Guild Wars 2

When I signed in a bit ago the price of 400 Gems was 139 gold which is about double what it was a bit over 2 months ago. Has anyone at ANet said anything about the crazy inflation in gem prices?

the crazy gold price is caused by players exchanging gold for gems, but not many exchanging gems for gold. it is constantly in flux because the pool of gems is not infinite, as some people seem to think.

the rise this time is probably caused by the new glider skin being released, as well as the aviator sunglasses return.

It’s getting to the point of ridiculousness. Why even have an exchange if most people will not be able to ever afford it.

Some people refuse adamently to pay with RL money. They want accessibility or they will complain. Some kids may not have a CC and need an avenue to purchase items in the gem store to be even. With these prices to date, I generally don’t hesitate with the CC when I feel I ‘need’ something.

Atm I really want those aviator sunglasses, they finally returned, but I just spent 1200 of my 1500 gems, and maxed out my CC on pax tickets. So I’m S.O.L

nottsgman.8206:

the crazy gold price is caused by players exchanging gold for gems, but not many exchanging gems for gold. it is constantly in flux because the pool of gems is not infinite, as some people seem to think.

the rise this time is probably caused by the new glider skin being released, as well as the aviator sunglasses return.

They have release a lot of new stuff before and it didn’t go up this much. In real world economies governments have to step in sometimes to put a break on things. If a real world economy had such a rampant inflation it would crash. ANet needs to put in counter measures to fix the problem. One thing they could do is put buying gems cards on sale. People would rush out to buy them and the price of gems would drop. Basically if you buy an item on the gem store it’s doubled in price. Harvesting items for example now are the equivalent of 2000 gems compared to the prices 2 months ago.

Tekoneiric.6817:

In real world economies governments have to step in sometimes to put a break on things. If a real world economy had such a rampant inflation it would crash.

Cough cough … Vancouver, Toronto, Australia have housing markets in the past two years which are a good examples of this.

Arenanet has no interest in bringing the prices down. The higher price makes Gems > Gold more attractive, and that’s where they get their money from.

In addition to the items people want to buy, a reason for this is gold being more accessible. Everyone gets two gold in coin now for finishing their daily achievements, while dungeons are giving more gold again. Clearly, a lot of people are turning this influx of gold into gems via the exchange.

Tekoneiric.6817:

nottsgman.8206:

the crazy gold price is caused by players exchanging gold for gems, but not many exchanging gems for gold. it is constantly in flux because the pool of gems is not infinite, as some people seem to think.

the rise this time is probably caused by the new glider skin being released, as well as the aviator sunglasses return.

They have release a lot of new stuff before and it didn’t go up this much. In real world economies governments have to step in sometimes to put a break on things. If a real world economy had such a rampant inflation it would crash. ANet needs to put in counter measures to fix the problem. One thing they could do is put buying gems cards on sale. People would rush out to buy them and the price of gems would drop. Basically if you buy an item on the gem store it’s doubled in price. Harvesting items for example now are the equivalent of 2000 gems compared to the prices 2 months ago.

Too bad this isn’t the real world, and ANet benefits economically from the situation so that they can afford to provide more innately free services?

With the constant stream of gem store items causing big gem demands, server transfers opening up, and the amount of gold going into players’ pockets now, too, from the changed dailies and dungeon adjustments, it’s a no-brainer the economy has massively inflated prices at the moment.

Hexinx.1872:

Some people refuse adamently to pay with RL money. They want accessibility or they will complain. Some kids may not have a CC and need an avenue to purchase items in the gem store to be even. With these prices to date, I generally don’t hesitate with the CC when I feel I ‘need’ something.

Atm I really want those aviator sunglasses, they finally returned, but I just spent 1200 of my 1500 gems, and maxed out my CC on pax tickets. So I’m S.O.L

For some it isn’t about refusal. It’s about the ability. If I could spend money like crazy to get gems I would in an instant, but right now the exchange is my only reliable way to get gems and it’s being destroyed by super rich people who have possibly 1000’s of gold to toss away. Most people don’t and are getting screwed over by this.

By the time I get the real money to buy gems needed for a cool skin they brought back it will most likely be gone again because reasons so it feels like some people can’t ever get a leg up or even a foothold with this thing. :\

That’s why some players exchange Gold for Gems daily/weekly/monthly/whenever they feel the exchange rate has dipped down a bit. This way they have Gems handy when that most-desired, oh-so-popular item gets released in the Gem Store.

