500 Gems. Sure gets a nice looking piece of armor. Too bad it alters the pieces you wear. Better not get rid of that piece of armor you just applied your expensive skin to. So what if your newly aquired drop is better, it doesn't look as cool.
You know what irritates me?
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Kost is actually right...
Respect, walk, what did you say? Respect, walk Are you talkin' to me? Are you talkin' to me? - PANTERA at HELLFEST 2023
EQ2 is the absolute last game I want Anet taking notes from. They restrict you from legendary and fabled weapons unless you either sub or buy unlocks. That is THE definition of pay to win. You cannot equip the best gear in the game without paying for the privilege. There is no functional difference between what they do and simply selling fabled weapons in he cash shop.
SOE has the absolute worst free to play model in the entire industry.
I have to agree. One of the worst cash shop designs I have seen in a game that made the transition.
That does indeed sound horrible . Most Korean F2P games aren't even close to being that bad since you can buy item mall currency with ingame currency in them.
I presume "legendary" and "fable" weapons are the strongest ones in EQ2?
All I know is, I was holding off on buying gems with cash in order to buy 3 character slots and the bank expansion, money is tight at the moment. However, I was perusing the store yesterday and wondered how many gems I might get for my gold. I had about 3 gold on my character, and I wasn't really using it. So I put in about 2g and 50ish silver, around there and was able to get 800 gems to buy my first character slot. My jaw about dropped, I was so happy. Promptly filled that slot with a Thief character and now I plan to just play the game until I get more gold and buy some more gems until I can buy 2 more slots and the bank slots. All without spending a dime. Yeah. It's awesome.
Guild Wars also was like this. You go and buy some extra bank tabs. maybe a costume to make your character look cool and then that was it. Unlike f2p games there is nothing that really makes you wanto to continue spending week after week. I think this really throws a lot of people off because they expected this cash shop to be just like the f2p games but it is not. It doesn't have to be. Anet gets the bulk of its ROI off box sales. They don't need to sell stuff constantly out of the cash shop to be profitable. The cash shop sales are gravy. But there are a lot of people who will buy cosmetic junk so there will be no shortage of gravy for Anet.
And don't doubt that there will be a paid expansion within a year. Possibly even 6 months. There was a year between the first two Guild Wars campaigns and another 6 before they released the third. Then it was less than a year before they released the EotN Expansion. The only reason they stopped was because they realized that what they wanted to do next was really a whole new game and that is when development on this game started.
And with a new paid box coming out every year at least they will have no trouble keeping the game funded without an aggressive and annoying cash shop.
Has Anet made any statements on Boxed expansions. Specifically, Will they allow players to use gems to buy them?
They have said that this is what they planned to do just as they had done with the first game. So we know there will be expansion. But they have not said specifically that you will be able to purchase the expansions from within the story. It is worth pointing out however that they are selling the collector's edition upgrade in the store. Also, I can't see why they wouldn't. They will make just as much money since the gems have to be bought by someone somewhere for real cash and this would make the expansions available to a wider audience. The only possible reason to not do it would be because it is likely to cause the gem market to go though the roof every time they have an expansion. It is possible they will offer the expansion for cash sale only first and then once most have it offer it on the cash shop for gems on an ongoing basis.
Now that we are starting to see some stabilization in the BLTC, What are your initial impressions about the Cash Shop and it's offerings? Not counting the services like Character and inventory slot expansions, What do you think of what is actually being offered to the players? Anything useful or desireable? I am asking because, I look at what's available and I really don't see anything even remotely apealing to me or at least anything I'd want to spend real money on. So what does everyone else think?
I ask, because I have a little concern down the road as the CS will evelolve to try to maintain it's targeted sales and they will have to find items that appeal to players. Realistically, what could those items be that would allow ANET to maintain their stated goals about not selling anything "Evil" or that gives any "Unfair Advantage"
Gold and look at my sexy armor
Looks better then anything else I have seen in the game so far.
500 Gems. Sure gets a nice looking piece of armor. Too bad it alters the pieces you wear. Better not get rid of that piece of armor you just applied your expensive skin to. So what if your newly aquired drop is better, it doesn't look as cool.
You know what irritates me?
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[mod edit]
Kost is actually right...
(For the sake of this, I went back and read it)
Yep, he is. I won't argue that.
