Guild Wars 2

Celtic Lady.3729:

I make varying amounts of money in SW. It isn’t the exact same every time. I have to say, I’m kind of suspicious of people that name a figure and say they make this exact same amount every 1 hour or 2 hours or whatever no matter what.

It’s not exact. You CAN make 50g in 2 hours if you are lucky with drops. The amount earned varies. It can be more or less, but its always a good profit.

I’ve been repeating this over and over again. Was about time people started waking up.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet NCSoft’s strategy behind all of their titles = cash machines.

What do people want so much gold for? From the sound of it, people who claim they have little time to play wants to have just as much gold as the hardcore players. Which makes no sense if you are just playing the game instead of going for raids and high level fractals. Gold is not even a concern if this is the case, just play the game for enjoyment. If it’s not enjoyable for you then find something else lol

Galneryus.8372:

What do people want so much gold for? From the sound of it, people who claim they have little time to play wants to have just as much gold as the hardcore players. Which makes no sense if you are just playing the game instead of going for raids and high level fractals. Gold is not even a concern if this is the case, just play the game for enjoyment. If it’s not enjoyable for you then find something else lol

You missed the point entirely.

That not new and they are in this to make money like all game makers in fact this is more true in the gaming world then any others so… i think your kind of being silly.

If they removed all of these gold sources why do I have 250 more gold than I did when HoT launched? I’ve dropped a good 100+G on crafting materials for ascended gear as well in the last few days alone, but I keep going back to my previous levels from selling ectos and other materials from running HoT events, gathering, workd boss fights, etc. I’m not playing any differently than I did before.

Nick Lentz.6982:

really? does this not scream in everyone’s face about every nerf/grind this game has become? Or what direction anet is wanting it to go.. My heart, Its hanging on a thread.

I do love the new stuff, everything is beautiful. But even for me, its plan to see that sugar coating “making it harder, or nefing to fix our economy” Is really saying, We want you to buy our gems. Not make gold and buy our gems. hooray Korean Cash Cows!
This is really sad.

I presume you are referring to:

Your Gems… for Their Gold.

I don’t see what that has to do with grind or nerf or whatever. That’s how the currency exchange has operated since launch and that’s how ANet has promoted it:

Those with extra time can sell gold to those with extra dollars (or Euros or whatever).

Naturally, if you are short on both time and cash, you’ll find it harder…just as is the case in every other game.

tl;dr nothing new here.

I agree Arena Net has gone the unfortunate route of a greedy cash grab as every other corporation and the negative impact “freemium” cash shop type model has had on the gaming industry as a whole, but the community is also at fault.

Guild wars 2 is one of the only MMO communities i seen unable to adapt to economic nerfs in the game.

This community always chose to do the slowest way of making money. From mindless dung farming to mindless silverwaste farming, in your guys mind these slow slave grinds were considered the “fastest way” of making gold, when it was some of the slowest way to make gold.

Failure to adapt and learn to make real money from the trade post, craft and other methods, you guys just caved in and opened your wallet for gems. Arena Net is making large amounts of money with nickel and diming off the communities close minded thinking.

Arena net has only nerfed obvious easy ways of making gold, there are plenty of other ways to make gold in this game at a reasonable rate by using your brain and using different business tactics yourself.

Don’t blame the company for using these unethical tactics to produce large amounts of profit, blame the consumers who open their wallets.

People whine and cry about sleazy money grabs in the gaming industry, but they still open their wallets, they still give massive amounts of money to these companies…..so of course every single company is going to get in on it.

The people have the power to dictate how a business chooses their payment model, yet the masses don’t do it, blame yourselves for allowing the gaming industry to turn into a big cash grab. Don’t cry to Arena Net about it.

…… The World of Warcraft forums are that way. —-->

I’m literally surprised by how people are acting about this.

Go play Trickster Online for a month. Don’t worry, it’s free to play and I’ll wait for ya. Or even better. Go play ArcheAge. You want gouging for money every step of the way? Those are your games.
Anet is advertising something that was in game when I started playing in March. It is not something new, it is not a legasp bait and switch. Hell, I’ve even used it after buying gems and getting the items I wanted and going wtf can I use 8 gems on? OH I can convert them into gold? Nice. Why you are getting pitchforky over an ad, I have no clue. Did I need gems to hit level 80? No. Did I need gems to get gear? No. The only time I needed gems was to get the living season 2 story. Everything else was vanity items I didn’t want to wait on the black lion chest for. I’m surprised you aren’t crying about the fact that you can convert gold to gems.

