Inflation

Inflation

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Posted by: Obtena.7952

Obtena.7952

OK …. so you think inflation is a problem? if so, why? I think JS put it pretty eloquently already … if you think it is, you have some learning to do. And here I bet you think I wasn’t following the thread :p

(edited by Obtena.7952)

Inflation

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Posted by: Essence Snow.3194

Essence Snow.3194

It’s problem b/c this game is known for having poor reward structure. JS doesn’t seem to understand why that is so (which is evident when he circles back to the macro economy in every discussion regarding rewards).

Anet acknowledges there is a reward issue. That is why they are “working” on it.

Serenity now~Insanity later

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Posted by: sirflamesword.3896

sirflamesword.3896

It’s problem b/c this game is known for having poor reward structure. JS doesn’t seem to understand why that is so (which is evident when he circles back to the macro economy in every discussion regarding rewards).

Anet acknowledges there is a reward issue. That is why they are “working” on it.

The sad part is the “fixes” will probably just to add an increase in gold rewards somewhere while taking away the “material” rewards.(And by material rewards I mean everything OTHER than gold. Ya know, the types of rewards that this game is sorely lacking.)

Pinnacle of Responsibility[Mom]-Yaks Bend
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Posted by: mtpelion.4562

mtpelion.4562

It’s problem b/c this game is known for having poor reward structure. JS doesn’t seem to understand why that is so (which is evident when he circles back to the macro economy in every discussion regarding rewards).

Anet acknowledges there is a reward issue. That is why they are “working” on it.

This game is accused of having a “poor reward structure” by players who don’t understand that it has the best reward structure.

In most MMOs, you have to grind Activity A to get Reward A. Doesn’t matter if you hate Activity A, you still have to grind it for hours upon hours to get Reward A. If you also want Reward B, then you have to grind hours upon hours of Activity B, which you can’t do at the same time as Activity A.

In GW2, you have ability to only play the content you like and buy the rewards you like. This means that I can do Activity B and get Reward A and Reward B and never have to touch Activity A.

The reward system in this game is superior to other MMOs because it lets you choose what content you want to do instead of shackling you to a grind you don’t enjoy.

Server: Devona’s Rest

Inflation

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Posted by: laokoko.7403

laokoko.7403

It’s problem b/c this game is known for having poor reward structure. JS doesn’t seem to understand why that is so (which is evident when he circles back to the macro economy in every discussion regarding rewards).

Anet acknowledges there is a reward issue. That is why they are “working” on it.

well he’s not a game designer, he’s the economist leader. You can try blaming those game developer who never bother to post any more.

I dont’ know why everyone thinks JS said anything though, because clearly all he’s response is just 1 or 2 sentence not explaining anything and tell us we (need to learn economy).

and gold is used as a reward because “they want you to buy gem”. I like how everyone trying to make it sound like they want players to play however they want to gain their rewards. Because by the look of it, karma, empyreal fragment and dragonite ore, fractal skin, they surely don’t want us to play that way. Because unlike subscription games, gemstore is what used to pay the employee salary and make the investor happy.

(edited by laokoko.7403)

Inflation

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Posted by: Essence Snow.3194

Essence Snow.3194

It’s problem b/c this game is known for having poor reward structure. JS doesn’t seem to understand why that is so (which is evident when he circles back to the macro economy in every discussion regarding rewards).

Anet acknowledges there is a reward issue. That is why they are “working” on it.

This game is accused of having a “poor reward structure” by players who don’t understand that it has the best reward structure.

In most MMOs, you have to grind Activity A to get Reward A. Doesn’t matter if you hate Activity A, you still have to grind it for hours upon hours to get Reward A. If you also want Reward B, then you have to grind hours upon hours of Activity B, which you can’t do at the same time as Activity A.

In GW2, you have ability to only play the content you like and buy the rewards you like. This means that I can do Activity B and get Reward A and Reward B and never have to touch Activity A.

The reward system in this game is superior to other MMOs because it lets you choose what content you want to do instead of shackling you to a grind you don’t enjoy.

Okay then why is GW2 known for poor rewards and the others are not?

A perception arises (at least for me) participating in certain content for a certain reward verses participating in any content for the same reward. Players are well known to try and become efficient as possible in their endeavors. This results in the former certain grind content for a certain reward being somewhat acceptable. The latter results in most content being inefficient grind since all content leads to the same objective. So most all content feels unrewarding since players know they could be more efficient doing something else with their time.

Serenity now~Insanity later

Inflation

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Posted by: laokoko.7403

laokoko.7403

It’s problem b/c this game is known for having poor reward structure. JS doesn’t seem to understand why that is so (which is evident when he circles back to the macro economy in every discussion regarding rewards).

Anet acknowledges there is a reward issue. That is why they are “working” on it.

This game is accused of having a “poor reward structure” by players who don’t understand that it has the best reward structure.

In most MMOs, you have to grind Activity A to get Reward A. Doesn’t matter if you hate Activity A, you still have to grind it for hours upon hours to get Reward A. If you also want Reward B, then you have to grind hours upon hours of Activity B, which you can’t do at the same time as Activity A.

In GW2, you have ability to only play the content you like and buy the rewards you like. This means that I can do Activity B and get Reward A and Reward B and never have to touch Activity A.

The reward system in this game is superior to other MMOs because it lets you choose what content you want to do instead of shackling you to a grind you don’t enjoy.

Okay then why is GW2 known for poor rewards and the others are not?

A perception arises (at least for me) participating in certain content for a certain reward verses participating in any content for the same reward. Players are well known to try and become efficient as possible in their endeavors. This results in the former certain grind content for a certain reward being somewhat acceptable. The latter results in most content being inefficient grind since all content leads to the same objective. So most all content feels unrewarding since players know they could be more efficient doing something else with their time.

You have to realize there is only 1 tier, there are infinite tiers other games use.

all GW2 can do is spam us with skins. And if they give us skin which is too good, no one will buy the one from gem store. And if everyone have a legendary, they wont’ buy the one in gem store too.

and the game design structure, at this moment, it look like the focus is on living story, kind of like giving us some extended conent every few weeks(kind of like watching tv series, but not their core game.)

(edited by laokoko.7403)

Inflation

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Posted by: Essence Snow.3194

Essence Snow.3194

Gw1 didn’t share the same tier issue even though it was even more cosmetic based.

Serenity now~Insanity later

Inflation

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Posted by: mtpelion.4562

mtpelion.4562

Okay then why is GW2 known for poor rewards and the others are not?

A perception arises (at least for me) participating in certain content for a certain reward verses participating in any content for the same reward. Players are well known to try and become efficient as possible in their endeavors. This results in the former certain grind content for a certain reward being somewhat acceptable. The latter results in most content being inefficient grind since all content leads to the same objective. So most all content feels unrewarding since players know they could be more efficient doing something else with their time.

