Guild Wars 2

How the hell did gold deflate so much? Is there a deficiency of gems in the market? did Gold moguls shovel out all the gold in the market? Is anet manipulating the market on purpose so people would buy them?

Now casual players will have to lifelessly farm for gem store items even more at this exchange rate. likely hood of that happening is none, because their casuals.

Pavilion and Scarlet Invasion fed everyone gold.

The market never recovered.

Char slot sales. It’ll go bck to 7ish as long as they don’t introduce another promotion b4 it does. Not saying 7 isn’t off but just saying what it is.

Shun.9475:

Now casual players will have to lifelessly farm for gem store items even more at this exchange rate. likely hood of that happening is none, because their casuals.

That’s the point. They’ll have to spend real money.

Charak.9761:

Pavilion and Scarlet Invasion fed everyone gold.

The market never recovered.

There were a few other things around that time which had a more permanent effect. Champion boxes and gold rewards for dungeon completion are the two that come to mind, but even WvW players are getting rewards for levelling up, effectively doubling their (admittedly poor) gold income.

It’s getting easier and easier for the average player to earn higher and higher amounts of profit/hr.

This is reflected in increased gem price. What do you expect, really? Prices of such things are based on what they “layman” can earn in a period of time, and will always take this person X hours to get that currency.

Change in 24hr average (GW2Spidy) over 24 hrs.

Jan 14th – New dyes, mining nodes in your home area – 7.19g to 7.61g
Jan 21st – Jungle worm minis, Jungle worm finisher and instant trait reset being removed the 27th – 7.34g to 7.50g
Jan 24th – Toxic, Flame and Frost dyes back for the weekend – 7.34g to 7.93g
Jan 31st – Keys on sale – 7.86g to 8.56g
Feb 4th – Lovestruck Weapon skins and quaggan finisher – 8.30g to 8.38g
Feb 7th – Character slots on sale and Roses are back – 8.28g to 8.64g

24th, 31st and 7th are weekend sales. 21st and 4th are LS updates.

It’s just like the real world. The more people want to move currency A into currency B, the less B you get for each A. Demand for gems spikes (meaning more people want to spend gold on gems) every time an item goes on sale, or a new item is offered. It also rises as people have more gold to spend.

Nearly every short spike on the gemstore graph for the last year and a half can be tied to a new item release, holiday, living story event, or sale. The long term rise over the life of the game is clearly attributable to the rising availability of gold in the game. The reason gems cost more gold is the same reason precursors cost more gold. People simply have more gold to spend. Demand is going up, so price is going up.

Except the Gem exchange rates change much quicker because how it’s calculated, dealing from a limited supply of gems in the exchange unless players sell gems for gold.

I’m surmising the big drop in December was due to all the 4000 gems being bought to get Mr. Sparkles and players cashed some or all for gold. 24 hr average was 8.87g on Dec 3rd down to 6.76g on Jan 1st. At that point the three one day sales on the first weekend in January jumped the rate (not the 24hr average) in 29 hrs from 6.38g to 8.62g from midnight Jan 3th to 5am Jan 4th.

Behellagh.1468:

Except the Gem exchange rates change much quicker because how it’s calculated, dealing from a limited supply of gems in the exchange unless players sell gems for gold.

I’m surmising the big drop in December was due to all the 4000 gems being bought to get Mr. Sparkles and players cashed some or all for gold. 24 hr average was 8.87g on Dec 3rd down to 6.76g on Jan 1st. At that point the three one day sales on the first weekend in January jumped the rate (not the 24hr average) in 29 hrs from 6.38g to 8.62g from midnight Jan 3th to 5am Jan 4th.

and there was new goldsinks with asc Weapon and Armor crafting but now whit not enough people craft anymore the gold/gem is back to where it was before and even higher

Arenanet has to nerf championfarm or bring way more goldsinks ingame
championfarmer bring so much gold ingame it is not even funny anymore. This guyz buy comandertitles just cause they can. They make hundrets of gold.

We need more Goldsinks

some idea:
- t4 or t5 Armor anyone? for 250 and 500 gold?
- “Housing” – selling a lot expensive cool stuff for homeinstance
- sell karma, laurels, glory …. for gold but very expensive (not a friend from this but could burn a lot gold)

• Guildcurrency is sold for gold too and it works fine
• It has to cost much more than i would get for change Karma, laurels or other things to gold

Too many people don’t understand how basic economics or probability works. The idea of pooled risk would likely break their brains.

if buying gems with real money was more beneficial and less beneficial for gold farmers we would see more ppl buying gems with real money, last time i presented an idea it was shot because even a basic change makes them so afraid….as if they lose out money when farming gold…..

