Guild Wars 2

Hi John, been great to hear alot of the reasoning behind some of the marketing decisions of materials in game. I’m imagining the changes that also happen to items such as runes with the introduction of Ferocity really do shake up the market. I have 2 questions.

Firstly, did the 1st Queen’s jubilee with many players farming the Crown Pavillion driving down many of the prices of materials, and then also the evacuation of Lions Arch which had many people farming rewards as well, have major impacts in the economy? It seems with many new living world updates recently, there’s less farming and more “special rewards” such as the spinal blades backpiece with different colours. When you look at the recent Living World update, new materials have been introduced, but farming has been less prevalent i feel with less high value rewards available.

Secondly, are there many other items in the world that are superfluous? You mentioned Candy corn, but what about the many exotics that are in game – e.g. superior runes, mini’s, etc. I’m guessing the ability to mystic forge superior runes, like u can with weapons or armour would lead to a major shift in the economy with current cheap superior runes rising in price dramatically. I also can see as someone who has 28 risen priest of balthazar mini’s, that the ability to forge them would drastically lower the value of other mini exotics. Would u ever consider changing the rarity of an item? Such as certain minis? Or is the best way in your experience to find a sink such as u created for those with blade shards?

P.S. if you could get another sink for bloodstone dust i’d appreciate it!

Mikei The Mighty.8690:

I also can see as someone 28 risen priest of balthazar mini’s, that the ability to forge them would drastically lower the value of other mini exotics. Would u ever consider changing the rarity of an item?

Just to chip in on this one, this actually already happened. There was a seasonal mini, which initially had a “rare” rarity but quite a high droprate and a low price on the tp. Iirc, it was the Mini Holographic Risen Knight, which dropped from Dragon Coffers during last years Dragon Bash. People started mass forging them, which basically crashed the price of exotic mini´s. A couple of days into Dragon´s Bash, they patched its rarity down to Masterwork.

Edit: Found the patch note post:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/updates/Game-Update-Notes-June-11th-2013/first#post2207230
Changed the rarity of the Mini Holographic Risen Knight from Rare to Masterwork to reflect the actual value of the item.

John Smith.4610:

Lord Kuru.3685:

John Smith.4610:

3. Halloween 2 candy corn sinks. There was an insane amount of candy corn in the world (10’s of billions) and we underestimated the distribution of those materials and cranked up the sinks too high. This made it very difficult to interact with those sinks at all and it didn’t feel good.

Can we infer from this that a large number of people quit the game between Halloween 1 and Halloween 2, essentially taking those billions of candy corn out of the economy (without literally doing so)? Or something else?

I wouldn’t infer a smoking gun, rather a series of different possibilities that all add up.

The issue I have with the “10s of billions” remark is a simple mathematical one.

We know that by the end of 2012, 3 million copies of GW2 had been sold.

1 billion = 1,000 million.

I fail to see how it made any sense to make candy corn cobs cost 1,000 candy corn (same with the other Halloween materials).

So “10s of billions of candy corn” is actually more like “10 cobs per player.”

I know that personally, I was saving my candy corn with the goal of eventually crafting the shortbow. I, honestly, gave up on that goal (and didn’t even play Halloween last year) because of the massive spike in materials required.

From the Wiki, I saw that there were other decent items that could be purchased with cobs (i.e. sinks). In my opinion, it should have probably been more of a 250:1 rather than 1000:1 conversion.

Wanze.8410:

Mikei The Mighty.8690:

I also can see as someone 28 risen priest of balthazar mini’s, that the ability to forge them would drastically lower the value of other mini exotics. Would u ever consider changing the rarity of an item?

Just to chip in on this one, this actually already happened. There was a seasonal mini, which initially had a “rare” rarity but quite a high droprate and a low price on the tp. Iirc, it was the Mini Holographic Risen Knight, which dropped from Dragon Coffers during last years Dragon Bash. People started mass forging them, which basically crashed the price of exotic mini´s. A couple of days into Dragon´s Bash, they patched its rarity down to Masterwork.

