#gemstore

To begin my rant, I’d love to add this picture provided by Dulfy on the new mount skin. 

That is the new GW2 Gemstore Resplendent Avian Skin. It’s a raptor with a butt cape that sells for 2,000 gems in the gemstore. It’s not a “randomized no duplicate adoption license” but to be honest, I don’t think it’s any better. In fact, I think it’s worse because this overstuffed monstrosity is Arena Net’s response to the debacle about their mounts. It’s another step on the line on how much they can get away with because they are now solidifying the two price points for mount skins. 

We have 2,000 gem price, which is the cost of the Reforged Warhound and this new raptopr skin, and then we have the 400 price for the “lesser” mount skins that are supposedly the mount price point in the adoption licenses. Just take the rough 1600 gem gap as a startling incline of what the gemstore is turning into. And that’s just within the mounts. My grievance with this new raptor is, again, the money grab. I think I mentioned, or my lovely fiance @felidae-charr​ did and I rebloged it, but Arena Net’s marketing for the gemstore is jerking up the prices for cosmetics. It’s starting with the mount skins because it’s a new item with no prior price point and they’re doubling what’s it’s worth because, frankly, they can. 

I know it’s a whole new can of tuna fish, but stay with me. Throughout the gemstore, the average marketing price for a single cosmetic item we all know and love as outfits, is 700 / 800 gems. The most expensive outfits are worth 1000 which includes the wedding attire. Some outfits have 5 different cultural designs and 10 separate gender designs - as a student studying game design and animation - is a lot of work even if we condense sylvari, humans, and norn being similar enough in rigs that we can merge them into one and then the charr and asura be seperate in rigs but combining gender model since both genders are very similar in their respective races. But we’re still needing, for the least amount of work roughly 4 rigged designs.

- Male Human, Sylvari, Norn

- Female Human, Sylvari, Norn

- Charr male & female

- Asura male & female

 Sometimes, these outfits come in a  bundle that comes with other perks such as a matching glider, some boosts and other things related to it and, off the top of my head, they cost no more than 1600 gems and that’s for multiple items. Not one single cosmetic.

What makes...not mad, I suppose, but rather disappointed in Arena Net is for the Resplendent Avian Skin, a single cosmetic that doesn’t even have other “versions” like outfits do and scale to the characters size...is selling for the rough equivalent of $35.00. One, single “outfit for mounts” is going for an absurd amount of money on the gemstore because arena net can and it’s infuriating after the pricing of their lootboxes which was part of the main concern when they were brought up! Hell, my first post was me getting riled up about the pricing!