The problem with inflation (of gems and other things) is Anet adding gold as a reward everywhere. There should be more item rewards like t6 mats for doing a dungeon instead of gold.

Romek has a good point about nerfing champ trains.

What they should do is make it so that you can only get one champ bag per champ per day. Would reset daily like everything else and then people wouldn’t bother running around killing champs for 5 bags a day.

Please explain why gems being more attractive to buy with real money is bad for Anet and something they should attempt to correct?

Its funny that people like to think that gold from dungeons and champ farm is where all the money is

meanwhile, people with warriors soloing arah paths and selling slots making 20g/hr

Champ trains for money? You can make much more money with less effort without leaving Lions Arch.
The gem store works alright, I would just like to see more quality items.

around a month ago it spike dropped to 4g+ to buy 100gems, so i bought around 10k gems, costing me around 400g+, probably 450g something like that.

last night i got around 689g when i sold back the 10k gems.

easy profit 200g.

100 gems was always about the same as farming what the currently most profitable activity was for 1h, I don’t see a problem with it.

It’s a lot easier to make gold now than ever. One of the biggest reasons why I came back.

Charak.9761:

Its funny that people like to think that gold from dungeons and champ farm is where all the money is

meanwhile, people with warriors soloing arah paths and selling slots making 20g/hr

Golden Monkey.6137:

Champ trains for money? You can make much more money with less effort without leaving Lions Arch.
The gem store works alright, I would just like to see more quality items.

I have a feeling they’re talking about money entering the economy as opposed to just changing hands like in the examples you both give.

I think the exchange rate should favor the person spending real money, not the player spending Tyrian gold. Just be happy Arenanet employs an algorithm and didn’t leave it up to us. You think 8-9 gold is high? I think it should be even higher.

Gem to gold converting people got smart. That’s all. They wait until there’s a spike. Then they spend gems enough to get 10k gold. The spike comes down, the gold buyers are silent again. And all wait for a spike again. If they all bought what they truly wanted, and didnt care for spikes, price would be down a crapload already. But since the people delay, cause they know their gems are worth more after a while, it sort of artificially increases the price. If everybody who intended to buy gold did it 1 week earlier and didnt care for spikes, the price would already be back at 7g. That’s my take on it after comparing last two weekends prices non stop.

Charak.9761:

Its funny that people like to think that gold from dungeons and champ farm is where all the money is

meanwhile, people with warriors soloing arah paths and selling slots making 20g/hr

Yeah, and where exactly did that 20g come from originally? Path selling is just gold changing hands, not gold creation like the examples you scoffed at.

Phoebe Ascension.8437:

Gem to gold converting people got smart. That’s all. They wait until there’s a spike. Then they spend gems enough to get 10k gold. The spike comes down, the gold buyers are silent again. And all wait for a spike again. If they all bought what they truly wanted, and didnt care for spikes, price would be down a crapload already. But since the people delay, cause they know their gems are worth more after a while, it sort of artificially increases the price. If everybody who intended to buy gold did it 1 week earlier and didnt care for spikes, the price would already be back at 7g. That’s my take on it after comparing last two weekends prices non stop.

You do know that 10k gold costs about US$1900 at current prices right?

DarkSpirit.7046:

Phoebe Ascension.8437:

Gem to gold converting people got smart. That’s all. They wait until there’s a spike. Then they spend gems enough to get 10k gold. The spike comes down, the gold buyers are silent again. And all wait for a spike again. If they all bought what they truly wanted, and didnt care for spikes, price would be down a crapload already. But since the people delay, cause they know their gems are worth more after a while, it sort of artificially increases the price. If everybody who intended to buy gold did it 1 week earlier and didnt care for spikes, the price would already be back at 7g. That’s my take on it after comparing last two weekends prices non stop.

You do know that 10k gold costs about US$1900 at current prices right?

A lot of people think gem buyers are a large majority and that 10,000 gold probably costs $10…

KyreneZA.8617:

Charak.9761:

Its funny that people like to think that gold from dungeons and champ farm is where all the money is

meanwhile, people with warriors soloing arah paths and selling slots making 20g/hr

Yeah, and where exactly did that 20g come from originally? Path selling is just gold changing hands, not gold creation like the examples you scoffed at.