When I play now, I feel like a slave making pennies while gem buyers profit. Instead of raising the min wage, they lowered it into a well. GW2 is just another nickel and dime F2P where the game as a whole is being adjusted to push you to the cash shop. Now they say convert gems to gold (abuse those peasants like me) and also right under it is even more kitten ing; Raiders Pack. So now if you want to raid, ya gotta buy cash shop items. Gee, where have I seen this before….oh right, pretty much every crappy f2p out there. What is odd is….I BOUGHT THE BOX, this is supposed to be a b2p game with purely optional cash shop, not no more! Evidently buying box is just so you can buy more mandatory things in the cash shop. Wonderful.

W/e. Boycotting further Anet purchases until I see a proper return of my money which I 100% feel I didn’t get with this expansion; putting all the best ‘content’ in the shop is baloney and infact inexusable in my mind. If I had known they were going to do this, I would never have bought the expansion in the first place.

I’m seriously failing to see the issue here. Even if the interface for it has changed, it’s been a basic function of the game since launch, and it’s not the first time they’ve advertised it.

Wow, boosters are required for raids now? As well as Metabolic Primers? Who knew?

And here I thought the going consensus was Ascended Gear; I can’t find that in the Raider’s Supply Pack.

Nick Lentz.6982:

dear people who honestly think that this us unknown to me. Or for that matter ever. Like for real that is laughable. Well aware it has been in. The point of this, they added yet another “LOOK YOU CAN BUY GEMS FOR GOLD” that is the point. good job side tracking.

I don’t think people are side tracked.

If anything your complaint is about general everyday stuff that doesn’t effect anyone and it’s rather confusing why anyone would complain about such a mundane topic.

I know ads that don’t interest you can be very annoying, but just like TV they will continue to advertise what you can buy from them, just like every other company in the world.

Maybe you just need some sleep?

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

And here I thought the going consensus was Ascended Gear; I can’t find that in the Raider’s Supply Pack.

I can find the ascended pack pretty easy; convert gems to gold and buy all the mats you need instantly. It’s not rocket science. But I do see your point so I will forward a suggestion for them to offer Ascended gear in the cash shop straight up; you can do it indirectly already so let’s cut out the middle men (players) completely for max profit.

I’ve got beefs with the game… but the OP and his/her supporters are being silly. GW2 has had gem-to-gold and gold-to-gem conversions since day 1. None of the gem store items are essential.

Darn…all they are doing is letting the newbies know, if they didn’t already know, that you can exchange real money for gold..a thing I do more than I probably should.

Hmmm…with this advertisment and the bundles, I wonder if the solo playing people are upset with HoT, and are expressing their feelings with their gem buying habits.

Selling one expensive bundle makes up for the loss of a few folks who would buy an outfit if they were still playing to buy it.

Remember-gold to gems does not provide the Devs with a paycheck. Gems to gold does.

Lisa.

Those of you hurting on cash,

Look at the material prices on the broker
See at whats feasible to farm
Look at where it drops
Go Farm

P.S. Dungeons aren’t dead, hint hint hint hint hint hint hint hint hint hint hint hint if you get my drift, if you’re picking up what I’m putting down, if you catch my drift, if you’re buying what I’m selling, if you’re dancing to my tune, if you’re eating what imma cookin.

glad this got all out of whack ;p
I was pointing out yet another “look buy gems, trade it for gold” they’ve been adding in. Sadly, and if you really think they are trying to fix our economy with what they are doing with the… lets not call them nerfs as everyone gets their undies wedged…maybe “adjustments” or is that still not good enough, To everything.
As most prolly did not read, and either jumped OMG YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT GEM CONVERTER LOLOL, or LOLOL THIS IS NOT NEW BUSINESS TACTIC. I have been playing since launch, never have I felt my throat being crammed with “buy gems for gold” as I have been since anet started the talk about HoT. Yes adding more and more ways of THEM telling you to buy gems and using it for gold is a newer tactic. They have changed their model, which most of you think they have not. To say anet never changed a single aspect of this game to benefit them, is lol, they keep changing to heavily encourage buying gems, not “farming” them". And I am sure the ones who still defend them are ones who can easily spend either 6+ hours a day or can afford to buy gems for gold. Anet is slowly going into the dark places of ftp games.

