Curse

Bryant Again · Apr 17, 2009, 11:00 AM // 11:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreamWind

I'm actually not fully in agreement of this statement. But since I agree with most of it I won't elaborate.

Do you mean that they shouldn't be having any micro purchases whatsoever?
If so, then I agree wholeheartedly (if not please explain, I be lost!). I'm more going on the basis of ANet being stubborn and on their rule of "we have to sell at least something..." And if it's going to be anything I'd rather it not change gameplay function.

But still: the only thing I'd like to see purchasable from the online store would be additional chapters.

Empress Amarox · Apr 17, 2009, 11:12 AM // 11:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fril Estelin

Re-reading some posts in this thread, I wonder if people are consistent with their reasoning. For example, would you avoid purchasing a sandwich or go to a restaurant, because it's actually a lot cheaper to make the sandwich or the meal yourself? In essence a lot of people are saying that it's cheaper to have char slots and accounts instead of storage panes, but aren't most of the "services" we pay for in RL about "convenience"?

Not comparable.

You go to a restaurant and the food is already fixed, at a higher price because it is served to you and prepared by their specifications (e.g. product presented to you as a service).

You go home, the food is not fixed, you have to fix it yourself. Of course it is cheaper to make it yourself (product as product).

This is the equivalent of buying a storage pane or hacking the GW server and programming a storage pane yourself from scratch instead. No cigar.

A better example is buying a CD with 19 songs for $2-10 on Amazon or the same 19 songs on iTunes for $19. One method you have to wait for shipment and rip the songs from the CD yourself, the other method you can get them instantly, but you pay at least twice as much. I believe this is a much more fair illusion, not accounting for piracy.

Gli · Apr 17, 2009, 11:21 AM // 11:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Longasc

The only thing that is truly shocking is that there are people who really want to pay 10$ for a storage tab.

I can't believe you'd find something like that shocking. It's been a fact of life for ages that people will splurge preposterous amounts of money on the most vapid of luxuries. Spending 10 bucks on a storage slot doesn't even make a blip on that radar. It's far below anything I'd find shocking, it's not even worth a shrug.

Fril Estelin · Apr 17, 2009, 12:13 PM // 12:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by rabwatt

I will gladly pay for convience :-)

I would too, it'll depend on this "one-time offer" that the announcement is talking about. But I'm quite willing to spend $10 on 2 storage tabs (maybe $20 for 4). And, as a tiny epsilon of "feeling good", I'm helping make sure Anet gets something for their work (I didn't buy much from them, no char slots or unlock packs, only a few cheap chapters/CEs that also help me play with my wife) and that GW2 gets on even firmer grounds. I'm sure some Guru poster will feel the urge to laugh at that, or ridicule me for how "rich" or how much wasting" it is to spend $10 on a luxury. But well I don't really care. And I'm fully conscious that IF (big IF, I don't believe it's true!) Anet is indeed testing us with this, I'd be contributing to their feeling that it's alright to go this route. Nevertheless, I'm ready to face the consequences and not buy GW2 if it goes one step further than that. And as I said, I think this "route" is very improbable, and Anet doesn't have to stick to "everything is free" model for me, they've proven to me (not to everyone) that they're still the company they were 2.5 years ago, but in a very different context.

You know, it's like that time when Gaile went from CR/M to support, we had this very long thread on Guru, then Regina came and it felt very strange, uneasy. This feeling of having lost something (although some may say that CR/M wasn't written on the GW box, contrarily to f2p). But now I realise that we've also gained something with Regina. Here we haven't really lost something, apart from the utopian opportunity to get a completely free update. We are going to have a lot of free stuff. And even after Regina has said clearly that the tabs cost them $5, people will still argue that it's a lie. Some people are not pleased, some will never be, but it's always been like that since I've been on Guru.

Uor · Apr 17, 2009, 12:26 PM // 12:26

basicly they want u to pay to hold things u allready paid for

just make it like ingame gold

Shadowspawn X · Apr 17, 2009, 12:31 PM // 12:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fril Estelin

And even after Regina has said clearly that the tabs cost them $5, people will still argue that it's a lie.

