Guild Wars 2

Anyone else find it odd that a chunk of gold ore is worth ~75c, rather than the gold that it’s made of? I tell you, whoever is melting that kitten down to make gold coins is banking hardcore.

Well, it was selling at 89c a couple of days ago, so business doesn’t look so good lately

Maybe they are REALLY big coins?

When was the last time you bought paper and wondered why a 20 dollar bill is so expesive?

The value of coins in any system real or fictive have only shortly been related to the metal value of coinage.

Besides. how do you know the amount -weight of said gold you have harvested. I mean sure. it look s like a huge chunk when you harvest- I mean big enough to be visible on a map—— now thats big-.-
Perhaps as you pick-axe through the node. (and it should be in a vein) you find that most of that node is Quarts- (realistic) or other impurities or that the InterestGnomes takes its cut before you do,.-
It might be that Unicorns make a dump in pile shaped cones around the world and – you just -think- that – that- is gold.

> Mine Gold Ore
> Gold ore is worth less than the currency it makes.

#videogamelogic

Gold coin is 24k, gold ore and the gold ingots are much lower quality (MUCH lower)

Seriously, it’s gold ore. You don’t know what percentage of that or is actual gold. Then you have to do the processing of the ore, refine it to the right purity, etc. Ore should be worth much less than the final product it yields.

How much is a barrel of oil? How much is a gallon of gas?

Neural.1824:

Gold coin is 24k, gold ore and the gold ingots are much lower quality (MUCH lower)

This is actually a really sensical explanation, more so than I thought we could have in an MMO. Good job!

That said, how do we explain copper ore being more valuable than silver? Lol. I guess maybe copper coins are smaller, so one copper ore makes more coins than one silver ore? -SHRUG-

Here’s something a little digging on the net found:

“A typical “rich” gold ore assays about a fifth to a tenth of an ounce of gold per ton (3-6 grams per ton). If your bag weighs, say, ten pounds (1/200 of a ton) then the amount of gold in it is probably in the order of 0.015 to 0.030 grams – or at todays massive gold price about $0.40 to $0.80, assuming that you could extract it for free.

Gold ores often contain pyrite, in quantities of up to a few percent. Pyrite looks yellow and metallic, but is made of iron and sulfur. This is probably what you are seeing. Visible gold in hand samples is extremely rare, even in “rich” gold mines.

Interestingly, the pyrite often hosts the gold. Often in processing the first step will be to extract the pyrite and throw away the quartz, then the pyrite will be roasted and leached to extract the gold. The grade of those little pyrite blobs may be as high as an ounce ot two per ton. In other words, when you are looking at the pyrite you are also looking at the gold, in a manner of speaking, but even the pyrite contains less than a hundredth of a percent gold.

As you may have already figured out, the only way that you get rich with gold mining is to do it on a massive scale. If you process 20,000 tons per day of ore, you are playing with a thousand ounces or so of gold per day and have a chance of operating profitably. With a bag of ore… well, it may be interesting, but no more than that."

Source

So how many gold ingots does it take to make one gold coin?

Khisanth.2948:

So how many gold ingots does it take to make one gold coin?

AND HERE IT IS!

Two chunks of gold ore make one gold ingot. Meaning (usually) a 24K brick of gold.

Those gotta be some big-kitten coins.

HyruleanHyroe.1473:

Khisanth.2948:

So how many gold ingots does it take to make one gold coin?

AND HERE IT IS!

Two chunks of gold ore make one gold ingot. Meaning (usually) a 24K brick of gold.

Those gotta be some big-kitten coins.

The size of gold ingots varies. If an ingot in GW2 is based on the smaller size, could take a couple.

Khisanth.2948:

So how many gold ingots does it take to make one gold coin?

I do silversmithing in RL. Believe me, either we are using tiny little ingots, or we are absolutely horrid jewelers if it takes multiple ingots to make a single ring.

VOLKON.1290:

HyruleanHyroe.1473:

AND HERE IT IS!

Two chunks of gold ore make one gold ingot. Meaning (usually) a 24K brick of gold.

Those gotta be some big-kitten coins.

The size of gold ingots varies. If an ingot in GW2 is based on the smaller size, could take a couple.