Edit: Found the patch note post:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/updates/Game-Update-Notes-June-11th-2013/first#post2207230
Changed the rarity of the Mini Holographic Risen Knight from Rare to Masterwork to reflect the actual value of the item.

The argument could be made that this could also provide a decent karma sink.

At an estimated 1% chance for a Mini Risen Priest… That’s an average of 455000 karma for each one. Nearly 2 million karma for a single random exotic mini?

In total honesty, there seem to be much better karma-to-gold methods out there.

Edit: Granted, I also fail to take into account the other drops of the Lost Orrian box.

Hey John thanks for putting up with us.

With the introduction of Dry Top came the new llama NPCs. How do you feel about the design choice of going with llamas and not alpacas despite alpacas being definitively more awesome?

Minos.5168:

Wanze.8410:

Mikei The Mighty.8690:

I also can see as someone 28 risen priest of balthazar mini’s, that the ability to forge them would drastically lower the value of other mini exotics. Would u ever consider changing the rarity of an item?

Just to chip in on this one, this actually already happened. There was a seasonal mini, which initially had a “rare” rarity but quite a high droprate and a low price on the tp. Iirc, it was the Mini Holographic Risen Knight, which dropped from Dragon Coffers during last years Dragon Bash. People started mass forging them, which basically crashed the price of exotic mini´s. A couple of days into Dragon´s Bash, they patched its rarity down to Masterwork.

Edit: Found the patch note post:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/updates/Game-Update-Notes-June-11th-2013/first#post2207230
Changed the rarity of the Mini Holographic Risen Knight from Rare to Masterwork to reflect the actual value of the item.

The argument could be made that this could also provide a decent karma sink.

At an estimated 1% chance for a Mini Risen Priest… That’s an average of 455000 karma for each one. Nearly 2 million karma for a single random exotic mini?

In total honesty, there seem to be much better karma-to-gold methods out there.
.

I agree but wasn’t talking about a karma sink. I was mentioning referring to items in the game in which there were alot of. Previously, if u put up a karma booster with a karma banner making +60% karma, then when u opened orrian boxes u were able to recoup a significant amount of karma – thus i used far less than the amount of karma you state.

What my actual reasoning was, that with certain items affecting the game economy, and over abundance of specific items – for example another mini being the mini Queen Jennah – i have 8 chars over 1 year old so now have 8 mini’s. What am i supposed to do with them? It would be nice to be able to Mystic forge them or perhaps introduce a vendor to trade 4 for a special exotic – thus showing the benefits to making multiple characters. Shame the same system as Guild Wars 1 – having a random chance with a bday gift wasn’t carried over. With the many mini Risen Priest out there (among other items such as bloodstone dust etc), it might be beneficial to do the same as was done with the candy corn. Would be interesting to see what items in the game there are the most of!

Its mainly items you get but there is very little use for having multiple lots of (tends to me account/ soul bound items) that cause a little annoyance with me.

Many thanks

What’s the view from Arena Net on Seasonal/Limited Edition Items, it appears measures have been taken to reduce profit generated from this, so I would assume most of you would favor against it.

Some Examples:
-First Halloween Skins
-Mystic Forge Conduits
-Azurite Orbs(Not too bad)

Another thing when analyzing these to me is factoring in inflation, it appears a great deal of their value is bloated.

Will items be allowed to get like the famous case of Runescape’s Party Hats?

Can you please tell us how much gold was sunk by Drooburt and Robotron ;x

Serophous.9085:

I just have one question:

Why isn’t it possible to put superior runes and sigils in the mystic forge to gamble? This would at least start using up the lowest priced runes and sigils on the market, and allow us to at least try for an unsoulbound rune.

