Guild Wars 2

I’m happy with it. It’s the first time I’ve ever felt it was worth buying gold with my gems.

It’ll swing back eventually, and those who enjoy the exchange to buy gems will be happy… then at some point it’ll swing back the other way for those willing/wanting to buy gold.

I doubt ANet will intervene in the way the OP (and others) might wish, just ’cause a good gems-to-gold rate (and consequently a historically bad gold-to-gems rate) means people will be more willing to open up their wallets to buy gems with RL cash. Businesses like income.

~EW

People buying gems is the main income for ANet. At the moment it is worth buying gems to turn to gold. Normally it’s not. If you don’t want to spend your gold on Gems, there is always the option to use irl money, for those who have money.

I think this is one aspect where GW2 resembles free-to-play games.

Apparently in most f2p games something like 80-90% of players never spend any real-life money. I think similarly there are far more GW2 players who convert gold to gems to buy things from the gem store than convert gems to gold, and they convert larger amounts.

As a result the exchange rate keeps going up. The only way that will change is if somehow more people are buying gems and converting them to gold than the other way around, and that’s not likely to happen.

Even if Anet reset the exchange rate to what it was at launch it wouldn’t last. Anyone who is aware of it would take the opportunity to convert their gold to gems (either to get cheap gems for their own use or to convert back to gold later) and the exchange rate would shoot back up. It genuinely wouldn’t surprise me if doing that resulted in it becoming even higher than it is now. Of course it would dip again when the aforementioned people convert their gems back to gold (which would then cause huge inflation in the trading post) but ultimately we’d end up right back where we are now.

I suppose they could fix the exchange rate at a set point and stop it changing, no matter how many people convert gold. But then I can guarantee people will be unhappy with whatever number they pick and they’d have no hope of it changing.

On the flip side, you are now able to use real money for dirt cheap gold, so the rate is also “really low” depending on what side of the equation interests you.

Even if we were all to agree that it’s a problem, what is the fix for it? The increase is driven by more players converting gold to gems than gems to gold. You’d either have to reduce the amount of gold that players have to buy gems (nerf income so they’ll buy gems with real money to get gold instead) or reduce their reason to buy gems (by not having interesting things in the gem store, which directly impacts ANet’s income and reduces their budget to make new content.) So either reduce the incoming gold or reduce ANet’s income. Neither of these is a good option imo.

Abyssic.2841:

What do you think are the reasons for this?

Short story: ANet has gotten better about offering us stuff for which we are willing to spend gold.

Abyssic.2841:

Do you think Arenanet should intervene and change the rate for the good of the players?

For which players?

• Higher rate is better for new players who spend cash, since a little RL cash goes a lot further.
• Higher rate makes it harder for gold sellers to compete (mostly the amateurs; the professionals usually figure out work-arounds).
• Higher rate hurts the risk:reward ratio for gold buyers — if you can get a bunch of coin legit, why risk your account by purchasing from the black market?
• Higher rate is only worse for cheapskates, such as myself, who don’t want (or can’t afford) to invest RL cash for cosmetic or convenience items.

Thus, it’s quite likely that a higher gold:gem ratio is best for the community as a whole (even if it’s horrid for me personally).

tl;dr no, ANet shouldn’t intervene.

PS the ratio is certainly at its highest point to date. However, if you look at the graph linked above, you’ll see that it dropped several times in the last year and it’s difficult to suggest a overall trend since the second anniversary (September-ish, 2014) — there have been tons of ups & downs, including the highest rates ever at the time, followed by rates lower than six months or even a year earlier). Overall, as with any MMO with a coin:cash conversion mechanic, the trend is up; unlike other MMOs, the overall trend has been relatively modest.

Simply put, add in to many ways to make ways to farm gold and you will get inflation up until the point where the amount of gems bought for real money covers the amount of gems bought with gold.

Players were screaming and yelling about how with the launch of HoT gold generation was heavily curbed and begged arenanet to increase gold gains. Arenanet obliged.

It’s one or the other. Can’t have it both ways (quite literally you can’t since it’s 2 opposite economic extremes). There are multiple factors which are part of this equation, but that summary is basically it.

Adding 2g to the daily was really silly imo. I don’t see why it was needed as all it’s done is cause huge inflation on EVERY SINGLE ITEM in the game. Every account just adds 2g more to the economy per day with very little effort.