Nope. Your own article says the smallest ingot is 1 oz, same size as the largest coin. At most is should be 1 coin:1 ingot, more likely 10:1 or 20:1. By that logic, each gold ore should be worth a minimum of 50 silver, but 5g or 10g would be reasonable.

So you intend to enter the money counterfeiting business. Finally, a plan to topple the trading post!

Is that what breaks your immersion?

How big to you think a chunk of gold ore is, very very small? It take 4 gold ore to make an earring hook.

The material used to make a penny in the USA is worth more than the penny itself.
So, somewhere, there is also a minter getting killed, rather than making a killing. LOL

Neural.1824:

I do silversmithing in RL. Believe me, either we are using tiny little ingots, or we are absolutely horrid jewelers if it takes multiple ingots to make a single ring.

Ok, but can you smelt an ingot or forge (would that be the correct term?) a ring in … what … 3 seconds?

The in-game currency should be re-named and split up into the appropriate ‘regions’ complete with varying exchange rates. I’d suggest the

Charrity Crown
Krytan Collar
Sylvarian Chilling
Asura Dinar
Norn Franc

That way there is no misconception about gold being gold and so on

An MMO that cared about a realistic economy would ensure that rarity and usefulness of precious metals would produce realistic values for ore and ingots. Gold ore is plentiful and it’s use in crafting and the value of those crafted items ensure the illogically low valuation. Blame who ever balances these things, it’s bad game design.

Gearbox.2748:

The value of coins in any system real or fictive have only shortly been related to the metal value of coinage.

Besides. how do you know the amount -weight of said gold you have harvested. I mean sure. it look s like a huge chunk when you harvest- I mean big enough to be visible on a map—— now thats big-.-
Perhaps as you pick-axe through the node. (and it should be in a vein) you find that most of that node is Quarts- (realistic) or other impurities or that the InterestGnomes takes its cut before you do,.-
It might be that Unicorns make a dump in pile shaped cones around the world and – you just -think- that – that- is gold.

Just wanted to say..brilliant post! thanks for the laugh.

Ryan.9387:

When was the last time you bought paper and wondered why a 20 dollar bill is so expesive?

You do know that ‘paper’ money is not made of paper, right?

I always assumed they were chocolate filled. And not good chocolate either.

Or another way to think of it…

How much value can you really get from a Node?
Consider: you run up to one, you hit it 3 times with your pick, collect your ore and run away. So the actual value of mining a node is worth about 3 seconds of earning time.

So lets say the average person would make $10/hr in a generic job. So that would mean:
$10/hr = 1000 pennies an hour(pph)
1000pph / 60 minutes = 16.66 pennies per minute (ppm)
16.66ppm / 60 seconds = .28 pennies per second (pps)
.28 pps x 3 seconds of mining = .84 pennies

So the value of mining a node is 8/10ths of a penny.

Great now math made my head hurt

If gold in real life was as plentiful as in gw2 it would be worth only 75 copper too rarity is always driven by abundance and scarcity. The model for gw2 is not earth so prices for material does not have to be the same.

Ryan.9387:

When was the last time you bought paper and wondered why a 20 dollar bill is so expesive?

Dollars are made of a light fabric or cloth, not paper that’s why they don’t fall apart when they get wet and can be thrown in the dry cleaner.

~ THE MORE YOU KNOW ~

Even crazier:

Paper grows on trees
People put ink on it in the masses and is now worth more than gold.

Yeah, if it costs you a dollar to make a dollar you’re doing it wrong. So it’s perfectly legitimate to cost coppers to make a gold.

The gold coins are infused with essence of wealth (the magical property that allows them to spawn when they are earned), which is why they are more valuable than the gold metal they are made with.

The mint takes the security of their job very seriously, which is why no one knows the recipe for making the essence of wealth.

Where is this mint again? Thinking of checking it out.

Rouven.7409:

Where is this mint again? Thinking of checking it out.

Rumor has it that you can get there if you jump into the exact center of the Mystic Forge.

Neural.1824:

Gold coin is 24k, gold ore and the gold ingots are much lower quality (MUCH lower)

So, uh, when we make gold jewelry, it’s made of crappy gold ore, and not smelted metal?

you know those generic gold bricks the size of a shoe that crooks are always stealing from banks in movies? In RL, those things are about 30 pounds each (~$520k). It’s always funny when they put 5-10 in a backpack and run away.