I’m actually hoping for the mystic forge changes that JS talked about several months ago would resolve this. There is a reason why I have thousands of Tequatl Runes as well as stacks upon stacks of vendor-priced weapon sigils

And if possible, legendary runes/sigils

John Smith.4610:

The markets need a more fundamental change.

Do you intend these fundamental changes to happen on some future day?

~MRA

Thanks for all your responses, John. Even if you aren’t permitted to go into great detail, it’s reassuring to hear that there are carefully considered reasons for certain things behaving as they do, and that decisions made regarding them are not arbitrary or casually made.

On that note, I also have a question: is there any aspect/feature of the economy that you would have designed differently, but that was essentially baked in and no longer changeable before you started in your economy oversight role? Or were you part of the design process of the game from the ground up, so to speak? If you’d prefer to answer more abstractly, is there an economy-related feature you would be sure to include in your own personal dream MMO that we don’t (currently) have in GW2?

John Smith.4610:

Buttercup.5871:

John, I have only one pressing question. I even created a thread on it a while ago.

Why are WvW badges treated differently, forge-wise, than dungeon tokens?

Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions.

They’re a fundamentally different item. Though I expect that’s not the answer you’re looking for. Could you elaborate a bit more on the question?

I guess he meant the fact that gear obtained via dungeon tokens can be put into the mf (and is salvageable) while gear obtained with badges of honor is not.
I think the reasoning behind it (from Anets side) is that dungeon token acquisition is capped per day (and has DR), while Badges arent.

Thanks for your responses. If you have time, I have a follow-up comment on two of these:
——

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Was it always intended that the game should offer asymmetric data on the custom offer screens? e.g. buyers can see competitive offers, but sellers can only see the highest WTB and lowest WTS.

John Smith.4610:

I’m not an expert on UI and cannot speak on that.

I wasn’t so much asking about the UI as about the fact that asymmetrical data presentation usually leads to less efficient markets. Are you concerned that this might be the case and that UI experts should take another pass at the interface, based on advice from you?

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Post-wardrobe, did ANet intend it to be difficult to recover runes and sigils from equipment? Similarly, is it an oversight that some gear can’t be forged due to its source? For example, you can forge but not salvage karma-bought armor and you can’t even forge badge-bought armor.

John Smith.4610:

pass

No problem.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

A recent patch made some changes to the mystic forge output for L75+ average gear inputs. You stated at the time that you thought we’d be pleased with the results. Have you been?

John Smith.4610:

I stated that you would be pleased with the final form.

Ah, so you did!

John Smith.4610:

When it reaches the final form you may tell me.

I think a lot of us misunderstood about when we’d see the “final form.” I’ll keep an eye out for future changes.
——

Thanks again.

John Smith.4610:

Buttercup.5871:

John, I have only one pressing question. I even created a thread on it a while ago.

Why are WvW badges treated differently, forge-wise, than dungeon tokens?

Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions.

They’re a fundamentally different item. Though I expect that’s not the answer you’re looking for. Could you elaborate a bit more on the question?

Thank you John, I’ll do my best to be brief.

Dungeon tokens and WvW tokens appear to be similar in that they reward the user for time played. You can buy stuff with your tokens or badges. Given the amount of badges/tokens needed to buy stuff, I’d say the ratio is about the same in what you get for time spent.

Now, when I buy stuff with my tokens, I can chuck it in the forge and RNG willing, Zomorros blesses me with something nice. Maybe even a precursor! Or, if I don’t like Zomorros, I can salvage the stuff bought with tokens for ectos and runes/sigils.

When I buy stuff with my badges, Zomorros doesn’t want me. He says “Go away! I don’t want any gear that you bought with your stinking WvW badges.” When I try to salvage stuff bought with badges, even my salvage kit says “what is this? I’m not salvaging this, go away!”

In a game that was intended to reward players equally regardless of the type of gameplay they choose, that seems terribly off. So I’m wondering, there must have been a good reason for this!

