Guild Wars 2

Disagree with OP. There is free travel to Lions Arch for everyone who wants free stuff!. Aside from that I’ve found the waypoint cost and scale is reasonable it’s my choice to use it and pay or not. I’ve never not been able to afford it.

No, the sink should stay, not only does it provide a gold sink, it also promotes just walking to your destination and getting involved into Dynamic Events and ect. If Waypoints were free you’d see less people just passing by events and doing them on their way to somewhere else.

Malthurius.6870:

No, the sink should stay, not only does it provide a gold sink, it also promotes just walking to your destination and getting involved into Dynamic Events and ect. If Waypoints were free you’d see less people just passing by events and doing them on their way to somewhere else.

Gold sink is provided by the books you have to buy to progress in your traitbars. And the promotion of walking to your destination is such a weak argument… I am NOT walking to the Cursed Shore from Lions Arch… that’s just silly.

I’ll meet everybody halfway then: Waypoint cost remains but… if you have discovered ALL waypoints in the world, it becomes free. Now you have your gold sink AND something cool to strive for.

Torque.7951:

Gold sink is provided by the books you have to buy to progress in your traitbars. And the promotion of walking to your destination is such a weak argument… I am NOT walking to the Cursed Shore from Lions Arch… that’s just silly.

I’ll meet everybody halfway then: Waypoint cost remains but… if you have discovered ALL waypoints in the world, it becomes free. Now you have your gold sink AND something cool to strive for.

Of course you’re not going to walk from LA to cursed shore, that’s justified as it’s similar to a taxi in other MMOs, only instant. What I’m talking about is teleporting to the closest waypoint to save time.

Also, trait books do not provide a constant gold sink, they are only required once.

Malthurius.6870:

Torque.7951:

Gold sink is provided by the books you have to buy to progress in your traitbars. And the promotion of walking to your destination is such a weak argument… I am NOT walking to the Cursed Shore from Lions Arch… that’s just silly.

I’ll meet everybody halfway then: Waypoint cost remains but… if you have discovered ALL waypoints in the world, it becomes free. Now you have your gold sink AND something cool to strive for.

Of course you’re not going to walk from LA to cursed shore, that’s justified as it’s similar to a taxi in other MMOs, only instant. What I’m talking about is teleporting to the closest waypoint to save time.

Also, trait books do not provide a constant gold sink, they are only required once.

thats the entire point of a waypoint – to save time – but if it costs you just as much time to make the coin needed to use it, then how is it saving time, exactly?

waypoints are supposed to be a time sink REMOVAL feature, yet, we STILL have the same time sink via the cost to use them…. that’s redundant and absurd

Honestly I would be happier with fewer way points and a single bind point, not Lion’s Arch in the world where I could travel for free. Also travel issues are beginning to cause Lions Arch to over populate because of the Asura gates.

Wait point cost is more than just a gold sink. It is a device to make people actually travel around the world, meeting new people, and complete dynamic events.

Taking out the cost between wait points, and people will start to just teleport around the world constantly. It would kill the open world like how wow killed theirs with dungeon finders.

Why would anet want you to teleport around at will when they had put so much efforts on their enviorment and events? Heck why would you want to play a mmo with a persistant world if all you want tk do is to teleport from wp to wp?

carson yuen.6739:

Wait point cost is more than just a gold sink. It is a device to make people actually travel around the world, meeting new people, and complete dynamic events.

Taking out the cost between wait points, and people will start to just teleport around the world constantly. It would kill the open world like how wow killed theirs with dungeon finders.

Why would anet want you to teleport around at will when they had put so much efforts on their enviorment and events? Heck why would you want to play a mmo with a persistant world if all you want tk do is to teleport from wp to wp?

I paid my $60 for this game, and all the detail put in to it. Its my choice on how much of it I wish to look at.

There’s also already a motivator to see everything: map completion.

I think the costs should be decreased, Not removed.

The best way to do it would to give 1 free port an hour. This means you could go into a dungeon with your friends, or to an obscure area and then back to something else, without being penalized, while just running around every oricalcum node would still cost you.

