Guild Wars 2

We’ll never know how truly sophisticated Arenanet’s control over the economy is. I’d wager it’s very advanced. How elegant and flexible the loot tables are at monitoring global supply and each items relative values. The protocols in place for adjusting supply for the sake of stability and manipulation. People call it “RNG” but, nothing is truly random.

What all these numbers and graphs do not explain is turnover rates. Commodity value on Ecto’s would be interesting to know.

Keras.2876:

Amun Ra.6435:

What was the quoted amount? 140k? I would liket point out that 60k+ of those ectos are at buy orders for 3s or less…nothing to do with my point and does kitten to disprove market manipulation. People are going off topic by arguing over the current price, not my point.

Wow. It seems like you didn`t understand Johns post at all or just don`t want to…
150k is the amount of ectos that was SOLD on a single day, not the amount of buy orders. The highest amount a single player sold on that day was 2544 (I`m sure that`s the case there wouldn`t be any other reason to mark that specific point on the graph) which is nothing compared to the total amount traded on that day.
Even if a dozen players worked together they wouldn`t be able to control most of the ecto market.

While you are correct in nearly everything, if you read that graph correctly, the highest amount of ecto sold is right underneath the 354 mark. Look closely at the graph, the line drops to 0 and only bumps up to show a unique player(s) who sold ecto at that amount. After the 250 mark it only bumps up twice at above the 294 mark and below the 354 mark.

I don`t think you can actually see if the graph is at 0 or 1. It`s not detailed enough to distinguish between those values imo. If it really were 0 I believe John would not have drawn the line any further than 354. I simply can`t think of any other reason to draw the line to exactly 2544. If you can think of something I`ll be glad to read it

But of course that is only speculation, only John can tell us what the real max value is and how many players actually sold that amount of ectos.

Raif.9507:

While you are correct in nearly everything, if you read that graph correctly, the highest amount of ecto sold is right underneath the 354 mark. Look closely at the graph, the line drops to 0 and only bumps up to show a unique player(s) who sold ecto at that amount. After the 250 mark it only bumps up twice at above the 294 mark and below the 354 mark.

Um… that wouldn’t NEARLY account for the total volume stated. There almost certainly are some zeroes in there, but there’s a heck of a lot of ones required to bring the total to 150,000+

Nike.2631:

Raif.9507:

While you are correct in nearly everything, if you read that graph correctly, the highest amount of ecto sold is right underneath the 354 mark. Look closely at the graph, the line drops to 0 and only bumps up to show a unique player(s) who sold ecto at that amount. After the 250 mark it only bumps up twice at above the 294 mark and below the 354 mark.

Um… that wouldn’t NEARLY account for the total volume stated. There almost certainly are some zeroes in there, but there’s a heck of a lot of ones required to bring the total to 150,000+

The majority of ecto sold is on the left side of the graph, from about about the 1300-ish sellers @ 2 ecto each to about the 100-ish sellers @ 20 ecto each range (approx. 2500 per data point.) After that it drops to about ~1500 ecto sold per data point until it drops again at ~ 40 ecto per seller. Then it tapers off until you hit the ~100 ecto per seller and 250 ecto per seller bumps.

Here’s Smith’s graph modified to delineate every 100 unique sellers and every 5 ecto increment.

In case you were wondering, there was only about 10-15 sellers at both the ~100 and ~250 ecto per seller points.

Shadow Phage.9084:

Nike.2631:

Raif.9507:

While you are correct in nearly everything, if you read that graph correctly, the highest amount of ecto sold is right underneath the 354 mark. Look closely at the graph, the line drops to 0 and only bumps up to show a unique player(s) who sold ecto at that amount. After the 250 mark it only bumps up twice at above the 294 mark and below the 354 mark.

Um… that wouldn’t NEARLY account for the total volume stated. There almost certainly are some zeroes in there, but there’s a heck of a lot of ones required to bring the total to 150,000+

The majority of ecto sold is on the left side of the graph, from about about the 1300-ish sellers @ 2 ecto each to about the 100-ish sellers @ 20 ecto each range (approx. 2500 per data point.) After that it drops to about ~1500 ecto sold per data point until it drops again at ~ 40 ecto per seller. Then it tapers off until you hit the ~100 ecto per seller and 250 ecto per seller bumps.

