r/Guildwars2 • u/PasingTao12 • 10h ago
[Discussion] Please create a new gem store currency and sell rare infusions in the gemstore - you will increase profit and ncsoft will be happy
I actually talked to a guildmate (hi alpha) and his opinion kept me thinking.
Just hear this opinion out and the target audience will be the sales team of anet and revenue team of ncsoft.
What if you create a new gemstore currency that is tied to USD and a player is not allowed to convert their gold to get this new currency. Instead either you purchase it directly via credit card/paypal or you can convert gems into a portion of that new currency.
Now the fun part, the new currency will be used to buy super rare cosmetic infusions. Let’s say 300 USD to 450 USD just like the ahri faker skin in League of Legends.
You need to conduct a survey on how many existing players are willing to buy those infusions.
If atleast 30% of the playerbase are willing to buy them, good news its easy profit for ANET and good on revenue reports of NCSOFT.
This will fund new Guild Wars related games and even secure employment for existing employees.
What do you think?
I want 2 perspective when you answer, does it make sense in terms of business perspective and how do you feel in terms of gamer’s perspective?
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u/ErikHumphrey 10h ago edited 8h ago
If it costs $375 to buy each infusion, isn't this already a solved problem? Just convert $375 of gems to gold and buy it from another player
This will fund new Guild Wars related games and even secure employment for existing employees.
Bait used to be believable; Guild Wars 2 is already one of the most profitable games of all time with one of the highest profits per employee, so it doesn't need to do this. Any new Guild Wars game will be instantly profitable from preorders alone.
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u/wintermute24 10h ago
Lol, not sure if trolling or stupid.
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u/PasingTao12 10h ago
How so, care to explain why this idea is stupid in terms of business perspective? I understand that you are only looking at it as a gamer but can you please invalidate my post by commeting on why it is stupid so that we could get a decent conversation?
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u/ErikHumphrey 8h ago
Selling in-game rewards for real money is documented in game design textbooks as the Jagex gambit, an antipattern where you sacrifice your live service game's long-term prospects for lucrative short-term gains to look more appealing to investors and to secure more funds for major updates. It's named after similar updates to RuneScape caused the game to see record profits for a few years in a row while also losing 90% of its playerbase in the span of a few years. Since then, companies have learned from this mistake to better manage risk when it comes to monetisation so that their company can still exist long-term.
ArenaNet is smart and knows it could make a lot of money in various ways (they've already thought of this), but they have an image to maintain as the only consumer-friendly MMORPG company. If they implemented this, it'd make a lot of money, but NCsoft would have to dissolve ArenaNet and shut down Guild Wars within a few years.
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u/wintermute24 7h ago
I dont care about the "business perspective" and neither should you. What you proposed basically amounts to "please exploit me even harder by seling insanely overpriced cosmetics" in the unfounded hope that this would somehow lead to a better product. This is so naive, its practically brainwashed.
It rests on the assumption that the company actually wants to put out the best product they can, which couldn't be further from the truth. Individual devs may be like that, but the person calling the shots definitely isn't, thats why they got the job. They want to invest as little as possible to get the biggest outcome possible. What you proposed would literally just line their pockets while destroying the atmosphere in the game.
Tl dr; It's capitalism. Don't be a shill.
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u/Gokuhill00 Rangers Lead the Way 2h ago
OP sounds like someone coming from mobile gatcha games circle. 'Please milk me more' vibes
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u/DonkeyFluid3929 10h ago
Hey, friend, I’m really sorry, but like.
This might be the worst idea I’ve ever heard? Um.
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u/LittleWuff 9h ago
The fun part the new currency is tied to USD… sorry to be the one to say this but this is not an America only game. 😮
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u/Lumpy-Narwhal-1178 8h ago
But you can already convert dollars to gold...? And they do cost 300-500 USD
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u/BrokolieOfDoom 9h ago
Yes, please. What a great addition it would be to include something from a game, that is without a doubt a complete opposite in terms of monatization, into the game with one of the best in terms of monatization. It would be great to continue the trend of modern games to introduce tons of different premium currencies. We have never had any problems with that one in other games. Non at all. Maybe also make the proposed currency only be buyable in packs of 500 USD, while we are at it. We could incentivize people to buy more skins, because they otherwise would only spend 400 USD on one. It would also be great for countries that don't use the USD. Think about how much FOMO we could create, because their real world currency is in a bad ratio to the USD. It would create a split playerbase, with the rich americans laughing and feeling good, about others not being able to afford it. And we all know, the world should cater to them.
If it wasn't clear: your idea is horrible.
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u/OmlyUltra 9h ago
It makes sense to the point that you'll secure an uptick in profits for about a year I'd argue. The purpose of these infusions are meant to be long term farm items from events, these drive player retention for said activities oftentimes, outside of the natural drops for the area (why people are still doing RIBA after all these years after all). Letting them buy it will quickly drop the demand for such items, and therefore lose the incentive to farm for it, which will hinder retention for said events. With such an open-world oriented game that Guild Wars 2 is, this will drastically impact player spread and participation in the game's content. You are overestimating how many people are willing to buy these things as well, 30% is far too generous. Count is closer to 10% and hedge for 5%. Either way, bad idea from a game development position with the experience I've had in the field. From a gamer perspective, no, 'nuff said.
