Except gold has no direct value to ANet. Paying for a Gem Shop item with gold doesn’t help ANet meet payroll. And since you aren’t paying them in a currency ANet can use to make payroll, you are getting that item for free.
It’s not that hard of a concept.
It does though. The gems on the exchange aren’t magiced up out of thin air. Each and every gem you’ve ever purchased with gold began life when someone whipped out a credit card and put it there.
The echange didn’t being life with a stock of gems. It began life with a finite stock of gold.
In fact, the supply of gems in the exchange is what affects the gold price of gems. When you buy a gem item with gold, Anet is making the same amount of money they would have made if someone bought it directly with cash shopped gems, and in fact, that money was already made before you even bought the item, the moment the original purchaser of those gems completed their transaction.
Your ability to buy gem items with gold is absolutely of value to Anet, because it encourages people to buy gems so they can sell them to you. Thus, your ability to reliably make and spend gold is of value to them because for that transaction to be attractive to the gem-buyer it has to be reasonably affordable in terms of the time and difficulty required to gain the gold to buy them.
Yes I know how the exchange works, made and posted diagrams over two years ago on the working of the exchange and have argued with players thinking gems or gold are created by the exchange ever since.
My treatise is simple. You did not spend cash, real currency to acquire that item. Therefore you got that item for free, as in no real world currency spent. Yes it took you time to acquire enough in game money to trade for that item but it cost you zero real world currency, therefore free.
You could argue that someone else bought that item for you, indirectly buy selling gems that they bought with cash. But once bought, gems have no real world value since it’s a one way transaction. And if gems have no real world value then the gold you used to buy them have no value either.
Gems, and by extension, gold, have value specifically because of the nature of gem purchases. I bought a new coffee maker last week with a gift card. I can’t return it to the store for store credit any more, and I didn’t personally pay the retailer for it in US dollars. That doesn’t mean it has lost its value. I can still sell it to someone for US dollars if I want, and I could use those dollars to either buy a different coffee maker from the same retailer, or buy another gift card.
Or, I could keep it, and use it to make coffee.
Or I could sell the coffee maker for USD, use that USD to buy gems, and use the gems to buy gold.
My coffee maker is worth, at the time of this post, 365 gold, 30 silver
Just because anet doesn’t accept coffee makers as a method of payment doesn’t change the fact that my coffee maker is worth a very specific amount of gold, and with a little currency exchange and a willing buyer I could turn said coffee maker in to gold.
Furthermore, just because I can’t exchange gold directly for a coffee maker doesn’t change the fact that 1 gold is worth ~0.00273747604 coffee makers
(edited by PopeUrban.2578)
People really need to give up this Time = Gold = Free falsehood. It is ridiculous…
Hey, I have some work that needs doing. Anyone want to do it? You will only use up your time, so of course I will pay you nothing.
If you think time isn’t of any value then you’re a very unintelligent person.
Time and convenience is always worth a value subjectively based upon what that person assigns to it as a value.
People really need to give up this Time = Gold = Free falsehood. It is ridiculous…
Hey, I have some work that needs doing. Anyone want to do it? You will only use up your time, so of course I will pay you nothing.
If you think time isn’t of any value then you’re a very unintelligent person.
Time and convenience is always worth a value subjectively based upon what that person assigns to it as a value.
You are preaching to the choir, son.
People also need to stop saying “pay to win.” If you’ve ever played a game where there is a cash shop item that allows you to 2 shot other players while everyone else is running around doing almost no damage because they didn’t buy the 200$ BFG, THAT is pay to win. Getting more bag space or fancier gear that DOESN’T give you any actual advantage in pve, pvp or wvw (i.e ANY ASPECT OF THE GAME) is NOT pay to win. over all, people need to stop throwing around terms that they have no real clue as to what they mean.
People also need to quit doing this weird guilt-tripping/manipulation stuff.
“It’s Pay to win!” and “You’d make more money in the long run if you just charged less money (or made things free) now!” are 2 sides of the same, silly coin.
I’ll make it simple for people.
At launch, 100 gems cost 20 silver.
Now, 100 gems is I believe around 15 gold. So a 75x fold increase.