Here’s Smith’s graph modified to delineate every 100 unique sellers and every 5 ecto increment.

In case you were wondering, there was only about 10-15 sellers at both the ~100 and ~250 ecto per seller points.

I was looking too, with handy dandy googles zoom function lol

On a side note, does anyone else think its funny that a dev or someone tosses a piece of information and people flock to it like a carrot on a stick lol Thus spending 5 pages on analyzing what they were given. Find a toy that they love when they are being fussy, when they are bored with that one find another. I just thought it was funny :P I enjoy reading though, always interesting stuff.

Quick, very rough, estimate of the area under the curve:

It seems that sales of 60 or fewer ectos account for approximately 90k-100k in sales. That means people who sold more than 60 ectos accounted for about 50k worth of sales or my estimate is significantly off. I’m placing very little faith in my estimate though.

Keras.2876:

I don`t think you can actually see if the graph is at 0 or 1. It`s not detailed enough to distinguish between those values imo. If it really were 0 I believe John would not have drawn the line any further than 354. I simply can`t think of any other reason to draw the line to exactly 2544. If you can think of something I`ll be glad to read it.

The x axis is not an even distribution past about 135. The x axis actually only contains each distinct number such that at least one player traded that number of ectos. The space between 1-5 on the left of the graph is the same as the space between 1250 and 2544 on the right of the graph. It could be some sort of log scale but then it wouldn’t be consistent until the 130s.

I think Smith did a database query such that there are no records with where zero players traded that number of ectos. And thus those numbers aren’t on the x-axis.

Well manipulators aren’t controlling the ecto market, but the devs certainly are.

Ectos fall 10s→ devs panic → nerf drop rates to hell → ectos rise 10s in 20 minutes.

I suspect they will fall again, but the devs sure know how to stimulate the market in the direction they desire.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Well manipulators aren’t controlling the ecto market, but the devs certainly are.

Ectos fall 10s-> devs panic -> nerf drop rates to hell -> ectos rise 10s in 20 minutes.

I suspect they will fall again, but the devs sure know how to stimulate the market in the direction they desire.

Note – The devs haven’t even made the changes yet. So don’t blame them, blame the players panicking.

Geotherma.2395:

Shadow Phage.9084:

Nike.2631:

Raif.9507:

While you are correct in nearly everything, if you read that graph correctly, the highest amount of ecto sold is right underneath the 354 mark. Look closely at the graph, the line drops to 0 and only bumps up to show a unique player(s) who sold ecto at that amount. After the 250 mark it only bumps up twice at above the 294 mark and below the 354 mark.

Um… that wouldn’t NEARLY account for the total volume stated. There almost certainly are some zeroes in there, but there’s a heck of a lot of ones required to bring the total to 150,000+

The majority of ecto sold is on the left side of the graph, from about about the 1300-ish sellers @ 2 ecto each to about the 100-ish sellers @ 20 ecto each range (approx. 2500 per data point.) After that it drops to about ~1500 ecto sold per data point until it drops again at ~ 40 ecto per seller. Then it tapers off until you hit the ~100 ecto per seller and 250 ecto per seller bumps.

Here’s Smith’s graph modified to delineate every 100 unique sellers and every 5 ecto increment.

In case you were wondering, there was only about 10-15 sellers at both the ~100 and ~250 ecto per seller points.

I was looking too, with handy dandy googles zoom function lol

On a side note, does anyone else think its funny that a dev or someone tosses a piece of information and people flock to it like a carrot on a stick lol Thus spending 5 pages on analyzing what they were given. Find a toy that they love when they are being fussy, when they are bored with that one find another. I just thought it was funny :P I enjoy reading though, always interesting stuff.

