I don't believe the scavenger hunt
While we don’t know this (or I guess will never know this), I do somewhat agree with the sentiment.
Don’t count on Anet to help you.
If they wanted/needed to they would’ve bring it to the game already. Why would a company add something that will clearly kill potential $ income from gem purchasing.
Drop Acid Not Bombs (Richie Hawtin)
Why would a company add something that will clearly kill potential $ income from gem purchasing.
Yea, why would they, especially when they recently added new bank collectible spots for lodestones/holiday mats, freeing up space and discouraging people from buying bank space with gems.
If they wanted/needed to they would’ve bring it to the game already. Why would a company add something that will clearly kill potential $ income from gem purchasing.
when/if precursors are introduced through the scavenger hunt, the demand for t6 mats will rise in accordance to the players chasing legendaries.
i fully expect the gem purchasing to stay steady to compensate for the inflated price of t6 mats. the loss in precursor pricing will be made up in the other(purchasable) components required for each legendary.
[edit]
i have a few people on my flist with legendaries and most of them spent 50USD at least to finish off the icy runestone requirement. they were close to the end and didn’t want to wait any longer i guess.
Not expecting it to ever happen either.
I hate to admit that I agree, but I agree.
Serenity now~Insanity later
Why would a company add something that will clearly kill potential $ income from gem purchasing.
Yea, why would they, especially when they recently added new bank collectible spots for lodestones/holiday mats, freeing up space and discouraging people from buying bank space with gems.
because these items are crafting materials? this had to be in from the start. the pet slots are there from the beginning aren’t they? – enough said.
Drop Acid Not Bombs (Richie Hawtin)
because these items are crafting materials? this had to be in from the start. the pet slots are there from the beginning aren’t they? – enough said.
They did not have depositable spots for lodestones/cores/shards, ectos, mystic coins, holiday mats, and obsidian shards at the beginning of the game. They added that recently.
This freed up a ton of bank space and really discourages the purchase of bank slots with gems.
Anet is a company, and they do want to earn money. But they’re not some money-grubbing evil executives that some people make them out to be (heck why include an option to buy gems with gold in the first place?)
If they wanted/needed to they would’ve bring it to the game already. Why would a company add something that will clearly kill potential $ income from gem purchasing.
when/if precursors are introduced through the scavenger hunt, the demand for t6 mats will rise in accordance to the players chasing legendaries.
so what? the most played area (Orr) in the game now offers a better way of acquire T6 mats. your point is irrelevant. the problem is in the precursors itself.
Drop Acid Not Bombs (Richie Hawtin)
so what? the most played area (Orr) in the game now offers a better way of acquire T6 mats. your point is irrelevant. the problem is in the precursors itself.
Supply isn’t the sole deciding factor on item prices. Demand has a role too. I believe in one of the threads in this subforum, John Smith actually explained that despite an increase in supply for Vial of Powerful Blood, prices actually increased because of increased demand.
because these items are crafting materials? this had to be in from the start. the pet slots are there from the beginning aren’t they? – enough said.
They did not have depositable spots for lodestones/cores/shards, ectos, mystic coins, holiday mats, and obsidian shards at the beginning of the game. They added that recently.
This freed up a ton of bank space and really discourages the purchase of bank slots with gems.
Anet is a company, and they do want to earn money. But they’re not some money-grubbing evil executives that some people make them out to be (heck why include an option to buy gems with gold in the first place?)
cough yes they are. and you are wrong, now trying to bash me up here and in the other thread with stupid arguments acting like a fanboi. read my post again. ignored.
Drop Acid Not Bombs (Richie Hawtin)
so what? the most played area (Orr) in the game now offers a better way of acquire T6 mats. your point is irrelevant. the problem is in the precursors itself.
Supply isn’t the sole deciding factor on item prices. Demand has a role too. I believe in one of the threads in this subforum, John Smith actually explained that despite an increase in supply for Vial of Powerful Blood, prices actually increased because of increased demand.
the topic here is the scavenger hut, not the price on the T6 mats.
Drop Acid Not Bombs (Richie Hawtin)
I have everything I need to make a legendary, precursor included atm. Thing is I don’t want a legendary because I believe they look bad. But I see alot of people hanging off on scavenger hunt.
Jesus Christ, it will happen, but they already said it won’t be that soon.
“If they wanted it would’ve been in already”, oh my, you guys.
