Guild Wars 2

I’ve just come back to the game since launch, noticed how horribly small the personal bank is, so wanted to save all the gold I earned to buy some more slots. little did I know my 2 gold when I started a few weeks back got me more gems then my 20g does now!!!

I’m no economist or anything but surely theirs some way to curb and slow this huge inflation in price, soon their will be no point to a currency exchange due to the prices becoming too high. opinions on how this inflation could be slowed or solved would be good to hear, or just general feedback:)

MAUS HOUS.8047:

I’ve just come back to the game since launch, noticed how horribly small the personal bank is, so wanted to save all the gold I earned to buy some more slots. little did I know my 2 gold when I started a few weeks back got me more gems then my 20g does now!!!

I’m no economist or anything but surely theirs some way to curb and slow this huge inflation in price, soon their will be no point to a currency exchange due to the prices becoming too high. opinions on how this inflation could be slowed or solved would be good to hear, or just general feedback:)

It’s not inflation, it’s an exchange rate.

People buy gems with gold, which reducing the number of gems available for others to buy. This causes the price per gem to increase because there are now less gems available.

Buying gems with gold is a perk, you are supposed to buy them with real money in order to keep the game running since there is no subscription every month.

Also, as the rate climbs, it becomes more attractive to buy gems and convert them to gold which would slow/reverse the exchange rate growth.

The main reason for gold → gem inflation is that gem → gold is not very popular. most people that buy gems with $$ use it to buy gem store stuff, which does not decrease the conversion rate. In effect, gold → gem will be whatever people are willing to pay for it. About a month ago I predicted it would get up to 14g = 100 gems on May 1, 2014. Looking at the recent increase in price, that is likely to happen sooner than that.

2g now is noting you see :P
with the new dung rewards i make 5-6 from full ac run (only rewards no drops)

it IS Inflation

we have to much gold ingame – we had inflation when ppl farmed CoF all day and now after all this farmevents and with this rly stupid championfarm its over the top

months ago 5g or 10g was something – now 50-100g is nothing and easy farmed and so everyone has enough money for gems

arenanet has to stop championfarm and bring more goldsinks

Romek.4201:

it IS Inflation

we have to much gold ingame – we had inflation when ppl farmed CoF all day and now after all this farmevents and with this rly stupid championfarm its over the top

months ago 5g or 10g was something – now 50-100g is nothing and easy farmed and so everyone has enough money for gems

arenanet has to stop championfarm and bring more goldsinks

They nerfed the gold drops from champ bags and ascended armor (as well as jeweller and cook) will be live soon and be a gold sink via tp.

Romek.4201:

it IS Inflation

we have to much gold ingame – we had inflation when ppl farmed CoF all day and now after all this farmevents and with this rly stupid championfarm its over the top

months ago 5g or 10g was something – now 50-100g is nothing and easy farmed and so everyone has enough money for gems

arenanet has to stop championfarm and bring more goldsinks

Buying gems with gold IS a goldsink…

Don’t know how you guys can say making 80-100 gold is easy, but I seriously want to say you are part of the problem.

i don’t farm much but i have to agree gold are easy to get nowadays….

on average i get 30g++ when i farm…..

Madora.9340:

Don’t know how you guys can say making 80-100 gold is easy, but I seriously want to say you are part of the problem.

Because gold is ungodly easy to come across in this game if you don’t kitten it away on little stuff.

Romek.4201:

arenanet has to stop championfarm and bring more goldsinks

Why would they do that when the current situation promotes using RL $ to buy gems? You can debate whether the current situation is intentional or not, but the only people this hurts is those that want gems from gold and what incentive does ANet have to assist those players? You can paint ANet as a huge greedy, money hungry monster, but the fact remains that their only viable income (beyond new game sales) is RL $ spent on Gems. They HAVE to make money to maintain the game.

Don’t know how you guys can say making 80-100 gold is easy, but I seriously want to say you are part of the problem.