Now all he has to do is try to "help" people who might be misunderstanding something in a somewhat less douchebaggy way.....Something like 2 other posters before him did.
Now, how about we try to speak to the original intent of this thread. It would be really nice if we could respectfully expain ourselves as to why we think the Cash Shop will be successful or not.
Gold which yes, it gives an unfair advantage. Still, its something that would be raked in by gold sellers anyways so its really up to you to decide if its bad or not. Boosts can be considered an advantage though their conditions are for pve purposes... so in some forms it DOES give an advantage though in that form its hard to say its really a big deal. Considering you can convert gold to gems it does make this even more minor and you can write it off pretty easily, though still one of those iffy areas.
The gold though can easily be considered such due to seige weapons.
Cash shop discussions are pointless. I have bought 4 bank tabs, the deluxe edition upgrade, 3 keys and 2 inventory slots using gems I bought with gold. This is not a cash shop like in other games and shold be called something else, thousands of people are getting everything they need or want from the cash shop without spending any real money.
In GW2, you do not need to spend real money to get what is in cash shop <--- fact. They can add whatever they want to it because you can get everything with ingame gold.. not a theory or a promise anymore, I've done it continuously. It's actually TOO easy to get gems using gold.
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
EQ2 is the absolute last game I want Anet taking notes from. They restrict you from legendary and fabled weapons unless you either sub or buy unlocks. That is THE definition of pay to win. You cannot equip the best gear in the game without paying for the privilege. There is no functional difference between what they do and simply selling fabled weapons in he cash shop.
SOE has the absolute worst free to play model in the entire industry.
I have to agree. One of the worst cash shop designs I have seen in a game that made the transition.
That does indeed sound horrible . Most Korean F2P games aren't even close to being that bad since you can buy item mall currency with ingame currency in them.
I presume "legendary" and "fable" weapons are the strongest ones in EQ2?
They are basically the purples and golds of the game. You also cannot get access to the latest content without paying either.
It is worth noting as many do, that this is no worse than how it originally was when you paid for a box and then had to sub. This is true. But the problem is that by forcing people to eventually pay, you force a lot of people who can't pay to simply leave the game. and then you are stuck with the same problem you have aways had. A smaller than necessary population.
That is SOE's problem. They don't view players as any kind of an asset. Only as liabilities that have to be converted into paying customers sooner or later or they need to be sent packing. The problem is that in an MMO, players, not just paying customers but all players are content. Free players edit wikis and build fansites. They make strat videos, why? because they often have lots of free time. which probably explains why they cant afford a subscription fee. Free players are the other players in a paying customer's group or guild. They are the opponents in PvP. They are the warm bodies that keep the queue moving quickly.
Paying customers are certainly perferable to free players but a player, any kind of player is an asset.
Cash shop discussions are pointless. I have bought 4 bank tabs, the deluxe edition upgrade, 3 keys and 2 inventory slots using gems I bought with gold. This is not a cash shop like in other games and shold be called something else, thousands of people are getting everything they need or want from the cash shop without spending any real money.
In GW2, you do not need to spend real money to get what is in cash shop <--- fact. They can add whatever they want to it because you can get everything with ingame gold.. not a theory or a promise anymore, I've done it continuously. It's actually TOO easy to get gems using gold.
How much have the prices on gems gone up since server start? Have you been keeping an eye? I am asking because I haven't unfortunely.
ANET doesn't need the cash shop. Their business is based on selling content. You know how most MMOs have content patches every 4-6 months? Well ANET has had massive content updates every 6-9 months on the level of being almost an entirely new game when producing GW1. Why would GW2 be any different? In fact, the GEM store might save them money by giving them an outlet to already sell the items instead of having to go through vendors like they did in GW1
Except, ArenaNet didn't sell any new content after Eyes of the North was released. The GW:Beyond content was completely free to everyone, with the only caveat being that you need access to some of the campaigns (really only just Eyes of the North and Factions), and at that point it was all rather cheap to get.
Edit:
TwoThreeFour, last I checked (last night) it seemed close to when I recently bought some gems with silver. 60 silver roughly equalled out to 250 gems.
EQ2 is the absolute last game I want Anet taking notes from. They restrict you from legendary and fabled weapons unless you either sub or buy unlocks. That is THE definition of pay to win. You cannot equip the best gear in the game without paying for the privilege. There is no functional difference between what they do and simply selling fabled weapons in he cash shop.
