Guild Wars 2

Right now is 1:10
Will we ever see something like 1gold=1gem?
If this will happen, devs will interfere with tyrian wealth to give us the ability to aquire what we are used to, spending the same time we spend right now?
Or one day a full armor set (or an instrument/gathering tool) from the trading post will be a really long term goal, something like ascended armor or legendaries?
What do you think?

To me store items were good mid term goals that keep me busy because I felt legendaries were out of my reach, but lately I feel like the effort to gain some gems is a bit excessive :S (probably only a subjective matter and I just reached my breaking point while others would still be ok with 1:1 even with the current economy).

If in the future you will gain gold at the same speed you’re able right now, at what ratio would you stop exchanging gold for gems?

This will continue until the rate discourages enough people from turning gold into gems. As long as people continue to do this, the ratio will continue to move further from what you want.

The way to counter this is simple, and Anet is not going to interfere. When the rate discourages players from using in-game gold to buy gems, it becomes very tempting to buy gems with real money and exchange them for gold. The more people who buy gems and then exchange those gems for gold, the lower the rate goes until it reaches the ratio that is attractive to players who want to exchange gold for gems.

This is entirely intentional, it’s not an accident and Anet is not going to interfere so the cheapoes can continue buying gems for gold and avoid spending any actual money on the game. They are more likely to appreciate those who do spend actual money on the game and feel rewarded because they can exchange those gems for a significant amount of gold.

I still remmeber seeing dusk on the tp for 25g and that was the same week I bought my abyss dye for 2 gold 50 silver off the tp.

Prices will only continue to go up. The more and more gold people are making, the more expensive things get. However i think the rate at which inflation will rise will only get slower, as people will eventually hit the most efficient way to get gold (which they have already done, its just that the rest of the population havnt done it yet, and they will soon get to that point)

in short, no I dont think you will have to worry about 1:1 ratio.

But what if the acquisition of gems with real money will not increase and many of the people who intend to spend money will start to leave for faraway countries where their money will grant them “winning priviledges”?
In GW2 non-paying customers will always be more than the paying ones, if the latter will decrease the grind will increase.

The best reward right now passed through the store, why stress the players to the point of forcing them to buy with real money new “content”?
When they could simply come out with a periodic expansion that relaxed players prepared to the upcoming expense will gladly afford?

It’s because of the living story? Because is more lucrative than expansions?

You seriously think people will move to another country just to get a better rate on their cash to gems transactions? Seriously? O.o

I do understand your concerns. Trust me, I do. Those who know me on these forums will know that I’ve argued strongly against the gem store offering anything beyond convenience or cosmetic goods. And as long as the gem store does only that, I feel that the playing field is relatively fair.

I’d actually say that the gem-gold ratio is quite balanced right now. Despite the numerous sales we’ve had lately, the ratio has not broken past the 7 – 8g gold barrier for many months. It seems that we’ve reached the point where players are willing to spend cash for gems and convert it into gold, at a roughly equal ratio to players trading gold for gems.

If the ratio increases beyond current levels, that would mean that players are earning gold at a faster rate. That actually points to there being inflation within the game, which ANet could only fix by reducing the amount of gold players get. (And you can imagine how that would go down. There are already complaints over diminishing returns, the nerfing of coin from Champ bags, and the Megaserver architecture which would nerf alt-farming.)

tolunart.2095:

This will continue until the rate discourages enough people from turning gold into gems. As long as people continue to do this, the ratio will continue to move further from what you want.

The way to counter this is simple, and Anet is not going to interfere. When the rate discourages players from using in-game gold to buy gems, it becomes very tempting to buy gems with real money and exchange them for gold. The more people who buy gems and then exchange those gems for gold, the lower the rate goes until it reaches the ratio that is attractive to players who want to exchange gold for gems.

This is entirely intentional, it’s not an accident and Anet is not going to interfere so the cheapoes can continue buying gems for gold and avoid spending any actual money on the game. They are more likely to appreciate those who do spend actual money on the game and feel rewarded because they can exchange those gems for a significant amount of gold.

I’ve bought gems, but I don’t consider those who haven’t cheapos. We bought a game that was promised to have everything available without buying gems with cash. Converting gold to gems as I have also done, is playing the game the way we were told it could be played. If you don’t like people buying gems with in game currency oh well.

The rise in gemprice simply reflects inflation in the game (something they already try to reduce with all the things mentioned by Zaxares) and I don’t really see it as a bad thing; I can earn more gold than I could if I’d played when the game got released, I got to pay a bit more gold for gems, where-as it helps A-net when gems for money becomes more attractive.

I doubt it will become 1:1 and if it does, kitten gold got easy to earn.

@ Aiden there’re no reason to react so strongly. All he mentioned was that people are chosing the more economical way and that he doesn’t expect Anet to improve their quality of life if Gem:Gold goes out of their favour, he never said there’s anything wrong with the system.

Zaxares.5419:

You seriously think people will move to another country just to get a better rate on their cash to gems transactions? Seriously? O.o
[…]

Sorry xD
I meant that people could leave for other new “online worlds” where their money would give them significative advantage over other players.

I saw that Anet earned from GW2 $3.88 per user over the last 12 months.
But it’s not like every player spent that money, a guy like the one in the image below can cover the fee of many, MANY non-paying users by himself.

So having the game relying on these players isn’t…it…a bit risky?
They greatly contribute to the creation of new content but I suppose they’re not the majority of the population, if they leave for new games anet would probably need to “convert” more non-paying users into paying ones.

Listening to what tolunart.2095 said, the game itself is build to work in that way, to prevent the absence of paying users, but honestly, if the average player experience burn out for not being able to achieve his self-imposed goals anymore (self-imposed, but stongly promoted by anet in almost every patch), would he blame itself for not having enough time/money due the increasing grind or would he blame the company for a system that move farther and farther his objectives to instill in him the desire to spend money?

Again, what’s the ratio that a non-paying customer is able to tolerate?
And passed that point he will really start to buy with real money?

$3.88 per each user is it way more lucrative than the purchase of a new expansion from the loyal core of the community?

edit: isn’t……it censored… really? -__-