Guild Wars 2

We all pay taxes. In games (Arbitrary money sinks) and in real life. In real life they serve a purpose. Wouldn’t it be cool if the taxes we pay in GW2 actually served a purpose? I propose that every year we get money back based on our transactions on the BLTC. You could throw a 2 week content “tax return” update in that revolves around us doing fun little quests that involve Asuran bureaucracy or whatever. We then get like 15% of what we spent during the year back as a return. Either that or instead of it causing a huge hit on the BLTC with that much money being infused in the market at once, we could get the money in waves in the mail just like tax returns in real life.

Thoughts? I just thought about this so it isn’t very specific, but I am sure you all could come up with some cool stuff to add to it.

The sink needs to be there, and they need to find other ways to create a sink.

The problem with MMOs is that their money is randomly generated every second, sorta like a government printing more money to try to fix economic issues. All it leads to, eventually, is gross inflation.

For example, seven years ago another MMO’s stack of copper was about 1-5 silver, last time I played it was 30 to 60 gold. Only reason for that is there was no real gold sink, and its the same with every MMO with a market. GW1 didn’t have this problem as much because if you couldn’t farm the materials to make your armor you could buy them directly from NPCs, not other players, which was a tremendous gold sink.

This is why I think Hairstyling and armor transmogging should not be gem store items but rather in game features that cost more money depending on your level. Level 2, 1 silver for hair styling and 2.5 for each armor/weapon. Level 80 5 gold for hair, 12.5g for each armor/weapon.

If you want a ‘return’ on what you put into the trading post, then sell all of the materials you get that you no longer need.

Iason Evan.3806:

We all pay taxes. In games (Arbitrary money sinks) and in real life. In real life they serve a purpose. Wouldn’t it be cool if the taxes we pay in GW2 actually served a purpose? I propose that every year we get money back based on our transactions on the BLTC. You could throw a 2 week content “tax return” update in that revolves around us doing fun little quests that involve Asuran bureaucracy or whatever.

While I think it’s an interesting idea, there are a few of problems with it – tax refunds are for folks that overpay their taxes. Those of us that spend the time to calculate what our taxes will be don’t let the government keep our money interest free The taxes on the BLTP are like sales tax – there’s no ambiguity in what you owe, so you can’t overpay.

The second problem is that filing your tax forms and working through a bureaucracy just isn’t fun for most folks. And lastly, why would it make sense to create an event where folks that spent more gold got more rewards than someone new to the game? Why not just make an event where everyone could get the same rewards for the same amount of effort?

Pandemoniac.4739:

Iason Evan.3806:

We all pay taxes. In games (Arbitrary money sinks) and in real life. In real life they serve a purpose. Wouldn’t it be cool if the taxes we pay in GW2 actually served a purpose? I propose that every year we get money back based on our transactions on the BLTC. You could throw a 2 week content “tax return” update in that revolves around us doing fun little quests that involve Asuran bureaucracy or whatever.

While I think it’s an interesting idea, there are a few of problems with it – tax refunds are for folks that overpay their taxes. Those of us that spend the time to calculate what our taxes will be don’t let the government keep our money interest free The taxes on the BLTP are like sales tax – there’s no ambiguity in what you owe, so you can’t overpay.

The second problem is that filing your tax forms and working through a bureaucracy just isn’t fun for most folks. And lastly, why would it make sense to create an event where folks that spent more gold got more rewards than someone new to the game? Why not just make an event where everyone could get the same rewards for the same amount of effort?

Because it’s rewarding players for their play time and for the in game money they have spent. That in turn is rewarding the developers because it means people are playing. If I know that if I play GW2, I will be rewarded with a tax return at the end of the Tyrian fiscal year, I will be more likely to choose to play GW2 over another game. It also encourages people to use the market.

My other idea is to use gold sinks in content where the gold we spend is used by NPCs to give us more content. That way there are mechanics and incentive behind the gold sink instead of it just being an arbitrary way to pull money out of the economy.

I don’t think giving an end of the year discount on TP purchases is rewarding the right things. There are already rewards for playing the game through achievement chests, birthday presents, etc. Why single out money spent on the TP? It basically makes the gold sink less effective and reinforces the rich getting richer.