Not like there’s a shortage of gold on hand in-game either though, we’ve got people sitting on 300k gold.

Just a quick note, at $15US you can convert for 6.40 gold per 100 gems, 1200 gems, about 77 gold. (76.8 to be exact) ($)15 (cost) into 77 gold is approximately 5.12 gold per dollar spent. About 19 cents of real currency per gold in game. This is incredibly cheap when you consider the time necessary to earn a gold by farming or doing champ/dungeons. If folks have gems, it seems like the ratio is at peak, I converted 3700 gems last night when the rate was just a touch higher but personally I don’t think it can sustain this level of exchange since gem prices haven’t increased. This is, of course, theoretical but I think it has maxxed out….

Cassocaster.4576:

Just a quick note, at $15US you can convert for 6.40 gold per 100 gems, 1200 gems, about 77 gold. (76.8 to be exact) ($)15 (cost) into 77 gold is approximately 5.12 gold per dollar spent. About 19 cents of real currency per gold in game. This is incredibly cheap when you consider the time necessary to earn a gold by farming or doing champ/dungeons. If folks have gems, it seems like the ratio is at peak, I converted 3700 gems last night when the rate was just a touch higher but personally I don’t think it can sustain this level of exchange since gem prices haven’t increased. This is, of course, theoretical but I think it has maxxed out….

i bolded a part of this to show the flaw, try and think about regular play without any of that.
no dungeons, no champs and no farming, let’s see how far you get.

sorudo.9054:

Cassocaster.4576:

Just a quick note, at $15US you can convert for 6.40 gold per 100 gems, 1200 gems, about 77 gold. (76.8 to be exact) ($)15 (cost) into 77 gold is approximately 5.12 gold per dollar spent. About 19 cents of real currency per gold in game. This is incredibly cheap when you consider the time necessary to earn a gold by farming or doing champ/dungeons. If folks have gems, it seems like the ratio is at peak, I converted 3700 gems last night when the rate was just a touch higher but personally I don’t think it can sustain this level of exchange since gem prices haven’t increased. This is, of course, theoretical but I think it has maxxed out….

i bolded a part of this to show the flaw, try and think about regular play without any of that.
no dungeons, no champs and no farming, let’s see how far you get.

Not sure of your point….I just selected what the majority of people do to earn gold and compared it to the time cost, not potential earnings. If you aren’t doing any of what I outlined as common routines by players, what exactly are you doing? WvW? Just slaying monsters? What is the flaw?

Cassocaster.4576:

sorudo.9054:

Cassocaster.4576:

Just a quick note, at $15US you can convert for 6.40 gold per 100 gems, 1200 gems, about 77 gold. (76.8 to be exact) ($)15 (cost) into 77 gold is approximately 5.12 gold per dollar spent. About 19 cents of real currency per gold in game. This is incredibly cheap when you consider the time necessary to earn a gold by farming or doing champ/dungeons. If folks have gems, it seems like the ratio is at peak, I converted 3700 gems last night when the rate was just a touch higher but personally I don’t think it can sustain this level of exchange since gem prices haven’t increased. This is, of course, theoretical but I think it has maxxed out….

i bolded a part of this to show the flaw, try and think about regular play without any of that.
no dungeons, no champs and no farming, let’s see how far you get.

Not sure of your point….I just selected what the majority of people do to earn gold and compared it to the time cost, not potential earnings. If you aren’t doing any of what I outlined as common routines by players, what exactly are you doing? WvW? Just slaying monsters? What is the flaw?

hahaha, you don’t even realize it and you made another.
the term “majority of players” on a forum is as empty as space, what you think is majority doesn’t have to be the majority, it is just the part that screams the loudest.

in case you’re wondering, i do exploration, play the LS, do DE’s, RP at times.
i don’t need a 30+ group to enjoy a game or max gear to show how great i am, just my skill in playing a game and taking my sweet time is all i need as long as i don’t get trains ruining it.

Gold-to-Gem conversions do not make ArenaNet any money.

I’ve always imagined the scales gradually tipping more and more in the favor of Gem-to-Gold.

I’m waiting until 10g is just $1 to buy…

Maybe then I’ll get all the Legendaries.

relevant info: I spent 2,000 gold on gems when it was around 7g = 100 gems. A friend joked that I single-handedly cause a price spike. But when I checked again, the price was about 7g1s = 100 gems. Sure, someone could of sold 28,000 gems at the same time. But I think it’s more likely that it takes a LOT of buying/selling to move that price around. Like in the millions to go from 7g to 8g.