Shiyo.3578:

Adding 2g to the daily was really silly imo. I don’t see why it was needed as all it’s done is cause huge inflation on EVERY SINGLE ITEM in the game. Every account just adds 2g more to the economy per day with very little effort.

As they said, they added the 2 gold dailies because there is a big difference between the haves and the have nots. They also said they would be monitoring inflation and put in fixes as needed.

You should remember they added gold back to dungeons as well.

Mike-OBrien-ArenaNet
Of course we’re also adding gold back to dungeons today, with the new repeatable achievement. But I’ll directly tackle your question. Most wealth in the game is generated by people who are very proficient at generating wealth. They can bid a lot for what they want, because they have a lot of gold, and that process drives inflation. Meanwhile the broader player base is just getting by. So we keep a close eye on how much gold can be generated from extreme farming, but at the same time try to provide a decent income to normal players.

ANet ProbablyJohnSmith
We felt we had some room for increasing player income without risking major problems. That said, we’ll keep a close eye on the progression over time, there are lots of options for fixing imbalances if they’re needed.

I don’t see how there’s a big difference between the “haves and have nots”. Just go to nearly any zone and make 100g every few days of just playing the game and gathering stuff you see.

I feel like anet is just looking at people who don’t even play the game or extreme casuals? The 2g dailies have done nothing but inflate everything from my POV.

I took a 2-3 month break and in that time nearly every high price high demand material has DOUBLED in price, while going up day by day. I see no positive aspects from this free 2g a day daily, only double increases in prices.

The economy seems worse than it was, with everything hyper inflating and constantly increasing.

Shiyo.3578:

I don’t see how there’s a big difference between the “haves and have nots”. Just go tonearly any zone and make 100g every few days of just playing the game and gathering stuff you see.

I feel like anet is just looking at people who don’t even play the game or extreme casuals? The 2g dailies have done nothing but inflate everything from my POV.

Of course. Your viewpoint is much more accurate than theirs with their metrics and all. Who could possibly dispute that.

Their metrics could be flawed by casual accounts that play once per month or people who don’t even do HoT zones or anything that gains gold then complain they don’t have gold, so yes.

Shiyo.3578:

Their metrics could be flawed by casual accounts that play once per month or people who don’t even do HoT zones or anything that gains gold then complain they don’t have gold, so yes.

Absolutely. I bet they never once considered that there are casual accounts that only play once a month or do things that don’t earn them gold. Why I bet even the ingame economist never once considered these things you are able to mention with only a few seconds thought.

I dunno, I have a legendary and enough mats +gold to finish another whenever I want and I stopped playing for like 2 years straight. I don’t even do things that are the most efficient for gold, I just play the game and PVP. Don’t really trust their metrics TBH.

It seems to have done more harm than good in less than 3 months. I felt like gaining gold to buy gems was easier, if that was their intention then ok I guess.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Even if we were all to agree that it’s a problem, what is the fix for it? The increase is driven by more players converting gold to gems than gems to gold. You’d either have to reduce the amount of gold that players have to buy gems (nerf income so they’ll buy gems with real money to get gold instead) or reduce their reason to buy gems (by not having interesting things in the gem store, which directly impacts ANet’s income and reduces their budget to make new content.) So either reduce the incoming gold or reduce ANet’s income. Neither of these is a good option imo.

You’re missing the option where inflation is reversed and gem sales stay high: gold sinks. Add items that can be purchased from an NPC for gold, and the gold is removed from the economy entirely.

Things like cultural armor exist, it takes 100 gold to complete a set:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Cultural_armor

And we have seen from gem sales people will pay out the kitten for skins. Things like Guild Traders, Karma Converters, and Ley-Energy Matter Converter exist for converting guild commendations, karma, and HoT currencies into other things. As far as I’m aware no such thing exists for coin.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sigurlina_Jonsdottir#Items_offered
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Karmic_Converter
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ley-Energy_Matter_Converter

These gem-shop sales have shown that when things are a limited time people will buy them. The same thing would work to suck gold out. Having tiers for 1, 10, and 100 gold at a time would make a dent in short order. Hell, they could even add a gem shop item that would allow two or more purchases per day.