SOE has the absolute worst free to play model in the entire industry.
Maybe that's because EQ2 is really NOT a f2p game, at least in my opinion. It has always BEEN a sub game, and if you sub....the only issue is unlocking a vampire type race and one other (don't remember what). Beyond that....you have everything. I would never play EQ2 as free to play, but it's actually a great pay to play game, imo.
Gold which yes, it gives an unfair advantage. Still, its something that would be raked in by gold sellers anyways so its really up to you to decide if its bad or not. Boosts can be considered an advantage though their conditions are for pve purposes... so in some forms it DOES give an advantage though in that form its hard to say its really a big deal. Considering you can convert gold to gems it does make this even more minor and you can write it off pretty easily, though still one of those iffy areas.
The gold though can easily be considered such due to seige weapons.
The gold can be farmed so the only diifference is in how much time you are willing to spend getting that gold . All the gem to gold sales do is exchange time for (real) money. The seller of the gold is exchanging his time spent farming for gems which have a fixed real world value within the cash shop. The seller of the gems is exchanging his money to essentially redeem the time that would have been wasted farming the cash. This is really no different from me either choosing to mow my lawn or paying the neighbor kid to mow it for me while I play my game.
There is no real advantage being offered here. It is only a question of what your time is worth to you. And everybody has access to everything. Even the person who never pays for anything beyond the original box has access to everything in the game. He just has to be willing to put the time into it.
The same goes for the boosts. If I buy the combo pack and apply the exp, karma and drop boosts then farm DEs and hearts for an hour do a get any advantage over my friend who simply plays the game for an hour and a half? Nothing. I simply save 30minutes. We all choose how much time we will spend with the game. The only thing that the boosts do is allow us to spend more "time" in the game buy spending money rather than time. Me? I would rather spend that 30 minutes in the game because the game is fun. Who cares who gets to level 40 or 60 or 80 first.. I will see you there when I get there.
Cash shop discussions are pointless. I have bought 4 bank tabs, the deluxe edition upgrade, 3 keys and 2 inventory slots using gems I bought with gold. This is not a cash shop like in other games and shold be called something else, thousands of people are getting everything they need or want from the cash shop without spending any real money.
In GW2, you do not need to spend real money to get what is in cash shop <--- fact. They can add whatever they want to it because you can get everything with ingame gold.. not a theory or a promise anymore, I've done it continuously. It's actually TOO easy to get gems using gold.
How much have the prices on gems gone up since server start? Have you been keeping an eye? I am asking because I haven't unfortunely.
Prices are actually in decline atm. It' sgone from 30 to about 20 silver on average. Current price is at about 18 wich is the low.
But also I am aware of the fact that the AH right now needs to stabilize after a week of people gathering with no outlet.
EQ2 is the absolute last game I want Anet taking notes from. They restrict you from legendary and fabled weapons unless you either sub or buy unlocks. That is THE definition of pay to win. You cannot equip the best gear in the game without paying for the privilege. There is no functional difference between what they do and simply selling fabled weapons in he cash shop.
SOE has the absolute worst free to play model in the entire industry.
Maybe that's because EQ2 is really NOT a f2p game, at least in my opinion. It has always BEEN a sub game, and if you sub....the only issue is unlocking a vampire type race and one other (don't remember what). Beyond that....you have everything. I would never play EQ2 as free to play, but it's actually a great pay to play game, imo.
I agree. it is actually a really good game. Lots of great content. I have a couple of years subbed to the game before it went "free". I just think they are hindering their world by limiting the community buy regarding free players as a liability.
You don't need make $15 for every player that plays the game. The economies of scale that work with computing make that thinking completely unnecessary. They simply need to make X amount from the community as a whole. You don't need everyone to pay. You need enough people to pay.
Originally posted by elocke All I know is, I was holding off on buying gems with cash in order to buy 3 character slots and the bank expansion, money is tight at the moment. However, I was perusing the store yesterday and wondered how many gems I might get for my gold. I had about 3 gold on my character, and I wasn't really using it. So I put in about 2g and 50ish silver, around there and was able to get 800 gems to buy my first character slot. My jaw about dropped, I was so happy. Promptly filled that slot with a Thief character and now I plan to just play the game until I get more gold and buy some more gems until I can buy 2 more slots and the bank slots. All without spending a dime. Yeah. It's awesome.
