Guild Wars 2

Hello guys,
i have a big problem because, as everyone noticed, recently the price of gems (trade gold for gems) is growing as hell… from 100gems with 3golds to 100gems with more than 5golds… really? Ok the problem isn’t the price… still cheap and still worth it, but i wan’t to ask you if someone knows how the gem-per-gold mechanism works. So, is there a particular formula to calculate it? or is it casual and depending on devs will?

I though that it depended by averange golds per player; this will justify the increased price during this period of great farm and can allow us to prevent a future reduction of the price… not sure if this will be really helpyfull since (gold earned)/(gem price) = constant if my theory is right… but… i dunno

Do you know something? Tell me please

There are only a set number of gems. If you buy them with cash they then go into the market. Until then everyone is competing with their gold for availible gems.

It’s supposed to be based on how many people are buying and selling the gems. Now since it’s not a direct post-and-buy system like the trading post you have to take their word for it that that’s how it works, and it would be sensible for them to give it a shove here and there. But for the most part it certainly seems like it’s based on demand and such. And in that case it’s unlikely to change; the exchange rate probably isn’t high enough for it to be worth buying gems just to covert into gold, at least not for most players. So as long as the gem shop has things people want (and they roll out new stuff often enough that that’ll probably be the case for a long time) the exchange rate should keep climbing.

cpg.7140:

It’s supposed to be based on how many people are buying and selling the gems. Now since it’s not a direct post-and-buy system like the trading post you have to take their word for it that that’s how it works, and it would be sensible for them to give it a shove here and there. But for the most part it certainly seems like it’s based on demand and such. And in that case it’s unlikely to change; the exchange rate probably isn’t high enough for it to be worth buying gems just to covert into gold, at least not for most players. So as long as the gem shop has things people want (and they roll out new stuff often enough that that’ll probably be the case for a long time) the exchange rate should keep climbing.

ok that sounds interesting but… if you are right, why during this period gem’s price has grown up so much? this mean that no one is buying gems with real money but golds… really? this sounds legit but… if this will continue ò.ò in two months gem’s price would be like 1gold per gem!

There is no particular formula (that we know off) to predict how gold to gems ratio will change. What we know it is dependent on the demand/offer.

When news of a major patch with a lot of Cash Shop content is released, it is expected that the price will immediately rise due to the players trying to get cheaper gems to use for those items. The demand will increase highly for the existing offer. Some players will spend real money for gems to buy the same cash shop items and after they buy the items, they will sell the remaining gems. When they sell the gems, players already bought what they wanted, so there will be increase in the offer, and a decrease in the demand. This will make the price lower.

However, since less players want to spend real money in the cash shop then what previously were, the overall price of the gold to gems ratio will increase over time, thou making the gold per gem higher and forcing players to spend real money to buy their cash shop items!

The math i can’t give you, but this is the mechanic!

/cheers

The reason for the increase is the anniversary sale that they have had the last week, with old wanted items back for a limited time.
People simply don’t want to spend real money on gems, so they trade in gold, which decreases the amount of gems available in the transfer and thus increasing the price.

I don’t know if you noticed. Gems are bought with real-life cash. Once that real-life currency has been converted into game currency, you can’t convert it back to cash.

All you can do is to convert it from one game token currency to another.
The gold/gems price is actually the game-value of gold in real-life currency – since it’s essentially valueless it’s price will continue to drop towards reality (zero) through the life of the game.

There will be fluctuations of course, the price may even rise short-term – but the general trend will continue downwards.
On the day that the last player quits and Anet shut down the servers, it will have reached it’s true price – all the gold in the system won’t be worth 1 gem.

