Guild Wars 2

I know there are a ton of posts in this forum with regards to this topic, but in hopes that ANet actually reads this forum, I’d like to post my own proposal to fix the rampant issues that exist in GW2.

I see the base of problem in this game currently being two things which are really closely tied together: bots and gold sellers. Normally, I’m on the other side of these issues (defense of game company on action vs bots/gold sellers), because I find the bots and gold sellers to be nothing more than a red herring — they look like the source of the problem because it’s in your face, but their impacts are rarely too small in the big picture. But as I’ve witnessed personally in guild wars 2, there are lot of bots, and it often feels like bots sometimes out-populate real players, especially on unpopular maps. Sometimes it would be so bad that I’d see over 30~40 bots in a single map and a single digit of human players. They’re there 24/7 and days after I’ve reported them; a force much greater than humans.

As it currently stands, gold sellers out-price gem to gold by roughly 4 to 1 as far as I’ve seen. In other words (in example numbers), if a gem to gold will net you 10 gold for $10, the same $10 will get you 40 gold at gold sellers. I’m sure they’re having a good business selling these gold and goes into a cycle of heavier investment for them to sell more gold and farm more via any means, including bots and stealing accounts.

I believe this disparity exists and continues to widen because gems are worthless. And while ANet keeps on claiming that the gem to gold ratio is determined by supply and demand of the players, they often seem to forget that ANet is not free of neither supply or demand. So while it’s true that gem prices are from supply and demand, to say that ANet has no control over their price is simply wrong.

If I were supplied $10 worth of gems, I’d be much more inclined to convert these gems to gold than to keep it as gems even at a huge loss due to fees (which also hinders gem/gold trade, but that’ll be for another day). There’s nothing in the gem store that I really want. And even if I did, it doesn’t cost that much to get it. Gold on the other hand has countless usages. All the top gears also require a huge amount of gold. There’s a reason to have gold and a lot of it. There is few reason to have gems and virtually none to get a lot of it.

So, my proposal is actually very simple. Add more stuff to the gem store. A lot more, and make some of them really expensive, for the sake of making the value of gems equivalent to gold, or at least close to. Then more people will convert their gold to gems, then gem to gold prices will also increase naturally. Eventually, the difference between the gold sellers and the TP will decrease and motive to buy from them will decrease. Wasn’t that the very purpose of allowing real money transactions in the first place?

As it stands today, gems cannot realistically compete with gold because the supply isn’t that much in demand. ANet should compete with the gold sellers and win, not simply try to regulate. Because ultimately, the market forces are much stronger than any regulation. Until ANet can realistically compete versus gold sellers, until ANet significantly improves on their regulation; gold sellers will continue to exist, and they will thrive. And the players and the game economy will suffer because it will become more and more impossible to achieve our goals because the prices inflate much faster than we can possibly earn.

Thanks for reading.

Grumpy.8365:

I see the base of problem in this game currently being two things which are really closely tied together: bots and gold sellers.

<snip>

But as I’ve witnessed personally in guild wars 2, there are lot of bots, and it often feels like bots sometimes out-populate real players, especially on unpopular maps. Sometimes it would be so bad that I’d see over 30~40 bots in a single map and a single digit of human players. They’re there 24/7 and days after I’ve reported them; a force much greater than humans.

According to this thread — https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/bltc/Recent-Market-Shifts — ArenaNet has “recently begun a renewed campaign against RMT and Bots. The change in these markets is a direct result of the success of that campaign.”

I personally haven’t seen any armies of bots running around in the past few days, but I know that one person’s experience compared to the entire playerbase is statistically insignificant. Maybe I’m playing at the wrong time, or in the wrong zones.

However, the multiple “Why has the price of ______ spiked?” threads in this sub-forum this week, combined with the above linked thread, suggest that ArenaNet’s campaign IS working. Here’s hoping that they keep on top of the problem!

Grumpy.8365:

So, my proposal is actually very simple. Add more stuff to the gem store. A lot more, and make some of them really expensive, for the sake of making the value of gems equivalent to gold, or at least close to. Then more people will convert their gold to gems, then gem to gold prices will also increase naturally. Eventually, the difference between the gold sellers and the TP will decrease and motive to buy from them will decrease. Wasn’t that the very purpose of allowing real money transactions in the first place?

So very much this… By improving the desirability of items in the gem store, ArenaNet increases the demand for gems for both direct sales and gold → gem transfers. This leads to a higher gem → gold exchange rate, which benefits those players who are willing to use legitimate means to buy gold.

We saw some of this in action with the halloween offerings and the corresponding jump in the gem → gold exchange rate. It just needs to be an ongoing process.

Most of the crap in the store is massively overpriced too. Bring down the consumables to a considerate level and add things WORTH buying, especially vanity stuff. As is? I’ll buy a character slot or two, and some bank enhancements, and that’s about it. The rest of the stuff is absurdly priced, especially when thinking in value of real money, not just gold.

Ars Valde.8693:

Most of the crap in the store is massively overpriced too. Bring down the consumables to a considerate level and add things WORTH buying, especially vanity stuff. As is? I’ll buy a character slot or two, and some bank enhancements, and that’s about it. The rest of the stuff is absurdly priced, especially when thinking in value of real money, not just gold.

I do think that item pricing is one of the things that ArenaNet will need to keep an eye on with their gem store. Some of the account improvement prices aren’t too bad (in my opinion… YMMV), but I’m not likely to buy many of the consumables at curent prices.

Astraea.6075:

Ars Valde.8693:

Most of the crap in the store is massively overpriced too. Bring down the consumables to a considerate level and add things WORTH buying, especially vanity stuff. As is? I’ll buy a character slot or two, and some bank enhancements, and that’s about it. The rest of the stuff is absurdly priced, especially when thinking in value of real money, not just gold.

I do think that item pricing is one of the things that ArenaNet will need to keep an eye on with their gem store. Some of the account improvement prices aren’t too bad (in my opinion… YMMV), but I’m not likely to buy many of the consumables at curent prices.

Just, when broken down into direct cost, and then further when compared to the amount of gold they cost, most of the boosts seem underpowered for their cost. I could see getting 3 Karma boosters for 75 gems, or even 5, considering that directly 75 gems is nearly a dollar. I can also see the Black Lion Keys being -much- cheaper, as the value from the chests are not all that great. I know I’d personally spend more money in the store if some things were brought down, specifically the consumables, and some of the vanity items as well. Not to mention dyes being completely overpriced.

For example: For 275 Gems I get a Dye pack, of 5 common and 2 uncommon/rare dyes. Nice, right? Except for the conversion costs to buy those gems, which currently 2g25s = 275 gems as of this posting, I can get nearly 30 dyes for the same amount. I can’t say how much converted Gems to Gold it would be, but as long as it was somewhere near 1g or more you’d have nearly double the buying capacity to purchase unidentified dyes directly off the market. I understand the market is still adjusting (and adjusting upward specifically for dyes at the moment since the ‘bug’ fix) but it still doesnt make any sense to actually buy from the store.

I just feel they overcharge quite a bit for novelty items, or consumables.