Guild Wars 2

Holy kitten!

I was trying to buy 320 Gems with gold, but I couldn’t even keep up with the market, one second it’s 6 Gold 73 Silver for 320, and 5 seconds later it’s already gone up to 7 gold 21 silver.

This kind of kitten is exactly the final nail in the coffin for me when it comes to the GW2’s market and inflation.

nicbet.1820:

Holy kitten!

I was trying to buy 320 Gems with gold, but I couldn’t even keep up with the market, one second it’s 6 Gold 73 Silver for 320, and 5 seconds later it’s already gone up to 7 gold 21 silver.

This kind of kitten is exactly the final nail in the coffin for me when it comes to the GW2’s market and inflation.

You know that you can always use real money to purchase gems and that conversion never changes. The gold to gem conversion is solely in place to offer some convenience so that you don’t HAVE to buy gems with real money.

To blame the market or inflation for the rise in gold to gem conversion rate is placing the blame in the wrong place, especially when that isn’t your only choice for getting gems.

This is why you buy gems when you think the prices are acceptable. Aiming for the perfect/best conversion rate is going to lead to this.

The funny thing is, the price of gems have already gone up more than 20% so people are actually losing gold now compared to if they had got the upgrades before this patch OR if they had waited about a month for this sale to end and for gem prices to go back down.

Welcome to the world of F2P MMOs. Oh wait, B2P MMOs, terribly sorry. Whip out that credit card and give daddy Anet some love.

yeah … well … expansion slot before the 20% sale was 400 gems for 5g60. now it’s 320 gems for 7g 50. A 20% sale leading to a 50% price increase for the same goods. I call bullkitten!

nicbet.1820:

yeah … well … expansion slot before the 20% sale was 400 gems for 5g60. now it’s 320 gems for 7g 50. A 20% sale leading to a 50% price increase for the same goods. I call bullkitten!

You’re calling “bullkitten” because you’re saying that the price of a moving target is….well….moving?

You realize that the cost of gems in real money has not changed one single bit, so the 20% off “sale” they’ve got going on is 20% off of a stationary target….the real money to gems market…..NOT the moving target of gold to gems.

The 50% price increase you’re quoting is due to the fact that a TON of players just went in and converted their gold to gems instead of buying gems with real money. You can’t blame Anet for that. They would much rather you buy gems with real money anyway. Blame the players.

Charismatic Harm.9683:

nicbet.1820:

yeah … well … expansion slot before the 20% sale was 400 gems for 5g60. now it’s 320 gems for 7g 50. A 20% sale leading to a 50% price increase for the same goods. I call bullkitten!

You’re calling “bullkitten” because you’re saying that the price of a moving target is….well….moving?

You realize that the cost of gems in real money has not changed one single bit, so the 20% off “sale” they’ve got going on is 20% off of a stationary target….the real money to gems market…..NOT the moving target of gold to gems.

The 50% price increase you’re quoting is due to the fact that a TON of players just went in and converted their gold to gems instead of buying gems with real money. You can’t blame Anet for that. They would much rather you buy gems with real money anyway. Blame the players.

Anet went in, and took an “item” that pretty much anyone and everyone needs at least one more of, and arbitrarily lowered its price by 20%. If that wasn’t designed to inflate the player controlled gold to gem conversion rate what is?

I get that players are ultimately responsible for the rise, but it was in response to a move made by Anet. Move and counter move.

Moreover, if the sale was really about giving a break to the players, they could have offered up a 20% more gems for your dollar when you buy with real money. That would have been a nice boost to sales of gems without horribly punishing the current exchange rate of gems. In fact that move might even lower the gold to gem rate. And that would give 20% more for ANY item.

It was a calculated move, and a very nice one.

Rennoko.5731:

Charismatic Harm.9683:

nicbet.1820:

yeah … well … expansion slot before the 20% sale was 400 gems for 5g60. now it’s 320 gems for 7g 50. A 20% sale leading to a 50% price increase for the same goods. I call bullkitten!

