Guild Wars 2

As someone who has spent hundreds of dollars on gems (and will continue to do so), I can tell you that the gem > gold exchange rate is still too low to make it worth it, so there are plenty of people like me who won’t convert gems to gold and just use the gems for expansion slots and RNG boxes and whatever else is on sale. A reasonable rate for me would be around 5g per 100 gems. Right now if we were to convert gems to gold we’d get a little over half that, around ~2.7g per 100 gems. $10 would get me a little less than 22g, which is what, the price of 8 charged lodestones? Lolol no thanks.

The gold price for gems will continue to rise until such time as us real money spenders see it’s worth it to convert gems to gold.

John Smith.4610:

The exchange is far from a mystery, if you take what you know of how it works, and applying knowledge of MMO life cycles in both game and economy, everything you want to know becomes pretty clear.

…such as Gold Farms some people were doing since the first month of release, being shut down once everyone starts doing it

Cycles are fun. Even the 2nd or 4th time around (for those of us who have been playing since prophecies) …b/c we get to watch everyone else fall into them.

PS: “unfunflation” aside, I agree with that guy ^above^ … they should really be closer to 5g by now and the fact it spikes down about 15% every week on Friday during the big Reset, suggests something else unexpected keeps happening (ghost in the machine?)

One wonders what the “Desirability Vs Attainability” curve equations would do if it was 5g?

Gems will get there. As John’s comment cryptically said, over the life cycle of an MMO the total amount of in-game currency simply rises. Whether it’s because more people are playing and generating gold, or the game becomes easier for those playing, or they introduce more / better / easier ways to make gold: it doesn’t matter. More people have more gold now than when the game came out. Therefore, gem prices are higher (or worse – however you want to look at it).

The one constant is that if you look at the graph of gold for gems over time, it pretty much just goes up. Slowly, but up. Eventually, 100 gems will get you 5 gold. It may be two years, but it will get there (barring a massive change in how the game is run).

The problem is, if the conversion rate is 100 gems = 5g two years from now, 5g might be worth the same as 2.7g is worth today, so we might want 10g for our 100 gems then. The amount of gold is not as relevant as how much in-game ‘stuff’ we can buy with 100 gems.

lcpdragonslayer.7895:

The problem is, if the conversion rate is 100 gems = 5g two years from now, 5g might be worth the same as 2.7g is worth today, so we might want 10g for our 100 gems then. The amount of gold is not as relevant as how much in-game ‘stuff’ we can buy with 100 gems.

Which is exactly as it should work. If you could get everything in the game by spending 10 bucks on the gem store, Anet would be bankrupt in a year.

lcpdragonslayer.7895:

As someone who has spent hundreds of dollars on gems (and will continue to do so), I can tell you that the gem > gold exchange rate is still too low to make it worth it, so there are plenty of people like me who won’t convert gems to gold and just use the gems for expansion slots and RNG boxes and whatever else is on sale. A reasonable rate for me would be around 5g per 100 gems. Right now if we were to convert gems to gold we’d get a little over half that, around ~2.7g per 100 gems. $10 would get me a little less than 22g, which is what, the price of 8 charged lodestones? Lolol no thanks.

The gold price for gems will continue to rise until such time as us real money spenders see it’s worth it to convert gems to gold.

My opinion exactly. Currently gems aren’t priced right, which means I simply don’t convert. Didn’t convert a single gem yet. Maybe if the price rose a bit more.

marnick.4305:

lcpdragonslayer.7895:

As someone who has spent hundreds of dollars on gems (and will continue to do so), I can tell you that the gem > gold exchange rate is still too low to make it worth it, so there are plenty of people like me who won’t convert gems to gold and just use the gems for expansion slots and RNG boxes and whatever else is on sale. A reasonable rate for me would be around 5g per 100 gems. Right now if we were to convert gems to gold we’d get a little over half that, around ~2.7g per 100 gems. $10 would get me a little less than 22g, which is what, the price of 8 charged lodestones? Lolol no thanks.

The gold price for gems will continue to rise until such time as us real money spenders see it’s worth it to convert gems to gold.