/shrug

I’m still making as much gold as I’ve ever done, maybe more. Maybe you just need to branch out a bit if you’re feeling a gold pinch. (And how many actually do trade gems for gold? The rates are preposterous. You do far better to play the game and get gold that way).

pretty much all of the pre 80 stuff has gone up

go level a new character

kittenzam more moneys

IllegalChocolate.6938:

pretty much all of the pre 80 stuff has gone up

go level a new character

kittenzam more moneys

Because no one needs to buy pre level 80 stuff to level up lol. 1 to 80 is not a hard thing to do and gear dose not play that big of a roll. What keeps that low level gear high in price is the mats that it beaks down into.

There’s nothing wrong with ArenaNet advertising their gem/gold services.

However, doing so right after the backlash about the Bandit Raider Pack wasn’t too bright. It’s like a slap in the face, rubbing salt in the wound, etc., and feels very much like a subtle “kitten you” to all their customers who are unhappy about the Bandit Raider Pack (and bundle-only items in general).

These questionable decisions in the Gem Store (and the general feeling of “greed”, “money grubbing”, “cash-grabs” that it’s promoting) have caused a lot of ill-will, which is obviously going to bleed over into other things, especially if they’re Gem Store related.

Unless ArenaNet actually addresses the problem (or at the very least, acknowledges it), it’s not just going to “go away with time”. It’s only going to slowly fester and grow.

Neyjour.3921:

There’s nothing wrong with ArenaNet advertising their gem/gold services.

However, doing so right after the backlash about the Bandit Raider Pack wasn’t too bright. It’s like a slap in the face, rubbing salt in the wound, etc., and feels very much like a subtle “kitten you” to all their customers who are unhappy about the Bandit Raider Pack (and bundle-only items in general).

These questionable decisions in the Gem Store (and the general feeling of “greed”, “money grubbing”, “cash-grabs” that it’s promoting) have caused a lot of ill-will, which is obviously going to bleed over into other things, especially if they’re Gem Store related.

Unless ArenaNet actually addresses the problem (or at the very least, acknowledges it), it’s not just going to “go away with time”. It’s only going to slowly fester and grow.

Your post assumes that the relevant people (the merchandising staff) are both reading the forum and responding to posts in a passive aggressive manner. My guess is, they never look at the forums. Other staff members may do so and pass on relevant information but I really doubt the people who make gemstore decisions look at more than the numbers ($$$) coming in on their computers.

And why should they? I can’t think of one gemstore item that hasn’t been met with a round of negative posts.

it’s only advertisement, you don’t have to buy it, and it’s not like it is interrupting your game play every 5 minutes….

Gotta admit this felt kinda like a stab in the back. I understand I don’t have to pay for gems to gold, nor would I want to. I just expected to log on today, thanksgiving day and tomorrow being black friday to see if there were any good deals on the store. Instead I get the impression that they aren’t even hiding the fact they want you to convert gems to gold lol. I mean, that place could have been anything from a black friday advert with some of the items in the gemstore or just the new items available in the gemstore. Not a clear cash grab of gems to gold which is a terrible conversion ratio imo.

Qriztina.6302:

Yeah, it was like a dagger to the heart for me when I saw that. They dont even deny it anymore, they straightout say it. “Buy gems for gold guys, since we removed all the other ways of making gold C:”

3 years of my life spent on this game, I love this game, and they do this to me? Nothing makes me more sad, than to see what arenanet has become

Unless your tinhat tells you otherwise, Anet don’t create gold to be sold, the gold on sale comes from players earning it in game .. which means you hyperbolic assertion about all other means of making it is clearly hot air.

They really need an advertisement that says ‘you can go into your materials tab and sell stuff there for gold!’

Judging from all the complaints about there not being any sources of ‘liquid’ gold post-dungeon nerf, it sure seems like a huge chunk of the playerbase is not familiar with that one little trick.

Ensign.2189:

They really need an advertisement that says ‘you can go into your materials tab and sell stuff there for gold!’