Ive already moved on from analysing the data to formulating another thread topic that might entice them to throw us some more information to analyse.

reading through this thread, im amazed how quick people are to attack anyone with a theory based on observation, and throws out any thought to the possibility of such events.

either people have forgotten how to think critically about these possibilities, or anet forces are in full swing to demonize any criticism (as seen before)

i honestly dont have an opinion on the whole ecto prices, since i dont buy or sell them, but i would never throw out any opinion just because some kitten calls someone a tin foil hat wearing lunatic because he made an observation.

some people need to stop playing with their fanboy kitten and stop thinking that everyone are pure angels that work inside the company and does no wrong, remember who published this game after all.

Tolas.2458:

reading through this thread, im amazed how quick people are to attack anyone with a theory based on observation, and throws out any thought to the possibility of such events.

either people have forgotten to critically think critically about these possibilities, or anet forces are in full swing to demonize any criticism

i honestly dont have an opinion on the whole ecto prices, since i dont buy or sell them, but i would never throw out any opinion just because some kitten calls someone a tin foil hat wearing lunatic because he made an observation.

some people need to stop playing with their fanboy kitten and stop thinking that everyone are pure angels that work inside the company and does no wrong, remember who published this game after all.

If you bothered reading this thread at all, the posters who disprove this theory bring up very good points as to why this isn’t possible.

1. The volume of trade is very large
2. Most of trade is done by a huge number of unique individuals
3. There is absolutely no motivation/profit in doing this.

Whereas the people who are bringing up these “theories” have absolutely no solid argument to stand on. Seriously, I’m still waiting on someone to explain to me why this is “profitable.”

I’m actually quite shocked that you used the term “critical thinking,” after reading through your entire post actually. It made me chuckle.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Well manipulators aren’t controlling the ecto market, but the devs certainly are.

Ectos fall 10s-> devs panic -> nerf drop rates to hell -> ectos rise 10s in 20 minutes.

I suspect they will fall again, but the devs sure know how to stimulate the market in the direction they desire.

Do you seriously believe a nerf to ecto drop rate would have such drastic consequences? It would take most people quite some time to realise the rate was nerfed and the price would rise slowly.

The spike you noticed a few hours ago was because people got their 40 laurels and everyone was dumb enough to just instantly buy their 50 ectos for an ascended accessory. I would guesss there were at least twice as many ectos sold yesterday than on that day John showed us.

I was really amazed that people just kept buying so I sold my whole stack of ectos for around 33s and will just buy them again next week when they are back to 25s

Keras.2876:

Do you seriously believe a nerf to ecto drop rate would have such drastic consequences? It would take most people quite some time to realise the rate was nerfed and the price would rise slowly.

Except when ArenaNet announces the upcoming change to the mega-boss chests right in the News and Announcements section of the forum. I found out about it shortly afterwards when it started being discussed in LA map chat on my server, so it is no surprise that word has spread quickly.

Keras.2876:

The spike you noticed a few hours ago was because people got their 40 laurels and everyone was dumb enough to just instantly buy their 50 ectos for an ascended accessory. I would guesss there were at least twice as many ectos sold yesterday than on that day John showed us.

I was really amazed that people just kept buying so I sold my whole stack of ectos for around 33s and will just buy them again next week when they are back to 25s

Except people could easily have reached 40 laurels a couple of days ago… I’m sitting on 32 after missing a few dailies and I haven’t even finished the monthly yet, so what’s so special about today?

Vol.5241:

Pedra.4381:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

John Smith.4610:

24 hours, >150,000 ectos, > 9500 unique sellers.

Game. Set. Match.

We love you John!!!

It’s only game, set, match if the final data is provided that substantiates that the control of ectos is not controlled by a small minority, i.e., 2 guys could have traded 140k of those ectos with the remaining 10k being squabbled over by the 9498.

Stats can be used to prove or disprove anything (often the same thing). It’s all in how you present it. Not saying that’s the case here, but just saying.

You really think two guys have the time to spam 140,000 globs on the outpost? At a fixed price?

those of us who played eve online can actually think yes, two guys could be doing this

or one, who spent a couple hundred bucks converting gems to gold as an initial investment.

Dixa.6017:

those of us who played eve online can actually think yes, two guys could be doing this

or one, who spent a couple hundred bucks converting gems to gold as an initial investment.

