The Problems with ANet's Business Model
I have seen a trend lately of people upset with the direction that GuildWars 2 is headed. I believe the business model that ANet uses is to blame.
First, I love GuildWars. I played the first one since Beta, I was deep into farming Riverside, then Griffons, so I could unlock all of my PvP wares and played the GvG ladder with moderate sucess in the first season. I have loved GW2. I will continue to play, but I too feel that the game is not going the same direction that I would like it to.
Here is why:
ANet is a business. If they do not bring in money they have no reason to exist. So we must ask ourselves, how do they bring in money and what lowers profits? The answer to the first question is easy. New Game Sales and Gemstore Purchases. How do they control profits? The cost to operate this game can go up, or down. The more people they hire, the lower profits go. The less servers they have to maintain, the higher the profits go.
So it is simple,
ANet wants you to buy the game, spend what you will on GEMs and get off their servers. This maximizes profits. Keeping players playing for 5000 hours in not in their best interest.
I know there will be naysayers, but stop and think about it. If every players that bought GuildWars 2 was active on a daily basis, the server cost would go up. Without extra money coming in, the profits start to decrease. Now think about what is going on right now, the player-base has shrunk, and the game is going on sale. The game will be on sale until the servers begin to fill and they would have to re-invest. ANet is getting a influx of money from game sales, and will target GEM sales in a few weeks.
I would like to have a CounterStrike like experience with this game. PvP for years in a way that I enjoy......... however, I had to donate to my clan to keep their server going....... the same applies to GuildWars 2, but we don't have the option, nor is it looking like they would release that as an option.
So, it is unfortunate, but ANet is not interested in keeping players for years. ANet wants new players and players that dump real world money into the GEM store.
TL:DR More active players costs profits, therefore, the more people that buy, play and quit, the more the ANet Executives like it.
Posted Aug 19, 2014, 11:35 AM UTC
on the contrary, they need active players to drive sales, how many posts do you see on this subreddit alone asking if people still play gw2 before they buy it themsleves? if what you describe as anets ideal scenario comes true then those people are gonna come in and well tell them nobody plays any more and they wont buy it.
The game sold 4 million copies. How many active players do you think they need: 4 million? 1 million? 100.000? Less?
Especially with the LS, which comes out every 14 days and pushes all the game's players into a small map. (And let's not forget the Megaserver.)
this guy is saying the ideal scenario for anet is that literally nobody plays, I'm not saying i think thats gonna happen, im saying you are mad if you think thats what anet want to happen.
No, he's saying:
As long as you are spending, A.Net DEFINITELY wants you to be playing. But as soon as you stop spending, the game certainly encourages you to either start spending again or stop playing.
That's the whole premise of the game. You don't play it like a job.
If Anet wanted to hook people to the game they would just put all the cool stuff behind a gear threadmill and power level creep.
That's the whole rationale behind microtransactions promoted by fortnightly updates. If they didn't need a steady population base to push mircrotransaction sales every month, they could just settle for an expansion every 12 months.
We've known this since day one. Why are we complaining abut this NOW?