They’ve established in the past that Gem-to-Gold ratios are not pure supply & demand.

They haven’t said much about the fluctuations of it, but they have established that it has other components.

sorudo.9054:

Cassocaster.4576:

sorudo.9054:

Cassocaster.4576:

Just a quick note, at $15US you can convert for 6.40 gold per 100 gems, 1200 gems, about 77 gold. (76.8 to be exact) ($)15 (cost) into 77 gold is approximately 5.12 gold per dollar spent. About 19 cents of real currency per gold in game. This is incredibly cheap when you consider the time necessary to earn a gold by farming or doing champ/dungeons. If folks have gems, it seems like the ratio is at peak, I converted 3700 gems last night when the rate was just a touch higher but personally I don’t think it can sustain this level of exchange since gem prices haven’t increased. This is, of course, theoretical but I think it has maxxed out….

i bolded a part of this to show the flaw, try and think about regular play without any of that.
no dungeons, no champs and no farming, let’s see how far you get.

Not sure of your point….I just selected what the majority of people do to earn gold and compared it to the time cost, not potential earnings. If you aren’t doing any of what I outlined as common routines by players, what exactly are you doing? WvW? Just slaying monsters? What is the flaw?

hahaha, you don’t even realize it and you made another.
the term “majority of players” on a forum is as empty as space, what you think is majority doesn’t have to be the majority, it is just the part that screams the loudest.

in case you’re wondering, i do exploration, play the LS, do DE’s, RP at times.
i don’t need a 30+ group to enjoy a game or max gear to show how great i am, just my skill in playing a game and taking my sweet time is all i need as long as i don’t get trains ruining it.

Okay, there seems to be an issue with you picking apart what I say like I am talking to you so slow your roll, I wasn’t saying you do what lots of people do, not that there’s any way to prove either of us correct. I am stating that gold bought and paid for with gems is the most efficient method and taking advantage of the exchange rate right now is in MOST player’s best interest….this quote however:

“i don’t need a 30+ group to enjoy a game or max gear to show how great i am”

speaks very directly at how you view yourself. I don’t run champ trains though I will if I need dragonite but you put words in my mouth and I honestly don’t care for it. A ton of people like to find flaw with anything a person says, I bet I get an infraction for this but arrogant people who make assumptions can take a kittening walk for all I care.

Tell me how many times I kittened up this time dipkitten.

If one day $1 = 20 golds or so, and the price of legendaries don’t increase, I’ll buy all the legendaries for all my characters for sure xD

crystalpink.2487:

If one day $1 = 20 golds or so, and the price of legendaries don’t increase, I’ll buy all the legendaries for all my characters for sure xD

I’d assume that unless they reduce the drop rate of precursors (from all sources including Mystic Forge), precursors won’t really increase in price.

A lot of the cost of Legendaries, currently, are the Icy Runestones… Which are immutably set to 1g each.

And I say “a lot of the cost” because all the crafting materials and such can be mined throughout standard gameplay.

Gold not so easily.

sorudo.9054:

Cassocaster.4576:

Just a quick note, at $15US you can convert for 6.40 gold per 100 gems, 1200 gems, about 77 gold. (76.8 to be exact) ($)15 (cost) into 77 gold is approximately 5.12 gold per dollar spent. About 19 cents of real currency per gold in game. This is incredibly cheap when you consider the time necessary to earn a gold by farming or doing champ/dungeons. If folks have gems, it seems like the ratio is at peak, I converted 3700 gems last night when the rate was just a touch higher but personally I don’t think it can sustain this level of exchange since gem prices haven’t increased. This is, of course, theoretical but I think it has maxxed out….

i bolded a part of this to show the flaw, try and think about regular play without any of that.
no dungeons, no champs and no farming, let’s see how far you get.

Actually, you highlighted the strength of his argument. Aside from TP flipping these are the most efficient ways of getting gold in game. If these don’t appeal to you then you will be accumulating gold even more slowly, making gems bought with casheven better value for money.

