The Sinister Market Manipulator

The Sinister Market Manipulator

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Posted by: Nike.2631

Nike.2631

I farm sparks regularly. The temple is frequently (I’d even dare to say ‘near constantly’) under Pact control on my server, and since it can be solo’d by cafinated-lunatics, its not typically that hard to amass 3-5 with map chat shout outs to git’r done.

I DO still feel like I’m getting thrashed with some sort of anti-farming DR bug (most of my lodestones drop inthe first 5-10 minutes of a harvest), but I advance my evil plot to one day have Infinite Light in little fits and stats. While I feel the drop rate is too low (I don’t enjoy going days without seeing one drop with the number of hours I put in), I am mightily interested in a kharma, laurels, or even gems-based vendor that will create something of a soft cap on their Trading Post price.

Offer’s still on the table ANet: let me buy random 3-packs of cores (to be upgraded to lodestones at my own in-game expense) for 200 gems a pack and I will hand you wads of cash. Obscene Wads. Possibly even profane wads of money (movie reference, don’t worry if you didnt’ catch it).

As a person who actually farms the things rather than buy them… I think the price is still too low. They have a time-spent equivalence to other gold grinding activities much closer to 6g a drop, and I personally would never sell mine for less than 8g a piece. You heard it here from a guy in the trenches – 4g is CHEAP for the effort involved.

“You keep saying ‘its unfair.’
I wonder what your basis for comparison is…”
- Jareth, King of Goblins.

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Posted by: Smooth Penguin.5294

Smooth Penguin.5294

There are so many people who feel entitled to easy mode. While I would personally LOVE to have lodestones drop a lot, I understand the concept of “Common”, “Uncommon”, and “Rare”, so I can see why people complain so much.

The thing that makes rare items so desirable, be it in the game or in real life, is the status connected to them. Thus, people will have a strong desire to get them, and will demand the world be flipped upside down to satisfy their own personal needs. Have a Louis Vuitton bag? That woman sure is stylish, I want one too! Have a Ferrari? That dude is living the good life, sure wish I were him. Have Twilight? Wow let me take screen caps of you spinning it around on your Guardian and then petition Anet to make it super easy for everyone to get.

But should something be so easy to get, and then everyone has it, that single fact will diminish the “awe factor” of owning one in the first place. The item is no longer rare, so why covet it so much? They’ll just move on to the next rare thing, and then complain about that. It would be an endless cycle of griefing from a small percentage of the population.

Let me repeat something that MANY players have said already. Legendary weapons are a LONG TERM GOAL. Just because someone has one at the beginning on a new game, doesn’t mean everyone is entitled to it. Certain people worked hard early to get the Mystic Forge recipe, then worked even harder to farm all the mats needed.

John has said that there’s nothing out of reach, and he’s correct. Play the game, and in time, you too can have the good stuff. If you can’t get your lodestones by tomorrow, aim for next week, or next month, or next year. Can’t farm a temple? Find an alternative way to get the drops. Still not happy? You have the option to buy them off of the TP. Don’t wanna give gold to people selling? Then find something else fun to do.

In GW2, Trading Post plays you!

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Posted by: OmniPotentes.4817

OmniPotentes.4817

There are so many people who feel entitled to easy mode. While I would personally LOVE to have lodestones drop a lot, I understand the concept of “Common”, “Uncommon”, and “Rare”, so I can see why people complain so much.

The thing that makes rare items so desirable, be it in the game or in real life, is the status connected to them. Thus, people will have a strong desire to get them, and will demand the world be flipped upside down to satisfy their own personal needs. Have a Louis Vuitton bag? That woman sure is stylish, I want one too! Have a Ferrari? That dude is living the good life, sure wish I were him. Have Twilight? Wow let me take screen caps of you spinning it around on your Guardian and then petition Anet to make it super easy for everyone to get.

But should something be so easy to get, and then everyone has it, that single fact will diminish the “awe factor” of owning one in the first place. The item is no longer rare, so why covet it so much? They’ll just move on to the next rare thing, and then complain about that. It would be an endless cycle of griefing from a small percentage of the population.

Let me repeat something that MANY players have said already. Legendary weapons are a LONG TERM GOAL. Just because someone has one at the beginning on a new game, doesn’t mean everyone is entitled to it. Certain people worked hard early to get the Mystic Forge recipe, then worked even harder to farm all the mats needed.

John has said that there’s nothing out of reach, and he’s correct. Play the game, and in time, you too can have the good stuff. If you can’t get your lodestones by tomorrow, aim for next week, or next month, or next year. Can’t farm a temple? Find an alternative way to get the drops. Still not happy? You have the option to buy them off of the TP. Don’t wanna give gold to people selling? Then find something else fun to do.

By “working hard” your not referring to bugs exploitation like the godskull weapons; pre-nerf dr farming; Karka event fiasco with lucky precursor drops and playing the TP are you?

Please; it takes much more time and effort to currently make a Legendary than it did 3 months ago. Is it unfair of me for wanting to achieve such a Legendary goal with the same ease those people did?

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Posted by: plasmacutter.2709

plasmacutter.2709

As for the crying about “everyone getting it”, again, it’s psychologically unhealthy to be proud of something only because you know it is denied to others, but many people seem to have bounded rationality in this way, hence what I am clarifying above.

Are you an elementary school teacher? This statement is completely and utterly wrong. If you enter a state or national competition, are you not proud when you win a 1st place medal? You earned it over the other 1000 competitors. According to your logic, this is a ridiculous way to go about things. Everyone should have medals! It’s unhealthy to be proud of the fact that everyone else is denied a medal except yourself.

People already get their participation certificate: Full exotics are very easy to obtain with the money from a single 100% map completion. Legendaries give no additional stats, no additional game features, no additional anything. They are purely cosmetic. They can be thought of analogously to the first place trophy described above.

So no: legendaries should be exclusive only to the tip-top skilled and/or dedicated percentile of players who really “deserve” a weapon with the status of LEGENDARY. I know this grinds against your carebear elementary school mentality, but you have to accept that there is something in GW2 that can’t be obtained by your average no-lifer just ’cause he played ’lots.

edit: Working on my first legendary

The “elementary school teacher” comment is not conducive to a civil discussion.

Repeat after me please:

This Is A Game

Say it three times.

1game noun \?g?m\

Definition of GAME

1
a (1) : activity engaged in for diversion or amusement

Life in most of the world is typified by forced competition to survive, and this game is supposed to provide diversion from an increasingly harsh reality.

In the real world, only one person can be “on top”, and those who evaluate their self-worth entirely based on their position relative to others are in for a very unhealthy, miserable existence no matter how wealthy they are.

It’s much better to develop early on a concept of self-advancement through personal excellence and pursuing one’s own interests rather than worrying about what others have or want. This approach to life generally works in the real world, even if it does not result in massive material wealth, though due to harsh realities, there are some who are denied the ability to advance themselves in this mindset as well.

In a game, however, there is Zero Reason Period to deny people the capacity to advance along their personal agenda.

ANet has made a mistake here in that every weapon with truly unique visual qualities is tied to lodestones that break 1k per stack. It’s one thing to have a few for those whose personal ambition is to flaunt wealth, but for the rest with healthier outlooks on life and just want to feel like they’re getting somewhere it’s simply unrewarding at all.