That’s because our expectations and perceptions have been formed by decades of previous MMOs who had to design content that kept you paying them every month. They set the status quo and everyone is familiar with the status quo so today, instead of playing for fun, we are trained to play for rewards.

Server: Devona’s Rest

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Posted by: Essence Snow.3194

Essence Snow.3194

Okay then why is GW2 known for poor rewards and the others are not?

A perception arises (at least for me) participating in certain content for a certain reward verses participating in any content for the same reward. Players are well known to try and become efficient as possible in their endeavors. This results in the former certain grind content for a certain reward being somewhat acceptable. The latter results in most content being inefficient grind since all content leads to the same objective. So most all content feels unrewarding since players know they could be more efficient doing something else with their time.

That’s because our expectations and perceptions have been formed by decades of previous MMOs who had to design content that kept you paying them every month. They set the status quo and everyone is familiar with the status quo so today, instead of playing for fun, we are trained to play for rewards.

That’s not just mmos. That’s life.

Serenity now~Insanity later

Inflation

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Posted by: Tree.3916

Tree.3916

2.Dungeons, your speed running skills help here, but there isnt much excitement in shaving 30 seconds off your time, since your reward or chance of good reward is the same, Essentially making a 10 minute run into a 9.5 minute run is just a 5% increase in time saved, since every path is daily anyhow, this will only make much of difference if you do like 12 paths in one day youll save a whopping 6 minutes of time. Getting the same rewards.

This is partially correct at best. Sure, for CoF1, shaving 5% of time (if we assume that figure as a given) isn’t a huge time savings. I would argue that figure in an instance like Arah is significantly incorrect.

If you can run all four Arah paths in about an hour you’re looking at around 15g- 20g considering drops. I reckon there are not many in game outside of elite pve guilds who can manage that. Your random LFG “speed run” pug or non-hardcore guild teams would probably take close to 2-3 hours to run all four paths, especially if you stop to gearcheck to ensure competency. So there is a rather huge advantage in being able to speed run some dungeons, especially if you are limited more by daily playtime than the daily dungeon path limit. Also, consider that the more/harder dungeons you are able to do the less limiting the daily path limit is; if you are only capable of running AC and CoF you will hit the daily path limit a lot sooner than a player who can run every dungeon.

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Posted by: Wanze.8410

Wanze.8410

And once again a discussion went off topic towards reward structures because people went out of valid arguements.

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Bloin – Running around, tagging Keeps, getting whack on Scoobie Snacks.

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Posted by: eithinan.9841

eithinan.9841

And once again a discussion went off topic towards reward structures because people went out of valid arguements.

That’s because this topic was never about inflation.

Inflation

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Posted by: Obtena.7952

Obtena.7952

It’s problem b/c this game is known for having poor reward structure. JS doesn’t seem to understand why that is so (which is evident when he circles back to the macro economy in every discussion regarding rewards).

Anet acknowledges there is a reward issue. That is why they are “working” on it.

This game is accused of having a “poor reward structure” by players who don’t understand that it has the best reward structure.

In most MMOs, you have to grind Activity A to get Reward A. Doesn’t matter if you hate Activity A, you still have to grind it for hours upon hours to get Reward A. If you also want Reward B, then you have to grind hours upon hours of Activity B, which you can’t do at the same time as Activity A.

In GW2, you have ability to only play the content you like and buy the rewards you like. This means that I can do Activity B and get Reward A and Reward B and never have to touch Activity A.

The reward system in this game is superior to other MMOs because it lets you choose what content you want to do instead of shackling you to a grind you don’t enjoy.

Okay then why is GW2 known for poor rewards and the others are not?

A perception arises (at least for me) participating in certain content for a certain reward verses participating in any content for the same reward. Players are well known to try and become efficient as possible in their endeavors. This results in the former certain grind content for a certain reward being somewhat acceptable. The latter results in most content being inefficient grind since all content leads to the same objective. So most all content feels unrewarding since players know they could be more efficient doing something else with their time.

You have ignored his response explaining how playing the game is the primary reward, as well as your own previous statement that gold isn’t the only reward to be had playing. Your perception hasn’t accounted for the many ways other than gold that players are rewarded for doing different content as well as the fact that content rewards with multiple categories of reward types (gold, personal satisfaction, tokens, etc…) If your perception tells you there is only ONE activity you can do to maximize all the rewards you are personally interested, that’s a PERSONAL issue, not a globally relevant one applicable to all players in GW2. Generally, Anet does a good job balancing all these things for people over all game content. Count yourself in the unlucky minority.

I know it’s fun to invent things when opinion becomes fact but the bottom line is that you don’t know how much of the population of MMO players thinks GW2 has poor rewards. Furthermore, I don’t see the relevance … either you accept the game model or you don’t. If you can’t even bring yourself to think the rewards system is good and you don’t feel rewarded as a player, WTH are you doing playing GW2 and talking about inflation, etc… ? Sounds like you have higher level issues. If you don’t like the game, just go back to WoW or whatever.

(edited by Obtena.7952)

Inflation

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Posted by: Essence Snow.3194

Essence Snow.3194

It’s problem b/c this game is known for having poor reward structure. JS doesn’t seem to understand why that is so (which is evident when he circles back to the macro economy in every discussion regarding rewards).

Anet acknowledges there is a reward issue. That is why they are “working” on it.

This game is accused of having a “poor reward structure” by players who don’t understand that it has the best reward structure.

In most MMOs, you have to grind Activity A to get Reward A. Doesn’t matter if you hate Activity A, you still have to grind it for hours upon hours to get Reward A. If you also want Reward B, then you have to grind hours upon hours of Activity B, which you can’t do at the same time as Activity A.

In GW2, you have ability to only play the content you like and buy the rewards you like. This means that I can do Activity B and get Reward A and Reward B and never have to touch Activity A.

The reward system in this game is superior to other MMOs because it lets you choose what content you want to do instead of shackling you to a grind you don’t enjoy.

Okay then why is GW2 known for poor rewards and the others are not?

A perception arises (at least for me) participating in certain content for a certain reward verses participating in any content for the same reward. Players are well known to try and become efficient as possible in their endeavors. This results in the former certain grind content for a certain reward being somewhat acceptable. The latter results in most content being inefficient grind since all content leads to the same objective. So most all content feels unrewarding since players know they could be more efficient doing something else with their time.