I don't believe that is true. She said that a transaction from the online store costs 5 dollars and that was known information from the BMP discussions. That means it cost the same to sell 4 panes in one transaction (5 bucks) as to sell one pane. On the flip side 4 panes brought individually say one per day would cost $20 in transaction costs (4 times the $5 transaction cost).

chessyang · Apr 17, 2009, 12:48 PM // 12:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cloud4905

.....when I could buy a new character for that price and have 45 spaces (or more with this new character storage), ..... How stupid do we look?....

i started to write something but what Cloud said sums it up. as to the "stupid" comment i'm sure the Marketing department did it's research and confirmed we the consumers are not stupid.

so i'm

/signed

and i'll pass up on this "deal"

Fril Estelin · Apr 17, 2009, 12:50 PM // 12:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadowspawn X

I don't believe that is true. She said that a transaction from the online store costs 5 dollars and that was known information from the BMP discussions. That means it cost the same to sell 4 panes in one transaction (5 bucks) as to sell one pane. On the flip side 4 panes brought individually say one per day would cost $20 in transaction costs (4 times the $5 transaction cost).

For me her sentence "We have to charge a minimum of $5 USD in order to recoup the base costs of a transaction" means that the tab costs overall $5, all things included (cost of designers/devs to make it, cost for data storage, cost for online transaction). But maybe I got it wrong. Because if it's a 5$ baseline for any online transaction and then $5 for the cost of designing/developping+data storage, then the last bit is quite cheap (but the $5 for an online transaction is then ridiculous!)

Mangione · Apr 17, 2009, 01:05 PM // 13:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fril Estelin

We are going to have a lot of free stuff. And even after Regina has said clearly that the tabs cost them $5,

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fril Estelin

For me her sentence "We have to charge a minimum of $5 USD in order to recoup the base costs of a transaction" means that the tab costs overall $5, all things included

Then, if it is true that transactions have a cost of 5$ for them, I think ANet will have no problem at all selling 4 panes togheter, as a single offer, for 25$ (5$ each pane + 5$ cost of an online transaction).

I'll be waiting to see if this is true.

beware: 25$ would still be more than I paid for a full campaign, but it would be better than 40$.

On another hand, I am worried that these announced "big content updates" each 4 months will come with an associated cost.
What if in August/September update we are faced with a new "optional purchase" that will cost again more than a single campaign (for way less content)?

rabwatt · Apr 17, 2009, 01:15 PM // 13:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by Longasc

The only thing that is truly shocking is that there are people who really want to pay 10$ for a storage tab.
.

You are?!?

But we play a game where people spends days of their lives farming just so they can fill up their storage with useless items..... or gain money so they can buy that special minipet worth 100k + ectos

Fril Estelin · Apr 17, 2009, 01:16 PM // 13:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mangione

On another hand, I am worried that these announced "big content updates" each 4 months will come with an associated cost.
What if in August/September update we are faced with a new "optional purchase" that will cost again more than a single campaign (for way less content)?

Then, and only then, I will start questioning the "change" and start thinking seriously about my purchase of GW2 (unless it's something similar to this update, with a non-important feature, definitely non-breaking for me). IMHO at this point, this is fear or overspeculation.

Once you remember that their job is on the line, that their actions in GW1 will directly impact the success of GW2 which they've been working on for almost 2 years and have the highest hopes for. Then you start thinking that they may not be thinking we're stupid, maybe we are misinterpreting what they do.

Quote:

Originally Posted by zwei2stein

Ain't that forecast same for every day? Kinda monotonous, if you ask me.

I must have been lucky then, because I had a few sunny days on Guru. Sure, it was just a glimpse of bright sun in the middle of the clouds, yet not seeing Pre-searing cadets create ridiculous threads or other troll thread for their sick fun is good. And there are still people here which I read every time they post, because I know it's going to be interesting. The rest goes to /dev/null

Longasc · Apr 17, 2009, 01:25 PM // 13:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by rabwatt

You are?!?

But we play a game where people spends days of their lives farming just so they can fill up their storage with useless items..... or gain money so they can buy that special minipet worth 100k + ectos

Well, I did not manage such excesses in my active Guild Wars time.

What point do you want to make?

That it is okay for people who want more storage to pay 10$ for another account, storage tabs and whatever because some players are dumb, addicted and obsessed?

Prepare for more artificial scarcity of the supposedly expensive "storage" in Guild Wars 2. So that you have an incentive to buy "optional" storage and other things.

Bryant said it several times already, let them sell vanity items for vanity prices in their shop. Nothing more.