“So no: legendaries should be exclusive only to the tip-top skilled and/or dedicated percentile of players who really “deserve” a weapon with the status of LEGENDARY"

On that note, where are the weapons tied to only very large, epic events.? Where are the weapons tied to being the last one standing in a 10 v 1 wvw encounter? Where are the weapons tied to completing every jumping puzzle in the game (and where is it’s cooler brother for doing them timed)?

The only thing “legendary” about these weapons is the size of their carriers’ wallets, which is highly underwhelming.

To John Smith, if you are still reading, and anyone else on this thread claiming people who can do math and want to be able to advance are after “easy-mode”

In my personal normal play, I have received 2 corrupted lodestones and one charged, and an equally small handful of cores. If I am to advance through my own drops, that would mean, at an average of 0.5 lodestones per month, it will take me 16 years to craft any recipe which requires just 100 of these.

That, in terms of MMO expected lifetimes, is what we term ‘unobtainable’.

You want to get rich in the game and flaunt it it’s fine with me, but the in-game rewards for showing it should not be the only in-game rewards worth having. I guarantee nobody would care how rich someone got in-game if it was not at the expense of the majority’s progression (just as most small-town americans don’t care if your postage-stamp sized SF condo is worth a cool 10 million). This is as much a fault of the game’s designers as it is with the people who cynically manipulate the market to make others poorer.

(edited by plasmacutter.2709)

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Posted by: Syeria.4812

Syeria.4812

To John Smith, if you are still reading, and anyone else on this thread claiming people who can do math and want to be able to advance are after “easy-mode”

In my personal normal play, I have received 2 corrupted lodestones and one charged, and an equally small handful of cores. If I am to advance through my own drops, that would mean, at an average of 0.5 lodestones per month, it will take me 16 years to craft any recipe which requires just 100 of these.

That, in terms of MMO expected lifetimes, is what we term ‘unobtainable’.

You want to get rich in the game and flaunt it it’s fine with me, but the in-game rewards for showing it should not be the only in-game rewards worth having. I guarantee nobody would care how rich someone got in-game if it was not at the expense of the majority’s progression (just as most small-town americans don’t care if your postage-stamp sized SF condo is worth a cool 10 million). This is as much a fault of the game’s designers as it is with the people who cynically manipulate the market to make others poorer.

Then you’re “doing it wrong.” Without any deliberate farming, just absolute normal play, I have received (counting promotion of core drops) 2 Charged Lodestones, 5 Destroyer Lodestones, 7 Molten Lodestones, 2 Corrupted Lodestones, 4 Onyx Lodestones, and a ridiculous number of Crystal and Glacial Lodestones in the month of January alone. At those rates, it would take me between 1 and 4 years to accidentally accumulate the lodestones for one of those recipes.

That is to say, without actually attempting to get these items, and without purchasing anything from the trading post, I would be able to attain any of those items within a reasonable amount of time considering the scope of the game. Again, EVEN WITHOUT PUTTING IN EFFORT, I would be able to have those items. What you’re describing is either a demand for “easy mode” or simply a personal problem.

Nothing you have said has made even the slightest bit of a reasonable argument as to why things may be too difficult to obtain. It’s entirely possible that there is an argument there or even that it’s true that the lodestones are too difficult to obtain. However, you are not making that argument, and judging from your constant pigheaded comments, outright refusal to consider any statements contrary to your beliefs, and constant personal demands of Anet, I don’t believe you are capable of making such an argument.

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Posted by: plasmacutter.2709

plasmacutter.2709

To John Smith, if you are still reading, and anyone else on this thread claiming people who can do math and want to be able to advance are after “easy-mode”

In my personal normal play, I have received 2 corrupted lodestones and one charged, and an equally small handful of cores. If I am to advance through my own drops, that would mean, at an average of 0.5 lodestones per month, it will take me 16 years to craft any recipe which requires just 100 of these.

That, in terms of MMO expected lifetimes, is what we term ‘unobtainable’.

You want to get rich in the game and flaunt it it’s fine with me, but the in-game rewards for showing it should not be the only in-game rewards worth having. I guarantee nobody would care how rich someone got in-game if it was not at the expense of the majority’s progression (just as most small-town americans don’t care if your postage-stamp sized SF condo is worth a cool 10 million). This is as much a fault of the game’s designers as it is with the people who cynically manipulate the market to make others poorer.

Then you’re “doing it wrong.” Without any deliberate farming, just absolute normal play, I have received (counting promotion of core drops) 2 Charged Lodestones, 5 Destroyer Lodestones, 7 Molten Lodestones, 2 Corrupted Lodestones, 4 Onyx Lodestones, and a ridiculous number of Crystal and Glacial Lodestones in the month of January alone. At those rates, it would take me between 1 and 4 years to accidentally accumulate the lodestones for one of those recipes.

That is to say, without actually attempting to get these items, and without purchasing anything from the trading post, I would be able to attain any of those items within a reasonable amount of time considering the scope of the game. Again, EVEN WITHOUT PUTTING IN EFFORT, I would be able to have those items. What you’re describing is either a demand for “easy mode” or simply a personal problem.

Congratulations on not being a victim of the “permanent dr bug”.

The rest of us deal with my drop rates, poll your guildies after doing a DE as a group, the difference will be stark.

However, you are not making that argument, and judging from your constant pigheaded comments, outright refusal to consider any statements contrary to your beliefs, and constant personal demands of Anet, I don’t believe you are capable of making such an argument.

  • You mock people for not wanting to “work” in a game (what is this i don’t even..)
  • You mock a 3 month period or a requirement for actual exploring or display of skill for a single item in a game where you switch weapons often as “easy-mode”, when the grind to find these is not difficult, just tedious and unrewarding.
  • You call anyone who wants to feel like they’re advancing meaningfully without working the game as a second job to pay a tax to people who thwart developer intent by exploiting or ignoring the game’s content to play stock-market “communists”, or make veiled statements to this regard.

Clearly it’s me who is pigheaded, yeah…

(edited by plasmacutter.2709)

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Posted by: Syeria.4812

Syeria.4812

Congratulations on not being a victim of the “permanent dr bug”.

The rest of us deal with my drop rates, poll your guildies after doing a DE as a group, the difference will be stark.

Oh so suddenly there’s not an issue with drop rates, but rather a temporary bug that’s affecting people? By all means, let’s permanently and completely change the structure and behavior of drops because of a temporary bug that will be fixed with high priority.

However, you are not making that argument, and judging from your constant pigheaded comments, outright refusal to consider any statements contrary to your beliefs, and constant personal demands of Anet, I don’t believe you are capable of making such an argument.

  • You mock people for not wanting to “work” in a game (what is this i don’t even..)
  • You mock a 3 month period or a requirement for actual exploring or display of skill for a single item in a game where you switch weapons often as “easy-mode”, when the grind to find these is not difficult, just tedious and unrewarding.
  • You call anyone who wants to feel like they’re advancing meaningfully without working the game as a second job to pay a tax to people who thwart developer intent by exploiting or ignoring the game’s content to play stock-market “communists”, or make veiled statements to this regard.