You have ignored his response explaining how playing the game is the primary reward, as well as your own previous statement that gold isn’t the only reward to be had playing. Your perception hasn’t accounted for the many ways other than gold that players are rewarded for doing different content as well as the fact that content rewards with multiple categories of reward types (gold, personal satisfaction, tokens, etc…) If your perception tells you there is only ONE activity you can do to maximize all the rewards you are personally interested, that’s a PERSONAL issue, not a globally relevant one applicable to all players in GW2. Generally, Anet does a good job balancing all these things for people over all game content. Count yourself in the unlucky minority.

I know it’s fun to invent things when opinion becomes fact but the bottom line is that you don’t know how much of the population of MMO players thinks GW2 has poor rewards. Furthermore, I don’t see the relevance … either you accept the game model or you don’t. If you can’t even bring yourself to think the rewards system is good and you don’t feel rewarded as a player, WTH are you doing playing GW2 and talking about inflation, etc… ? Sounds like you have higher level issues. If you don’t like the game, just go back to WoW or whatever.

Did you completely miss the “at least for me” bit or just didn’t read and replied haphazardly?

I feel like I have to hold your hand with every post.

Serenity now~Insanity later

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Posted by: Obtena.7952

Obtena.7952

I didn’t miss it at all. I understand it’s your perception. What you don’t get is that your perception isn’t really aligned with the reality of what’s happening and therefore, your basis for making claims about how poorly things are done aren’t reflective of the actual gamestate. Perceptions can be changed, especially if your open minded enough to see the illustrated examples being brought to your attention are indicative of what the game is really like. It’s one thing to not know, it’s another to turn a blind eye when examples and cases are presented to you on a silver platter.

(edited by Obtena.7952)

Inflation

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Posted by: Essence Snow.3194

Essence Snow.3194

Yes you are right my perception is the whole reason the game is known for poor rewards and gold grinding…..silly me.

edit* ^sarcasm btw…judging by past responses I figured I need to add this

I believe you have made your choice adamantly known……..lol

Serenity now~Insanity later

(edited by Essence Snow.3194)

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Posted by: phys.7689

phys.7689

2.Dungeons, your speed running skills help here, but there isnt much excitement in shaving 30 seconds off your time, since your reward or chance of good reward is the same, Essentially making a 10 minute run into a 9.5 minute run is just a 5% increase in time saved, since every path is daily anyhow, this will only make much of difference if you do like 12 paths in one day youll save a whopping 6 minutes of time. Getting the same rewards.

This is partially correct at best. Sure, for CoF1, shaving 5% of time (if we assume that figure as a given) isn’t a huge time savings. I would argue that figure in an instance like Arah is significantly incorrect.

If you can run all four Arah paths in about an hour you’re looking at around 15g- 20g considering drops. I reckon there are not many in game outside of elite pve guilds who can manage that. Your random LFG “speed run” pug or non-hardcore guild teams would probably take close to 2-3 hours to run all four paths, especially if you stop to gearcheck to ensure competency. So there is a rather huge advantage in being able to speed run some dungeons, especially if you are limited more by daily playtime than the daily dungeon path limit. Also, consider that the more/harder dungeons you are able to do the less limiting the daily path limit is; if you are only capable of running AC and CoF you will hit the daily path limit a lot sooner than a player who can run every dungeon.

lot of people dont really desire to do 24 dungeons in one day, so the fact that arah is harder doesnt help much, it doesnt pay that much better than anything else.not sure what the average speedrun sans exploits best time is though for the more expensive paths

(edited by phys.7689)

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Posted by: Realist.5812

Realist.5812

I’ve never seen John Smith post anything insightful. Or answer player questions with reasons as to why something is done or not done.

Each post comes across as:
“This is my baby, and being its mother I believe it has no flaws.”

And then the sycophants come in and cheer him on.

ALL IS VAIN.
PvP modes are the “endgame” in every MMO.
Stop failing at PvE, start fixing PvP/WvW. Thank you.

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Posted by: Smooth Penguin.5294

Smooth Penguin.5294

I’ve never seen John Smith post anything insightful. Or answer player questions with reasons as to why something is done or not done.

Each post comes across as:
“This is my baby, and being its mother I believe it has no flaws.”

And then the sycophants come in and cheer him on.

It’s because the current system has no flaws, but rather players who feel Entitled to rewards that are difficult to get.

If you want to blame anyone, blame Colin, because he doesn’t even know what Cantha is.

In GW2, Trading Post plays you!

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Posted by: ZudetGambeous.9573

ZudetGambeous.9573

In the end it doesn’t really matter if John Smith is right or not. He seems to have this idea that he needs to prove to everyone that the economy is working correctly. But it doesn’t matter if it is working correctly or not. If the players are not having fun then they are not playing the game and they are not spending money, that is the only thing that matters.

GW2 seems to have trouble figuring that out, which I think comes back to the issue that this game is economy focused instead of content focused. Every encounter is designed around how it will affect the economy instead of centered around the reward like in other MMO’s.

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Posted by: Vol.7601

Vol.7601

Prices for backpieces have dropped 100%! We are in a period of massive deflation!

PANIC!

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Posted by: Beldin.5498

Beldin.5498

Gold is not a rewarding reward for a lot of players. It’s a secondary result of going for desired rewards. That’s where this game misses the mark. It believes gold is the best reward.

Gold is in the end just an exchange vehicle.

Forget about gold for a moment and think we would change mats directly.

So say i want a powerful blood and give you 25 iron ore. Now a year ago i had maybe also given you the same 25 iron ores.
At that moment its totally irrelevant that blood has gone from 25s to 50s and iron ore from 1s to 2s.

It would only be a much bigger Nightmare to know what everything is worth at that moment since that hardly can be handled with something like the TP, and professional traders could maybe make even more profit with that.

EVERY MMO is awesome until it is released then its unfinished. A month after release it just sucks.
Best MMOs are the ones that never make it. Therefore Stargate Online wins.

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Posted by: Wanze.8410

Wanze.8410

In the end it doesn’t really matter if John Smith is right or not. He seems to have this idea that he needs to prove to everyone that the economy is working correctly. But it doesn’t matter if it is working correctly or not. If the players are not having fun then they are not playing the game and they are not spending money, that is the only thing that matters.

GW2 seems to have trouble figuring that out, which I think comes back to the issue that this game is economy focused instead of content focused. Every encounter is designed around how it will affect the economy instead of centered around the reward like in other MMO’s.

No, JS always asked the players to prove that there is something wrong with the economy. If they made a good claim, he doublechecks his data (if he hasnt already done that before) and most of the time even publishes it.

In general, i think Anet has better ways to measure, if players are having fun and playing the game and spending money than some people qqing on the forums

Tin Foil [HATS]-Hardcore BLTC-PvP Guild
Bloin – Running around, tagging Keeps, getting whack on Scoobie Snacks.

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Posted by: tolunart.2095

tolunart.2095

In general, i think Anet has better ways to measure, if players are having fun and playing the game and spending money than some people qqing on the forums

If the devs took all these complaints on the forums seriously there would be a new patch every other hour.

