Guild Wars 2

So with the new release of all the items from flame and frost which is super, yes I want some of those neat dyes as well!
When I went to exchange my gold for gems; 3g will not even get me 100gems… now c’mon.. Isn’t that a little ridiculous? I was a little startled at 1g for 100g but im upset at how high it is now- that means alot of grinding for players who don’t use real money for non- real things.
I get bored fast if I try to get 10g in a few hours. I can imagine that someone will post “oh I can get 10g in ( ) amount of time.” that’s great that you can but maybe I can’t. Im not a hardcore player – very casual so gold comes to me at a slower rate.
I don’t use real cash for game content.
So, basically I have to spend 10g just to get a decent amount of gems? 10g?! That 10g could’ve gone to something better like – legendary gifts bought from Miyani at the mystic forge.
I guess I have to change my tactics and go to old fashioned every other MMO grinding in dungeons.
Does Arena net want this inflation? If so, I think I’ll be done with GW2 in less than 2 more months if it goes any higher.

What are your thoughts on this?

Nope. Not ridiculous at all. Everything is working as intended.

Ursan.7846:

Nope. Not ridiculous at all. Everything is working as intended.

So drive up the prices and make ppl who dont use real money grind much more? yea that plan makes so much sense.
And wheres proof of this intention? I dont mean the gem store prices are high I think they are super- but gold to gem rate is.. just I mean 4g wont even get me 140gems.
I imagine you use your money – Arena net only caters to those ppl any more though.

SnowHawk.3615:

So drive up the prices and make ppl who dont use real money grind much more? yea that plan makes so much sense.
And wheres proof of this intention? I dont mean the gem store prices are high I think they are super- but gold to gem rate is.. just I mean 4g wont even get me 140gems.
I imagine you use your money – Arena net only caters to those ppl any more though.

The ability of the Gem exchange rate to adapt to in-game inflation is an incredibly elegant system.

1. People who don’t like to spend real life money:
Benefits them, because you can use in-game gold to purchase things in the Gem Store. All other games with microtransactions off the top of my head does not have this ability.

2. People who want to convert real-life money to in-game gold
Because it adjusts to in-game inflation, the gems you buy today will be worth the same a year from now, when adjusted for inflation. When the game first came out, 100 gems got you like 20s. If that rate was flat, no one in their right minds would convert Gems to Gold. But because it adjusts to inflation, it keeps people who like to convert money into gold happy.

3. Anet
By allowing it to adjust for inflation, Anet encourages the activity of people #2 over #1, which is important since #2 spends real-money, and #1 doesn’t. If the Gem exchange rate stayed flat, no one in their right mind would purchase gems today, since Gold is so easy to get.

The Gem Exchange Rate which adjusts for in-game inflation is an elegant compromise of the 3 parties above. You’re looking at it from just #1’s perspective.

You could simply wait for the huge influx of cool items to die down and the gem ratio to re-stabalize.

I do agree with the fact we can use the Gems & such to our benefit without a ‘fixed’ rate- gems prices are fine- I do agree its the gold to gem rate that is to high, of course I’d be singing a different tune if I used real $$

I get on less because the item(s) I want went from 115 gold to 400-something.
Whats the point now?

Ursan.7846:

SnowHawk.3615:

So drive up the prices and make ppl who dont use real money grind much more? yea that plan makes so much sense.
And wheres proof of this intention? I dont mean the gem store prices are high I think they are super- but gold to gem rate is.. just I mean 4g wont even get me 140gems.
I imagine you use your money – Arena net only caters to those ppl any more though.

The ability of the Gem exchange rate to adapt to in-game inflation is an incredibly elegant system.

1. People who don’t like to spend real life money:
Benefits them, because you can use in-game gold to purchase things in the Gem Store. All other games with microtransactions off the top of my head does not have this ability.

2. People who want to convert real-life money to in-game gold
Because it adjusts to in-game inflation, the gems you buy today will be worth the same a year from now, when adjusted for inflation. When the game first came out, 100 gems got you like 20s. If that rate was flat, no one in their right minds would convert Gems to Gold. But because it adjusts to inflation, it keeps people who like to convert money into gold happy.