Hesacon.8735:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Even if we were all to agree that it’s a problem, what is the fix for it? The increase is driven by more players converting gold to gems than gems to gold. You’d either have to reduce the amount of gold that players have to buy gems (nerf income so they’ll buy gems with real money to get gold instead) or reduce their reason to buy gems (by not having interesting things in the gem store, which directly impacts ANet’s income and reduces their budget to make new content.) So either reduce the incoming gold or reduce ANet’s income. Neither of these is a good option imo.

You’re missing the option where inflation is reversed and gem sales stay high: gold sinks. Add items that can be purchased from an NPC for gold, and the gold is removed from the economy entirely.

Things like cultural armor exist, it takes 100 gold to complete a set:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Cultural_armor

And we have seen from gem sales people will pay out the kitten for skins. Things like Guild Traders, Karma Converters, and Ley-Energy Matter Converter exist for converting guild commendations, karma, and HoT currencies into other things. As far as I’m aware no such thing exists for coin.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sigurlina_Jonsdottir#Items_offered
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Karmic_Converter
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ley-Energy_Matter_Converter

These gem-shop sales have shown that when things are a limited time people will buy them. The same thing would work to suck gold out. Having tiers for 1, 10, and 100 gold at a time would make a dent in short order. Hell, they could even add a gem shop item that would allow two or more purchases per day.

Maybe

For one thing the Devs would have to be among us agreeing that there is a problem. There’s no indication that they do, particularly since they’ve added the 2 gold dailies and gold back to dungeons.

The other problem is they said the main driver of inflation is that some people are getting a lot of wealth as compared to the rest of the players. This high amount of gold as compared to average joe player allows them to bid up prices. A gold sink would need to be made that makes a significant dent on their gold while at the same time not be crushingly high for average joe, otherwise the wealthy can buy the item and still bid up prices.

What they said would happen and what has actually happened are not the same thing. The evidence is pretty clear what’s going on and that Keynesian thought will have to go away when they re-examine things.

All the recent gem-shop items have been cosmetic luxury items, not essentials (I need some freaking bank tabs). Such a gold sink could be mostly cosmetic items at high prices or could set a price ceiling for certain items.

100 gold for the boots to a skin set that won’t be offered again until a random day 1-3 months from now would spend a lot of gold. It wouldn’t be the poor players trying to get leather to make exotic armor who are spending it, but with less gold in circulation the leather prices might go down.

• The poor player benefits because commodity prices are in range of the new daily rewards system
• The rich player benefits because the gold they’re sitting on can actually buy them something they want
• Anet benefits because players will buy gems to exchange for gold because gold is useful

Or alternately people would buy gold with gems in order to buy that cosmetic item. They’d get a lot of gold for their gems too.

Shiyo.3578:

Adding 2g to the daily was really silly imo. I don’t see why it was needed as all it’s done is cause huge inflation on EVERY SINGLE ITEM in the game. Every account just adds 2g more to the economy per day with very little effort.

2 gold is nothing. It’s the price of crafting materials that has things going crazy. The mid-grade wood and metals are selling like crazy. I used to farm for the higher materials but have shifted to middle grade wood/metal because of the prices. 2 gold a day doesn’t even compare to how much you can make farming. 2 gold just covers waypoint jumps and odd incidentals like salvage kits.

I’m just not converting gold to gems until things settle down or I really need something. I make quite a bit of gold without really much effort. I don’t even sell the blues and green drops now, I just salvage them. I even salvage some of the yellow drops for the ecto.

Well several of the new legendaries need spirit wood and the recipe for insignia changed requiring both cloth and leather now. So the mid tier wood and leather mats are now in demand as much as silk and linen were.

Surprise? No.

its all of the ppl like me using gem to transfer to diff server for WvW.

Tekoneiric.6817:

Shiyo.3578:

Adding 2g to the daily was really silly imo. I don’t see why it was needed as all it’s done is cause huge inflation on EVERY SINGLE ITEM in the game. Every account just adds 2g more to the economy per day with very little effort.

2 gold is nothing. It’s the price of crafting materials that has things going crazy. The mid-grade wood and metals are selling like crazy. I used to farm for the higher materials but have shifted to middle grade wood/metal because of the prices. 2 gold a day doesn’t even compare to how much you can make farming. 2 gold just covers waypoint jumps and odd incidentals like salvage kits.