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Posted by: Ayrilana.1396

Ayrilana.1396

Wow. Just wow. After reading this entire thread I’m just amazed. This is probably the worst thread that I has seen that has so many uninformed responses trying to pose as informed, so many responses committing logical fallacies such as distorting someone’s responses or diverting attention to some nonsensical point, responses from people grasping at real life scenarios and distorting them to fit their viewpoint and this game, responses from people using said scenarios who know absolutely nothing about what’s going on, and so on. It’s just ridiculous. This is probably not the best way to start a post but I’m just so flabbergasted.

John Smith was not incorrect when he stated that some people should learn a bit more about economics. You cannot have a discussion about economic topics unless you have a foundation. This thread is evidence to that fact. A very basic understanding of economics would have shown that inflation is not occurring as that term is rampantly being misused.

Inflation is caused by an increase in the money supply (there’s more to it but since most people do not know what inflation is, I won’t overly complicate this). If everyone in the game received 1,000 gold one day, you’d have inflation. Inflation also affects the economy as a whole and not just specific goods. A basic understanding of the definition would lead you to understand that it’s not a inflation issue but rather a supply and demand issue. I believe one of the first responses pointed this out and John Smith was probably alluding to this.

Isolated price fluctuations in some goods are most likely caused by supply and demand changes. It’s not 100% because like most things, there are always exceptions. An increase in price is caused by an increase in demand, decrease in supply, or some combination of the two. Demand has normally been very high for these items and always exceeded supply. Supply has fluctuated since game release.

What could be causing the changes in supply? Well take a look at all of the previous updates. Notice how many champ farm locations were nerfed? Also notice the lull in content that provides loot? There’s also the drop in players to play ESO, Wildstar, taking a break, and so on. If course that is more observational as I don’t have access to player data.

I also want to point out from another thread that the sell price does not always mean it’s the real price of the item. There was a thread about TP manipulation of precursors where John Smith provided us data for the last 50 or so transactions. If someone wants to provide a link to it then please do as I honestly don’t care enough to search for that thread. The prices people were purchasing precursors for was much lower than what the sell price was. So also don’t dismiss an increase of precursor prices as being caused by overly ambitious sellers.

TL/DR;

Inflation is caused by changes in the money supply, not prices.
Demand and supply likely the reason.
Be aware of TP sellers artificially inflating the sell prices.

(edited by Ayrilana.1396)

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Posted by: Rouven.7409

Rouven.7409

Prices for backpieces have dropped 100%! We are in a period of massive deflation!

PANIC!

They are … free? Not even a trading post fee?

Wow. Why does this always happen when I am not logged in?

“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.”

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Posted by: Mckeone.9804

Mckeone.9804

Inflation can be caused by supply and demand – like CPI measures the change in the prices of a basket of goods, without regard to the cause of the change in prices. People just tend to flip out about monetary inflation because they tend to get crazy about “sound currency”/“monetary debasement”/Weimar Germany Hyperinflation-kitten -kitten facism tropes/ronpaul2016

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Posted by: Mortifer.2946

Mortifer.2946

Hi guys,
I crafted and sold Kraitkin, just to be able to buy Dusk before inflation pushes it up again. But now, when I’m sitting on a pile of gold, I somehow don’t want to spend 1000+ gold on it when it cost ~900g just a few weeks ago. Do you think the price will go back for a bit or just further up?

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Posted by: Obtena.7952

Obtena.7952

I’ve never seen John Smith post anything insightful. Or answer player questions with reasons as to why something is done or not done.

Each post comes across as:
“This is my baby, and being its mother I believe it has no flaws.”

And then the sycophants come in and cheer him on.

Maybe players shouldn’t ask the kind of questions or make the statements that deserve the kind of answers he gives. If people get their knowledge and background from a Cracker Jack’s box and use it to make conclusions about something as complex as the ingame economy and periodically press the same non-issues, they don’t really deserve insightful and respectable answers in the first place.

Good examples:

“I can’t afford a precursor, Inflation is to blame”
“Game doesn’t have good rewards”
“People that don’t camp TP can’t afford to buy stuff ingame”

and etc …. Someone should start a list.

(edited by Obtena.7952)

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Posted by: penatbater.4710

penatbater.4710

GW2 seems to have trouble figuring that out, which I think comes back to the issue that this game is economy focused instead of content focused. Every encounter is designed around how it will affect the economy instead of centered around the reward like in other MMO’s.

I dont think the game is economy-focused. But every single decision regarding rewards, loot, item WILL have an impact on the game economy. The fact is, you really do have to take into consideration the game economy, because a lot is hinged on that. I’d wager a poor economy turns people off faster than poor content. (case in point: count how many threads there are that complain about how a.) the market is screwed b.) difficult it is to get a certain reward vs the lameness of the dungeon, living world, game mechanics, etc.)

Don’t disturb me, I have a cat in me at the moment.

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Posted by: phys.7689

phys.7689

I’ve never seen John Smith post anything insightful. Or answer player questions with reasons as to why something is done or not done.

Each post comes across as:
“This is my baby, and being its mother I believe it has no flaws.”

And then the sycophants come in and cheer him on.

Maybe players shouldn’t ask the kind of questions or make the statements that deserve the kind of answers he gives. If people get their knowledge and background from a Cracker Jack’s box and use it to make conclusions about something as complex as the ingame economy and periodically press the same non-issues, they don’t really deserve insightful and respectable answers in the first place.

Good examples:

“I can’t afford a precursor, Inflation is to blame”
“Game doesn’t have good rewards”
“People that don’t camp TP can’t afford to buy stuff ingame”

and etc …. Someone should start a list.

If someone tells a doctor they got stabbed in the gut because 5+5 is 55. you could argue that 5+5 is not 55, but the fact remains he has an abdominal wound, the doctor shouldnt really be focusing on telling the guy to go back to school, and should be trying to deal with the wound.

Its exaggerated, but the even with a less exaggerated analogy, if some one goes to the doctor with an incorrect self diagnosis, the doctor isnt really helping the guy by telling him to go to medical school.

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Posted by: phys.7689

phys.7689

GW2 seems to have trouble figuring that out, which I think comes back to the issue that this game is economy focused instead of content focused. Every encounter is designed around how it will affect the economy instead of centered around the reward like in other MMO’s.

I dont think the game is economy-focused. But every single decision regarding rewards, loot, item WILL have an impact on the game economy. The fact is, you really do have to take into consideration the game economy, because a lot is hinged on that. I’d wager a poor economy turns people off faster than poor content. (case in point: count how many threads there are that complain about how a.) the market is screwed b.) difficult it is to get a certain reward vs the lameness of the dungeon, living world, game mechanics, etc.)

i disagree, many games have no economy, or poor economy and do better for it. If you design a game so that it stands on its own, without the economy, people wouldnt care about the economy. Its when you create a system where you cannot live without the economy that it becomes the main issue.