You’re calling “bullkitten” because you’re saying that the price of a moving target is….well….moving?

You realize that the cost of gems in real money has not changed one single bit, so the 20% off “sale” they’ve got going on is 20% off of a stationary target….the real money to gems market…..NOT the moving target of gold to gems.

The 50% price increase you’re quoting is due to the fact that a TON of players just went in and converted their gold to gems instead of buying gems with real money. You can’t blame Anet for that. They would much rather you buy gems with real money anyway. Blame the players.

Anet went in, and took an “item” that pretty much anyone and everyone needs at least one more of, and arbitrarily lowered its price by 20%. If that wasn’t designed to inflate the player controlled gold to gem conversion rate what is?

I get that players are ultimately responsible for the rise, but it was in response to a move made by Anet. Move and counter move.

so the point of this sale was to boost sales? isn’t that the point of every sale ever?

Rennoko.5731:

Anet went in, and took an “item” that pretty much anyone and everyone needs at least one more of, and arbitrarily lowered its price by 20%. If that wasn’t designed to inflate the player controlled gold to gem conversion rate what is?

I get that players are ultimately responsible for the rise, but it was in response to a move made by Anet. Move and counter move.

I bolded a section of your post that I disagree with. While it’s nice to have more storage, we don’t need it. Also, it’s actually more cost effective to buy a character slot and put 8 slot bags on it than it is to buy either a bank tab or a bag slot.

That move wasn’t necessarily designed to inflate the gold to gem conversion either….but that WAS the result. It was designed for them to offer something to players for gems in the hopes that players would spend real money to buy them. Anet doesn’t make a DIME when players convert gold to gems….only when they buy gems with real money.

Give it a day or two and gem prices should get back below 2g per 100. Same thing happened when roses popped up in the store and just after the last major patch.

Sure ANet can do whatever they want. Players also can do whatever they want. I’m just stating that I for one am getting miffed at the deliberate practices to kitten me over time and time again, just to suck my extremely hard (and slowly) earned gold away ;-)

If you had done as I stated above and done a 20% across the board increase to gems per dollar spent in real money, that would increase real money sales, right? No negative side effects, except those spending money may spend slightly less because they get more.

Reducing the cost of bags and bank slots is not going to make someone who doesn’t spend real money on the game go out and spend money on the game. And it doesn’t convince someone who regularly spends money on gem shop items to buy more gems (at least not significantly).

The flip side of this is, the greatly inflated conversion rate will now likely convince real money spenders that converting Gems to Gold is worth it, and that will boost gem sales.

Not saying its a bad move or the wrong move or any of that. Just pointing out that this move, done in this way, does the most harm to those that bought the game and don’t buy gems with real money. It is not skin off my nose, I don’t, as you pointed out, really need more bag space.

my biggest problem is… I max out my bank and bag slots long time ago……… lol
wish i can actually buy more bank slots…

Rennoko.5731:

If you had done as I stated above and done a 20% across the board increase to gems per dollar spent in real money, that would increase real money sales, right? No negative side effects, except those spending money may spend slightly less because they get more.
… /snip

This kind of discount has been discussed before.

In summary, it has to be realized that there are three exchanges in place – Cash to Gems (C/M), Gold to Gems (G/M) and Gems to Gold(M/G). By offering a discount in C/M, would create an opportunity in the M/G market as you now get even more gold for your cash, in turn, affecting the G/M rate.

Having a fixed C/M rate, in addition to a spread between the G/M and M/G markets are easy ways to avoid having to actively prevent any kind of arbitrage between the markets.

nicbet.1820:

Holy kitten!

I was trying to buy 320 Gems with gold, but I couldn’t even keep up with the market, one second it’s 6 Gold 73 Silver for 320, and 5 seconds later it’s already gone up to 7 gold 21 silver.