Clearly it’s me who is pigheaded, yeah…

I mock you because you’ve so repeatedly and clearly displayed yourself as deserving it. The fact that you think any of those three things has anything to do with why you’re being mocked for being so pigheaded merely demonstrates that fact even further. Since you apparently need it spelled out more obviously, you’re being called pigheaded because you came into this thread with several absurd preconceived notions which you determined in your own head as infallible and absolute. When presented with argument after argument, and several examples of hard data that directly contradicts those notions, instead of reviewing and considering that information you simply tried to scream louder or more often. In addition to that, you repeatedly offered sad attempts to either discredit others or suppress their attempts to disagree with you.

You didn’t come here to discuss anything, you came here to tell everyone what you think and that you are right. The words there are very deliberate and specific, you did not come to argue “why” you’re right. Rather, you came to tell everyone that you are right, even though it’s quite clear that you’re not.

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Posted by: whipplerama.3692

whipplerama.3692

By all means, let’s permanently and completely change the structure and behavior of drops because of a temporary bug that will be fixed with high priority.

Thanks for the laugh, this thread was making me feel like I needed a decades long scalding shower. With bleach.

They must have taken my marbles away.
But they gave me plenty of porous bones to compensate.

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Posted by: Smooth Penguin.5294

Smooth Penguin.5294

Plasmacutter. I know you’re a smart guy, as you give compelling arguments. But take a step back and analyze your own posts from a 3rd person perspective. You are complaining that a “long term goal” is taking a “long time”. I believe that your desire to reach your goals quickly is clouding the fact that rare items are “rare” for a reason.

There are casual gamers, there are hardcore gamers, and everything in between for all types of games. For GW2, the hardcore players managed to get their Legendaries faster because they invested time. Let’s not talk about the exploits that Anet already banned people for. Focus on the players who know where to farm, are skilled at clearing Dungeons and Fractals (without shortcutting), and who know how to take advantage of the in-game market. By asking for more drops or easy mode to Legendary gear, you ignore the efforts of other players who took the time to get where they are.

Anet can make balance adjustments to certain things, like how they’ll be putting out a Precursor Hunt in the future. That gives more opportunity for players to start their quests. I like how a compromise on this issue is a good first step, but I will not agree with making high tier mats uber easy to farm. If they increased drop rates significantly, I would argue that they should make Clovers much harder to get than the currently assumed 33% rates. It would help to keep Legendaries as the ultimate end game, since they are supposed to be the rarest of the rare gear.

Note – yes I know you can purchase a Legendary weapon from the TP, but with the current prices, it’s still a legendary effort to get that much gold in the first place.

In GW2, Trading Post plays you!

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Posted by: plasmacutter.2709

plasmacutter.2709

Oh so suddenly there’s not an issue with drop rates, but rather a temporary bug that’s affecting people? By all means, let’s permanently and completely change the structure and behavior of drops because of a temporary bug that will be fixed with high priority.

It’s being “looked into” only after nearly 10,000 total views and continued public beating ANet staff take over it, but it’s doubtful any resolution will be forthcoming. It might be worth it given the effort described to quantify this to simply re-do the drop calculator to take into account “bad/good luck streaks” and help even out the RNG factor.

Plasmacutter. I know you’re a smart guy, as you give compelling arguments. But take a step back and analyze your own posts from a 3rd person perspective. You are complaining that a “long term goal” is taking a “long time”. I believe that your desire to reach your goals quickly is clouding the fact that rare items are “rare” for a reason.

There are casual gamers, there are hardcore gamers, and everything in between for all types of games. For GW2, the hardcore players managed to get their Legendaries faster because they invested time. Let’s not talk about the exploits that Anet already banned people for. Focus on the players who know where to farm, are skilled at clearing Dungeons and Fractals (without shortcutting), and who know how to take advantage of the in-game market. By asking for more drops or easy mode to Legendary gear, you ignore the efforts of other players who took the time to get where they are.

Anet can make balance adjustments to certain things, like how they’ll be putting out a Precursor Hunt in the future. That gives more opportunity for players to start their quests. I like how a compromise on this issue is a good first step, but I will not agree with making high tier mats uber easy to farm. If they increased drop rates significantly, I would argue that they should make Clovers much harder to get than the currently assumed 33% rates. It would help to keep Legendaries as the ultimate end game, since they are supposed to be the rarest of the rare gear.

Note – yes I know you can purchase a Legendary weapon from the TP, but with the current prices, it’s still a legendary effort to get that much gold in the first place.

I agree, the time table for “long term” is subjective and up for debate here.

In a game built around switching weapons, not just in combat but based on trait build, a year for a single weapon is excessive, let alone 16 years. It may work for engineers perhaps, but the prospect of building a real “set” for a warrior is daunting, especially considering the way ANet targets weapons for “to the ground” nerfs.

As for “skill at the game”, you still present the argument in the frame that “skill” (this thread has already covered how this is debatable) at making money is the only skill worth rewarding.

There should always be a subset of weapons that say “yeah baby, i can afford THIS”, but right now that’s the only set.

Additionally, it would be tremendous proof of Anet’s ability to create challenging and deep gameplay if they provide rewards for skill over grind. I’ve seen other games where you could be awed by a piece of armor because they defeated something insanely difficult to get it, not because they swiped their visa, flunked their courses, or quit their job.

In games where the dev team made this effort, I had zero problem with people who capped their gold. They enjoyed their gold, and I enjoyed beating them with application of skill. I and many others simply object to this game’s experience being supplanted with the trading post frame if you want to see your character “grow”.

(edited by plasmacutter.2709)

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Posted by: Ursan.7846

Ursan.7846

In a game built around switching weapons, not just in combat but based on trait build, a year for a single weapon is excessive, let alone 16 years.

I didn’t realize that it was a requirement to somehow not only have one legendary, but have your entire armament all legendaries.

There should always be a subset of weapons that say “yeah baby, i can afford THIS”, but right now that’s the only set.

There are a TON of exotics, all with the same stats as legendaries/fancy skin exotics, which are incredibly affordable.

Your post would make sense if they didn’t have the exotic tier. But they do. And so your post does nothing but confuse the hell out of me.

(edited by Ursan.7846)

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Posted by: Darque Intent.1674

Darque Intent.1674

I think the thing that could be missing from this topic is empathy.

One side says, “Why is there content that requires me to grind in order to advance my look?”.

The other syays, “Why does it matter?”

All the second group does is dismiss the first, telling them they are wrong and they want an “easy” game with no challenge. While distracting from the topic of how rare items are rare to most of us, and the resentment of allowing people to corrupt the game world futher with that kind of attitude isn’t what we want to do as part of the game we are playing.

On the one hand, there is no justification I have seen that this constant abitrary and simantic argument does anything other than show how one sided, when it comes to thinking and putting their point across, these kinds of topics are.

I am not going out to kill the same 4-8 single mobs on a regular basis because they drop candy every few days (read months if you don’t go out of your way to bore yourself with someone elses “good” idea..). And asking why it is this way, and stating that we think it’s essentialy stupid/thick, is only met with, “well you know we don’t care, and that’s the way it is.”

You are all telling me that I should spend my time doing something utterly pointless and obviously stupid in order to use a skin on a weapon that should drop in the open world with attached lore.

There is no reason, for me, that this, how it is, is a good thing. It doesn’t show anything appart from how much time I dedicate to playing this game in a manner that no-one respects enough to talk about openly or honestly.

On the plus side, none of this really matters. I don’t need a new skin to invest more emotions in. I’ll find something else to do when I get utterly sick of the trolling community and dumb-as-mud game development choices.