I exchanged about 1200 Gems-worth of Gold last week (rates were between 122 and 130 for the times I checked), and have nearly replaced the Gold by selling off a few mats I had in the bank, but…I had been saving up Gems for some time, as well; this way I always have Gems (or an amount towards having enough) for something that might catch my eye in the Gem Store.

The exchange rate may have doubled in the past few months (it’s been awhile since it was 70 Gold), but the prices of mats, and other ways of attaining Gold have certainly increased, as well.

Thinking on it further, what would help me personally and probably other people would be an actual Gem Store SCHEDULE. Something on the wiki we could look to in order to see what items are coming back and what are leaving and when they will be around again.

Not saying this would work for new items but for stuff already created? That would help me a great deal.

Here’s a chart since the Spring Update. The sharp change in price is mostly due to the last two BLTC updates plus one earlier.

The other grid line is 30 gold

Tekoneiric.6817:

In real world economies governments have to step in sometimes to put a break on things.

The buying power of real currency is going up, not down (the same amount of real world currency spent on gems can be traded for more gold than previously). That is not inflation.

I am currently unaware of a situation in which a real world government stepped in to manipulate the price of a luxury item.

Tekoneiric.6817:

When I signed in a bit ago the price of 400 Gems was 139 gold which is about double what it was a bit over 2 months ago. Has anyone at ANet said anything about the crazy inflation in gem prices?

There is nothing crazy about the current gold:gem ratio — if anything, it’s surprising that it’s taken so long for the ratio to hit this level, since so many people (including myself) won’t (or can’t) buy gems with cash. Each day that passes, veterans have more gold that they can spend on luxuries and usually an increased willingness to pay more for the few things they really do want.

If you look at the rate curve, it shows clear spikes and dips and plateaus — the rate was stable for ages and even went down regularly during Wintersday (until 2015). ANet was terrible about refreshing the list of items offered, which suppressed demand as people got out of the habit of checking what was available.

The high rate is really good for people willing to spend extra cash on the game. It’s also good for the game as a whole, since it puts extra pressure on gold sellers to offer better rates and extra pressure on gold buyers to choose the legit market instead of the black market.

The high rate is really bad only for people, like myself, who aren’t spending RL dollars|pounds|euros on the game.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

The high rate is really bad only for people, like myself, who aren’t spending RL dollars|pounds|euros on the game.

And perhaps not bad even then if the exchange rate encourages those able to spend RL cash on the game to do so, supporting ongoing development for everyone (gem buyers or not).

GW2’s business model is without a doubt my all time favorite for an MMO.

It’s simple.

Players are not buying Gems with real money to exchange for gold. So the inventory of Gems is really low.

Yet players are buying Gems with their gold, causing the inventory of Gems to drop even further.

Thus the price of Gems is going to go up cause they are more scarce. The exchange is all player based. If no one is buying Gems to trade for gold, then no Gems will be available for purchase with gold. The less amount of Gems, the more expensive they become. If people start buying Gems with real money and exchange them for gold, the price of Gems will drop cause there is now more of them for exchange.

Don’t expect Anet to step in at all to do anything about it either. They get paid by people buying Gems with real money. They don’t get paid if you buy Gems with gold. So why would they “fix” anything? They want you to spend real money for Gems.

And from reading these forums, it seems no one wants to give Anet money cause they are unhappy with the direction and state of the game currently. So don’t expect that price to drop. If anything, expect it to keep getting higher.

There isnt a problem.
Its simply supply / demand economics at work.
More people want gems for gold than there are people who want gems for real money.
These types of events are cyclic, and balance will eventually return once the demand for gems has been met.

Supply and demand.

Less people buying gems with real cash to convert to gold. They fupped up their expansion and a lot of paying people left.

Pretty simple I would of thought.

…. and I remember when 10g got you 100gems, theres always going to be inflation its natural. As more people join the game, or return to the game (like after a big spring patch as mentioned) and exchange the rate will go up. It will always peak when a bunch of new items are released and at the beginning of the month (after the majority of people are paid)

Just the opposite.

I have a stack of old gem cards from Best Buy from the past 3 years. $25 (US) gets you 2000 gems. The price of gems has not changed at all.