Additionally, many of the easy gold farming exploits have been removed (heavy, repeated CoF1 for example) while many of the new items being added with each update are account or soul bound and/or not tradeable or sellable.
Most of the inflation is caused by the addition of new skins, new vanity items, toys and whatnot. I have no problem with those costing gems, as that’s kind of what the gemstore and the “end game” of GW2 was supposed to be anyways.
What is a problem is simple quality of life improvements that newer players, unless they’re willing to break out a credit card, will never be able to realistically achieve in game. This is a distinct advantage that some players got either by cheap conversion rate or massive gold farming that newer players can never achieve. Which should be against GW2 design philosophy of not allowing players purchaseable superiority.
I recognize that its not a HUGE difference in competitive play, but it is a distinct QoL issue that detracts from GW2’s theme of a fair and balanced playing field.
tl;dr cosmetic or convenience items in the gemstore should be done as is, actual improvement items such as bank tabs, bag tabs, storage expanders and such should either be made available as a gold sink, or adjust the gem cost for inflation on the gold-gem conversion ratio. A good time for such a change might be the HoT release, which is sure to bring a slew of new items, which I’m sure will all be account bound and needed somewhere down the line as a gigantic scavenger hunt.
Incidentally, the lack of easily purchaseable storage combined with account binding and “holdover” items needed for future scavenger hunts (example: the unlimited continue coin from SAB) is what causes many gamers to be prospects for hoarders-style reality shows.
@Kaleban
You realize that at launch most people only had a few copper or at most a silver or two? 20 silver for me was way out of my reach back then. I don’t remember how long it was before I got my very first gold, but it was quite some time. It took about as long to get my second gold.
The two situations are not comparable because the amount people were making at start was way below the amount now.
I’ll make it simple for people.
At launch, 100 gems cost 20 silver.
Now, 100 gems is I believe around 15 gold. So a 75x fold increase.
I’ll make it simpler for people.
At launch, 100 gems cost $1.25.
Now, 100 gems cost $1.25.
And it’s 13.33g according to the API, not 15g.
The exchange rate is set by our own habits of buying gems with gold and selling gems for gold. You can’t buy gems with coin if you don’t have any which is why it was only 30s at launch. As more gold entered the game, the more it was spent at the exchange and the more the rate increased to reflect the remaining gems relative to the gold in the exchange.
Now over the last week the exchange rate bounced between 11.83g and 14.55g per 100 which shows how the rate moves with the flow of gold into and out of the exchange since if more flows in than out, the rate rises and if more flows out than in, the rate drops. This is the current equilibrium. If at midnight PST they bring back say bunny ears, I would expect the rate to surge on the gold being converted due to pent up demand for bunny ears (if the gem shop suggestion thread is any indication). On the other hand if they put say boosters on sale I wouldn’t expect much movement at all.
And since the exchange acts as a double gold sink, both coming and going, it too is a significant sink in the game, probably 2nd to the TP itself, maybe 3rd after way points. All because I can trade my game gold for gems so I can buy items at the shop for FREE!
:p
(edited by Behellagh.1468)
I’ll make it simple for people.
At launch, 100 gems cost 20 silver.
Now, 100 gems is I believe around 15 gold. So a 75x fold increase.
Additionally, many of the easy gold farming exploits have been removed (heavy, repeated CoF1 for example) while many of the new items being added with each update are account or soul bound and/or not tradeable or sellable.
Most of the inflation is caused by the addition of new skins, new vanity items, toys and whatnot. I have no problem with those costing gems, as that’s kind of what the gemstore and the “end game” of GW2 was supposed to be anyways.
What is a problem is simple quality of life improvements that newer players, unless they’re willing to break out a credit card, will never be able to realistically achieve in game. This is a distinct advantage that some players got either by cheap conversion rate or massive gold farming that newer players can never achieve. Which should be against GW2 design philosophy of not allowing players purchaseable superiority.
I recognize that its not a HUGE difference in competitive play, but it is a distinct QoL issue that detracts from GW2’s theme of a fair and balanced playing field.
tl;dr cosmetic or convenience items in the gemstore should be done as is, actual improvement items such as bank tabs, bag tabs, storage expanders and such should either be made available as a gold sink, or adjust the gem cost for inflation on the gold-gem conversion ratio. A good time for such a change might be the HoT release, which is sure to bring a slew of new items, which I’m sure will all be account bound and needed somewhere down the line as a gigantic scavenger hunt.
