Guild Wars 2

I can literally farm casually and still can convert gold to 700 gems and buy cool outfit on the store.

Anet should make a redline between real money and ingame money. Gold-Gem should be more strict. Otherwise how anet want to make money?

I think it’s supply/demand on how many players are putting gems up vs how many people are buying gems through the exchange.

Aka, it’s controlled by us.

Off all those that don’t wish to farm? Some players have more cash than time. Some, more time than cash.

I doubt raising the cost of Gem Store items would go over well. The exchange rate is set by the players. It’s probably fine, as is.

ANet makes money by people buying gems with real money and selling the gems to you to get gold.

So it’s players selling gems bought with money to other players who are buying those gems with gold that’s setting the prices, not ANet.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Off all those that don’t wish to farm? Some players have more cash than time. Some, more time than cash.

I doubt raising the cost of Gem Store items would go over well. The exchange rate is set by the players. It’s probably fine, as is.

anet can have your money and cant have your time. You having more time is not beneficial to anet

nerovergil.5408:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Off all those that don’t wish to farm? Some players have more cash than time. Some, more time than cash.

I doubt raising the cost of Gem Store items would go over well. The exchange rate is set by the players. It’s probably fine, as is.

anet can have your money and cant have your time. You having more time is not beneficial to anet

If you see gems in your wallet or gems on the exchange, then Anet’s already been paid. If you buy gems with gold, it doesn’t hurt Anet at all.

i think the rate is so low because people buy so many gems and convert them to gold

so Anet gets even more money than just with people buying outfits and that low exchange ratio shows that

nerovergil.5408:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Off all those that don’t wish to farm? Some players have more cash than time. Some, more time than cash.

I doubt raising the cost of Gem Store items would go over well. The exchange rate is set by the players. It’s probably fine, as is.

anet can have your money and cant have your time. You having more time is not beneficial to anet

You asked how ArenaNet would make money. I responded by saying some players have more cash (and thus purchase Gems) than time. I also stated that some players have more time (and use the exchange) than cash. Those players are beneficial to ArenaNet, as the more players in-game, the better. No one wants to play an MMO that has few players.

nerovergil.5408:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Off all those that don’t wish to farm? Some players have more cash than time. Some, more time than cash.

I doubt raising the cost of Gem Store items would go over well. The exchange rate is set by the players. It’s probably fine, as is.

anet can have your money and cant have your time. You having more time is not beneficial to anet

On the contrary; a lively community and a large number of people in support of a service makes businesses that much more successful.

League of Legends didn’t become so successful because it tried hard to monetize from its customers. It became successful for doing exactly the opposite, and prioritizing its community over all else at the early stages of its release.

The same is said about Amazon.

OP: what might not be clear is that the Gem Exchange does not create any gems. Every single gem bought with gold has originally been created when a player spent money. That player then sold those gems to the Gem Exchange in return for gold.

ANet needs both kinds of players. Those willing to sink time and those willing to sink money.

ANet gives both sets of players a means to obtain gem store items.

Me logging in and playing gives ANet a statistic they can take to their shareholders to say that people still play the game. That it’s worth them investing in.

You know, I’ve heard complaints about being ripped off, but it’s really rare to hear about the company not ripping off people.

ArchonWing.9480:

You know, I’ve heard complaints about being ripped off, but it’s really rare to hear about the company not ripping off people.

Not only that, but not ripping people off enough!

What?!

Some of the posts today have just left me scratching my head, this would be one.

ArchonWing.9480:

You know, I’ve heard complaints about being ripped off, but it’s really rare to hear about the company not ripping off people.

Lol yeah! Some posts on this forum makes you look twice – did (s)he actually write that!??

nerovergil.5408:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Off all those that don’t wish to farm? Some players have more cash than time. Some, more time than cash.

I doubt raising the cost of Gem Store items would go over well. The exchange rate is set by the players. It’s probably fine, as is.

anet can have your money and cant have your time. You having more time is not beneficial to anet

Someone is buying the gems regardless though. Its not like ANet is letting you trade in gold for gems that haven’t been bought yet

Every gem has been paid for by somebody on the exchange.

Harshly lowering the already bad exchange rates (when compared to gold bought from RTM sites) any further would probably remove any incentive people have to buy gold directly from ArenaNet.
The only things holding players back from using those sites right now are the fear of getting punished by the devs, the weird superstition that you will most certainly get hacked for even thinking about visiting those sites and most of all the ability to exchange gems for gold.