Have you ever considered that the same could be said for those players that have never spent any RL $ on gems? (no doubt some of these are the same players).

Brother Grimm.5176:

Madora.9340:

Don’t know how you guys can say making 80-100 gold is easy, but I seriously want to say you are part of the problem.

Have you ever considered that the same could be said for those players that have never spent any RL $ on gems? (no doubt some of these are the same players).

Yup. Guilty* as charged Your Honour!

*I have voted about the content of the gem store with my closed wallet. Give me reasonably priced armour skins in parts (I’ll even still bite at 200 gems per body slot), or non-ridiculously-animated permanent harvesting tools and my wallet will open.

According to GW2Spidy the exchange rate increased by a ridiculous 1g just on the 13th of November. What exactly happened that day? Did someone suddenly decided to spend thousands of golds and turn them into gems?

CursedPanther.7851:

According to GW2Spidy the exchange rate increased by a ridiculous 1g just on the 13th of November. What exactly happened that day? Did someone suddenly decided to spend thousands of golds and turn them into gems?

Kasmeer/Marjory’s weapons, and account-bound unlimited harvesting tools came out.

CursedPanther.7851:

According to GW2Spidy the exchange rate increased by a ridiculous 1g just on the 13th of November. What exactly happened that day? Did someone suddenly decided to spend thousands of golds and turn them into gems?

Economics happened. As Ursan stated, yummy stuff was released on the Gem Store, thus increasing the Demand for Gems.

And it’s worthwhile noting that while gem prices may settle a bit after the initial demand surge, it never quite returns to the level it was before. Therefore we can expect to see prices for gems continue to climb in the months ahead. This is most likely a testament to people’s ability to earn gold in game; people who are perfectly fine with spending cash for gems, like me, are more likely to simply buy enough gems to get what we want, and not convert any excess to gold.

Buying Gems with Gold will always be more desirable, thus the reason why the exchange rates will always rise.

I haven’t invested much time into understanding the economics of this game.

By gathering from the posts of this thread, does it mean that there are only a limited amount of gems available at any one time thus results in the constantly increasing cost? I’ve always thought that virtual currencies can be generated whenever they are required.

That is correct. The Currency Exchange works as follows:

1. When it was originally released, the Exchange was stocked with a large amount of gems. People buying gems with gold would put gold into the exchange and remove some gems, while people buying gold with gems did the opposite.

2. Over time, many more players preferred to buy gems with gold, while the number of people buying gold with gems has remained small. This has resulted in the amount of gold in the exchange increasing, and the number of gems decreasing.

3. Thus, with less gems available, the gold price for them increases, but no new gems are added to the exchange unless more players buy them with cash and exchange them for gold. Until the ratio of players who are willing to spend cash for gems increases to match the people willing to spend gold on gems, the gold price for gems will only continue to increase.

Some additional information:

- Gems spent in the gem store are NOT added to the exchange. When gems are spent at the gem store, they are destroyed.

- There is a tax on players buying gems with gold. That’s why it costs 7g to buy 100 gems at the moment, but selling 100 gems would only give back 5g. This exists both as a gold sink, and also to discourage players using the exchange like a real life currency exchange where they could potentially profit by buying gems and then selling them again when the price fluctuated.

So ANet has no plans on refilling the gems in the exchange whatsoever? I reckon players who are willing to spend real money on gems will always be the minority unless there is something worthwhile to attract more transactions.

Some of you say things will eventually reach the point which players will be made to finally ‘feel’ like spending real money on gems so to balance out the exchange rate. When will that day ever come? And how broken will the exchange rate be then? It certainly won’t be attracting new players to stock up on gems too.

The way I see it is this will only hurt the sale/exchange of gems and render gold obsolete if things are to follow the same path. I believe most of us are clearheaded enough not to waste hundreds of dollars of our hard earned cash in order to help stabilizing some virtual economy of a game. Don’t forget we also have an actual inflation to take care of in our world.