How much do you know about programming or how complicated codes can be?
The content doesn’t just appear magically. It goes way too many places before it can even be properly announced.
Daniel Cousland – Darkhaven
If they wanted/needed to they would’ve bring it to the game already. Why would a company add something that will clearly kill potential $ income from gem purchasing.
when/if precursors are introduced through the scavenger hunt, the demand for t6 mats will rise in accordance to the players chasing legendaries.
so what? the most played area (Orr) in the game now offers a better way of acquire T6 mats. your point is irrelevant. the problem is in the precursors itself.
so what? the most played area (orr) in the game still offers a way of acquiring precursors. your point is irrelevant.
(heck why include an option to buy gems with gold in the first place?)
lol… um… to make money… ?
If you think it was included for any other primary reason, you are truely delusional.
Toons: Foreseer, Geikamir, Rapscallion, Specimen, Scythian, Zeau, Ärtifact, and Replica.
(heck why include an option to buy gems with gold in the first place?)
lol… um… to make money… ?
If you think it was included for any other primary reason, you are truely delusional.
A player who spends gold earned in-game to buy gems does not contribute to ANet’s earnings beyond their original game purchase. Of course the introduction of the gem store was designed as a micro-transaction revenue stream for ANet, but a player who only ever buys gems with gold is not giving ANet any additional funds at all. Only a player who buys gems with real money does that.
ANet has also been careful to make items available on the gem store either only for cosmetic purposes, or for added player convenience. (Technically I guess this means they COULD put Legendaries up for sale on the gem store, but I somehow doubt they’ll ever do that.)
(heck why include an option to buy gems with gold in the first place?)
lol… um… to make money… ?
If you think it was included for any other primary reason, you are truely delusional.
I don’t get it. How do they make money from players who buy gems with gold?
(heck why include an option to buy gems with gold in the first place?)
lol… um… to make money… ?
If you think it was included for any other primary reason, you are truely delusional.
I don’t get it. How do they make money from players who buy gems with gold?
The gems come from players who have spent cash and traded them for gold in the first place. It’s why the price fluctuates. Without this distinction, Arena Net would just be ‘printing money’ to give to gem→gold conversion purchases. Which would cause tremendous inflation.
Toons: Foreseer, Geikamir, Rapscallion, Specimen, Scythian, Zeau, Ärtifact, and Replica.
(heck why include an option to buy gems with gold in the first place?)
lol… um… to make money… ?
If you think it was included for any other primary reason, you are truely delusional.
I don’t get it. How do they make money from players who buy gems with gold?
The correct answer is they don’t.
The gems come from players who have spent cash and traded them for gold in the first place. It’s why the price fluctuates. Without this distinction, Arena Net would just be ‘printing money’ to give to gem->gold conversion purchases. Which would cause tremendous inflation.
No, you’re wrong. The gems/gold that you get from converting each other are created from thin air.
The reason why the price fluctuates is because they have an algorithm, whenever a player converts Gold → Gems, the Gem/Gold ratio increases (Gems more expensive) and whenever a player converts Gems → Gold, the Gem/Gold decreases (Gems become cheaper)
The reason why you don’t see this massive inflation you talk of is because transactions both way are balanced. If you look at the currency exchange, you see that it’s pretty stable. Which means the amount of gems being converted to gold is about the same as gold converted to gems.
Overall though, I think more gold have been converted to gems, just because of the general upward trend of the Gems/Gold ratio since launch.
Given that A-net has expressed that they want Ascended items to fill a gap between Exoitc and Legendary, am I the only one that thinks it makes no sense for A-net to make significant changes in the legendary system until after they’ve introduced Ascended weapons?
From a design / development standpoint, I would allocate my programmer and developer hours first to finishing the rollout of Ascended, and then, after the community has absorbed the changes, assess the process for Legendary and see how it tracks relative to the acquisition of Ascended weapons…..
If they make changes before the introduction of Ascended weapons they run the risk of either:
A) Making a decision that the community doesn’t understand because it’s based on the plans for Ascended Weapons
B) Making a decision that may trivialize Ascended weapons in a way they don’t want because the relative dificulty between the two steps leaves the comunity bypassing Ascended for Legendary
C) …. you get the point right?
There are other gears in motion. Scavanger Hunt is being designed, but not yet built, so while Lindsay has it on her plate at a conceptual stage, no programmer resources are dedicated to it currently, and there are good reasons for that.