I’m just not converting gold to gems until things settle down or I really need something. I make quite a bit of gold without really much effort. I don’t even sell the blues and green drops now, I just salvage them. I even salvage some of the yellow drops for the ecto.

Price of materials go hand-in-hand with available cash. Higher demand + higher gold reserves = higher prices.

2g per person per day doesn’t sound like a lot, but it really adds up.

This thread shows a very consistent misunderstanding of basic economic principles.

Material farms, such as the FSG or AB or DS farms do NOT increase the amount of gold in the economy, in fact they DECREASE it. The TP takes 15% of all material transactions, removing excess gold.

Things that increase gold and inflation are: opening champ bags (1-4s per), running dungeons (multiple gold per), logging in (2g per day), selling junk, SW chest farm, and some other random things.

The biggest change was recently everyone got 2g per day just for logging in for 10 minutes. This is a HUGE added gold faucet, of which I have no idea why they thought it was a good idea. Additionally, HoT maps added things like barbed thorns, leaf fossils, milling stones, and shiny baubels which added another huge increase on vendored gold income.

I can only assume they ignored John Smith and added in all this excess gold to try and make players happy. Of course as any student in even basic economics could tell you, this has turned out to be a disaster, with prices on every used item rising at a dramatic pace, with no slow down in site.

On the plus side, this is good for Anet since it encourages people to buy gems with money instead of gold, which is the primary income for the game. As such I don’t expect this to be changed until inflation is well out of control.

The cost of gems is looking to double in less than a year.
This cripples new players.
There doesn’t seem to be anything in place to deal with this kind of surge.
Yes, there’s more gold but is it realistic to think that the majority of players are now buying a bunch of stuff from the Gem shop? Especially with all the gold sinks now in game?
Isn’t there a huge advantage for the rich buying the cost of gems way up, to prevent others from buying the same things and better maintaining the value of their purchases?
The attempt to “buy to win” never really stops….

Tumult.2578:

The cost of gems is looking to double in less than a year.
This cripples new players.
There doesn’t seem to be anything in place to deal with this kind of surge.
Yes, there’s more gold but is it realistic to think that the majority of players are now buying a bunch of stuff from the Gem shop? Especially with all the gold sinks now in game?
Isn’t there a huge advantage for the rich buying the cost of gems way up, to prevent others from buying the same things and better maintaining the value of their purchases?
The attempt to “buy to win” never really stops….

Being able to convert gold to gems was never meant to circumvent players from purchasing gems with real life currency. Otherwise, the rates would be fixed and not dependent on gem->gold and gold->gem conversions.

All of the items on the gem store are not needed at all to play this game. Nobody is crippled. Some are QoL upgrades but that is it. The rates go up because players are still converting their gold to gems at a rapid pace compared to selling gems for gold. It’s not just the rich players at fault here.

People also need to realize that at the launch of the game, 5-10G/hr was considered great. Players are now making up to 4 times that with various farms. With players having more access to gold, they’re going to make more purchases with some evidently being in the gem store.

Anet has also been consistently doing sales to get players to consistently purchase items from the gem store. This is much different than previous years.

I don’t disagree with anything your saying, although I suspect “Gems for Gold” purchases are heavily from the rich. The gem shop items are inherently for looks and not for improving game ability. It’s all accumulative.
The rate of increase simply makes me suspect something else is also going on here.

Tumult.2578:

The cost of gems is looking to double in less than a year.
This cripples new players.

Which new players? the ones willing to spend cash for gems are getting better value. The ones starting new characters are getting more for the “useless” items (relative to current costs) for stuff they accumulate while leveling up.

The only new characters who might be worse off are those who are cheapskates (like I am) and then they are only delayed in purchasing stuff from the gem shop, none of which is essential to enjoying the game.

Tumult.2578:

There doesn’t seem to be anything in place to deal with this kind of surge.

The market is in place to deal with “this kind of surge.” It’s not the first spike in the history of gold:gem rates and it won’t be the last (in the past, spikes have always been followed by sudden dips and/or gradual declines).

Tumult.2578:

Yes, there’s more gold but is it realistic to think that the majority of players are now buying a bunch of stuff from the Gem shop? Especially with all the gold sinks now in game?