This is the heart of the discussion. The Cash Shop is not going to genreate much profit for ANET/NCSoft. I have to imagine they have a higher expectation than the GW1 CS.
How much have the prices on gems gone up since server start? Have you been keeping an eye? I am asking because I haven't unfortunely.
They haven't really gone up. Mostly the market is trending down. It rises a bit during off peak hours but over all the price has been going down. Last I checked it was 18s for 100gems
But this is really to be expected. Gold is actually reasonably hard to come buy in this game. So there are a lot of people selling gems to get some extra cash so right now the market is flooded with sellers. Further, the economy really hasn't ramped up yet. people are still leveling. People are learning and so dying more and dying more means more repairs. people are buying their cultural armor sets which sinks a lot of cash. Over all we just don't have enough money in the economy yet to support the amount of gem sales going on. Also a lot of people have gone ahead and bought their initial gem items. That would mostly be character, bag and vault slots. These are permanent upgrades and once people have what they want they wont need more for a long time.
So I expect the price of gems to continue to trend down for a while. Perhaps a month more before it starts to slowly rise. And it will. Simply take a look at Plex prices in EVE over the last few years. Plex are almost half a million now. They just keep steadily going up. This happens because as people continue to play the game the economy continues to expand. more and more money enters the game. much sinks out but over all the total amount of value expands. On the other hand as people get better at making money the need to buy money drops. people become less willing over time to part with real cash.
the same will happen here. As things settle out the cost of gems will start to rise. Not fast, not sharply but natually it will rise as people get further into the game and are able to make better coin and become less willing to part with real cash to get that coin.
The upgrades and services are meaningful, and probably worth it, but I'd like it so much better if I could buy a bank slot without getting into the gem business - it just feels a bit too pushy to me. As a crafter, you basically have to buy bank space (and even inventory space). So, yeah, you'll have a hard time playing the game as if the gems didn't exist if you want to go crafting.
Hence, fair warning: If you don't approve of cash shops, don't think you can play this game without getting at least a bit annoyed!
post-warning: Genious-level deduction up there!!!
Now, where am I going to put all that food, darnit!?!
Right now GW2 is doing so well Amazon ran out of keys to the Digital Deluxe Edition making Physical Box copies the only versions of the game available. They have stated their Server Farms are incredibly efficient to run and they were able to develop all of GW2 based on GW1 income. So I am honestly not sure how much they need from CS sales to support operation and development.
One of the things from their Manifesto that didn't get as much attention is them pointing out you don't need Subs to run an MMO. Perhaps Geezer a better question than "what do they need to put in the CS?" is "what in the hell did these other companies do with our Subs?" (except maybe Trion - I can see where Sub revenue went for RIFT).
Back on topic though - I expect their incredibly talented Art Team to put out some really awesome outfits over time. Expect to see Seasonal Outfits as well. The Dye Packs from what I've heard are selling really well even if nobody here has much interest in them. If they release "content packs" like GW1 then expect it to actually be like GW1 in that they will likely be Personal Story Missions where you get to participate in historic events (either as yourself or as a famous NPC) and that completing the content will likely unlock some nice skins or items.
Viking was not quite correct when talking about expansions. There was a previous thread about it which linked an article that they plan on doing "more traditional" expansions over a bit more time, so maybe an expansion every 1-2 years and they will likely be "level increase" expansions rather than full new Campaigns (although they also said they haven't even started work on an expansion yet so that can all change).
Oh and also... Minipets. There are many people who "gotta catch em all"
The upgrades and services are meaningful, and probably worth it, but I'd like it so much better if I could buy a bank slot without getting into the gem business - it just feels a bit too pushy to me. As a crafter, you basically have to buy bank space (and even inventory space). So, yeah, you'll have a hard time playing the game as if the gems didn't exist if you want to go crafting.
Hence, fair warning: If you don't approve of cash shops, don't think you can play this game without getting at least a bit annoyed!
post-warning: Genious-level deduction up there!!!
Now, where am I going to put all that food, darnit!?!
You have nearly 300 bank slots specifically for crafting mats... Most games dont offer you that much space in the entire bank, let alone just for crafting.
