67 replies to this topic

[Gileas898]

She's very competent.

Or the GW2 player base is really stupid.

[Loumy]

So basically Nexon's plan is to drain the game - completely steering the game off it's original course. A new gamer type will be part of this, and the rest of us will have to find something else to entertain us :-(

I wonder how the original developers are feeling - seeing their work going up in flames - being shaped into this new ugly thing. Maybe they can live with that - if the salary is high enough. Sold out maybe - sigh.

Edited by Loumy, 20 November 2012 - 07:27 PM.

[Daesu]

She seems competent enough to me.  I didn't buy a mystery chest because:

1. It is a RNG
2. Except for maybe the mini pets, the skins would be common as time goes on after the release of Lost Shores.  Which is probably why it would only be available for a limited time.  However, the fact that it is only available for a limited time also spurred sales further.

It is a smart strategy because it lets curious players have a chance to buy the skins before the content is actually release.  It is RNG because it banks in on the fact that people are curious about the new rewards after the Lost Shore hype.  If they sell all the individual skins in the gem store, then they may not get as much money out of us since some of us may not like their new skins.

I was able to see through their strategy and I decided against buying a chest.  But many people seem to have to succumbed so it worked well enough.

Edited by Daesu, 20 November 2012 - 07:29 PM.

[MazingerZ]

Loumy, on 20 November 2012 - 07:09 PM, said:

Initially Producer at Nexon now Monetization Producer in ArenaNet ;-(

There's an interview with her talking about Maple Story.

The Queen of Greed some one has called her on You Tube.

Those comments are wonderfully vitriolic.  Queen of Greed, indeed.

[Daesu]

Corvindi, on 20 November 2012 - 06:43 PM, said:

Here you sit with everything you need to create a piece of Ascended gear that you can get from running dungeons.  But oh no, look!  You need more mats.  But hey, these mats are available on the TP.  But you don't have enough gold to purchase them.  So what do you do?  Just this once?  Do you go out and grind them for 20 hours and delay your shiny new piece of gear?  Maybe.  But maybe you buy gems, exchange them for gold, and finish your armor piece instead.

I believe that has always been their strategy around GW2.  

1.  Content can't be too easy.  It has to be harder than most casual players can handle.  This means more gold sink for repairs and more needs to use waypoints (e.g. Orr).  Gold sinks are good for ArenaNet profits because it pushes the demand for gems!
2.  With harder content, comes the need to BUY max stat gear.  They can't fall back on GW1 casual get-max-stat-gear-upon-completing-the-game strategy because that would not net enough revenue for them.
3.  If they come up with a new max stat gear tier, and raise prices for them, then people would be pushed to buy gems and convert them to gold.  In GW2, gems are not just used for the gem store.  Gems can be translated easily into gold and used to buy ANYTHING on the TP.  If you are a casual player and you don't want to grind, paying real money would be the designed option for you.
4.  If you don't want to use real money to buy gems then you have to grind a lot.  Why even provide this option?  Because some people just don't want or can't spend much money in a game but they have the time+willpower to grind for gold.  ArenaNet can make use of such people to spur demand for gems by increasing the demand for top-end gear on the TP.

So it makes sense for content to become harder and newer gears to become more powerful, replacing the older ones.  Also makes sense to have more gold sinks.

Edited by Daesu, 20 November 2012 - 07:43 PM.

[Corvindi]

Loumy, on 20 November 2012 - 07:26 PM, said:

So basically Nexon's plan is to drain the game - completely steering the game off it's original course. A new gamer type will be part of this, and the rest of us will have to find something else to entertain us :-(

I wonder how the original developers are feeling - seeing their work going up in flames - being shaped into this new ugly thing. Maybe they can live with that - if the salary is high enough. Sold out maybe - sigh.

It makes sense if we assume that the new direction is intended to maximize profits in the shortest amount of time possible and if most preorder players have spending habits similar to mine.  I bought what I wanted (character slots and a bank tab) in the first month.  It might even have been in the first week or two.

At that point, my spending was stopped and was not going to increase beyond ten dollars a month or so for more bank space and character slots.  The first expansion would have been my next large purchase.

Even those who spent freely speeding up exotic acquisition and on siege in WvW have probably reduced their spending at this point.

So how to get more money?  New gear to attract a new type of player that will spend money on the box, on bank space, on character slots, and then on playing catch-up to people who already have Exotics, and then furthermore spending money to decrease the Ascended grind.

I hope it doesn't work for them, I really do.  Because if it does, we're all so screwed when it comes to not just GW2, but also future MMOs.

I don't want this to backfire spectacularly so that people lose jobs, that sucks, especially in this economy.  I want it to backfire in hopes that no devs ever dare try to make their money this way again.

Daesu, on 20 November 2012 - 07:34 PM, said:

I believe that has always been their strategy around GW2.  

