Guild Wars 2

I remember when it used to be 1G for 200-300 Gems (August/September/October). It seems like alot of people are spending everything just to buy a few gems.

Do you think the current prices are fair? I hope it goes back to 1G for 100….

Back then there werent a lot of people with more than 3/4 gold. I don’t like it either, but it is logical that the price of gems would rise as more people get richer.

Why not just go all out and ask anet to peg them at 20s again?

I think it’s more than fair. If I spend real money vs your in game money should it not have a reasonable value. I am not saying that in game currency is not hard to get and you did not spend time getting it. But my real life money definitely has more value to me than my gold on my toons

Only those who spend real money will think it is fair.

The new guy who has to spend over 16 gold for a single bank slot will not be happy.

Avatara.1042:

Only those who spend real money will think it is fair.

The new guy who has to spend over 16 gold for a single bank slot will not be happy.

There’s many variables in this equation, for instance, what worth is your real money/time ? what is reasonable value to you (am I paying for something of worth)?

Did that 16 gold, come from one lucky drop or were many hours spent farming that gold ?

Avatara.1042:

Only those who spend real money will think it is fair.

The new guy who has to spend over 16 gold for a single bank slot will not be happy.

The new guy doesn’t have to spend 16 gold for a single bank slot though.

Consider that the ability to convert in game gold to gems is a matter of some generosity on the part of ArenaNet to allow a player to choose more than one method of obtaining gems, but understand that (reasonably so), the main method should be by purchasing gems for real-life currency, and you begin to realise that a bank slot today costs exactly the same as it did at game release.

The fact is that the in-game supply of gold has gone from zero on release to whatever it is now, and that as a result, there is a level of inflation involved with purchasing gems by in-game gold.

(On a side note, EvilExE, your signature is amusing when analysed carefully)

I buy some gem previously (about 1G=250 gem). I almost spend all of my saving to do it, because I think it is a fair price. But now 1G to 40-50. I will not buy it.
And I don’t think the gem price for real money is fair.

It is a courtesy allowing players who do not want to spend real money BAG AND BANK SPACE? These things should NEVER have cost gems, as they are key parts of any MMO.

Yeah, empathy is dead.

Avatara.1042:

It is a courtesy allowing players who do not want to spend real money BAG AND BANK SPACE? These things should NEVER have cost gems, as they are key parts of any MMO.

Yeah, empathy is dead.

Now this i do agree with, purchasing bag space is something common to F2P games, as GW2 is B2P, really RM purchased gems should be spent on cosmetic cool looking stuff that cant be brought with gold, not how the current system works, but yeah thats just my personal oppinion.

We would be better off having bag and bank space as a fixed upgrade item that can be bought with a predictable amount of money. As it is, we end up with this messy conversion system that isnt a true exchange anyway, as its taxed so you cant buy and resell gems for profit.

chronometria.3708:

We would be better off having bag and bank space as a fixed upgrade item that can be bought with a predictable amount of money. As it is, we end up with this messy conversion system that isnt a true exchange anyway, as its taxed so you cant buy and resell gems for profit.

Good idea, but i don’t think they will consider it. All we can do is watching the gems price go up to a non-affordable price and leave the game or buying gems with real money.

EvilExE.3460:

Avatara.1042:

It is a courtesy allowing players who do not want to spend real money BAG AND BANK SPACE? These things should NEVER have cost gems, as they are key parts of any MMO.

Yeah, empathy is dead.

Now this i do agree with, purchasing bag space is something common to F2P games, as GW2 is B2P, really RM purchased gems should be spent on cosmetic cool looking stuff that cant be brought with gold, not how the current system works, but yeah thats just my personal oppinion.

I think it’s more difficult than that. To remain profitable, Anet either has to replace existing players with new one (in effect, you have to quit and be replaced with someone who purchased the game recently) or it has to encourage the purchase of gems.

Purely cosmetic items that cannot be acquired any other way may actual discourage people from buying them. Because the item immediately advertises “I spend RL money on this game.” Which is appears to be frowned upon (at least in the forums).

I think having the gem tab right there in the trading screen gives people the wrong impression.

In most CS heavy games like Allods online, when you want a cash shop item it’s a luxury; either you buy with money, or you save up, take that gold and find a player willing to part with their cash and trade them gold and they buy you the item you wanted, or in some games, a transferable cash shop currency like gems.

GW2 is essentially the same system, the difference is that rather than everyone selling gems individually, they all go into a central pool and the price is dictated from that, nobody can monopolise the market.

The problem is that this system is faceless. People don’t think of buying a bigger chest or a sweet outfit as buying from the cash shop, they think of it as an extension of normal gameplay, and when they can’t afford to buy something with gold it’s omgarenanetistryingtoscrewmeover – when you buy an item from the cash shop for gold; you are spending money someone else put into the system.

Buying gems with gold is always going to cost enough to where it hurts a bit to buy them. If it doesn’t, people will just buy more gems with gold until it does.

There will be a point where the Gold to Gem conversion will hit a ceiling. That point is where a majority of players will flat out refuse to pay. Then prices will slowly come down to a comfortable level. Once that happens, the cycle continues and the prices will go back up.

After a few of these cycles, we’ll be able to see what the players will consider an average, and it’ll probably steady itself around that range.

The way I like to think about it is: how much does it cost to buy a Mystic Salvage Kit vs. 10 Master’s Salvage Kits.