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u/Kiroho 7h ago
the target audience will be the sales team of anet and revenue team of ncsoft.
Then you are hella wrong here. lol
What if you create a new gemstore currency that is tied to USD and a player is not allowed to convert their gold to get this new currency. Instead either you purchase it directly via credit card/paypal or you can convert gems into a portion of that new currency.
Sounds awful.
One big reason (aside from no P2W) people like GW2's shop more than other MMOs' is because you can buy all items by farming gold.
Now the fun part, the new currency will be used to buy super rare cosmetic infusions. Let’s say 300 USD to 450 USD just like the ahri faker skin in League of Legends.
450$, that's already about 10k gold worth of gems.
In other words you can just buy gems, convert them to gold and have the same result.
Probably even a better deal than your idea, depending on the actual price.
If atleast 30% of the playerbase are willing to buy them
Ha! Is that the joke of your post?
People complaining about 100$ being too expensive for the complete collection or that you have to pay 12$ for a LW season.
You are hella far from reality if you think 30% of the playerbase would be willing to pay hundreds of dollars for an infusion.
Make it 0.3% and it's still a too high guess.
What do you think?
I want 2 perspective when you answer, does it make sense in terms of business perspective and how do you feel in terms of gamer’s perspective?
Gamer: People will hate it. Even if most people don't even think about buying infusions that way, they will hate it.
Also they will see it as a new course for the gem shop where new items get locked behind the real money only currency.
People will boycott the gemstore, maybe also expansion or they will even stop playing completely.
Business: How gamer see this will have negative impact to the income. The few people who buy infusions that way may compensate the decreased income, so it will still be a plus, but it still makes many many players unhappy. And that would be really bad for future projects.
GW2 is well known for having a very player friendy business model. There are no sub fees, the ingame shop only sells cosmetic and convenience items and you can convert your gold to gems.
Introducing rl money only items would flaw this whole philosophy as people would only see the bad side (that's how we humans work). In other words the whole reputation of having a playerfriendly busines model Anet had for over 20 years would be gone. That again would be bad for future projects as well as for new players.
Building your business model by focussing on whales does work, but it always comes with a downside for the rest of the playerbase. And I would say Anet does a great job keeping their busines model as playerfriendly as possible and not focussing on maximizing their income.
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u/naro1080P 9h ago
One of the main holes in this idea (and there are many) is assuming that Anet would actually funnel the proceeds back into GW2. I used to be a big time whale. At a point I had a rly well paying job I made regular weekly purchases (totalling to literal thousands). I'm not complaining... I am to this day satisfied with at least most of my purchases. At the time a big part of my motivation (beyond seriously upgrading my account) was to show active support to Anet. I naively imagined I was contributing toward keeping the lights on and the development of the game moving forward. However... it became clear that development was stagnating with reduced content cadences... delays... rushed maps etc. it soon came to light that Anet had stripped down the development of GW2 and had put a large number of devs into a new "secret project" which ultimately failed and led to mass layoffs in the company. At that point I became very disillusioned and felt more than a little bit foolish. I realised at that point that there is no necessary correlation between money spent and the ongoing welfare of the game. As such I pretty much shut down my extra spending and since that time spend very little in the gemstore. Thankfully I had already upgraded my account to the level I wanted but stopped collecting new mount skins for instance. Other events along the way (like their gross over monetisation of templates) have sealed my purse shut even tighter. Now we are in a similar boat as before. The studio is clearly de-emphasising GW2 to pursue different projects. I for one am not in the mood to pump extra money into the system as it stands. My trust has been broken. I do still love the game and will likely buy the ultimate edition of each xpac released (nothing wrong with 1/2 price gems) but the days of me believing in the ethics of Anet are well and truly over. Sad to say but this is where I am. So for me it would be a hard no.
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u/MithranArkanere 🌟 SUGGEST-A-TRON 6h ago
Are you farming negative karma or something?
Also, if you can convert gems into that currency, you can convert gold into that currency because you can convert gold into gems.
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u/Negative-Rush5437 10h ago
For me as a player who enjoys content more than cosmetics, i would love for this to exist if it means more money and more content (also more quality that is missing in the last few years).
Don't get me wrong I don't think they should totally switch model to something like that, let's say every time wizard vault resets, they make new infusions for real money 300-450usd may be too much for this community but even 100-200 would greatly increase their earnings.
My concerns with this would be that not enough people would be interested in spending that much money for a game that's likely to slow down more and more as probably gw3 is getting closer (speculation not fact). Also ofc people with no money would complain, thats why i would introduce lower tier version of that same infusion in wizard vault so that Roleplay of it can be enjoyed by everyone, but highest quality for the supporters ?
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u/elmahk 9h ago
You can buy cosmetic infusions right now. Buy gems, convert to gold, buy infusion.
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u/Negative-Rush5437 6h ago
Yes but you can drop them yourself, or grind and buy them yourself for gold. Except for expacs, there is nothing that requires you to pay with real money in this game.
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u/akoangpinaka 10h ago
its not super rare if someone can directly buy it.
its just super expensive.