Guild Wars 2

This happens with every new release of remotely interesting new gem store items. There’s been buzz about the wings since last week.

Why don’t people buy gems in advance of the gem store releases and avoid the crazy spike in prices?

Not that I’m complaining, since I’ll time turning some gems into gold with these spikes. I just don’t get why people wait until the last minute then complain when the thing they want is suddenly more expensive in terms of gold.

Because most people don’t follow it and don’t know how the gold —> gem or gem --> gold system works. They probably don’t care.

JustTrogdor.7892:

Because most people don’t follow it and don’t know how the gold —> gem or gem --> gold system works. They probably don’t care.

You’re probably right, except there are usually people complaining that gems are getting so expensive, so there’s at least a portion who knows they should have bought earlier.

Gibson.4036:

JustTrogdor.7892:

Because most people don’t follow it and don’t know how the gold —> gem or gem --> gold system works. They probably don’t care.

You’re probably right, except there are usually people complaining that gems are getting so expensive, so there’s at least a portion who knows they should have bought earlier.

Those people still probably don’t know how it works. They don’t know that the more gems bought with gold the higher the cost of gems is. They just see a spike and complain.

It is the same reason you see people complaining that people should not buy gold with gems. Then they turn around and complain about the gold to gem conversion cost.

Well, I sometimes just need 50 or 100 more gems to buy something, and it would be silly to buy 800 for cash instead when I don’t know when I’ll be “needing” them next. I’m pretty sure plenty of people do that, too.

That, or I just forget about the item coming, and then it’s Saturday night and two hours until the sale expires and I don’t have a Paysafe card handy.

I bought 800 for 107g this morning on a whim, suddenly the wings go in about 10 mins later, I check, 159g for 800… my random purchase saved me 52g… and well i’m sitting on them because I don’t want the wings anyways just felt like it was pretty cheap.

Gibson.4036:

This happens with every new release of remotely interesting new gem store items. There’s been buzz about the wings since last week.

Why don’t people buy gems in advance of the gem store releases and avoid the crazy spike in prices?

Not that I’m complaining, since I’ll time turning some gems into gold with these spikes. I just don’t get why people wait until the last minute then complain when the thing they want is suddenly more expensive in terms of gold.

1. Some people did buy gems in advance of gem store releases, including most everyone to whom I suggested buying while it was cheap.
2. Not everyone is aware of the hype, since not everyone logs in every day, not everyone follows reddit/guru/these forums (and some don’t even follow /map chat).
3. Plenty of folks don’t realize they “want” something until they see others with it (sometimes it’s keeping-up-with-the-Joneses, but sometimes it’s just you don’t realize something is “cool” until you see it in action).
4. It doesn’t take all that many people suddenly converting gold to gems to start spiking prices. Once that happens, others start to panic about not being able to convert before the really huge price hikes begin.

In other words, not everyone has the same data as you do and not everyone responds to the data they do have the same as you do (or might).

quite human, google theory of scarcity.

because
a) the prices ain’t always clear before the thing releases (for example, upcoming pig, 300, 350 or 500 gems?)
b) some people earn money gradually and don’t always have enough for conversion before an object releases?
c) some people think that they have time to spend their gold elsewhere and re-farm before new items release?

People in general tend to do things at the last minute. Ask anyone who works in retail what happens in their retail outlets at closing time on Christmas Eve. Also, in the case of style items, they would only be able to preview them on their character once they’ve been released.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Also, in the case of style items, they would only be able to preview them on their character once they’ve been released.

That’s not true. The wings have been in the wardrobe for weeks.

I just use my credit card :p I have never used gold to buy gems, but I have a good job and lots of spare entertainment cash. IF I had to use gold or had a job paying minimum wage, I would try to plan ahead for sure.

Gibson.4036:

This happens with every new release of remotely interesting new gem store items. There’s been buzz about the wings since last week.

Why don’t people buy gems in advance of the gem store releases and avoid the crazy spike in prices?

Not that I’m complaining, since I’ll time turning some gems into gold with these spikes. I just don’t get why people wait until the last minute then complain when the thing they want is suddenly more expensive in terms of gold.

Part of the reason is simple economics on the Gem side. X amount of existing gems, and newly purchased gems are being used to buy the wings, so there are fewer Gem > Gold conversions, at the same time as a spike in gold > gem conversions.

So its not entirely people waiting till the last minute to buy gems. Though there are a lot of people who don’t keep up with the forums, or play enough to have seen in game chat about it. (“Where did all these stupid wings come from all the sudden?” – random at teq today.)

There are also a number of casuals who only log in on Tuesdays to see what new stuff there is.

A lot of players dont even know that all the gems you can buy ingame come from other players.

I also had a few very amusing discussions where people argued that all gems traded ingame come from Achievements and Anet doesnt actually sell gems. As well as people arguing that Anet doesnt make money from people buying gems for gold and using them in the gemstore.