LVL 80’s: Thief / Warrior / Guardian / Mesmer
The gems come from players who have spent cash and traded them for gold in the first place. It’s why the price fluctuates. Without this distinction, Arena Net would just be ‘printing money’ to give to gem->gold conversion purchases. Which would cause tremendous inflation.
No, you’re wrong. The gems/gold that you get from converting each other are created from thin air.
The reason why the price fluctuates is because they have an algorithm, whenever a player converts Gold -> Gems, the Gem/Gold ratio increases (Gems more expensive) and whenever a player converts Gems -> Gold, the Gem/Gold decreases (Gems become cheaper)
The reason why you don’t see this massive inflation you talk of is because transactions both way are balanced. If you look at the currency exchange, you see that it’s pretty stable. Which means the amount of gems being converted to gold is about the same as gold converted to gems.
Overall though, I think more gold have been converted to gems, just because of the general upward trend of the Gems/Gold ratio since launch.
Sorry but gold to gems is meant to set up a workable system for trading value, it actually keeps the value of buying gems accurate to the economy, and ensures that the value of gems is fairly accurate based on the economny.
A large portion of the money they make is probably tied to the value that gems have for getting money. This is why they hire an economist to handle the market, because how the money is valued in game makes money from the gem value.
Let me try to explain it directly, lets say you have no gold to gem sales, then you cant have gem to gold sales, or you have to come up with some fixed price that is supposed to represent the value of money that doesnt scale with the value of gold. On top of this you have to come up with means of draining large quanities of money into the game from no source.
To put it simply, the fact that people can trade thier time, for gems makes anet money because other people buy gems, not to buy items, but to buy other players time. IE the fact that you can trade your hard earned gold for gems makes gems way more valuable than they would otherwise be. Every player who makes gold to gem purchases is making it more attractive for people who actually spend money, to spend money.
Long story short, yeah its in there because it makes money.
As to the scavenger hunt, its effectively not happening. i mean they may work on it, and get it, but likely it will not come into game until the game has changed signifigantly enough that it doesnt matter. Think for example if the whole context of legendaries and endgame changes, then adding a scavenger hunt isnt really the same thing effectively is it?
Fact is john smith is here primarily to help anet make money, he said so in an interview. However, it is possible that he believes the best way to make money for anet is to make something that appeals to many players.
however, i think that his vision is much more mathematically oriented, and not well oriented in directions of game design and psychology. Mathematically the economy is pretty strong, and sadly similar to a real world economy. Its really not a very inviting, but then again, you dont have to participate, unlike real world economies.
Part i think is the flaw, is its messing up game design elements, like precursors, which have actually been taken from being a game design thing to being a game economy tool. And open world drops which cant be rewarding based on content, because then people will flock to it and generate more gold. And the non monetary drops must also be limited to ensure the value of gold.
Economically, (in terms of feeling of getting value while having fun) the game is pretty depressing. The game is most entertaining when you ignore the economy, sadly most of the end game goals are based around gold.
Sorry but gold to gems is meant to set up a workable system for trading value, it actually keeps the value of buying gems accurate to the economy, and ensures that the value of gems is fairly accurate based on the economny.
I’m not sure why you’re apologizing. We’re in agreement. The more people convert Gold -> Gems, the higher the Gem/Gold ratio increases, making it more attractive to get gold with gems. They’re protecting themselves from inflation.
But that doesn’t change the fact that have this Gold -> Gem exchange system in the first place, where players can essentially trade in their time spent for gems instead of real money.
Like, they can still have a Gem -> Gold exchange (artificially inflated to follow some random economic indicator), and just have that, without the ability to do Gold -> Gems, and still give players the ability to purchase gold with gems. The thing is though, a good chunk of the player base (judging from the quaggan backpacks and roses) actually want to buy gems for their exclusive purchasing ability. But Anet gives them the ability to purchase them with gold, not real money.
TL;DR yes, of course they want to make money, but if they wanted to make money THAT badly they wouldn’t have given you the Gold -> Gem option in the first place, just the Gem -> Gold option.
(edited by Ursan.7846)
99% sure it’ll happen, they said they’re in the process of designing the system.
There’s nothing to believe in, Anet has commented several times over the last two months that no one is working on a ‘precursor scavenger hunt’ feature.