3. Anet
By allowing it to adjust for inflation, Anet encourages the activity of people #2 over #1, which is important since #2 spends real-money, and #1 doesn’t. If the Gem exchange rate stayed flat, no one in their right mind would purchase gems today, since Gold is so easy to get.

The Gem Exchange Rate which adjusts for in-game inflation is an elegant compromise of the 3 parties above. You’re looking at it from just #1’s perspective.

Yea I am, bc that’s the only perspective I can view it on since I dont use real money.
Great for all the real money users- I get that they are the ones bascially driving the market up and up at their leisure and Anet is happy about that.
The only activity I see for #1 is grinding.. now wasn’t Gw2 not supposed to be about that? Oh wait, it is just another MMO. Who am I kidding.

SnowHawk.3615:

Yea I am, bc that’s the only perspective I can view it on since I dont use real money.
Great for all the real money users- I get that they are the ones bascially driving the market up and up at their leisure and Anet is happy about that.
The only activity I see for #1 is grinding.. now wasn’t Gw2 not supposed to be about that? Oh wait, it is just another MMO. Who am I kidding.

Well, you asked what the intent was. That is the intent.

Customers are selfish. They want things cheaper. They want things free. Which is okay. I’m a customer, I’ll love it if gems became cheaper. But then the company must be selfish too, and the two motivations must strike a balance. And all things considered, this is a pretty good compromise.

By the way, they are not driving the exchange rate up “at their leisure.” The exchange is player-driven.

SnowHawk.3615:

Great for all the real money users- I get that they are the ones bascially driving the market up and up at their leisure and Anet is happy about that.

Actually, it’s the folks that are converting gold to gems that are driving the market up. Folks that convert gems to gold bring the price down.

SnowHawk.3615:

What are your thoughts on this?

He’s my thought. Perhaps you should consider converting your Gold to Gems when rates are low? For people who tend to wait to make the conversions until something good in the Gem store shows up, they usually get the short end of the stick. This is because there are a lot of people converting at the same time, thus driving up the amount of Gold needed for each Gem.

Side note: I helped bring the rates back down, since I got some good deals for turning my Gems into Gold.

Geotherma.2395:

You could simply wait for the huge influx of cool items to die down and the gem ratio to re-stabalize.

yea you are right there, but I waited this time around and it only got higher. But it ends april 30th – the flame and frost as it says- and ill wait and see then

Smooth Penguin.5294:

SnowHawk.3615:

What are your thoughts on this?

He’s my thought. Perhaps you should consider converting your Gold to Gems when rates are low? For people who tend to wait to make the conversions until something good in the Gem store shows up, they usually get the short end of the stick. This is because there are a lot of people converting at the same time, thus driving up the amount of Gold needed for each Gem.

Side note: I helped bring the rates back down, since I got some good deals for turning my Gems into Gold.

okies i will definitely wait and see- and hope

My thoughts…….

The gem exchange is set up in a manner conducive to inflate itself. While there are multiple influences that inflate the rate, there is only one counter measure. This is obviously not meant to be balanced or reach some equilibrium. It is meant to keep the inflow of funds trended.

As others have noted there are spikes on the hill. The spikes are not the time to convert gold>gems. However I wouldn’t recommend waiting too long after a spike settles to buy as there will inevitably be another influence coming along to further increase the rates.

I’m going to laugh so hard when the gold to gem ratio gets to 1:1.

Calae.1738:

I’m going to laugh so hard when the gold to gem ratio gets to 1:1.

The day that happens is the day I’m going to get my Emperor’s New Wardrobe achievement.

Actually, it’ll probably happen if it hits a 100 gems for 10 gold exchange rate. That’s my personal breakpoint, although I doubt it’ll happen (if it ever does) for a long time yet.

As the exchange rate increases, due entirely to player actions, it becomes more and more attractive to buy gems for cash. This is desirable to ANet, and us, because that’s how the game stays open.

New content isn’t free. Bug fixes aren’t free. Servers and bandwidth are not free.

I’m currently a cheap kitten like some of you and have yet to buy gems with cash. However if this keeps going, it’ll soon reach a point where I put my money where my character is or go back to single player gaming.