Its a matter of y=mx+b. Y = cost, x = distance. Atm, m is a constant and b scales to your level. instead, b should be a constant and m should scale with level.

RebelYell.7132:

I paid my $60 for this game, and all the detail put in to it. Its my choice on how much of it I wish to look at.

There’s also already a motivator to see everything: map completion.

you already have a choice of how you look into the world, it’s call wait points and it costs money.

paying 60 bucks does not give you the right to change the way the game is designed. This is the same reason why people can’t ask anet to give them free gold every week because a lot of people like the idea…. the game just not design that way.

taking out the way point travel cost, and you will have a dead world within a month or two. It’s more than just about you and how you like to play your game. It is for the great good for the whole game

carson yuen.6739:

RebelYell.7132:

I paid my $60 for this game, and all the detail put in to it. Its my choice on how much of it I wish to look at.

There’s also already a motivator to see everything: map completion.

you already have a choice of how you look into the world, it’s call wait points and it costs money.

See thread title.

RebelYell.7132:

nachtnebel.9168:

I think waypoint (and repair) costs are fine, every MMO needs gold sinks to keep the eco healthy.

Name an MMORPG that had to shut down because people had too much money.

I played Final Fantasy 11 for a few years – If you killed a monster you SOMETIMES got 4-6 Gil (Gil = Currency), If you did fetch missions in town… 50 GIL… maybe.

Low level items when I started playing from the auction house would easily be 20,000-50,000 Gil… for a really good item it could cost over 10 Million…

How was any new player (let alone seasoned player) able to get that money?

This influx was due mostly to Gil Sellers/Farmers, and years later when there was a crackdown on them the prices normalized quite a bit – but having ‘Too much currency’ floating around the game killed it – Quest & Mission Rewards were Useless, and that trickled into a lot of other areas of the game.

GADefence.5634:

The best way to do it would to give 1 free port an hour. This means you could go into a dungeon with your friends, or to an obscure area and then back to something else, without being penalized, while just running around every oricalcum node would still cost you.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOH!!! I like this idea!

Completely agree with OP.

Waypoint costs immensly harm this game at higher levels due to the sheer cost. It contradicts the “no content becomes completely redundant” philosophy, makes crafting a pain, and impedes freedom of exploration.

And to top it off, it’s a complete and utter failure as a goldsink by means of being entirely avoidable. (Defeated is moot due to repair costs)

Kill waypoint costs dead, or at the very least cap them at no more than 50 copper. If you’re so worried about inflation, why not just scale back the amount of gold you’re injecting into the “economy” to begin with?

I say keep the waypoint costs, but cap them at about 75c-1s. But! They should make teleporting from a city to an explorable area such as Sparkfly Fen free. But have it so you can only teleport to a waypoint by an entrance and vise-versa. From the explorable area to a city, perhaps even just Lions Arch only. As someone said earlier, who wants to pay 2s to teleport back and forth from a city way down to a zone far away?

I think the reason behind the waypoint cost is that Anet simply wants you to walk around and do dynamic events along the way, helping other players.

I would suggest no waypoint cost for Lion’s Arch though.

I find that the cost for using waypoints are not that big and can be easily paid for by killing a few creatures, they have free travel in the cities so it takes some time if you need to go from A to B you have to go through C first or pay a little more. With a lot of items being bought with karma they have to have another system to remove gold from the game. I feel that waypoint costs are that other system to remove gold.

I have to agree with another suggestion I saw on here.

Waypoints should become free when a map is 100% completed.

If not, then I think that waypoints between maps should be free or at the very least, there should be a 75 copper cap. Paying 1 silver to go anywhere is ridiculous.

Amon.5042:

- A friend needs my help in a far away waypoint which takes me about 6 silver for a round trip. That’s not much of an incentive to help out a friend.

While your other points aren’t trivial, this is the critical one for me.

I’m very opposed to the idea of effectively being charged to play with other people. Being in a party with friends who all have differing agendas can be, I’ve found, a costly proposition.