It’s something that got mentioned once as a potential solution, someone at Anet said “ya that’s a good idea, we should look into that” … and then everyone on the forums apparently took that to mean “it’ll be in the next patch”.
GamersWithJobs [GWJ]
Northern Shiverpeaks
Northern Shiverpeaks
For me recent changes which allow people to acquire items via different methods would indicate that the scavenger hunt will come. As far as the mats go I will be able to decide if I spend 75-100 laurels on one mini or on up to 300 T6 mats. If those are the ones you are talking about.
“Whose Kitten is this?” – “It’s a Charr baby.”
“Whose Charr is this?”- “Ted’s.”
“Who’s Ted?”- “Ted’s dead, baby. Ted’s dead.”
“Whose Charr is this?”- “Ted’s.”
“Who’s Ted?”- “Ted’s dead, baby. Ted’s dead.”
There’s nothing to believe in, Anet has commented several times over the last two months that no one is working on a ‘precursor scavenger hunt’ feature.
It’s something that got mentioned once as a potential solution, someone at Anet said “ya that’s a good idea, we should look into that” … and then everyone on the forums apparently took that to mean “it’ll be in the next patch”.
I just want to quickly clarify to set expectations, nothing in the blog post, nor nothing we’ve said anywhere has said you will be able to buy precursor items directly for crowns, this is not the case. We’ve simply said we’ll try and find some other places to add a chance to get them to the game until we’ve implemented the eventual precursor scavenger hunt.
Long term we’ll be working on the scavenger hunt concept to track down and earn a precursor item as a direct form of earning the reward. We’ll discuss that in more detail in the future once a design and implementation has been finalized.
Link: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/How-many-crowns-for-precurser/first#post1217085
There are several other dev coments from Colin and Lindsay both that put the scavanger hunt firmly on track, and at a design level.
I think people have to remember that there is a difference between something being designed and something being built. They are having it designed , plans are being drawn up, processes are being developed, impact is being studied, ect….
they are not building it. No one is sitting at a desk writing code to actually implement the scavanger hunt.
Just because it doesn’t have a release date doesn’t mean it isn’t happening or that it’s been abandoned. It took 6 months from launch to get guesting, and that was something they were talking about all along. Have faith, some things take time.
LVL 80’s: Thief / Warrior / Guardian / Mesmer
As far as the ability to convert gold to gems… it was added to the game for two reasons.
1. It make the gem store more tenable. You are able to write off the concerns of people that normally would have an issue with mircotransactions on the basis of converting gold to gems.
2. People that buy anything from the gem store are much more likely to spend money in it. So simply trading gold to gems has you use the gem stores features. This makes you more likely to spend money on items in the gem store later.
Part 1 is common sense. Part 2 I read about in some paper on game design. It wasn’t specific to GW2. I have no sources for either. Take it or leave it, I don’t care.
“Failure to remain calm is the sign of a weak mind.”
It’s going to happen because they said it’s going to happen. Anet will not say or imply it at all if they didn’t want to do it.
The gem price argument is WEAK. There are unlimited methods for anet to earn money from through gem purchases then just precursors. That is just silly. Besides, when one price goes down, the o ther mats i.e the t6 mats will just go up in accordance to the increased amount of demand for it…
(edited by Lafiel.9372)
The gems come from players who have spent cash and traded them for gold in the first place. It’s why the price fluctuates. Without this distinction, Arena Net would just be ‘printing money’ to give to gem->gold conversion purchases. Which would cause tremendous inflation.
No, you’re wrong. The gems/gold that you get from converting each other are created from thin air.
The reason why the price fluctuates is because they have an algorithm, whenever a player converts Gold -> Gems, the Gem/Gold ratio increases (Gems more expensive) and whenever a player converts Gems -> Gold, the Gem/Gold decreases (Gems become cheaper)
The reason why you don’t see this massive inflation you talk of is because transactions both way are balanced. If you look at the currency exchange, you see that it’s pretty stable. Which means the amount of gems being converted to gold is about the same as gold converted to gems.
Overall though, I think more gold have been converted to gems, just because of the general upward trend of the Gems/Gold ratio since launch.
It’s not out of thin air BECAUSE of the algorithm. Just because Arena Net is the market maker doesn’t mean that they don’t need to have the gold sank in some way to make up for the extra coming into the economy.
Anyway, it’s irrelevant how they balance the economy to prevent inflation. The entire point is that gems are there for profit. Anything additional that may be added to the game play is just more of a marketing tool to use.
