Guild Wars 2

So my question is quite simple; Will the price of gold to gems conversion going to keep rising or will you decide to keep it at a certain amount?

Many will say “What ever man farm for it, it’s not free.” I agree on that, but my worry is seeing how it was 6g a month ago and now it’s at 8g 87s, that is a drastic increase rate. At this rate gold to gems conversation might be 100g for 100 gems mid year of 2014. I don’t see any evidence of it decreasing, in fact to the contrary.

This pushes players, who get there gems through game play, to the edge of a ledge. Either jump and buy actual gems with money or stop where you’re at, at the edge and never convert gold to gems again.

To me and I don’t doubt many others, is a situation where both options are bad. I don’t want to not get anything from the gem store but it is getting harder and harder to do so I personally refuse to farm 100g for 100 gems (this is an exaggerated example.). But I don’t want to pay actual money for skins and other items in a video game.

I’m sure many of you can agree if not everyone, sure you might be okay with paying actual money and might give that excuse “Well get a job man it’s not hard.”. Lets be honest, that is a ludicrous excuse to paying real money. But hey if you wish to pay money for in game stuff, be my guest I won’t judge you, if you believe you can buy gems and it won’t effect your real life economic situation then cheers man go right ahead.

I feel devs should decide on a number where gold to gems conversion to remain at (same for gems to gold but I’ve never really used that system so I can’t really say much about it). I understand some reason behind the increase is the fact it is easier to get gold now. But Not nearly enough to justify this massive increase that doesn’t seem to stop. Personally, 8g and 70s is a lot for 100 gems, but I’m willing to due so if it will remain at that number.

What do you guys think, be honest and be respectful, this is a discussion not an argument.

I hope Devs will read this post, cheers.

You have to understand, the exchange was set up to be autonomous. It was seeded with a little gold and an enormous amount of gems and it’s the ratio between those two that in turn sets the exchange rates. As we buy gems the gold (minus 15%) goes into the exchanges gold reserve and we get gems from it’s gem reserve. When someone sells gems the gems are added to the exchanges gem reserve and an amount of gold (again minus 15%) is paid out. Since players have been buying far more gems than selling the gem reserve at the exchange has gone down rapidly while the amount of gold in the exchange has gone up at a quicker and quicker pace. It’s entirely automatic. A couple of simple calculations, adding or subtracting from two reserves and presto, new rate is calculated after every transaction.

Also the primary purpose of the exchange is as a legal way to buy gold. The thing is that gold paid out is the gold we paid in to get gems. This way there is no “new” gold added to the economy from the exchange (or gems) and any gold going in and coming back out is hit by the 15% gold sink twice.

To answer you next question yes, in theory, the exchange can run out of gems. Also the rate of increase of the exchange rate will likely get faster and faster. We jumped roughly 1 gold per 100 gems due to the slot sale and winter minis. Three weeks ago it jumped another 1 gold jump due to the account bound tools and weapon skins. A week before that it was 1/2 gold jump due to whatever else they added to the store and the week before that … well you get the idea. That’s the only control ANet has, offering new items, returning popular items that were removed for a limited time and putting other popular items on sale.

Remember also in theory as rates go up, it should drive more players to buy gems with cash or even buy gems for gold, the later would help brake the climb some.

I mostly understand what you’re saying, but seems like once people resolve to buying gems with real money it will be to late for those who try to do it with gold in game.

Unless I miss understood you comment, this system is made by the Devs couldn’t they simply set the price for 100 gems at example: 8g. Instead of this system of buying gems from those who sold them, the Devs make the gems in the first place so I don’t see the problem, they can make any amount of gems/gold appear at will so stock on gems should never even be a problem.

But again on your comment about people might resort to buying gems making the pool go up, if it were to be true it doesn’t seem to be working so far. Probably do to the fact the TP is coming out with things people want due to their limited time offer. In conclusion I still believe the devs need to make something happen now, cause this is becoming quite painful for those who try to farm their way into awesome items.

The Gem Store is meant to sell items that provide only convenience or aesthetic benefits. So far this has been the case. The ability for players to buy gems with gold was actually a very generous move on ANet’s part, and their decision to tie the exchange rate to a floating rate was actually a very smart one, because it will keep pace with inflation.

If you’ve been here since the beginning, you probably remember gems going for an absurdly low rate of gold, but what’s important to remember is that as the player base matures, their ability to gain gold has also increased. The reason why the exchange rate for gems is so high right now is due to two reasons:

1. There are much more wealthy players in the game, able to afford the 10g for 100 gems. While a player might have struggled to earn 1 gold at the beginning of the game, these days they can complete a dungeon in about 30 mins to an hour and earn at least 1 gold, probably more once you factor in other loot. (In fact, I’m more of the opinion that gems were UNDERvalued during the early days of GW2. Their current price is more indicative of their true value.)

2. The pool of people buying gems with cash, and then trading them for gold, is fairly static. You yourself stated that you do not want to spend real money on gems; the fact that gem prices are only continuing to rise is because a lot of players think like you do. If you are adamant on not wanting to buy gems with cash, then your only hope lies in people like me who currently buy gems with cash, but don’t think the exchange rate is favourable enough to convert to gold. Personally, I’m waiting till it hits 100 gems for 10 gold; that’s when I consider it attractive enough to start selling gems.

CanadianZombie.6095:

I mostly understand what you’re saying, but seems like once people resolve to buying gems with real money it will be to late for those who try to do it with gold in game.

Unless I miss understood you comment, this system is made by the Devs couldn’t they simply set the price for 100 gems at example: 8g. Instead of this system of buying gems from those who sold them, the Devs make the gems in the first place so I don’t see the problem, they can make any amount of gems/gold appear at will so stock on gems should never even be a problem.

But again on your comment about people might resort to buying gems making the pool go up, if it were to be true it doesn’t seem to be working so far. Probably do to the fact the TP is coming out with things people want due to their limited time offer. In conclusion I still believe the devs need to make something happen now, cause this is becoming quite painful for those who try to farm their way into awesome items.

Sorry I tend to ramble on this subject. I’ll try to be clearer.

The devs didn’t want to continuously produce either gold or gems from nothing and inject them into the game, beyond the amounts they used to set up the exchange in the first place. As I said the purpose of the exchange is to get players to provide the gold that is then sold for cash (via gems). Gems for gold is the carrot that makes that possible. It also helps those who are cash poor but time rich and can earn enough gold in game to cover their wants and desires from the store.

As Zaxares points out in the early days players simply didn’t have the gold to spend on gems either and as they accumulated their wealth and bought gems the price to do so naturally increased on it’s own. This way the devs don’t have to “twist the knob” to adjust the rate every few days/weeks, it happens on all it’s own.

You also have to remember that this game once bought runs on a pure free to play cash shop model. It’s not like the hybrid games that have F2P plus a alternative “subscription” which unlocks items you would have to purchase from the store as a F2P player.

Or you can cut back on the k-cups, Starbucks, pack of cigs, case of beer or whatever your daily vice may be and spend some of that toward the game you are, in theory, enjoy playing. Heck my grocer carries Gem cards, $25 for 2000. That would have cost you 168g in game now.