I can think of a good reason that policy was put in place, once upon a time when the game started, but that reason is gone now. This design choice no longer seems logical. That’s why I had hoped you could provide a logical explanation for it, if there is one.

I am grateful that you’re taking the time to answer our questions.

Wanze.8410:

I think the reasoning behind it (from Anets side) is that dungeon token acquisition is capped per day (and has DR), while Badges arent.

Thanks Wanze, I can think of many things as well. But they all no longer make sense. A badge cap certainly doesn’t, there’s so many ways I can think of to alleviate that concern. Anyway, in order to avoid setting out all my theories and huge walls of text, I thought I’d just ask.

John Smith.4610:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

• Post-wardrobe, did ANet intend it to be difficult to recover runes and sigils from equipment? Similarly, is it an oversight that some gear can’t be forged due to its source? For example, you can forge but not salvage karma-bought armor and you can’t even forge badge-bought armor.

2. pass

I believe, given (potential) anet responses and player discussion since the change was made, the way trans crystals worked before the Wardrobe system was a flawed system that players, being the way they are, corrupted into an unintended purpose. The reason it was possible to shift runes around with the old system was because the game was unable to tell what the destination item was. The game allowed you to choose the rune/sigil because it was unable to determine what your choices would be, same with the stats.

As far as Karma vs BoH armor, I believe the reason one can be forged over the other is the availability of all tiers. Karma can purchase Exotic to Fine (maybe basic as well?) armor, while BoH can only purchase exotic armor as far as I know. There’s certainly other reasons involved, but that’s one of the more reasonable ones I can think of.

John Smith.4610:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

• Was it always intended that the game should offer asymmetric data on the custom offer screens? e.g. buyers can see competitive offers, but sellers can only see the highest WTB and lowest WTS.

1. I’m not an expert on UI and cannot speak on that.

Just a follow up question/comment on this:

In the past there have been alot of suggestions in this sub forum on how to optimize the UI of the Trading Post. Given the fact that you arent an expert on UI and propably werent too involved in creating it, you propably didnt read too much of those suggestions. I also dont know how often those people that are responsible for UI in general (Technical Designer Anthony Ordon would come to mind, who recently made some great posts in the general discussions forum) check out the BLTC Forum for feedback.
So if we have suggestions/feedback towards the BLTC UI, should we post it here or in general discussions?

The point that the OP brought up has in my opinion a very big economical impact on how new players use the TP and for which price they decide to sell they loot.
I think every experienced trader will agree with me that as soon as we (experienced traders) want to sell something of greater value, we dont right click and choose “sell item on trading post” but “buy more of these items” to check not only volume and value of the lowest listing /highest buy order but also offers/listing beyond that.

To me it seems that who ever created the sell tab UI, didnt really consider the economic impact it might have. As an experienced trader I have several “techniques” that would take advantage of the fact that most players dont check buy orders and and sell listings past the lowest/highest that is displayed on the sell UI.
I dont think that is desirable design.

It’s kinda sad we can’t ask core questions without the cold shoulder , but i fully understand a broken economy from over zealous talking points. However:

Tell us about your struggles as an MMO economists: there are tidbits here and there on the forums, but i would assume the biggest challenge would be answering these threads., maybe moreso than actually balancing the econ

Also, how many on your team? Global econ and the players feel a john smith alone can’t handle it. Who knows, you might be a 2 person team tackling a global econ. or maybe you have 15 or 20, it’s a big job.

John Smith.4610:

What I would personally, as a player, love to have is a derivatives market.

Well, if there was any doubt about it, I think that proves you’re an economist.

munkiman.3068:

Global econ and the players feel a john smith alone can’t handle it.

At least one of the John Smiths already confirmed that there are 2 John Smiths:

John Smith.4610:

RoyHarmon.5398:

John Smith.4610:

insanemaniac.2456:

John Smith.4610:

Actually 9 have sold in the last 24 hours.

omg specific market velocity info

i can feel the chains of your NDA loosening

I have two just in case the first one breaks :P

This was interesting when, at first glance, I read it as “DNA loosening.” And yes, of course you have two, since most eukaryotic DNA is double-stranded. But why all this concern over John Smith’s mitosis?

