Guild Wars 2

This is an aspect of MMOing I’ve never quite understood, so when people are talking about the economy sucking, or not being able to make a profit, I really don’t really have anything constructive to contribute. I get (in a vague sense) that being able to get more gems for less gold is a Good Thing, so you can get more cool stuff from ANet, but I just don’t get the player to player economy.

So help me out- what about having an income and making a profit in game enhances the gameplay for you?

Being able to buy cool stuff?

Well, I don’t know if I’d say it enhances my personal game experience. But economies are pretty fun to look in to in an academic or market-ownership sense. If you’re into that sort of thing, you can study how environmental impacts adjust market values, you can play a market shark and make money just by keeping an eye on trading post ebb and flow (a veritable mini-game in its own right). Stuff like that. Marketplaces are one of the most fascinating social institutions in our lives, and it’s no surprise that people get interested in the video game market places.

Also, gold = winning, so more gold = more winning.

Um, what do I ‘win’ with gold?

How can the amount of gold you have be a measure of anything but your real-world bank balance when you can officially buy gold with real money?

Kraggy.4169:

Um, what do I ‘win’ with gold?

How can the amount of gold you have be a measure of anything but your real-world bank balance when you can officially buy gold with real money?

It also can represent your ability to optimize certain aspects of gameplay. People get rich by either having lots of real money to buy gems, being very good at playing the market, or being very good at some form of farming. People will brag about just about anything so…