You start with your initial 24 slot bag, and can almost immediately (especially if you start crafting from the start) get ahold of 4 more bags with 8 slots for a total 56 slots. At crafting level 75 IIRC you can very easily make 10 slot bags increasing it to 64 slots.
You can deposit all of your crafting mats directly to your bank from anywhere int he world with 2 clicks and clear most of your inventory to continue looting without having to go manually put it into a bank.
Really dont see how you have a point.... I craft a ton, have never had issues.
If you somehow do have issues, create an alt toon, throw some 10 slot bags on him, and voila 64 more slots to hold your stuff.
Right now GW2 is doing so well Amazon ran out of keys to the Digital Deluxe Edition making Physical Box copies the only versions of the game available. They have stated their Server Farms are incredibly efficient to run and they were able to develop all of GW2 based on GW1 income. So I am honestly not sure how much they need from CS sales to support operation and development.
One of the things from their Manifesto that didn't get as much attention is them pointing out you don't need Subs to run an MMO. Perhaps Geezer a better question than "what do they need to put in the CS?" is "what in the hell did these other companies do with our Subs?" (except maybe Trion - I can see where Sub revenue went for RIFT).
Back on topic though - I expect their incredibly talented Art Team to put out some really awesome outfits over time. Expect to see Seasonal Outfits as well. The Dye Packs from what I've heard are selling really well even if nobody here has much interest in them. If they release "content packs" like GW1 then expect it to actually be like GW1 in that they will likely be Personal Story Missions where you get to participate in historic events (either as yourself or as a famous NPC) and that completing the content will likely unlock some nice skins or items.
Viking was not quite correct when talking about expansions. There was a previous thread about it which linked an article that they plan on doing "more traditional" expansions over a bit more time, so maybe an expansion every 1-2 years and they will likely be "level increase" expansions rather than full new Campaigns (although they also said they haven't even started work on an expansion yet so that can all change).
Oh and also... Minipets. There are many people who "gotta catch em all"
Thanks for the info.
Ultimately, what I want to see is the value of Gems increase. The players have the gold. ANET has the Gems. Give me a reason to want Gems.
And no, I'm not interested in being a reseller, but I'd like to make the most of what I have.
The upgrades and services are meaningful, and probably worth it, but I'd like it so much better if I could buy a bank slot without getting into the gem business - it just feels a bit too pushy to me. As a crafter, you basically have to buy bank space (and even inventory space). So, yeah, you'll have a hard time playing the game as if the gems didn't exist if you want to go crafting.
Hence, fair warning: If you don't approve of cash shops, don't think you can play this game without getting at least a bit annoyed!
post-warning: Genious-level deduction up there!!!
Now, where am I going to put all that food, darnit!?!
You have nearly 300 bank slots specifically for crafting mats... Most games dont offer you that much space in the entire bank, let alone just for crafting.
You start with your initial 24 slot bag, and can almost immediately (especially if you start crafting from the start) get ahold of 4 more bags with 8 slots for a total 56 slots. At crafting level 75 IIRC you can very easily make 10 slot bags increasing it to 64 slots.
You can deposit all of your crafting mats directly to your bank from anywhere int he world with 2 clicks and clear most of your inventory to continue looting without having to go manually put it into a bank.
Really dont see how you have a point.... I craft a ton, have never had issues.
If you somehow do have issues, create an alt toon, throw some 10 slot bags on him, and voila 64 more slots to hold your stuff.
I have to sell most of the stuff I am making right now, to make room for the new stuff. The mats are getting wasted non-stop. I must have lost golds early-selling (and even outright destroying!) the stuff to free more slots. Hence it's an empirical point, it reflects my experience with the game - so how can it not be a point? I'd say it's the best point possible.
Sub-point: All of your crafting stuff doesn't reside in your crafting mats inventory. There is a load of stuff you get to make that's not outright wearible/edible, you need them to make other stuff. And you can't keep that stuff in the crafting mats slots. You have to waste ordinary bank slots for it. Even *half* of that kind of stuff that I make can fill all my bank slots.
Not to mention I have to sell all the basic crafting mats exceeding 250. I routinely do that, too.
Inventory-alts are a viable option, but not a pretty one. I hate using them. I can't see a character I create as an outright mule and nothing else. Not how I look at RPGs at all. Plus, the rate I'm going, they'd not suffice, either.
