Guild Wars 2

So, I was thinking today about the GW2 “currencies” and how this impacts the gameplay – I don’t doubt this has been discussed before so sorry if I’m going over old ground.

While GW2 has many MANY MANY currencies; more so than basically any game I’ve ever played (Karma, dungeon specific tokens, laurels, WvW tokens, fractal relics, gold, gems etc etc etc), almost all the content that matters comes down to gold.

Most of the desirable new skins come in RNG chests or on the cash shop itself; and that means gems, either by buying for cash, or with gold. This is unfortunate because gold is the singular currency in GW2 that does not experience meaningful diminishing returns; it is possible to determine an “optimum” source of gold, and then grind that source ad nauseum.

Given there is a “path of least resistance” there is no reason to do anything but this one strategy; you could go do a different dungeon and still obtain gold, but it’ll be less gold than you could have obtained doing the path of least resistance.

Contrast this against other MMOs.

Star Trek Online has around 4 or 5 currencies – energy credits, which is their throw-away gold-equivalent currency used for basic activities like buying basic equipment, paying for supplies etc. A few faction-specific credits earned by doing certain missions and tasks for those factions, and dilithium – which is the lynchpin currency that is central to all the big important transactions (new ships, high quality equipment, converts into cash shop currency).

Notice an important difference here:

Energy Credits (The gold equivalent currency) is NOT the lynchpin currency; dilithium is. Like the “special” currencies in GW2, you cannot “grind” for dilithium; you can only obtain a limited amount of it per day. How you obtain it however is the important part.

Unlike dungeon credits, a vast array of missions and objectives reward dilithium, ranging from dungeon-equivalents, to ground missions to space missions to duty officer missions (Something GW2 has no analogue to) – but each source typically only rewards it once a day, and even then only up to a hard cap. This serves to encourage players to go out and actually play the game itself – since there is a cap, and you can fill that quota from a very wide range of activities, there is no incentive to grind the same few pieces of content ad nauseum; indeed grinding the same content would be self defeating since you can only get the reward from any given activity once a day.

As long as the majority of rewards come through the cash shop, and the currency used to buy items from the cash shop (gold -> gems) can be ground without significant diminishing returns, people will continue to mash away at the path of least resistance while complaining the game feels flat – or worse, continue to walk away as many of my original GW2 friends have done since I started.

How to change the mindset and balance so late in the day however isn’t an easy question to answer without causing some serious upsets, any thoughts?

When people post hyperbolic posts like this, you cannot take anything they say seriously.

The majority of gear and weapons are obtained in game. No amount of gold will get you dungeon armors and weapons, nor distinct weapons from world bosses nor karma weapons and armors, nor any form of ascended gear.

Congratulations, you managed invoke at least 3 logical fallacies in the space of a single paragraph. Shall we just invoke Godwin’s law now to make it a full house? ¬_¬

Karizee.8076:

When people post hyperbolic posts like this, you cannot take anything they say seriously.

The majority of gear and weapons are obtained in game. No amount of gold will get you dungeon armors and weapons, nor distinct weapons from world bosses nor karma weapons and armors, nor any form of ascended gear.

They have a bit of a point, though. Gold may not get you dungeon gear, but it can get you gear with stats just as good, right?

Basically, with enough gold, you can level to 80 (Crafting), equip yourself with some of the best gear stats to be had, and even grab a Legendary or two. Gold “wins” the game for you.

As a casual gamer, I’m not sure if this is as much of a problem as the OP suggests, but I’m sure it’s not all good, either. Making Karma and Laurels more useful is something I’ve been hoping for for a while now. Especially Laurels, as they’re easy to get but time gated to prevent grinding for excessive amounts.

Ryuujin.8236:

How to change the mindset and balance so late in the day however isn’t an easy question to answer without causing some serious upsets, any thoughts?

They could have made karma into the equivalent of the dilithium.

My characters are all broke. I’m taking donations. Will craft iron ingots for armor repairs.