My opinion exactly. Currently gems aren’t priced right, which means I simply don’t convert. Didn’t convert a single gem yet. Maybe if the price rose a bit more.

You obviously didn’t read the posts above. It doesn’t matter how much gold you get by selling gems. The purchasing power of that gold will still remain approximately the same, except for fixed cost items such as commander icon, etc. vendor sold items.

The gold > gem convertion rate is not nececarily wrong. Whats wrong is like what the OP initially mentioned. Stuff like bank slot expansions, new character slots and even the infinite harvesting tools are worth that kind of money, wich cause the gems to reach that convertion rate.

The problem is that smaller scale items, like boosters and kite fortunes for example, are ridiculously expensive now and simply not even close to worth buying.

The issue is not the gold > gem convertion rate, wich is controlled by players. The issue is the pricetags on certain items, wich is controlled by arenanet/ncsoft.

And my point in comparing it to the prices of similar items at another MMO’s cash shop shows they cost less in GW2 than Turbine games. Didn’t look at PWE or Nexon pricing.

Scyte.2801:

The gold > gem convertion rate is not nececarily wrong. Whats wrong is like what the OP initially mentioned. Stuff like bank slot expansions, new character slots and even the infinite harvesting tools are worth that kind of money, wich cause the gems to reach that convertion rate.

The problem is that smaller scale items, like boosters and kite fortunes for example, are ridiculously expensive now and simply not even close to worth buying.

The issue is not the gold > gem convertion rate, wich is controlled by players. The issue is the pricetags on certain items, wich is controlled by arenanet/ncsoft.

The price tags set by ANet is in terms of gems. But the gem prices have never changed and the primary market of gems is real money->gems. This is the only money they ever see. The price of gems in the secondary market is completely irrelevant to their pricing decisions because that is determined between players trading their gems.

This is like complaining to Apple that the stock market is valuing their stocks too high. It has nothing to do with them other than they are releasing products make their stocks more valuable. Let’s pretend everytime they issue new stocks, they sell them for 100 dollars. On the stock market, they are trading at $1000. Apple only ever receives $100 on the sale of each stock and whatever price it is traded at after the sale is irrelevant.

If this keeps up, it might even crash a bit once COF is no longer gold gen central…

Tom Gore.4035:

lcpdragonslayer.7895:

The problem is, if the conversion rate is 100 gems = 5g two years from now, 5g might be worth the same as 2.7g is worth today, so we might want 10g for our 100 gems then. The amount of gold is not as relevant as how much in-game ‘stuff’ we can buy with 100 gems.

Which is exactly as it should work. If you could get everything in the game by spending 10 bucks on the gem store, Anet would be bankrupt in a year.

I’m sorry, but are you saying that we can get everything in the game with 21.6g? I’m not asking for 216g with USD$10, but I’m asking for something reasonable, which at my imaginary figure of 5g would be 40g. I would be quite happy to regularly convert 800 gems to 40g. At the rate it is now, I’m not the only one who’s looking at the conversion chart going lololno.

lcpdragonslayer.7895:

Tom Gore.4035:

lcpdragonslayer.7895:

The problem is, if the conversion rate is 100 gems = 5g two years from now, 5g might be worth the same as 2.7g is worth today, so we might want 10g for our 100 gems then. The amount of gold is not as relevant as how much in-game ‘stuff’ we can buy with 100 gems.

Which is exactly as it should work. If you could get everything in the game by spending 10 bucks on the gem store, Anet would be bankrupt in a year.

I’m sorry, but are you saying that we can get everything in the game with 21.6g? I’m not asking for 216g with USD$10, but I’m asking for something reasonable, which at my imaginary figure of 5g would be 40g. I would be quite happy to regularly convert 800 gems to 40g. At the rate it is now, I’m not the only one who’s looking at the conversion chart going lololno.

You don’t seem to get it. Let me explain again.

In terms of real money vs. purchasing power within the game, the ratio will always be “unfavorable” for you, unless you consider items that are fixed price in-game (for example Icy Runestones). It is quite certain that at some point, you will get 40g for 800 gems, but at that point prices have again inflated so that when purchasing stuff from the TP, your 800 gems will buy you the same amount of stuff it will get you right now.