From the thread just above this…

My response is still…

This is all assuming that there’s a government overseeing the economy. I mean…the way some of you describe it, it’s as living as any other economy in the world. Except in the real world, people govern it and watch it. We panic when our “dollar” drop below desirable levels…right?

But nothing is governing anything here. So now the rate exchange has declined more than half?

Awesome…but keep spouting how it’s the norm.

The prices are now more in line with the expectations of people converting gems to gold. They were very much underpriced since launch, I hope you enjoyed it while it lasted.

Hopefully more people will be inclined to convert gems to gold to bring back more gems in the market and lower the rate.

In another thread someone said the new pick works out at costing $10 with current gold to gem prices…don’t know if that’s correct or not…

Would you pay $10 for a vitual pick?

Personally I had a large stash of gems and when the gem price spiked up, sold them for gold , made just over 50g…

Geotherma.2395:

You could simply wait for the huge influx of cool items to die down and the gem ratio to re-stabalize.

Never going to happen.

Take a look:
http://www.gw2spidy.com/gem

It seems whatever happened, happened two days in a row around the same time of the day. First at 9.00 CET yesterday and then at 6.00 CET today. Everything else seems to have happened in response to those two events. Certainly worth a look.

Here first link I found on google, why it’s so “ridiculos” expensive to buy gems now:

http://www.investopedia.com/university/economics/economics3.asp

for the lazy people: Economics Basics: Supply and Demand

FourthVariety.5463:

Take a look:
http://www.gw2spidy.com/gem

It seems whatever happened, happened two days in a row around the same time of the day. First at 9.00 CET yesterday and then at 6.00 CET today. Everything else seems to have happened in response to those two events. Certainly worth a look.

The pickaxe and dye kits were announced on the 15th on the web site. There was planned server maintenance on the 16th.

There’s nothing wrong with the rate. There is someone out there willing to spend more for gems than you do. I don’t think that’s wrong with that and if you don’t like it, then toughluck.

The higher the rate, the more gold for the seller and the more sales for Arenanet. Of course the buyer ‘loses’ out but if you really wanted the item you could just buy it for gems.

I’m curious.

What if they let the gold to gem conversion rate go to say…. 10:1?
1 gold buys 10 gems.
Conversely; buying gems to convert to gold becomes much more attractive.

Suddenly; Arenanet decides to release new items and content that is purchased only with gold. What would you think of their business practices if this happens?

Calae.1738:

Suddenly; Arenanet decides to release new items and content that is purchased only with gold. What would you think of their business practices if this happens?

There are lots of things in the game that you can only buy with gold – cultural armor springs to mind. I’m not sure I understand your point.

The fluctuation in gold to gems actually works in favor for the player as well. It’s clearly a great investment opportunity. Buy gems low and when big moves like this happen, it becomes very profitable for you to sell them off. Not to mention you’ll have some to spend on the new items too.

munkiman.3068:

The fluctuation in gold to gems actually works in favor for the player as well. It’s clearly a great investment opportunity. Buy gems low and when big moves like this happen, it becomes very profitable for you to sell them off. Not to mention you’ll have some to spend on the new items too.

Well you have to consider the tax. I can’t remember what it was – 20s? 80s?

You’d have to wait a long time for it to rise that high – and if it does, you lose on opportunity cost

currently these rates are in favor to the casuals who work 8-12 hours a day with a limited play time,

its convinient for us to purchase gems and exchange it to gold,

just wait for us to buy and exchange gems to gold, and all will be back to normal,

this scenario always happens when a “new Desirable item is on sale”

(its always easier to do overtime and get overtime pay, then buy gems to gold than to spend hours and hours of game time to get a miniscule amount of gold)

eg. you can farm 10gold per hour (i did read in these forum-topics that you can do that)

but we can do overtime work and earn 32$/hour which equates to roughly 57 gold in this current exchange rate

Vol.5241:

munkiman.3068:

The fluctuation in gold to gems actually works in favor for the player as well. It’s clearly a great investment opportunity. Buy gems low and when big moves like this happen, it becomes very profitable for you to sell them off. Not to mention you’ll have some to spend on the new items too.

Well you have to consider the tax. I can’t remember what it was – 20s? 80s?