Being a chef and going for all the recipes out there does that to you, I guess.
I feel that some posters are missing the point here. Many folks are buying items with gold and not paying real money. If Anet does not make enough from it, will they start selling things that are more fundamental to the experience? (or at least that's what I'm reading)
Originally posted by Purgatus I feel that some posters are missing the point here. Many folks are buying items with gold and not paying real money. If Anet does not make enough from it, will they start selling things that are more fundamental to the experience? (or at least that's what I'm reading)
i dont think think there will be any issues unless new players stop buying the game
Originally posted by Purgatus I feel that some posters are missing the point here. Many folks are buying items with gold and not paying real money. If Anet does not make enough from it, will they start selling things that are more fundamental to the experience? (or at least that's what I'm reading)
i dont think think there will be any issues unless new players stop buying the game
I don't know about this. It's one thing to say tha the boxed sales are generating a profit. And by all accoounts it does appear that way. But that has nothing to do with the fact that NCSoft and ANET have expectations for the cash shop. This isn't about GW2 making enough money. It's about the Cash Shop making enough money. I suppose it's possible that it's just there and that their goal is for it to just produce what little it can and they call that a bonus, but I have a hard time with that assesment.
Comments
Kost is actually right...
Respect, walk
Are you talkin' to me? Are you talkin' to me?
- PANTERA at HELLFEST 2023
That does indeed sound horrible
. Most Korean F2P games aren't even close to being that bad since you can buy item mall currency with ingame currency in them.
I presume "legendary" and "fable" weapons are the strongest ones in EQ2?
They have said that this is what they planned to do just as they had done with the first game. So we know there will be expansion. But they have not said specifically that you will be able to purchase the expansions from within the story. It is worth pointing out however that they are selling the collector's edition upgrade in the store. Also, I can't see why they wouldn't. They will make just as much money since the gems have to be bought by someone somewhere for real cash and this would make the expansions available to a wider audience. The only possible reason to not do it would be because it is likely to cause the gem market to go though the roof every time they have an expansion. It is possible they will offer the expansion for cash sale only first and then once most have it offer it on the cash shop for gems on an ongoing basis.
All die, so die well.
Gold and look at my sexy armor
Looks better then anything else I have seen in the game so far.
(For the sake of this, I went back and read it)
Yep, he is. I won't argue that.
Now all he has to do is try to "help" people who might be misunderstanding something in a somewhat less douchebaggy way.....Something like 2 other posters before him did.
Now, how about we try to speak to the original intent of this thread. It would be really nice if we could respectfully expain ourselves as to why we think the Cash Shop will be successful or not.
Gold which yes, it gives an unfair advantage. Still, its something that would be raked in by gold sellers anyways so its really up to you to decide if its bad or not. Boosts can be considered an advantage though their conditions are for pve purposes... so in some forms it DOES give an advantage though in that form its hard to say its really a big deal. Considering you can convert gold to gems it does make this even more minor and you can write it off pretty easily, though still one of those iffy areas.
The gold though can easily be considered such due to seige weapons.
Cash shop discussions are pointless. I have bought 4 bank tabs, the deluxe edition upgrade, 3 keys and 2 inventory slots using gems I bought with gold. This is not a cash shop like in other games and shold be called something else, thousands of people are getting everything they need or want from the cash shop without spending any real money.
In GW2, you do not need to spend real money to get what is in cash shop <--- fact. They can add whatever they want to it because you can get everything with ingame gold.. not a theory or a promise anymore, I've done it continuously. It's actually TOO easy to get gems using gold.
They are basically the purples and golds of the game. You also cannot get access to the latest content without paying either.
It is worth noting as many do, that this is no worse than how it originally was when you paid for a box and then had to sub. This is true. But the problem is that by forcing people to eventually pay, you force a lot of people who can't pay to simply leave the game. and then you are stuck with the same problem you have aways had. A smaller than necessary population.
That is SOE's problem. They don't view players as any kind of an asset. Only as liabilities that have to be converted into paying customers sooner or later or they need to be sent packing. The problem is that in an MMO, players, not just paying customers but all players are content. Free players edit wikis and build fansites. They make strat videos, why? because they often have lots of free time. which probably explains why they cant afford a subscription fee. Free players are the other players in a paying customer's group or guild. They are the opponents in PvP. They are the warm bodies that keep the queue moving quickly.