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Posted by: Mckeone.9804

Mckeone.9804

What games don’t have an economy? Single player games? All MMOs I can ever think over have some form of economic system, i.e., a method of exchanging goods/services/currency.

The fact is this game has one of the best economic systems because the TP design facilitates sufficient liquidity and forces price discovery out into the open. Most of the things people are kittening about concern the sad state of individual rewards and have a hard time grasping that the paltry individual rewards are balanced by the scale of the marketplace.

And just like in real life, there’s a vampire squid financial class that puts an inordinate amount of focus on the market because you can make massive profits off of general ignorance. People get mad because they see what they believe to be outsized rewards compared to the effort they put in at playing PvE/PvP/WvW, but discount the time and energy it takes to do anything on a scale that is going to net you more than a few gold here or there through simple arbitrage strategies like flipping or salvaging.

PS/Fake edit: disallowing trading and requiring all transactions to occur over the TP was one of the most brilliant, yet underappreciated moves. No longer do people have to guess about whether a price is, broadly speaking, fair. I do not miss having to yell “PC for X item” or find a trusted source in the vain hope I’m not going to get ripped off in a transaction.

(edited by Mckeone.9804)

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Posted by: Ayrilana.1396

Ayrilana.1396

If someone tells a doctor they got stabbed in the gut because 5+5 is 55. you could argue that 5+5 is not 55, but the fact remains he has an abdominal wound, the doctor shouldnt really be focusing on telling the guy to go back to school, and should be trying to deal with the wound.

Its exaggerated, but the even with a less exaggerated analogy, if some one goes to the doctor with an incorrect self diagnosis, the doctor isnt really helping the guy by telling him to go to medical school.

No. Your whole argument is hinging on the fact that a wound is a life threatening situation so of course a doctor will have to treat it. When you ignore the whole life threatening part, your argument falls apart. It’s also questionable as to whether this is a logical fallacy.

John Smith addressed a user who was arguing that high prices of precursors and such were caused by inflation. That user did not understand basic economic concepts and was arguing that there was an issue when there wasn’t for reasons that were incorrectly applied. With an understanding of basic economic concepts, it would be seen that there isn’t an issue and it’s what you would normally see in a market.

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Posted by: Obtena.7952

Obtena.7952

I’ve never seen John Smith post anything insightful. Or answer player questions with reasons as to why something is done or not done.

Each post comes across as:
“This is my baby, and being its mother I believe it has no flaws.”

And then the sycophants come in and cheer him on.

Maybe players shouldn’t ask the kind of questions or make the statements that deserve the kind of answers he gives. If people get their knowledge and background from a Cracker Jack’s box and use it to make conclusions about something as complex as the ingame economy and periodically press the same non-issues, they don’t really deserve insightful and respectable answers in the first place.

Good examples:

“I can’t afford a precursor, Inflation is to blame”
“Game doesn’t have good rewards”
“People that don’t camp TP can’t afford to buy stuff ingame”

and etc …. Someone should start a list.

If someone tells a doctor they got stabbed in the gut because 5+5 is 55. you could argue that 5+5 is not 55, but the fact remains he has an abdominal wound, the doctor shouldnt really be focusing on telling the guy to go back to school, and should be trying to deal with the wound.

Its exaggerated, but the even with a less exaggerated analogy, if some one goes to the doctor with an incorrect self diagnosis, the doctor isnt really helping the guy by telling him to go to medical school.

You’re analogy here isn’t accurate because no one here has an ‘self-diagnosed abdominal wound’. JS is simply telling these people in his ’doctor’s office’ to go home because whatever ‘thing’ it is they think they ail from isn’t real. It’s something imagined because it’s based on people’s perception, not data.

Furthermore, it’s not even his job to convince people they aren’t suffering from abdominal pains or diagnose them properly so in that sense, he’s not even a ‘doctor’. JS simply wants you to have faith he’s telling you the truth and that’s REASONABLE given his access to the data as well as his credentials.

(edited by Obtena.7952)

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Posted by: ZudetGambeous.9573

ZudetGambeous.9573

GW2 seems to have trouble figuring that out, which I think comes back to the issue that this game is economy focused instead of content focused. Every encounter is designed around how it will affect the economy instead of centered around the reward like in other MMO’s.

I dont think the game is economy-focused. But every single decision regarding rewards, loot, item WILL have an impact on the game economy. The fact is, you really do have to take into consideration the game economy, because a lot is hinged on that. I’d wager a poor economy turns people off faster than poor content. (case in point: count how many threads there are that complain about how a.) the market is screwed b.) difficult it is to get a certain reward vs the lameness of the dungeon, living world, game mechanics, etc.)

But it doesn’t have to be. Rewards in Wildstar, WoW, Rift, etc don’t have any effect on the economy. Gold is used for fluff and if you have bad luck and that is it. All end game items are drops that are immediately bound to your character as a reward for completing hard content. You level up crafting for the bonus it provides and some fun appearance/convenience items, but you can play the game from level 1 until you have maxed out raid gear and never once open the AH. Good luck getting ascended gear without the TP in GW2. That is where the difference comes in.

Granted I don’t personally have a problem with the TP. I am smart, and a quick learner and am able to follow price trends so I have plenty of money for what I want to do. But the average GW2 player only sees the difference between your standard MMO and this one, and there is a difference when it comes to the economy.

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Posted by: Obtena.7952

Obtena.7952

GW2 seems to have trouble figuring that out, which I think comes back to the issue that this game is economy focused instead of content focused. Every encounter is designed around how it will affect the economy instead of centered around the reward like in other MMO’s.

I dont think the game is economy-focused. But every single decision regarding rewards, loot, item WILL have an impact on the game economy. The fact is, you really do have to take into consideration the game economy, because a lot is hinged on that. I’d wager a poor economy turns people off faster than poor content. (case in point: count how many threads there are that complain about how a.) the market is screwed b.) difficult it is to get a certain reward vs the lameness of the dungeon, living world, game mechanics, etc.)

But it doesn’t have to be. Rewards in Wildstar, WoW, Rift, etc don’t have any effect on the economy. Gold is used for fluff and if you have bad luck and that is it.

Sounds like GW2 … Gold is also primarily used for fluff. You don’t need gold once you outfit yourself for whatever aspect of the game you want to play. Ascended gear is not needed for anything but the MOST difficult encounters only because of a specific gating stat to boot, not the increase of stats you get from the gear itself. That’s where the difference you speak of is a wash. Other games evolve around ever increasing tiers of more powerful gear. GW2 does not.