Judging from all the complaints about there not being any sources of ‘liquid’ gold post-dungeon nerf, it sure seems like a huge chunk of the playerbase is not familiar with that one little trick.

We are, but it isn’t “new” gold it is gold that people had earned previously. Not only that you do reach a point where you run out of materials that sell for a decent amount of money so your only way to get gold is through avenues that don’t generate new gold but rather use existing gold (and the amount you earn is very dependent on the market).

Basically, people want a reliable way to earn liquid gold rewards. No, inflation is not bad for the economy but actually good for the economy because mild inflation gives people a reason to spend their gold now rather than wait because their gold is worth less over time. If gold is constantly worth more people will hoard because the longer the hoard the more they can buy later down the line.

I find it highly unnecessary to advertise buying gold with gems compared to advertising actual gemstore content either on sale or fairly new.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Odd, I’m making more Gold off mats than ever before. And exchanging that Gold for Gems as the rate has been more lucrative lately.

I guess the ‘fix’ was undesirable for dungeon-runners, but great for us lowly casual gatherers.

This would be quite right in my eyes. Just dungeons that lost, lots of mats cost more now and can get you a nice amount of gold. I sold lots of mats not needed, have more gold than I have ever had (still not too much, but a few hundred).

And like one said here, Anet is a business. Ofc they need to get money, dont think they made this game for you guys to get everything free and never use rl money for cool stuff and skins. Not that you really need to, as you dont need anything in gem store to play

For a last comment, Anet! Char slots, I want them!!

Valentine.4286:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Odd, I’m making more Gold off mats than ever before. And exchanging that Gold for Gems as the rate has been more lucrative lately.

I guess the ‘fix’ was undesirable for dungeon-runners, but great for us lowly casual gatherers.

This would be quite right in my eyes. Just dungeons that lost, lots of mats cost more now and can get you a nice amount of gold. I sold lots of mats not needed, have more gold than I have ever had (still not too much, but a few hundred).

And like one said here, Anet is a business. Ofc they need to get money, dont think they made this game for you guys to get everything free and never use rl money for cool stuff and skins. Not that you really need to, as you dont need anything in gem store to play

For a last comment, Anet! Char slots, I want them!!

If they really wanted to get money, make a game with decent rewards and good deals on the black lion trading company. Or at least content I want to buy. I used to spend more gems pre HoT but have since stopped because of a few backwards things on the shop and due to the scarcity of sales. 1) Bag slots. Why are they character bound at 400 gems when a bank tab is about 600? 20 slots in a bag and more than 20 for a bank tab. And character bound. 2) I have to buy this overpriced bundle to get the skin I want? What is this? I don’t want any of the other stuff and it is way too pricey to justify spending on it as a group when I only want one thing.

Advertising gems to gold is by far the one thing I don’t want to see on the shop. Advertise to me a sale on some outfit, gathering tool, character slot, or even just some new skins that may be worth looking into. But please don’t tell me to go buy gold with gems instead of getting skins or other things.

A good company would make a good game first, then entice people to support the game because the game is good and people want shiny cosmetics or something slightly useful. Other game companies do this, I’d like to point to Path of Exile personally as I love that game and the devs are almost 100% not money grubbing in terms of their cash shop. Everything is straight up a skin and the only thing that is kinda pay to win is bank tabs, and once you buy a certain amount you don’t need anymore because you won’t fill it up in time for the next update where you start all over again as it is an ARPG. And no, you cannot buy currency with real money legitimately.

@senario
Oh yeah, there are many bad deals on the TP, some things I would never buy even tho I might want it. Price is just too bad. Still, many ppl buy bag slots at that price (yeah I dont get it either), and therefore why put the price down permanently? And those bundles, off. Not for me either. But again, ppl buy them so why not? I would think they got more money lowering as more would buy, but hard to know if not knowing number on how many actually buys them. They must give a lot of money so why change? If they didnt get much sales, then the price might come down. Before that time, why do that right?

For the advertising, dont get how that does anything. It simply tell its a possibility. “Hey guess what, you can get lots of sweet gold from trading gems”. Okey, cool. I dont want that but hey, not like they are forcing me right? Do you dislike advertising on tv same way?