The great majority of players has no grasp of economic realities of both the real world and the game, which is very sad, but true.

Because most people who play the game only saw the wings for the first time today.

Haha. Guilty of this today. Because I saw players running around with those awesome wings, which are available for a limited time.

LucosTheDutch.4819:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Also, in the case of style items, they would only be able to preview them on their character once they’ve been released.

That’s not true. The wings have been in the wardrobe for weeks.

OK, so the extremely well-informed would have known to look earlier. How many of the general population is that well-informed? Change “they” to “Many” and drop “be able to” from my statement if you like.

I had 7000 gems .. so no problem for me. Just bought the viper set some days ago
and instantly bought 800 back since the exchange was fair that day

I often buy them in advance. Although I bought 300 weeks ago with gold and had to get 200 more for the wings, and that 200 was more expensive than the 300. :o

I buy gems Monday and Thursday nights in the off chance something good comes out on Tuesday or Friday and the mad rush spikes the price.

Thanks for the replies everyone. Definitely some insightful comments on player/consumer behavior.

I tend to forget that a lot of players don’t keep tabs on the game nearly as closely as I do.

Thinking about it, though, I’d expect the people who don’t would be more of the population that just buys gems outright with cash. I’d expect players who play enough to amass the kind of gold you need to buy gems for vanity items to be the kind who also keep up on the state of the game, so to speak.

As a fairly casual player 60 gold is a huge amount of money.

Interesting to see the drop off last night after the initial spike, and then gem cost spiking back up again this morning.

IndigoSundown.5419:

People in general tend to do things at the last minute.

This. A common worldview is there’s always more time until there’s no time left.

Its why people get extensions on taxes, crowd grocery stores the hour before a snowstorm, and the like.

Azure The Heartless.3261:

IndigoSundown.5419:

People in general tend to do things at the last minute.

This. A common worldview is there’s always more time until there’s no time left.

Its why people get extensions on taxes, crowd grocery stores the hour before a snowstorm, and the like.

Wait did you really just say last minute, on an impromptu 1 day sale?

Wow.

edgarallanpwn.8739:

Azure The Heartless.3261:

IndigoSundown.5419:

People in general tend to do things at the last minute.

This. A common worldview is there’s always more time until there’s no time left.

Its why people get extensions on taxes, crowd grocery stores the hour before a snowstorm, and the like.

Wait did you really just say last minute, on an impromptu 1 day sale?

Wow.

Except it was almost completely predictable. Gem shop updates happen on Tuesday, things often appear in the wardrobe/chat code links shortly before they are added to the gem shop (wings were). Therefore, it was reasonable to assume that they would be available yesterday and you should buy gems before. If you were wrong, you would still have gems available for next week or the eventual release.

That gray matter is useful sometimes.

thehipone.6812:

edgarallanpwn.8739:

Azure The Heartless.3261:

IndigoSundown.5419:

People in general tend to do things at the last minute.

This. A common worldview is there’s always more time until there’s no time left.

Its why people get extensions on taxes, crowd grocery stores the hour before a snowstorm, and the like.

Wait did you really just say last minute, on an impromptu 1 day sale?

Wow.

Except it was almost completely predictable. Gem shop updates happen on Tuesday, things often appear in the wardrobe/chat code links shortly before they are added to the gem shop (wings were). Therefore, it was reasonable to assume that they would be available yesterday and you should buy gems before. If you were wrong, you would still have gems available for next week or the eventual release.

That gray matter is useful sometimes.

Except for…..everything in this guys post you ignored before.

You’re in a casual game. You expect everyone to keep up to date 24/7 with everything thats going on? Most people don’t have time for that. Heck there’s a lot of people that don’t even login everyday

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Gibson.4036:

This happens with every new release of remotely interesting new gem store items. There’s been buzz about the wings since last week.

Why don’t people buy gems in advance of the gem store releases and avoid the crazy spike in prices?

Not that I’m complaining, since I’ll time turning some gems into gold with these spikes. I just don’t get why people wait until the last minute then complain when the thing they want is suddenly more expensive in terms of gold.

1. Some people did buy gems in advance of gem store releases, including most everyone to whom I suggested buying while it was cheap.
2. Not everyone is aware of the hype, since not everyone logs in every day, not everyone follows reddit/guru/these forums (and some don’t even follow /map chat).
3. Plenty of folks don’t realize they “want” something until they see others with it (sometimes it’s keeping-up-with-the-Joneses, but sometimes it’s just you don’t realize something is “cool” until you see it in action).
4. It doesn’t take all that many people suddenly converting gold to gems to start spiking prices. Once that happens, others start to panic about not being able to convert before the really huge price hikes begin.