People need to understand that FUNDAMENTAL difference between GW2 and everything else before they start QQing about rewards, gold, inflation, economy, etc… most don’t. Once you come to realize that almost ALL game content is balanced around the rare/exotic-level of gear, you come to realize how silly crying about the difficulty of obtaining Ascended gear actually is.

(edited by Obtena.7952)

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Posted by: phys.7689

phys.7689

If someone tells a doctor they got stabbed in the gut because 5+5 is 55. you could argue that 5+5 is not 55, but the fact remains he has an abdominal wound, the doctor shouldnt really be focusing on telling the guy to go back to school, and should be trying to deal with the wound.

Its exaggerated, but the even with a less exaggerated analogy, if some one goes to the doctor with an incorrect self diagnosis, the doctor isnt really helping the guy by telling him to go to medical school.

No. Your whole argument is hinging on the fact that a wound is a life threatening situation so of course a doctor will have to treat it. When you ignore the whole life threatening part, your argument falls apart. It’s also questionable as to whether this is a logical fallacy.

John Smith addressed a user who was arguing that high prices of precursors and such were caused by inflation. That user did not understand basic economic concepts and was arguing that there was an issue when there wasn’t for reasons that were incorrectly applied. With an understanding of basic economic concepts, it would be seen that there isn’t an issue and it’s what you would normally see in a market.

It doesnt matter if its life threatening or not, even if you go to a doctor with a tummyache, hes supposed to try to see exactly whats wrong and offer the best solutions, even if you think its meningitis.

That said, i will accept that JS isnt really the doctor, its not literally his job to cure anyone. However, as the designer, and maintainer of an economy whose main purpose is to foster exchange AND make the user feel satisfied (more so than a real economy). He should be concerned if a signifigant portion of players are complaining of tummyaches when he is the nutritionist.

It could be nothing, but it could be something.

As for his response, my interpretation of the exchange was that the poster was saying that inflation should be measured on items of high demand, rather than overall, and basing that on the way some countries calculate inflation.

John smiths response was more to the effect of, inflation is within acceptable ranges in this game.

Which i dont really think is false, in a strict sense, but i think the reality in the street, is once you start looking towards the goals that are supposed to inspire/direct you to keep playing, players are seeing prices that grow faster than they like. And when the items are expensive enough, that rate of growth is uncomfortable when compared with their rate of earning.

but i dont think this can be avoided, we have come to a fairly unbalanced economy in terms of the haves and the have nots. Basically anything of value is marketed on top earner basis first and foremost, and they earn money faster than other people. Im not just speaking of TP barons, but anyone who is somewhat focused on the economic side of the game.

Someone who concentrates on earning gold amasses wealth at a considerably greater rate on average than those that do not. This means high end items are priced within thier demand curve first to them, and then filter out to everyone else, depending on time, and supply.

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Posted by: Obtena.7952

Obtena.7952

That said, i will accept that JS isnt really the doctor, its not literally his job to cure anyone. However, as the designer, and maintainer of an economy whose main purpose is to foster exchange AND make the user feel satisfied (more so than a real economy). He should be concerned if a signifigant portion of players are complaining of tummyaches when he is the nutritionist.

You don’t have any data to suggest that a significant portion of players are complaining. Let’s also not assume that it’s part of his job to make players feel like their nonsense conspiracy theories about their own failure is being corrected. Again, he’s already addressed people. It’s not clear what kind of ‘cure’ you are after but whatever it is, JS doesn’t have it.

but i dont think this can be avoided, we have come to a fairly unbalanced economy in terms of the haves and the have nots. Basically anything of value is marketed on top earner basis first and foremost, and they earn money faster than other people. Im not just speaking of TP barons, but anyone who is somewhat focused on the economic side of the game.

Someone who concentrates on earning gold amasses wealth at a considerably greater rate on average than those that do not. This means high end items are priced within thier demand curve first to them, and then filter out to everyone else, depending on time, and supply.

This is not indicative of an ailing economy. In fact, if it DIDN’T work this way, people would have a cause to complain about it.

(edited by Obtena.7952)

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Posted by: phys.7689

phys.7689

GW2 seems to have trouble figuring that out, which I think comes back to the issue that this game is economy focused instead of content focused. Every encounter is designed around how it will affect the economy instead of centered around the reward like in other MMO’s.

I dont think the game is economy-focused. But every single decision regarding rewards, loot, item WILL have an impact on the game economy. The fact is, you really do have to take into consideration the game economy, because a lot is hinged on that. I’d wager a poor economy turns people off faster than poor content. (case in point: count how many threads there are that complain about how a.) the market is screwed b.) difficult it is to get a certain reward vs the lameness of the dungeon, living world, game mechanics, etc.)

But it doesn’t have to be. Rewards in Wildstar, WoW, Rift, etc don’t have any effect on the economy. Gold is used for fluff and if you have bad luck and that is it.

Sounds like GW2 … Gold is also primarily used for fluff. You don’t need gold once you outfit yourself for whatever aspect of the game you want to play. Ascended gear is not needed for anything but the MOST difficult encounters only because of a specific gating stat to boot, not the increase of stats you get from the gear itself. That’s where the difference you speak of is a wash. Other games evolve around ever increasing tiers of more powerful gear. GW2 does not.

People need to understand that FUNDAMENTAL difference between GW2 and everything else before they start QQing about rewards, gold, inflation, economy, etc… most don’t. Once you come to realize that almost ALL game content is balanced around the rare/exotic-level of gear, you come to realize how silly crying about the difficulty of obtaining Ascended gear actually is.

the gear in other games is really just a gating mechanism, or an incentive. It doesnt really matter as much as the fact that their is teired content, it basically allows them to simulate a beat this level and progress to the harder new area thing.
GW2 has gear teirs, but it isnt leading you anywhere. I dont object to that in principle, but the problem is it does lead you, just not into playing the game in the best way. The best way to play gw2 reward wise, is to do the simplest easiest thing that generates the most equivalent value in gold. In other games, the best way to play is to do whatever they decide is the best things to do.

take a look at FFXI, they had no level cap raise for like 6 years? they had a functioning economy, although it had problems, but the best way to get rewarded? travel the world hunting rare NMs, or getting together to be Huge difficult NMs, or doing any of a number of instances with different themes that was difficult, or doing limited time challenges, a boss group battle, based on things you earned while going on regular adventures.

Rewards dont have to be about teirs, and they dont have to be designed primarily around the macro gold economy.

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Posted by: phys.7689

phys.7689

That said, i will accept that JS isnt really the doctor, its not literally his job to cure anyone. However, as the designer, and maintainer of an economy whose main purpose is to foster exchange AND make the user feel satisfied (more so than a real economy). He should be concerned if a signifigant portion of players are complaining of tummyaches when he is the nutritionist.