It’s just like trading in used video games for store credits. Do you think GameStop does it because they are nice guys? No. They are a company. Everything they say or do is designed in a fashion to increase revenue. They use your old game to resell for greater value than they paid. The fact that you can turn in your unwanted items to purchase items that you do what is all part of the plan and is a mere byproduct of the initial intent. It’s then used to market the service in hopes of getting more customers from both ends of the transaction.
Toons: Foreseer, Geikamir, Rapscallion, Specimen, Scythian, Zeau, Ärtifact, and Replica.
It’s not out of thin air BECAUSE of the algorithm. Just because Arena Net is the market maker doesn’t mean that they don’t need to have the gold sank in some way to make up for the extra coming into the economy.
I’m confused. It is created out of thin air. Just like how gold is created out of thin air. And items in this game. And we’ve already discussed why this doesn’t create rampant inflation (because Gem/Gold ratio has been pretty steady, which means conversion both ways is pretty steady.) And why I believe more gold has been converted to Gems in the long run (general overall upwards trend since launch)
It’s just like trading in used video games for store credits. Do you think GameStop does it because they are nice guys? No. They are a company. Everything they say or do is designed in a fashion to increase revenue. They use your old game to resell for greater value than they paid. The fact that you can turn in your unwanted items to purchase items that you do what is all part of the plan and is a mere byproduct of the initial intent. It’s then used to market the service in hopes of getting more customers from both ends of the transaction.
Gamestop what it does because they can re-sell these old games for greater value than they paid. They have every reason to give incentive to people turning in games, because they profit from each transaction.
What can Anet do with the gold players turn in for Gems? There is no profit to be made, and there’s actually a LOSS in the sense that the player just used in-game gold to buy something with gold rather than real money.
It’s not out of thin air BECAUSE of the algorithm. Just because Arena Net is the market maker doesn’t mean that they don’t need to have the gold sank in some way to make up for the extra coming into the economy.
I’m confused. It is created out of thin air. Just like how gold is created out of thin air. And items in this game. And we’ve already discussed why this doesn’t create rampant inflation (because Gem/Gold ratio has been pretty steady, which means conversion both ways is pretty steady.) And why I believe more gold has been converted to Gems in the long run (general overall upwards trend since launch)
There are gold sinks in the game to combat the farming in the game (TP tax, WP costs, Repair, ect.) The gold sink to counter balance selling gold to players it to take it from other players.
It’s just like trading in used video games for store credits. Do you think GameStop does it because they are nice guys? No. They are a company. Everything they say or do is designed in a fashion to increase revenue. They use your old game to resell for greater value than they paid. The fact that you can turn in your unwanted items to purchase items that you do what is all part of the plan and is a mere byproduct of the initial intent. It’s then used to market the service in hopes of getting more customers from both ends of the transaction.
Gamestop what it does because they can re-sell these old games for greater value than they paid. They have every reason to give incentive to people turning in games, because they profit from each transaction.
What can Anet do with the gold players turn in for Gems? There is no profit to be made, and there’s actually a LOSS in the sense that the player just used in-game gold to buy something with gold rather than real money.
They take gold out the economy and use it as a selling point of the game. “You can get stuff in the gem shop without ever paying a dime!”. It’s marketing and a gold sink wrapped into one profitable package.
Toons: Foreseer, Geikamir, Rapscallion, Specimen, Scythian, Zeau, Ärtifact, and Replica.
There are gold sinks in the game to combat the farming in the game (TP tax, WP costs, Repair, ect.) The gold sink to counter balance selling gold to players it to take it from other players.
Yes. You’re completely correct. However, I struggle to understand your point. There are in-game gold taps (vendoring items, monster drops), in-game gold sinks (TP, WPs, repairs), BLT gold tap (Gem → Gold), and BLT gold sinks (Gold → Gems).
We have all that. So…….?
They take gold out the economy and use it as a selling point of the game. “You can get stuff in the gem shop without ever paying a dime!”. It’s marketing and a gold sink wrapped into one profitable package.
Yea. So how do they make money from players buying gems with gold again?
The answer is, they don’t. I somehow doubt that the players who won’t purchase the game because a Gold → Gem exchange doesn’t exist (remember, I don’t think this idea didn’t even exist before anet. I highly doubt this influenced many purchasing decisions) outweighs the potential profit you get from disallowing the gold – > gem conversion all together.