Kjeldoran.3849:

cpg.7140:

It’s supposed to be based on how many people are buying and selling the gems. Now since it’s not a direct post-and-buy system like the trading post you have to take their word for it that that’s how it works, and it would be sensible for them to give it a shove here and there. But for the most part it certainly seems like it’s based on demand and such. And in that case it’s unlikely to change; the exchange rate probably isn’t high enough for it to be worth buying gems just to covert into gold, at least not for most players. So as long as the gem shop has things people want (and they roll out new stuff often enough that that’ll probably be the case for a long time) the exchange rate should keep climbing.

ok that sounds interesting but… if you are right, why during this period gem’s price has grown up so much? this mean that no one is buying gems with real money but golds… really? this sounds legit but… if this will continue ò.ò in two months gem’s price would be like 1gold per gem!

It doesn’t mean nobody is buying them with real money. It mean more people are converting gold to gems than are converting gems to gold. Gems to gold isn’t a conversion too many people want right now, but gold is easy enough to get for some people that gold to gems is not a bad deal for them.

Kjeldoran.3849:

cpg.7140:

It’s supposed to be based on how many people are buying and selling the gems. Now since it’s not a direct post-and-buy system like the trading post you have to take their word for it that that’s how it works, and it would be sensible for them to give it a shove here and there. But for the most part it certainly seems like it’s based on demand and such. And in that case it’s unlikely to change; the exchange rate probably isn’t high enough for it to be worth buying gems just to covert into gold, at least not for most players. So as long as the gem shop has things people want (and they roll out new stuff often enough that that’ll probably be the case for a long time) the exchange rate should keep climbing.

ok that sounds interesting but… if you are right, why during this period gem’s price has grown up so much? this mean that no one is buying gems with real money but golds… really? this sounds legit but… if this will continue ò.ò in two months gem’s price would be like 1gold per gem!

I buy gems with real money. Just did that recently. However it is never for converting to gold. It goes directly to buying whatever gem store item I was after.

Once you got your gear there really isn’t all that much things to spend your currencies on. There is fluff like tonics and other consumables. Maybe WP. There is legendary/precursor but I am not going to pay for someone’s lottery winnings.

Cut and paste from my last post on the subject of the Gold/Gem Exchange.

It was founded with a extremely large but finite supply of Gems and a much smaller amount of gold. The Gems you get when buying comes from this supply and Gold you get by selling gems come from this supply.

The exchange rate is the ratio between the amount of exchange Gems and exchange Gold. At the start to was around 100 Gems for every 25s. The Gold to Gems rate is this ratio divided by 0.85 while Gems to Gold rate is this ratio multiplied by 0.85.

As Gems are bought the amount of Gems in the exchange goes down while the amount of Gold at the exchange increases which makes the rate go up. Conversely buying Gold with Gems decreases the amount of Gold at the exchange while increasing the amount of Gems at the exchange which makes the rate go down.

This means the more Gems we buy, the more the rate increases. And since it’s a ratio it will increase at a faster and faster pace as the number of Gems in the exchange dwindle. The theory is that at some point the Gem to Gold rate, which increases at the same rate as Gold to Gems, will become attractive enough for players to by Gems with cash and exchange them for Gold. And once Gems entering the exchange balances the Gems leaving the exchange, the rates will stabilize.

And that’s basically what we’ve been told so far. In theory the exchange can run out of Gems. But as it gets closer and closer to that the price for Gems will skyrocket and since the price of Gems for Gold rocket up along with it the hope is that players will buy Gems for cash and exchange them for large amounts of gold thus driving the exchange rate down.

Behellagh.1468:

Cut and paste from my last post on the subject of the Gold/Gem Exchange.

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It was founded with a extremely large but finite supply of Gems and a much smaller amount of gold. The Gems you get when buying comes from this supply and Gold you get by selling gems come from this supply.

The exchange rate is the ratio between the amount of exchange Gems and exchange Gold. At the start to was around 100 Gems for every 25s. The Gold to Gems rate is this ratio divided by 0.85 while Gems to Gold rate is this ratio multiplied by 0.85.

As Gems are bought the amount of Gems in the exchange goes down while the amount of Gold at the exchange increases which makes the rate go up. Conversely buying Gold with Gems decreases the amount of Gold at the exchange while increasing the amount of Gems at the exchange which makes the rate go down.