Yes, at some point if things don’t change the exchange can run out of gems and that last batch will go for astronomical price. Conversely a player selling gems at that point can make beau coup gold.

Behellagh.1468:

Yes, at some point if things don’t change the exchange can run out of gems and that last batch will go for astronomical price. Conversely a player selling gems at that point can make beau coup gold.

Don’t forget most players get gems to buy items in the store, not for investment nor speculation purposes. Those gems are gone for good. With ANet regularly releases new items in the store, it’s just a matter of time when things go outta hand.

By the way, the price has risen by 2.1g just for the last 30 days. That’s 36.5% for crying out loud. And an overall +2762% since the game’s release!

Anet does not restock Gems into the Exchange. Players like me who buy Gems with real money, then trade the Gems for Gold slowly help to resupply the Gem count. But there will always be more players buying Gems with Gold. As this game ages, so too does player wealth. More disposable Gold on the player end means constant rising exchange rates.

Slowly, as there’s less and less Gems in the pot, rates will get higher and higher. At the point there it becomes too costly for players to buy Gems with Gold, the other player types will jump in and by Gold with their Gems. Rates then inch back down until players decide to buy Gems with Gold again. Thus continuing the cycle.

While it’s possible for Gems to run out in the pot, chances are that will not happen. Players who have disposable Gems will always exist.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Players like me who buy Gems with real money, then trade the Gems for Gold slowly help to resupply the Gem count.

This explains so much. No wonder your stance toward the game is like so.

CursedPanther.7851:

Behellagh.1468:

Yes, at some point if things don’t change the exchange can run out of gems and that last batch will go for astronomical price. Conversely a player selling gems at that point can make beau coup gold.

Don’t forget most players get gems to buy items in the store, not for investment nor speculation purposes. Those gems are gone for good. With ANet regularly releases new items in the store, it’s just a matter of time when things go outta hand.

By the way, the price has risen by 2.1g just for the last 30 days. That’s 36.5% for crying out loud. And an overall +2762% since the game’s release!

I don’t think that’s quite the way it works. From this thread: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/bltc/Help-I-don-t-understand-gem-supply-concept/page/1

John Smith.4610:

John Smith.4610:

As a quick aside. Gems in the currency exchange are finite. You may buy gems with real money to your hearts content, but if you don’t put any of them gems into the currency exchange the currency exchange’s stock of gems never changes.

John Smith.4610:

Think of it this way. The government can print as much money as they want, that doesn’t mean your bank account has access to that money. The currency exchange does not have access to gem creation. It has a limited stock that players add and subtract from.

I take this to mean that when Gems are purchased with $$ they are created out of thin air. If you buy gold with gems, the gems are added to the exchanges.

When you buy gems with gold, the gems are removed from the exchange. When you spend those gems in the store, the gems are destroyed.

Edit: The gold / gems exchange rate is probably a function of the number of gems in the exchange.

I think the only real problem is transfers to t1 servers. It happens non stop because people want to stay on winning side, and if you are on winning server you make tons of money. So basically those people don’t care for exchange rate, just pay wathever it costs, and drive up the gems price. Peope interested in cash shop items are a minotiry in my opinion. It was by far not this bad when the 1 year sale was, and then the shop had way more interesting items.

The only high gem cost, high demand service that keeps upping the rate has to be transfers.

Phoebe Ascension.8437:

I think the only real problem is transfers to t1 servers. It happens non stop because people want to stay on winning side, and if you are on winning server you make tons of money. So basically those people don’t care for exchange rate, just pay wathever it costs, and drive up the gems price. Peope interested in cash shop items are a minotiry in my opinion. It was by far not this bad when the 1 year sale was, and then the shop had way more interesting items.

The only high gem cost, high demand service that keeps upping the rate has to be transfers.

In my experience, the amound of gold generated from WvW is a fraction of the Gold generated from… anywhere else (except sPvP).