I don’t understand what “gold sinks” have to do with buying stuff from the gem shop. People have pointed out the many reasons why gem:gold is the highest it’s ever been. There are several factors, so it’s not only “realistic”, it’s been fairly predictable.

Tumult.2578:

Isn’t there a huge advantage for the rich buying the cost of gems way up, to prevent others from buying the same things and better maintaining the value of their purchases?

This is always true: the 1% have always had an advantage (and will continue to do so). There’s no game system in which those who play less and/or less efficiently get to spend more.

Tumult.2578:

The attempt to “buy to win” never really stops….

What does that mean? How can you “buy to win” in GW2? You can look shinier, but you can’t play better for having more to spend.

$20 for 3 bag slots cripples new players.
$10 for a single bank expansion cripples new players.

330g for 3 bag slots cripples new players.
161g for a bank slot cripples new players.

These are mandatory things you need to be able to actually play the game at this point, with so many new items and things you simply CANNOT put into material storage or don’t go into your wallet.

Trying to play a character without at least 120 bag slots is not really doable at all with how much garbage you’re constantly given. A person without any bag slot extensions will have to CONSTANTLY fix their bags, even mid opening all the AB chests. It’s a real headache and not fun. You spend more time managing inventory than acutally looting things sometimes. While having 125-160 bag slots makes it so you never have to fix your bags until you’ve played for HOURS.

It’s really not fair for new players to have to suffer through this. Before it was ok because converting to gold for the insanely overepriced things(bank/bag slots) was totally reasonable. Now we’re at the point where 3 bag slots costs as much as a precursor, which is completely out of reach for new players.

Having the expansion needs to come with 3 bank and an extra bag slot on every character at this point. $20 for 3 bag slots and $10 per bank slot is extremely overpriced, when they are no longer “luxury” and now “mandatory” due to how filled your inventory becomes. They were once fine when there wasn’t so many items clogging your inventory, and when gems weren’t insanely overpriced to convert, but not anymore.

It’s REALLY bad for new players.

The gem prices on bank and bag slots need to be rexamined with how the game is now. I’m lucky and bought all my bank and bag slots on characters when it was 80g for 800 gems.

Been buying gems and converting them into gold for years. Always a welcome site to see the exchange in my favor.

Blame inflation over the past few years and perhaps ANet’s motives to push gem store sales which involves player’s interest thus leading to players converting gold into gems which drives the exchange up, especially whenever ANet puts on a sale…. which is generally quite frequent.

Players are getting MUCH more gold than they used to these days. And things are costing MUCH more as well… it’s a never ending cycle.

Shiyo.3578:

$20 for 3 bag slots cripples new players.
$10 for a single bank expansion cripples new players.

330g for 3 bag slots cripples new players.
161g for a bank slot cripples new players.

These are mandatory things you need to be able to actually play the game at this point, with so many new items and things you simply CANNOT put into material storage or don’t go into your wallet.

Trying to play a character without at least 120 bag slots is not really doable at all with how much garbage you’re constantly given. A person without any bag slot extensions will have to CONSTANTLY fix their bags, even mid opening all the AB chests. It’s a real headache and not fun. You spend more time managing inventory than acutally looting things sometimes. While having 125-160 bag slots makes it so you never have to fix your bags until you’ve played for HOURS.

New player here. The above is nowhere near my experience. I run with 100 slot inventory (5*20), so no purchased slots, and have no problems whatsoever, and I even lug around stuff I really don’t need, like parts for Mawdrey I haven’t “charged” yet. I salvage regularly during play, deposit materials when my Craftsman’s bag is full, and make sure to run by a vendor every now and then to sell junk and runes. The only thing that takes any real management is TPing Major/Superior runes & sigils.

Stopping in the middle of opening a swarm of chests like after AB meta? Sounds completely reasonable to me. That’s not “constantly fixing my bags”.

2 of my 3 80s doesn’t even have 20 slot bags in all slots, and there’s no real problem, though I carry fewer extra stuff on them.

The extra storage pane yes, that’s close to mandatory. I’d love to see 1 or 2 panes purchasable at a reduced price, kind of like the bag slot bonus (1 bag slot + 3 Item boosters for less than a normal bag slot, 1/acc).