Incidentally, the lack of easily purchaseable storage combined with account binding and “holdover” items needed for future scavenger hunts (example: the unlimited continue coin from SAB) is what causes many gamers to be prospects for hoarders-style reality shows.
A new account is able to open the first achievement chest at around lv10, contains 1 gold. You can have roughly 5 gold when reaching lv20. This is an actual experience on my 2nd acc.
I remember my first toon, i gathered around 4gold upon reaching lv80. So it is so much easier to gain gold even new players.
What is a problem is simple quality of life improvements that newer players, unless they’re willing to break out a credit card, will never be able to realistically achieve in game.
now I’m able to make 10G an hour. When the game was new that was impossible money. Money is so much easier to make now and there’s more of it circulating, meaning that more people spend more money on purchases that were worthless at the start (for example silk and linen).
So no, you’re realistically able to achieve these improvements in game.
to a point you can consistently buy bag space with gold (up to getting decked out with 20 slot bags), also saying inb4 does not invalidate what you say afterwards, even though it is less consistent you can buy extra bag slots and bank space with gold via currency conversion to gems
What is a problem is simple quality of life improvements that newer players, unless they’re willing to break out a credit card, will never be able to realistically achieve in game.
now I’m able to make 10G an hour. When the game was new that was impossible money. Money is so much easier to make now and there’s more of it circulating, meaning that more people spend more money on purchases that were worthless at the start (for example silk and linen).
So no, you’re realistically able to achieve these improvements in game.
How do you make 10 gold an hour? You said earlier you did it mining platinum. Are you using the actual pay-to-win item, the sprocket mining tool?
How do you make 10 gold an hour? You said earlier you did it mining platinum. Are you using the actual pay-to-win item, the sprocket mining tool?
pay to win? What? 1000 gems is aprox 150 gold or so. You would not go trough enough picks in your lifetime to justify getting that one. It’s a poor investment if you ask me.
Platinum, iron, mature herbs for a chance of peppers and appropriate trees. Fastest fi you have many alts, locate the rich nodes and just do it that way. Maps reset every 30 minutes to an hour and there’s plenty of maps to rotate trough.
I’m mostly using the wintersday free tools boxes (got over 200 just stacked up), however even if I was using orrichalcum picks, it’s still profit.
The ‘time and gold are free’ argument is just so kitten ridiculous, that I see no need to argue it in depth. It is patently obvious that it is wrong. If gold was free, then gems would be free. And if time meant nothing, then why do people pay real money to make up for it?
See, there you go, going to the absolute furthest leap ahead of any sort of logic and making your counter argument look absurd. “If gold is free, gems are free” is just . . . no. You knew better before you typed it, because you’re more intelligent than that.
And time means different things to different people for different uses of the time. Time spent with my buddies playing several games of Magic is different than time spent mowing the lawn, or scrubbing pots, or painting my minature collection.
Even in the game, time spent with guildmates doing something enjoyable or chattering while sitting in LA or DR is different than hoping the RNGod smiles on me and bestows unto me Dawn or Twilight.
(And not the thrice-darned book…)
Time has no universal absolute value which can be put on it, aside from “one minute is sixty seconds”.
How do you make 10 gold an hour? You said earlier you did it mining platinum. Are you using the actual pay-to-win item, the sprocket mining tool?
pay to win? What? 1000 gems is aprox 150 gold or so. You would not go trough enough picks in your lifetime to justify getting that one. It’s a poor investment if you ask me.
Platinum, iron, mature herbs for a chance of peppers and appropriate trees. Fastest fi you have many alts, locate the rich nodes and just do it that way. Maps reset every 30 minutes to an hour and there’s plenty of maps to rotate trough.
I’m mostly using the wintersday free tools boxes (got over 200 just stacked up), however even if I was using orrichalcum picks, it’s still profit.
