This is getting to a point where it is extremely unreasonable for new players to be able to earn bag or bank expansions, or for players in general to be able to play to earn any of the gemstore items.
I remember how I once got 2000 gems for 7 gold right at the launch years ago xD. Now, I always buy them because it is cheaper to earn real cash than to farm
This is getting to a point where it is extremely unreasonable for new players to be able to earn bag or bank expansions, or for players in general to be able to play to earn any of the gemstore items.
It’s a cash shop. Price hadn’t changed there.
It’s unfair that new players can’t afford to buy 20 bag slots right away either.
Then they can spend the IRL money for the extra bag slots like the rest of us. The idea is to spend $20 here every few months or so and gradually build up our storage (and vanity items, and rare tier gathering stuff that thankfully doesn’t need replacement) instead of ludicrous amounts all at once.
Extra bags and bank expansions are a QoL thing, not a necessity. New players can either earn the gold and wait for the exchange rates to settle, or, as Agemnon said, spend RL dollars like many of us have.
It doesn’t work.
Other f2p games I’ve played tried to do it, and it doesn’t work. What would happen is: store currency capped at, say, 500; very, very few people selling the currency for gold; an ENORMOUS amount of demand/requests for gemstore currency that would never be filled. The truth was, selling that currency for gold wasn’t worth it… so nobody did it. They could pump out gems into our accounts to lower the prices a little, but I don’t see why they’d do it atm.
But yeah, the gem prices are a lil too much… just wait for HoT release, it’s gonna be the apocalypse.
You realize OP, that the prices are determined by players buying and selling gems. Players buy gems with real money and sell these gems to you for gold. The more gems bought with real money to sell for gold, the more gems are in the gem pool and the cheaper they are to buy with gold.
If the prices are capped, then the people who buy gems to sell to you will quickly stop as they won’t be getting their money’s worth. If they aren’t buying gems to sell to you, then the fewer gems are in the gem pool and the more the gems cost to buy with gold, until there are no gems for you to buy.
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
This is getting to a point where it is extremely unreasonable for new players to be able to earn bag or bank expansions, or for players in general to be able to play to earn any of the gemstore items.
Unreasonable request for one simple reason, that quite a few people can agree with: extra space will just get filled with more junk you dont get rid of. For another simple reason as well, the prices are dictated in IRL CASH. Not some digital currency that has very few inflation/deflation controls who’s related value to the IRL-tied currency has continuously had a net-decrease.
It took me a long time to earn enough to upgrade my bank tab slots and add extra inventory bags. And I played from release. I don’t see how it’s unfair…?
~Mera Darklady~
Legion of Honour [XIII]
Elementalist
Gold to gems isn’t really designed for new players in the first place, really its meant to keep older players playing by allowing them to use excess wealth for gem items. Usually how these systems work actually relies on new players to seed the gems by using RL cash in order to get a boost in gold starting out.
Post title: Gold-to-gems-ratio-should-be-hardcapped
That would hurt new players who prefer to buy gems with their hard-earned cash and convert to gold, so they can get a jump start on acquiring the vast majority of things in game that aren’t available via gems. I don’t see why those new players are less valuable to the community than the ones who aren’t willing to pay cash for gems. (And clearly, they are more valuable to ANet’s bottom line.)
This is getting to a point where it is extremely unreasonable for new players to be able to earn bag or bank expansions, or for players in general to be able to play to earn any of the gemstore items.
What’s your definition of ‘unreasonable’ ? What is ‘very unreasonable’? And what do you mean by ‘earn’ bag or bank extensions? When the game launched, it took hours for most people to acquire enough gold to buy gems…and there were lots of things people saved silvers for: repairing armor, trait unlocks, and world bosses weren’t guaranteed to drop rares. Now, it’s far easier to earn gold (which, by the way, is part of the reason the gold:gem ratio is so much higher).
So is it harder now or easier now to earn enough gold for a bank expansion? And even if it’s more difficult now, why is that a bad thing?
tl;dr the questions you raise are more complex than your post suggests. To the extent that there is an issue that ANet might want to address, the solution won’t be as simple as placing a cap on the rate.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
The conversion ratio scales with how easy it is to earn gold. On release it took longer to earn gold, so things were cheaper. Now you can earn a lot more gold so the value of gold is lower. It’s just basic inflation. That affects the gem conversion ratio the same way it affects the gold costs of items on the trading post.
Gold took longer to farm back in the day so it had more value.
So in reality it takes the same amount of time to farm the gold needed for account upgrades as it did back in the day.