You’d have to wait a long time for it to rise that high – and if it does, you lose on opportunity cost

I did early on buy as many gems as i could, with every available ounce of currency i could muster from just playing. I’ve already sold them back when they were in the 1g range, foolishly thinking they couldn’t go much higher. The actual tax is in the disparity between the buy and sell price or around 88s. Given what we’ve seen the rate to escalate to, it’s a pretty safe bet to buy gems at around 2g per 100 (which i did last month) and sit on them till it explodes again. If i would have sold them at peak i’d be making 48s per 100, but this weekend i’m expecting them to hit 3g, quite possibly friday. I might be wrong but either way i have gems to spend at the reduced rate.

kokiman.2364:

Geotherma.2395:

You could simply wait for the huge influx of cool items to die down and the gem ratio to re-stabalize.

Never going to happen.

Revisit my comment in May :P

Geotherma.2395:

kokiman.2364:

Geotherma.2395:

You could simply wait for the huge influx of cool items to die down and the gem ratio to re-stabalize.

Never going to happen.

Revisit my comment in May :P

Well, the huge influx of cool items may or may not die down.

But the ratio will stabilize. The system has to, since going one direction encourages movement the opposite direction. The way the system is constructed, it has to reach an equilibrium as opposed to infinitely increasing.

When we’ll hit it though, we’ll never know.

Ursan.7846:

Geotherma.2395:

kokiman.2364:

Geotherma.2395:

You could simply wait for the huge influx of cool items to die down and the gem ratio to re-stabalize.

Never going to happen.

Revisit my comment in May :P

Well, the huge influx of cool items may or may not die down.

But the ratio will stabilize. The system has to, since going one direction encourages movement the opposite direction. The way the system is constructed, it has to reach an equilibrium as opposed to infinitely increasing.

When we’ll hit it though, we’ll never know.

Like musical chairs, but with gold! That actually would be fun.. to the suggestion forums! lols

As long as people value gold more then real life money the trend will continue. Personally I love it. I get more gold every month due to my fixed $10 a month gem purchase.

Zaxares.5419:

Calae.1738:

I’m going to laugh so hard when the gold to gem ratio gets to 1:1.

The day that happens is the day I’m going to get my Emperor’s New Wardrobe achievement.

Actually, it’ll probably happen if it hits a 100 gems for 10 gold exchange rate. That’s my personal breakpoint, although I doubt it’ll happen (if it ever does) for a long time yet.

If that happens, then it’s ‘bye bye gw2’ for me haha

Chasind.3128:

Zaxares.5419:

Calae.1738:

I’m going to laugh so hard when the gold to gem ratio gets to 1:1.

The day that happens is the day I’m going to get my Emperor’s New Wardrobe achievement.

Actually, it’ll probably happen if it hits a 100 gems for 10 gold exchange rate. That’s my personal breakpoint, although I doubt it’ll happen (if it ever does) for a long time yet.

If that happens, then it’s ‘bye bye gw2’ for me haha

Could you elaborate why? It’d give me more incentive to support the game

Oldgrimm.8521:

but we can do overtime work and earn 32$/hour which equates to roughly 57 gold in this current exchange rate

This is going to be the new exchange rate when I ask for my next raise.

“Boss, I’ve been working my tush off for a few years with no raise. Can I get a bump to around 45/gold an hour?”

Chasind.3128:

Zaxares.5419:

Calae.1738:

I’m going to laugh so hard when the gold to gem ratio gets to 1:1.

The day that happens is the day I’m going to get my Emperor’s New Wardrobe achievement.

Actually, it’ll probably happen if it hits a 100 gems for 10 gold exchange rate. That’s my personal breakpoint, although I doubt it’ll happen (if it ever does) for a long time yet.

If that happens, then it’s ‘bye bye gw2’ for me haha

It would never reach that rate and here’s why i think that (or am actually certain of it). There is a fixed amount of gems which could never exceed the peak ratio and if i were a betting man, i’d bet we might be seeing the peak point or very close to it. People will buy gems, but they will also continue to sell them back, also keeping this plateau somewhat stable. If i had to guess, i would say the peak price points would be 4g per 100 to buy and 3g per 100 to sell (meaning the price disparity at that point is equal to 1g). I wouldn’t doubt that there are a good number of players right now holding on to gems for some peak price point to sell them off at or are waiting for a new harvesting tool, i know i am.