Well, why not?

When there’s two of me, one will leave to fix other games. Soon there will be no cartels in the gaming industry.
Alternatively, one could be evil and try to take over the world, just throwing that out as a possibility.

John Smith.4610:

A very likely possibility.

John Smith.4610:

John Smith.4610:

A very likely possibility.

Shut up!

Color me an impressed Tyrian.
I hope the color isn’t account bound because Wanze and John Smith deserve some of that color, in shades.
I haven’t made it through the first page and I had to post at least that sentiment.

My question:

Information releases that talk about changes to in game systems impact the market. The information concerning changes to the dye mechanic came in dribbles and the market reacted as any market would to incomplete information.

If it were up to you, would you have released all of the information concerning changes to the dye system at once?

John Smith.4610:

What I would personally, as a player, love to have is a derivatives market. It could be a lot of fun, but there are also a huge quantity of problems that go along with it, so it would most likely need to be build into the game from the very beginning.

Yes yes a thousand times yes. You could even implement it as an escrow-contract system with money and items held by a special type of BLTC agent. Adding leverage could make it difficult, but it couldn’t be that hard to implement a futures and options system. I’d volunteer

John Smith.4610:

Psientist.6437:

Color me an impressed Tyrian.
I hope the color isn’t account bound because Wanze and John Smith deserve some of that color, in shades.
I haven’t made it through the first page and I had to post at least that sentiment.

My question:

Information releases that talk about changes to in game systems impact the market. The information concerning changes to the dye mechanic came in dribbles and the market reacted as any market would to incomplete information.

If it were up to you, would you have released all of the information concerning changes to the dye system at once?

Unfortunately, releasing problem isn’t a single variable problem. There is an unbelievable amount of work required to release information in an official/public way.

So, only two? well i thought i had it bad with 4 releasing all of EA’s digital/print assets. I hope they pay you partially in all the coffee and tea you can drink!

Wanze.8410:

munkiman.3068:

Global econ and the players feel a john smith alone can’t handle it.

At least one of the John Smiths already confirmed that there are 2 John Smiths:

John Smith.4610:

RoyHarmon.5398:

John Smith.4610:

insanemaniac.2456:

John Smith.4610:

Actually 9 have sold in the last 24 hours.

omg specific market velocity info

i can feel the chains of your NDA loosening

I have two just in case the first one breaks :P

This was interesting when, at first glance, I read it as “DNA loosening.” And yes, of course you have two, since most eukaryotic DNA is double-stranded. But why all this concern over John Smith’s mitosis?

Well, why not?

When there’s two of me, one will leave to fix other games. Soon there will be no cartels in the gaming industry.
Alternatively, one could be evil and try to take over the world, just throwing that out as a possibility.

John Smith.4610:

A very likely possibility.

John Smith.4610:

John Smith.4610:

A very likely possibility.

Shut up!

Thanks i knew at least 2, but i thought maybe it was an army of john smiths, you know, like the matrix

It’s a bit off topic but it does tie into the economy.

Since WvW forum has no red posts, but people still ask, will there be better WvW rewards?

(Will wvw ever get look at again :o)

John Smith.4610:

Psientist.6437:

Color me an impressed Tyrian.
I hope the color isn’t account bound because Wanze and John Smith deserve some of that color, in shades.
I haven’t made it through the first page and I had to post at least that sentiment.

My question:

Information releases that talk about changes to in game systems impact the market. The information concerning changes to the dye mechanic came in dribbles and the market reacted as any market would to incomplete information.

If it were up to you, would you have released all of the information concerning changes to the dye system at once?

Unfortunately, releasing problem isn’t a single variable problem. There is an unbelievable amount of work required to release information in an official/public way.