A disscusion is an exchange of ideas where both partys are being constructive, considered equal and both have a common ground/understand each other and the topic enough for there actualy to be any kind of progress of ideas or futher understanding.

Telling me I’m wrong when I say this game is stupid at it’s core, is not the way to get me to see the game another way. As far as I can see it, alot of you don’t want to talk about the topic, and just seek to make the disscussion contrived and irrelivant so hopefuly people won’t notice, or better yet become confused at the compleat lack of thought or understanding demonstraighted, not just in this thread, but anywhere people try to discuss this or other things people with working brains want to discuss.

Guild Wars 2, Tololololoolo heaven or a game worth playing? Apparently it’s both…Yay..

All hail Emperor Anet, and their new clothes!

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Posted by: Pride.7591

Pride.7591

You can write, expound, and elaborate until you are blue in the face, but the long and short of it is you want stuff handed to you, with only a cursory effort on your part. Just because it’s a game doesn’t mean effort shouldn’t be required for the elite weapons. The amount of time spent crying about lodestones in this thread could easily have been spent getting the lodestones you need.

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Posted by: Ampris.5321

Ampris.5321

ive played this game a lot. ive farmed the tp for the money i needed, and ive grinded a whole bunch for random stuff.

for most things, the ‘you got no patience son/y u want tings handed to u’ people are correct. a lot of stuff can be earned several ways with reasonable work.

there are, however, exceptions. charged lodestones and precursors are the most obvious examples of this atm. i believe they need to be addressed.

what most people dont understand tho, is that its going to just get worse. this mostly applies to the ‘i realize my legendary will take 2 years to get’ crowd. if waht you need is your precursor, and its currently 500g, you need to consider that months from now, because of manipulation/gold farming/inflation/supply+demand, it could easily be 1000+ gold. my friends have seen this happening to them, where the cost of the item is increasing faster than they can get gold. (like i said, i farm the tp for the money i need so it hasnt been an issue for me, i see expensive stuff and think its not worth it, not that i cant get it) but for others, an item could be unobtainable forever because of trends like this. u might think, well it will have to top out at some pt, and it may, but thats not a 100% guarantee, who knows how the influences i listed above will screw with this economy in the long term, and john might decide to address the situation in a way that doesnt benefit you.

hopefully the upcoming changes slow down the incredible rate at which the cost of precursors is increasing at

PS dont give up on us john <3

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Posted by: Sitael.4680

Sitael.4680

GW2’s TP is by a wide margin less effectively manipulated than the other games mentioned in this thread.

I have some question about that.
1. Do you monitoring the TP on a way, that you can see if there is an attempt to manipulate the TP?
Background of the qustion: i see may times some low level items (nothing for crafting) are asked on the TP, where i can see that one user asking for more hundreds or even thousands of it.

2. Why it is still possible to post 1 copper request on the TP?

3. Why it is possible to post requests on the TP, where the normal vendor price for the item is higher then the request?
That mean: even if one are willing to sell the item under the vendor price, it is not possible, so the TP is avare of the actual vendor price.

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Posted by: Grimm.2906

Grimm.2906

This thread is full of market carebears.

As in EVE Online, trading on the a market is a form of PvP (in other words, it’s competition). Unlike EVE, it’s completely optional, just like WvW and structured PvP.

You’re not entitled to all the best stuff in the game just because you spent X hours playing.

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Posted by: Protoavis.9107

Protoavis.9107

To John Smith, if you are still reading, and anyone else on this thread claiming people who can do math and want to be able to advance are after “easy-mode”

In my personal normal play, I have received 2 corrupted lodestones and one charged, and an equally small handful of cores. If I am to advance through my own drops, that would mean, at an average of 0.5 lodestones per month, it will take me 16 years to craft any recipe which requires just 100 of these.

That, in terms of MMO expected lifetimes, is what we term ‘unobtainable’.

You want to get rich in the game and flaunt it it’s fine with me, but the in-game rewards for showing it should not be the only in-game rewards worth having. I guarantee nobody would care how rich someone got in-game if it was not at the expense of the majority’s progression (just as most small-town americans don’t care if your postage-stamp sized SF condo is worth a cool 10 million). This is as much a fault of the game’s designers as it is with the people who cynically manipulate the market to make others poorer.

Then you’re “doing it wrong.” Without any deliberate farming, just absolute normal play, I have received (counting promotion of core drops) 2 Charged Lodestones, 5 Destroyer Lodestones, 7 Molten Lodestones, 2 Corrupted Lodestones, 4 Onyx Lodestones, and a ridiculous number of Crystal and Glacial Lodestones in the month of January alone. At those rates, it would take me between 1 and 4 years to accidentally accumulate the lodestones for one of those recipes.

That is to say, without actually attempting to get these items, and without purchasing anything from the trading post, I would be able to attain any of those items within a reasonable amount of time considering the scope of the game. Again, EVEN WITHOUT PUTTING IN EFFORT, I would be able to have those items. What you’re describing is either a demand for “easy mode” or simply a personal problem.

Congratulations on not being a victim of the “permanent dr bug”.

The rest of us deal with my drop rates, poll your guildies after doing a DE as a group, the difference will be stark.

If the issue is a BUG shouldn’t the focus be on that BUG (should be exists rather than be something people collectively made up to explain their bad luck/rare drop rates of rare items…dun da dun dun dun)

there are, however, exceptions. charged lodestones and precursors are the most obvious examples of this atm. i believe they need to be addressed.

Personally I disagree, the rate of conversion in the MF is fairly decent given the current pricing, every few days I’ll use the silly amount of mats I’ve bought off the TP, craft a whole lot of X lvl 80 exo and forge them all. I’ve yet to make less than 100g profit on this as I only spend around 200G on mats per precursor made. Granted it would probably seem like a gamble and you need to willing spend a huge amount of G which is likely the real reason few people are willing.

Let us buy vendor mats (eg spools of thread) in 250 stacks, end the excessive clicking.

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Posted by: demonwing.5843

demonwing.5843

Life in most of the world is typified by forced competition to survive, and this game is supposed to provide diversion from an increasingly harsh reality.

And here is where we are irreconcilably different. I am a competitive gamer (coming from high level SCII, DotA, CS) who plays games because I love the competitive factor. You play games for a different reason which is fine. I could never see myself using a game as a diversion from some “harsh reality” though.
GW2 is already a REALLY casual game, though. To somebody from my background, it seems effortless to play compared to other games. Getting a Legendary is the ONE remotely challenging thing I can see in this game in addition to perhaps extreme fractal levels.
PvE other than high level fractals is a cakewalk, PvP is full of awful scrubs, and WvW is WvW. How much less challenging do you want this game to be? The entire game is casual. There is ONE element that requires skill, planning, or dedication and you want that gone. I do believe that is a bit greedy and selfish myself.
If I truly just wanted to play a game, not give a kitten about anything, and just relax (as you seem to say you want), I wouldn’t care whether I had a legendary or not. As long as I could do content and mindless activities then whatever. “Swing your shiny swords around nerds. I don’t care”

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Posted by: Svarty.8019

Svarty.8019

This thread is full of market carebears.

As in EVE Online, trading on the a market is a form of PvP (in other words, it’s competition).

