Guild Wars 2

In Lion’s Arch, visit the Laurel merchant and you can see you can buy 2 arrow cart blueprints for 1 laurel.

Now, if I buy 1 Heavy Crafting bag for 1 laurel and sell all the materials I got on trading post, then I can buy 100 blueprints from there.

Is this to give a view about the inflation some parts the game has suffered?

MystF.5186:

In Lion’s Arch, visit the Laurel merchant and you can see you can buy 2 arrow cart blueprints for 1 laurel.

Now, if I buy 1 Heavy Crafting bag for 1 laurel and sell all the materials I got on trading post, then I can buy 100 blueprints from there.

Is this to give a view about the inflation some parts the game has suffered?

Inflation <> Supply and Demand.

What you’ve shown is that Arrow Cart Blueprints have high supply and low demand, while T6 crafting materials have low supply and high demand.

Inflation is not even remotely involved.

In any way, 2 arrow carts per laurel is a joke.

Also, this likely comes from the very first design of the game, where tier 6 material was considered cheaper than blueprint.

MystF.5186:

In any way, 2 arrow carts per laurel is a joke.

Also, this likely comes from the very first design of the game, where tier 6 material was considered cheaper than blueprint.

The prices in laurels are not dependent upon the current gold prices on the Trading Post. They’d have to constantly be adjusting the laurel vendor if that was the case.

They picked out a price based on how many days they wanted you to play in order to get an item, which is what the laurel vendor prices are based on. The players clearly have incredibly different opinions on how valuable those items are though, which is why you can cash in your laurels for T6 mats instead and get many, many more arrow carts.

Prices are easy to set. How much the players value something is an ever-moving target that can pretty much never be “set”.

MystF.5186:

In Lion’s Arch, visit the Laurel merchant and you can see you can buy 2 arrow cart blueprints for 1 laurel.

Now, if I buy 1 Heavy Crafting bag for 1 laurel and sell all the materials I got on trading post, then I can buy 100 blueprints from there.

Sssssh! It’s Darwin’s Law at work, don’t give away the secret…

And game developers let it be all loose. Cheapest they were about 3 silvers and long time average was about 25~30 silvers.
Now half the year has passed and the materials with their current 60+ silver price have almost doubled of what they used to be in the beginning of this year. And what will the prices be in the end of this year? 1 gold?
While we do have some rich people in this game running around with 100k gold flipping everything in trading post, since the demand is 5 times higher than supply, the situation is unstoppable unless something is being done about it.

But hey! Whenever there is chance that people would lose profit on trading post, then nothing will ever even happen. Fused skins still cost 7 tickets while everything else than recent skins cost 5 tickets. Laurel merchant got various skins for sale, but no rucksack nor desert rose, since there are tradeable versions of them.

You are jumping to all kinds of uninformed conclusions. It would go too far to explain the basics of (game) economics in a forum post, so the best advice I can give you is to take an economics class, and check your opinion on Guild Wars 2.

Jornophelanthas.1475:

You are jumping to all kinds of uninformed conclusions. It would go too far to explain the basics of (game) economics in a forum post, so the best advice I can give you is to take an economics class, and check your opinion on Guild Wars 2.

What part there was uninformed? Think economics class won’t help me here, just saying it’s all about the way of designing the game. There are simply no proper gold sinks and so much money flows in from daily dungeon rewards and from few other things. While there are useless ways to obtain crafting materials, crafting professions to level 500 and then crafting ascended gear after that is greatly destroying the supply instead of sinking any gold. And those who got enough money in this game, can keep cornering the market.
Now only uninformed thing I’m going to say here is that I heard the economics in original Guild Wars game worked the other way around. Really, it’s all about in the game design.

And while I stay at stable 50 gold in my inventory, I will never even exchange gold into gems. So the gameplay of average players consist of producing more money from dungeon runs, consuming materials bought from other people and maybe buying gems for real money or never having them at all.