By the way, you’ve completely ignored my other point that I made originally. You can purchase bank space with gems. However, they’ve recently expanded the bank quite a lot, for free. If this isn’t discouraging players from purchasing bank space (with gems) I don’t know what it is. If Anet were so greedy for our money, why would they do that?
Of course they’re a company. Of course they want to make money But they’re very generous about a lot of things.
There are gold sinks in the game to combat the farming in the game (TP tax, WP costs, Repair, ect.) The gold sink to counter balance selling gold to players it to take it from other players.
Yes. You’re completely correct. However, I struggle to understand your point. There are in-game gold taps (vendoring items, monster drops), in-game gold sinks (TP, WPs, repairs), BLT gold tap (Gem -> Gold), and BLT gold sinks (Gold -> Gems).
We have all that. So…….?
They take gold out the economy and use it as a selling point of the game. “You can get stuff in the gem shop without ever paying a dime!”. It’s marketing and a gold sink wrapped into one profitable package.
Yea. So how do they make money from players buying gems with gold again?
The answer is, they don’t. I somehow doubt that the players who won’t purchase the game because a Gold -> Gem exchange doesn’t exist (remember, I don’t think this idea didn’t even exist before anet. I highly doubt this influenced many purchasing decisions) outweighs the potential profit you get from disallowing the gold – > gem conversion all together.
By the way, you’ve completely ignored my other point that I made originally. You can purchase bank space with gems. However, they’ve recently expanded the bank quite a lot, for free. If this isn’t discouraging players from purchasing bank space (with gems) I don’t know what it is. If Anet were so greedy for our money, why would they do that?
Of course they’re a company. Of course they want to make money But they’re very generous about a lot of things.
On the first point, I’m confused. So you ARE agreeing with me that the conversion IS the gold sink?
How does McDonalds make money off of coupons or commercials? They market to you. They get you to go into the store and spend more money. It’s marketing.
They’ve already made a ton of money off bank space. It’s been 6 months since release. If they were just trying to be nice, they’d have given unlimited space since launch (or something to that effect). Trust me, everything they do has been heavily thought out and planned. Every single thing they change to the game gets passed through several departments several times to ensure that it fits into their business model.
By the way, the term greedy is your word. I am saying that they are a company trying to maximize profits and you are implying that they are just trying to be our friends.
Toons: Foreseer, Geikamir, Rapscallion, Specimen, Scythian, Zeau, Ärtifact, and Replica.
On the first point, I’m confused. So you ARE agreeing with me that the conversion IS the gold sink?
The Gold → Gem conversion is a gold sink, yes. Of course. I’m still wondering what your point is though.
How does McDonalds make money off of coupons or commercials? They market to you. They get you to go into the store and spend more money. It’s marketing.
They’ve already made a ton of money off bank space. It’s been 6 months since release. If they were just trying to be nice, they’d have given unlimited space since launch. Trust me, everything they do has been heavily thought out and planned. Ever single thing they change to the game gets passed through several departments several times to ensure that it fits into their business model.
By the way, the term greedy is your word. I am saying that they are a company trying to maximize profits and you are implying that they are just trying to be our friends.
Mmmmm…
At the most fundamental level, we agree. They’re a company, of course they’re trying to maximize profit.
I guess what I’m getting at though, is Anet is willing to look at the long-term advantages of player happiness as opposed to nickling and diming you to death, ala Nexon.
From your perspective, you see it as a company maximizing profits through player satisfaction. Which, okay, I can see it. But there’s quite a difference in company cultures between companies that really do care about customers (and believes that will eventually pay off), and companies who just want to make money off customers.
Through their actions, I firmly believe Anet is the former. And I’m glad to be playing their game, and get annoyed at attempts to portray the company as the latter.
If this makes sense to you.
Too much of a loss or madness once it is introduced.
Also will greatly affect all items across the T6, lodes and ectos board.
A big risk to take.
Best if it doesn’t come at all.
1+1 = potato
On the first point, I’m confused. So you ARE agreeing with me that the conversion IS the gold sink?
The Gold -> Gem conversion is a gold sink, yes. Of course. I’m still wondering what your point is though.
How does McDonalds make money off of coupons or commercials? They market to you. They get you to go into the store and spend more money. It’s marketing.