For an MMO, I think this dynamic is beyond inane.

Waypoints as a currency-sink is, fundamentally, a good idea. Waypoints as a disincentive to get together with others… what is this, I don’t even.

One way or another, that needs to be addressed. There are a lot of options on how it could be handled… but it needs to be handled. Placing obstacles in the way of social experience in an MMO goes against the central attraction of the genre.

I agree with Blackhand with the statement that travel costs are not an issue. At level 80, and currently working on exploring the world, I hardly use the waypoints unless I die or want to travel large distances; example: traveling from Wayfarer Foothills to Frostgorge Sound for Jormag. I would rather run around and help random players with events as I complete different zones than run around and see no one because they are all free porting everywhere.

As with the numerous people who have stated, I agree that waypoint fees should stay because they help to keep the economy from becoming too inflated. Outside of repair costs, there is nothing in the game that is a constant coin sink. Gathering items are not needed, so they’re not constant; there are no potions to replenish mana or health, another sink not there; gear upgrades can be achieved through mob drops, yet another sink removed. Removal of the waypoint fees will eliminate one of the few coin sinks that this game has.

@Acewing: If you die and need to go to a waypoint that costs 1.38 silver, but you only have .75 silver, you’ll have 0 silver when you spawn. At least, that’s happened to me once or twice, I’m not sure if it was suppose to though.

All in all, the game hasn’t even been out for a month yet, officially and not pre-release, give it some time for the economies of the game to set themselves up naturally before complaining about things. Granted each server will have its own economy that is set up via the trading post and chat merchants, but regardless of the situation, the waypoint fees are need to help prevent the economies from getting too far out of hand. If anything, the fee should adjust to the distance traveled with re-spawning from defeated being a factor in cost. I could see adjusting the travel costs if you have the region map completed, but I cannot justify eliminating the fees all together.

If you have problems affording the travel costs, you can either take the cheap route as outlined earlier or devise new ways to increase your purse. Instead of hoarding everything, sell the things that you do not use and the things that you will not use for a long while. If you find yourself dying often, and ultimately spending a lot on repair costs, re-work your build, armor set up, and/or play style. Making money is not as hard as some people are making it out to be.

Edit: Another thing that should be considered when discussing removing the waypoint fees, after the region map has been completed, is the fact that wealth of the general population will increase as more players complete new maps. A rise in wealth, usually, coincides with a rise in inflation and eventually an economical collapse. Even though the removal of the fees appears to be a good idea in the short term, it will only be detrimental in the grander scheme of things.

Teleporting was free in GW1. It should’ve stayed the same or removed completely. The way they are designed right now, the waypoints are an enforced gold farming system: you played the game and you don’t want to do anything then just teleport from point to point to see if there are interesting things going on and so you are soon out of gold. So you need to start farming events to get back the gold you lost by teleporting.
This is a frustrating mechanic. After beating the game, I might jsut want to relax in the game and see what other are doing, why should I still farm for having the posibility to explore the world again?
In GW1 you could teleport all day long to different towns and see if anyone needs help.As in GW2, help is almost never needed, why charge us for just teleporting around the game world?

I completely agree that having to pay money in order to help others is extremely detrimental and I hope that it’s something that ANet really addresses.

Otherwise, @asperbianca: In regards to the waypoints not costing money for those who complete the map, then maybe free waypoints within a map can be a bonus for reaching level 80? Or maybe for 100% world completion, which many people will not achieve. If you complete a map, then decrease the costs of Waypoints.

So far, I haven’t had issues with them. But, I imagine that if I wanted to help someone else, this would be frustrating.

Yea, they really need to be free. It was an “Innovative” feature when they rolled it out in GW1, so why drop it?

On another note, what were the gold sinks in GW1? I had no problems with that economy.

Adine.2184:

As annoying as they are all mmos need gold sinks

you want a gold sink go craft.