We already crossed this line with skill unlock packs and storage tabs. I hope they stick to their promise that pvp interested players can get access to all skills without having to buy an unlock pack in GW2 by default.

pumpkin pie · Apr 17, 2009, 01:36 PM // 13:36

"And given that, we can't go down a path of publishing on a platform that treats its games as products, and where there's no provision there to continue having an ongoing relationship with those customers." Jeff Strian, circa Jul 30, 2007

Rocky Raccoon · Apr 17, 2009, 01:38 PM // 13:38

I am willing to bet that most people here waste more than $10 dollars a week. If ANET says they need $10 dollars to recoup their cost so be it. Would I like to see them for less, sure.

pumpkin pie · Apr 17, 2009, 01:49 PM // 13:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by Risky Ranger

...If ANET says they need $10 dollars to recoup their cost so be it. Would I like to see them for less, sure.

But they didn't, that's the point, they say we are working on a huge update for April, to me at least, either you don't say anything like the case with GW2 or don't make dubious/ambiguous announcements or make one type of announcement then release something else.

BenjZee · Apr 17, 2009, 01:54 PM // 13:54

I won't mind paying, but i'm not gunna buy them all at once, i will buy them when im pretty sure im gettin low on space. Some people say buy a character but the thing is, i don't want to make another one, i've already got a quite a few and i don't want random characters on my selection screen i'm not gunna even use.
Not to forget which characters i've given a specific item too, also several exchanges of items amongst storage to characters has to be done which takes the biscuit ...
I will buy 1 or 2 at first and see how things go......

Not much progress in which thread due to lack of things to actually talk about.

Rocky Raccoon · Apr 17, 2009, 02:04 PM // 14:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by pumpkin pie

But they didn't, that's the point, they say we are working on a huge update for April, to me at least, either you don't say anything like the case with GW2 or don't make dubious/ambiguous announcements or make one type of announcement then release something else.

Although this overdrawn thread was about boycotting the panels, it is not the whole update.

fog_of_redoubt · Apr 17, 2009, 02:23 PM // 14:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by SmithyBen

I won't mind paying, but i'm not gunna buy them all at once, i will buy them when im pretty sure im gettin low on space. Some people say buy a character but the thing is, i don't want to make another one, i've already got a quite a few and i don't want random characters on my selection screen i'm not gunna even use.
Not to forget which characters i've given a specific item too, also several exchanges of items amongst storage to characters has to be done which takes the biscuit ...
I will buy 1 or 2 at first and see how things go......

Not much progress in which thread due to lack of things to actually talk about.

You dont buy an extra character, you buy a new Prophecies account. $9.99 at NewEgg. You get 4 new character slots for storage, a new chest with storage, and 50-100k per month with Zkey predictions. Plus with a 2nd account you can move things around easier by having both accounts logged at the same time.

Malice Black · Apr 17, 2009, 02:32 PM // 14:32

It's optional.

Would I pay for extra storage? No
Would I pay for extra character slots? No

In reality you shouldn't need extra storage. There is no need to have 5 sets of armour for every char + a different weapon set to go with that armour etc

MMO players in general are very greedy. So in business point of view it makes good sense to exploit that greed.

Laziness can also make a company money, see skill packs as an example. I bought them all. It saved me time, but it came at a price.

All in all if you *need* extra storage space, either stop being greedy/hoarding or pay the price. That price is $10. You choose which.

hallomik · Apr 17, 2009, 02:34 PM // 14:34

I think the price is too high.

If I buy all 4 panes for $40 for my account with 10 characters, that works out to 8 additional storage slots per character.

For the same $40, I could buy Bio Shock & Mass Effect together or Fallout 3. Game of the Year RPG versus 8 slots per character in Guild Wars?

Plus, I'm getting more than 8 slots per character for free with the new weapon/armor pack as part of the April update.

On one level, Anet can charge whatever the wish for in-game benefits. They hold a monopoly, and as basic economics teaches us, the profit-maximizing price for an item controlled by a monopoly is much higher than that where there is free competition.

There is such a thing as an insulting price offer. If you are trying to buy a house (or an item in guild wars) and you offer a ridiculously low price to the seller, often the seller may be so turned off he will not wish to sell to that you at almost any price. The initial offer soured the deal to the point where the seller would prefer to deal with anyone else.

Similarly, if you are trying to sell something in GW, and your opening bid is ridiculously overpriced, many players who know the market will not deal with you as they will perceive you as trying to rip off unsuspecting players (or a new player who doesn't understand where the market is).

The basic point of this thread is as follows: Is the price of $10 per pane insultingly high or is it within bounds?

To me, this price is clearly high and it approaches the insultingly high level. On the other hand, as others have pointed out, it is purely optional. I will be opting out.