This means the more Gems we buy, the more the rate increases. And since it’s a ratio it will increase at a faster and faster pace as the number of Gems in the exchange dwindle. The theory is that at some point the Gem to Gold rate, which increases at the same rate as Gold to Gems, will become attractive enough for players to by Gems with cash and exchange them for Gold. And once Gems entering the exchange balances the Gems leaving the exchange, the rates will stabilize.

---

And that’s basically what we’ve been told so far. In theory the exchange can run out of Gems. But as it gets closer and closer to that the price for Gems will skyrocket and since the price of Gems for Gold rocket up along with it the hope is that players will buy Gems for cash and exchange them for large amounts of gold thus driving the exchange rate down.

oh wow… this is simply… wow!
so what do you suggest me to do? wait and buy gems then excange them for golds and then buy gems? or what?

In general prices on average will rise or remain steady. It rarely goes down. One strategy is to buy Gems with a fix amount of money (or a % of your total) every day/week and slowly accumulate Gems for the inevitable day that something you want does go on sale. Because when something good suddenly shows up at the Gem shop the price of gems will spike because everyone tries to convert then. If you have a 401K at work it’s similar, dollar cost averaging it’s called. I do it daily, first thing logging in after the day reset after picking up any coin at the TP.

The one place that I know is currently accurate with Gold to Gem price is here.

http://www.guildwarstrade.com/gems

GW2Spidy’s Gem price graph was better but broke a few months back.

Gem to Gold rate is 0.7225 of the Gold to Gem rate (0.85 × 0.85). Looking at the current graph it seems the end of the sale has it effect as players stopped buying Gems and are now selling to take advantage of the high exchange rate. Gem price in nearly at 4g50s. No idea if it’ll drop further. Tomorrows update is going to turn the TP upside down rather than having some new interesting item at the Gem store so I expect prices to continue to go down or stabilize. A month ago it was 3g35s. Two weeks ago it was around 4g so I don’t expect it to go much below 4g in the next few days.

So pay attention to what’s coming “soon” on the main website, watch the gem prices and buy some every day or week so you won’t get caught if a spike happens, or at least you won’t have to buy all of the gems you want when a spike happens.

It’s just supply and demand i’m afraid. Theres always going to be a finite number of gems around, but also it is effected by how much gold players are earning – i.e. the more players earn the more they are willing to pay for things and subsequently prices go up, and if there is nothing they need to spend in-game gold on then that means even more price hike for gems.

My philosophy though is this, most people who don’t play enough to earn the in game gold to trade for gems can get by with minimal real-money investment, while those players who need the extra storage space, character slots and in-game items are the ones playing more and therefore will earn more in-game gold and be able to afford the trade. I played very casually for a while and never felt the need to get lots of bank/bag extensions. I now play more to the point I need the extra space but i’m earning more gold to buy the gems with very minimal top-ups from real-money transactions if i’m being impatient and just want to have more space immediately… I think it all balances in the end other than those who want everything but with no expense or effort.

Kjeldoran.3849:

cpg.7140:

It’s supposed to be based on how many people are buying and selling the gems. Now since it’s not a direct post-and-buy system like the trading post you have to take their word for it that that’s how it works, and it would be sensible for them to give it a shove here and there. But for the most part it certainly seems like it’s based on demand and such. And in that case it’s unlikely to change; the exchange rate probably isn’t high enough for it to be worth buying gems just to covert into gold, at least not for most players. So as long as the gem shop has things people want (and they roll out new stuff often enough that that’ll probably be the case for a long time) the exchange rate should keep climbing.

ok that sounds interesting but… if you are right, why during this period gem’s price has grown up so much? this mean that no one is buying gems with real money but golds… really? this sounds legit but… if this will continue ò.ò in two months gem’s price would be like 1gold per gem!

Personally I’m waiting until I can buy 10 gold with 1 EUR (80 gems).