The question I have to ask is why would they? There is no profit from them doing this even if they had the resources to do it.

Astraea.6075:

Except people could easily have reached 40 laurels a couple of days ago… I’m sitting on 32 after missing a few dailies and I haven’t even finished the monthly yet, so what’s so special about today?

You have to consider that the majority of players baught their ascended amulett as soon as they could (there were no accessories available at that time). Today is the day all those players got the 40 laurels required for the accessory.

I didn`t know about the announcement but I don`t think it will make that much of a difference. I hope the price will now stabilize around 26-27s instead of dropping further and further. The spike might be caused by a combination of both.

Dixa.6017:

Vol.5241:

Pedra.4381:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

John Smith.4610:

24 hours, >150,000 ectos, > 9500 unique sellers.

Game. Set. Match.

We love you John!!!

It’s only game, set, match if the final data is provided that substantiates that the control of ectos is not controlled by a small minority, i.e., 2 guys could have traded 140k of those ectos with the remaining 10k being squabbled over by the 9498.

Stats can be used to prove or disprove anything (often the same thing). It’s all in how you present it. Not saying that’s the case here, but just saying.

You really think two guys have the time to spam 140,000 globs on the outpost? At a fixed price?

those of us who played eve online can actually think yes, two guys could be doing this

or one, who spent a couple hundred bucks converting gems to gold as an initial investment.

You’re forgetting the fact that there is an anti-spam function to limit postings.
And I don’t think you realize just how little a couple hundred bucks in $ can buy in game. That’s under a couple hundred gold.

Keras.2876:

Astraea.6075:

Except people could easily have reached 40 laurels a couple of days ago… I’m sitting on 32 after missing a few dailies and I haven’t even finished the monthly yet, so what’s so special about today?

You have to consider that the majority of players baught their ascended amulett as soon as they could (there were no accessories available at that time). Today is the day all those players got the 40 laurels required for the accessory.

I didn`t know about the announcement but I don`t think it will make that much of a difference. I hope the price will now stabilize around 26-27s instead of dropping further and further. The spike might be caused by a combination of both.

I had 50 as of last night: I miss at least 1-2 dailies/week but I finished the monthly almost a week ago. There’s nothing particularly special about the day; though the price did bounce back up to 32s over the last 36 hours.

Prices going up had almost nothing to do with the people using ectos for accessories.

It’s not coincidence the price happened to start going up significantly as soon as the change to the dragon chests was announced.

I heard the news and bought a few hundred ectos (Not even to resell, just cuz I know I’ll use ectos for something again). How many others do you think did the same? Then add on people speculating to resell?

Keras.2876:

I didn`t know about the announcement but I don`t think it will make that much of a difference. I hope the price will now stabilize around 26-27s instead of dropping further and further. The spike might be caused by a combination of both.

Given what happened to the price of Final Rest in a few hours.. I think it’s fairly obvious the spike was due to the announcement.

To me this is odd, because the rare droprate isnt going to go down that much overall, and ecto prodution will see a slight drop. Doesnt seem to match the rampant increase due to player panic and speculation. I predict the price will fall again after the patch goes live.

Keras.2876:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Well manipulators aren’t controlling the ecto market, but the devs certainly are.

Ectos fall 10s-> devs panic -> nerf drop rates to hell -> ectos rise 10s in 20 minutes.

I suspect they will fall again, but the devs sure know how to stimulate the market in the direction they desire.

Do you seriously believe a nerf to ecto drop rate would have such drastic consequences? It would take most people quite some time to realise the rate was nerfed and the price would rise slowly.

The spike you noticed a few hours ago was because people got their 40 laurels and everyone was dumb enough to just instantly buy their 50 ectos for an ascended accessory. I would guesss there were at least twice as many ectos sold yesterday than on that day John showed us.

I was really amazed that people just kept buying so I sold my whole stack of ectos for around 33s and will just buy them again next week when they are back to 25s

I don’t know a single person who even thought about buying an accessory with laurels. What an awful way to get them… Most people have their accessories from Guild missions at this point. At least anyone who has been consistent enough to have 40 laurels.