Now, inside the game the price of gold has dropped. Cool, gold is cheap. That’s the game.

You and I paid RL money for our game. But someone has to pay the electric bill to keep the server farms running. If you don’t buy gems, you’re playing off those who do, and the price you pay is that gems are more expensive for you.

While I do appreciate the fact that some folks / kids may not have sufficient cash to buy a gem card when they want it, I have no sympathy for someone who refuses to support the game / developers / utilities out of some sense of entitlement.

I agree with Ashen.2907 that the current business model is pretty good. Those of us who can pay to support the game may do so. Those who can’t pay may not. We can all play together. But those who are not paying have to realize that there will be some cost, and right now that cost is cheap gold.

When there’s lot’s of comments saying this is natural, I like to ask questions.

How long before it becomes natural for a lot of players to no longer look at the Gem market?

How many players have already stopped even looking or considering gem purchases of any kind?

Sure there’s more readily available gold but that doesn’t mean it’s going towards gems, or will in the future, for many players. How many players have said to themselves “I simply can’t spend more than one gold for 4 gems”?

Doesn’t this make the division between the haves and the have nots, so much more obvious to players?

It’s not buy to win but can’t it look a whole lot like it?

I just don’t like the questions this all brings.

Tumult.2578:

When there’s lot’s of comments saying this is natural, I like to ask questions.

How long before it becomes natural for a lot of players to no longer look at the Gem market?

How many players have already stopped even looking or considering gem purchases of any kind?

Sure there’s more readily available gold but that doesn’t mean it’s going towards gems, or will in the future, for many players. How many players have said to themselves “I simply can’t spend more than one gold for 4 gems”?

Doesn’t this make the division between the haves and the have nots, so much more obvious to players?

It’s not buy to win but can’t it look a whole lot like it?

I just don’t like the questions this all brings.

All of life looks like buy to win then if looking like buy to win is spending to buy fluff and convenience items.

If you have the gold and nothing you need or want on the trading post, why not convert it to gems? It’s not going to keep you warm at night or fund your retirement. Unless you like seeing your gold get higher and higher there’s no real reason not to convert gold to gems. You can even set up a regular purchase plan. Get X amount of extra gold and turn it into gems, or once a week buy X amount of gems. Gold in this game is not needed once you’re geared up and you have the skins you want.

While it’s obvious that ANet wants as many RL money gem purchases as possible, they couldn’t care less about what those gems are used for. Both an ingame conversion to gold and the acquisition of some new fancy glider fill ANets pockets exactly the same way.

Gold-gem conversion ratios are totally controled by ANet as they have the ultimate decisions on where to allocate the next luxury items or wether if gold is cheap or scarce.
Right now they’re going for cheap gold. Time will tell if it’s a good decision or not.

It is crazy how high the price is now. It’s unfortunate because I tend to spend more RL money when gem prices are down. I augment my RL money with in game gold exchange, and by doing that I tend to burn through my gems pretty quick. Now with gem exchange so high, I’ve become far more selective on what I buy.

I used to spend $20-$40 per month in RL money but now I’m sitting on 2300 gems that I bought 2+ months ago. Rather than impulse spending on frivolous stuff like keys, I just focus on stuff that I need…or is actually on sale at a reduced price.

I’m nearly at the point where I am considering turning cash into gold via the Gem Exchange.

Yeah, as I’ve said in other places, the gold/gems exchange rate is a bit steep for me.

I’m one of those rare birds that likes to spend cash for things as opposed to a credit/debit card, as the cash helps me with restraint (a hard lesson learned from the 2008 crash). Fortunately, there are Gem Cards at Best Buy and other places, so I buy one every now and then. In fact, I just got a $25 card last week.

Those prices aren’t changing anytime soon….I hope.

Stop bing a cheap skate, you want something open your wallet if you don’t want use your gold up. Don’t want to spend your gold or real money, get ready to do with out.

ANet need to get payed, you do not need a fair gem to gold ratio.

BrotherBelial.3094:

Stop bing a cheap skate, you want something open your wallet if you don’t want use your gold up. Don’t want to spend your gold or real money, get ready to do with out.

ANet need to get payed, you do not need a fair gem to gold ratio.

I think this would be the case if we just used gems for cosmetic items. Unfortunately, though, it costs gems to buy bag slots and those are not even shared across characters.