1.  Content can't be too easy.  It has to be harder than most casual players can handle.  This means more gold sink for repairs and more needs to use waypoints (e.g. Orr).  Gold sinks are good for ArenaNet profits because it pushes the demand for gems!
2.  With harder content, comes the need to BUY max stat gear.  They can't fall back on GW1 casual get-max-stat-gear-upon-completing-the-game strategy because that would not net enough revenue for them.
3.  If they come up with a new max stat gear tier, and raise prices for them, then people would be pushed to buy gems and convert them to gold.  In GW2, gems are not just used for the gem store.  Gems can be translated easily into gold and used to buy ANYTHING on the TP.

Pretty much as I feared.  Which is why I objected so loudly when gems for gold was first announced.

[MazingerZ]

http://www.gamebreak...orful-opinions/

Jason Winter said:

Wanting to create that perfect look for your Guild Wars 2 character? It might be harder than you think.

Guild Wars Insider’s forum miners have uncovered a few posts from ArenaNet‘s Crystin Cox, who explains that dye unlocks will be character-based and not account-based. ArenaNet’s reasoning makes a certain amount of sense.

Emphasis mine.

Crystin Cox said:

There was a time when the dye system was very different and at that time dye unlocks were account based, but we have since changed the dyes system and we really feel that character based is the right way to go and the system we have now is the best one for the game.

...

Customized dye should be something that denotes your characters progress, like better looking, more elaborate gear. As you spend more time on your character, they grow and gain access to more customization options. If we make dyes account based, this progression will only happen on one character. We wanted character customization to remain tied to the character but we felt that one-time-use dyes discouraged players from customizing as often as they would like, that is how we arrived at the current system.

There are 400 dyes in the game, we do not think of dyes as something that a character should unlock all of, it is not meant to be a collection feature. Each character should have a unique palette and we have made enough colors to make this possible. Dyes come from world drops, rewards, crafting, the Mystic Forge, and the Gem Store and we expect that over the life of a character you will collect a lot of them.

We are still developing and the dye system will continue to receive attention and improvements, but changing it to an account based system is not something we are considering right now.

Jason Winter said:

This does, however, represent a reversal from the original dye blog post, written by Kristen Perry back in September 2010:

Kristen Perry said:

Colors will be unlocked, not muled.

Storage was always a factor when it came to dye colors in Guild Wars. The new system would cripple most inventories if we required characters to lug all the dyes around. Fear not! The dye hues themselves will be unlockable through various means, both in-game and out. Once you unlock the color, it will be available across your entire account, not just the individual character.
Once you unlock the color, it will be available across your entire account, not just the individual character.

Edited by MazingerZ, 20 November 2012 - 07:46 PM.

[GW Corrupted]

Lottery does seem to increase revenue from a typical MMO population.  The simple reason is because for every 9 people turned away by it, there is a guy that will spend 30 times the amount.

But adopting this strategy is not without consequences.  First, the game must be tailored to attract the appropriate audience.  In general, they need an irrational and impulsive player base to maximize the return.  These are the people you will be playing with, and these are the people you will be associated with.  These are the people the game will be tailored to retain.  This can only mean a degradation of the quality of the game and community.

So really, this is just sign of another sell-out.  GW2 is to become the cheap floozy of buy to play games.

[Daesu]

MazingerZ, on 20 November 2012 - 07:44 PM, said:

http://www.gamebreak...orful-opinions/

Like I have said, more grinds, more gold sinks, more demand for gold, more demand for gems.  What else is new?  

[Jairyn]

Crystin Cox is the gamekiller. She is the little death that brings destruction.

[Corvindi]

GW Corrupted, on 20 November 2012 - 07:48 PM, said:

Lottery does seem to increase revenue from a typical MMO population.  The simple reason is because for every 9 people turned away by it, there is a guy that will spend 30 times the amount.

But adopting this strategy is not without consequences.  First, the game must be tailored to attract the appropriate audience.  In general, they need an irrational and impulsive player base to maximize the return.  These are the people you will be playing with, and these are the people you will be associated with.  These are the people the game will be tailored to retain.  This can only mean a degradation of the quality of the game and community.

So really, this is just sign of another sell-out.  GW2 is to become the cheap floozy of buy to play games.

Reminds me of something I read years ago, a post on another forum about an entirely different game.  The poster basically said, what makes you think MMO devs want their players to be intelligent?

[DerekUrban]

Edit: Removed Post cause I posted in the wrong thread. Crystin Cox and the slow direction the game is being pushed in scare me though.

Edited by DerekUrban, 20 November 2012 - 08:19 PM.

[Scorpion]

Burk, on 20 November 2012 - 12:52 PM, said:

I'm sick of it.

Why not just put skins on the cash shop directly + the chests.

Anet are missing out on using the cash shop to bolster their profits. Look at league of legends. Give people skins they can apply to their COMBAT gear and I bet they will start making a killing. More options = Happier players = More profit.

I was without a doubt going to pick up the phantom hood until I realized it was only for use in towns. Such a disappointment.

Edited by Scorpion, 20 November 2012 - 08:21 PM.

[Brilhasti]

Loumy, on 20 November 2012 - 07:09 PM, said:

Initially Producer at Nexon now Monetization Producer in ArenaNet ;-(

There's an interview with her talking about Maple Story.