Minos.5168:

A lot of the cost of Legendaries, currently, are the Icy Runestones… Which are immutably set to 1g each.

icy runestones cost 100g
Gift of Might + Gift of Magic will currently cost you at least 610g (gathering them yourself does not mitigate this, as you would sell them to the TP if you didn’t use them; gathering yourself would save you around 50g)
precursor will cost you at about ~40g – ~800g

Shun.9475:

How the hell did gold deflate so much? Is there a deficiency of gems in the market? did Gold moguls shovel out all the gold in the market? Is anet manipulating the market on purpose so people would buy them?

Now casual players will have to lifelessly farm for gem store items even more at this exchange rate. likely hood of that happening is none, because their casuals.

Gold didn’t deflate at all, as can be seen in that February 2014 costs for a variety of things is roughly the same now as it was in November 2013: stack of ectos, full set of exotic or rare armor, most dyes, etc.

What did change was the amount of gold required to buy gems. And a lot of things happened to affect that:

Downward trends
These contributed the rate dropping to 7g/100 gems in December:

• Mr Sparkles bonus encouraged people to spend US$50 on gems.
• I suspect that a lot of people got gem cards for Christmas, Chanukah, or Kwanzaa.
• Few truly new items for Wintersday.

Upward trends
These contributed to the rate increasing to 8-9g/100 gems in February:

• New finishers.
• New gem store toys (harp, chocolates, return of roses, …)
• Re-introducing of Flame & Frost dye kits (which included dyes worth nearly 200g just prior).
• New controversial, infinite-use mining pick.

And this is nothing unusual: the cost to buy gems with gold has been steadily increasing since launch and, on the whole, that’s good for the game:

• New players can spend a few bucks, convert gems to gold, and get a headstart on gear.
• Those with little time to play can do the same.
• Gold sellers have to farm (or steal) a lot more in order to stay competitive with the official rate.

Minos.5168:

Gold-to-Gem conversions do not make ArenaNet any money.

More people buy gems with gold, the price of gems goes up.

The price of gems goes up, more people buy gems to trade for gold.

ArenaNet makes money.

Gibson.4036:

Minos.5168:

Gold-to-Gem conversions do not make ArenaNet any money.

More people buy gems with gold, the price of gems goes up.

The price of gems goes up, more people buy gems to trade for gold.

ArenaNet makes money.

Yes, that’s the theory. Not sure how true it is yet.

Behellagh.1468:

Gibson.4036:

Minos.5168:

Gold-to-Gem conversions do not make ArenaNet any money.

More people buy gems with gold, the price of gems goes up.

The price of gems goes up, more people buy gems to trade for gold.

ArenaNet makes money.

Yes, that’s the theory. Not sure how true it is yet.

well, there are 4 scenarios:
gold -> gem price drops, meaning more people are buying gems with $$ and selling them for gold
gold -> gem price stays the same, meaning as many people are buying gems with gold as selling gems bought with $$ for gold
gold -> gem price stays the same, meaning no one is trading
gold -> gem price increases, meaning more people are buying gems with gold than people buying gems with $$ and selling for gold

the 3rd one is likely not the case, but it is a possible scenario.
basically, gold -> gem price increases because more people are buying gems with gold. gold-> gem price decreases because more people are buying gems with $$ and selling for gold.
in general, there has been a steady going up in the trend. so that would mean more gems have been purchased with gold than $$ (and sold for gold)
however: http://www.gw2spidy.com/gem
you’ll notice that that price is jumping up and down constantly. every time it goes down, lots of people have bought gems with $$ and sold for gold. every time it goes up, lots of gems were bought with gold. Going up clearly causes it to go down soon after.

I keep specifying “bought with $$ and sold for gold” because gems bought with $$ and made a purchase on the gem store never enter into circulation, and never affect the gem -> gold price. I’m sure the vast majority of gems purchased with $$ are used in the gem store and not traded for gold. So you can probably take the amount you expect they make every time that graph goes down and multiply it by something to get how many gems they sold during that time.

One thing I’ll mention is that buying 800 gems with gold vs. selling 800 gems for gold might not change the graph the same amount. I’m not sure what their formula is, but it might be that for every gem sold for gold affects the graph more than gems bought with gold.

For obvious reasons the vast majority of us are interested in buying gems with gold, but let’s not forget that you can sell gems for gold. It’s worth noting that this was designed as a better proposition than players going to illegal gold sellers.

What people are shocked to find is how much it costs to buy 100 gems with gold (8-8.5g). What many don’t seem to realize is how shockingly little you get for selling 100 gems (at the time of this writing, less than 6g).