You don’t have any data to suggest that a significant portion of players are complaining. Let’s also not assume that it’s part of his job to make players feel like their nonsense conspiracy theories about their own failure is being corrected. Again, he’s already addressed people. It’s not clear what kind of ‘cure’ you are after but whatever it is, JS doesn’t have it.

but i dont think this can be avoided, we have come to a fairly unbalanced economy in terms of the haves and the have nots. Basically anything of value is marketed on top earner basis first and foremost, and they earn money faster than other people. Im not just speaking of TP barons, but anyone who is somewhat focused on the economic side of the game.

Someone who concentrates on earning gold amasses wealth at a considerably greater rate on average than those that do not. This means high end items are priced within thier demand curve first to them, and then filter out to everyone else, depending on time, and supply.

This is not indicative of an ailing economy. In fact, if it DIDN’T work this way, people would have a cause to complain about it.

you are right, it isnt indicative of an ailing real life economy, but it sucks as a game economy, because earning gold as fast as possible is not placed in the best designed parts of the game.

Thats what people are missing, you can have a functional economy, and still have bloody revolutions, great dissatisfaction etc.

As for my numbers, i have none, and even if i did, i wouldnt have the exit polls to tell what was the main reason for peoples departures, or decreases in spending. The fact that you dont have data does not mean that you are wrong though. You can say prove what you say, and i can say prove what you say, but there is no proof for nor against.

Your premise is that all the people complaining make up a small % of the people who have played the game, my belief is they make up a signifigant portion, which doesnt mean its like 50%, if only 15% of the people who left the game did so based on the rewards systems/economy/gold and 1 million people left the game, thats still 150,000 people. Thats more than total population of some MMOs, and if only 10% of those 150,000 spend 10-20 dollars a month, thats 150-300k a month lost.

so does it matter? maybe but its worth investigating, or thinking about regardless.

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Posted by: Ayrilana.1396

Ayrilana.1396

It doesnt matter if its life threatening or not, even if you go to a doctor with a tummyache, hes supposed to try to see exactly whats wrong and offer the best solutions, even if you think its meningitis.

Read the second paragraph of my post. The conclusion was that tree was nothing wrong and the user did not understand basic economic concepts. Hence why he was told to read up on them.

That said, i will accept that JS isnt really the doctor, its not literally his job to cure anyone. However, as the designer, and maintainer of an economy whose main purpose is to foster exchange AND make the user feel satisfied (more so than a real economy). He should be concerned if a signifigant portion of players are complaining of tummyaches when he is the nutritionist.

Sorry but a handful of people on the forum is not significant. I know the current generation was raised to think otherwise but it’s not true. Alluding back to my previous response, check the second paragraph of my post as well as my response above.

As for his response, my interpretation of the exchange was that the poster was saying that inflation should be measured on items of high demand, rather than overall, and basing that on the way some countries calculate inflation.

You cannot measure inflation on such a small number of items. It’d be like us trying to measure real world inflation on automobiles. It just doesn’t work like that. You have to take a much broader look over the entire economy. There are a lot of variables that could influence a particular item or group of items that have nothing to do with inflation.

He was trying to do an inflation index but lacked the knowledge of the economic principles behind it.

John smiths response was more to the effect of, inflation is within acceptable ranges in this game.

Yes and no.

Which i dont really think is false, in a strict sense, but i think the reality in the street, is once you start looking towards the goals that are supposed to inspire/direct you to keep playing, players are seeing prices that grow faster than they like. And when the items are expensive enough, that rate of growth is uncomfortable when compared with their rate of earning.

Yes but that does not mean inflation is the cause.

but i dont think this can be avoided, we have come to a fairly unbalanced economy in terms of the haves and the have nots. Basically anything of value is marketed on top earner basis first and foremost, and they earn money faster than other people. Im not just speaking of TP barons, but anyone who is somewhat focused on the economic side of the game.

That’s in every economy and it’s supposed to be “unbalanced” in the way you stated. Just look to the real world’s economy.

Someone who concentrates on earning gold amasses wealth at a considerably greater rate on average than those that do not. This means high end items are priced within thier demand curve first to them, and then filter out to everyone else, depending on time, and supply.

Of course they earn more as the should. If people want more gold, they have to put in the time and effort for it. There’s also a very smaller percentage of players that have a lot of gold compared to the rest of the player base. With only needing to get a legendary once for the skin, and the few people with large amounts of good compared to the player-base, their impact is negligible.

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Posted by: Ensign.2189

Ensign.2189

Hi guys,
I crafted and sold Kraitkin, just to be able to buy Dusk before inflation pushes it up again. But now, when I’m sitting on a pile of gold, I somehow don’t want to spend 1000+ gold on it when it cost ~900g just a few weeks ago. Do you think the price will go back for a bit or just further up?

Relative to the price of T5 mats, high end precursors are very cheap right now. The margin going to the forgers and crafters is the lowest I have seen in ~15 months of watching that market closely.

In the absence of a big supply shock (presumably from a patch) I don’t see anything indicating that prices should fall any time soon. This is not a market where I’d expect demand to drop over time in the short run, material prices are high, and the production chain is crazy efficient. There just isn’t room for them to fall but plenty of room for them to rise.

Unless you’re betting on a big patch disrupting the market I’d keep a buy order active at the 3 day low.

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Posted by: phys.7689

phys.7689

It doesnt matter if its life threatening or not, even if you go to a doctor with a tummyache, hes supposed to try to see exactly whats wrong and offer the best solutions, even if you think its meningitis.

Read the second paragraph of my post. The conclusion was that tree was nothing wrong and the user did not understand basic economic concepts. Hence why he was told to read up on them.

That said, i will accept that JS isnt really the doctor, its not literally his job to cure anyone. However, as the designer, and maintainer of an economy whose main purpose is to foster exchange AND make the user feel satisfied (more so than a real economy). He should be concerned if a signifigant portion of players are complaining of tummyaches when he is the nutritionist.

Sorry but a handful of people on the forum is not significant. I know the current generation was raised to think otherwise but it’s not true. Alluding back to my previous response, check the second paragraph of my post as well as my response above.

As for his response, my interpretation of the exchange was that the poster was saying that inflation should be measured on items of high demand, rather than overall, and basing that on the way some countries calculate inflation.

You cannot measure inflation on such a small number of items. It’d be like us trying to measure real world inflation on automobiles. It just doesn’t work like that. You have to take a much broader look over the entire economy. There are a lot of variables that could influence a particular item or group of items that have nothing to do with inflation.

He was trying to do an inflation index but lacked the knowledge of the economic principles behind it.