They made a good game, now they need to pay their workers. And ppl want to buy stuff to support the company or because they want the stuff. Those who dont want, dont buy. Whats the problem? The fact is buying these things, like gold, isnt pay to win. Its just to look better or have things more convenient, that is all.

What really grinds my gears if the simple kitten fact Anet has not been selling char slots on discount in a long time, give me char slots plz

Palador.2170:

You know, I’m pretty sure I’ve seen that before. Quite some time ago. They’re just recycling a used page, it’s nothing new.

Me too.

It’s not new.

Valentine.4286:

@senario
Oh yeah, there are many bad deals on the TP, some things I would never buy even tho I might want it. Price is just too bad. Still, many ppl buy bag slots at that price (yeah I dont get it either), and therefore why put the price down permanently? And those bundles, off. Not for me either. But again, ppl buy them so why not? I would think they got more money lowering as more would buy, but hard to know if not knowing number on how many actually buys them. They must give a lot of money so why change? If they didnt get much sales, then the price might come down. Before that time, why do that right?

For the advertising, dont get how that does anything. It simply tell its a possibility. “Hey guess what, you can get lots of sweet gold from trading gems”. Okey, cool. I dont want that but hey, not like they are forcing me right? Do you dislike advertising on tv same way?

They made a good game, now they need to pay their workers. And ppl want to buy stuff to support the company or because they want the stuff. Those who dont want, dont buy. Whats the problem? The fact is buying these things, like gold, isnt pay to win. Its just to look better or have things more convenient, that is all.

What really grinds my gears if the simple kitten fact Anet has not been selling char slots on discount in a long time, give me char slots plz

It is fully within their right to advertise the option. That said it doesn’t make me want to spend real money on gems to get gold. It is simply not a good deal for me. You don’t get nearly enough gold for the amount of cash you spend. I’d rather have cool deals on skins or other things. Like maybe having a daily sale on a few items (random).

They can pay their workers with the money they got from selling HoT. I don’t see how telling ppl to buy gold with gems rather than actual content is better. People can spend whatever they want…but honestly if I got good rewards like pre HoT in terms of reward for the amount of time I play I’d spend a heck of a lot more to support the game because not only is the game fun, but the dev clearly cares about the happiness of their players. Unfortunately the across the board nerfs for getting gold/gear isn’t helping their case.

A few things that would be on my list if I got better rewards: (obviously over time)
Character slots, I want at least 2 to play two other classes I’m pretty sure I’d enjoy.
Bag slots (if they were account bound). I’d max them out asap.
All the gathering tools so I can just not deal with that inventory clutter.
A glider skin, I really hate the default look. Just not enough to justify spending more money with the game as it is.
One more bank tab, more loot and gold means more storage space I’ll need.
Storage expander – So I have less clutter and can save space and stockpile materials.

Not counting any of the stuff that would be pure aesthetics.

Meanwhile https://www.gw2spidy.com/gem

Oh no, gold → gem prices are falling and people can now more easily aquire gems with ingame gold. Terrible.

Oh wait, that wasn’t the topic at hand. Guess I’m one of the few who actually is happy about this. Why?

Because I:

- don’t buy overpriced materials, instead I sell the ones I gather (a lot of gold in this at the moment)
- I craft only some timegated items for future use, but refrain from going all out crafting mode at the moment
- I take my time with precursors and legendarys knowing I’ll be fine if I have mine 3 months from now (not to mention the timegates on the new ones won’t allow me to be done faster anyway)
- I enjoy the bottomed out prices on: crafting recepies (zealots for everyone, which funny enough is a very good stat for raid healers), +1 agony infusions (went from 15s to about 1.5s, all subsequent ranks have dramatically decreased in price), T6 fine materials, ecto prices (went from 42s to 31s)

I will agree to that the add leaves a bad after taste, but if you are a semi intelligent and aware player, it should come as a benefit to you. Sure if you need everything NOW, well pay up chum.

While I can agree that AN is getting greedier lately – it is still money garb based on COSMETIC ITEMS.
There is absolutely nothing forcing anyone to have some huge shiny sparkling wand of squirting in the hand.
Be happy for that, as there is no PtW item in the game shop and all their business is run by peoples desire for shiny things.