Ok, sure. But how 10 gold an hour? Does that actually add to 10 gold? I might have to send my brother out harvesting…
Ok, sure. But how 10 gold an hour? Does that actually add to 10 gold? I might have to send my brother out harvesting…
it does. Super boring way, but it does work. Peppers are 25 silver alone if you find them, if you lick a map clean it’s around 5 gold per map. Just finding rich nodes and porting alts is the fastest way, but if you have a speed build (perma swiiftness or +20% speed abilities) you can clear maps quite fast. Friendly tip, on maps like Blazeridge Stepes purple areas usually have nothing, so you run up, clean the top of the map and run down by zigzagging a bit.
If you want less boring ways, then just remember that everything makes money. Spvping makes money though it never used to, dungeons can provide a good average income, especially knowing that you can buy exotics with tokens, salvage and sell globs of ectos. Oh and flippers of the stable markets probably make more money than me. Stable markets include items where supply and demand is huge and where you can only see profit if you buy thousands out. There are such items in cloth and cooking ingredients. Not my thing though, so I don’t flip.
Anything RNG based (for example loot in Silverwastes) has a greater income potential, but unlike gathering, it’s not guaranteed.
I am betting it is a rather small part of their income. Their 1% whales would have bought most of theirs by now, and new players were scared off by the horrible NPE. Their weekly sales and new flavours are what make them their money.
Yeah, except for the fact that the vast majority of the people shouting about the “horrible NPE” are veteran players that knew how the system was before, thus had something to compare to.
Based on actual in-game experience however I see plenty of new people running around.And yes, their weekly sales do indeed make them money. But it is also rather silly to claim that they make no money off bank and bag slots.
You also still refuse to come up with what they should add to the store instead in order to replace the loss of income from removing the gem cost of bank and bag slots.
NPE is awful. They even admit that by removing the new trait system in HOT.
I am betting it is a rather small part of their income. Their 1% whales would have bought most of theirs by now, and new players were scared off by the horrible NPE. Their weekly sales and new flavours are what make them their money.
Yeah, except for the fact that the vast majority of the people shouting about the “horrible NPE” are veteran players that knew how the system was before, thus had something to compare to.
Based on actual in-game experience however I see plenty of new people running around.And yes, their weekly sales do indeed make them money. But it is also rather silly to claim that they make no money off bank and bag slots.
You also still refuse to come up with what they should add to the store instead in order to replace the loss of income from removing the gem cost of bank and bag slots.
NPE is awful. They even admit that by removing the new trait system in HOT.
Cool that trait system change was 6 months before NPE.
I wouldn’t know I didn’t play this game for a year and a half because they forgot it was a MMO and didn’t add content.
I wouldn’t know I didn’t play this game for a year and a half because they forgot it was a MMO and didn’t add content.
Ah yes, the “I don’t know what I am talking about but I am right” argument.
Huh? I had nothing to be wrong or right about. I just said they’re removing the having to do stuff to unlock traits system in HOT.
How do you make 10 gold an hour? You said earlier you did it mining platinum. Are you using the actual pay-to-win item, the sprocket mining tool?
Actually this wording makes me think you really want to provoke. It should be clear by now even to you, that “winning” is only a useful term in the context of a competition, otherwise there is nothing to win – or lose. Farming resource nodes is in no way a competition, everybody has their own nodes anyway and there is nothing you lose if you only use the NPC resource tools. One could say on the contrary you will save money this way, as the BL tools are extremely expensive and the added value is minor.
The thing with your notion of pay-to-win is that by using the term in such an inflationary and unappropriate manner you are desensitizing people for the real meaning of it. So I kindly ask that we all please reserve such terms for situations where they are appropriate and may point to a real problem.
Huh? I had nothing to be wrong or right about. I just said they’re removing the having to do stuff to unlock traits system in HOT.
As an argument for the NPE being bad. Which is silly (and incorrect) seeing as the trait change had a grand total of nothing at all to do with the NPE.
Huh? I had nothing to be wrong or right about. I just said they’re removing the having to do stuff to unlock traits system in HOT.
As an argument for the NPE being bad. Which is silly (and incorrect) seeing as the trait change had a grand total of nothing at all to do with the NPE.
the npe and traits were basically part of the same system they created for china to change how NEW players experience the game.
the fact that traits changes only effected NEW PLAYERS is one of the key ways you can realize they are part of an overall system to change how new players progress.
now, you can say it was called something different, but if you take a look at what the words new player experience means, you would see they are part of the same game system.