We really need some improvement to the way character bag slots work, as they are currently unaffordable to anyone who has even a slight interest in trying several characters.

I don’t think it is fair to measure game-wide inflation by the gold-gem exchange rates.

Gem prices have gone up 100%, ectos have gone up 50%, rare items have gone up maybe 10% (as salvaging them is a source of ectos). Precursors and skins have gone down. Mats went up when HoT released but have been more or less stable since. The point is that the whole economy isn’t experiencing inflation in the way gem prices have.

What we are seeing is that Anet is selling items (new and old) that people want. That means there is more demand for gems. There may be slightly more gold in the economy due the 2g dailies and increased fractal and dungeon rewards, but to some degree this is counteracting the past when maybe too much gold was taken out of the economy.

Something that is interesting is that, if I trade my gems now, I will get more gold than it cost to buy them previously. Yay me I guess.

Otherwise, no I don’t think this is an issue. Higher gem prices means a few things (higher demand for gem items, more gold incoming, less people trading gems for gold), but none of them actually indicate a problem with the market. If anything, it will just reach a new equilibrium later.

It is getting irritating.

Gem bought convenience services are the only things in game I’m really interested in at the moment – and for every 2 gold the community seems to get from the each daily, the price of 400 gems seems to go up 40 silver.

And while I’ve forked over money for gems and other in game currencies before, GW2 gems are obscenely expensive. In my country, the price of buying a shared inventory slot is equal to buying 3 jumbo sized fast food meals – for one shared slot. Coupled with the fact we almost never get new content to enjoy bought services with, the gem situation is extremely annoying.

The model the gem exchange is built upon is fair. Just because its fair doesn’t make it very palatable under these situations though. We probably going to pay 55-60$ for the next expansion back, which will include slightly more content then this expansion did (given how they’ve provided no new content for the last few months to work on the expansion) and in buying the expansion I will receive no new service boosts for forking out that cash – and still won’t be able to afford anymore through normal in game playing. This doesn’t endear me to the brand.

Gerrand.3085:

GW2 gems are obscenely expensive. In my country, the price of buying a shared inventory slot is equal to buying 3 jumbo sized fast food meals – for one shared slot..

That is hardly obscenely expensive, the healthy eater in me also thinks it’s a good thing if people eat less jumbo sized fast food meals tbh.

You’ve also picked the single shared slot as your example when that is the worst value offering.

The gem store contains nothing thats needed to play the game.
Its essentially all discressionary items that players want but dont need.
For games without monthly subs, Anet has to get its revenue from the gem store, and if people dont want to buy gems with real money, then the in game exchange rate between gems and gold must go up.

The only problem I see are players who don’t understand the primary purpose of the gold<=>gem exchange. It’s not to make it easy for players to not spend actual money for items in the cash shop. It’s true purpose is to provide the gold that players receive when they exchanged cash bought gems while not creating a gold faucet.

As players who think they are shafting ArenaNet/NCSOFT of money exchange their gold for gems, that action causes the exchange rate to increase and thus making it more attractive to exchange gems for gold. The asymmetrical exchange rate discourages using gems as a inflation hedge while also doubling as a gold sink. And of course this legitimate way to buy gold, by first buying the proxy currency is a thorn in the heart of RMT sellers. (sorry, couldn’t resist)

Problem now is since April’s quarterly update, the gold faucets are open and if you can complete the daily, well daily, that’s roughly 60 gold a month. Add in the new repeatable dungeon paths reward, improved fractal rewards, etc, there is a lot of gold flowing into the game. And that gold is being tossed at the exchange which caused the roughly 50-60% increase in the exchange rate. Players are simply buying gold with gems faster than players selling gems for gold.

We were sort of at an equilibrium before that patch. Well to be truthful we had a period where the exchange rate plummeted by 25% since HoT which meant more gems were being exchanged for gold than the other way. The GH construction and scribe costs along with turning off the dungeon gold faucet drained the GW2 excess liquid gold from the game. Without that being converted into gems, the exchange rate fell. Between a couple of attractive gem store sales plus returning items and the AMA and discussions of what was coming bolstered the exchange rate back to it’s pre-HoT level of around 20 gold per 100 gems just before the 2nd quarterly update hit.

Oops, forgot the visual aid. Gold to Gem exchange rate from HoT to 2nd quarterly update.

