2018 will be looked back at as the year GoW became G2P (Gem to play). I hope that the devs have made a profit on it. But outside of new game modes (some good, some bad). There’s nothing really mutually beneficial from the G2P aspect of the game. I don’t think GoW should ever become P2P (pay to play) either. That being said… There’s a shop in the game that already exists but the products in the shop are usually worthless. The devs keep track of how often players use each weapon. Why not use that data for good use and make the top 10 most used weapons (excluding ones you get from leveling up) constantly for sale?
Dawnbringer is a game changer and should be reserved for people willing to put in the the time for it.
On the other hand, EVERYTHING in the game is achievable by using your gems or your time (except for Death Knight armor and some other cosmetic stuff). I strongly suggest, you make Dawnbringer available for purchase for the absurd amount of like $2,000.00, if people are willing to pay that much for it then so be it. When the devs need fast cash then put it on sale for $1500.
If @Sirrian, you so decide to implement these requests and they become profitable to 505 and Infinity Plus 2. Then please put gems back in legendary tasks. During your Q&A you said that the Gem economy was balanced now and to buff the Tower of Doom Rewards you would need to take gems away from guild wars. Respectfully, that doesn’t make any sense. When guild wars was every week. On a monthly basis the first place guild would be given 6k gems times 30. But currently on a monthly basis, if a guild gets first place in GW and ToD they can only make 2k gems times 30. That doesn’t even factor that during guild wars every single guild gets Gem Rewards at the end of it. I don’t think that’s true for Tower of Doom, but I don’t know it for a fact. Meanwhile we have countless ways to spend gems now compared to when guild wars was every week.
So I have to assume that restricting gems given by the devs, compared to taken by the devs, has been lucrative for the companies involved. I just worry that too many players will feel like they are constantly being “shaked down” in a sense until they are forced to buy gems. It’s always better to give a person the option to buy rather than force them to. The way you designed to game originally, I have to believe you have the same mentality, Sirrian. Making the best weapons in the game available for purchase 24/7 should satisfy both your players and 505. Thank you for reading.
I didn’t watch it, but from what you said, my first thought was that I agree.
If we assume, though, that the gem economy was considered ‘balanced’ when events ran on a 3-week cycle, then I think it evens out.
GW gave 1500 gems every 3 weeks (for the #1 guild), or 500 gems/week, 2k gems/month - which is the same rate as we have now, as you mentioned (not taking into account that automatic awarding of gems in GW).
ToD, therefore, was not so much “another way to earn gems” as “an event that didn’t reduce the monthly gem income, but did increase the effort and (most likely) gem expenditure required to receive it”. 500 gems was the amount required to introduce a 4th event without reducing that income.
Compared to weekly GW, however, you’re absolutely right (so I hope I’m not distracting too much from your post) - gem income has been restricted (for the top guilds, anyway), whilst opportunities to spend gems/gem participation costs have increased.
ToD was supposedly intended to give us gems.
But that doesn’t make sense since to get first place the guild has to average at least 1k gems spent per member and you only get back 500 gems. So I’d bet my left that any guild in the top 100 uses more gems than they get back. @Saltypatra I’m sure you can’t disclose the statistics of gems spent compared to gems Rewarded. But you described tower of Doom as a way to earn gems and that’s simply not what’s happening. It’s more of a rebate system where if you spend gems you get some back if your guild is successful enough to finish in the top 100.
In another thread i mentioned that she was probably mistaken about it as she didn’t tested/played (and made calculations in a “player-mindset” manner) about the full extension of the feature.
Aside from that i fully agree with a proper rework of the Shop making all past weapons available for purchase via real money and maybe some offers costing gems every week. If the Devs/Publisher get enough cash flow from this they can adjust their plans to be less aggressive towards the use of gems hoping to make profits out of gem sales.
Ignoring the huge monetary gap between the values of my country’s money and the dollar i can’t really justify any purchases except to reach VIP 5 by acquiring Death Knight Armor and a few weapons like Divine Protector and others for anyone. If they set the economy on the right track the company and the game can improve greatly.
And they can finally rework Wild Plains and pay for better arts for Frost Archer, Arctic Fox and Phoenicia.
that any guild in the top 100 uses more gems than they get back.