So why isn’t everything tradeable? There are lots of soulbound stuffs that could (for consistency’s sake) be tradeable, Fractals weapon skins, for example.

Nobody at Anet loves WvW like Grouch loved PvP. That’s what we need, a WvW Grouch, but taller.

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Posted by: Lothirieth.3408

Lothirieth.3408

You’re not entitled to all the best stuff in the game just because you spent X hours playing.

That’s fair enough, but I do think people are entitled to have different roads to take towards earning stuff reasonably and not be funnelled down one road of making loads of money. Different stroke for different folks and all…

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Posted by: ZudetGambeous.9573

ZudetGambeous.9573

Even if there were this vast swath of evil market manipulators, there is absolutely nothing in the game that prevents every person from doing the same thing. Everyone has the same opportunities in this game. Everyone starts with 0g at level 1. What you do from there is entirely up to you.

If you think it is so unfair that the prices are so high for an item then you farm it yourself. If the item is on the TP then that means someone put it there. If the item was really priced too high then it wouldn’t sell and the price would be reduced until a point where people thought it was more efficient to buy it instead of farm it themselves.

If you think the only way to make money is to play the TP (totally not true) then go on the trading post and play it. I think you will find it is not nearly as easy as you think and it takes hard work and research, just like any other way of making money.

If you think it is too tedious and boring to farm a certain item then go farm an item that you find enjoyable, then sell that item and buy the item you need. I also find mixing it up helps a lot. I’ll farm the item I need for a few hours, then i’ll go farm something else for a while, sell it and buy some more of the item I need.

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Posted by: The Blue Ace.2850

The Blue Ace.2850

Even if there were this vast swath of evil market manipulators, there is absolutely nothing in the game that prevents every person from doing the same thing. Everyone has the same opportunities in this game. Everyone starts with 0g at level 1. What you do from there is entirely up to you.

I disagree, most of the people who got legendarys were either people who got their mats close to the launch of the game when the prices were laughable and people who play the market.

There is no option for players but to farm a terrible drop rate system or buy from TP which adds more to the pocket of the market fatcats.

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Posted by: The Spiral King.2483

The Spiral King.2483

This thread is full of market carebears.

As in EVE Online, trading on the a market is a form of PvP (in other words, it’s competition). Unlike EVE, it’s completely optional, just like WvW and structured PvP.

You’re not entitled to all the best stuff in the game just because you spent X hours playing.

This man gets it. I have fun undercutting and hoarding rare stuff only to sell it for a tidy profit later. When I log in and see the little red exclamation point next to the lion head I feel much like a person would feel having a nice exotic drop for them.

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Posted by: Tallis.5607

Tallis.5607

I did not promise to do anything to lodestones, nor did that blog have anything to do with lodestones.

You were talking about balancing the market by adding more ways to get items if they were lacking places to get them in game.

And based on how many threads there are on the forums about this topic and how much they cost lodestones are clearly not balanced in this game.

Oh I’m sorry, please tell me what I was talking about in my blog. I didn’t mean to interrupt you, continue.

Again from your blog

We’ve noticed several markets that are clearly out of sync in terms of supply and demand. It isn’t interesting or fun to have a market flooded with items that contain very little value, so we’re making adjustments to the game every day. Players can expect to see these markets even out over time.

Just answer me this john, charged lodestones, does a.net consider this out of sync or not?

Because there have be many threads about this topic whether it stirs around manipulators, lack of supply or one lodestone being higher than the other.

I was making the point that you guys are working to balance the TP, on the topic of lodestones, I do not think they are, at all.

Your currently fixing precursors which are like 500 gold give or take,
And yet some people think that 430 gold for 100 charged lodestones is acceptable, what logic is that?!

I find this post disrespectful and rude. Until you learn to stop and think about what you’re asking, take in the information you have and make a logical question I’ll not be replying.

o_O Was this post edited or something? What is rude about it?

If you don’t want to say something, that is understandeble. But everyone has the right to ask, no? You said that some things are out of sync, he asks if you think lodestones are one of them.

Seems like a perfect reasonable question to me, considering their price and the price of pre-cursors.

Tallis – Perpetual newbie – Tarnished Coast.
Always carries a towel – Never panics – Eats cookies.

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Posted by: Nozdrum.2894

Nozdrum.2894

I disagree, most of the people who got legendarys were either people who got their mats close to the launch of the game when the prices were laughable and people who play the market.

Me and my regular guildmember all have legendarys. And I can tell you how we got em: Orr and CoF p1. No playing the tp or early silly prices. We just play the game and don’t complain on the forum about how everything is stupidly costed. Because if you take time to farm those things you come to realize that it is not overcosted. But you rather spent your time here – not playing.

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Posted by: The Blue Ace.2850

The Blue Ace.2850

I did not promise to do anything to lodestones, nor did that blog have anything to do with lodestones.

You were talking about balancing the market by adding more ways to get items if they were lacking places to get them in game.

And based on how many threads there are on the forums about this topic and how much they cost lodestones are clearly not balanced in this game.

Oh I’m sorry, please tell me what I was talking about in my blog. I didn’t mean to interrupt you, continue.

Again from your blog

We’ve noticed several markets that are clearly out of sync in terms of supply and demand. It isn’t interesting or fun to have a market flooded with items that contain very little value, so we’re making adjustments to the game every day. Players can expect to see these markets even out over time.

Just answer me this john, charged lodestones, does a.net consider this out of sync or not?

Because there have be many threads about this topic whether it stirs around manipulators, lack of supply or one lodestone being higher than the other.

I was making the point that you guys are working to balance the TP, on the topic of lodestones, I do not think they are, at all.

Your currently fixing precursors which are like 500 gold give or take,
And yet some people think that 430 gold for 100 charged lodestones is acceptable, what logic is that?!

I find this post disrespectful and rude. Until you learn to stop and think about what you’re asking, take in the information you have and make a logical question I’ll not be replying.

o_O Was this post edited or something? What is rude about it?

If you don’t want to say something, that is understandeble. But everyone has the right to ask, no? You said that some things are out of sync, he asks if you think lodestones are one of them.

Seems like a perfect reasonable question to me, considering their price and the price of pre-cursors.

He’s probably feels threaten by me pointing something out on his blog he’s regretting.
However, I’ve been asking for an answer from the devs on this topic for months and had little to no reply.

I may have been forward.
But I’m standing up for the casual players who were promised a casual game!
A game where we aren’t forced down one route.
A game where we can have an adventure and journey, not a 2013 market simulator!
And a game that rewards players who play the game and not a bunch of rich kids!

And no one is gonna tell me otherwise!!!

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Posted by: Lanthrudar.1437

Lanthrudar.1437

I think the “Market Manipulators” are much more visible with anything to do with crafting. I don’t mean only legendary crafting or those single, signature high end items that people make a goal at game’s end.

I don’t know why, but in the past two weeks I have seen low-mid level crafting items, those vials of thin blood, small claws, etc, double in price. A level 35 rare item ranges from 10s – 50s in price.. Each of the single ‘creature drop only’ mat’s cost 1s+ for a single component. A completed insignia can range in the 10s-20s range. The rare’s themselves are from 10s-40s for each.

Now is this a problem with the market traders buying crafting items to make profit and control the market? Or becasue aNet finally banned some bot’s after they roamed the server for multiple weeks? Likely some combination of both.