At 1gold/45gems, it costs 32g62s to buy 10 Mystic Salvage Kits, vs. the 15g36s to buy 100 Master’s Salvage Kits

Now, granted, 10x stack size is a nice convenience, but I don’t think it’s the 200% value convenience the current cost of gems would suggest, especially when for the differential cost of 10 mystic salvage kits, you could buy a new bag slot or a 20-slot bag of your choice.

back in early days, i thought 1 gold was a lot. now as my characters are in their 80s, 1gold is very easy to get. getting 4g is easy by farming orichalcum/omnom with my 3 characters….

that’s me. average player who don’t farm hard. there are players who farm real hard, they earn 100g a day. these people bought the gems in masses, creating demand for the gems.. and hence increasing the price in terms of gold.

also, i sense ANET would love it if the price continue soaring up, because more people will buys their gems and convert it to gold if there is high enough return. yes we know they say gems price are balanced by player demand, but we do not for surely know how far ANET involvement in determing the price….

It’s fair, it doesn’t seem artificial to me, considering the gold inflation. Let’s face it, gold is easier to get, there is a lot more gold in the game at the moment then it was when gems were cheap. And it can only go up, unless people abandon the game.

When i first reached level 80 i had less then 10g to my name and had for long time after that, now 10 gold it’s easy to get in 1-2 days.

I’ve spend about 120 gold on gems in the last week, still turning it into a decent profit, so in that light i can’t say they are too expensive yet. Also i’m pretty sure in a few more months they will cost even than now.

New players and casuals are the ones that no longer have the option to buy gems with ig gold. They simply cannot afford it nor can they start saving for b/c the price will rise quicker then they can keep up with (given not lucky of tp player). To them it’s not fair. For all of us who have played from start or that play too much…yeah it’s probably fair. Tbh I’m not worried bout us…we have the luxury of choice…they however do not.

azizul.8469:

back in early days, i thought 1 gold was a lot. now as my characters are in their 80s, 1gold is very easy to get. getting 4g is easy by farming orichalcum/omnom with my 3 characters….

Hmm… we seem to have the opposite problem. When the game was released, I just played the game and had fun and saved enough to buy a bank slot and a couple of character slots. I didn’t have to try to farm. The gold came naturally from regular play.

Now it’s harder for me to scrap together enough gold to convert to gems. I can make a little money from dungeon/fractal runs. But the time/effort invested to equal the same buying power seems a lot steeper.

I’m not trying to complain, just making an observation.

I would just like to point out that, thanks to the collections tab for crafting materials, there is more then enough bag and bank space out of the box to make it through the game comfortably. It becomes even easier on your second character, when you can craft/purchase 20 slot bags for every available bag slot.

Every gem purchase is cosmetic or convenience. The game is perfectly playable without spending a dime more of your money.

Avatara.1042:

It is a courtesy allowing players who do not want to spend real money BAG AND BANK SPACE? These things should NEVER have cost gems, as they are key parts of any MMO.

Yeah, empathy is dead.

I am one of the people that is very, very grateful that you need gems to buy vault & bank space. Seems odd, but guess what… that is what keeps this game free for you and me.

You can’t have it all: you can not have a game where players do not pay for subscription AND players do not pay for pay-to-win item AND players do not pay for convenience items.

Somewhere, someone has to pay the bill.

Anet decided that the game would not have a subscripion (unlike WoW, Eve…) nor have pay-to-win items (unlike LOTRO, SWTOR…). So, the players pay the bill with convenience items.

I find that totally acceptable.

And on top of that, Anet also decided that if you do not want to pay with dollars for your convenience items, you can pay with gold! Exactly how free do you want games to get?

I agree, I was amazed you could buy gems for gold to start with.and near in mind nothing you NEED is on the bltc its stuff you WANT therefore it does not stop anyone’s progress

Tallis.5607:

………..

Anet decided that the game would not have a subscripion (unlike WoW, Eve…) nor have pay-to-win items (unlike LOTRO, SWTOR…). So, the players pay the bill with convenience items.
…………..

just a bit of off-topic, but LOTRO pay-to-win now ? i played LOTRO before GW2, and not remember which part of it is pay-to-win… all i remember is all the uber item there you can earn in game…. LOTRO is even a generous game in which you can earn the Turbine point needed to spend in the cash shop in-game by completing deeds, and those deeds are repeatable with different characters (usually people grind with new alt….)

Its not worth buying gems with gold now. The prices are horrible lol 1g=40 gems? Not everyone is rich lol.

I think it would help if Anet just reduce the tax on selling gems. You currently get around 70% of the buying value, so I feel something closer to 85-90% would encourage more gem to gold conversion, thus lowering the price to buy them.

Actually make it 100% why should there be a tax on spending your money for a vertual item in the first place, then it would only be a matter of whether somone wanted to spend rm or not. And then maebe I could afford to spend some gold on gems.

100% would be amazing.

I would just buy 200 G worth of gems, which in turn drives the gems to gold conversion up. I’d sell my 200G worth of gems for 210 G which drives the gold to gems conversion back down. Then I’d buy 210G worth of gems which in turn drives the gems to gold conversion up. I’d sell my 210G worth of gems for 220 G which drives the gold to gems conversion back down. Then I’d buy 220G worth of gems which in turn drives the gems to gold conversion up. I’d sell my 220G worth of gems for 240 G which drives the gold to gems conversion back down.

100% is a terrible idea and there is a solid reason for the existence of a tax.