I am definitely looking for something to spend a few bucks on, 5$ (or euros) is about the perfect price. I would definitely buy missing event weapons with it, but something like this to get a VIP key, yeah, please!
I might even be enticed to spend this every so often until I get to the level where I simply unlock VIP keys…
By my reckoning, my enjoyment of GoW compared to what I have spent on it would mean I owe them about a 20 euros, but I won’t just throw it at them, sorry. (I once bought a daily gems and am VIP 1 atm).
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Very nice suggestion, it would present to players what they can get with VIP keys and make them want to reach VIP level. And a bunch of small prices is a lot better then a single huge purchase like @wskill said. Anyone would rather spend say 10$ a month then spend 30$ one month and not spend anything in next 2 months.
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Yeah, some good suggestions here, thanks folks!
We are actually planning to revamp a few store options in 2.2 to hopefully include some better value!
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Sorry for being fussy, but “Manicure” is a beautiful lapsus digiti
Those big nails really need some manicure 
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When it comes to shop items, its really all about perspective. Its easier for people to buy a bunch of lower priced items over the long run than it is for people to pay upfront some high priced item that will benefit them immediately and forever after that. Nit-picking what’s currently available when it should be something else is not the issue. Making sure that the player is receiving the full amount of VIPs for the amount the player spent on said item(s) is.
Take me, for example. I’m dissuaded from buying the Daily Souls pack or any pack of similar amount because I’ve been given less than the VIPs I should be getting. The fine print said I would receive one VIP point for every single dollar I spent. I thought the 25 VIP pts for a $6.99 item was just a typo. I expected to get 35 VIP points after I bought it. I was awarded only 25 VIP pts. I did submit a ticket and it was forwarded to the development team because that’s all the 505Support team could do. No word since and thus made no sense for neither my brother, nor myself to buy from the shop. We might with the weekly kingdom bundle but why would we when it offers a weapon we already have. Perhaps, we would if there was a discount? Or maybe offer one with the weapon while the other without the weapon for the same price? Then again, it would make sense if the weapon could also be ascended much like troops and heroes can. Ooooo there’s an idea. 
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already requested that for u 
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Mana drain is really on way too many troops now, heck it even makes lower rarity cards completely dwarf moloch. Something really must be done. 9/10 teams i see have atleast two cards w it and as op went against it and i followed up on… its the definition of frustration and sabotage. Combined w low mana cost and even start w full mana… Cmon man…Moloch looks like a green card now._ and NO dont buff him, nerf (or remove) drain severely on non legendary cards.
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Agreed. I just quit if I ever fight a team with more than one of the cheesy empowered mana drains. Seriously doubles the amount of time I have to spend battling.
Poor Moloch…
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I’d have to wholeheartedly agree there. At least on the fact that you managed to direct almost 1500 hours of my attention to the game (not counting the forums) without pushing me away with your methods of generating money.
Now on to
Yes, basically this. Things like League and Warframe subsist mostly on the sales of cosmetics, but both are huge comparatively and can get away with this incredibly easily because of how many players buy into it and how much return they can get on the investment of making something that doesn’t actually effect the game at all.
Honestly, I think GoW is marketed fairly well, there is a diverse selection of things in the store to appeal to different kinds of people, and for a game without a trade system and player-based in-game economy, I think it does incredibly well for itself.
And no I’m not saying that you should add a trading feature. That has already been discussed, and Sirrian has already stated his views on how that might negatively impact several, and I wholeheartedly agree with him. That would not only add balancing issues, complicate crafting how new players experience the game, and require more oversight than a team even double the size of the one they have now can handle, but it would also incentivise things like hacking, stealing other peoples accounts, and players just farming endlessly to trade with others and get benefits without doing things as they are designed to be done. Which, oh yeah, means more bots. And we don’t want that. None of us do.
I’d like to preface the next part of my reply with the fact that I am not a game dev, I have not gone to college for this, and I have never been in their shoes. The following is just speculation from someone who takes a passing interest in balance and design and has actively observed and examined a variety of different games, F2P, P2P, and P2W alike. I do this as a hobby, not as a career or part of an institutionalized education. So take it with a couple grains of salt if I am way off on these. If I am, I’ll be happy to listen to counterpoints and be steered in the right direction.
Also to be noted, I am not trying to tell anyone how to do their job, assuming anything is or isn’t being done, or trying to break any new ground. I am simply trying to understand things from a Dev’s point of view.
If I were to be a financial planner for a game like this, which I am not, in the state it currently appears to be in (I can not say the state it is in, I do not have exact numbers), my first goal would likely be to start trying to get Gems of War out there more, and further expand the player base. However, I also know that as-is, the leaderboard and reward system is geared towards a point in the game’s history with far fewer players, because since it has been released, the amount of people playing has increased drastically. Probably even exponentially.
I believe that Sirrian said something about this system being overhauled in the next couple (major) patches. So this is great, they are already working on this, and that should give the game more “room” for people to feel like their PvP battles after 1900 rating matter. And that is huge, which will likely allow for a better, more future-oriented system, much like they did with the guild League system. Which is wonderful.I’m looking forward to that, though I don’t know if I’ll be playing when it first launches. It might take a while for the game to reach a state in which I’m not outright bored PvPing in. Which, as I discussed in another thread, is no fault of the devs.
So with that planned and out of the way, lined up for launch (which seems to be the case, as the devs are far better at this than I), then I would probably want to focus on player retention. Which comes to post-game balancing. Which is another topic on its own that I won’t get too far into because that gets very controversial very quickly. I think that the devs have a far better idea of what they are doing and I have nowhere near the koala-fications to even start to think about what they should do there.
Then there is monetization, which I think the devs already do incredibly well considering that they have to go through their publisher for approval and have a relatively small player base compared to what they could have. Could some things use re-designing to make them more future-ready and sell-able to a larger playerbase? Maybe. But I’m actually really impressed with how well the shop is designed. There are options for pretty much whatever you want, rotating stock on certain things to keep them interesting, and ways for players to just contribute more to the game if they want to support the devs.
Some things that might be useful if added:
- An option to just “buy” VIP points, giving a slightly higher return on them without any benefit outside of the points themself. More VIP points per dollar spent than you would get with other options, but just the VIP points.
- Perhaps something to look towards later but armor other than Deathknight that gives the same bonuses, possibly rotating so that there is some feeling of exlusivity to getting the type you want. Makes players feel better about having what they do and creates a bit more demand there. Plus there will probably be one or two “collector” types that just want to “get them all”
- A slightly different take on the color swap idea, or maybe even something to add to it. But maybe kingdom-centric packs that contain the recolors for all troops in a kingdom (that have been released), rotating weekly-ish after you eventually get around to having enough recolors or alt designs to justify it. Again, long-term idea, aimed at a future where your player base continues to grow.
Also, sorry if I’m late to that discussion. I don’t pop in here as often any more, so it takes me a while to get around to things. Hope you don’t mind the text wall, and thank you for reading this far. ^^;
On a final note, I wish to add that the devs are awesome, and probably already have thought of or have in works many of the things that I put forth above. I am by no means perfect, or even remotely educated or trained in this area. At least formally.
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You win this year’s longest post award btw 
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There are three other people that could easily go to off the top of my head, but thank you, I think?
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Nooooo, but i was going to get that reward.