I do know that ANet has a direct influence in two things: 1) the frequency of which these crafting materials drop from mob’s, since they don’t drop form every one, and also 2) the amount of items needed for each crafting component. I mean, you need FIFTEEN of these for ONE item. Really? Why? For anyone who enjoy’s crafting this is like the “go get 10 bearasses” quest, except you may only get a single bearass from every 1:3 or 1:4 of the mob that normally drops the items.

Yes someone can ‘farm’ the item and I suppose rare’s aren’t needed, but when crafting the third stage of each tier does cost exponentially more than the previous levels. I really think the market manipulators cause that to be much less fun than it could be.

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Posted by: cargan.5689

cargan.5689

1 – ease of entry for competition (both direct and indirect substitution)
2 – perfect distribution of information
3 – high elasticity of demand for any one product
4 – perfect liberty to bring goods to market (in the real world, when sugar gets too high, companies can sub in corn syrup. Not in any MMO i’ve seen)
1. MMOs are fantastic for this, especially GW2. There is nothing I can think of in the game that players can’t decide to enter into the market for because everything in the game you can just go get, there’s no stopping you.
2. There is imperfect information, but there is significantly less imperfect information than the real world. There is also less market failures associated with imperfect information because of homogeneous goods. Homogeneous goods are one really cool thing about virtual economies.
3. This isn’t unique to MMOs or the real world, neither are the actions associated with it. It’s possible I’m missing the point on this one.
4. For this I would argue the opposite. MMOs are notorious for substitute goods. Especially when it comes to stats, I can change rarity, type, order of stats in a myriad of combinations with less than a 1% change in my total effectiveness. Switching to corn syrup causes significantly more than a 1% change in a product.

Ok i will admit from the start i am probably missing half the inforamtion in this, my skills dont involve economics or stock market trading. I just want to play a game i like.

1. Every thing you cant just go get, for example two days playing way more than the wife would like, over the weekend 0 passion flowers 2 karka shells. What ever the cause the availability of some items for some people is restricted.

If i read the statement another way and you mean John that “trading” in the market is open for all then yes it is however though it would appear from the many posts of people doing well there is considerable profit to be made by skilled trading that redistibution of wealth from the general population to a skilled few may mean the market is working on a strictly economic model but it is perhaps not a desired outcome on a political perspective.

4. Yes i can use a green sword or a hammer that lookes like dog dodo on a stick and still hit zombies with it so yes substitution is freely available. If this was an economy in a text book sure fine its working. Real life i acept i have a phone one generation old because i dont want to spend $1000 every six months and that is a working economy and choice.

Problem is this is a game, i dont want almost good enough, i want xxx sword not yyy which is almost good enough i want wings on my sylvari ele not a trench coat that does the same thing. The market and TP may form a perfect text book working economy but the role of both is to make the players happy and it would appear from a small random totaly unrepresentitive sample that it is failing in this.

Ulfar SOR

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Posted by: Astraea.6075

Astraea.6075

He’s probably feels threaten by me pointing something out on his blog he’s regretting.
However, I’ve been asking for an answer from the devs on this topic for months and had little to no reply.

I may have been forward.
But I’m standing up for the casual players who were promised a casual game!
A game where we aren’t forced down one route.
A game where we can have an adventure and journey, not a 2013 market simulator!
And a game that rewards players who play the game and not a bunch of rich kids!

And no one is gonna tell me otherwise!!!

No, you’re trying to troll him by constantly quoting his blog out of context… the blog was talking about changes being made due to oversupply of certain items driving the value down to vendor prices.

In addition, there are several posters here who have stated clearly why there isn’t a problem with the lodestone market… you may not like the prices or the implications for your goals, but the market itself is behaving as expected given the rarity of supply and the desirability of certain lodestones.

If you think lodestones should be easier to acquire, then make a solid case for why that should be so.

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Posted by: cargan.5689

cargan.5689

In addition, there are several posters here who have stated clearly why there isn’t a problem with the lodestone market… you may not like the prices or the implications for your goals, but the market itself is behaving as expected given the rarity of supply and the desirability of certain lodestones.

If you think lodestones should be easier to acquire, then make a solid case for why that should be so.

Lol why does some one always say thing so much better just after you post;)

There is the rub The Market works …as a market.
The game economy is not working to benifit the players in game experience.

If this was called Sim Trader wo ho you got a hit.
A different Market comes to mind one that realised the fun is more important some times than the math.

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Posted by: The Blue Ace.2850

The Blue Ace.2850

If you think lodestones should be easier to acquire, then make a solid case for why that should be so.

There are only 3 ways to aquire them:

Dungeons (CoE &Fractals)(Cores too)
Dwayna’s Temple
Trade Post

The first 2 decide the price in the trading post, based on how hard they are to get, thus why they are 300% more expensive than other lodestones.
Both routes of acquirement force groups with a % that your not even going to get a charged lodestone anyway.
There are places in the over world to solo mobs to get other lodestones like corrupt from frostgorge sound, so why not charged?

Lets think about all those threads about angry players who weren’t getting their ascended rings while their buddies were getting 10.
A.net reacted quickly to this and made the game reward a token so players didn’t feeling like they were working for nothing.

And yet a system not been put in the game yet for lodestones.

I wonder why.

Lodestones are currently so expensive in the trading post that 100 of them are as much as a precursor. Which is also getting fixed by a.net.

Its almost as if a.net wants charged lodestones to be this impassable wall for casual players, maybe they’re scared too many people will get legendarys.

But at the end of the day, the hard working farmer is being punished and the market player who doesn’t leave lion arch is cashing in.

Also every time a player a gets a charged lodestone, but sells it and buys his lodestone that he/she wants for his legendary/sigil/whatever he’s getting up to 4 lodestones more than a player than needs 1 charged lodestone. Fair? I think not!

(edited by The Blue Ace.2850)

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Posted by: Svarty.8019

Svarty.8019

If you think lodestones should be easier to acquire, then make a solid case for why that should be so.

I think lodestones should be easier to acquire because pretty much every desirable high end item skin requires them.

Also, why not?

Nobody at Anet loves WvW like Grouch loved PvP. That’s what we need, a WvW Grouch, but taller.

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Posted by: Ursan.7846

Ursan.7846

He’s probably feels threaten by me pointing something out on his blog he’s regretting.

As many other posters have pointed out already, he’s stopped replying to you because you keep on trying to claim he’s said something that he obviously has not. It’s clear to most other posters in this thread, but not to you still apparently.

But seriously, stop trolling John.

I may have been forward.
But I’m standing up for the casual players who were promised a casual game!
A game where we aren’t forced down one route.
A game where we can have an adventure and journey, not a 2013 market simulator!
And a game that rewards players who play the game and not a bunch of rich kids!

And no one is gonna tell me otherwise!!!

Again, LEGENDARIES AREN’T REQUIRED.

Also this is what Mike O’Brien promised:

Here’s what we believe: If someone wants to play for a thousand hours to get an item that is so rare that other players can’t realistically acquire it, that rare item should be differentiated by its visual appearance and rarity alone, not by being more powerful than everything else in the game. Otherwise, your MMO becomes all about grinding to get the best gear. We don’t make grindy games — we leave the grind to other MMOs.

http://venturebeat.com/2012/05/21/guild-wars-2-interview-monetization/

I’m going to summarize for you since you seem to have problems with reading comprehension.