You had me at “isn’t a single variable problem”; and then lost me with “releasing problem”. Not sure how that works since the later was former. Anyway…

The work involved is just the work involved and the world manages much bigger problems. My question stands unanswered.

You mentioned earlier in this thread just how volatile a virtual economic ecosystem can be. That is because they are small and well defined and changes in information keep the thermodynamics buzzing longer than expected of larger less well defined systems. Consider the effects of a stone of equal weight dropped into a teacup and the Atlantic.

RMT adds pseudo-reality to this virtual reality.

1. If it were up to you, would you have released all of the information concerning changes to the dye system at once?

Mckeone.9804:

John Smith.4610:

What I would personally, as a player, love to have is a derivatives market. It could be a lot of fun, but there are also a huge quantity of problems that go along with it, so it would most likely need to be build into the game from the very beginning.

Yes yes a thousand times yes. You could even implement it as an escrow-contract system with money and items held by a special type of BLTC agent. Adding leverage could make it difficult, but it couldn’t be that hard to implement a futures and options system. I’d volunteer

Would this derivatives market have anything to do with the unique features of Tyrian lore or just be an addition to our mercenary marketplace?

Psientist.6437:

Mckeone.9804:

John Smith.4610:

What I would personally, as a player, love to have is a derivatives market. It could be a lot of fun, but there are also a huge quantity of problems that go along with it, so it would most likely need to be build into the game from the very beginning.

Yes yes a thousand times yes. You could even implement it as an escrow-contract system with money and items held by a special type of BLTC agent. Adding leverage could make it difficult, but it couldn’t be that hard to implement a futures and options system. I’d volunteer

Would this derivatives market have anything to do with the unique features of Tyrian lore or just be an addition to our mercenary marketplace?

Wells Charrgo and J P Morgahn are most prestigious financial institutions in Tyria.

John Smith.4610:

Serophous.9085:

I just have one question:

Why isn’t it possible to put superior runes and sigils in the mystic forge to gamble? This would at least start using up the lowest priced runes and sigils on the market, and allow us to at least try for an unsoulbound rune.

I can’t discuss the origins of why. I can say that the market isn’t in a state where it would handle changing that very well. The markets need a more fundamental change.

Off topic: I thought of a way to bring about that fundamental change. Forge 4 exotic runes for the chance of an account bound ascended rune (success!) or receive a major rune in return (failure, try again!). Not expecting any comment of course, you guys reading it is enough for me.

Buttercup.5871:

John Smith.4610:

Serophous.9085:

I just have one question:

Why isn’t it possible to put superior runes and sigils in the mystic forge to gamble? This would at least start using up the lowest priced runes and sigils on the market, and allow us to at least try for an unsoulbound rune.

I can’t discuss the origins of why. I can say that the market isn’t in a state where it would handle changing that very well. The markets need a more fundamental change.

Off topic: I thought of a way to bring about that fundamental change. Forge 4 exotic runes for the chance of an account bound ascended rune (success!) or receive a major rune in return (failure, try again!). Not expecting any comment of course, you guys reading it is enough for me.

Not sure how that’d work out considering rune sets have been rebalanced across Quality levels based, if I remember correctly, on the bonuses provided by the Superiors.

Quoting myself, adding some questions, for every question answered I will give 1 gold to the next drunk quaggan.

Michael Walker.8150:

Hi John!

Cool idea, would love to hear some of your experiences when creating the BLTP

-Can you explain how you started designing the BLTP when approached by Anet?
-How big was/is your team, how many variants and iterations did you come up with and how different were they?
-Did you have to change some aspects that make perfect sense economically but didn’t fit lore?
-If there have been others, what were the alternative names for the BLTP?
-How many hours approximately did you spend working with sound engineers & audio artists?
-How much gold do you have in game?
-Have you ever contributed something to the lore behind the economy or helped?
-Who had the idea for the mystic forge conduit? Love mine and it worked well (?) as a material sink. Can you give that person a cookie?

