What happened to gold -> gem conversion rate?
Exchanging gold for gems is freaking insane now. Over 2 gold for 100 gems. What happened? This seems pretty unbalanced to me, especially since I hear the gem to gold conversion is also terrible.
Is this something that will eventually rebalance? It only seems to go up.
I agree, it’s only discouraged me from investing any money in gems. I was originally going to try and grind out some gold for gems but with the rate continuing to go up, I only have less motivation to invest play time in that sort of thing.
But I get the sense that the dev team doesn’t intend to fix this particular problem. If gems are hard to get for in-game gold, then that’ll encourage people to buy them….at least that’s the time-tested theory of microtransaction MMOs.
Remember when our developers talked about “strengthening the core game”?
How’d that work out for us so far?
Now let’s try some ideas that will really work.
How’d that work out for us so far?
Now let’s try some ideas that will really work.
It was always intended to be player driven and it will likely rise more as time goes.
Colin Johansen casts – Working As Intended
Colin Johansen hits you for 239407889 damage
Game over
Colin Johansen hits you for 239407889 damage
Game over
Exchanging gold for gems is freaking insane now. Over 2 gold for 100 gems. What happened? This seems pretty unbalanced to me, especially since I hear the gem to gold conversion is also terrible.
Is this something that will eventually rebalance? It only seems to go up.
I agree, it’s only discouraged me from investing any money in gems. I was originally going to try and grind out some gold for gems but with the rate continuing to go up, I only have less motivation to invest play time in that sort of thing.
But I get the sense that the dev team doesn’t intend to fix this particular problem. If gems are hard to get for in-game gold, then that’ll encourage people to buy them….at least that’s the time-tested theory of microtransaction MMOs.
Hence the frustration also with the gem to gold rate. I do plan to buy gems for a few things, but there’s not a lot I want from the shop, so I’ll likely have gems left over. It’s be nice to convert them back to gold, but you lose a ton on the conversion.
Maybe demand-supply effect? Isn’t it highly likely to be the result of having more and more people with a lot of gold buying gems while there are less and less people buying gems with real $$? (And there is no source for gem in-game)
Maybe demand-supply effect? Isn’t it highly likely to be the result of having more and more people with a lot of gold buying gems while there are less and less people buying gems with real $$? (And there is no source for gem in-game)
You’re absolutely correct. The problem is that the conversion rate on gems to gold is so terrible that nobody seems to want to convert in that direction to rebalance it.
It was supposed to be a balanced system where converting gems to gold made gold to gem conversion cost less and vise versa, but in practice it doesn’t seem to work because of the penalties incurred on gem to gold conversion. There’s no penalty to convert gold to gems except for the actual cost. Gems to gold is penalized to prevent cash gold from flooding the game, but it doesn’t seem to be working as intended.
Maybe demand-supply effect? Isn’t it highly likely to be the result of having more and more people with a lot of gold buying gems while there are less and less people buying gems with real $$? (And there is no source for gem in-game)
When this event launched, the gem→gold exchange shot so high i was moved off my duff to get some gems and convert.
I decided also that I liked a couple items on the store and wanted to get some, but LATER toward the end of the event when the exchange died down.
I looked today and the rate was just as high for converting gems to gold, but when I went to gold→gem panel, you got 45% fewer gems per piece of gold than you did gold for gems.
In other words, there’s about a 40% skim when converting in-game cash to gems.
There’s nothing to rant about actually. This intended to be demand-supply based mechanic.
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It always spikes during events and holidays. Halloween it skyrocketed, lost shores it went up as well. It’s no surprise, the same happened again.
Nanuuk (80 Mes), Guardian Nuuk (80 Guard),
Warrior Nuuk (80 War)
[ALS], Anvil Rock
Warrior Nuuk (80 War)
[ALS], Anvil Rock
It always spikes during events and holidays. Halloween it skyrocketed, lost shores it went up as well. It’s no surprise, the same happened again.
The problem, IMO is it seems to only go up, not down. The conversion rate has been consistently going up since the October event.
Either way, not really a rant, I just don’t understand how it skyrocketed so high so fast. I still remember 26 silver for 100 gems, and that was only in September.
It always spikes during events and holidays. Halloween it skyrocketed, lost shores it went up as well. It’s no surprise, the same happened again.
The problem, IMO is it seems to only go up, not down. The conversion rate has been consistently going up since the October event.
Either way, not really a rant, I just don’t understand how it skyrocketed so high so fast. I still remember 26 silver for 100 gems, and that was only in September.
Um around thanks giving it was like 2g + 10-30s. Before the events started it was 1g 72s. It hasn’t been constantly rising.
It was always intended to be player driven and it will likely rise more as time goes.
uhm no it’s not, anyone with basic economic knowledge will tell you this. They have the capacity and are currently manipulating the market “for our benefit”. They admitted it pre-launch.
Balance Team: Please Fix Mine Toolbelt Positioning!
In other words, there’s about a 40% skim when converting in-game cash to gems.
Naturally. You can look at it as something like a free market economy with 50% government intervention. I expect that there has to be some pegging of rates so that a certain absolute value is lost in between exchanges, whether its from gems to gold or vice versa. In real life, this is done to cater for things like social costs and benefits. Here, it could be to counter the effect of hyperinflation due to the fact that there is no limit to acquisition of gold, i.e. “money sink”
Otherwise, there would be so much gold and gems circulating inside the game, and this is ok if market prices change accordingly, but the problem is that gems store and npc prices are fixed (by game coding). Eventually, it will cost peanuts to buy a cultural armor set or a BLTC chest key.
The problem, IMO is it seems to only go up, not down.
One likely explanation as well is that the existence of the gem-gold trading system itself is naturally shifting the supply curve, thereby increasing prices for both ways of the trade. For example, I myself was many times tempted to purchase gem with real $$, but when I learned of the gem-gold trading system, decided not to since I can just rely on other people to buy gem with real money and pay gold for it instead- a resource which only acquisition cost is time.
it will continue to rise because it benefits Arenanet more because your more likely to spend real money rather than gold on gems.
and it will continue to spike even higher during holidays, not to mention im betting you’ll see the name change contract added sometime after the holiday event dies out just to keep people wanting gems.
What are people even using gems for?
Useless skins/dye packs/little Christmas toys? Not exactly something i would spend my money on but w/e.
I guess karma and mf boosters are worth while back in the day but 2g for a booster is just insane.
Really what are people buying lol.
The people who buy gems usually just spend it on the gem store rather than converting to gold.
The thing is, it’s easy to get enough gold for most things in the game, so the people who buy gems aren’t too likely to need the gold.
As a result the gem prices will always increase because there aren’t many people converting gems to gold.
There are a lot of people who want stuff from the gemstore who don’t want to spend cash, so we have a major imbalance between the two conversions.
Probably 100% planned tbh.
@KingClash: Today I bought the wintersday outfit because I wanted decent town clothes for my sylvari. I also bought black lion keys because I am hoping to open up some of those infinite merchant/banker/trader things.
(edited by Khristophoros.7194)
What are people even using gems for?
Useless skins/dye packs/little Christmas toys? Not exactly something i would spend my money on but w/e.I guess karma and mf boosters are worth while back in the day but 2g for a booster is just insane.
Really what are people buying lol.
Bank space, bags, and characters slot.
Exchanging gold for gems is freaking insane now. Over 2 gold for 100 gems. What happened? This seems pretty unbalanced to me, especially since I hear the gem to gold conversion is also terrible.
Is it? So you are buying gems with real money, aren’t you?