Tom Gore.4035:

lcpdragonslayer.7895:

Tom Gore.4035:

lcpdragonslayer.7895:

The problem is, if the conversion rate is 100 gems = 5g two years from now, 5g might be worth the same as 2.7g is worth today, so we might want 10g for our 100 gems then. The amount of gold is not as relevant as how much in-game ‘stuff’ we can buy with 100 gems.

Which is exactly as it should work. If you could get everything in the game by spending 10 bucks on the gem store, Anet would be bankrupt in a year.

I’m sorry, but are you saying that we can get everything in the game with 21.6g? I’m not asking for 216g with USD$10, but I’m asking for something reasonable, which at my imaginary figure of 5g would be 40g. I would be quite happy to regularly convert 800 gems to 40g. At the rate it is now, I’m not the only one who’s looking at the conversion chart going lololno.

You don’t seem to get it. Let me explain again.

In terms of real money vs. purchasing power within the game, the ration will always be “unfavorable” for you, unless you consider items that are fixed price in-game (for example Icy Runestones). It is quite certain that at some point, you will get 40g for 800 gems, but at that point prices have again inflated so that when purchasing stuff from the TP, your 800 gems will buy you the same amount of stuff it will get you right now.

If you scroll up and read, I’m the one who explained purchasing power by using the 2 years down the line analogy someone else mentioned, so I understand perfectly what you mean. What I’m saying is that I’m sure I’m not the only one who is not satisfied with the current purchasing power level, so to speak, so people with this ‘what?! 3g for 100 gems is outrageous!’ mentality are only going to see the exchange rate work against their favour.

Alright so we’re on the same page, but then you should understand yourself why the conversion ratio will never be “good enough”.

John Smith.4610:

The exchange is far from a mystery, if you take what you know of how it works, and applying knowledge of MMO life cycles in both game and economy, everything you want to know becomes pretty clear.

Based entirely on your word. The exchange lacks any transparency. It’s not clearly controlled by the player market, unlike CCP’s economy in EVE. There, PLEX value for ISK is determined by players.

Players buy PLEX for a flat rate with RL money.
Players sell/buy PLEX for ISK in a direct exchange with other players.
PLEX converts to aurum at a flat rate for their cash shop.
Aurum buys items from the cash shop, which can be sold to other players on the Noble Exchange for ISK.

It’s a much more transparent system because any direct interaction with the company comes at a flat cost not tainted by RNG, not an adjustable one based on proclaimed.

Calae.1738:

It use to be a lot cheaper in the earlier days. Earning coin was easier until everything was nerfed.

What you’re seeing is people flushing their gold in exchange for gems so that the exchange rate becomes attractive enough for people to exchange real money for gems.

Early on people wanted stuff with Gold, that were not buyable with Gems. Full exotic armor sets, hard to build craftable weapons, etc. Since that point the vast majority of valuable things have been placed via the gem store.

If let’s say they put out some new weapons skins that everyone wants but they are only craftable with rare in game materials, and can be traded on the trading post, suddenly many people will buy gems to convert to gold to get the skins, and the exchange will float back down. It doesn’t have to be an endless rocket ship up, but gold must have unique value to prevent it.

Now, 1g = 27 Gems :S
Since the last 3 week, I have see the gem store increase 1 silver by day. (was 3,11 silver 3 week ago)

I am a new player and I don’t have a lot of gold because right now farming gold by hours is very low and based on pure luck.
I will not buy magic boosters because I will receive less money in 1 hour farming that the price for buying it.

Also. peoples with high achievement point receive gold is a bad move, why not give gems or more skins instead ? This thing destroy the economy right now.

Personally, I will never expense real money for virtual object for video games.

