Guild Wars 2

Post in this thread what you think the function of the gold-gem exchange is.

to exchange gold/gems?

to allow people to purchase gold with gems, and vuce versa?

I will start the speculation with this:

(with sarchasm) The function of the exchange is…
1. to encourage players to speculate in buying and selling TP items using gold to try and make a fortune.
2. to slowly force players to use RMT (legal or otherwise) to obtain items denominated in gems.
3. to alienate new players who do not have extra gold laying around
4. to drive up the perceived value of gem-based items by forcing players to work harder or longer to obtain an equal amount of gems than they would have earlier in the life of the game.

Now that gold farming is coming under some control, the gold value of some consumables has started to stabilize or increase instead of losing value in terms of gold, while at the same time gold loses value in terms of gems. Reducing unapproved RMT has slowed the devaluation of drop items but such items still continue losing game value in terms of gems. Thinking in these terms, what really is the purpose of the exchange?

The TP’s commission should prevent speculation in currency exchange but is it effective? Currency speculation should only happen if relative valuation (exchange rate) moves more than the commission over a reasonable length of time (investment risk). Then, there is also speculation on consumable items as intermediaries because their rate of price fluctuation is more than the currency exchange but why tie gold to gems at all?

The new, leafy currency, the green laurel, was introduced to circumvent gold, just as dungeon, pvp, and wvw tokens do. Laurels reward players for achievement (effort) at fixed rates. Why is this when the items could be sold for gems, or traded on the TP using gold?

Real money fixes gem prices (though rates are different by country), gems are tied to gold (through a secret formula), and gold is tied to in-game rewards and a huge variety of items on the Trading Post. The flexible end of this chain ends up being gold and the items denominated in it that trade in the BLTP. Why is gold so instable that almost a dozen other forms of currency are required to keep people from flipping out? We have gems and tokens for each dungeon and the fractals, karma, mystic forge coins, wvw, pvp, and, if you want to count them, all of the account and soul-bound items.

So gold is good for exchanging items on the TP and is created by mob drops and event/mission rewards. I do wonder why a gold exchange for gems is even necessary. I, myself, have properly purchased gems through Arenanet’s approved RMT exchange and also exchanged gold for gems. What does the ability to perform a gem/gold exchange do for the game? What would be so wrong about shutting down the gold→gems exchange path? Miyani could do direct sale of offerings to the forge without conversion through gems.

The function of the gold-gem exchange is to allow players who don’t want to spend real money on the game to acquire items from the store while providing a legal, regulated method of purchasing in game gold with real money (thus reducing incentives for negative RMT actions).

Anchoku.8142:

The function of the exchange is…
2. to slowly force players to use RMT (legal or otherwise) to obtain items denominated in gems.

This is demonstrably false.

By providing a gold to gems exchange, players are able to access every item from the cash store without spending cash. If there was any intent to try “force” real money transactions in game, this would never have made it out of the first concept meeting.

Syeria.4812:

By providing a gold to gems exchange, players are able to access every item from the cash store without spending cash. If there was any intent to try “force” real money transactions in game, this would never have made it out of the first concept meeting.

Your naivety and faith in a corporation’s altruism is charming but your assumptions have no basis for a working business plan. Content development and daily support require continued funding from current players. I have paid for gems. Have you?

I would rather see a better working economy that does not punish new players or those who play less frequently. I want new players to be able to exchange silver for a key to a BLC just to see what is inside but the exchange rate continues to worsen. What do you hope for in your endless charity?

Anchoku.8142:

Syeria.4812:

By providing a gold to gems exchange, players are able to access every item from the cash store without spending cash. If there was any intent to try “force” real money transactions in game, this would never have made it out of the first concept meeting.

Your naivety and faith in a corporation’s altruism is charming but your assumptions have no basis for a working business plan. Content development and daily support require continued funding from current players. I have paid for gems. Have you?

I would rather see a better working economy that does not punish new players or those who play less frequently. I want new players to be able to exchange silver for a key to a BLC just to see what is inside but the exchange rate continues to worsen. What do you hope for in your endless charity?

Conspiracy theories don’t really make up for ignorance. I know, they’re a lot of fun, and if you refuse to acknowledge certain realities, they even sound like they make sense. Unfortunately for your little pet theory, those realities don’t play well with your little narrative.

You’ve cherry-picked a few items to compare to try “prove” your little theory, but completely ignore all other items, market pressures, currencies, and mechanisms. You repeatedly beg the question as to the purpose of alternate currencies. It’s quite clear that you reached a conclusion then sought out evidence to support it, rather than finding evidence to help you determine which conclusion you should reach.

I was going to write a full, explanatory reply, but between your unsubstantiated conspiracy claims, desperate use of logical fallacies, and immediate resort to strawman and ad hominem attacks, it’s pretty clear I’d be just wasting my time.

Yes, if you write out you own detailed explanation on how you perceive the market mechanics you, too, will be wasting your time on speculation and conspiracy theories. That is what this thread is for. Arenanet will never disclose details of their game’s market behavior and how their controls affect either it, or corporate revenue.