Vyrulisse.1246:

It’s getting to the point of ridiculousness. Why even have an exchange if most people will not be able to ever afford it.

To give the illusion that this is an option for cheap players. ANet has no motivation to change the current trend. They WANT people buying gems with cash for gem store purposes…they DO NOT want people to buy gems with free in game gold.

The more people get frustrated by high exchange costs the more likely those same people will pony up $10-20 for gems of their very own.

Vyrulisse.1246:

It’s getting to the point of ridiculousness. Why even have an exchange if most people will not be able to ever afford it.

Agreed. I have the gold to afford things with gold – > gems, but I straight up refuse to convert my gold to gems because it too much gold for anything now.

Bag slots and bank slots need to go on sale if gem prices are not going to be adjusted – nearly $10 for a single bank and $5 for a bag slot is far too high for something that’s mandatory at this point with how many different items fill your bags and how many items you can’t store in storage they keep adding, plus all the keys and no key chain in sight.

Obviously they do.
The GEM store provides the income to keep the game going.
If no one bought gems for real money the game would quickly die, unless Anet introduced a monthly sub.
Too many people want a free game with new free content forever.

Behellagh.1468:

-really sensible explanations-

Behellagh explains everything perfectly.

Vyrulisse.1246:

It’s getting to the point of ridiculousness. Why even have an exchange if most people will not be able to ever afford it.

The rate can only be as high as it is if lots of people are able to afford paying 33g for 100 gems.

Incidentally, the only reason we think 33g/100 is expensive is that the rate remained flat for the better part of a year. I bought all the gems I currently have at different times all for 13g-17g/100 over nearly a 2 year period. If the rate had increased the way it had at other times, it would have hit 40g already.

I’m not any happier about the current rate than anyone else, but (a) it’s much, much easier to obtain 30 gold now than it was to obtain 10 gold a while back and (b) it remains a choice: get cosmetic/convenience items or not; pay with gold (more now) or pay with cash (same price as ever).

Just the nature of the beast.

As many others have said, the Gem Exchange is a Player Driven Exchange.

As such, Every Gem on the Gem Exchange is has been Paid for with real world cash. When you Buy Gems with Gold, you are not buying gems from Anet, you are buying them from another player.

Personally, I don’t like the way the exchange currently works, too much is hidden. I wish it was a lot more transparent about the exchange, more like how the BL worked, where we could set our asking price in both directions.

I think that would resolve any illusions people had about the way this works.

People need to stop being so cheap and help support the game if they love it, yea I get we arent made of money, im certainly not but I give credit where credit is do plus I want anet to continue dont you? Spending some here and there can help allot. Plus if you are really only spending time playing this anyways then your not spending half as much money buying single player games, I barely have time to any single player games anyways since there is allot for me to do in this game right now.

Ryou.2398:

People need to stop being so cheap and help support the game if they love it, yea I get we arent made of money, im certainly not but I give credit where credit is do plus I want anet to continue dont you? Spending some here and there can help allot. Plus if you are really only spending time playing this anyways then your not spending half as much money buying single player games, I barely have time to any single player games anyways since there is allot for me to do in this game right now.

A single bank slot costs more than a super awesome looking cool unique skin glider(lightning electro one). The gem prices on bank/bag slots need re-examined imo.

All the skins and costumes are reasonably priced, but the bank/bag slots are not.

You arnt comparing apples with apples.
Skins are purely cosmetic, ie just make you look differant, but bank slots provide an immediate benefit in that you can store more stuff, so its only reasonable that they will cost more.

As an aside, does anyone know how the gem / gold exchange rate is actually calculated.
ie if I bought 100K golds worth of gems, how much would the exchange rate change by?
Just in the last 4 hours, the gold / gem exchange rate has changed from 400 gems for 123 G 52S 18 to 400 gems for 123G 13S 42, so gems have become a kitteneaper.

As much as I also hate the fact that the gem prices are rising, I don’t expect Anet to do something about it. They earn more from it.

Also, I even suspect that with all the reward changes they made and the content drought we’re experiencing, they’re now using the exchange rate as a reliable/primary gold sink. It doesn’t felt that way before, but now, it certainly does.

STIHL.2489:

Just the nature of the beast.

As many others have said, the Gem Exchange is a Player Driven Exchange.