Actually doing the math (i’m no mathematical genius, btw) if the base price per 100gems is 2500c @ 100% gems in supply, at 0% it would be 250,000c (25g per 100), which means it would never reach your 1:1 scenario as the supply would be completely diminished. That’s making a lot of assumptions on my part since i don’t have time to really sit down and do the math. I’m also assuming disparity at 100% supply is roughly 30%. So this is all basically theoretical since we don’t know total supply, base value or minimum disparity.

SnowHawk.3615:

Ursan.7846:

SnowHawk.3615:

So drive up the prices and make ppl who dont use real money grind much more? yea that plan makes so much sense.
And wheres proof of this intention? I dont mean the gem store prices are high I think they are super- but gold to gem rate is.. just I mean 4g wont even get me 140gems.
I imagine you use your money – Arena net only caters to those ppl any more though.

The ability of the Gem exchange rate to adapt to in-game inflation is an incredibly elegant system.

1. People who don’t like to spend real life money:
Benefits them, because you can use in-game gold to purchase things in the Gem Store. All other games with microtransactions off the top of my head does not have this ability.

2. People who want to convert real-life money to in-game gold
Because it adjusts to in-game inflation, the gems you buy today will be worth the same a year from now, when adjusted for inflation. When the game first came out, 100 gems got you like 20s. If that rate was flat, no one in their right minds would convert Gems to Gold. But because it adjusts to inflation, it keeps people who like to convert money into gold happy.

3. Anet
By allowing it to adjust for inflation, Anet encourages the activity of people #2 over #1, which is important since #2 spends real-money, and #1 doesn’t. If the Gem exchange rate stayed flat, no one in their right mind would purchase gems today, since Gold is so easy to get.

The Gem Exchange Rate which adjusts for in-game inflation is an elegant compromise of the 3 parties above. You’re looking at it from just #1’s perspective.

Yea I am, bc that’s the only perspective I can view it on since I dont use real money.
Great for all the real money users- I get that they are the ones bascially driving the market up and up at their leisure and Anet is happy about that.
The only activity I see for #1 is grinding.. now wasn’t Gw2 not supposed to be about that? Oh wait, it is just another MMO. Who am I kidding.

Think about it like this, you can either grind 4-5 hours for that 20g. Or work for 1 hour and convert $10,- into that 20g.

But yeah, the gem system is in favor of real money spenders. Which is not weird at all, considering that that’s how they get an income and can pay the developers to make new content.

Yeah i agree totally with the gem shop as it stand now based on conversions. I’d personally rather play the game, supplement my earnings with RL money than resort to running a certain path my entire playtime to maximize my returns (which aren’t even @ 5% of what i make an hour in the RW). This tells me something about the earning potential of the game, even to minimum wage earners. If you value your time at all and want shiny stuff in game, the only way to do it in a basically logical efficient way is to throw a couple hours salary at it. This doesn’t really favor players and is a fundamental flaw (imho) in the economic earning potential in the game. I don’t think it should be the same though (even at minimum wage), but it’s a pretty large difference as it stands now.

Charming Rogue.8071:

SnowHawk.3615:

Ursan.7846:

SnowHawk.3615:

So drive up the prices and make ppl who dont use real money grind much more? yea that plan makes so much sense.
And wheres proof of this intention? I dont mean the gem store prices are high I think they are super- but gold to gem rate is.. just I mean 4g wont even get me 140gems.
I imagine you use your money – Arena net only caters to those ppl any more though.

The ability of the Gem exchange rate to adapt to in-game inflation is an incredibly elegant system.

1. People who don’t like to spend real life money:
Benefits them, because you can use in-game gold to purchase things in the Gem Store. All other games with microtransactions off the top of my head does not have this ability.

2. People who want to convert real-life money to in-game gold
Because it adjusts to in-game inflation, the gems you buy today will be worth the same a year from now, when adjusted for inflation. When the game first came out, 100 gems got you like 20s. If that rate was flat, no one in their right minds would convert Gems to Gold. But because it adjusts to inflation, it keeps people who like to convert money into gold happy.