Spending real money to earn such a pathetic amount of game currency, with how much gold this game throws at the most casual of players, baffles me. As someone that buys gems with real money, why would I ever do this when I could earn that gold while eating a breakfast burrito?

Stop rewarding so much gold just for playing the game. There are a billion currencies; pick another one (how about laurels?). Bound items (you know, actual physical rewards?) are also things.

If selling gems earned a lot more gold and rewards were reworked away from injecting sacks of gold into everyone’s wallets we would have a more rational gem market, balanced economy and rewarding ecosystem.

OrianZeta.1537:

Stop rewarding so much gold just for playing the game. There are a billion currencies; pick another one (how about laurels?). Bound items (you know, actual physical rewards?) are also things.

If selling gems earned a lot more gold and rewards were reworked away from injecting sacks of gold into everyone’s wallets we would have a more rational gem market, balanced economy and rewarding ecosystem.

I generally disagree with this sentiment. Even for obtaining 6g per 100 gems right now from selling gems, that’s 48g for 10 bucks, which for many people in this day and age is one hour of work or far less than that for people with higher paying jobs. Compare this to the number of hours of focused grinding you’d need to get 48g in-game, which is about 6 assuming a maximized 8g/hr rate from champ trains. 1 hour of real work or 6 hours of in-game work. For a lot of people, the appropriate course of action for them is crystal clear.

I think the values are in a good place right now given the amount of time it takes to earn the equivalent value of gold for those gems.

Kind of bizarre the thread made it this far without it being pointed out that there’s no real market phenomena to talk about here.

Take a look at the gem/gold exchange long run behavior here. There was a late November/early December spike upwards (almost exactly the same as the previous year) followed by a massive downward trend from the Mini Mr. Sparkles sale. Other than that, behavior has been almost perfectly within the typical behavior from the prior history of the game.

Rising Dusk.2408:

OrianZeta.1537:

Stop rewarding so much gold just for playing the game. There are a billion currencies; pick another one (how about laurels?). Bound items (you know, actual physical rewards?) are also things.

If selling gems earned a lot more gold and rewards were reworked away from injecting sacks of gold into everyone’s wallets we would have a more rational gem market, balanced economy and rewarding ecosystem.

I generally disagree with this sentiment. Even for obtaining 6g per 100 gems right now from selling gems, that’s 48g for 10 bucks, which for many people in this day and age is one hour of work or far less than that for people with higher paying jobs. Compare this to the number of hours of focused grinding you’d need to get 48g in-game, which is about 6 assuming a maximized 8g/hr rate from champ trains. 1 hour of real work or 6 hours of in-game work. For a lot of people, the appropriate course of action for them is crystal clear.

I think the values are in a good place right now given the amount of time it takes to earn the equivalent value of gold for those gems.

Sure if you don’t have to consider food, paying your house mortgage/rent, paying up your car, paying for your children’s education, paying your ISP, taxes, etc. That $10/hour becomes much lower now, so not too crystal clear to me.

DarkSpirit.7046:

Rising Dusk.2408:

OrianZeta.1537:

Stop rewarding so much gold just for playing the game. There are a billion currencies; pick another one (how about laurels?). Bound items (you know, actual physical rewards?) are also things.

If selling gems earned a lot more gold and rewards were reworked away from injecting sacks of gold into everyone’s wallets we would have a more rational gem market, balanced economy and rewarding ecosystem.

I generally disagree with this sentiment. Even for obtaining 6g per 100 gems right now from selling gems, that’s 48g for 10 bucks, which for many people in this day and age is one hour of work or far less than that for people with higher paying jobs. Compare this to the number of hours of focused grinding you’d need to get 48g in-game, which is about 6 assuming a maximized 8g/hr rate from champ trains. 1 hour of real work or 6 hours of in-game work. For a lot of people, the appropriate course of action for them is crystal clear.

I think the values are in a good place right now given the amount of time it takes to earn the equivalent value of gold for those gems.

Sure if you don’t have to consider food, paying your house mortgage/rent, paying up your car, paying for your children’s education, paying your ISP, taxes, etc. That $10/hour becomes much lower now, so not too crystal clear to me.

i tried to make that clear many times, way to many ppl are to young to realize all that….or are in debt to prove their irresponsibility.

sorudo.9054:

DarkSpirit.7046:

Rising Dusk.2408:

OrianZeta.1537:

Stop rewarding so much gold just for playing the game. There are a billion currencies; pick another one (how about laurels?). Bound items (you know, actual physical rewards?) are also things.