In other words, not everyone has the same data as you do and not everyone responds to the data they do have the same as you do (or might).

edgarallanpwn.8739:

thehipone.6812:

edgarallanpwn.8739:

Azure The Heartless.3261:

IndigoSundown.5419:

People in general tend to do things at the last minute.

This. A common worldview is there’s always more time until there’s no time left.

Its why people get extensions on taxes, crowd grocery stores the hour before a snowstorm, and the like.

Wait did you really just say last minute, on an impromptu 1 day sale?

Wow.

Except it was almost completely predictable. Gem shop updates happen on Tuesday, things often appear in the wardrobe/chat code links shortly before they are added to the gem shop (wings were). Therefore, it was reasonable to assume that they would be available yesterday and you should buy gems before. If you were wrong, you would still have gems available for next week or the eventual release.

That gray matter is useful sometimes.

Except for…..everything in this guys post you ignored before.

You’re in a casual game. You expect everyone to keep up to date 24/7 with everything thats going on? Most people don’t have time for that. Heck there’s a lot of people that don’t even login everyday

If it is that important that they are going to come crying to the forums to complain that the price of gems in gold went up, then yes, they should keep up with the news. Higher gold to gem prices/not knowing until after the release is the cost of being “so casual”. You can’t have it both ways, expecting to be prepared without staying informed.

edgarallanpwn.8739:

Azure The Heartless.3261:

IndigoSundown.5419:

People in general tend to do things at the last minute.

This. A common worldview is there’s always more time until there’s no time left.

Its why people get extensions on taxes, crowd grocery stores the hour before a snowstorm, and the like.

Wait did you really just say last minute, on an impromptu 1 day sale?

Wow.

A little note here: The span of the sale, while relevant, is not the sole factor that causes the spike in prices you see here to be due to “last minute buys” or not.

There was a very long period in which the gem store did not introduce anything particularly popular or interesting, where players that buy gems with gold could stockpile on the off chance that something like this did happen, not including those that were tipped off to the eventual surfacing of the wings in the gem store due to the data-mined splash screen of them. See Here: and take note of the relative stability of the market up until that point.

In that sense, “buying when something popular is already in the gem store”, which is actually every tuesday or every other tuesday since updates hapen then, counts as “last minute”.

Edit: And yes, as said above, if they are so off-put by the price spike that they would come to the forums to complain about it, a casual glancing at reddit re: whatever has been uncovered would save a lot of heartache.

I’m not sure I understand, are you asking, “Why doesn’t everybody keep up with the gems market and buy when it’s low in anticipation of things nobody knows about until they’re released?” Could it be that most people have actual things to do in their lives, and the exchange rate between 2 fake currencies is one of the last things on their minds?

Andred.1087:

I’m not sure I understand, are you asking, “Why doesn’t everybody keep up with the gems market and buy when it’s low in anticipation of things nobody knows about until they’re released?” Could it be that most people have actual things to do in their lives, and the exchange rate between 2 fake currencies is one of the last things on their minds?

Are you saying that

> see nothing popular in the gem store
> buy when price is low

requires a significant amount of forethought?

And to answer your question directly, no I am not saying that (if that was even directed at me).

But in all seriousness, I am not a gold conversion nut or whatever you’d call that; but common sense says that it would be best to keep a couple of gems on hand if you are playing the game, due to the fact that things like this happen.

Or at the very least, it would be common sense to expect that prices will go amg high if there’s a one day sale.

I don’t buy gems ahead of time because, honestly, I don’t even think about the gem store unless I see a new item being talked about that I want. So yeah, I just don’t ever think about it at all.

Azure The Heartless.3261:

Andred.1087:

I’m not sure I understand, are you asking, “Why doesn’t everybody keep up with the gems market and buy when it’s low in anticipation of things nobody knows about until they’re released?” Could it be that most people have actual things to do in their lives, and the exchange rate between 2 fake currencies is one of the last things on their minds?

Are you saying that

> see nothing popular in the gem store
> buy when price is low

requires a significant amount of forethought?

And to answer your question directly, no I am not saying that (if that was even directed at me).

But in all seriousness, I am not a gold conversion nut or whatever you’d call that; but common sense says that it would be best to keep a couple of gems on hand if you are playing the game, due to the fact that things like this happen.

Or at the very least, it would be common sense to expect that prices will go amg high if there’s a one day sale.

This issue really needs to be separated out.

Those complaining are most likely those using gold, thus people who play the game more often than working. People who do that SHOULD know this.

Those who buy gems wouldnt be part of this problem, as the gems $value is always static.

there’s also the subgenre of people who play occassionally, don’t keep up with game the game, but don’t want to pay for gems through cash. This is also one affected that might be the “didn’t have time, but also too cheap to buy gems” deal

I myself have had no issues however.

I earned 300g through the month as a new player, bought 1 outfit, and just bought some skins through the tp, so conversion and rates etc havent affected me one bit