This kind of kitten is exactly the final nail in the coffin for me when it comes to the GW2’s market and inflation.

It’s not inflation – the gem market and the game economy are completely separate. The market is driven by how many people convert gems > gold and vice versa. I still strongly believe that the BL gem conversion is NOWHERE near what it should be – people are not converting gold to gems not because they find items too expensive (with the exception of consumables which are currently a rip-off both money and gold wise), but because they have nothing they want to buy. When they add things that have actual demand, I still expect your 320 gems to cost 20+ gold. Yes, I expect good cosmetic items to cost the same as cultural armor, as I think the amount of gold in the economy to easily support that.

That said, until the Gem market is in a good state, you’re riding a wave of super cheap Gold > Gem conversions, and such a low value makes it extra volatile. When certain more static but low demand items, such as character slots or storage bags, go on sale, the market will spike hard. Things like these items are “could use, but I can wait”… but when it goes on sale, that “could use” becomes, “I could use that, and better get it before it goes back to full price”. It shot up 30% last time they had the character slot sale. These bumps will be flattened out a lot more with what as I see as a “proper value” gem market as the “buy now” urges will be changed from “everyone can afford” with a few quick dungeon runs to an actual economic question of farming that takes effort or purchasing with real money… and thus people couldn’t afford to spike it.

What? two similar thread? This is what I posted in the other.

LOL, and it happend again.

600 Gems for bank slot (Gold to 100 Gems BEFORE 1.95G ave.) – 11.7G

480 Gems for bank slot (Gold to 100 Gems NOW 2.32G ave.) – 11.1G

Yes I saved 0.6G! Computer syas NO to 20% OFF SALE.

Another manipulation fiasco.

Death Reincarnated.3570:

What? two similar thread? This is what I posted in the other.

LOL, and it happend again.

600 Gems for bank slot (Gold to 100 Gems BEFORE 1.95G ave.) – 11.7G

480 Gems for bank slot (Gold to 100 Gems NOW 2.32G ave.) – 11.1G

Yes I saved 0.6G! Computer syas NO to 20% OFF SALE.

Another manipulation fiasco.

600 Gems for bank slot = $7.50
480 Gems for bank slot = $6.00

Savings of $1.50! Math says YES to 20% off sale

Cash to Gems is a fixed rate, Gold to Gems is a floating rate. A 20% discount was offered off the gem price of items.

No where did ANet offer a 20% discount to the Gold to Gems rate.

I love this! Now I’m getting much more Gold when I convert my Gems. Thanks guys!

And this is why you stock up on gems when there’s no sale going on, instead of buying gems when the sale actually happens!

Sales/new items will pop up eventually. This is almost a certainty. Just buy low and keep until you see a sale/new item you like so you can avoid that spike that most likely will happen.

@Mourningcry.9428 I was looking at the TP, your example was based on using real currency…it’s like comparing apples with oranges

Death Reincarnated.3570:

@Mourningcry.9428 I was looking at the TP, your example was based on using real currency…it’s like comparing apples with oranges

Apples and Oranges are the same, since they’re both fruit. I don’t understand where you’re going with this.

Death Reincarnated.3570:

@Mourningcry.9428 I was looking at the TP, your example was based on using real currency…it’s like comparing apples with oranges

I replied to your party in the other thread:

“The sale was on the price of two items in the gem store. These items are priced in gems. A 20% discount to the price was applied.

Trying to claim a 20% discount in the price of an item in gems should equate to a 20% discount in the floating exchange rate of gold to gems is nonsensical."

Wake up guys!!! Stop with the “another fiasco” “oh manipulation” you only buy if you want and thank Anet for given us the possibility of buying things with in-game currency and not only with Real money.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Death Reincarnated.3570:

@Mourningcry.9428 I was looking at the TP, your example was based on using real currency…it’s like comparing apples with oranges

Apples and Oranges are the same, since they’re both fruit. I don’t understand where you’re going with this.