John smiths response was more to the effect of, inflation is within acceptable ranges in this game.

Yes and no.

Which i dont really think is false, in a strict sense, but i think the reality in the street, is once you start looking towards the goals that are supposed to inspire/direct you to keep playing, players are seeing prices that grow faster than they like. And when the items are expensive enough, that rate of growth is uncomfortable when compared with their rate of earning.

Yes but that does not mean inflation is the cause.

but i dont think this can be avoided, we have come to a fairly unbalanced economy in terms of the haves and the have nots. Basically anything of value is marketed on top earner basis first and foremost, and they earn money faster than other people. Im not just speaking of TP barons, but anyone who is somewhat focused on the economic side of the game.

That’s in every economy and it’s supposed to be “unbalanced” in the way you stated. Just look to the real world’s economy.

Someone who concentrates on earning gold amasses wealth at a considerably greater rate on average than those that do not. This means high end items are priced within thier demand curve first to them, and then filter out to everyone else, depending on time, and supply.

Of course they earn more as the should. If people want more gold, they have to put in the time and effort for it. There’s also a very smaller percentage of players that have a lot of gold compared to the rest of the player base. With only needing to get a legendary once for the skin, and the few people with large amounts of good compared to the player-base, their impact is negligible.

what i get from this exchange is you believe in gold focused gaming. This is why everything seems good to you, you expect the game economy to mirror our economy. The thing you are not getting, is there are signifigant number of people who do not like gold focused gaming, and thus the type of system that rewards doing whatever makes the most gold, over whatever is the best content, does not entertain them in a game.

There is also a signifigant number of people who dont really like our real life economy, or the choices we have to make in it. Mirroring a real life economy in a game means you will mirror its faults as well as its strengths.

and it really isnt in every economy, its dominant in our economy, but not so much in others. I think many people want gold to trade with others, and get things they dont get on their own, but they also want their adventures to feel like they have value, and be entertained.

See the key here is a game is about entertainment, the game is best played by ignoring the rewards, or just learning to balance grind versus fun for many people, thats not really that optimal.

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Posted by: Obtena.7952

Obtena.7952

The best way to play gw2 reward wise, is to do the simplest easiest thing that generates the most equivalent value in gold. In other games, the best way to play is to do whatever they decide is the best things to do.

That’s true of any game and it’s not actually a problem in GW2 because the rewards obtained from doing stuff are varied enough that players do choose other things if their only goal isn’t to make gold. It’s even debatable what the best way to make gold is in this game, so even if gold was the only reward people desired, they would STILL participate in many different activities according to what they like to do.

I don’t see the effect of optimized farming you are referring to; there are lots of people doing all kinds of different things. Therefore, I can’t help but think that while what you say could happen, it’s not happening.

(edited by Obtena.7952)

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Posted by: pdavis.8031

pdavis.8031

“You know what the chain of command is?
It’s the chain I beat you with until you
recognize my command!”

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Posted by: Ayrilana.1396

Ayrilana.1396

what i get from this exchange is you believe in gold focused gaming. This is why everything seems good to you, you expect the game economy to mirror our economy. The thing you are not getting, is there are signifigant number of people who do not like gold focused gaming, and thus the type of system that rewards doing whatever makes the most gold, over whatever is the best content, does not entertain them in a game.

There is also a signifigant number of people who dont really like our real life economy, or the choices we have to make in it. Mirroring a real life economy in a game means you will mirror its faults as well as its strengths.

and it really isnt in every economy, its dominant in our economy, but not so much in others. I think many people want gold to trade with others, and get things they dont get on their own, but they also want their adventures to feel like they have value, and be entertained.

See the key here is a game is about entertainment, the game is best played by ignoring the rewards, or just learning to balance grind versus fun for many people, thats not really that optimal.

Ummm… yeah. This has absolutely nothing to do with this thread nor my posts.

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Posted by: phys.7689

phys.7689

what i get from this exchange is you believe in gold focused gaming. This is why everything seems good to you, you expect the game economy to mirror our economy. The thing you are not getting, is there are signifigant number of people who do not like gold focused gaming, and thus the type of system that rewards doing whatever makes the most gold, over whatever is the best content, does not entertain them in a game.

There is also a signifigant number of people who dont really like our real life economy, or the choices we have to make in it. Mirroring a real life economy in a game means you will mirror its faults as well as its strengths.

and it really isnt in every economy, its dominant in our economy, but not so much in others. I think many people want gold to trade with others, and get things they dont get on their own, but they also want their adventures to feel like they have value, and be entertained.

See the key here is a game is about entertainment, the game is best played by ignoring the rewards, or just learning to balance grind versus fun for many people, thats not really that optimal.

Ummm… yeah. This has absolutely nothing to do with this thread nor my posts.

The point is the thread is as you say, how the user feels about the value of top end items, does not necessarily reflect strict inflation.

The fact, is within this system it is normal and even fine that certain items prices fall out of reach, as the earning/gold by the top players increases. This isnt really inflation, because its normal that the people with more money can buy the best item.

The point is you are saying the economy is functioning as it should, and are missing the point that the economy functioning close to a real economy is not necessarily a very satisfying experience for the user. And the main purpose of this economy is to be satisfying for the user, unlike our economy whose main purpose is very different.

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Posted by: Ayrilana.1396

Ayrilana.1396

The point is the thread is as you say, how the user feels about the value of top end items, does not necessarily reflect strict inflation.

The fact, is within this system it is normal and even fine that certain items prices fall out of reach, as the earning/gold by the top players increases. This isnt really inflation, because its normal that the people with more money can buy the best item.

The point is you are saying the economy is functioning as it should, and are missing the point that the economy functioning close to a real economy is not necessarily a very satisfying experience for the user. And the main purpose of this economy is to be satisfying for the user, unlike our economy whose main purpose is very different.

No. It’s not about how a player feels. That whole subjective concept is something you introduced into this thread. The thread was created as a complaint that prices appeared to be rising more than gold could be earned blaming inflation and that there were not enough gold sinks to prevent this.

Others then chimed in who did not know basic economic concepts (the same as if I entered a quantum mechanics discussion when I knew nothing about it) and made it off as there’s rampant inflation going on based off the sell prices of a handful of items. Not once did they think to check for underlying factors that could be causing price increases in a few items.

Prices of items and how much the top players make have little to no correlation. Prices of items are determined by how much demand there are for them and the supply. There’s obviously much more to it than that but I wanted to point out that how much a few people have, and their ability to purchase items, does not influence the price of said items. The only way those few individuals could affect the price is if they manipulated the supply.

No, I am not missing the point. You don’t understand the role of the economy/market. Your reasoning reminds me of socialism. I also don’t see where it was ever stated that the economy in this game was specifically supposed to benefit all users. Please cite your source.