Shiyo.3578:

$20 for 3 bag slots cripples new players.
$10 for a single bank expansion cripples new players.

330g for 3 bag slots cripples new players.
161g for a bank slot cripples new players.

These are mandatory things you need to be able to actually play the game at this point, with so many new items and things you simply CANNOT put into material storage or don’t go into your wallet.

Trying to play a character without at least 120 bag slots is not really doable at all with how much garbage you’re constantly given. A person without any bag slot extensions will have to CONSTANTLY fix their bags, even mid opening all the AB chests. It’s a real headache and not fun. You spend more time managing inventory than acutally looting things sometimes. While having 125-160 bag slots makes it so you never have to fix your bags until you’ve played for HOURS.

It’s really not fair for new players to have to suffer through this. Before it was ok because converting to gold for the insanely overepriced things(bank/bag slots) was totally reasonable. Now we’re at the point where 3 bag slots costs as much as a precursor, which is completely out of reach for new players.

Having the expansion needs to come with 3 bank and an extra bag slot on every character at this point. $20 for 3 bag slots and $10 per bank slot is extremely overpriced, when they are no longer “luxury” and now “mandatory” due to how filled your inventory becomes. They were once fine when there wasn’t so many items clogging your inventory, and when gems weren’t insanely overpriced to convert, but not anymore.

It’s REALLY bad for new players.

The gem prices on bank and bag slots need to be rexamined with how the game is now. I’m lucky and bought all my bank and bag slots on characters when it was 80g for 800 gems.

New players are not crippled. They either need to use better inventory management to not be hoarders or they can make the purchases for those QoL upgrades.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

What does that mean? How can you “buy to win” in GW2? You can look shinier, but you can’t play better for having more to spend.

I just started playing again after a long break (sometime before HoT was released, got bored doing nothing but dailies and the champ train all the time). It’s kind of comforting to know that the forum arguments haven’t budged an inch since the last time I logged in.

It’s actually surprising that A-Net has kept the Gold to Gem concept in the game. Other games like Star Wars The Old Republic have just the “cash shop” option where you HAVE to use Cash to buy things when they went free to pay. So be happy that A-Net still has the option to turn gold to gems.

I think the economy is healthier than before HoT. Back then, some materials were dirt cheap, and it wasn’t worth farming. Now, it is worth the time and effort to farm materials. That is a clear indication of a better economy — more activity and incentives to do things.

What prices are increasing? Gems, certainly, by quite a lot. However, gem prices are somewhat tangential to the economy — gems are not a good you go out and farm in-game. Ecto prices are up by about 60%, and rare equipment prices are up about 5% (since you get ectos from salvaging rares). Luxury items on the TP are way down (especially skin prices). Material prices (especially leather and wood) went way up with the release of HoT but have remained mostly stable since then. Cloth — especially silk — even went down with HoT and even more with the spring patch, but silk prices were high before HoT. So, you can’t credibly say that material prices are increasing — only that they increased about 6 months ago and have levelled off since then.

All in all, I call this a healthy economy.

Shiyo.3578:

$20 for 3 bag slots cripples new players.

You realize that’s the same price it’s been since the game launched. How is that crippling now, but wasn’t crippling then?

Shiyo.3578:

330g for 3 bag slots cripples new players.
161g for a bank slot cripples new players.

How is that more crippling now than things were at launch? A brand new player doesn’t need extra bags or extra bank tabs to enjoy the game. Those are conveniences for hoarders that don’t apply to those just starting.

Later, once people start accumulating junk and have trouble managing it efficiently, extra storage becomes important, but there are other ways to make it happen until you save enough gold: bigger bags and using some toons to store (plus less convenient tricks, such as ‘storing’ stuff on the TP for a fee).

We got used to a comparatively low gold:gem rate and now it’s started catching up for (again) all the reasons that people have listed above.

tl;dr a high rate is annoying for cheapskates (like me) who don’t want to plunk down RL cash — that doesn’t mean that it’s bad for everyone nor does it mean it’s bad for the game as a whole.

It’s crippling now because you could spend gold for it. A reasonable amount of gold. Now you spend a precursor amount of gold for 3 bag slots. That isn’t ok.

They are no longer QOL/conveniences, there’s too many items you cannot send to collection storage and too many keys you need to keep on you.