The Queen of Greed some one has called her on You Tube.

And Fat Bitch,by someone else....the fat part seems to be true tho.

[MazingerZ]

Let's keep the misogyny down to a minimum, I'm content with Queen of Greed.

https://forum-en.gui...eone-From-Nexon

Oh, that thread won't last long.

[Loumy]

MazingerZ, on 20 November 2012 - 08:23 PM, said:

Let's keep the misogyny down to a minimum, I'm content with Queen of Greed.

https://forum-en.gui...eone-From-Nexon

Oh, that thread won't last long.

It will probably be gone in a few minutes. I even contemplated if it was wise to respond to it, but I thought - What the heck, it's only fair that people get to know why the game has changed its course!

Edited by Loumy, 20 November 2012 - 08:25 PM.

[wimgore]

I hope the gem store doesn't change - I like the fact that there's nothing on it worth buying outside of bank slots.

[Dom]

bdatty, on 20 November 2012 - 12:48 PM, said:

What the heck are you talking about.

Every time I have a bad day at work, I just want to come home and stare at your avatar.  : )

[caballo_oscuro]

Well i got the game. Am enjoying it as it is but once I've gotten my fill ill move on to my back catalogue of other games and my other hobbies, my further education, ill probably spend more time down the pub...
Not one more cent of mine is ever going to ncsoft/nexon.

[MazingerZ]

The thread calling her out by name is gone.  The original thread is still there.

[TGIFrisbie]

I let the fools buy keys and I buy the skins I want off the TP for a heck of a lot less than buying sufficient keys to get it would cost.

[Daesu]

caballo_oscuro, on 20 November 2012 - 08:59 PM, said:

Well i got the game. Am enjoying it as it is but once I've gotten my fill ill move on to my back catalogue of other games and my other hobbies, my further education, ill probably spend more time down the pub...
Not one more cent of mine is ever going to ncsoft/nexon.

You do know that it is ArenaNet's job to never ever let you have your fill right?    Sorry but I just have to state the obvious in this situation.

[MazingerZ]

LOL

Nameless Moderator (not even Meinke) locked the thread.

Quote

We do not need a conspiracy theory thread here. Please refrain in creating or engaging in threads of this nature.

Edit: Also, see Streisand Effect

Edited by MazingerZ, 20 November 2012 - 09:13 PM.

[Loumy]

Yeah :-/



Post:





It's not a conspiracy, it's the truth.

Edited by Loumy, 20 November 2012 - 10:17 PM.

[Loumy]

Another thread bites the dust:



This thread wasn't even saying anything, other than being funny. They are very strict, huh?

I hope it's okay I put it here, I really liked it:

And after a couple of pages the moderator comes in:

Edited by Loumy, 20 November 2012 - 10:20 PM.

[MazingerZ]

Yeap, as soon as people started taking a keener interest and had a name/face... boom.

But the pragmatists will say it was all in the name of not having a witch to burn...

[dannywolt]

I laugh at this sort of thread. Do you all really think that Crystin Cox has sole control over the gem store? A-Net hired her because they wanted to go this route. Don't confuse a person and their career with a company's monetization plan.

[Mireles]

I still haven't found a reason use real money on this game.... +3 character slots, +2 Bank Slots, T3 Culture armor, and commander tag...  Making money in this game is easy if you are good at controlling your costs, maximizing your profits on drops, use auto-loot, walk places, and avoiding suicide missions that run up your repair bill.... There is no reason you can't save up and buy a skin or use gold instead of real money to "gamble" for what you desire.

The cash option for is in place for the type of players that rather blow money on the game's rewards than play it for its content and economy... they will always be there and always find a means to spend money to gain in game progress... Anet is counting on you being lazy and/or impatient enough to want to throw money at them.... fortunately for people not throwing money away there is alot of ppl that will to keep this game well funded for more content to enjoy .... cash shop is simply genius way of separating fools from their money while giving the actively participating player base a way to obtain features others pay real money for...

Edited by Mireles, 20 November 2012 - 09:37 PM.

[Red Intensity]

Bank/ character slots and fine transmutation stones - acceptable.

Rest of the store - Unacceptable.

Mystery box - I'd sooner tighten a vise on my privates.

In any case, I won't use real money.

[MazingerZ]

dannywolt, on 20 November 2012 - 09:27 PM, said:

I laugh at this sort of thread. Do you all really think that Crystin Cox has sole control over the gem store? A-Net hired her because they wanted to go this route. Don't confuse a person and their career with a company's monetization plan.

Learn your companies.  She was the person behind the Maple Story cash shop, which was notoriously abusive to the player base.  http://maple-news.co...ned-maplestory/

Nexon has a 15% stake in NCSoft.  That bears a lot of weight.  You need to tell the SEC when you gain 5% control of a company.

The position was created after Nexon's investment and Cox moved from Nexon to ArenaNet.  I won't say she's obviously there to be Nexon's hand at the wheel, but the events and evidence are damning.  Pretty sure that given the cost of GW2 and NCSoft's usual handling of things when they want money, they are expecting a return and see any slump in active accounts as a danger to that.