/signed

Let’s be honest, it’s not just about the sustainability of the economy, it’s about ANet’s business model necessitating the regular purchase of Diamonds by its game players. The best way of encouraging this (or if you want to be especially cynical, the easiest way) is by finding ways of removing as much currency as possible, as subtly as possible, from as many people as possible.

J Allin.7690:

Let’s be honest, it’s not just about the sustainability of the economy, it’s about ANet’s business model necessitating the regular purchase of Diamonds by its game players. The best way of encouraging this (or if you want to be especially cynical, the easiest way) is by finding ways of removing as much currency as possible, as subtly as possible, from as many people as possible.

Which is a good reason to resist posters claiming “all MMORPGs need a gold sink”.

Turning gold into gems is the only gold sink MY economy needs.

In response to Ronah:

That argument would be equivalent to asking the public transit authority why they charge you to transport you from point a to point b; you are paying for a service that is not needed, but provided for convenience, even though there are other, and cheaper, options available. Waypoints are a convenient service, that in all reality are not even needed for map exploration. You can walk, run, or swim to every location in the world in GW2; waypoints are provided if you want to cut travel time down. You don’t have to ‘farm events’, or even mobs for that matter, to afford travel costs; there are more ways to make money in the game other than farming. A lot of people seem to be making a big deal out of travel costs when they are trivial when compared to repair costs, at times, and are acting like it would take hours to ground up enough coin to be able to afford to travel to the waypoint a few feet away. Services aren’t free, they have to be paid for, this is a fact of life.

If anything, the travel costs, as well as the repair costs, in this game are much cheaper than they were in the last one I played. To travel from the North District, in the hub city, to the South District, of the same city, was 500 gold; to travel from the hub city to a major city was 1000 gold; to travel from major city to major city was also 1000 gold; and to travel from the hub city to the gates of heaven and hell was 5000 gold. Repair costs, after wars and such, were usually around 30,000 gold; and after dungeon runs, around 5,000 – 8,000 gold. The economy of the server that I played was inflated to the point where it took hours, and some times days, of repeating dungeons to work up enough gold to purchase other needed items; it took a few hours, usually, just to have enough gold to repair my gear, buy mana/health pots, and ammunition. So take a closer look at how laid back and stress free GW2 is when compared to other MMOs.

Another thing that should be done is stop comparing GW2 to GW1. Even though GW2 is a ‘sequel’, it still takes place in a time years after the setting of GW1, a lot of things can happen during that time. Not to mention the fact that GW2 is a completely different game than GW1, despite it being a sequel per se.

@ lookitsandrea:

I am forever porting back and forth to help out friends in various regions. I will be the first to admit that it does get pricey after a while, but I have no issues paying the porting fee because I know that my friend will appreciate the help that I will give them. I share this same philosophy in game and in real life; when friends, family, need help, I will do what I can to aid them as long as it does not put me in a binding situation or run me broke.

@RebelYell: Unfortunately, MMOs do not revolve around any single player. The developers, staff, and those responsible for the upkeep need to ensure that the MMO is up to snuff with the majority in mind, while keeping in consideration the minorities that will be affected by any change that is implemented in the game. If the only thing that you work for, in game, is turning your gold into gems, then good for you; not every other player shares that same goal. Not to seem snide or arrogant, but if you desire a game that revolves around you, I would recommend a FPS or a console game. That way you can do whatever you want without it affecting anyone else, but you will still be restricted by the constraints of the game.

I agree, the WP’s are there to help players move around a zone and cut down on time so you can participate in events easier but it’s extremely costly at higher levels which means people are actually discouraged to move around at all. It makes absolutely no sense and is a huge flaw in Arenanets design.

People babbling about WP’s being a “convenience” and that they should be so stupidly expensive should probably go play GW1 so they can see a system that actually works.

J Allin.7690:

Let’s be honest, it’s not just about the sustainability of the economy, it’s about ANet’s business model necessitating the regular purchase of Diamonds by its game players. The best way of encouraging this (or if you want to be especially cynical, the easiest way) is by finding ways of removing as much currency as possible, as subtly as possible, from as many people as possible.