3. Anet
By allowing it to adjust for inflation, Anet encourages the activity of people #2 over #1, which is important since #2 spends real-money, and #1 doesn’t. If the Gem exchange rate stayed flat, no one in their right mind would purchase gems today, since Gold is so easy to get.

The Gem Exchange Rate which adjusts for in-game inflation is an elegant compromise of the 3 parties above. You’re looking at it from just #1’s perspective.

Yea I am, bc that’s the only perspective I can view it on since I dont use real money.
Great for all the real money users- I get that they are the ones bascially driving the market up and up at their leisure and Anet is happy about that.
The only activity I see for #1 is grinding.. now wasn’t Gw2 not supposed to be about that? Oh wait, it is just another MMO. Who am I kidding.

Think about it like this, you can either grind 4-5 hours for that 20g. Or work for 1 hour and convert $10,- into that 20g.

But yeah, the gem system is in favor of real money spenders. Which is not weird at all, considering that that’s how they get an income and can pay the developers to make new content.

^ true,

therefore, get a job and earn than just sitting the whole day farming gold ^^ (imo its better)

or wash your neighbors car for 20 bucks, instead of them to go to a carwashing service for 40$

massage your mom or dad for 20 bucks, instead of them going to spa for 50-60$

clean the house for 30 bucks, instead of them to hire cleaning services for 100$

mow the loan/backyard for 20$, rather than paying the loan mower service for 70$

etc etc

theres so much things to do outside to finance your gaming needs

Oldgrimm.8521:

Charming Rogue.8071:

SnowHawk.3615:

Ursan.7846:

SnowHawk.3615:

So drive up the prices and make ppl who dont use real money grind much more? yea that plan makes so much sense.
And wheres proof of this intention? I dont mean the gem store prices are high I think they are super- but gold to gem rate is.. just I mean 4g wont even get me 140gems.
I imagine you use your money – Arena net only caters to those ppl any more though.

The ability of the Gem exchange rate to adapt to in-game inflation is an incredibly elegant system.

1. People who don’t like to spend real life money:
Benefits them, because you can use in-game gold to purchase things in the Gem Store. All other games with microtransactions off the top of my head does not have this ability.

2. People who want to convert real-life money to in-game gold
Because it adjusts to in-game inflation, the gems you buy today will be worth the same a year from now, when adjusted for inflation. When the game first came out, 100 gems got you like 20s. If that rate was flat, no one in their right minds would convert Gems to Gold. But because it adjusts to inflation, it keeps people who like to convert money into gold happy.

3. Anet
By allowing it to adjust for inflation, Anet encourages the activity of people #2 over #1, which is important since #2 spends real-money, and #1 doesn’t. If the Gem exchange rate stayed flat, no one in their right mind would purchase gems today, since Gold is so easy to get.

The Gem Exchange Rate which adjusts for in-game inflation is an elegant compromise of the 3 parties above. You’re looking at it from just #1’s perspective.

Yea I am, bc that’s the only perspective I can view it on since I dont use real money.
Great for all the real money users- I get that they are the ones bascially driving the market up and up at their leisure and Anet is happy about that.
The only activity I see for #1 is grinding.. now wasn’t Gw2 not supposed to be about that? Oh wait, it is just another MMO. Who am I kidding.

Think about it like this, you can either grind 4-5 hours for that 20g. Or work for 1 hour and convert $10,- into that 20g.

But yeah, the gem system is in favor of real money spenders. Which is not weird at all, considering that that’s how they get an income and can pay the developers to make new content.

^ true,

therefore, get a job and earn than just sitting the whole day farming gold ^^ (imo its better)

or wash your neighbors car for 20 bucks, instead of them to go to a carwashing service for 40$

massage your mom or dad for 20 bucks, instead of them going to spa for 50-60$

clean the house for 30 bucks, instead of them to hire cleaning services for 100$

mow the loan/backyard for 20$, rather than paying the loan mower service for 70$

etc etc

theres so much things to do outside to finance your gaming needs

20g 4-5 hours is insane – what method are you using?
I mean really, I get about 1-2.1g in an hour which gives me ‘maybe’ about 5g within 5 hours. maybe thats just my casual-ness not to pick or seem condescending but that seems a little exaggerated?