Shiyo.3578:

It’s crippling now because you could spend gold for it. A reasonable amount of gold. Now you spend a precursor amount of gold for 3 bag slots. That isn’t ok.

They are no longer QOL/conveniences, there’s too many items you cannot send to collection storage and too many keys you need to keep on you.

Have you calculated the purchasing power of the average player at launch compared to now? Getting 10G/hr was considered a great farm back at launch. Now you can get upwards to 40G/hr or at the very least 20G. Players have greater access to gold than they did at launch.

They are very much still QoL/convenience items. Not everyone needs to hoard every drop.

10gold an hour at launch? Wow, I remember when precursors were 30Gold and that was a stretch for most of the guild.

We’d dungeon farm for the daily 1gold first run at cof, ascalon, and SE. But neveer 10g per hour, was lucky enough if we got 10G per day. Fractals never existedduring this time yet, nor did southsun.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Tumult.2578:

The cost of gems is looking to double in less than a year.
This cripples new players.

Which new players? the ones willing to spend cash for gems are getting better value. The ones starting new characters are getting more for the “useless” items (relative to current costs) for stuff they accumulate while leveling up.

The only new characters who might be worse off are those who are cheapskates (like I am) and then they are only delayed in purchasing stuff from the gem shop, none of which is essential to enjoying the game.

Tumult.2578:

There doesn’t seem to be anything in place to deal with this kind of surge.

The market is in place to deal with “this kind of surge.” It’s not the first spike in the history of gold:gem rates and it won’t be the last (in the past, spikes have always been followed by sudden dips and/or gradual declines).

Tumult.2578:

Yes, there’s more gold but is it realistic to think that the majority of players are now buying a bunch of stuff from the Gem shop? Especially with all the gold sinks now in game?

I don’t understand what “gold sinks” have to do with buying stuff from the gem shop. People have pointed out the many reasons why gem:gold is the highest it’s ever been. There are several factors, so it’s not only “realistic”, it’s been fairly predictable.

Tumult.2578:

Isn’t there a huge advantage for the rich buying the cost of gems way up, to prevent others from buying the same things and better maintaining the value of their purchases?

This is always true: the 1% have always had an advantage (and will continue to do so). There’s no game system in which those who play less and/or less efficiently get to spend more.

Tumult.2578:

The attempt to “buy to win” never really stops….

What does that mean? How can you “buy to win” in GW2? You can look shinier, but you can’t play better for having more to spend.

Lol, I was only speculating on the surge in gem prices we have noticed enough to discuss here, not looking for an argument. I’m not an mmo game economist and suspect few post in these forums.

You must understand how much longer it takes now, as a new player, earning enough gold in game to play the game more effectively. The urge to buy new storage slots and bags is strong. The Market has clearly done nothing to impact this surge, I did say surge not spike, because it’s increased for months. Gold sinks reduce available gold, reducing the ability to buy gems with gold.

Actually we are alike in our gem purchasing. It doesn’t mean that much to me. I simply have witnessed this significant increase and don’t extend a whole lot of trust in a game when I am often reporting gold sellers, having players kite monsters to me because they think I might be afk, ported away from chests, or in game mailed that my account is being shut down, lol. It’s a game and players are capable of anything.

You clearly don’t see a problem. I hope your right.

And yet, as a new player (started about 6 months ago) I have never felt an actual “urge” to buy bag slots.
There simply isn’t that strong a “need” as you think.

The only thing I’ve felt that I needed, was LS2. I spent cash for that, and put the surplus toward a storage pane because it’d be a convenience. I feel an urge for more character slots, because I’m an altoholic, but I haven’t given in yet.

It’s been on a 1g per week increase since about two weeks after they introduced the two gold daily reward and the 8 path dungeon gold reward. Maybe it took that long for players to return. May have been university finals keeping the influx at bay.

There was a surge in prices of crafting mats when the patch dropped but that was due to someone(s) buy a large amount of mats just before. Now over a month later it looks as if prices and supply of those mats have returned to levels around where they were.

Ayrilana.1396:

New players are not crippled. They either need to use better inventory management to not be hoarders or they can make the purchases for those QoL upgrades.

Most new players are F2P ones, they don’t have the option to buy gems for gold or even most things on TP aside basic crafting mats and gear.

