Guild Wars 2

I see that you can buy gems using real money, and that gem cards are available for sale. I also see that you can convert in-game gold into gems. Isn’t that contradictory to what gems are supposed to be (a revenue generator)? Or are they intentionally obtainable by both real and in-game money?

Since I can trade gold for gems, does that mean I can play my way to the ‘Digital Deluxe’ edition of the game instead of buying it?

dinominator.9862:

I see that you can buy gems using real money, and that gem cards are available for sale. I also see that you can convert in-game gold into gems. Isn’t that contradictory to what gems are supposed to be (a revenue generator)? Or are they intentionally obtainable by both real and in-game money?

Since I can trade gold for gems, does that mean I can play my way to the ‘Digital Deluxe’ edition of the game instead of buying it?

Yes! It’s Anet’s way to fight the illegal gold selling and that annoying kitten.
You can farm your way to every item in the gem store, but you can buy gems with real currency and trade the gems for coins in game!

I think it’s safe to assume that it was intentional simply because it’d be pretty impressive for someone to accidentally program a system that allows players to convert in-game currencies and then not notice it for almost 6 months.

It’s not contradictory though because gems do still function as a revenue generator. Some people have already spent hundreds of pounds/dollars/euros etc. on them. Importantly though they’re not the games primary revenue stream – that comes from selling copies, which is why Anet can afford to do this.

And yes it does mean you can buy the Digital Deluxe edition, or anything else in the gem store, simply through playing the game. It might take a while, depending on the conversion rates, but it can be done.

Okay, I just wasn’t sure I understood because it seems contradictory to have something available as both an in-game item and a real money item. I hadn’t seen it before GW2. Thanks!

@Ferum, you mentioned that they are using it to stifle gold sales. Is that by way of legalizing gold sales if purchased directly from ANet in the form of gems?

buying gems with money is still necessary – someone somewhere is paying for gems. if they weren’t, the conversion rate would just go up up up rather quickly. I expect that there has to be a equal number of buyers and sellers of gems for the price to remain the same.

I’ve spent more money on gems then I would have in a year of WoW. I am sad. <— me

The way i see this, if you want to buy some stuff right away, you have the option to just get some gems for real cash and go on a spending spree.
If you can’t afford this, you just hang in there and get your stuff through hard work in the game.

And Dolan, you don’t HAVE to spend money on gems, or even gems at all (although the lack off storage will drive people to buying at least that).
You DO HAVE to spend money to keep playing WoW. No money, no game! Simple!
So i would not say GW2 = WoW

Heh, I quit smoking, at a pack a day, and a little over $10 a pack…. Spent that money on gems without even thinking about it…

By the time November rolled around and I quit playing, I’d payed probably enough for three or four years of another game’s subscriptions.

GW2 is not pay to win – you don’t have to get gems at all to play effectively. WoW on the other hand .. you don’t pay, you don’t play. At all. I don’t see the resemblance between GW2 and WoW in terms of generating revenue.

Funny I refuse to pay a monthly subscription like WoW but I must admit to paying for multiple gem cards. I find these are useful to trade for gold (for hard to come by crafting materials), bank slots and for me personally the extra character slots. I like the original back stories and once completed I am iffy about deleting the characters. And this way I can play multiple classes with multiple races……… kitten I need a life

EVE has PLEX, essentially a 30 day subscription that you can sell to other players on the open market. PLEX can also be converted into a different in game currency only used for luxury items and I think that exchange rate is fixed. However these luxury items can be sold to other players on the market.

LOTRO and DDO both allowed you to earn the currecny you could buy for real money as well from doing certain things in the game, not from trading it for the normal ingame currency so not totally new yet somehow a bit still