If a player wants to grind for thousands of hours for an item, it’s only because of its rarity and cosmetics, and not its power, so the grind is not required

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Posted by: The Blue Ace.2850

The Blue Ace.2850

He’s probably feels threaten by me pointing something out on his blog he’s regretting.

As many other posters have pointed out already, he’s stopped replying to you because you keep on trying to claim he’s said something that he obviously has not. It’s clear to most other posters in this thread, but not to you still apparently.

But seriously, stop trolling John.

I may have been forward.
But I’m standing up for the casual players who were promised a casual game!
A game where we aren’t forced down one route.
A game where we can have an adventure and journey, not a 2013 market simulator!
And a game that rewards players who play the game and not a bunch of rich kids!

And no one is gonna tell me otherwise!!!

Again, LEGENDARIES AREN’T REQUIRED.

Also this is what Mike O’Brien promised:

Here’s what we believe: If someone wants to play for a thousand hours to get an item that is so rare that other players can’t realistically acquire it, that rare item should be differentiated by its visual appearance and rarity alone, not by being more powerful than everything else in the game. Otherwise, your MMO becomes all about grinding to get the best gear. We don’t make grindy games — we leave the grind to other MMOs.

http://venturebeat.com/2012/05/21/guild-wars-2-interview-monetization/

I’m going to summarize for you since you seem to have problems with reading comprehension.

If a player wants to grind for thousands of hours for an item, it’s only because of its rarity and cosmetics, and not its power, so the grind is not required

Ok, give me something to do in PvE. Nothing?

90% of level 80’s are doing two things. (10% WvW/PvP)

Leveling up other charachers.
Grinding for a legedary.

WE, the hardcore PvE players don’t just grind for a legendary just because it looks pretty.

We do it because there is nothing left to do.

Or would you rather us go play another game and leave all you smart people to go play with your fancy market simulator?

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Posted by: The Blue Ace.2850

The Blue Ace.2850

Also this is what Mike O’Brien promised:

Here’s what we believe: If someone wants to play for a thousand hours to get an item that is so rare that other players can’t realistically acquire it, that rare item should be differentiated by its visual appearance and rarity alone, not by being more powerful than everything else in the game. Otherwise, your MMO becomes all about grinding to get the best gear. We don’t make grindy games — we leave the grind to other MMOs.

I wonder if buy them on the trade post was in mind when he wrote that.
Or the fact that 90% of the weapon is market earned.

The more blogs I see the more broken promises I find.

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Posted by: Astraea.6075

Astraea.6075

In addition, there are several posters here who have stated clearly why there isn’t a problem with the lodestone market… you may not like the prices or the implications for your goals, but the market itself is behaving as expected given the rarity of supply and the desirability of certain lodestones.

If you think lodestones should be easier to acquire, then make a solid case for why that should be so.

Lol why does some one always say thing so much better just after you post;)

There is the rub The Market works …as a market.
The game economy is not working to benifit the players in game experience.

If this was called Sim Trader wo ho you got a hit.
A different Market comes to mind one that realised the fun is more important some times than the math.

The market works because players can sell goods to other players easily and efficiently and at a (usually) fair market price and obviously the same holds for buying goods from other players.

This does benefit a player’s in-game experience…

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Posted by: Svarty.8019

Svarty.8019

I’m going to summarize for you since you seem to have problems with reading comprehension.

If a player wants to grind for thousands of hours for an item, it’s only because of its rarity and cosmetics, and not its power, so the grind is not required

Linsey Murdoch

Legendary items were always intended to be on par with other “best-in-slot” items. So fear not, all existing Legendary weapons, which are currently on par with Exotics, will be upgraded to be on par with Ascended weapons at the same time that we add Ascended weapons to the game.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/linsey-murdock-unveils-new-high-end-ascended-gear/

So we have to either grind few Legendaries or grind [Insert New Tier Name Here] weapons every time there’s a content patch. That appears to be the choice, ahead of the “Big January Patch”.

Nobody at Anet loves WvW like Grouch loved PvP. That’s what we need, a WvW Grouch, but taller.

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Posted by: The Blue Ace.2850

The Blue Ace.2850

Now that you mention it Svarty, the more old news posts I go through the more and more I find.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/the-endgame-reimagined/

In the past, we’ve talked about how in Guild Wars 2 we designed the game to avoid a common problem in many MMOs: grinding through chunks of boring, repetitive content to get to the occasional pockets of fun. With Guild Wars 2, we wanted the entire gameplay experience to be something that players enjoyed, regardless of how much time they could dedicate.

Well guys. I’ve put over 1000 hours in, still not feeling the enjoyment of grin- oh I’m sorry! Acquiring my charged lodestones.

Not to worry, theres plenty more PvE stuff to do! Oops.

Atleast we get that patch tomorrow where we’ll be grinding for ascended gear.

In all seriousness guys, I’m having more fun shooting down your arguments than the game is currently offering.

Remember that.

Attachments:

(edited by The Blue Ace.2850)

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Posted by: Ed Guardian.4825

Ed Guardian.4825

lodestones are so vastly supplied and demanded I don’t think they’re subject to manipulation as much as some people claim. Also you have to bear in mind what recipes each lodestone makes and the demand for the items that each lodestone makes i.e. if a charged lodestone makes an item much nicer than a glacial lodestone it makes sense for it to be more expensive. legendaries aren’t meant to be easy… and I don’t have one either because I expect it to take a long time to get… but if Claw of Jormag chest would like to drop me a Tooth of Frostfang any time soon I’d really really appreciate it

you are living proof that people actually bother to read these signatures.

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Posted by: Cirdan.9058

Cirdan.9058

People are giving market manipulators too much credit. Of course there are market manipulation. That’s going to be expected with any market, and really cannot be stopped without ArenaNet setting fixed prices for everything. While people can still manipulate markets and items, they are very limited and it is extremely difficult to find a market where that is plausible. I have tried, and have made some money, but also lost a lot of money. It is most certainly not a simple matter of buying out a market and reselling it to make a profit.

a) There are a ton of items on the Trading Post where there are many many levels of undercutting by a matter of copper(A lot of the low level crafting items are like this). The 15% tax makes it very impractical to try and buy out a bunch of low items to resell at a higher prices.

b) Let’s say the person playing the market finds an item that is not completely locked down due to undercutting. Their ability to buy out the lower priced items and relist them are highly dependant on the supply. The player could attempt to flip items in attempts to make a profit, but people in the GW2 economy are extremely willing to undercut to make instant profit. Instead of matching the highest seller to maximize their profit, a majority of people would rather undercut and get their money now instead of listing it for a higher price and having to wait a couple of hours for someone to buy it.

c) Then there’s the unseen side of the TP of buy orders. As I said in my previous point, there are a lot of people who want to just get rid of items instead of maximizing their profit. This means that people who place buy orders for half the price of what people are selling them for, their orders will likely be filled and they are not forced to pay high prices that people set. This means that just because someone flips items for a higher price doesn’t mean people will be willing to pay it or even HAVE to pay it. This really gives a lot of control to consumers that doesn’t exist in real economies.

To effectivly work the Trading Post for profit takes a lot of time and effort watching trends and predicting the future. It includes a ton of risk. People who work the TP to make a profit really have put in as much time and effort into the game as people who go out into Tyria and farm NPCs and material nodes. You just don’t hear them complaining anout them having to “grind” the Trading Post because those people enjoy economics and creating spreadsheets to fill their wallets.

