Guild Wars 2

So, I’ve recently decided to get back into MMOs after a recent Extra Credits episode.

As I’m jumping into GW2 after a long break, I’m wondering how the economy has been effected in this time, specifically in the ways listed in the episode— how has inflation effected the economy, and what design changes have been done in recent times to combat it?

Depends on who you talk to. There are far too many that are convinced that the games economy is severely broken, and super inflated. Mostly because of precursor prices, and the gem exchange (which are not indicators of inflation at all). I feel that the economy is doing rather well, even though prices may be rising a bit, but these are generally rare, high demand items and the rising price is more of an indicator of that than anything else. I highly recommend check out this thread (https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/bltc/I-have-a-question-about-the-economy/page/13#post4421737). John Smith, and others, have had some great insights into the economy and how it is working.

Welcome back!

IMO, economy is good.

Yes, prices are inflated, in some cases higher than 100%. But this is not due to currency inflation but due to demand inflation.

Unfortunately, however, gold acquisition has been nerfed considerably over the past 2 years.

I think economy is doing good.

Some of the inflation(item spike in price) is probably intended… Most of the item spiked in price are more luxury items. Like Vol said it is more demand inflation targeting specific items. For example a few of the items used in collection achievement have spiked in price.

I don’t know how long you are taking about, but you can look at the price of ectoplasm as a proxy so see that there has been a constant slow inflation in the game since the introduction of champion bags. But, nothing so big that your old wealth is worthless.

Short term, last week’s changes to the trading post seem to have altered player behavior significantly, and there is uncertainty about how they will play out inflationary or deflationary.

every time i see an extra credits linked, i end up watching several more >.>

laokoko.7403:

demand inflation targeting specific items.

And that is really the key here on why John Smith states that inflation is under control. Most items have not increased a lot in value over the years in the game.

http://www.gw2spidy.com/item/19697
http://www.gw2spidy.com/item/19699
http://www.gw2spidy.com/item/19700

While some others have. Honestly I was looking for a legendary example however most of them over the games lifetime have stated relatively level within a margin of error due to the value of the item.

nekretaal.6485:

I don’t know how long you are taking about, but you can look at the price of ectoplasm as a proxy so see that there has been a constant slow inflation in the game since the introduction of champion bags. But, nothing so big that your old wealth is worthless.

Short term, last week’s changes to the trading post seem to have altered player behavior significantly, and there is uncertainty about how they will play out inflationary or deflationary.

Ectoplasm is a exception to the generalization. See links above for less demanded commodities. Ectos are designed to be that other currency specified in the video.

EDIT: Corrected what John Smith stated.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/bltc/I-have-a-question-about-the-economy/page/7#post4286615

anzenketh.3759:

Ectoplasm is a exception to the generalization.

Ectoplasm is the single biggest market (in terms of total value traded) and ties into almost everything. It’s really sensitive to what happens patch to patch.

We’ve seen, what, a 10%, 15% increase in average ecto prices over the past year? It wouldn’t shock me if that long term movement was reflecting inflation, but in the shorter run (on the order of months) the price is reflecting individual shocks from patches; I’d be very wary of using it as a barometer for aggregate prices due to that.

Zodai.6874:

As I’m jumping into GW2 after a long break, I’m wondering how the economy has been effected in this time, specifically in the ways listed in the episode— how has inflation effected the economy, and what design changes have been done in recent times to combat it?

Inflation in GW2 is pretty modest. Unless you quit really early on in the game when the vast majority of players were still leveling their first character, prices aren’t going to look all that much different than they did a year ago, on average. There have been some big content patches that have moved demand around, so specific items have surged or crashed in price. But in general it hasn’t moved too much.

If you left the game a year ago with a lot of your wealth in gold, you’ll still have buying power coming back today.

Inflation doesn’t have a huge effect on the GW2 economy, and there haven’t been any design changes to address the non-issue. Most MMOs have major economic issues baked into their foundation that lead to serious inflation or deflation; GW2 does not. This is not actually all that difficult to solve if you start thinking about it from the beginning, which the GW2 team did. It’s honestly more surprising that their competitors keep failing to ask someone with even a basic understanding of economics to take a look at their systems.

Ensign.2189:

anzenketh.3759:

Ectoplasm is a exception to the generalization.

Ectoplasm is the single biggest market (in terms of total value traded) and ties into almost everything. It’s really sensitive to what happens patch to patch.

We’ve seen, what, a 10%, 15% increase in average ecto prices over the past year? It wouldn’t shock me if that long term movement was reflecting inflation, but in the shorter run (on the order of months) the price is reflecting individual shocks from patches; I’d be very wary of using it as a barometer for aggregate prices due to that.

I had to revise my post and read yours a few times to understand that you were agreeing with my viewpoint.

anzenketh.3759:

I had to revise my post and read yours a few times to understand that you were agreeing with my viewpoint.

Hahah yeah. Not the most clear.

I don’t know how you can look at a plot of the price of ecto and see ‘slow steady rise in prices’. There are tons of structural hills and valleys in there.

Over long enough periods where those smooth out I imagine that underlying trend would look kind of like the inflation rate, since ecto is tied into so many markets.

Howver, those hills and valleys have little to do with inflation and a lot to do with idiosyncrasies of different facets of the ecto market.

Almost no one here is like what I am going to say…….

It’s ok, but it could be better. There have been some of the elements mentioned in that video to which Anet has implemented.

For example high end consumables, but the fine line of balance there seems to be lacking. In other words the use of these are overshadowed by the high cost…..ie they are not used as much as they might be if the required cost were lowered. The implications of such can be described via diminishing returns. It seems like there wasn’t any consideration for this when the costs were decided upon.

Repair costs have been removed Pvp rewards have been introduced. So there have been sinks and faucets balanced (I hope) out. We also have the TP tax, which I didn’t see mention in the video, that acts as a major sink. Although we have very little direct farming to rein in item scarcity. So the effects of the inflation we have can be amplified onto certain items.

While the individual playing content is effect by inflation and limited to their own production, they have very little ability to have an effect on any item prices. Those that use the TP (or convert loads of rl cash, or play excessively to an extent) to exponential advantage on the other hand have the ability to amplify the effect of inflation onto certain items. This is what most players see when they complain about inflation. Is it inflation…not really. It’s more of an after effect of it made possible via the fore mentioned avenues.

There’s a lot more to it all, but I’ll leave it there for this single post.