Paying customers are certainly perferable to free players but a player, any kind of player is an asset.
All die, so die well.
How much have the prices on gems gone up since server start? Have you been keeping an eye? I am asking because I haven't unfortunely.
Except, ArenaNet didn't sell any new content after Eyes of the North was released. The GW:Beyond content was completely free to everyone, with the only caveat being that you need access to some of the campaigns (really only just Eyes of the North and Factions), and at that point it was all rather cheap to get.
Edit:
TwoThreeFour, last I checked (last night) it seemed close to when I recently bought some gems with silver. 60 silver roughly equalled out to 250 gems.
Maybe that's because EQ2 is really NOT a f2p game, at least in my opinion. It has always BEEN a sub game, and if you sub....the only issue is unlocking a vampire type race and one other (don't remember what). Beyond that....you have everything. I would never play EQ2 as free to play, but it's actually a great pay to play game, imo.
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club
The gold can be farmed so the only diifference is in how much time you are willing to spend getting that gold . All the gem to gold sales do is exchange time for (real) money. The seller of the gold is exchanging his time spent farming for gems which have a fixed real world value within the cash shop. The seller of the gems is exchanging his money to essentially redeem the time that would have been wasted farming the cash. This is really no different from me either choosing to mow my lawn or paying the neighbor kid to mow it for me while I play my game.
There is no real advantage being offered here. It is only a question of what your time is worth to you. And everybody has access to everything. Even the person who never pays for anything beyond the original box has access to everything in the game. He just has to be willing to put the time into it.
The same goes for the boosts. If I buy the combo pack and apply the exp, karma and drop boosts then farm DEs and hearts for an hour do a get any advantage over my friend who simply plays the game for an hour and a half? Nothing. I simply save 30minutes. We all choose how much time we will spend with the game. The only thing that the boosts do is allow us to spend more "time" in the game buy spending money rather than time. Me? I would rather spend that 30 minutes in the game because the game is fun. Who cares who gets to level 40 or 60 or 80 first.. I will see you there when I get there.
All die, so die well.
Prices are actually in decline atm. It' sgone from 30 to about 20 silver on average. Current price is at about 18 wich is the low.
But also I am aware of the fact that the AH right now needs to stabilize after a week of people gathering with no outlet.
I agree. it is actually a really good game. Lots of great content. I have a couple of years subbed to the game before it went "free". I just think they are hindering their world by limiting the community buy regarding free players as a liability.
You don't need make $15 for every player that plays the game. The economies of scale that work with computing make that thinking completely unnecessary. They simply need to make X amount from the community as a whole. You don't need everyone to pay. You need enough people to pay.
All die, so die well.
This is the heart of the discussion. The Cash Shop is not going to genreate much profit for ANET/NCSoft. I have to imagine they have a higher expectation than the GW1 CS.
They haven't really gone up. Mostly the market is trending down. It rises a bit during off peak hours but over all the price has been going down. Last I checked it was 18s for 100gems
But this is really to be expected. Gold is actually reasonably hard to come buy in this game. So there are a lot of people selling gems to get some extra cash so right now the market is flooded with sellers. Further, the economy really hasn't ramped up yet. people are still leveling. People are learning and so dying more and dying more means more repairs. people are buying their cultural armor sets which sinks a lot of cash. Over all we just don't have enough money in the economy yet to support the amount of gem sales going on. Also a lot of people have gone ahead and bought their initial gem items. That would mostly be character, bag and vault slots. These are permanent upgrades and once people have what they want they wont need more for a long time.
So I expect the price of gems to continue to trend down for a while. Perhaps a month more before it starts to slowly rise. And it will. Simply take a look at Plex prices in EVE over the last few years. Plex are almost half a million now. They just keep steadily going up. This happens because as people continue to play the game the economy continues to expand. more and more money enters the game. much sinks out but over all the total amount of value expands. On the other hand as people get better at making money the need to buy money drops. people become less willing over time to part with real cash.
the same will happen here. As things settle out the cost of gems will start to rise. Not fast, not sharply but natually it will rise as people get further into the game and are able to make better coin and become less willing to part with real cash to get that coin.
All die, so die well.