Do you know what ‘Comparing apples with oranges’ means in the general sense?

Also, have you ever seen an item in real life cost say $100 before the sale, and during a 20% OFF sale it costs $90? This is very similar, however the onyl thing that differs is that ANet predicts that the price of gems will go up and hence in the end it is not a 20% OFF sale, but much less. It is a marketing gimmick.

Death Reincarnated.3570:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Death Reincarnated.3570:

@Mourningcry.9428 I was looking at the TP, your example was based on using real currency…it’s like comparing apples with oranges

Apples and Oranges are the same, since they’re both fruit. I don’t understand where you’re going with this.

Do you know what ‘Comparing apples with oranges’ means in the general sense?

Also, have you ever seen an item in real life cost say $100 before the sale, and during a 20% OFF sale it costs $90? This is very similar, however the onyl thing that differs is that ANet predicts that the price of gems will go up and hence in the end it is not a 20% OFF sale, but much less. It is a marketing gimmick.

Uh.

But it is a 20% sale. It costs less gems. Hence it costs less real world money to buy the bank slots. 400gems is like what $5? It’s now 320 gems, which is what, $4? So it is a 20% sale.

It is also a 20% sale for people who bought gems with gold before the spike. I’m somewhat confused what you’re trying to say.

EDIT: Mourningcry has an excellent explanation of it in the other thread.

Death Reincarnated.3570:

Also, have you ever seen an item in real life cost say $100 before the sale, and during a 20% OFF sale it costs $90? This is very similar, however the onyl thing that differs is that ANet predicts that the price of gems will go up and hence in the end it is not a 20% OFF sale, but much less. It is a marketing gimmick.

Hi again. Not going to paste the same reply here as in the other thread.

I would just like to add that the nuance you’re missing is that you’re really trying to equate a price discount with an exchange rate.

Since you can’t buy the sale items directly with either gold or cash, you need to exchange them for the currency of the item, Gems. It’s the increase in the gold to gem exchange rate that is short cutting the price discount.

If this is unclear, I can try to explain it better. There really is no trickery going on here.

I have 100g in the bank, but this sale prompted me to spend $20 on gems, which is the first time i’ve spent any $ on this game since i purchased it. As far as i’m concerned, I’ve saved about $70 over the last 6 months compared to a traditional sub based MMO.

Death Reincarnated.3570:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Death Reincarnated.3570:

@Mourningcry.9428 I was looking at the TP, your example was based on using real currency…it’s like comparing apples with oranges

Apples and Oranges are the same, since they’re both fruit. I don’t understand where you’re going with this.

Do you know what ‘Comparing apples with oranges’ means in the general sense?

Also, have you ever seen an item in real life cost say $100 before the sale, and during a 20% OFF sale it costs $90? This is very similar, however the onyl thing that differs is that ANet predicts that the price of gems will go up and hence in the end it is not a 20% OFF sale, but much less. It is a marketing gimmick.

So why is it that it cost me 20% less when I used my Gems? I still don’t understand your fruit reference. Did you have to sell apples and oranges in real life in order to be able to afford the cost of buying Gems? If so, I applaud your entrepreneurship in owning a fruit stand.

lekyii.9856:

Wake up guys!!! Stop with the “another fiasco” “oh manipulation” you only buy if you want and thank Anet for given us the possibility of buying things with in-game currency and not only with Real money.

BASICALLY THIS….. THX ANET…

Creating demand for gems increases revenue and siphons gold out of the system.

Quite genius if you ask me.

I’m thinking people who buy gems with gold during quiet moments did quite well for themselves when the sale was revealed, while people who either were the stampede or came after the stampede did poorly.

Something to consider for the future.

I personally just gave ANet a couple of bucks by way of ‘thank you’ for an entertaining pastime and then used those gems to buy bag slots on the cheap for my characters at or near level 80. Worked out great for me.