4g per hour is not overly hard if the sole function of that time is ‘make moar goldz’. Even after the nerf the Pen/shelt loop with an occasional break for Plinx (and sanity) will turn that easy if you vendor and TP the drops ruthlessly.

Add in that CoF 1 really is the inflationary pit/blight/engine people say it is. Two Omnomberry Bars and a good team and 6 gold an hour is pretty plausible.

Nike.2631:

4g per hour is not overly hard if the sole function of that time is ‘make moar goldz’. Even after the nerf the Pen/shelt loop with an occasional break for Plinx (and sanity) will turn that easy if you vendor and TP the drops ruthlessly.

Add in that CoF 1 really is the inflationary pit/blight/engine people say it is. Two Omnomberry Bars and a good team and 6 gold an hour is pretty plausible.

You call nerf I call skill training.

SnowHawk.3615:

Ursan.7846:

Nope. Not ridiculous at all. Everything is working as intended.

So drive up the prices and make ppl who dont use real money grind much more? yea that plan makes so much sense.

Depends on your perspective. It does make sense to me. If you look at how the game operates as a business, I don’t see any other way unless you would like to go back to monthly fees and out of control inflation.

There is nothing skillful about fighting champions when there are 10+ players present.

They are just an ugly sack of HP with Devs endlessly repeating the punchline to possibly the game’s most moronic joke: “but you always get at least a blue drop…”

I’m not there for a 66c piece of JUNK at the end of a 2 minute-kill. I’m there hunting t5 and t6 mats that drop off the mobs that die at virutally the speed they hit draw distance. -pant-froth-rage-.

Fortunately if you are out there at off hours you can get in to good zerg balls that are just a hair too small to trigger Champions. The many, many veterans you get instead are actually sort of an entertaining split between delay of game/loss of drops and tactical puzzle how to carve out their gizzards efficiently and artfully.

SnowHawk.3615:

Ursan.7846:

SnowHawk.3615:

So drive up the prices and make ppl who dont use real money grind much more? yea that plan makes so much sense.
And wheres proof of this intention? I dont mean the gem store prices are high I think they are super- but gold to gem rate is.. just I mean 4g wont even get me 140gems.
I imagine you use your money – Arena net only caters to those ppl any more though.

The ability of the Gem exchange rate to adapt to in-game inflation is an incredibly elegant system.

1. People who don’t like to spend real life money:
Benefits them, because you can use in-game gold to purchase things in the Gem Store. All other games with microtransactions off the top of my head does not have this ability.

2. People who want to convert real-life money to in-game gold
Because it adjusts to in-game inflation, the gems you buy today will be worth the same a year from now, when adjusted for inflation. When the game first came out, 100 gems got you like 20s. If that rate was flat, no one in their right minds would convert Gems to Gold. But because it adjusts to inflation, it keeps people who like to convert money into gold happy.

3. Anet
By allowing it to adjust for inflation, Anet encourages the activity of people #2 over #1, which is important since #2 spends real-money, and #1 doesn’t. If the Gem exchange rate stayed flat, no one in their right mind would purchase gems today, since Gold is so easy to get.

The Gem Exchange Rate which adjusts for in-game inflation is an elegant compromise of the 3 parties above. You’re looking at it from just #1’s perspective.

Yea I am, bc that’s the only perspective I can view it on since I dont use real money.
Great for all the real money users- I get that they are the ones bascially driving the market up and up at their leisure and Anet is happy about that.
The only activity I see for #1 is grinding.. now wasn’t Gw2 not supposed to be about that? Oh wait, it is just another MMO. Who am I kidding.

You still have the option to use cash. It is your choice to not use it. If, in your flawed opinion, that leaves grinding as the only option, so be it. But in reality, you still have the same options as me. And as it were, working for an hour gives me more profit than grinding. In that vein, arena.net really made the game grind free.

If and only if you want to support the game now and then. And that’s apparently your root problem.

marnick.4305:

If and only if you want to support the game now and then. And that’s apparently your root problem.

Not everyone has the disposable income to “support” Anet. The fact that GW2 doesn’t have a subscription fee is going to be a draw to those who cannot afford an extra $15/mo. for entertainment in the first place.

Having said that, there are very few ways in GW2 to make gold and all of them require grinding except for the TP, which not everyone is gifted at playing (I’m certainly not).