I am an average player, or maybe less-than-average (haven’t really done Dungeons, don’t do the World Bosses, don’t really do WvW much and have never done PvP, don’t farm anything except keys-1 or 2 a week), and I exchange Gold into Gems all the time.

So, I guess some average players help with the Gold sink. Lol, I guess…

MystF.5186:

In any way, 2 arrow carts per laurel is a joke.

Also, this likely comes from the very first design of the game, where tier 6 material was considered cheaper than blueprint.

They probably figured like most MMOs the character population would all be hanging in level 80 zones so T6 mats would be plentiful. As oppose to what happened which was you do Orr once for each character, if you are going for map complete, and never go back there again.

I don’t think it has much to do with squatting in high level zones (in fact Arena.net has done all they can to DISCOURAGE farming in any one zone for terribly long).

I think it has much more to do with the highest valued items (i.e. legendaries) require 250 of each T6 mat, and thus creates a very high demand that supply struggles to keep up with.

Behellagh.1468:

MystF.5186:

In any way, 2 arrow carts per laurel is a joke.

Also, this likely comes from the very first design of the game, where tier 6 material was considered cheaper than blueprint.

They probably figured like most MMOs the character population would all be hanging in level 80 zones so T6 mats would be plentiful. As oppose to what happened which was you do Orr once for each character, if you are going for map complete, and never go back there again.

Orr is my favorite region in the game. If anything it is too populated for my taste at this time.

Here are some uninformed conclusions, semi-quoted from the posts above:

- NPC Vendors selling items for prices that are not comparable to Trading Post prices is “a joke”.
(It is not. It is a backdoor guarantee that certain items can be obtained at a fixed laurel rate, regardless of their Trade Post price or availability. Also note that the Heavy Crafting Bag does not guarantee the specific fine material you are looking for. That is not the same as buying a specific fine material directly on the Trade Post.)

- The above difference is due to “inflation”.
(It is not. Inflation happens when the currency value of all items continually rises as time progresses (while disregarding market shocks, like the introduction of new crafting recipes or crafting tiers). The GW2 market is actually rather stable, with crafting material prices not changing all that much.)

- ArenaNet has not let go of the view that “tier 6 materials” should be worth less than WvW blueprints.
(There is no “absolute” value of either of these items, and player supply and demand determines the Trade Post values of these items (in gold).)

- Tier 6 material prices have risen, so they will continue to rise at the same rate for the foreseeable future.
(Prices could go up, down or stay the same, depending on lots of factors. Tier 6 fine materials had a stable price. After the introduction of ascended crafting, those prices went up, but stabilized at a higher level. And they are still stable. If new crafting recipes are introduced, this could result in temporary price volatility, but prices will gradually return to their normal level while everyone who wants the new item “like, right now!” gets one.)

- Demand is “five times higher” than supply.
(While this may be true for certain items, the number of buy orders compared to the number of sell offers is not the same as “supply and demand”. To be precise, it only measures the demand for people who are willing to pay X price and the supply by people who are actually willing to receive Y price. Some people possess items but do not want to sell. Others want items, but cannot or will not spend gold for it. And those orders or offers that are fulfilled immediately will never show up on the TP overview.
Short answer: It is impossible to know the true supply or demand for any given item.)

- High demand and low supply is what item flippers make money on.
(They do not, or at least only partly. Item flippers earn gold by buying items when sell prices are low, and selling when buy orders are high. If an item is in constant high demand and low supply all the time, item flippers cannot buy the item for a sufficiently low price to earn back the Trade Post taxes. The item price needs to fluctuate by at least 15% to cover these taxes.
Also, item flipping actually is good for the game economy, because it reduces price volatility, thus bringing more stability on the market.)

- “The situation is unstoppable.”
(Unsure what situation you are referring to. Item flipping, or high demand/low supply.)

- “There are no proper gold sinks in the game.”
(5% Trade Post tax on posting an item is a gold sink. 10% Trade Post tax on selling an item is a gold sink. Waypoint cost is a gold sink. Various vendor-bought crafting materials (e.g. Lumps of Coal, Bags of Flour, Weaving Spool, Thermocatalytic Reagent, Elonian Wine) are a gold sink. Trading gold for gems is a gold sink (which makes the frequently updated Gemstore into a major goldsink). Unlocking traits for gold and skill points is a gold sink. Buying anything from NPC vendors (like salvage kits and gathering tools) is a gold sink.)