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Posted by: Smooth Penguin.5294

Smooth Penguin.5294

I’ll be providing layman’s translations to the current complaints:

- I want “x lodestone” really bad, so Anet make it easier to get to satisfy my personal gaming preferences.

- I choose to want “x Legendary weapon” because of the cosmetic looks over the stats, so Anet make it easier for me to craft in a short time frame.

- I choose to play over 1,000 hours in the same area of the world, with no enjoyment, instead of exploring other aspects of this game, so Anet need to mold their updates to benefit me.

This is what everything looks like when I read the forums. It’s all about “me me me” and “my way is everyone’s way”. The same complainers don’t understand that they make a choice to play the game “cosmetically”, when they fully understand they can get the same stat gear for 100 times cheaper.

By the way, Ascended gear technically isn’t that much more powerful than their jewel-slotted Exotic counterparts. The efficiencies you gain from wearing Ascended gear make no difference if you have no combat skills. For example, the top guys from my WäR guild could fight wearing nothing but white or blue gear, and take down fully Exotic geared people with ease.

In GW2, Trading Post plays you!

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Posted by: Dreamslayer.7659

Dreamslayer.7659

I would like to know – do you think there should be no items that require heavy grind/money? Or are you just bent because the one you happen to like requires it?

Nobody is going to grind for something that does not look exceptional and the skins that used Charged Lodestones tend to be some of the best looking items.

It’s almost like it was… by design.

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Posted by: Varkronn.9783

Varkronn.9783

I have said it before and I’ll say it again, they completely missed out the idea of soul-bound items. Bound items serve a huge purpose in RPG games, they are the aspects of any quest/craft that you yourself collect in your own time performing your own specific tasks. They act as controls. While the price of trade items may vary, the acquisition of certain soul-bound pieces will have set means of acquisition that have no value to anyone but yourself. You can set the drop rate to 50%, 2%, 100% for a soul-bound item and it doesn’t matter, whatever the ease/difficulty in acquiring the material, it will have a set impact on its associated trade item values dictated by that chance that will not alter.

The trade of items should be a tool for people to bolster the speed of their special item crafts and to complete part of the recipes, not be the all encompassing gateway through which every drop rate and item demand (250 x) is adjusted for. Gold being the be-all and end-all of a fantasy game is an utterly abysmal system. It is a fantasy game for God’s sake, people are sick to death of the controlling nature of money on life let alone in an escapist world.You constructed a world with the freedom to envision it as you liked and somehow you managed to make it as shackle snaring and mundane as real life.

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Posted by: Nike.2631

Nike.2631

I have said it before and I’ll say it again, they completely missed out the idea of soul-bound items.

Uh, looking at Ascended gear I don’t think they failed to learn the lesson – they were just slow to implement it.

Asceneded round one: rings and back – you CANNOT buy your way to these items with gold.

Ascended round two: rings and amulet – you CANNOT buy your way to these items with gold.

See a pattern?

At this point weapons may very well end up being the ONLY slot where you can buy ascended stats with gold – via purchasing a Legendary. And since each slot uses a different acquisition scheme they can truthfully say you’ll acquire Ascended gear following any major playstyle… Just not for all slots.

“You keep saying ‘its unfair.’
I wonder what your basis for comparison is…”
- Jareth, King of Goblins.

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Posted by: Darque Intent.1674

Darque Intent.1674

There is no elephant in the room, and there is no pile-of-loot giving off smell. What we all must do is go back to playing the game, use the trade post and be happy you are even allowed to play games, somepeople can’t eat you know!

Honestly if you want to play in a way where you just see one or two small parts of the game to get what you want, great for you. What should the rest of us do? Oh, wait. You guys just think I don’t want to play, ah right… Or I want things given to me( well I woulden’t say no, they don’t actually exist, and have next to no meaning, but why would you care if anet just gave me a legendary because I wanted it that way, if you are happy farming for yours?).

At the end of the day people who drive up prices and keep loot beyond rare are simply exploiting people in the name of fun. Given how Anet normally would say this isn’t conducive to a healthy enviroment that people want to be appart of, it’s odd they have nothing to say when it’s one of their own encourageing this type of discussion and behaviour.

IF any of you want to go about fixing National debt one region at a time I’ll take everything I said back. But until that point your all just blowing hot air. Remember by exploiting people you aren’t exploiting the game, so I doubt you’ll get banned. So why not tell us the ins and outs of the economy and show a few charts based on actual game numbers of,: the amount of gold owned by single players and guilds, items cost to avalibility, item cost to single players/guilds hoarding, time spent to items/wealth, activities over an hour to a week that give the best retern on gold/loot… Tell us about your game that shows me that doing the same thing for little or no return is good for me or how I feel about this game. My money is on the fact that you can’t.

Again, for the hard of hearing, what stops the trade post from being fun is the fact that players are using it to exploite people who want to buy and sell using it. If this is okey by you just say so, but that is what is happening.

All hail Emperor Anet, and their new clothes!

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Posted by: Lothirieth.3408

Lothirieth.3408

Gold being the be-all and end-all of a fantasy game is an utterly abysmal system. It is a fantasy game for God’s sake, people are sick to death of the controlling nature of money on life let alone in an escapist world.You constructed a world with the freedom to envision it as you liked and somehow you managed to make it as shackle snaring and mundane as real life.

QTF, well said.

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Posted by: Darque Intent.1674

Darque Intent.1674

Gold being the be-all and end-all of a fantasy game is an utterly abysmal system. It is a fantasy game for God’s sake, people are sick to death of the controlling nature of money on life let alone in an escapist world.You constructed a world with the freedom to envision it as you liked and somehow you managed to make it as shackle snaring and mundane as real life.

QTF, well said.

It is a very good point. Given how gold in game isn’t really important to the world apart from a reward. All you can use it for is way-point costs, to repair armour, level crafting and buy off the trade post, it’s hard to see where currency actualy fits into this world at all. It’s not a “trade” post, it’s items for gold exchange. If it’s alright to inflate prices of items people already own in the world, those people should have to pay an up-keep cost relative to it’s new value.

All hail Emperor Anet, and their new clothes!

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Posted by: The Blue Ace.2850

The Blue Ace.2850

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Posted by: Death Reincarnated.3570

Death Reincarnated.3570

In my opinion, there is too much incentive to use the TP so that one can progress with their game goals. The below quote has merit and puts my opinion well in perspective.

Gold being the be-all and end-all of a fantasy game is an utterly abysmal system. It is a fantasy game for God’s sake, people are sick to death of the controlling nature of money on life let alone in an escapist world.You constructed a world with the freedom to envision it as you liked and somehow you managed to make it as shackle snaring and mundane as real life.

Proud member of Legion of Honour XIII

Do not click this link!

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Posted by: Svarty.8019

Svarty.8019

It is a fantasy game for God’s sake, people are sick to death of the controlling nature of money on life let alone in an escapist world.You constructed a world with the freedom to envision it as you liked and somehow you managed to make it as shackle snaring and mundane as real life.

Varkronn completely nails it, Arenanet.

Nobody at Anet loves WvW like Grouch loved PvP. That’s what we need, a WvW Grouch, but taller.