All we can do is ask pointed questions and have a little fun with it. Instead of taking attacks to blind faith in an assumed free market personally, write out why you think there is a gem exchange, how it really functions, and how it affects game play.

Arenanet only makes money when people buy gems with real money. The game’s gold economy is nothing more than a toy for players made by the dev’s. The gem exchange is probably a research project studying how to control the money supply and effects on gem RMT. I remember reading that the gem exchange was installed to discourage illegal RMT but wonder if it actually was all that effective.

If you post here again, I want to see you reasoning.

Anchoku.8142:

Yes, if you write out you own detailed explanation on how you perceive the market mechanics you, too, will be wasting your time on speculation and conspiracy theories. That is what this thread is for. Arenanet will never disclose details of their game’s market behavior and how their controls affect either it, or corporate revenue.

All we can do is ask pointed questions and have a little fun with it. Instead of taking attacks to blind faith in an assumed free market personally, write out why you think there is a gem exchange, how it really functions, and how it affects game play.

Arenanet only makes money when people buy gems with real money. The game’s gold economy is nothing more than a toy for players made by the dev’s. The gem exchange is probably a research project studying how to control the money supply and effects on gem RMT. I remember reading that the gem exchange was installed to discourage illegal RMT but wonder if it actually was all that effective.

If you post here again, I want to see you reasoning.

the issue with your conspiracy theories is that we were actually told, by a dev, how the gem-gold exchange works. basically, when you purchase either gold or gems, they go into a pool available for exchange. presumably, the sizes of the stockpiles determines the price. therefore, when you purchase gems for gold, areanet isn’t loosing money, because those gems were originally purchased for real money by someone previously, who exchanged his gems for gold.

I would hazard a guess that a contributing factor is giving players an out in order to increase their likelihood of spending real money.

This is an abstract concept, not statistical, but consider the potential fence-sitter group of gem spenders. That is, people who want gem-based items but would never buy them with RL money if it was the only way to do so. Give them the opportunity to play the game however, with a reasonable chance to accumulate enough in-game wealth to buy those items, and they are happier. Possibly (conjecture) to the point where they might decide to spend RL money anyway in lieu of the effort, rather than eschewing it entirely because they felt forced to spend it because it was the only way.

are you not listening? Anet makes money off gems bought with gold, because they were purchased with gems at some point. so they have no reason not to have the price be what the playerbase thinks is acceptable. that includes the people who by gold with gems.

EDIT: linky link https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/bltc/Who-sets-Gem-prices/page/6#post705345

I wasn’t disputing that, merely offering a potential contributing reason as to why they went with that system in the first place vs. a system where you just buy gems with RL money and that’s it. I think that this way they have a wider potential of making money, is all, which I certainly don’t begrudge them, because I want shiny content and I know that you can’t front that purely on retail sticker price of the game.

Asthalon.6875:

I would hazard a guess that a contributing factor is giving players an out in order to increase their likelihood of spending real money.

This is an abstract concept, not statistical, but consider the potential fence-sitter group of gem spenders. That is, people who want gem-based items but would never buy them with RL money if it was the only way to do so. Give them the opportunity to play the game however, with a reasonable chance to accumulate enough in-game wealth to buy those items, and they are happier. Possibly (conjecture) to the point where they might decide to spend RL money anyway in lieu of the effort, rather than eschewing it entirely because they felt forced to spend it because it was the only way.

I happen to agree. Gold is completely valueless to Arenanet unless it is used to entice people to spend real money so the exchange can be thought of as bait. Dedicated players or those who are skilled in the TP mini-game can purchase the items essentially for free and, maybe, advertise them or spread good word about their use. That way, players short on gold may wish to convert real money.

Talk of the “pool” is only part of the story. This pool has a big hole in the bottom called cash flow from which the profit margin, monthly operating, and ongoing content development costs are drawn from. Client and gem sales go in the top and money flows out the bottom down the drain. I expect the price of gems in terms of game-gold is a function monthly expenses and RMT transactions. Maybe I will start thinking of the BLTC as Arenanet’s own Mystic toilet but I, for one, do not mind feeding it real food once in a while. ;-)

People who never buy gems with real money are the moochers who may very well be adding to the “inflation”. That is why I wonder if the gem exchange is really serving its purpose. What would happen if it was just turned off? Want a plushie back item skin? Two hundred gold gets you nothing but $3-5 might. I can easily imagine the exchange rate moving a factor of 10. It is more a balance of in-game vs real life financial pain that Arenanet is testing.

People playing the TP mini-game is probably skewing the Arenanet’s gem exchange toilet game. I would imagine their intent is not to make it too difficult for newer players to obtain free samples from the BLTC through gold exchange. Players who make gobs of gold from the TP may be consuming too high a ratio of gems.

The BLTC needs improvements badly, anyway. I would put that task higher priority than class balance and mechanics adjustment.