If the trait change wasnt meant to alter the way new charachters are played, and their progression, they would not have altered anything other than the new special traits in the game.
So if you enjoy manual labour then it is considered free?
Some people do enjoy manual labor and helping others pro bono. In fact, you may have heard of such people. We call them volunteers here in the US…..
Currently having to buy ~1000 gold worth of gems to max bank tabs and ONE character’s bag slots is ridiculous.
Look at what you said: to max the bank tabs. I don’t think that’s so ridiculous. However, I do agree that a single character’s bag slot is way over-priced. That’s why I just don’t buy them. Ultimately it boils down to demand. If no one buys bank slots ArenaNet will lower their prices. As long as players continue to buy them ArenaNet has every incentive to keep prices as they are. They’re not running a charity, after all.
so i bought this game comming from a f2p type MMO with the expectation that i would not NEED so spend RL money on it .. as in CS items .. but yet by lvl 70 i only have 5 gold … why on earth would a bought game act as a free to play game ? (and yes i get it * to make money*) but this is no excuse !!
so i bought this game comming from a f2p type MMO with the expectation that i would not NEED so spend RL money on it .. as in CS items .. but yet by lvl 70 i only have 5 gold … why on earth would a bought game act as a free to play game ? (and yes i get it * to make money*) but this is no excuse !!
do you gather? Do you salvage blues and greens or do you vendor them? What do you do with the materials that you gained? Do you do dungeons? What do you do for money?
I have never needed to spend RL money on this game. It depends on how you play. Remember that gold value is low, because there’s pretty much no vertical progression, meaning that the only thing it will be used for will be cosmetics.
And yes, it is an excuse. Unless you think that you don’t need to pay the developers monthly or keep the servers running. You can make and run a charity MMO yourself if you want though.
so i bought this game comming from a f2p type MMO with the expectation that i would not NEED so spend RL money on it .. as in CS items .. but yet by lvl 70 i only have 5 gold … why on earth would a bought game act as a free to play game ? (and yes i get it * to make money*) but this is no excuse !!
In GW2 you don’t just make money while leveling up. You only really start to earn money when you hit level cap. As someone who has had over 2000g at one point without ever buying gems to convert to gold I can tell you it is easy enough to do if you really want that money.
Now if you want lots of gold but don’t want to have to do what it takes to earn, well that’s where gem purchases come in.
It boils down to whether you simply would rather spend RL money to save you the trouble of earning it game, or if you don’t mind doing dungeon running, selling mats, etc.
To put into perspective: That 5g that has taken you 70 levels to gather I can make in under 30min. So, there really is no problem.
so i bought this game comming from a f2p type MMO with the expectation that i would not NEED so spend RL money on it .. as in CS items .. but yet by lvl 70 i only have 5 gold … why on earth would a bought game act as a free to play game ? (and yes i get it * to make money*) but this is no excuse !!
You do not NEED additional bank or bag space. It is fully possible to play the game without them.
I haven’t unlocked more bag slots on my second char. I just made mithrill boxes and use those.
Bags aren’t mandatory, the only benefit they have is slowing the rate at which you sell/destroy items.
so i bought this game comming from a f2p type MMO with the expectation that i would not NEED so spend RL money on it .. as in CS items .. but yet by lvl 70 i only have 5 gold … why on earth would a bought game act as a free to play game ? (and yes i get it * to make money*) but this is no excuse !!
You do not NEED additional bank or bag space. It is fully possible to play the game without them.
You do not NEED armour. It is fully possible to play the game without it.
I am betting it is a rather small part of their income. Their 1% whales would have bought most of theirs by now, and new players were scared off by the horrible NPE. Their weekly sales and new flavours are what make them their money.
Yeah, except for the fact that the vast majority of the people shouting about the “horrible NPE” are veteran players that knew how the system was before, thus had something to compare to.
Based on actual in-game experience however I see plenty of new people running around.And yes, their weekly sales do indeed make them money. But it is also rather silly to claim that they make no money off bank and bag slots.
You also still refuse to come up with what they should add to the store instead in order to replace the loss of income from removing the gem cost of bank and bag slots.