- “I don’t buy gems with gold, so that is not a gold sink.”
(Other people do. I am one of them. In fact, the fact that gems cost so much gold these days is because more people are trading gold for gems than the other way around.)

- “I am an average player”, so whatever I do is what everyone does.
(This is the implicit assumption behind the previous statement.)

I’ll admit to actually LIKING have gold to gem exchange rates very, very high.

Because every two or three months, I drop $10 into gems (not including the VERY rare time I see something in the gem store I simply MUST have), and convert it into gold. I’ve gotten around 50g for that at times, which is kinda nice.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

I am an average player, or maybe less-than-average (haven’t really done Dungeons, don’t do the World Bosses, don’t really do WvW much and have never done PvP, don’t farm anything except keys-1 or 2 a week), and I exchange Gold into Gems all the time.

So, I guess some average players help with the Gold sink. Lol, I guess…

How much gold do you have? You could easily have a lot, because gem conversions is roughly 100 gold for 800 gems.

Before the April patch, I had around 220-250 gold. Now I have around 340 gold. Every week I spend 10-15% of my gold to buy gems. In the last 15 or so weeks I’ve spent around 500-700g buying gems. And my bank still went up 100g.

I only play two hours a night, do two minor boss events, a half a dozen champs and the rest of the time exploring, gathering, rezing, doing events I come across, etc. I do all the meta-events leading up to the boss events I do and not simply park myself waiting for the boss to pop up. Selling what I find on the TP with sell orders, not selling to the highest bidder. Sometimes I salvage the rares and exotics I find for mats, sometimes I sell them intact. I’m not grinding dungeon paths or fractals or riding the boss event train for hours every night.

I use the laurels I’m getting from daily and monthly to convert into gold (do I really need more than 500 laurels in the bank?). I use the level or two I get nightly, well the skill points from that, to upconvert mats for a profit. Buying the raw material with bids on the TP that I place at the start of my play session and convert when they eventually come in.

It is not difficult to make money in this game if you open yourself up to the possibilities while still not resorting to grind the same thing for hours every night.

The laurel merchant is just one way of several ways to get the same merchandise depending on what you happen to have an excess of. If you have a lot of gold and not a lot of laurels or you are saving them up, buy that item with gold then. If you are short on gold and have a ton of laurels, buy with laurels. The choice is yours.

Because Jotun

Morsus.5106:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

I am an average player, or maybe less-than-average (haven’t really done Dungeons, don’t do the World Bosses, don’t really do WvW much and have never done PvP, don’t farm anything except keys-1 or 2 a week), and I exchange Gold into Gems all the time.

So, I guess some average players help with the Gold sink. Lol, I guess…

How much gold do you have? You could easily have a lot, because gem conversions is roughly 100 gold for 800 gems.

I am afraid I have never converted Gems to Gold, as that would be counter-productive in my case as I only obtain Gems by converting Gold. I currently only have about 500 Gold as there were a couple of items I wanted in the Gem Store recently.

mtpelion.4562:

The prices in laurels are not dependent upon the current gold prices on the Trading Post. They’d have to constantly be adjusting the laurel vendor if that was the case.

They picked out a price based on how many days they wanted you to play in order to get an item, which is what the laurel vendor prices are based on. The players clearly have incredibly different opinions on how valuable those items are though, which is why you can cash in your laurels for T6 mats instead and get many, many more arrow carts.

Those prices were already ridiculous on the day laurel vendor got introduced.

Yeah, I’ll admit I made really bad statements here and misused the inflation term. Should have found better way to express my thoughts about current prices of crafting materials. I’m one of those people who starts writing nonsense when being mad, thinking I know everything.

I can’t even believe myself that I said supply instead of sell listings. -.-