Guild Wars 2

The Black Lion boxes will have a chance to drop scraps which can be traded for new, sellable weapon skins as of the Cutthroat Politics patch. The description also seems to indicate that future weapon skins will roll out this way. Now, as it is extremely rare to get keys through normal play this means players will have to either grind out the first few levels on a new character like crazy until they finally get a skin or go with the more likely option of buying them from the gem store.

The issue here is that we already know that a very small minority of players make regular payments to the gem-store and an even smaller sub-section of those buy keys (The general consensus among players is “death to rng!”). There will also undoubtedly be a very small amount of players willing to invest the time and effort it takes to farm that many keys though character recreation as it would take away from the main game so much and most of us have lives to get on with in-between play.

Considering the rarity of the skins, the time and effort it would take to acquire them and/or the amount of real-life money it would take, this means that the skins will undoubtedly be very expensive on the trading post. When you also factor in the demand (If that rapier is in, then it’s gonna be expensive) then this is going to have a profound effect on the trading post and in-game flow of currency. This means that those players willing to invest the time or money on black lion keys to sell the skins on the trading post will now have a huge amount of control over the currency. These players now get to control the market by investing more real-life money into it.

Welcome to Tyria. It’s like real-life, but ruled by pirates.

i like some of the skins though i rather open anything else instead of BLC (black lion chests) so i’ll be running the events quite often. 5 keys for 450 gems… no thanks

Klonex.4562:

i like some of the skins though i rather open anything else instead of BLC (black lion chests) so i’ll be running the events quite often. 5 keys for 450 gems… no thanks

Except for the next 2 weeks you have a greater chance of getting a skin. This means people will stock up now while their chances are higher and sell them later, when the event is over.

One set of skins isn’t going to tank the economy, the SAB skins didn’t for example.

will the skins be tradeable? if so, there will be tons of people stockpiling. even if they do sell them, they won’t be worth much for quite a while.

and this is a problem?

rizzo.1079:

One set of skins isn’t going to tank the economy, the SAB skins didn’t for example.

It won’t be one set, it says future weapon sets will also be obtainable this way.

Vol.5241:

and this is a problem?

Yes, player manipulation of the market causes trouble for the wider playerbase. It’s one of the reasons for cutting down RMT in an online world. They tend to inflate the prices which in turn causes grief for genuine players.

Klonex.4562:

will the skins be tradeable? if so, there will be tons of people stockpiling. even if they do sell them, they won’t be worth much for quite a while.

Yes, but as other skins will be added and obtained in this fashion the number of each skin on the trading post will thin out, increasing rarity and therefore increasing the price.

Lord Krilik.3692:

Vol.5241:

and this is a problem?

Yes, player manipulation of the market causes trouble for the wider playerbase. It’s one of the reasons for cutting down RMT in an online world. They tend to inflate the prices which in turn causes grief for genuine players.

genuine players? who is to determine who is genuinely playing the game and who isn’t?

now i don’t spend copious amounts of time hanging out with evon, but does that make me any more of a genuine player than someone who does?

lol. no logic in your post.

Lord Krilik.3692:

Vol.5241:

and this is a problem?

Yes, player manipulation of the market causes trouble for the wider playerbase. It’s one of the reasons for cutting down RMT in an online world. They tend to inflate the prices which in turn causes grief for genuine players.

kitten Vol. We rich players are not “genuine” people. Ah well lets go manipulate and increase prices of Dusk just for kittens and giggles

What’s that? We can’t actually monopolize the market of one of the rarest items in the game because about a dozen of them gets traded everyday? What is this!?

kiba.2768:

Lord Krilik.3692:

Vol.5241:

and this is a problem?

Yes, player manipulation of the market causes trouble for the wider playerbase. It’s one of the reasons for cutting down RMT in an online world. They tend to inflate the prices which in turn causes grief for genuine players.

genuine players? who is to determine who is genuinely playing the game and who isn’t?

now i don’t spend copious amounts of time hanging out with evon, but does that make me any more of a genuine player than someone who does?

lol. no logic in your post.

I was talking about RMT. RMT aren’t genuine players, they play to earn money and make a profit off the game. They camp spawn locations and inflate auction house prices which causes grief for the actual players. The new move by Anet will counteract the efforts they have taken to prevent this activity and now will cause those who spend money on their game to control the market in the same way. THAT was my point. It was very, very clear. I’m sorry you were unable to understand it.

Ursan.7846:

Lord Krilik.3692:

Vol.5241:

and this is a problem?

