything, Many companies said that the people that spended money on games is 5-10%, but maybe that is because of disappointments? I think that good marketing is managing disappointments, but most companies are bad at it :( You can still made lots of money without going too far

[SpyderArachnid.5619]

> @"Obtena.7952" said:

> > @"SpyderArachnid.5619" said:

> > > @"Mewcifer.5198" said:Charging for them is perfectly fine. The game needs funding somehow, and it has always been that most convenience items are gem store. People will get over this.

> >

> > Always dislike when people keep using this excuse "The game needs funding somehow". Really? The thousands of items in the Gem Store, along with expansions, is not enough funding for them already? Do we really have to monetize every single feature of the game because "Anet needs funding somehow"?

>

> Considering many of the items are not consumables, the answer to that is pretty much yes. Also, to be fair .. you don't NEED to use your money to buy those features either (seems that people conveniently forget they can buy gems with gold when it favours their argument to do so)

>

> So instead of making Anet look like they always have their hands in your wallets for every feature they offer in the GS, maybe take a second to have a more objective view of how **reasonably** Anet offers things to players to understand how this business works.

 

Not that people conveniently forget that you can buy gems with gold, it's just the rate is too high for most players. Sure you can buy gems for gold, if you have 150g to drop on 400 gems (that is the current exchange rate). You want that new mount skin? Better start farming up 750g. Want a new character slot? 300g. Do you have hundreds of gold lying around to spend on gems when you need it? No? Well then welcome to the party of pretty much everyone else. And it is designed that way to be more convenient for you to whip out your wallet, cause this game has a horrible reward structure and doesn't award you anywhere near the amount of gold you need to buy gems.

 

We just had a living world announcement where most of the time was spent advertising merchandise you can buy. You can look at the front page and almost every other post is some new gem store item or merchandise to buy. They don't add mount/glider skins to the game for us to earn, cause they want us to buy them. Saying Anet doesn't have their hands in our wallets for every feature is wrong. Almost every new thing that shows up is tied to the gem store. The latest build/equipment templates shows that as well.

[Erasculio.2914]

> @"Ashantara.8731" said:

> And then NCsoft could decide to cancel further development of the game. _Great_ idea. ;)

 

Yeah, changing the amount of free templates from 3 to 6 would _definitely_ make ArenaNet go bankrupt and lead NC Soft to sell them. _Great_ insight ;)

[Tukaram.8256]

> @"Mewcifer.5198" said:

> > @"Thornwolf.9721" said:

> > > @"vesica tempestas.1563" said:

> > > Nah, mature people understand games cost money to run and devrlop, and are willing to pay if they are entertained by a product. Unfortunately there is a certain modern breed of player that literally act like parasites in the truest sense of the word.

> > >

> > >

> >

> > This is not that, and you know it. Buying expansions is one thing but paying for something you have no control over whether you have or not is another, they are making UI changes for this and removing the gear seperation between modes as well for this from what I hear. Its being enforced so even if I don't care about it as a item, and if I don't want it I still have to deal with the fallout. Either way we all are effected by this change, now if It was something I could opt into or not Id be more than willing to allow it to slide.

> >

> > Has nothing to do with maturity, this is a dangerous glimpse as to what could happen. ESO does this kinda kitten, and they break the game apart to a basic level you have to buy new zone + dungeons + whatever else unless you pay the "Optional" sub. This is the direction this could head, not saying it will but telling them any monetization is ok is how games go to 100% pay to win. That has nothing to do with maturity, if you're advocating that that you are either willfully ignorant or are simply not intelligent to note the ramifications of what this action can and might cause.

>

> There was never gear separation between game modes. Whatever you have equipped would be what you had equipped.

> Only builds were separate, which is fine because we are getting free templates that will work fine for people to still have their PvE and WvW builds separated.

> You can still change your gear and traits manually whenever you want, the templates are 100% convenience. Just like the salvage-o-matics and the boss portal device.

>

> Stop making wild predictions and doomsaying. This new addition to the gem store is not different from how the gem store has ALWAYS been.

 

Exactly. They are a convenience item. I am honestly surprised they are giving us 3 (2 more than I will probably ever need).

If anyone has a problem with these being for sale, then speak the only language NC Soft knows - money. Do not open your wallet, and do not buy them. If you are going to complain... and then buy them anyway... you may as well not waste time complaining. Speak with your wallet.

 

To the OP, you make NC Soft sound like the Korean version of EA. Sorry to hear that ha ha. All I really know of them is Guild Wars 1 & 2, and City of Heroes/Villains.

[DoRi Silvia.4159]

> To the OP, you make NC Soft sound like the Korean version of EA. Sorry to hear that ha ha. All I really know of them is Guild Wars 1 & 2, and City of Heroes/Villains.

 

Aion, blade n soul , LINEAGE II and I are all under NC as well to name a few

[Asum.4960]

> @"Mewcifer.5198" said:

> Build templates are pure convenience, they are not necessary for playing the game, most people probably won't even use more than a couple and we are given a couple for free.

> Charging for them is perfectly fine. The game needs funding somehow, and it has always been that most convenience items are gem store. People will get over this.

 

If the market for them is going to be so small anyway, why not make them free then?

 

For me personally Build Templates aren't a convenience, they are necessary to play and enjoy the game.

I play all gamemodes on all professions, and especially for content like Fractals and Raids I have up to 10 build variations just for that content on some frequently played characters.