I don’t have any issue with that, but the key word you use there is “subtly”.

If the removal methods are impacting enjoyment (in this case obstructing one’s ability to play with friends), they can backfire, because the biggest thing ANet needs is: participants.

If GW2 becomes a hassle relative to other entertainment options available, well… most folks aren’t going to selflessly participate just to keep the economy goin’.

Also, isn’t part of the purpose of the gem exchange to undermine RMT? If players are scraping for coin all the time for the sake of the economy and the exchange, doesn’t that make RMT all the more attractive, thereby undermining a big reason why the exchange was introduced in the first place?

I think Waypoints should probably be preserved as a currency-sink, but I also think ANet needs to loosen up on ‘em a bit and put more faith in WANT IT NAO mentality. I don’t think it’ll disappoint them.

asperbianca.3196:

Another thing that should be done is stop comparing GW2 to GW1. Even though GW2 is a ‘sequel’, it still takes place in a time years after the setting of GW1, a lot of things can happen during that time.

That is quite possibly the worst reason I’ve heard so far for a detrimental gameplay change in this thread, and there’s plenty of competition. Congratulations!

Yea, you are right, 250 years after GW1 people got more greedy and money lovers so they NEED make profit from an invention that the whole world should benefit from: Teleportation. This is how it happens with water engines in RL too They are hidden away coz the Oil Lords need to fatten their belies. C.mon, it a fantasy game for God’s sake, why should it be ruled by banksters too?

Remove waypoint AND repair costs!

+10 from me.

A friend asks for a hand doing one of the puzzles or with a skill point ‘guard’, do I ask him to pay me the 6+ silver it is going to cost me to get there and back?

Way point charges reward players for being bored by stuff like portalling to the nearest free way point in a city to shave a few coppers off the next hop, using Lions Arch as a base because of the free return trip via the mists, using azura gates to get to the nearest city before portalling to where you want to go.

It is just bad game design, reward players for doing fun stuff or difficult stuff, not for trudging across a map.

asperbianca.3196:

Waypoints are a convenient service, that in all reality are not even needed for map exploration.

Waypoints, aside from being a money-sink, are a means to conserve on a player’s expenditure of time and a means to facilitate the social experience of the game.

In reality, I don’t have the time (nor the inclination) to run all over the world map just to hook up with friends. In reality, my play circle has to contend with real world concerns, such as work, errands, chores, and children. We want to optimize our play windows, because they are rare. In reality, we won’t stick with something that’s going to (needlessly) hinder us in that.

In reality, ANet needs to maintain a player base that justifies the continued development and expansion of this MMO (which is a much larger, more expensive beast than its predecessor). In reality, NCSoft just blithely shut down a successful (making money) MMO because it wasn’t successful enough.

Reality, she be a harsh mistress, arr.

Ahwoo.8029:

Remove waypoint AND repair costs!

+1

@ RebelYell:

That was not meant as a reason to justify a ‘detrimental gameplay change’, as you so eloquently put it. It was a personal observation, and opinion, nothing more. Anyone who infers it as such does so on their own.

@ Ronah:

To offer another solution, would you rather pay an obscene amount of coin to use Asura gates, if it meant that waypoints were free? The gates are a technology that was created to aid in travel, but the Asura put them everywhere and demanded nothing in return, as far as I know. Now keep in mind, that this scenario also includes that one Asura gate is located in each region of the world map and it is not possible to use waypoints to travel between regions or cities; the only way to get to the city is through the Asura gate and the only way that you would be able to move from one region to another is by walking through the portals at the edges of the map. Personally, I would rather pay to use the waypoints than being stuck with that scenario. I’m not saying that the game should be ruled by “banksters” or anything of that nature, but I am saying that it shouldn’t be free. I’m fully supportive of adjusting the cost according to distance, map completion, etc., but any service provided should come with a fee. And if you really want to get into the “fantasy game” talk, where are my unicorns and my ability to fly? I wouldn’t mind being able to fly everywhere, but I’m not going around asking for it either.

