Guild Wars 2

Hi. This is a suggestion for the trading post. I really think you should separate the trading post for each server. It might have looked like a great idea on paper to have cross server TP but it serves no use what so ever and the prices are so unreliable. This suggestion will probably be ignored like all the others but I really think it would help the prices be more normal and stable.

Having more people in the market is actually what helps make it “normal and stable”.

When you have less people in the system, it’s easier for individuals to manipulate items since there are less people contributing to the overall supply/demand; also, reaching an equilibrium will happen quicker when there’s more consumers/suppliers driving the supply and demand.

The changes in prices have little to do with the amount of people, so much as the factors that affect the supply/demand of items.

Prices being unreliable is the part of your post that doesn’t make sense. As the previous poster pointed out the reason for the global market is to make it normal and stable. Which is what everything is except for the rare and really rare stuff with constantly low supply. Perhaps it would be in the best interested of all if specific examples were provided to point out the perceived problem(s). In that way discussion can take place on what if anything can/need be done related to those. Outside of that I can say with a fair amount of certainty that it would be impossible to change the TP to separate servers even if they wanted to at this point. It would have had to be done from the start as that is a major design decision. So the whole system very likely would have to be built from the group up. Something that would not likely happen unless there was some major problem that was causing them to actually lose money. To which topic of the suggestion isn’t something that is.

I support your thinking John. Please keep it as is!

John Smith.4610:

The global trading post provides a large number of huge benefits at virtually no cost, outside of the complicated technology required to support it.

Making the TP individual to each server opens up market failures across the board, including easy arbitrage and extremely easy market manipulation.

The global TP is easier to find items, harder to manipulate, and reaches equilibrium prices significantly faster and more efficiently than any other in game marketplace ever created.

The problem is Jhon, are you guys going to do something about the loot? Prices are goign higher and higher, I liked the fact you gave precursors on the evtn to bring prices down but what about others? Currently making Infinite Light 1 Hand Sword costs 645Gold and making bolt costs 350G and bolt is a legendary while IL is not. Some drops are just too low and are making the costs of weapons too high.

Having the TP per server definitely will not fix the problem with those high prices on those such items it would only make it worse. As prices over all would be even higher on the rare stuff that is making the uber rare stuff expensive as it is now. I can’t really begin to speak into the costs time/gold of making those items because I’m not even close to being to the point I would be able to use one. But those items are supposed to be long term goals not go out today and buy all that you need to make it. Which is probably why they are so exensive. Those who have gotten gobs of gold somehow are using it to make them to get even more gobs of gold. When really that is insane. There is so little stuff in the game that needs tons of gold. And the few things that do aren’t meant to be bought from one persons earnings.

Sephirox.4071:

John Smith.4610:

The global trading post provides a large number of huge benefits at virtually no cost, outside of the complicated technology required to support it.

Making the TP individual to each server opens up market failures across the board, including easy arbitrage and extremely easy market manipulation.

The global TP is easier to find items, harder to manipulate, and reaches equilibrium prices significantly faster and more efficiently than any other in game marketplace ever created.

The problem is Jhon, are you guys going to do something about the loot? Prices are goign higher and higher, I liked the fact you gave precursors on the evtn to bring prices down but what about others? Currently making Infinite Light 1 Hand Sword costs 645Gold and making bolt costs 350G and bolt is a legendary while IL is not. Some drops are just too low and are making the costs of weapons too high.

So it’s not the massive increase in demand that Ascended items created that’s messing with prices ?

Snoring Sleepwalker.9073:

So it’s not the massive increase in demand that Ascended items created that’s messing with prices ?

I’d suppose that and supposed decrease in bots.

Global trading post is much better for overal gameplay, In WoW where the markets are sepperate a single person can exert extreme power over some of the smalelr markets, to the point where I could set the price on lower tier materials and move them in large quantities at inflated prices. I made a few thousand gold in the game before getting to level 20. In GW2 I can’t hardly sell anything for a few copper more than the lowest market price, and few if any mats can be bought and sold for profits that are worth the PCT cut taken, so blind flipping in the market doesn’t exist. So the mats you buy are being bought and sold at their value, instead of some arbitrary inflated price after 2 or 3 people have bought and resold them immediately.

Zoke.2147:

the mats you buy are being bought and sold at their value, instead of some arbitrary inflated price after 2 or 3 people have bought and resold them immediately.

Unfortunatly, this is not true for the important materials, because the drop rate are so extremely low there is few supply and plenty of opportunity to inflate the market (altough not as easy as in WoW or SWTOR, I admit).

Apperently Anet doesn not mind the rampant inflation of the top-tier items and does not intervene at all.

I think it is mainly because Anet makes money with high prices: people buy more gems to convert to gold when they need to spend 400g on lodestones instead of 200g.

Tallis.5607:

Zoke.2147:

the mats you buy are being bought and sold at their value, instead of some arbitrary inflated price after 2 or 3 people have bought and resold them immediately.

Unfortunatly, this is not true for the important materials, because the drop rate are so extremely low there is few supply and plenty of opportunity to inflate the market (altough not as easy as in WoW or SWTOR, I admit).

Apperently Anet doesn not mind the rampant inflation of the top-tier items and does not intervene at all.

I think it is mainly because Anet makes money with high prices: people buy more gems to convert to gold when they need to spend 400g on lodestones instead of 200g.

I doubt that is the case (or at least not the main reason). Since the stats are the same for those items and it’s mainly a question of skins there is no real reason for Anet to step in and interfere with the market. There is very little end game at the moment besides trying to get some of the more epic skins so making them way easier would probably lead to more dissatisfaction in the long run even if people would be happy for now.

Have to love peoples lack of understanding of economics. The more people in the market, the less everything costs.
If you think things cost to much gold now? Then segregating the market share to server base would cause everything to sky rocket, as there would be less of a chance for those rare items to drop for a server population. Items of a certain rarity would be up for sale for a short time before they would be sold at criminal prices, only the extreme rich like gold sellers and botters would snatch them up and then re-sell them for even higher.

Competition in the market is what drives prices down. Monopolies is what drives prices up.
Which is happening now to “top-tier items”, just because a person bought a item for 200g then puts it back up on the market for 400g, does not mean they will ever sell that item. Most likely because of the global market people will under cut that price to sell theirs quicker. Eventually over time driving the price back down to normal.

If Competition didn’t exist you think Orichalcum Ore would be at 1 silver to buy and declining? No it would be much higher, the prices keep going down because of the global market that is set up.

Sure I could try and buy 100,000 of something and re-sell it, but the system is set up so the window of opportunity is to small, to gain the gold back.