Yes, player manipulation of the market causes trouble for the wider playerbase. It’s one of the reasons for cutting down RMT in an online world. They tend to inflate the prices which in turn causes grief for genuine players.

kitten Vol. We rich players are not “genuine” people. Ah well lets go manipulate and increase prices of Dusk just for kittens and giggles

What’s that? We can’t actually monopolize the market of one of the rarest items in the game because about a dozen of them gets traded everyday? What is this!?

I never said Rich players weren’t genuine players, I said RMT were not genuine players. That was very clear. I also said that what this new move effectively does is give the rich players the control over the market that RMT have. They have taken many initiatives to prevent RMT, which were a large problem at launch and quickly stamped out. This new move goes against what they have already achieved.

Lord Krilik.3692:

They camp spawn locations and inflate auction house prices which causes grief for the actual players.

You overestimate the impact bots have on the economy.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/bltc/A-Corrupt-Market/first#post1571770

Obviously ANet will need money to run and develop the game. I for one will support them by buying gems, because I like the game and I see they’re pushing out content at breakneck speed now.

Ursan.7846:

Lord Krilik.3692:

They camp spawn locations and inflate auction house prices which causes grief for the actual players.

You overestimate the impact bots have on the economy.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/bltc/A-Corrupt-Market/first#post1571770

I was speaking in general terms about RMT, not specifically about GW2 as I was aware of the ways they combatted it. The point I have made is that A-net made great progress stamping out RMT activity and market manipulation, then turned around and handed it right to all the players willing to spend large amounts of caskittens.

I do not see the problem? There are always people trying to get some gold, and some are pretty kitten good at it. Noone “needs” the skinns so they are only worth somethign if there is enough demand.
Let them make their money, and hope you are lucky enough to get some keys.

Cas … h turns into caskittens, so lets pretend I said money instead.

Question: Wouldn’t all those people scrambling for black lion keys inflate the price of gems on the TP? If you’re really in such dire need of gold…sell gems. kitten .

Furthermore, isn’t gold’s only purpose waypoints, harvesting tools, repairs, and skins? The first three are essentially free and thus irrelevant, the last one doesn’t affect player power. So if some people want to single-handedly fund this game by trying to hoard copious amounts of gold, I say let them. I’ll still thrash their slightly more pretty kitten in PvP 9 times out of 10.

Previously, we could earn the tickets ourselves. Sure the odds were low and it was grindy, but this was more a balance issue than anything. Everyone hated it. They said “death to RNG” and Anet made this change. The problem is, yes the skins are now trade-able, but all we did is swap everyone being on a pretty even field and having the opportunity to earn them, to those with the money being able to buy them and exploit those without for large gold sums in game. They shifted the balance of power to the real life players who can afford it. This is wrong. They should have kept the more grindy, earn your skin type rng but made the skins trade-able as their value would not have been so high, or got rid of RNG altogether for these skins.

Simplicity.7208:

Question: Wouldn’t all those people scrambling for black lion keys inflate the price of gems on the TP? If you’re really in such dire need of gold…sell gems. kitten .

Furthermore, isn’t gold’s only purpose waypoints, harvesting tools, repairs, and skins? The first three are essentially free and thus irrelevant, the last one doesn’t affect player power. So if some people want to single-handedly fund this game by trying to hoard copious amounts of gold, I say let them. I’ll still thrash their slightly more pretty kitten in PvP 9 times out of 10.

And equipment. Buying exotics and whatnot.

Due to the focus on style over gear tiers the skins are exactly the thing we work for, assuming all our equipment is finally up to scratch. The problem is that to earn enough gold to buy one skin we would have to grind far more than if they were available like the previous RNG skins (for example, jade skins earn-able from drops).

This means rather than tackling the RNG issue everyone moaned about and making it more fair, they took the fact that we wanted to make them trade-able and handed the power to those with the money to spare. What they should have done is kept the same system and made those skins trade-able anyway, as their gold price wouldn’t inflate as much, or just got rid of RNG skin drops.

Ah yes, food, crafting mats, and equipment. Good point. Can’t believe I forgot that. Oh well, I’m still okay with this. I came from a very heavy buy-power game. So as long as we’re not doing that, I can live without an extra skin or two. And considering the fact that ArenaNet has an economist employed to monitor their virtual economy, I doubt it will become as extreme as you just said. They’ll put some ploy out to adjust the values of things, the people who hold wealth, etc etc…Remember how leather used to be worthless? Bing bang bong. Look at that, Zephyrites trade leather for Zephyr boxes. All of a sudden leather has some value again. What, did you just think that was a coincidence?