If I have to sit there for 5+ minutes fiddling with all my legendaries, putting runes in them, remembering the stat spread to max out crit chance, maximise condition duration, hit the boon duration sweet spot for that particular build etc. for every single build between Fractals with it's extra stats from Potions/AR compared to Raids, between every other Raid boss depending on if they favour a power or condition composition, or if I'm on support or tank duty for that boss, or just switching to play the other content, quite frankly, I'm not going to have fun with the game anymore.

 

I've been relying on templates for over 2 years with Arc to play this content, because this is a necessary core feature that ideally should have been in the game since launch.

 

So when the proposition is now to pay up who knows how much to unlock 10-20 template slots on at least 9 characters, just to get the same necessary feature I've been enjoying free of charge for over 2 years, then yea, I'm going to be bummed out about it, since the price point pretty much decides whether I will continue to be able to play the game without getting grinded down by constant frustrations or to pay up potentially obscene amount of money.

 

This "this game needs funding somehow" for yearly multi million dollar grossing games that are doing just fine is such a tired excuse to justify anti consumer business practices. If they need to make money, maybe they should make and sell content, not core features that make the game just playable for hardcore players, while keeping them starved for content.

 

If these template slots are dirt cheap and I can convert some reasonable amount of gold to buy them, then there is no issue, but we all know the gemstore pricing where a single model for a mount costs as much as an entire game/expansion. So yes, I'm worried about this core gameplay feature being milked for cash, and it has the potential to massively impact my gameplay experience.

 

> @"Tukaram.8256" said:

> Exactly. They are a convenience item. I am honestly surprised they are giving us 3 (2 more than I will probably ever need).

> If anyone has a problem with these being for sale, then speak the only language NC Soft knows - money. Do not open your wallet, and do not buy them. If you are going to complain... and then buy them anyway... you may as well not waste time complaining. Speak with your wallet.

 

Speak with your wallet also doesn't apply here. My options are to eventually quit out of frustration or to buy the templates to keep playing as before.

And I would like to keep playing and have fun with the game, thank you very much.

 

It's great for you to not be the type of player being affected by this, but just because it doesn't screw you personally doesn't make it a non issue.

 

 

We are at a point where a game company announcing a new future is a negative, because every little thing has to be monetised to hell and back, milking the playerbase while superseding community driven free options. That some go as far as to call that gracious is quite frankly disturbing, and doesn't bode well for the future of video games.

 

 

/E:

After watching the stream preview of the templates, if the pricing they mention there (similar to bag and bank extensions) is accurate, maxing out the templates for just one character of each profession (which will just be a very limited 6 build and gear templates per character, and 24 account templates total), will cost around 36000 Gems, aka 450€ or ~13500 Gold, to then play with much greater limitations than currently with Arc templates for free.

[ugrakarma.9416]

if the OP theory is true **So congratulations to NCSoft**,

 

before NCsoft's alleged interference:

 

-lack of content.

-enormous delay to deliver basic QOL features.

-developers/resources supposedly working on side projects instead of main game.

 

after NCsoft interference:

 

- the masterpiec of bound by blood.

- balance fix patch.

- build templates.

- fast fixes to basic QOL features like loot of a new LS chapter(in previous chapters they take weeks/months to fix loot bugs in new LS chapters).

 

in dont bother if Arenanet become more greed if they maintain this pace of changes.

[ugrakarma.9416]

> @"DoRi Silvia.4159" said:

> What I am getting at is, this is the nature of NC SOFT. They are HUNGRY for money ALWAYS, **KOREANS avoid NC games because of this** and they have quite the reputation as mentioned above, **but unfortunately this is how MOST games in Korea work**. P2W and Microtransaction in game cash grab is the main business model across most MMO's and NC is **no different if not even more than other companies**( actually no NEXON being the worst imo)

 

if the Koreans dislike crash grab games, why they thrive so much there? your phrase is like someone saying that no ones like buy ice-cream on Greenland because the place is extremely cold, and also at same time say that the ice-cream is the top seller product on Greenland.

[DoRi Silvia.4159]

> @"ugrakarma.9416" said:

> > @"DoRi Silvia.4159" said:

> > What I am getting at is, this is the nature of NC SOFT. They are HUNGRY for money ALWAYS, **KOREANS avoid NC games because of this** and they have quite the reputation as mentioned above, **but unfortunately this is how MOST games in Korea work**. P2W and Microtransaction in game cash grab is the main business model across most MMO's and NC is **no different if not even more than other companies**( actually no NEXON being the worst imo)

>

> if the Koreans dislike crash grab games, why they thrive so much there? your phrase is like someone saying that no ones like buy ice-cream on Greenland because the place is extremely cold, and also at same time say that the ice-cream is the top seller product on Greenland.

 

 

What????

I think you misunderstood.

Never did I mention that Korea is all against cash grabs.

NC is notorious amongst the big names for being money hungry more than others.

 

So people avoid and play games which are less demanding of money

 

I did not say koreans avoid cash grabs and p2w at all cost because most games over there ARE, its just that NC games are avoided generally for being a bit over the top

 

Ice cream?

Basically we love icecream but NC is charging much more for their ice cream so people go to a different store

 

Thanks

 

 

 

[Dami.5046]

LoL when I said about Aions Cash shop my post was dealt with. One rule and all that.