The ectos responded very rapidly to an announcement by the devs that they are greatly reducing the ability for people to get rares, thus making it much harder to get ectos. 20% price increase within 20 minutes of the announcement. The devs knew very well what would happen when they made the announcement, they did it at least in part to bring ecto prices back to a level they wanted.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

I don’t know a single person who even thought about buying an accessory with laurels. What an awful way to get them… Most people have their accessories from Guild missions at this point. At least anyone who has been consistent enough to have 40 laurels.

Well now you’ve met one. I’m not in one of these massive guilds and probably never will be.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

I don’t know a single person who even thought about buying an accessory with laurels. What an awful way to get them… Most people have their accessories from Guild missions at this point. At least anyone who has been consistent enough to have 40 laurels.

“Most People”?

I’m in a 400+ guild, and we’ve been doing bounties every week since they started. I have 8 commendations, which is the max you can have right now if you only have bounties unlocked. Accessories cost 12 commendations. To get more commendations, you need to unlock Treks and then Rushes, for a considerable amount of merits. That means successfully completing the Tier 3 bounties each week, and building everything extremely fast.

That seems like a feat that not many guilds could have achieved already.

I just wanted to point out to the OP that while what you are claiming may be illegal in the real world, Guild Wars 2 is a game, nothing about it is real. You are theorizing about bits of data. No crimes are being commited, you may come off your high horse and just enjoy the game.

Only been a couple days sence they desided to say they are changeing the way chests work for mega events and price of etco went up 6 Silver already and it proble will get higher… afther the event change

Maxistin.3754:

I just wanted to point out to the OP that while what you are claiming may be illegal in the real world, Guild Wars 2 is a game, nothing about it is real. You are theorizing about bits of data. No crimes are being commited, you may come off your high horse and just enjoy the game.

Please read my posts CLEARLY, I made a clear distinction about the crimes being REAL WORLD ONLY. What I said was that with an economy with no real oversight, market manipulation is going/can happen. And please explain your “high horse” comment…if you can.

Paypal me what I put into the game to date and I will play the game just the way you want me to…ok?

Still think ecto price is being controlled?

Dude, really? There was a shock to the market…even if I was 100% correct…which I never suggested, it would be impossible to control that. I have no reason to believe that given time, if I am correct…that it can not be manipulated again.

Amun Ra.6435:

Dude, really? There was a shock to the market…even if I was 100% correct…which I never suggested, it would be impossible to control that. I have no reason to believe that given time, if I am correct…that it can not be manipulated again.

Actually….you did suggest that it’s possible to control / manipulate.

Amun Ra.6435:

As of this writing the prices/bids of ectos seem to be blatantly manipulated. Either the same person or group of persons seems to be keeping the sell price/bid within 20c or each other.

Also…..I think you have a real misconception about what’s going on with ecto prices right now. They aren’t being manipulated. They aren’t being controlled. They are being speculated based on the recent announcement of the changes to the mega-boss loot chests that will happen in the next update.

People are freaking out!!!! Some people are buying every ecto they can get their hands on for fear the price will go up….and you know what…..the price is going up because they’re buying them. Then you have the people that have a stockpile of ectos that are selling them off making a fortune off this speculation.

We, the players, set the prices of EVERY item on the Trading Post. When people speculate / start rumors / discuss trading strategies / “give away a gold mine”……what happens? Prices on the items being talked about fluctuate…..some by HUGE amounts.

John has said many times that it would be nearly impossible for a single person, or small group of people, to completely control any given market…..much less the entire Trading Post. At one point, a fellow player asked John for 200g (or something like that) to PROVE he could manipulate the Trading Post. John responded with a challenge to write a 10 page proposal on this players exact methodology as to how he was going to invest the 200g. That player never accepted the challenge. I’m guessing that John knows more than we do about the Trading Post, the GW2 game economy and what is and isn’t possible from a player standpoint.

Charismatic Harm.9683:

Amun Ra.6435:

Dude, really? There was a shock to the market…even if I was 100% correct…which I never suggested, it would be impossible to control that. I have no reason to believe that given time, if I am correct…that it can not be manipulated again.

