Guild Wars 2

After going back to GW1 (to balk at what it’d take to get 25 HoM points), I noticed I had to try very hard to remember that the currency used there is VERY different from the one in GW2. I was kind of scared that I’d accidentally forget I was playing GW1 and in a moment of carelessness I’d sell something expensive for only gold, thinking I was getting GW2’s version of it.

My question is, is there a lore-related reason for the huge discrepancy in currency used between the two games? Did all of the gold get washed away with the old Lion’s Arch? Did an Asuran experiment accidentally turn all of the platinum in Tyria into gold, and gold into copper? What happened?

Well lets look at everything. Trade from Cantha and Elona stopped with xenophobia/undead take overs respectively. Then Lion’s Arch, arguably the largest trading hub on this side of the endless ocean gets flooded with Zhaitan’s rise and a dramatic increase in pirate activity (living and dead). I’d say there was probably a market crash.

Of particular notice, all the Xunlai chests are gone, and the only one we have found is in the Eye of the North and still locked, so arguably the local ‘bank’ was sealed off and everybody lost their money further inflating the worth of Gold on the contenant of Tyria.

Also likely exasperated by two of the largest nations (Charr and Humans) have likely ammassed a huge debt in their continued war over the past 250 years. Wars are expensive, not just in lives, but also in money and the Charr have and Humans have clearly been spending a lot. One NPC even references how much the Asura charge for Divinity’s Reach to send supplies over to Ebon Hawke, which was arguably the last reason why the Charr and Humans were even fighting still. (I mean, it’s not like the Charr were going to be able to march over the Shiverpeaks again to wage war on Divinity’s Reach).

Also consider how Norn don’t really seem to save money, more they’re in a state of constant spending. Despite however often Skritt are described as Hedonistic, the Norn are by large either stuffing their faces with food or ale and passing out in a stupour later (probably with unpaid bar tabs).

The only slightly enterprising nation is the Asura, who manage to screw up every potential product they could every try to market (Ooze salesman in Metrica, Toy Maker Tixx, etc…) thus providing a large market to be desired for, while demanding exorbitant costs for what services aren’t potentially life threatening. Add in their penchant for meglomania and world domination and whatever money they do make is likely put aside to buy the rest of the world off with later.

Soooooo loss of Trade with 2 Human Empires, the (temporary) loss of a huge trading hub coupled with massive increase in unsafe sea trade, century-long and resource exhaustive wars against one another and against exterior factions, unsafe land trade, the complete loss of all money held by the previous banking institution, rampant consumerism and exorbitant cost of transportation…. frankly I’m surprised the system doesn’t use Coppers as the highest valued currency.

There was a recent thread about this. There, I explained that in GW1, copper and silver coins existed.

Similarly, GW2 does still have platinum coins for money.

We, as players, just have no access to it.

So while something may happen as Ratphink speculates, the changes would be minor. This is primarily a mechanical change between the games.

The only real question is… why does 1,000 gold in GW2 (it’s possible to have 5 or 6 digits worth of gold in the bank currently) not turn into 1 platinum?

Konig Des Todes.2086:

There was a recent thread about this. There, I explained that in GW1, copper and silver coins existed.

Similarly, GW2 does still have platinum coins for money.

We, as players, just have no access to it.

So while something may happen as Ratphink speculates, the changes would be minor. This is primarily a mechanical change between the games.

The only real question is… why does 1,000 gold in GW2 (it’s possible to have 5 or 6 digits worth of gold in the bank currently) not turn into 1 platinum?

What a ridiculous question.
All the Platinum in Tyria is presently locked in Xunlai chests, therefore there is nothing to convert gold into.

FlamingFoxx.1305:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

There was a recent thread about this. There, I explained that in GW1, copper and silver coins existed.

Similarly, GW2 does still have platinum coins for money.

We, as players, just have no access to it.

So while something may happen as Ratphink speculates, the changes would be minor. This is primarily a mechanical change between the games.

The only real question is… why does 1,000 gold in GW2 (it’s possible to have 5 or 6 digits worth of gold in the bank currently) not turn into 1 platinum?

What a ridiculous question.
All the Platinum in Tyria is presently locked in Xunlai chests, therefore there is nothing to convert gold into.

Actually this might be a viable explanation. The xunlai order’s headquarters is in Kaineng and also there is the golden masterchest. We also know the chest system is out of order. The only chest we know of can’t be used due to the lack of a xunlaiagent.

What if the current administration in Cantha took control over the xunlai, preventing access to all the riches in the world, leaving only the pocketmoney available in Tyria (continent)

That would explain how that bloody Usoku spent millions of gold to modernize the Canthan army and subdue everyone – starting with the warring factions and ending it with the non-humans. He friggin’ stole the vast riches of our ancestors!

That presents a fun scenario.

It’s now cannon that assassins got rich by stealing treasures from the Underworld – this in turn not only brought Dhuum’s constant returns and re-imprisonments (and possibly an ultimate return), but also weakened the boundary between the Mists and Tyria at the Temple of Ages, resulting in the Shadow Behemoth.

If Canthans basically stole all of that money, then those assassins (aka GW1 UWSC players) basically screwed everyone over a third time by providing the funds for Usoku to isolate Cantha.