The upgrades and services are meaningful, and probably worth it, but I'd like it so much better if I could buy a bank slot without getting into the gem business - it just feels a bit too pushy to me. As a crafter, you basically have to buy bank space (and even inventory space). So, yeah, you'll have a hard time playing the game as if the gems didn't exist if you want to go crafting.
Hence, fair warning: If you don't approve of cash shops, don't think you can play this game without getting at least a bit annoyed!
post-warning: Genious-level deduction up there!!!
Now, where am I going to put all that food, darnit!?!
Right now GW2 is doing so well Amazon ran out of keys to the Digital Deluxe Edition making Physical Box copies the only versions of the game available. They have stated their Server Farms are incredibly efficient to run and they were able to develop all of GW2 based on GW1 income. So I am honestly not sure how much they need from CS sales to support operation and development.
One of the things from their Manifesto that didn't get as much attention is them pointing out you don't need Subs to run an MMO. Perhaps Geezer a better question than "what do they need to put in the CS?" is "what in the hell did these other companies do with our Subs?" (except maybe Trion - I can see where Sub revenue went for RIFT).
Back on topic though - I expect their incredibly talented Art Team to put out some really awesome outfits over time. Expect to see Seasonal Outfits as well. The Dye Packs from what I've heard are selling really well even if nobody here has much interest in them. If they release "content packs" like GW1 then expect it to actually be like GW1 in that they will likely be Personal Story Missions where you get to participate in historic events (either as yourself or as a famous NPC) and that completing the content will likely unlock some nice skins or items.
Viking was not quite correct when talking about expansions. There was a previous thread about it which linked an article that they plan on doing "more traditional" expansions over a bit more time, so maybe an expansion every 1-2 years and they will likely be "level increase" expansions rather than full new Campaigns (although they also said they haven't even started work on an expansion yet so that can all change).
Oh and also... Minipets. There are many people who "gotta catch em all"
You have nearly 300 bank slots specifically for crafting mats... Most games dont offer you that much space in the entire bank, let alone just for crafting.
You start with your initial 24 slot bag, and can almost immediately (especially if you start crafting from the start) get ahold of 4 more bags with 8 slots for a total 56 slots. At crafting level 75 IIRC you can very easily make 10 slot bags increasing it to 64 slots.
You can deposit all of your crafting mats directly to your bank from anywhere int he world with 2 clicks and clear most of your inventory to continue looting without having to go manually put it into a bank.
Really dont see how you have a point.... I craft a ton, have never had issues.
If you somehow do have issues, create an alt toon, throw some 10 slot bags on him, and voila 64 more slots to hold your stuff.
Thanks for the info.
Ultimately, what I want to see is the value of Gems increase. The players have the gold. ANET has the Gems. Give me a reason to want Gems.
And no, I'm not interested in being a reseller, but I'd like to make the most of what I have.
I have to sell most of the stuff I am making right now, to make room for the new stuff. The mats are getting wasted non-stop. I must have lost golds early-selling (and even outright destroying!) the stuff to free more slots. Hence it's an empirical point, it reflects my experience with the game - so how can it not be a point? I'd say it's the best point possible.
Sub-point: All of your crafting stuff doesn't reside in your crafting mats inventory. There is a load of stuff you get to make that's not outright wearible/edible, you need them to make other stuff. And you can't keep that stuff in the crafting mats slots. You have to waste ordinary bank slots for it. Even *half* of that kind of stuff that I make can fill all my bank slots.
Not to mention I have to sell all the basic crafting mats exceeding 250. I routinely do that, too.
Inventory-alts are a viable option, but not a pretty one. I hate using them. I can't see a character I create as an outright mule and nothing else. Not how I look at RPGs at all. Plus, the rate I'm going, they'd not suffice, either.
Being a chef and going for all the recipes out there does that to you, I guess.
i dont think think there will be any issues unless new players stop buying the game
EQ2 fan sites
I don't know about this. It's one thing to say tha the boxed sales are generating a profit. And by all accoounts it does appear that way. But that has nothing to do with the fact that NCSoft and ANET have expectations for the cash shop. This isn't about GW2 making enough money. It's about the Cash Shop making enough money. I suppose it's possible that it's just there and that their goal is for it to just produce what little it can and they call that a bonus, but I have a hard time with that assesment.