Actually….you did suggest that it’s possible to control / manipulate.

./sigh…reading comprehension people..when i said “it would be impossible to control that” I was talking about the situation following the news that rares from boss chest would change. There was a huge scare to the market and people started to panic, can’t control that. Nothing to do with my original post.

As you can tell the topic has went way off topic.

Again, my original post was 3 days before the recent announcement about the change to boss chests.

Either way, nerf or no nerf, despite the graph provided by John Smith you still think ecto’s can be controlled.

Amun Ra.6435:

I have no reason to believe that given time, if I am correct…that it can not be manipulated again.

At least you’re admitting the possibility that you might not be correct. The data that John provided upthread should however indicate to you that the volume of ectos sold in 24 hours (pre-announcement) make it impossible to manipulate the market for any significant length of time.

The volume sold is greater than 5000 ectos per hour… you need some very deep pockets to keep any sort of “buy wall” up for any length of time, and there is a huge risk that you would end up with a lot of ectos that you will be unable to sell for a profit.

I keep on harping on this, but has yet to get an answer. OP, how is what you originally stated in any way profitable? How does one earn anything from keeping buy/sell prices within 20c of each other?

Someone told me that if I sell to a buyer, who was looking for 10@4s and I was selling him my 5 but at the time I click sell he was down to 3@4s, I would sell him 3 and the remaining 2 are now a sell order at 4s.

If this is true then that’s how prices suddenly get within a few copper of one another. As I tapped out the remaining 3 at 4s, the next buy offer becomes highest buy, lets say 3s98c while my remaining 2 are now a sell order at 4s. Others jump in, panicking and that 2 becomes 10 or 20, obliterating the cause. Others would decide the few coppers aren’t worth it and start filling buy orders driving the prices apart again, more panic etc.

Eventually the few low sale priced items sell and the price jumps back up to where it was before trying to sell 10 to a buyer who was now looking for less than that when you pressed the sell button.

Clearly being controlled. We all know how much profits can be made flipping an item with a 1% price buy/sell gap. OOPS!

Behellagh.1468:

Someone told me that if I sell to a buyer, who was looking for 10@4s and I was selling him my 5 but at the time I click sell he was down to 3@4s, I would sell him 3 and the remaining 2 are now a sell order at 4s.

If you try to sell and there is no longer a buyer either you get a error message or it LISTS your items at the price you set. Can’t remember which but it’ll certainly not mark down your price, unless you have tabbed “sell to highest”

I didn’t say anything was marked down. Just that if there is no longer a buyer it’s likely that the new high bid is lower while my price was the previous high. You still end up with likely a narrow range between cheapest sale price and highest bid.

@ Shadow Phage.9084

Nice graph, now plot that vs. average price sold at each ecto number interval (i.e. an x-y-z- graph, or ecto numbers vs. price).

IT’S THE ILLUMINATI TRYING TO KEEP US FROM LEGENDARIES AND THE TRUTH.

For the OP and a few others who made comments in this thread:

When presenting a theory or a hypothesis the onus is on you, as the originator of that proposal, to, at the very least, make the case for it.

You will not ‘win’ or convince anyone if you are unable to lay out a clear and concise reasoning as to why you believe something to be happening.

Asking someone who asked you ‘why’ or ‘prove this to me’ to make a proof that proves otherwise just shows that you have no reasoning or reason for your original claim.

This whole thread is silly because of this. There was no logic or reasoning to support any claim of market manipulation. If you are unable to support your position then you shouldn’t be going public with it since you will do your claim more harm than good. People won’t believe you and even if it was actually happening they won’t believe it since you were unable to make the case for it to be happening in the first place.

tldr: fail post by OP is fail post.

Geotherma.2395:

On a side note, does anyone else think its funny that a dev or someone tosses a piece of information and people flock to it like a carrot on a stick lol Thus spending 5 pages on analyzing what they were given. Find a toy that they love when they are being fussy, when they are bored with that one find another. I just thought it was funny :P I enjoy reading though, always interesting stuff.

Maybe because there is little real communication with the community on these forums. When you’re hungry you’ll eat what you’re given.

