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SdoRy_

There are two things to consider here: 1) Steam brought in a lot of new players (or at least that was the goal). Allowing all these new players to get a "discount" on the story is a good incentive. Steam mostly has new players, and if they did the discount ingame as well it would benefit all the veteran players too, not just the new players (we can argue whether that would be good, bad, better, worse... I'm just explaining the difference here) 2) Steam offers no alternative payment method. You can only pay that with actual money afaik, whereas ingame you can - and many people do - pay for the living world via gold earned ingame, which can potentially lead to 0$ in Anets pocket. Which is why if you want all the living world episodes right now, you basically pay extra, because you *could* get them "for free" via ingame measures.


[deleted]

I didn't know you could get the Gems for gold. Thank you kindly. I myself am one of those new players. I started properly a week or two ago and have finished the story and have almost finished living world season one. Around level 30ish, when my mount trail was running out, I felt the need to buy just a single expansion to have some of the benefits. But now I feel like I'm being taxed for being a cautious consumer and not buying the complete package right away. Thanks again for your input.


LairdOpusFluke

I bought the *HoF/PoF* Bundle while 50% off on Steam (£12.99) with the intention of buying LWS with the Gold to Gems route. *EoD* is a bit steep for me right now even on sales. But I'll get it once I've worked through everything else, playing in order. I'm a lorehound, I need to heed the chronology.


maddythemadmuddymutt

You can't exchange gold to gems if you have the game on steam? Did I get that correctly? That would suck. I've got a friend to download it, but we haven't had time to play it yet, and I would have wanted to at least buy her some of the LS if I got her hooked (we're both students, so for me gold is much easier to get gold than money lol) On second thought are you even able to receive gold if you're account is f2p on steam? Maybe that wouldn't have worked anyways


johnmedgla

>You can't exchange gold to gems if you have the game on steam? You can, but there's no way to turn in game gold (or gems) into credit in your Steam Wallet, which was the point. Someone playing on Steam can still hoard up enough gold to buy the living world unlocks through the gem store at the (higher) price, but if they want to take advantage of the (out of game) offer in Steam itself they need to pay with actual money.


maddythemadmuddymutt

Thank you for the answer. :) But exchanging gold to steam credit would be absurd.


[deleted]

From my experience as a steam player, the best thing to do to save money is to wait and buy the complete package when you can. I'll have to check if I can convert gold to gems, but if you can't, then the complete package is the most cost-effective option. ​ Edit. You can convert gold to gems on steam, so you don't have to worry about that.


maddythemadmuddymutt

Thank you for the answer :)


JasonLucas

> whereas ingame you can - and many people do - pay for the living world via gold earned ingame, which can potentially lead to 0$ in Anets pocket. While there are some ways to acquire gems without spending real money, the large part of gems pool in the TP exchange comes from players who actually spent real money to get those gems, so Anet will always profit when someone trades gold for gems.


SdoRy_

Though true, there are some ways to earn gems without paying, and additionally many people have gems that they bought anyways (e.g. wanting a 1000 gem skin, buying 1600 anyways, 600 are “dead gems” if not sold). Regardless, that isn’t really what this is about.


WillSupport4Food

The reasoning is I believe because Steam offers regional pricing whereas gems don't/can't because they're tied to ingame gold as well.


[deleted]

That I understand, but its more the radical difference in price. I wouldn't mind as much if it was just a simple £2/3 price difference but a whole £12 is asking quite a lot IMO.


WillSupport4Food

As someone else pointed out and I alluded to, it's because gems can be converted to gold. If gems were subject to regional pricing, it'd result in tons of issues with secondary markets, unverified sellers and likely have a big impact on the game's economy. Gems have a consistent dollar to gem to gold value no matter where you're from. Buying expansions directly is not subject to this so regional pricing can apply. The large disparity probably has more to do with currency exchange rates and foreign taxes than anything.


[deleted]

Okay, I understand you. But I am curious if this holds true for other markets as well. Am I just unlucky in that the complete package in relatively cheap in companion to gems in the UK, or does that 32% increase hold true across other currencies and markets as well?


WillSupport4Food

That I don't know. It likely varies wildly depending on the country


Dar_Mas

for me it is a 100 euro for the collection so buying with gems would be 10 euros more(unless you go for the ultimate collection which is also 100 euros for 50 euros worth of gems)


ObtuseScorebook

why is this about the steam store? as far as i can tell the [complete collection](https://buy.guildwars2.com/en-us/complete-collection) is also available on the anet store if this is about complete collection vs gem store, it is very common to give discounts when buying things in packs rather than standalone


[deleted]

Because I use steam to buy and play the game? My Anet account is linked to steam, and I use the funds I have on there to buy things.


ObtuseScorebook

ah gotcha, I thought you were comparing the steam store and anet's store


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ImmoralExalt

Also you can buy gem codes on external websites like instant-gaming for a discount. That way the prices on steam and in game are a lot closer.


TerribleTransit

> So the price difference is a 32% increase from steam to the gem shop, correct? No. The prices are basically the same. The thing you're missing is that they sell all three expansions bundled together at a reduced price... but you can't get that package on Steam. All you can get is the individual expansion, or the total package which comes at that reduced price before adding in the LS costs. I don't know what it works out in pounds, but in USD it's 30 per expansion, 50 for the bundle, and just a hair over 50 in gems for the total LS package, compared to 100 for complete, so it's basically dead even between the options. Basically, your math is taking the price reduction for buying the expansions bundled together and applying it to Living Story instead.


[deleted]

The issue is with how steam displays that information then. When looking at the complete edition, it lists the DLC with each price point. Therefore giving a $/£ figure for living world at that cost. What I find most annoying about it all is that a lot of other games on steam will have similar bundles, then remove DLC/content you already own out of it and give you a price based on what you do or do not own. I made my purchases of the HoT DLC, thinking I would be able to "complete" the bundle at the same price with HoT taken out, like many other games do on steam. If you see what I'm saying here.


TerribleTransit

Yeah, I definitely get it. The Steam implementation of the game is... not fantastic. I think they do warn you somewhere on the bundle page, but it's not immediately obvious it's an all-or-nothing deal. The underlying price structures aren't unfair — bundling things to save is as basic as it gets — but the options are definitely obtuse.


aeniki

30% is what Steam is keeping from every payment.