As such, Every Gem on the Gem Exchange is has been Paid for with real world cash. When you Buy Gems with Gold, you are not buying gems from Anet, you are buying them from another player.

Personally, I don’t like the way the exchange currently works, too much is hidden. I wish it was a lot more transparent about the exchange, more like how the BL worked, where we could set our asking price in both directions.

I think that would resolve any illusions people had about the way this works.

Technically ALMOST every gem. At the start there was an initial pool that anet created themselves :P

(im being nit picky :p)

Tumult.2578:

When there’s lot’s of comments saying this is natural, I like to ask questions.

How long before it becomes natural for a lot of players to no longer look at the Gem market?

How many players have already stopped even looking or considering gem purchases of any kind?

Sure there’s more readily available gold but that doesn’t mean it’s going towards gems, or will in the future, for many players. How many players have said to themselves “I simply can’t spend more than one gold for 4 gems”?

Doesn’t this make the division between the haves and the have nots, so much more obvious to players?

It’s not buy to win but can’t it look a whole lot like it?

I just don’t like the questions this all brings.

Stop pretending that the rate increase is affecting players who purchase gems with RL cash in any way, shape or form. The RL price of gems has been the same since the game released. The exchange rate means nothing to those players unless they’re buying those gems to exchange for gold. In that case, the higher the rate, the better for them.

So, this discussion is only about players who exchange gold to get gems. If a lot of players stop doing so because they don’t like the rate, then that means less gold in the exchange. Assuming a similar supply of gems, then the rate goes back down.

Your questions are based on the idea that gems ought to be attainable not only without spending RL money, but also without spending more time farming than you think is warranted. If a virtual item in the store isn’t worth the time to you, or to someone else, it isn’t worth the time. That’s what gold is, time spent playing a game.

Haves and have nots? No. We’re not talking basic human necessities or even quality of life. We’re talking about virtual fluff in a video game where all it takes is enough time spent playing the game to get as much of it as you want.

SpyderArachnid.5619:

It’s simple.

Players are not buying Gems with real money to exchange for gold. So the inventory of Gems is really low.

Yet players are buying Gems with their gold, causing the inventory of Gems to drop even further.

Thus the price of Gems is going to go up cause they are more scarce. The exchange is all player based. If no one is buying Gems to trade for gold, then no Gems will be available for purchase with gold. The less amount of Gems, the more expensive they become. If people start buying Gems with real money and exchange them for gold, the price of Gems will drop cause there is now more of them for exchange.

Don’t expect Anet to step in at all to do anything about it either. They get paid by people buying Gems with real money. They don’t get paid if you buy Gems with gold. So why would they “fix” anything? They want you to spend real money for Gems.

And from reading these forums, it seems no one wants to give Anet money cause they are unhappy with the direction and state of the game currently. So don’t expect that price to drop. If anything, expect it to keep getting higher.

Thank you for making sense!

Serophous.9085:

STIHL.2489:

Just the nature of the beast.

As many others have said, the Gem Exchange is a Player Driven Exchange.

As such, Every Gem on the Gem Exchange is has been Paid for with real world cash. When you Buy Gems with Gold, you are not buying gems from Anet, you are buying them from another player.

Personally, I don’t like the way the exchange currently works, too much is hidden. I wish it was a lot more transparent about the exchange, more like how the BL worked, where we could set our asking price in both directions.

I think that would resolve any illusions people had about the way this works.

Technically ALMOST every gem. At the start there was an initial pool that anet created themselves :P

(im being nit picky :p)

Good to know.

I still wish it was a lot more transparent how it worked.

Shiyo.3578:

Bag slots and bank slots need to go on sale

They regularly do. I have several bag slots in my bank from the last sale.

Shiyo.3578:

something that’s mandatory at this point

Nothing is mandatory.

chronometria.3708:

BrotherBelial.3094:

Stop bing a cheap skate, you want something open your wallet if you don’t want use your gold up. Don’t want to spend your gold or real money, get ready to do with out.

ANet need to get payed, you do not need a fair gem to gold ratio.

I think this would be the case if we just used gems for cosmetic items. Unfortunately, though, it costs gems to buy bag slots and those are not even shared across characters.

We really need some improvement to the way character bag slots work, as they are currently unaffordable to anyone who has even a slight interest in trying several characters.

You do not need any of those things, they are just QoL features. Sure they are nice to have, but you don’t need them.