I assume this re-push is because of the huge influx of new players and they’d rather have them buy in game gold than through outside sellers.

Not seeing anything more nefarious than that tbh unless I am missing something..

The thing is, guys, much as I agree with a lot of your sentiments, at some point you have to make a choice.

B2P is a nice idea but, in the longer term, it relies on a lot of new players continuing to pay to enter the game and as a game gets older (even if it’s still fairly new, in MMO terms), fewer players will pay full price for it.

…and as time goes on, that original $50 (or whatever) you paid for the base game obviously means less and less, on average, was paid by you per month/year played.

So, they produce an xpac and offer a F2P trial, to entice people in.

But the problem is, they know new players were being put off by their treatment in dungeons.

A lot of the vets were speedrunning and didn’t even want to include newer players at all (and said as much, on here).

If any newer players, accidentally, found themselves in a speedrun, they were generally treated badly and/or with very little patience.

A few more, more far-sighted vets, were “accepting” them, but often only in a very strict, training for future speedruns, type of capacity.

Anet knows these were not fun experiences for newer players and threaten new player retention.

Retention is even more important now than it was previously, as the current crop of new players haven’t even bought the game/xpac, yet.

So, that’s the B2P option: it involves a game being newer and/or frequently expanded, cooperation from the entire playerbase and good and fair treatment of new players.

So, that didn’t work out as well as was possibly hoped.

So, what is the next option?

Less reliance on selling endless copies of the game/xpacs and more reliance on people buying gems – so, heading more towards a F2P model.

…and yet another reason to nerf very generous dungeon rewards.

The third option would, obviously, be a sub model.

This is my preferred option, personally.

Unfortunately, however, a lot of people on here say they would leave, if that was introduced.

Not entirely sure they’re representative of the entire community, or the prospective community if a sub existed?

After all, much as there are people who will only play F2P and/or B2P games, there are also people who will only play sub games.

But, those sub games do, generally, have to be really (and consistently) good, to retain paying players.

The advantages of a sub game are fairly well known.

Everyone is paying the same, on a regular basis, so they don’t have to limit the in-game rewards nearly as much and there can be far less emphasise on any cash store.

The disadvantages (depending on the attitude of the company involved) include the “best” in-game rewards, often, being limited to high-level content (like “real” raids) only.

Leaving casual players feeling they are, essentially, subsidising the relatively few hardcore players.

However, this needn’t be the case.

They could choose to spread the best rewards, fairly evenly, through all types of content and/or have the same rewards drop in a variety of different content, if they wanted to.

The point is, you have to choose and quite possibly, the game-play experience you are looking for is more likely to be delivered with some kind of sub-type system.

Whether you like the idea of actually paying a sub, or not.

Your gems….for their gold.

Who is the “their” in that text?

I’m imagining it means anet’s gold as there is zero proof of “our” gems being traded with other players.

And also the “your gems” part should have additional text so as to make it perfectly clear what the statement is saying:

“Your gems, bought from anet by you, for real cash…for their gold”

Plus you still get less gold for exchanging gems than it costs to you to exchange gold to get gems.

If for example it costs you 160g to get 800 gems, you should get 160g for exchanging gems.

Still unsure about who the “their” is mind….

Title. Everything the game has introduced points towards the gem store. Store-exclusive outfits, bundle-exclusive outfits, putting on a banner to promote gem to gold conversion (but not the other way around), only including an extra character slot to come with a new professions after receiving negative feedback and callouts, it almost sounds like they aren’t doing so well with the sales.
But are they?

Just the Anet letting confused players know they can buy gold in game and not risking there accounts with a 3d party gold seller

Right above your thread, you can find this ‘gem’: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Too-much-pushing-for-gem-buying-edit

Good luck.

It’s almost like microtransactions represent a huge amount of easy money and companies always try to make the most amount of money they can.

HenleyLegoMan.4987:

Your gems….for their gold.

Who is the “their” in that text?

I’m imagining it means anet’s gold as there is zero proof of “our” gems being traded with other players.

And also the “your gems” part should have additional text so as to make it perfectly clear what the statement is saying:

“Your gems, bought from anet by you, for real cash…for their gold”

Plus you still get less gold for exchanging gems than it costs to you to exchange gold to get gems.

