Editorial: A single Mount skin for $25 is @#$%. Don’t buy it.
Don’t buy the mount skin loot boxes either!
Bluntly, The cost of mount skins in Guild Wars 2 is abhorrent.
The skin in video above costs $25 dollars. YES, twenty-five dollars, 2000 gems, for just a single mount skin. We had sticker shock just looking at it and think that this price is an insult to the player base.
Why? Because it’s a cosmetic item that costs as much as a: Two tubs of Lego Bricks, Two power banks to charge your phone with, or maybe some decent cookware.
The point is that we are okay with paying nearly $10 dollars for an outfit for our characters. What we cannot agree with is paying $25 bucks for.....horse armor with zero stats.
Gems Cloak Costs
Gems are used by Arenanet and NCsoft to cast doubt on the real price of items in the cash shop by tricking people’s brains into seeing 1000 gems as $10. The human brain is wonderful at making shortcuts on hard tasks. Remembering to add 20% to the price of gem shop items is hard... and by the time we have done so, we have already decided we want the item..and what is just 20% more?
Also, by converting money to Gems, purchases become less connected to a bank account. We tend to forget that the we payed $20 for for our 1600 gems and we need “just a few more” to get that 2000 bundle.
Just 400 gems a mount skin....that you don’t get to pick.
The Gemstore learned a new trick. Mount Adoption Licenses are basically Black Lion Chests with just mount skins in them.
Now, we will admit that 400 gems per mount skin seems more then fair on the surface. The problem comes if a we wants a specific skin. The first time you buy has a one in 30 chance, or 3.3% of being the skin you want. The second time in one and 29 (3.4%). To have about one in three hence, we could by the ten pack for 3400....also known as $42.50.
YES! the gemstore has become that...slimy.
Thankfully, at least with the Mount Adoption Licenses, the player base of Guild Wars 2 has risen up in protest and Arenanet is responding to the push back.
In a statement on the @guildwars2 Tumblr, Anet wrote:
I wanted to let you all know that we’re listening to and compiling your feedback about the Mount Adoption License.
and
Thank you all for the feedback you’ve submitted so far, we really appreciate you taking the time to give your input!
While Anet is listening, we all will have to keep the pressure up if we want such mobile marketing to leave Guild Wars 2 forever. We hope you will join Paragon Broadcasting and not buy any of these over priced items.
Sources:
@guildwars2 / Tumblr: Mount Adoption License Feedback