They’ve already made a ton of money off bank space. It’s been 6 months since release. If they were just trying to be nice, they’d have given unlimited space since launch. Trust me, everything they do has been heavily thought out and planned. Ever single thing they change to the game gets passed through several departments several times to ensure that it fits into their business model.
By the way, the term greedy is your word. I am saying that they are a company trying to maximize profits and you are implying that they are just trying to be our friends.
Mmmmm…
At the most fundamental level, we agree. They’re a company, of course they’re trying to maximize profit.
I guess what I’m getting at though, is Anet is willing to look at the long-term advantages of player happiness as opposed to nickling and diming you to death, ala Nexon.
From your perspective, you see it as a company maximizing profits through player satisfaction. Which, okay, I can see it. But there’s quite a difference in company cultures between companies that really do care about customers (and believes that will eventually pay off), and companies who just want to make money off customers.
Through their actions, I firmly believe Anet is the former. And I’m glad to be playing their game, and get annoyed at attempts to portray the company as the latter.
If this makes sense to you.
Some companies try and make “a quick buck” in the short term, by cashing in on their customers immediate needs to make the highest profit early and then get out and move on to another venture. Some companies try to appease customers for a longer period of time by building customer loyalty and getting repeat purchases. And ofc there are plenty of other models, but for the ease of this conversation, I’ll just use these two.
I agree that Arena Net is likely trying to maximize profits via customer loyalty. It doesn’t mean it’s anything other than purely a business move. That doesn’t mean it’s wrong or evil. It’s business.
However, some of their decisions have not been conducive to this strategy (imo). Sometimes they make very odd decisions that lead to lots of players upset or feeling let down. I’m sure they have an over-arching plan with these moves, but from an outsiders perspective, they are very odd and counter-intuitive.
Toons: Foreseer, Geikamir, Rapscallion, Specimen, Scythian, Zeau, Ärtifact, and Replica.
It’s not out of thin air BECAUSE of the algorithm. Just because Arena Net is the market maker doesn’t mean that they don’t need to have the gold sank in some way to make up for the extra coming into the economy.
I’m confused. It is created out of thin air. Just like how gold is created out of thin air. And items in this game. And we’ve already discussed why this doesn’t create rampant inflation (because Gem/Gold ratio has been pretty steady, which means conversion both ways is pretty steady.) And why I believe more gold has been converted to Gems in the long run (general overall upwards trend since launch)
It’s just like trading in used video games for store credits. Do you think GameStop does it because they are nice guys? No. They are a company. Everything they say or do is designed in a fashion to increase revenue. They use your old game to resell for greater value than they paid. The fact that you can turn in your unwanted items to purchase items that you do what is all part of the plan and is a mere byproduct of the initial intent. It’s then used to market the service in hopes of getting more customers from both ends of the transaction.
Gamestop what it does because they can re-sell these old games for greater value than they paid. They have every reason to give incentive to people turning in games, because they profit from each transaction.
What can Anet do with the gold players turn in for Gems? There is no profit to be made, and there’s actually a LOSS in the sense that the player just used in-game gold to buy something with gold rather than real money.
the profit is made due to the exchange rate. It doesnt matter if there is gold in fort knox, people believe their money has value, and part of why it does, is because the government prints up money in relation to how much goods and services they have.
Essentially the algorithim means that gems are not really printed out of air, they are a representation of how much a non gem user values his time in terms of getting gem items. The gold/time people are willing to give up, which is then purchased by other people.
Every time people buy gems with gold, it causes the value of gems to go up, real money spenders then buy the gems, because of their worth in gold. If no one sells their gold then gems are less valuable, and people buy less of them.
And no, anet cannot do the same thing without destroying the economny, which is the primary means by which gems have value. If they just sold in game money the economny would collapse and in game money would be worthless, which would lead to people not buying in game money.
The premise is basically this, they get more money with this system, because people who want to spend money spend way more money. The guy who dropped 100 dollars in the gem store day one, will probably drop 100 dollars again, as long as you have something worthwhile to sell him, the guy who never buys isnt going to the gems store. So now, you get the guy who never buys to create the item the guy who likes spending wants, gold.
Otherwise you would have to constantly be creating items of value for the guy who wants to spend, and youd only get value from that guy.
Essentially every item that gets bought with gems is paid for, either directly or indirectly.
This is why the economy is important for anet, there needs to be reasons for people to want gold.