Wayfinder.8452:

Geotherma.2395:

On a side note, does anyone else think its funny that a dev or someone tosses a piece of information and people flock to it like a carrot on a stick lol Thus spending 5 pages on analyzing what they were given. Find a toy that they love when they are being fussy, when they are bored with that one find another. I just thought it was funny :P I enjoy reading though, always interesting stuff.

Maybe because there is little real communication with the community on these forums. When you’re hungry you’ll eat what you’re given.

Lol I guess. But people should be lucky they see anyone at all. Games like Aion just have community coordinators who have nothing to do with development. They get their information from some guy who knows a guy who met a guy who heard a rumor that “X” thing might happen soon. Whereas here you get devs, designers, community leads, mods, all sorts of people posting all over the forums and responding to people. And that is a great thing to see. Sometimes people don’t realize how nice something is unless they never had it or lose it. We get videos, feeds, live-streams, blogs, interviews up the wazoo. And I think it is great they take their time to respond when they have so much to do.

Wayfinder.8452:

Maybe because there is little real communication with the community on these forums. When you’re hungry you’ll eat what you’re given.

I was wondering if this comment is alluding to a different conspiracy theory you may have…..

Conspiracy Theory: John made up that graph just to shut us up.

Personally, I don’t think that’s the case. He’s been very forthcoming about data when he can provide it. Is he giving us everything he has available to him? No….and he shouldn’t. If he did, people wouldn’t be looking at is as “Oh, Anet cares about the community”…..they would look at the data and think “How can I exploit a loophole to make money / grief other players / etc.”.

Wayfinder.8452:

Geotherma.2395:

On a side note, does anyone else think its funny that a dev or someone tosses a piece of information and people flock to it like a carrot on a stick lol Thus spending 5 pages on analyzing what they were given. Find a toy that they love when they are being fussy, when they are bored with that one find another. I just thought it was funny :P I enjoy reading though, always interesting stuff.

Maybe because there is little real communication with the community on these forums. When you’re hungry you’ll eat what you’re given.

There is a Dev tracker here if you didn’t know.

But I guess you’d rather have devs spend their entire day chatting up with the forums instead of actually working on the game? That’s not how it works.

Vol.5241:

But I guess you’d rather have devs spend their entire day chatting up with the forums instead of actually working on the game? That’s not how it works.

And, in particular, if a dev DID spend most of their time chatting on the forums, they would no longer be a dev, in that they have any input or solid data on what changes get made to the game, they would be a Publicist. Has anyone ever seen a Publicist give concrete, useful information?

Charismatic Harm.9683:

John has said many times that it would be nearly impossible for a single person, or small group of people, to completely control any given market…..much less the entire Trading Post. At one point, a fellow player asked John for 200g (or something like that) to PROVE he could manipulate the Trading Post. John responded with a challenge to write a 10 page proposal on this players exact methodology as to how he was going to invest the 200g. That player never accepted the challenge. I’m guessing that John knows more than we do about the Trading Post, the GW2 game economy and what is and isn’t possible from a player standpoint.

That was me. And it was 2k Gold to prove that I couldn’t manipulate anything. But a I was infracted for that thread because we’re not supposed to address Devs directly, so I gave up on that idea.

Pedra.4381:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

John Smith.4610:

24 hours, >150,000 ectos, > 9500 unique sellers.

Game. Set. Match.

We love you John!!!

It’s only game, set, match if the final data is provided that substantiates that the control of ectos is not controlled by a small minority, i.e., 2 guys could have traded 140k of those ectos with the remaining 10k being squabbled over by the 9498.

Stats can be used to prove or disprove anything (often the same thing). It’s all in how you present it. Not saying that’s the case here, but just saying.

Okay, let’s assume your crazy theory here was at all feasible(though we already know it isn’t as it’s been shown to us).

Can someone explain to me how and, more important, why anyone would manipulate the prices to be within 20c? What profit is there in it? Someone buying the Ectos for 20c less than what they sell them for is losing a TON of money. Selling takes a 15% chunk of the gold. That is WAY more than 20c.