Henry.5713:

Harshly lowering the already bad exchange rates (when compared to gold bought from RTM sites) any further would probably remove any incentive people have to buy gold directly from ArenaNet.
The only things holding players back from using those sites right now are the fear of getting punished by the devs, the weird superstition that you will most certainly get hacked for even thinking about visiting those sites and most of all the ability to exchange gems for gold.

that problem can easily solved by banning the trade between players. like black desert online did

nerovergil.5408:

Henry.5713:

Harshly lowering the already bad exchange rates (when compared to gold bought from RTM sites) any further would probably remove any incentive people have to buy gold directly from ArenaNet.
The only things holding players back from using those sites right now are the fear of getting punished by the devs, the weird superstition that you will most certainly get hacked for even thinking about visiting those sites and most of all the ability to exchange gems for gold.

that problem can easily solved by banning the trade between players. like black desert online did

Easy solutions can have huge consequences.

Trade between players only happens through game messages right now. It already has a pretty low gold cap per week. They could completely remove the ability to send items and gold through messages, certainly.
The gold selling sites would then move to sending you gold through the TP. Simply having you set up a junk item for whichever amount of gold you bought with cash. ArenaNet could fight this by implementing set item prices on the TP. We would then have a system that is pretty close to BDO.
I do not even want to imagine the kitten storm that would happen. This goes against everything MMOs and the player driven, ever changing economies stand for.
A system which allows players to exchange gems for gold and vise versa freely is such an effective and smooth way to fight both RMT traders and a cash shop that can be seen as ‘pay to win’.
However, the prices should never be too greedy. This game is ‘buy2play’ in the end. Raising gem prices would hurt them heavily in the long run. A change like that to take the drive of the economy from the players and the simultaneous gem price rise would be seen as a huge kitten you to the players.
They are already fighting the gold inflation with the self-adjusting exchange rates. You will never be able to buy 1000 gems with one hour of grinding.

How long time does it take to farm enough so you can buy 700gems? I dunno becouse I do not farm.

But I do work … if I would buy gems from my salary I would be able to buy 800 gems each 30min. So I would rather work an extra hour than farm gold in the game.

EdgarMTanaka.7291:

How long time does it take to farm enough so you can buy 700gems? I dunno becouse I do not farm.

But I do work … if I would buy gems from my salary I would be able to buy 800 gems each 30min. So I would rather work an extra hour than farm gold in the game.

Yes its more healthy that way. Grinding is actually bad for health and life.. and its offer no benefits for the developer

Player based economy that rely on grinding was never a good idea. Trading between players in unnecessary. You want to give your friend a good items? why dont you just deposit money to his/her bank account?

Player based economy can easily be exploited by the gold farmer. that what kills the game

the reason you can get gems while farming casually is because there is a plenty of people out there who get gems and trade them into gold, thats why the exchange rate is relatively low at this moment

nerovergil.5408:

I can literally farm casually and still can convert gold to 700 gems and buy cool outfit on the store.

Anet should make a redline between real money and ingame money. Gold-Gem should be more strict. Otherwise how anet want to make money?

Oh, that’s simple. Every gem that a player bought for gold was a gem that another player bought first for real money and exchanged for gold.
Well, every gem besides a seeded amount that Anet placed in the pool at the start of that game, but that seed is long gone so we might as well ignore it.

So, in short, even if you buy gems for gold, Anet got paid in real money for them. They aren’t losing on this.

Anet will make a lot less money if people feel things are too overpriced. So, there’s that.

Anet will lose money if gems are too overpriced, also it is the players not Anet who decides how the rate is I believe and Anet needs both kinds of players, the players that spend real money to buy the gems and the players who exchange gold for gems. I do not see the problem with the way things are now, if its not broken don’t try to fix it and the op’s idea of an easy solution can have major consequences if it is implemented

The OP wishes to institute pay-to-win items in the Gem Store.

nerovergil.5408:

Legendaries gear that give super power. This is for the rich, and can only be used in pve and wvw. Any form of pay to win can only be used in wvw and pve. Not SPVP (thats why i like dota 2 ideas). I dont care to be weak in wvw, its fun to watch a rich friend that can pawn 1v10 in wvw, they support the game anyway.

OP has some …different… ideas on how an MMO and Gem Stores/TPs should be run.

I’m afraid I have to disagree with all the ideas offered so far. Sorry.

after re-reading what the op is talking about I now just see it as the OP wants to institute pay-to-win and that is just bad and again I am going to have to disagree, I have no wish/desire to have this game turn into pay to win

OP can always send me his money so i can buy the outfit basicly for free and OP can spent rl money to his. Both camps happy…..