NPE is awful. They even admit that by removing the new trait system in HOT.
Cool that trait system change was 6 months before NPE.
It was targeted at new players, and Colin mentions it as the main thing for improvement in his NPE blog.
You do not NEED armour. It is fully possible to play the game without it.
Indeed, I have personally killed Tequatl with everyone using nothing except weapons.
You do not NEED armour. It is fully possible to play the game without it.
Indeed, I have personally killed Tequatl with everyone using nothing except weapons.
Naked Tequatl runs ftw.
so i bought this game comming from a f2p type MMO with the expectation that i would not NEED so spend RL money on it .. as in CS items .. but yet by lvl 70 i only have 5 gold … why on earth would a bought game act as a free to play game ? (and yes i get it * to make money*) but this is no excuse !!
Please name one thing on the gemstore that is NEEDED (and only obtained with gems) to play this game effectively.
You do not NEED armour. It is fully possible to play the game without it.
Correct. And additionally you will gain access to new armor by playing (and you can do most PvE-content in this game in blues which are not even your level).
And just like that you will gather ingame gold, that you can eventually use to convert it to gems to buy bank space. So you can improve your account by playing the game WITHOUT SPENDING ANY CENT OF REAL MONEY after you purchased the box. Which is exactly as advertised.
Where is the problem again?
I’ve managed to play all this time without extra bag slots on my chars and never noticed a problem. Salvaging and sending the mats to the bank is a wonderful thing.
Maybe I don’t make as much gold as some, only 10 to 20 max gold per play period but it’s plenty to buy gems on a regular basis. Every day I put half of my gold earned in my personal guild bank and when it gets to 100 gold, I buy gems.
(edited by Astral Projections.7320)
^ Which is a form of pay-to-win. Having to go sell loot less often gives an advantage, and newer players have to pay physical cash to do it.
For a very narrow minded definition of winning, perhaps.
In practise: Bank space is a convenience feature that wont “win” anything for anybody.
Bank space is not required for anything but your own convenience, and its the de facto standard for good sub free MMOs to sell convenience to make money, as opposed to bad f2p MMOs that will sell power or outright sell content to make money.
^ Which is a form of pay-to-win. Having to go sell loot less often gives an advantage, and newer players have to pay physical cash to do it.
For a very narrow minded definition of winning, perhaps.
In practise: Bank space is a convenience feature that wont “win” anything for anybody.
Bank space is not required for anything but your own convenience, and its the de facto standard for good sub free MMOs to sell convenience to make money, as opposed to bad f2p MMOs that will sell power or outright sell content to make money.
You just can’t win an argument with these “pay to win” people who twist and stretch the definition out of its true meaning to cover their every complaint. They are immune to logic.
I had a long discussion with a guy who insisted that Guild Wars 2 was pay to win because you can buy cosmetic armor and weapons from the gem store and that those who did so were winning.
(edited by Astral Projections.7320)
^ Which is a form of pay-to-win. Having to go sell loot less often gives an advantage, and newer players have to pay physical cash to do it.
For a very narrow minded definition of winning, perhaps.
In practise: Bank space is a convenience feature that wont “win” anything for anybody.
Bank space is not required for anything but your own convenience, and its the de facto standard for good sub free MMOs to sell convenience to make money, as opposed to bad f2p MMOs that will sell power or outright sell content to make money.
You just can’t win an argument with these “pay to win” people who twist and stretch the definition out of its true meaning to cover their every complaint. They are immune to logic.
I had a long discussion with a guy who insisted that Guild Wars 2 was pay to win because you can buy cosmetic armor and weapons from the gem store and that those who did so were winning.
Apart from the outright lie that new players have to pay physical cash in order to sell loot less often…
The original complaint is about bag/bank space being available for gems. The OP believes that gold should be the currency used to unlock slots. Since gold can be used to unlock slots currently, the real complaint is the OP’s desire for a fixed price for slots that starts small and escalates the more you buy. He states that in the OP.
Under the current system, slot costs are static in gems (barring a sale). However, the gold cost trends upwards over time. This is so because, in the long term, more gold is being exchanged for gems than gems for gold.
