Online Store - More In-Game Content?

Mods: This may sound like a suggestion, or even a repeat of many other threads, but this has a discussion element to it, as well as a clear purpose. Please, read on.

I am currently working on my Bachelor's of Science in Advertising degree, and in our Bus 101 course, we were instructed to highlight a specific business, and work on a mock business plan. The business we chose had to be one we are very familiar with, and would one day like to work for. Of course, I chose Arenanet. Now I am in Bus 121, and continuing with Arenanet, I have reached an assignment that takes me out to find a 'focus group' and throw out some ideas to get consumer opinions on. Consumers such as, well, everyone here at Guru.

The idea here is to find out how to basically make more money for Arenanet in this lull period before GW2 (which could conceivably be 2-3 years away - a large lull period for any business, especially video games). The online store and expansions onto GW are probably the top ideas, with brand awareness and merchandise down at the bottom (more people knowing about Anet and GW isn't likely to make their numbers jump dramatically). Online store expansion is what I want to focus on as a primary strategy, and there have been many ideas in Sardelac and now with the BMP promotion on how this could happen. I want to consolidate these ideas, stir up an environment to come up with more, and discuss them with everyone to help make some of this possibly happen, and find out if it's worth it - with the end goal of a good bit of info for my assignment


tl;dr version - Let's talk about what in-game content we would like to see in the in-game store. This helps me with my project at school, and helps Anet better serve us!


Some things to consider:

BMP being offered as a separate purchase - these threads are everywhere, which leads me to believe it would be very lucrative for Anet to do this. USD $5? $10? Should this be delayed for a bit to retain a certain amount of 'specialness' for those who bought into the promotion? How long? A month? 6 months?

Weapon packs - basically things like the "Game of the Year" weapons. /bonus and you get 7-10 new-skinned items customized and stuff. USD $5, just like the GotY items.

More mission packs - More stuff like the BMP purchasable for what, USD $10. Problem here: would this pay off for how much coding/art/etc that would need to be accounted for? Something to consider, especially if enough people like the idea.

Skill packs - Not what we already have, but a small pack of about 100 skills (what GW:EN was released with), no elites. Something that would be easy to balance (hopefully). USD $5


What else? More storage? Festival hats? CE-like special dances/effects? Any problems/concerns that could be had with this? Discuss!

The opportunity cost of putting BMP in the store as a separate purchase is 0. It is purely profitable (with the exception of perhaps extra data storage, which would probably take place anyway).
The others, probably not. That would overanger the player base and completely reverse the whole underlying concept of GW - one time fee, free to play.

Payment methods - those without possibility to use credit/debit cards are going to be quite pissed off.

If Anet is going to make this online store work in a larger scale they should sell credit points through retailers, you know like Nintendo does with Wii.

QFT

They really should broaden the way people in non-american countries can make payments.

None of these purchases would be required to play, though. Since there will no longer be any more campaigns (and likely no expansions, either), these small purchases would replace that as drops of content, possibly on a more frequent basis, yet cheaper.

Still, you do present a way of thought that players may share. This would be a change in the business model, if ever slight. I mean, it is still "one time fee (purchase of campaign), free to play," this just adds extra, optional one time fees. The original business model was kinda blown away, anyway, when they chose to quit making campaigns 'every 6 months.' I'm sure something has to replace that lost revenue.

EDIT:Excellent point, as well, thank you! That is a really good idea. And with that, maybe they could include with every box purchase of any GW product, a $5 card that can be used in the online store? Anything to promote the store further, I guess.

i agree to this tho they are working on it.... tho i havent seen a payment method added like "click and pay" wich is used at gamedevelopers as EA.

Regarding this, why din't they still make it so when u buy Proph, Factions, or Nightfall, and you already have it added to the account, that u instead get 4 char slots? Or a purchase for 40 euro's (eq amount in $) from the ingame store.

You've already added a factions key to your account -> Would you like to add 4 char slots instead?

You've already added a factions key to your account -> Would you like to upgrade your store credit with x Dollar/ Euro / Tokens?

Now that would rock

buy heroes in online store

nice idea arcane btw.

Thanks! I just read through that thread, and I like the idea, kinda. There were some good points in there that it may offer an advantage, and I'm not sure something like that would go over well. Then again, a new skill pack would offer a similar 'advantage,' even if it just offers alternate, balanced, normal skills.

Also, I see this and the new skill pack I mentioned as good replacements for full expansions. Essentially, it would be like purchasing GW:EN, but not getting any PvE zones/missions/quests, and just getting the character content, perhaps seen by the game as upgrading 'Core' content - available from any campaign. Buying these things in the store would be just like buying seletcive parts of a campaign or expansion at a lowered price relative to the content purchased.

Personally, I don't see anything wrong with it. Pretty cool idea, Sleeper.

Actually I think they can get $40 for the BMP because it is better then GWEN. If we paid $40 for GWEN, why not $40 for the BMP?

We are in 2007, nearly everything you buy on the internet is paid with creditcards. I'm dutch and have a cc for ebay, or online orders outside of my own country. Don't be cheap like most dutch, just get urself a CC.

This is a joke right?
They are having issues being on top of the skills that are already in the game and you want to add more?


On-topic - I don't care really. I wouldn't buy it so no need to go to extra lengths to make this happen on my account.

True, but I don't think any of those problems are from the GW:EN skills, but rather from older skills and even entire professions (Necro, Sin and Paragon, namely). It seems that they did pretty good with the delicate balance of the new, non-elite skills. More like that can't hurt, can they?

they have since 08/02/2007

you can use PaySafe through the PlayNC store
http://www.developmag.com/press-rele...ng-paysafecard
no credit card needed

The PlayNC store, while similar, isn't the GW store--a crucial difference.

Ability to buy new ingame stuff which other players cannot have acces too would ruin the game.

We bought the game, and now we will have to pay to get more? bah...
GW would be like any other free mmorpg, like dungeon runners for example...

buy more storage tabs through the online store...

true but purchases at PlayNC did count towards GW BonusMissionPack credit


I agree its inconsistent,
Guild Wars Store should also support Paysafe

Oh that's so nice, to bad there are no sale points in the netherlands for the card! http://www.paysafecard.com/nl/privat...verkooppunten/
Now what?

There's a difference between being cheap, and being smart. I don't need a cc for all my other internet purchases, nor normal purchases. A bankdeposit / paypal suffices for me. So getting a cc for just 1 purchase is being cheap? I think not.

can buy the card online (like Paypal)
https://www.wertkartenverkauf.com/