Angel’s post was really interesting

//edit
@Wanze
Questions aren’t about the current economy, still fits the spirit of the thread I hope. More than one because I don’t want a specific answer.

Hopefully not too silly a question;

We’ve got a bunch of new crafting recipes available in the game which produce soulbound items, including the Nomad/Zealot/Celestial exotic armor spreads and I think some of the new foods. So I’m wondering; what drives the decision as to whether a newly introduced crafted item is bind on acquire or bind on equip?

Also, thanks a bunch for answering questions :>

Psientist.6437:

The work involved is just the work involved and the world manages much bigger problems. My question stands unanswered.

1. If it were up to you, would you have released all of the information concerning changes to the dye system at once?

Reading between the lines, I gather that John isn’t going to say anything else because he has coworkers who may not like his answer and he has to work with them every day.

Buttercup.5871:

John Smith.4610:

Serophous.9085:

I just have one question:

Why isn’t it possible to put superior runes and sigils in the mystic forge to gamble? This would at least start using up the lowest priced runes and sigils on the market, and allow us to at least try for an unsoulbound rune.

I can’t discuss the origins of why. I can say that the market isn’t in a state where it would handle changing that very well. The markets need a more fundamental change.

Off topic: I thought of a way to bring about that fundamental change. Forge 4 exotic runes for the chance of an account bound ascended rune (success!) or receive a major rune in return (failure, try again!). Not expecting any comment of course, you guys reading it is enough for me.

It won’t prevent the problem if they were to be able to put to the forge.

Edit: typos

John Smith.4610:

Bombsaway.7198:

Is special consideration given to how you build a macro economy based on the age of the consumer in the market (how long they have played)?

Yes, this is a major aspect of design.

I’m not sure if John can, but if not, is someone else perhaps able to elaborate on the implications? Thanks in advance – and thanks John for participating here, love it!

Rouven.7409:

I’m not sure if John can, but if not, is someone else perhaps able to elaborate on the implications? Thanks in advance – and thanks John for participating here, love it!

Because most activities produce in-game currency (“gold” or whatever) from nothing, the amount of money in circulation tends to go up as the game ages. Currency sinks like repair costs are a major concern to new players, but a minor annoyance to more experienced players. Inflation of player-controlled market prices is expected, simply because it takes a lot of work to have 10 gold to spare on your toon while leveling, but when you’re at max level for six months you don’t upgrade or repair equipment as often so more experienced players have more gold to spend.

The game works much differently when 5% of the players have recently achieved max level vs. when 50% of the players are at max level and gearing alts. The market reflects this as a natural consequence of players involved in the game over time. The design of the game reflects this, for example removing repair costs makes it easier for newer players to accumulate gold while experienced players barely notice the difference.

Devs have to watch the effect of currency sinks and faucets carefully, and try to balance the amount of money in circulation with the sinks designed to remove it in order to make sure that new players can afford basic equipment as they level but experienced players can still feel as though they have goals to achieve. If either side is too rich or too poor the game suffers.

tolunart.2095:

Currency sinks like repair costs

Wait, did I miss something cause I thought that was out of the game since Kiel got elected.

Edit : Kitten me, it was in the April’s Feature Pack…

Kiel getting elected reduced waypoint costs for a few weeks (thanks a lot Kiel voters…silly bookahs)

Repair costs got removed in the April feature patch

I’m curious John, do you have gold sink options readily available to implement in the game if you choose to?

e.g. let’s say for example one patch results in an activity which increases inflation way more than you’d like

You then make a suggestion that in the next patch, you would release a gold sink (dynamic) that would help quickly fix things.

I’m trying hard to think of other dynamic sinks that you can introduce (aside from the robotron donation gold sink). All I can think of are:
-Karma/gold exchange
-50/50 weekly draw