Gold itself isn’t a problem for new B2P players if they don’t start to lv up a crafting profession early since most crafting mats always had a good price for sell on TP. And you don’t need a huge amount of gold here on GW2, except if want something really expensive on TP like a rare skin, really rare dyes, legendary weapons or even a permanent item, like bank access for example.

And because the 2g that you get doing the 3 dailies, if even easier for new players get gold right now lol

I’ve been playing going on 4 years now, and I’ve not felt the need for additional Bag Slots. I have, however, felt the ‘need’ for that shiny Glider. =P

It would probably be best not to project on own personal ‘needs’ onto the entire playerbase.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

I’ve been playing going on 4 years now, and I’ve not felt the need for additional Bag Slots. I have, however, felt the ‘need’ for that shiny Glider. =P

And that shiny glider looks great on you

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

I’ve been playing going on 4 years now, and I’ve not felt the need for additional Bag Slots. I have, however, felt the ‘need’ for that shiny Glider. =P

And that shiny glider looks great on you

It’d look better on me.

~EW

EphemeralWallaby.7643:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

I’ve been playing going on 4 years now, and I’ve not felt the need for additional Bag Slots. I have, however, felt the ‘need’ for that shiny Glider. =P

And that shiny glider looks great on you

It’d look better on me.

Let’s be honest, everything looks better on you, Wallaby

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

EphemeralWallaby.7643:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

I’ve been playing going on 4 years now, and I’ve not felt the need for additional Bag Slots. I have, however, felt the ‘need’ for that shiny Glider. =P

And that shiny glider looks great on you

It’d look better on me.

Let’s be honest, everything looks better on you, Wallaby

Okay, you’re my new favorite person for the day. Possibly tomorrow, too.

Back on topic so this post isn’t deleted… uhhh… yeah, these gem rates, wtf? I wish they’d revert back so my wallet would quit smoking!

~EW

Na, you are so sweet! Thank you. =)

The thing is….I have accumulated twice as much Gold in the last 6 months as I ever had in the previous 3 years. Yet, the exchange rate isn’t twice as much as 6 months ago. As difficult as it would be, for me, to exchange my Gold at this rate, I probably should be pleased.

As was said before it’s simple inflation due to more gold coming in, and continued demand in certain materials.

I stopped playing on HoT release with the dungeon nerf and started playing around the 2 gold login bonus again. Ever since then I found a lot easier to come by gold – and spend gold. Any materials you farm and might not need sell for a lot more, fractals award a lot more of pure gold, and HoT meta events being really rewarding with all kinds of loot.

And even with the SW chest farm in full bloom and people opening bags at level 50 characters the material prices still keep going up, means the demand remains really high. It’s understandable, because if you can sell other things for more that you don’t need (for example ecto, wood), and get more gold from dungeons and fractals than before, it’s easy to afford the ridiculous prices whatever amount of leather or linen you might need. Or just simply hoard more gold by selling materials or just doing your daily thing (quick fractal and dungeon run for almost double the gold than the last time I played), or even sell the overpriced mystic coins you might have stocked up for a quick financial boost, all that combined you can make gold much faster now, and buy those gems.

The timing of adding the chaos gloves and returning rare items in gemstore could not be more on point either – I mostly used to buy gems with money if I wanted anything from the gemstore, but these days I just cough up the gold instead since there’s just so much coming in, even with the jacked up conversion prices I still feel like it takes less time to get 400 gems than around the time of dungeon nerfs.

Then of course exchange rate goes up, and not just that, but everything – just check some rare exotic skins for example, like Jormag’s Breath – that went up by 40% in the last month for no particular reason too.

It’s not just the gem rates. It’s inflation. Gems are just one of many things that trade for money. We never had this kind of market effect in GW1, where ecto was almost always steady at the same price – even up to this day. Here it keeps steady too, but the price is tied to the global inflation and people’s wealth.

Ecto dropped from 42 to 34 on HoT release and dungeon nerf, then started climbing back up and it needed 3 months to rise back to 42, and just in the last month it rose for another 10 silver just due to the global inflation, along with everything else. With both increased rewards and material demand it’s only logical this would happen. But what this really means is that the gold is a lot more easier to come by as before, and it’s up to you what you make of this for yourself.

The more customers leave, the more Gems go up.