All in all, if Anet were to implement everything that people have requested/demanded over the past couple of weeks, then this game would: 1. not make much sense, 2. have a lot of incredibly rich players with nothing to spend their money on, 3. extinct species running everywhere, 4. possess nothing to keep players interested or interest new players in joining.

Yes, whether it is liked or not, MMOs need things to act as a counter-agent to general population wealth, a.k.a. coin sinks. How these coin sinks are implemented are an entirely different topic. Instead of complaining about how “pricey” they are or saying “GW1 didn’t have them, so I don’t want them in GW2,” try offering different solutions. Not only does it help validate your argument, but it can also help to incur a change that almost everyone can be happy with. I see so many people appearing to want GW2 to be like ‘every other game on the market’, including GW1, but I’m not playing ‘every other game on the market’, and don’t want to be either; I am happy with GW2.

Hydrophidian.4319:

asperbianca.3196:

Waypoints are a convenient service, that in all reality are not even needed for map exploration.

Waypoints, aside from being a money-sink, are a means to conserve on a player’s expenditure of time and a means to facilitate the social experience of the game.

In reality, I don’t have the time (nor the inclination) to run all over the world map just to hook up with friends. In reality, my play circle has to contend with real world concerns, such as work, errands, chores, and children. We want to optimize our play windows, because they are rare. In reality, we won’t stick with something that’s going to (needlessly) hinder us in that.

In reality, ANet needs to maintain a player base that justifies the continued development and expansion of this MMO (which is a much larger, more expensive beast than its predecessor). In reality, NCSoft just blithely shut down a successful (making money) MMO because it wasn’t successful enough.

Reality, she be a harsh mistress, arr.

That’s basically what I’m saying in a nutshell. That is exactly what waypoints are, and I am right in saying that they are not needed. I have no problems porting from place to place to do something with my friends, mainly because of the same time constraints that you have listed for yourself.

But you are right in stating the necessity for maintaining a player base that will guarantee a successful game. This philosophy is shared among every type of business; in order to remain successful, the business must be able to devise ways to continuously generate revenue while attracting new consumers and maintaining current ones.

I never said that the prices for waypoints were fine, nor have I stated that they should be done away with completely. But until other coin sinks are implemented in the game, then I do not foresee removal of the fees as a viable option; until then, adjustment of the fees should be good enough.

nachtnebel.9168:

I think waypoint (and repair) costs are fine, every MMO needs gold sinks to keep the eco healthy.

Wait, what healthy economy? You mean the incredibly deflated economy that currently exists? Where ~95-8% of items on the trade house are valued at vendor price + a few coppers at best? (and that only because the vendors are propping up the minimum price) A little coin inflationary pressure would be good I think.

I think the costs need to be lowered some, and there be a clear cost structure. In-zone teleports should be significantly lowered and scale a lot more with distance. its ridiculous that the cost to go to the nearest WP is nearly the same as the WP across the map, just over in the next zone. Combined with a zone wide event announcement system, you’d probably get more people showing up at events.

Between zones, I can understand a decent cost to the higher level areas, but anything under level 40 should be cheap, regardless of distance.

Joiry.2504:

nachtnebel.9168:

I think waypoint (and repair) costs are fine, every MMO needs gold sinks to keep the eco healthy.

Wait, what healthy economy? You mean the incredibly deflated economy that currently exists? Where ~95-8% of items on the trade house are valued at vendor price + a few coppers at best? (and that only because the vendors are propping up the minimum price) A little coin inflationary pressure would be good I think.

I think the costs need to be lowered some, and there be a clear cost structure. In-zone teleports should be significantly lowered and scale a lot more with distance. its ridiculous that the cost to go to the nearest WP is nearly the same as the WP across the map, just over in the next zone. Combined with a zone wide event announcement system, you’d probably get more people showing up at events.

Between zones, I can understand a decent cost to the higher level areas, but anything under level 40 should be cheap, regardless of distance.

THANK YOU!!!!