Complaints are certainly part of a consumer’s toolkit in attempting to change a company’s mind over how it prices its products. However, in an online game, complaints only go so far. The value to the business in keeping an individual customer happy matters less than it does in say, retail. This is especially so because the customers who want this change are part of a demographic that prefers not to spend money. There’s very little upside for ANet in making storage a gold-only commodity. The downside is loss of revenue from the gem sales.
The original complaint is about bag/bank space being available for gems. The OP believes that gold should be the currency used to unlock slots. Since gold can be used to unlock slots currently, the real complaint is the OP’s desire for a fixed price for slots that starts small and escalates the more you buy. He states that in the OP.
Under the current system, slot costs are static in gems (barring a sale). However, the gold cost trends upwards over time. This is so because, in the long term, more gold is being exchanged for gems than gems for gold.
Complaints are certainly part of a consumer’s toolkit in attempting to change a company’s mind over how it prices its products. However, in an online game, complaints only go so far. The value to the business in keeping an individual customer happy matters less than it does in say, retail. This is especially so because the customers who want this change are part of a demographic that prefers not to spend money. There’s very little upside for ANet in making storage a gold-only commodity. The downside is loss of revenue from the gem sales.
Well said.
Why should ANet do what OP and some others ask when, since these people don’t spend much or any real world money, they aren’t customers of the gem store that’s of primary importance. It’s one thing to reward loyal customers. It’s another to cater to someone who doesn’t spend money at your place yet wants you to give them stuff free (as in no real world money spent for it) and have yet to make a counter offer to offset losses and interest ANet in doing what they want.
(edited by Astral Projections.7320)
so i bought this game comming from a f2p type MMO with the expectation that i would not NEED so spend RL money on it .. as in CS items .. but yet by lvl 70 i only have 5 gold … why on earth would a bought game act as a free to play game ? (and yes i get it * to make money*) but this is no excuse !!
You can make gold quite fast doing a large number of things in the game. While WvW and sPvP aren’t huge gold-makers, there’s dungeons, Fractals (to an extent), gathering, crafting, world completion (the bonuses for completing a map), random loot, world bosses, jumping puzzles…
You get it. It’s all about how smart you are with your loot. Know what to sell and what to salvage, and learn which runes are sought after and which ones are vendor trash.
For topic, though, I dunno if it’s already been said, but you can already buy gems with gold to get the slots for bags/bank.
so i bought this game comming from a f2p type MMO with the expectation that i would not NEED so spend RL money on it .. as in CS items .. but yet by lvl 70 i only have 5 gold … why on earth would a bought game act as a free to play game ? (and yes i get it * to make money*) but this is no excuse !!
At level 70 and just starting out, you won’t have much gold. That’s probably more than I had with my first level 70. It took me a really long time to get my first gold, so long that my first gold was a WOW moment (oooohh, a gold, so shiny).
It’s after you hit level 80 and the game really opens up for you that you start making gold. Depending on what you like to do, there’s farming, dungeons and trading post flipping as the main ways. Currently the Silverwastes is a good way to make gold, but it’s a level 80 area.
You do not NEED armour. It is fully possible to play the game without it.
Indeed, I have personally killed Tequatl with everyone using nothing except weapons.
That’s Nothing! I wore no armor and used a slingshot to kill Tequatl. True story!
Also, we’re on page 8, and no one has been able to prove that having extra bags is not an advantage to not having bags, you know…other than “I can play the game without them!”
Well, yeah, seeing as you can do almost all of the content still, including dungeons, some fractals, and many Champions and world bosses, and do it solo while 360 no scoping on your longbow, you can play the game without an awful lot of things.
(Also, everyone should meet OP in the middle. Early Bag slots and Bank tabs should cost less gems (but not gold) to ease the pain on new players, but the Gem price should gradually increase, so Anet makes the same amount of money as the old system does. This way, if people really need that last bag slot and extra bank tabs, they can get them, and this way, if those people who are content with posting in every topic in existence with “Game’s fine, Stop whining and carry on!” they can still do so. Veteran players are still at an advantage as far as gold inflation is concerned, and new players can enjoy at least some of the things that many of us have taken for granted these last two and a half years.)
Chrispy, seriously, you can’t shift the burden of proof on this one.
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