Guild Wars 2

IRL there’s a big economic crisis, and in GW2 people complain about people playing the market. In fact, I have the idea that people are copying something they only heard recently about but which existed for ages. In Vanilla WoW the pristine hide of the Beast was the most expensive thing for over 1000g. Usually only 1 or 2 on the AH. People played the AH and it was considered legitimate, no one complained.

In GW1 there were a lot of powertraders, I was one of them for a while. The profit margins were huge because no one had a clue, there was no central price point such as the TP. I could easily buy stuff and sell it for triple the price some time later. On the other hand, most stuff was dirt cheap, most regular players would never notice the powertrading.

The GW2 TP is even more healthy than the WoW AH because of the bigger pool of players, and because of that, playing the market is far less profitable. Most buy and sell orders are within a few copper and due to the vast volumes, controlling a market is nigh impossible for any item a regular player would be interested in. Actually, a lot of prices see deflation instead of inflation, especially crafting materials are prone to this.

So I wonder. GW2 economy is clearly more healthy than WoW. The inflation rates are under control, most important stuff is dirt cheap. Furthermore, the value of gold is pegged to real currency which further curbs inflation as it is in the best interest of a.net. Complaining about the economy is like complaining a Kanaxai costs stacks of armbraces in GW1. That’s not relevant of 99.9% of the playerbase.

The only reason I can imagine why people complain about the economy, is because stupid bankers made the RL economy go awry. People read words they don’t understand in popular magazines and take that misinformation into the games they play. Suddenly, every powertrader is a bad person.

tl;dr: GW2 economy is very healthy. Don’t let the RL scaremongering get to you ingame.

ahh, that RL crisis .. heard about it in the news. glad its justin the media, must be awfull such a crisis! People just love their crisis, dont they?

I don’t think it has to do with real life issues so much as the differences in game design between WoW and GW2.

In WoW, I spent pretty much all my time raiding and (once they were released) doing dailies. I easily farmed all of my own consumables. Playing the TP never crossed my mind. And I could afford everything I wanted, both in terms of gear and cosmetics. In fact, usable gear actually dropped from dungeons! Yeah, people played the TP and everyone knew it, but it never mattered because you could stay competitive just by playing the game normally.

In GW2, I still refuse to play the TP, because it’s no fun for me. I’ve had to farm relentlessly just to stay kind of acceptable in terms of gear. There are no drops to speak of. Everything has to be farmed or bought with gold. and it seems like the TP is the only way to actually earn it at a reasonable rate. I think that’s why people complain: we bought an RPG, not a stock market simulator. Most of us don’t give a kitten about a healthy game economy; we just want a fun game where playing the actual RPG content we were sold is rewarding. Right now the game doesn’t provide those rewards, and that, perhaps misguidedly, gets taken out on the economy rather than poor game design in other areas.

marnick.4305:

IRL there’s a big economic crisis, and in GW2 people complain about people playing the market. In fact, I have the idea that people are copying something they only heard recently about but which existed for ages. In Vanilla WoW the pristine hide of the Beast was the most expensive thing for over 1000g. Usually only 1 or 2 on the AH. People played the AH and it was considered legitimate, no one complained.

In GW1 there were a lot of powertraders, I was one of them for a while. The profit margins were huge because no one had a clue, there was no central price point such as the TP. I could easily buy stuff and sell it for triple the price some time later. On the other hand, most stuff was dirt cheap, most regular players would never notice the powertrading.

The GW2 TP is even more healthy than the WoW AH because of the bigger pool of players, and because of that, playing the market is far less profitable. Most buy and sell orders are within a few copper and due to the vast volumes, controlling a market is nigh impossible for any item a regular player would be interested in. Actually, a lot of prices see deflation instead of inflation, especially crafting materials are prone to this.

So I wonder. GW2 economy is clearly more healthy than WoW. The inflation rates are under control, most important stuff is dirt cheap. Furthermore, the value of gold is pegged to real currency which further curbs inflation as it is in the best interest of a.net. Complaining about the economy is like complaining a Kanaxai costs stacks of armbraces in GW1. That’s not relevant of 99.9% of the playerbase.

The only reason I can imagine why people complain about the economy, is because stupid bankers made the RL economy go awry. People read words they don’t understand in popular magazines and take that misinformation into the games they play. Suddenly, every powertrader is a bad person.

tl;dr: GW2 economy is very healthy. Don’t let the RL scaremongering get to you ingame.

In GW1 it was impossible for a single person to completely monopolise a single item. There was just no way to be in every district all the time making sure you bought up every last attempt to sell an item below a certain price. This also meant that if you were patient as a casual player you would get the item you wanted at the price you thought was reasonable, as long as you were willing to be patient.

In GW2, the fact that the trading post allows you to set orders for items makes it a trivial task to completely manipulate commodity prices to the point where it’s realistically possible to single-handedly set a price for a commodity, with the only limit being the amount of gold that you have in your bank. Price manipulation can and does happen on a frequent basis, which only hurts players who trade according to need rather than those who trade in order to flip commodities for profit.

Secondly, it was far easier for a person to get completely optimal gear in gw1. The only things that relatively expensive were the elite armours and rare weapon skins. In terms of item potency, there was literally no difference between a purple (rare) or gold (exotic) weapon.

As someone who personally farmed several hundred ectos in gw1, along with purchasing a tormented weapon or two and other items that cost in excess of 100g, I find myself having absolutely no motivation to put up with the crummy way the gw2 economy is set up. The 120-150 gold required to purchase something as simple as a triforge pendant, or the mats required to upgrade ascended gear (nevermind the ludicrous prices for precursor weapons…) compared to the slow rate of wealth accumulation through farming makes the grind prohibitive and un-fun.