If for example it costs you 160g to get 800 gems, you should get 160g for exchanging gems.

Still unsure about who the “their” is mind….

Someone needs to read up on how the gem exchange works.

Better yet, read up on WHY the gem exchange has taxes, and why that is a good thing.

I think I explained how it works but ok.

The gem exchange works by charging you more gold to get 800 gems than the amount of gold you get for exchanging 800 gems to gold.

Let’s take it a step further. Gems/gold conversion rates are determined by the people exchanging them we are led to believe. But we are not talking about an item on tp here that we can list for whatever price we like. Anet determines the cost of the conversion and here is why:

Gems are anets currency, they own it and they control gem supply. How? By creating gems when people buy them. They also exchange gems for gold. They pay less gold when buying gems back and ask for more gold when selling.

Why do they need to tax us for SPENDING the currency they want us to SPEND?

It’s not like I pay cash for 800 gems but only get 700 due to a tax to stop me making too much gold.

Ah Zing! There it is, if you pay cash you will always get same amount of gems for same amount of cash. It’s only when you don’t want to spend cash on gems does the system change.

If players traded between each other as currency exchange states then there would be no fluctuation in prices. If 800 was worth 200g then that conversion rate would remain constant until the supply of gems ran out.

You think anger would ever let the supply of gems run out?

That should read anet, not anger sorry :-)

Too much of a bias lean on this one. “Their gold, your Gems!” Not happening.

I am not upset at this. The gems to gold and vice versa feature has been there since it’s inception. Tossing in a cue card to let players know, especially new players that this is a option is fine by me.

If you do not like it. Do not invest in it.

HenleyLegoMan.4987:

If players traded between each other as currency exchange states then there would be no fluctuation in prices. If 800 was worth 200g then that conversion rate would remain constant until the supply of gems ran out.

You think anet would ever let the supply of gems run out?

The rate is tied not to how many in absolute terms (so that people can draw gems out until the well is dry) but to a ratio. More gems go in, gems are cheaper and vice versa.

So if player A put 1000 gems in, then the ratio shifts to gems being cheaper. If player B buys 1000 gems with gold then the ratio shifts to gems being more expensive. This mimics real life scarcity. The less of something there is, the more expensive it is. That’s why the prices fluctuate. People are constantly putting gems in and taking gems out. When something new appears in the gem store, more people buy gems with gold (take gems out of the pool). Gems get more expensive. If nothing new is in the gems store, the gem prices drift down as more people put gem in than people taking gems out.

On the currency exchange in general:
I don’t have issue with using in-game currency as a progression multiplier. However, in practice, its use creates dissonance; the narrative of being a hero to a world becomes the business of being a hero. Imho, Arenanet does not know how to make being a hero to a world the dominate narrative.

Specific to the current advertisement:

It is a company advertising a product.
Some players do not know about it.
When the exchange rate drops, black market RMT piracy becomes more attractive and their negative effect increases. In such a situation, reinforcing the legal (and non-lethal to any player) currency exchange is appropriate.

The ad copy is weird. It reads as a blend of gamer snark and an attempt to explain how the exchange works, passed through a bedazzler.

I can’t decide on an opinion about its timing. The economy is in a state of flux so advertising a product that will increase the rate of change is…meh. However, the rate is going to continue to drop so exchanging gems now isn’t a bad idea.

Right, so lets make sure to tell anet to stop trying to make money off the gemstore, because they don’t charge us monthy sub, the game is free to play, but hey. Who needs to make money as a company? The amount of people complaining about this is hilarious, and those who do are probably broke ingame and want everything handed to them. Seriously stop complaining about the gemstore, YOU don’t need to buy anything from it, it’s not necessary to play the game, if you buy gems ITS YOUR decision. If you have an issue making gold and blame the gem store for being your only way, then oh boy are you wrong, I can make an average 400-500g a day If I spend all day farming(though that’s unlikely) Ever since nerfs, I’ve easily found old content that’s stupid good to farm. Just stop complaining and play the game, if you are going to be an attention kitten and follow “Lets post ANOTHER topic about the gemstore” then just leave the game, we don’t need another person causing chaos in the forums.

Anyway, didn’t mean to make this sound so brutal, but seriously, stop complaining about the gemstore, it’s literally their only source of income, other than buying the game.