But, yes, people using gold to buy gems to transfer certainly would drive up the exchange rate.

Gasoline.2570:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Players like me who buy Gems with real money, then trade the Gems for Gold slowly help to resupply the Gem count.

This explains so much. No wonder your stance toward the game is like so.

Indeed. I love this game, bugs and all. I support NCSoft, through Anet, because I like their product. And with the way the system is, without people like me who spend real money on Gems, other players couldn’t enjoy being able to trade in game currency for Gems for free.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Indeed. I love this game, bugs and all. I support NCSoft, through Anet, because I like their product. And with the way the system is, without people like me who spend real money on Gems, other players couldn’t enjoy being able to trade in game currency for Gems for free.

Thank you for your dedication and support. You allow us to play a great service for almost free.

Ursan.7846:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Indeed. I love this game, bugs and all. I support NCSoft, through Anet, because I like their product. And with the way the system is, without people like me who spend real money on Gems, other players couldn’t enjoy being able to trade in game currency for Gems for free.

Thank you for your dedication and support. You allow us to play a great service for almost free.

If I could gift you Gems, I would, since you’re one of my top 3 favorite forum posters.

You guys are very cute.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Gasoline.2570:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Players like me who buy Gems with real money, then trade the Gems for Gold slowly help to resupply the Gem count.

This explains so much. No wonder your stance toward the game is like so.

Indeed. I love this game, bugs and all. I support NCSoft, through Anet, because I like their product. And with the way the system is, without people like me who spend real money on Gems, other players couldn’t enjoy being able to trade in game currency for Gems for free.

I buy my gems too, but I don’t put gems back into the system, it isn’t worth the gold and people don’t seem too keen on understanding that basic concept. However, when it’s about 20 gold per 100, I’ll consider it.

Gasoline.2570:

You guys are very cute.

I find you adorable as well. Very cuddly.

just be grateful that they provide a mean to purchase gems via gold…

just pray that they will not take that facility out like the Runes of Magic, when they stopped the Diamond (their currency for cash shop) from being tradeable at auction house….

Madora.9340:

I buy my gems too, but I don’t put gems back into the system, it isn’t worth the gold and people don’t seem too keen on understanding that basic concept. However, when it’s about 20 gold per 100, I’ll consider it.

I’m much the same. Whenever there’s been something in the gem store that I really wanted, I got out the credit card, bought gems, and spent it immediately. Thus far I haven’t actually bought gems to convert to gold; the exchange rate is currently at the point where I would consider it (100 gems to 5g), but at the current rate of inflation (? Not sure if that’d be the correct term for this), I think I’m going to wait till it hits 100 gems to 10g. That day will henceforth be known as “Zaxares gets his Emperor title” day.

There’s actually 3 distinct player groups at work here:

A. Players who convert gold to gems and never spend a single $ on gems. (Ursan, and most other GW2 players, is in this group.)
B. Players who purchase gems with $ and convert it to gold. (Smooth Penguin is in this group. There was also another guy, Geomancer, I think, some months ago who converted LARGE amounts of gems to gold on a monthly basis.)
C. Players who purchase gems with $, but spend the gems directly in the gem store. (Me and Madora are in this group.)

If you want the exchange rate of gold to gems to improve, what you really need is more people from Group C going to Group B, since we obviously have the disposable income to spare, but currently do not see the exchange rate as “in our favour” enough to pad our coffers.

Otherwise, what will happen is that players from Group A will either stop buying gem store items once the exchange rate becomes too unfavourable, or they move to Group C because the time invested to earn gold to trade to gems is less appealing than just spending the money directly on gems.

TooBz.3065:

CursedPanther.7851:

Behellagh.1468:

Yes, at some point if things don’t change the exchange can run out of gems and that last batch will go for astronomical price. Conversely a player selling gems at that point can make beau coup gold.