The inflationary pressure would actually help to develop the seemingly non-existent economy. While maintaining coin sinks helps to keep the economy from becoming too inflated.

asperbianca.3196:

I have no problems porting from place to place to do something with my friends, mainly because of the same time constraints that you have listed for yourself.

Some people have had problems with this, though, due to the costs involved, and that’s something that just shouldn’t be happening.

I never said that the prices for waypoints were fine, nor have I stated that they should be done away with completely. But until other coin sinks are implemented in the game, then I do not foresee removal of the fees as a viable option; until then, adjustment of the fees should be good enough.

Probably. That remains to be seen, but that’s what I personally advocate: cost adjustment.

I disagree, though, that doing away with the fees isn’t an option. If any money-sink were going to be dispensed with, I’d consider waypoints to be the top candidate.

But I’d likely first start with a select number of them in key locations and see how that worked, before ditching the fees entirely.

Completely disagree. Keep waypoint costs in. Guage them on distance travelled.
Keep waypoint costs IN.

how many stupid things I’m reading about inflation.

this is a game, not real world. Inflation IS a problem in EVERY game you can make money appear (coins dropped, NPC, quest, events…).

2 reason:
-first, as R E F L H E X said, Vendors prices are fixed. 100g for commander book HAVE to mean “really really really expensive item”. This can’t be if anyone have 100000 gold.

-second, probably more important: new players will find a HUGE wall starting the game, since they will drop few money (just like now) but with an insignificant Purchasing power. that means they will not be able even to buy crafting materials due to really high prices, not even talking about equip

This is how waypoints should work.

1) Free travel to closest waypoint if you are dead.

2) Waypoint cost should NOT scale with level, it is a punishment for being high level. Also having expensive travel costs for high level characters actually works AGAINST the design of the auto-leveling system, causing people to actually not want to go to lower zones. With a fair price to travel, high levels would be much happier coming over to lower zones to help friends, and would probably travel around the world a lot more.

3) There should be an achievement that gives a discount on travel costs, such as 100% world map. People with 100% map, have paid plenty of coin already

It’s all about getting people playing together, not keeping them apart .

make it so that 100% = free (or discounted) WP costs. when you FIRST enter a zone, the progress is 0%. as you travel within the area doing all the hearts/vistas/POIs, the percentage you get goes towards how free it is.

if only doing karma hearts, and nothing else, then your discount % would reflect your commitment to that area. then there might be something to work towards.

It’s kind of strange that Guild Wars 2 has such immense gold sinks all over the place, yet gold itself is insanely hard to come by if you’re a casual player who doesn’t grind or farm.

Just running around doing events, a little WvW, some sPvP and levelling alts will yield you 50s-1g a day if you’re lucky. You can’t farm mobs, because the anti-farm code kicks in, you can’t farm events, because of diminishing returns, and there’s no cash to be made through PvP; all that’s left is grinding, that is, running around all zones to harvest crafting nodes, which in turn has a cost in the shape of WP, and is mindnumbingly boring.

What we need is to make gold more accessible to the masses if there are going to be this many sinks; dailies, increased rewards, repeatable hearts, whatever – anything that gives people a chance to get a steady income without constant farming and grinding.

It’s not Monster Hunter, new players don’t NEED to be able to afford crafting mats. They can sell the crafting mats they loot and instead never want for NPC goods, skill books, and indeed waypoint travel (until it scales to the point that inspires threads like these in the first place).

Simple fix:

I do not agree with making waypoint cost disappear to keep the economy healthy and not create an enormous inflation.

I do agree on reducing the cost.
Waypoints should cost no more than 1 Silver to travel anywhere.

Think about it, the more money people have, prices will skyrocket in the trade market.

Yeah it really has to go. I even feel bad to port from LA to see a dragon, because the loot is often less than the cost of porting there :S It is simple, if ANet wants high levels to play in all the zones, the WP cost need to go, or be drastically lowered. This is not related to the amount of gold someone has, I have lots of gold, and can make lots of gold, still I feel awful whenever I use a non-free waypoint.