Rouven.7409:

Neural.1824:

I do silversmithing in RL. Believe me, either we are using tiny little ingots, or we are absolutely horrid jewelers if it takes multiple ingots to make a single ring.

Ok, but can you smelt an ingot or forge (would that be the correct term?) a ring in … what … 3 seconds?

I can’t, personally, because I use older hand crafting methods, but if you buy a pre-made mold for casting, it only takes a couple seconds to pour liquid metal into the mold.

Now.. if you want it cooled, stamped, polished, etc. yeah, it gets messy from there. Especially when you start setting stones.

I’m a little OCD with jewelry making (partially due to the dangers involved with using torches and other fun stuff in RL), so I tend to cringe when blowing through a whole bunch of gold ingots to make an amulet.

Curtis Johnson.8456:

Gold coins are far far more valuable because of what’s stamped on them.

It’s a Sega Dreamcast isn’kitten It is…I know it. It’s a Sega Dreamcast.

Well since we don’t have actual weights listed we could just assume that what’s sold as gold ore on the TP is just 75 copper of gold ore by weight. Who’s to say that gold ore you’re selling is actually a giant rock of pure gold? Maybe it’s a tiny impure sample :P

Curtis Johnson.8456:

Gold coins are far far more valuable because of what’s stamped on them.

It isn’t hard to counterfeit gold coin through metallurgy, especially in a game where you can mine the resources to make it. :P Paper on the other hand…

Curtis Johnson.8456:

Gold coins are far far more valuable because of what’s stamped on them.

Better not be a quaggan..

VOLKON.1290:

Here’s something a little digging on the net found:

“A typical “rich” gold ore assays about a fifth to a tenth of an ounce of gold per ton (3-6 grams per ton).

Unless you get this guy to mine it then maybe you’ll get a 1/10th of that.

But who said the GW2 gold is same gold we use IRL? Real gold became valuable (before it had any technical uses) only because it was rare and shiny. In GW2 there are rarer and shinier metals. Gold is just another metal and has no reason to be expensive.
Gold coins have their value based on marked and the fact it’s accepted currency in whole Tyria. It’s all about system, not real value of materials – this one was true only during “item for item” trade.

kitten , I wish I wasn’t so limited by my english >.>

[quote= Paper on the other hand…[/quote]

In Australia notes are made of plastic

Terkov.4138:

But who said the GW2 gold is same gold we use IRL? Real gold became valuable (before it had any technical uses) only because it was rare and shiny. In GW2 there are rarer and shinier metals. Gold is just another metal and has no reason to be expensive.
Gold coins have their value based on marked and the fact it’s accepted currency in whole Tyria. It’s all about system, not real value of materials – this one was true only during “item for item” trade.

kitten , I wish I wasn’t so limited by my english >.>

I thought it was because it resists corrosion. Worst thing a you can have is a few rainy days all your money. Proof of point we do not make money out of Lithium.

Fafnir.5124:

Terkov.4138:

But who said the GW2 gold is same gold we use IRL? Real gold became valuable (before it had any technical uses) only because it was rare and shiny. In GW2 there are rarer and shinier metals. Gold is just another metal and has no reason to be expensive.
Gold coins have their value based on marked and the fact it’s accepted currency in whole Tyria. It’s all about system, not real value of materials – this one was true only during “item for item” trade.

kitten , I wish I wasn’t so limited by my english >.>

I thought it was because it resists corrosion. Worst thing a you can have is a few rainy days all your money. Proof of point we do not make money out of Lithium.

Sodium coins!

Ryan.9387:

When was the last time you bought paper and wondered why a 20 dollar bill is so expesive?

USD is not made out of paper.

I just like to blame Zoidberg for the economy!

viralthefrog.6130:

The material used to make a penny in the USA is worth more than the penny itself.
……

That used to be true, but they changed the formula for the metal in early 80s when Copper prices started skyrocketing…..they are almost entirely zinc now. I’m guessing the total costs to mint a penny has exceeded it’s face value for quite a while and the Treasure Dept. would love to figure out how to remove it from circulation completely.

Ryan.9387:

When was the last time you bought paper and wondered why a 20 dollar bill is so expesive?

It’s the process to make it. There’s several trademarks and security features against counterfeiting in place.

Unless those coins have some kind of magic seal REALLY hard to replicate, they are not worth they value, even when farmers have their value already lower than Primordius’ Lair.