Don’t forget most players get gems to buy items in the store, not for investment nor speculation purposes. Those gems are gone for good. With ANet regularly releases new items in the store, it’s just a matter of time when things go outta hand.

By the way, the price has risen by 2.1g just for the last 30 days. That’s 36.5% for crying out loud. And an overall +2762% since the game’s release!

I don’t think that’s quite the way it works. From this thread: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/bltc/Help-I-don-t-understand-gem-supply-concept/page/1

Not the way what works? Cuz all evidence is pointing out the gem supply is dwindling fast.

My prediction is that eventually gem prices will reach a point where you cannot reasonably afford them through normal play. Only those who do things outside of normal game-play, such as investing in items and using exploits, will be able to afford a fair amount of gems for the time they spent in-game.

So far this has happened in every MMO I’ve seen, even in those FTP games which don’t support this sort of system if you look at trade rates of in-game currency for cash shop currency items/cards, and I don’t expect GW2 to be an exception.

Bri.8354:

My prediction is that eventually gem prices will reach a point where you cannot reasonably afford them through normal play. Only those who do things outside of normal game-play, such as investing in items and using exploits, will be able to afford a fair amount of gems for the time they spent in-game.

So far this has happened in every MMO I’ve seen, even in those FTP games which don’t support this sort of system if you look at trade rates of in-game currency for cash shop currency items/cards, and I don’t expect GW2 to be an exception.

At which point the hope is players will have been weened off of the gold to gem exchange and accept buying gems with cash. Hopefully by then ANet will solve their problem with buying gems online since it appears as frustration free as an IRS audit or signing up for health insurance. Thank ANet that stores in my area carry Gem cards if I ever feel the need to buy one.

there will be time where 1g = 1gem.

azizul.8469:

there will be time where 1g = 1gem.

Many Shuvs and Zuuls knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of the Slor that day, I can tell you!

CursedPanther.7851:

TooBz.3065:

CursedPanther.7851:

Behellagh.1468:

Yes, at some point if things don’t change the exchange can run out of gems and that last batch will go for astronomical price. Conversely a player selling gems at that point can make beau coup gold.

Don’t forget most players get gems to buy items in the store, not for investment nor speculation purposes. Those gems are gone for good. With ANet regularly releases new items in the store, it’s just a matter of time when things go outta hand.

By the way, the price has risen by 2.1g just for the last 30 days. That’s 36.5% for crying out loud. And an overall +2762% since the game’s release!

I don’t think that’s quite the way it works. From this thread: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/bltc/Help-I-don-t-understand-gem-supply-concept/page/1

Not the way what works? Cuz all evidence is pointing out the gem supply is dwindling fast.

Yep. Sorry, I misunderstood your post. My bad.

While the gold / gems ratio is out of hand for the people who buy gems with gold, the gems / gold ratio is too low for people who spend cash.

Small amounts of Gold (4-10g range) is easy enough to earn in game. So if you want to convert gems to gold you are after something bigger.

And I’m certainly not spending $176 for a precursor or $500 on Twilight.

But it use to be $1500-2000 on Twilight a year ago. The point being the cash price is dropping faster than the price is inflating. The two exchange rates are locked to one another so as the gold to gem shoots up due to the decrease in gem supply in the exchange, the gem to gold rate also rises just as quick.

I personally will only ever convert gems to gold if I had a very specific reason to do so, for example buying an pre-cursor. It makes no sense for me to convert real cash to gems purely out of investment.

defrule.7236:

I personally will only ever convert gems to gold if I had a very specific reason to do so, for example buying an pre-cursor. It makes no sense for me to convert real cash to gems purely out of investment.

Of course not. It’s not about investing, it’s solely about acquiring things.

Behellagh.1468:

azizul.8469:

there will be time where 1g = 1gem.

Many Shuvs and Zuuls knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of the Slor that day, I can tell you!

You get +1 just for the Ghostbusters reference.