Well to be fair you can also get a full set of exotic armor with Karma. Also, decking your character in full exotics is not going to cost you much. Ascended on the other hand…

Tom Gore.4035:

Well to be fair you can also get a full set of exotic armor with Karma. Also, decking your character in full exotics is not going to cost you much. Ascended on the other hand…

I tend to use laurels for ascended but of course those that use additional resources will take some gold to acquire (globs of ectoplasm). The new achievement chests have actually made them more acquirable though which is nice.

Simplicity.7208:

Ah yes, food, crafting mats, and equipment. Good point. Can’t believe I forgot that. Oh well, I’m still okay with this. I came from a very heavy buy-power game. So as long as we’re not doing that, I can live without an extra skin or two. And considering the fact that ArenaNet has an economist employed to monitor their virtual economy, I doubt it will become as extreme as you just said. They’ll put some ploy out to adjust the values of things, the people who hold wealth, etc etc…Remember how leather used to be worthless? Bing bang bong. Look at that, Zephyrites trade leather for Zephyr boxes. All of a sudden leather has some value again. What, did you just think that was a coincidence?

It’s a good point about the leather, except in this instance there is no other method unless they change it again. The keys must be purchased or earned through a really long-winded and repetitive method of recreating characters. Leather can be hunted, salvaged, bought with gold etc. I am hoping they make adjustments to this as it’s actually made the RNG complaints worse.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/john-smith-on-the-guild-wars-2-virtual-economy/

You’re worried over nothing. When the kitten hits the fan, something will be done to remedy the situation. You don’t hire an economist unless you’re serious about not kittening up the economy. If you want to continue to make mountains out of molehills, be my guest. But that’s all I have to say on the matter.

Simplicity.7208:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/john-smith-on-the-guild-wars-2-virtual-economy/

You’re worried over nothing. When the kitten hits the fan, something will be done to remedy the situation. You don’t hire an economist unless you’re serious about not kittening up the economy. If you want to continue to make mountains out of molehills, be my guest. But that’s all I have to say on the matter.

Well that certainly took a nose-dive. I thought you and I were having a pleasant discussion over that matter until now. Whatever. I did say I hope they take another look at this, and pointed out that I am aware they have made some excellent efforts to counteract poor balance and economy issues in the past.

We should all do well to remember that they have been trying everything they can to squeeze more money out of us in this manner though. I just wish they would realize it isn’t necessary. The players love the game so much already that they don’t need to be lured into compulsive lotteries; they are more than happy to spend on luxury items when they are available.

$1 dollar per key LOL. i do buy gems. full expanded inventory space for 3 characters + bank slots + 3 additional character slot worth of gems. BUT 1 dollar per key, ya right, I ain’t stupid enough to throw money away at that kind of drop rate.

“Er mah god ppl are using Skins to make Money! Anet pls fix this so casuals can get skins too!”
Hahaha

Any item that does not actually effect your stats should be FAIR game and requires no regulation.

How these items are “generated” can be regulated to control their “rarity” within the game world.

ALL vanity items should not be easily available to everyone (at least not at first).

Now in this particular instance it is worrying that these new skins are “buy” items with an unknown price tag…..but you can’t blame Anet for wanting to make money.

Brother Grimm.5176:

Any item that does not actually effect your stats should be FAIR game and requires no regulation.

How these items are “generated” can be regulated to control their “rarity” within the game world.

ALL vanity items should not be easily available to everyone (at least not at first).

Now in this particular instance it is worrying that these new skins are “buy” items with an unknown price tag…..but you can’t blame Anet for wanting to make money.

Let’s be honest. This is a virtual casino, and the house always win. Win everything actually, since it is a digital item hahah

Ursan.7846:

Lord Krilik.3692:

Vol.5241:

and this is a problem?

Yes, player manipulation of the market causes trouble for the wider playerbase. It’s one of the reasons for cutting down RMT in an online world. They tend to inflate the prices which in turn causes grief for genuine players.

kitten Vol. We rich players are not “genuine” people. Ah well lets go manipulate and increase prices of Dusk just for kittens and giggles

What’s that? We can’t actually monopolize the market of one of the rarest items in the game because about a dozen of them gets traded everyday? What is this!?

what did I do? ;/

You’re saying all this like it’s a bad thing. Giving players something worth while to sell is one of the main things we’ve been missing in this game.