So let’s recap: How did the GW1 characters screw up? On top of the above, they…

• Abandoned Rurik, leading the Adelbern’s furthered insanity over the death of his sole heir which in turn helped give a push to bring forth the Foefire.
• Unleashed the Titans (even if momentarily), which led to damages to Ascalon (and Kryta/Deldrimor, but they faired better what with only 1 general per).
• Helped the beginnings of the dredge revolution that resulted in dredge enslaving their own kind.
• Seemingly wiped out the remaining forgotten on Tyria.
• Completely ignored the Kurzick/Luxon war renewing after Shiro’s defeat – and in fact, ignored the Afflicted afterwards too (it’s presented in Winds of Change that the hero who killed Shiro is again returning to the fray in 1079 – 7 years later), as well as letting Murasaki and the Ministry of Purity begin their rise, and ignoring the replacement of Togo occuring.
• Unleashed Palawa Joko.
• Fail to finish the Ministry of Purity who’s ideologies led to Usoku

Wow, seems we screwed up a lot in GW1. Two major issues in GW2, as well as a middle-ground potential one (Cantha, Elona, and given the no-resurrections, possibly Dhuum’s release) were caused because of the negligence of the GW1 heroes.

Of course otherwise you would have the Elder Dragons in charge of a world that was, up until now, ruled by a mixture of the Mursaat and the demons of Abaddon. The Mursaat would most likely go back into hiding during the ED rising, which means their slaves would just flail about while the ED’s wreaked havok amidst fighting Abaddon and his demons. I’m just seeing a Nightfall world with Mursaat Towers becoming Dragon corrupted, the current scenario seems like the lesser of two evils.

On subject, we’ve gone over this many times, so I do not feel like posting it again, I’ll just leave links.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/lore/Have-the-dragons-made-Tyria-poor/first#post1284808

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/lore/Economy/first#post1145014

Okay, i just had to bring this topic up because i was starting to wonder about it.

Currency from Platinum being the standard unit downgraded to Gold as the standard unit is weird

It makes no sense that the currency in the world of Guild Wars 2 has over the span of 250 years become so deflated because of the loss of Xunlai trade. On the contrary, the lack of sought after commodities should have caused a marked inflation in prices instead.

The whole idea that savings from the Xunlai equivalent of a Wall Street crash would lead to the loss of all the platinum and gold based currency stored in the system is bollocks. It may have deflated the value of platinum. BUT when put into account with the previous point, there should have not been much change in the value of Platinum and gold.

Furthermore, the loss of the platinum and gold in the Xunlai system does not mean the central banks (or its equivalent in Tyria) are unable to mint new ones as it is obvious both sources of metal are in abundant supply, and even more than 250 years ago as it was not possible to acquire the metals on such a large scale then.

I am pretty sure that by right the state of affairs should have been:
-The continued use of Platinum backed currency as the main trade unit, and Gold as a sub-denomination.
-The creation of another set of higher denominations (in this case maybe Mithril?) due to rising inflation from the lack of trade goods from Cantha and Elona versus the increased proliferation of uncovered and acquired ore deposits.

Currency IMHO should have stretched upwards not down.

You do also realize that this currency you mentioned was only used by civilized humanity. My favorite opinion about what happened was simple, when Kryta moved out and the Lion’s Arch pirates moved in they eventually ruled trade, and when they took over trade they minted their own coinage that was the only coin they would accept. This eventually lead to the rest of the nations switching over to the Lion’s Arch coin system. Because when you think about it, the value doesn’t lie in the metal that the coin is made out of, but by the backing that the coin has, and Lion’s Arch is a pretty big backing. Now why did Lion’s Arch go with a copper/silver/gold system? Well that answer is simple, even in GW1 both the Zaishen (who have a presence in LA) and the corsairs/pirates had systems of copper/silver/gold coins. In fact it could even be seen in the Crimson Skull in Cantha. Because of the history they had with this system of coins it makes sense that a currency they created would have the same type.

Hmm…that actually made sense.

They should have just switched to bank notes instead.

Now the question that begs asking is, what material now backs the current LA currency system? The influence of the pirates that control trade is certainly not enough, just as a central bank in our world cannot guarantee a transaction’s worth without the Gold in its vaults.

That, I leave to your imagination. I honestly have no clue what LA is using to back their currency.

Though thinking jokingly, I believe Lion’s Arch pirates are out farming precursors and Final Rest to back their banking system, lol.

And what? Breaking them into ectos so owners of their currency can pay in parts of it? XD

The Guild Wars 2 player community learned, and thus Lion’s Arch burned to the ground.

It seems that it’s often forgotten that platinum coins are still used – just not by players (that is, only in lore).

Greetings, Commander Landon!
I hear you’re searching for the Legate Minister’s daughter, Demmi. How lucky you are that we found her before the dangers of the wilderness did! Unfortunately, of course, getting her to our lovely safe pirate camp was very expensive, but I’m certain a wealthy man like Minister Caudecus can spare a platinum or fifty. Make it a hundred, actually. For a dainty little thing, she sure can drink a lot of rum.
I’m sure you, and your master, will find that perfectly reasonable…and far better than bringing home a dead daughter, wouldn’t you say?

—Cordially yours,
Captain Jeyne of the Jackdaws

wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Stealing_Secrets

Yup, it’s just now either platinum is just unavailable to the public at all, or 1 platinum is worth much more than 1,000 gold. Seems that those pirates were gonna score a major haul had it not been for us.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

It seems that it’s often forgotten that platinum coins are still used – just not by players (that is, only in lore).

Greetings, Commander Landon!
I hear you’re searching for the Legate Minister’s daughter, Demmi. How lucky you are that we found her before the dangers of the wilderness did! Unfortunately, of course, getting her to our lovely safe pirate camp was very expensive, but I’m certain a wealthy man like Minister Caudecus can spare a platinum or fifty. Make it a hundred, actually. For a dainty little thing, she sure can drink a lot of rum.
I’m sure you, and your master, will find that perfectly reasonable…and far better than bringing home a dead daughter, wouldn’t you say?

—Cordially yours,
Captain Jeyne of the Jackdaws

wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Stealing_Secrets

That statement coupled with the current state of affairs only goes to show i was right about the deflation of currency across Tyria.

Which also links to my statement about deflation not making sense