If selling gems earned a lot more gold and rewards were reworked away from injecting sacks of gold into everyone’s wallets we would have a more rational gem market, balanced economy and rewarding ecosystem.

I generally disagree with this sentiment. Even for obtaining 6g per 100 gems right now from selling gems, that’s 48g for 10 bucks, which for many people in this day and age is one hour of work or far less than that for people with higher paying jobs. Compare this to the number of hours of focused grinding you’d need to get 48g in-game, which is about 6 assuming a maximized 8g/hr rate from champ trains. 1 hour of real work or 6 hours of in-game work. For a lot of people, the appropriate course of action for them is crystal clear.

I think the values are in a good place right now given the amount of time it takes to earn the equivalent value of gold for those gems.

Sure if you don’t have to consider food, paying your house mortgage/rent, paying up your car, paying for your children’s education, paying your ISP, taxes, etc. That $10/hour becomes much lower now, so not too crystal clear to me.

i tried to make that clear many times, way to many ppl are to young to realize all that….or are in debt to prove their irresponsibility.

The line of assumptions are long here. I make good money (computer programmer), I have a family to support and a finite amount of TIME to play. Discretionary income is strong enough to buy gems from time to time and as I have posted on other threads, I have spent somewhere around $700 in the last year on the game.

For myself, who is not a kid and is not irresponsible with my finances, it makes a whole lot of sense to use my game time as efficiently as possible so I have more time with my family and other responsibilities. For those that are cash poor and time rich, maybe it makes more sense to farm but for me and many others like me, it simply doesn’t make sense.

The thing that kind of irks me is that people take an attitude towards those that can afford to buy gems (or choose to should that be the delimiter in deciding to buy or grind), no one HAS to buy gems. ANet has a vested interest in making money so the exchange rate favors the conversion FROM gems, not to gems. This is a simple thing, it’s about profit and nothing to do with game play.

Cassocaster.4576:

sorudo.9054:

DarkSpirit.7046:

Rising Dusk.2408:

OrianZeta.1537:

Stop rewarding so much gold just for playing the game. There are a billion currencies; pick another one (how about laurels?). Bound items (you know, actual physical rewards?) are also things.

If selling gems earned a lot more gold and rewards were reworked away from injecting sacks of gold into everyone’s wallets we would have a more rational gem market, balanced economy and rewarding ecosystem.

I generally disagree with this sentiment. Even for obtaining 6g per 100 gems right now from selling gems, that’s 48g for 10 bucks, which for many people in this day and age is one hour of work or far less than that for people with higher paying jobs. Compare this to the number of hours of focused grinding you’d need to get 48g in-game, which is about 6 assuming a maximized 8g/hr rate from champ trains. 1 hour of real work or 6 hours of in-game work. For a lot of people, the appropriate course of action for them is crystal clear.

I think the values are in a good place right now given the amount of time it takes to earn the equivalent value of gold for those gems.

Sure if you don’t have to consider food, paying your house mortgage/rent, paying up your car, paying for your children’s education, paying your ISP, taxes, etc. That $10/hour becomes much lower now, so not too crystal clear to me.

i tried to make that clear many times, way to many ppl are to young to realize all that….or are in debt to prove their irresponsibility.

The line of assumptions are long here. I make good money (computer programmer), I have a family to support and a finite amount of TIME to play. Discretionary income is strong enough to buy gems from time to time and as I have posted on other threads, I have spent somewhere around $700 in the last year on the game.

For myself, who is not a kid and is not irresponsible with my finances, it makes a whole lot of sense to use my game time as efficiently as possible so I have more time with my family and other responsibilities. For those that are cash poor and time rich, maybe it makes more sense to farm but for me and many others like me, it simply doesn’t make sense.

The thing that kind of irks me is that people take an attitude towards those that can afford to buy gems (or choose to should that be the delimiter in deciding to buy or grind), no one HAS to buy gems. ANet has a vested interest in making money so the exchange rate favors the conversion FROM gems, not to gems. This is a simple thing, it’s about profit and nothing to do with game play.

you know, the problem is that you make the exact same mistake as allot of other ppl, you assume there are only 2 kinds of player.

• players who are poor but have plenty of time
• players who don’t have much time but have plenty of cash to burn

what you (and many others) fail to realize is that there is a 3rd kind, the kind that is poor and barely has time to play games.
answer me this since you’re sooo smart, how do you solve that problem huh?