Went down to 26 gems today. It will continue to be low because they toss vanity stuff in the gem shop every two weeks (gem shop is what keeps the game running). Lower gem rate = more people paying with real money. That’s all they care about. Perhaps NCSoft has Smith by his “gems” if you know what I mean, but to say Anet has no control over it is false. Just like much of their claims about the game when it was released. Just something we need to live with

Edit: Got the Johns mixed up again

Being able to buy gems with gold is a luxury, you guys know that right? :P They do actually want real cash to keep the game going. With that said, wish I had converted gold yesterday for my bank tab >.>

CobaltSixty.1542:

Tom Gore.4035:

Fade.7658:

Why anyone spends real life money for gems, I’ll never know. You may be supporting Anet, which in turn, allows them to put out more content, but more often than not, it’s content many people don’t want, poorly implemented (the amount of bugs is astonishing) and Anet still doesn’t seem to listen to it’s customers (the last patch was a step in the right direction, but still too little, too late).

Why anyone spends 2+ hours farming for gold when I can get the same amount by spending pocket change, I’ll never know. Maybe some people actually enjoy running CoF P1 over and over and over again. I don’t.

Yup, I would much rather work for an extra hour and spend that money on gems -> gold (and have plenty left over) than grind away for an hour in game and make a fraction of that amount.

And now we’re getting to a bigger issue – you see, many people from different countries don’t have the income neccesary to easily pay for gems with their money. It’s either because of lower average payment, lower worth of their currency, or a combination of both.

I’m gonna give you an example, that i recently found out about – Average US citizen needs work for around 4 hours to earn enough money for a moderately priced new game. But, for example, average Polish citizen would have to work for over 16 hours to get the same game.

You see where i’m getting at? 10 Euro in your country maybe pocket change, but in mine it’s actually quite a lot. And this is also partially a problem for ANet/NCSoft, since they could’ve earned a lot more money if the prices were adjusted for every region, because i bet my kitten off many people from poorer countries would’ve wanted to get their chance. But they don’t since middle class here = lower class in US/UK etc.

Boobr.1678:

And now we’re getting to a bigger issue – you see, many people from different countries don’t have the income neccesary to easily pay for gems with their money. It’s either because of lower average payment, lower worth of their currency, or a combination of both.

I think people who cannot afford to spend 10 bucks/euros a month or more on a videogame should really re-think what they are spending their time on.

Hint: It isn’t sitting and playing a videogame.

Boobr.1678:

CobaltSixty.1542:

Tom Gore.4035:

Fade.7658:

Why anyone spends real life money for gems, I’ll never know. You may be supporting Anet, which in turn, allows them to put out more content, but more often than not, it’s content many people don’t want, poorly implemented (the amount of bugs is astonishing) and Anet still doesn’t seem to listen to it’s customers (the last patch was a step in the right direction, but still too little, too late).

Why anyone spends 2+ hours farming for gold when I can get the same amount by spending pocket change, I’ll never know. Maybe some people actually enjoy running CoF P1 over and over and over again. I don’t.

Yup, I would much rather work for an extra hour and spend that money on gems -> gold (and have plenty left over) than grind away for an hour in game and make a fraction of that amount.

And now we’re getting to a bigger issue – you see, many people from different countries don’t have the income neccesary to easily pay for gems with their money. It’s either because of lower average payment, lower worth of their currency, or a combination of both.

I’m gonna give you an example, that i recently found out about – Average US citizen needs work for around 4 hours to earn enough money for a moderately priced new game. But, for example, average Polish citizen would have to work for over 16 hours to get the same game.

You see where i’m getting at? 10 Euro in your country maybe pocket change, but in mine it’s actually quite a lot. And this is also partially a problem for ANet/NCSoft, since they could’ve earned a lot more money if the prices were adjusted for every region, because i bet my kitten off many people from poorer countries would’ve wanted to get their chance. But they don’t since middle class here = lower class in US/UK etc.

This suggestion would actually only be fair if they then also balanced the amount of gold you got per server (depending on where it’s based) so that if your gem store prices go down, so does the amount of gold that you can farm. This would be impossible since we only have NA and EU servers, so ANet can’t differentiate by country per server.

You also forget that there are ridiculously rich people and ridiculously poor people in every country – it’s not as simple as saying £10 for you is like £100 for me. You don’t know that at all. And people prioritize where they will spend their money and how much etc. It’s just not as simple as you seem to think it is.

The gems should cost the same per country, as should the gold value across servers. I’m not saying I don’t think there are overpriced items in the gem store, of course there are, but that is irrelevant to your point.