Guild Wars 2

Very solid response to the community. Looks like the hype train can get back on track

Ticket please !

It appears that the forums are in an uproar about the HoT Pre-Purchase Editions, with many supporters and detractors coming out and having their say about the value of the packages. There is a main thread on pricing feedback, but I noticed no thread for constructive suggestions about what could be offered in the packages themselves.

Personally, as the owner of the GW2 Collector’s Edition and a particularly imposing Rytlock statue, I am somewhat surprised that Arenanet did not offer a similar package with the release of this much-hyped new expansion, but instead went for a primarily low-key release with digital bonuses. I suppose I will have to fashion a Revenant blindfold for Rytlock myself to get in the spirit of the game. However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement regarding the digital offerings.

Miniatures and skins have their place in Guild Wars, but some players expect a little bit more with the release of an expansion for a AAA title that has been around for 3 years. There appears to have been a missed opportunity to provide the pre-purchase crowd the usual collector’s edition items such as a partial soundtrack or an artbook, which could have easily been digital items included in the Deluxe or Ultimate Editions.

In addition, the expansion brings in a new profession, which is not easily made accessible to existing players with full character slots. From my experience in the Closed Beta, the Revenant appeals thematically to long-time Guild Wars players as well as veteran players looking to master its relatively complex mechanics. It makes sense to include a character slot as a Standard feature for existing players, so they can experience the Revenant without facing the unappealing prospect of deleting an existing character. The types of players that are more likely to purchase an expansion are existing players, so it would be good to make the purchasing decision that much more easier for them.

To sum it all up, I believe that the Standard Edition may be more appealing with a character slot for existing players, while the Deluxe/Ultimate Editions may be more appealing with usual new game release bonuses such as a soundtrack or an artbook. The gems offered in the Ultimate Edition do not appear to be that much of a special deal and does nothing to garner excitement for the new expansion itself.

As a question to other players, new and veteran alike, what bonuses/modifications to the existing packages would you want to see in order to make pre-purchasing HoT an easy and appealing choice?

Templar.3418:

I can solo the Viscount easily.

The lich would win imo.

Do you use reflects when you solo Viscount? I do not believe the Lich has reflects.

phys.7689:

they arent really a monopoly because they arent actively profiting/participating off/in the market. They are as others have said all powerful rulers of the economy though.

That is true. In terms of the Trading Post, the items come from other players and the exchange fees act mainly as a regulatory gold sink. ArenaNet does not really profit from these market exchanges directly as far as I know, so monopoly-level profit maximization would not be a characteristic of the in-game markets.

As mentioned in previous posts, describing the economy as a monopoly does stretch the definition. Initially, it appeared to be a monopoly type market based on the rationale that the game client, which was created and is continually modified by the developers, is the sole supplier of all items in the game to the players through its mechanics.

But this is not useful to think in terms of market interactions on the Trading Post, where players determine supply of tradeable goods in the market. Modifications to game mechanics in terms of determining/changing availability of items have an impact on the items on the Trading Post, through an indirect manner.

But, as people have mentioned before, as game creators and developers, ArenaNet has more power in-game over the availability of items within the player-driven markets than governments and monopolies in real life market situations due to control of game world mechanics.

And while I have the chance, I would like to say thanks to all the people who provided explanations and reasons for their views on the in-game market. And I appreciate the answer from ArenaNet’s economist, which gave me a laugh.

Tom.8029:

I think the Lich would win mostly because it can heal itself.

That’s a good point, the Lich could outheal the damage. The Lich may get heals from the Viscount’s minions as well, so there is that factor in favor of Lich. But the Lich’s heals are based on the number of targets it hits and the skeletons it consumes, which would still be limited by the low amount of foes in one-on-one between the two.

Even still, I believe that the Viscount could still interrupt the heals after going through defiant stacks and put enough damage to still win the fight, while tanking the Lich’s damage since it has tons of hp and armor.

Labjax.2465:

Only if you really stretch the definition of monopoly by linking it all back to Anet. But even that isn’t really accurate; Anet may have the ultimate call in how goods are generated, but players ultimately decide the quantity to put effort into generating.

In other words, everyone has to go to Anet’s mechanics to acquire goods (which is sort of like a single seller if we’re stretching the definition of monopoly) but part of the reason it’s such a stretch is that once we have acquired an item from Anet’s game mechanics, we enter into what is roughly perfect competition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_competition

With Anet being like a third party that regulates and ensures that market conditions continue to allow perfect competition.

I think the simplest way to understand it is that Anet is like the government and we’re like the society living under the government’s rules, i.e. we have tons of market freedoms afforded to us and are mostly left to our own devices, but Anet (the “government”) can step in when they feel the need.

That makes sense. I agree that the game mechanics, such as RNG-based drops, do not control the specific quantity of items available on the market, as players determine the quantity of items supplied on the markets through their efforts in playing the content, receiving the items as rewards, and putting what they want to sell on the market.

However, the inherent control over game mechanics by the developers (ie through setting of drop-rates and such) seemed to be monopolistic level of market control, which is natural in a video game.

While there is a Trading Post where players can freely trade most items in the game, isn’t the overall economy of the game a monopoly market structure?

Most of the supply of tradeable items come from RNG-based loot drops or crafted items derived from materials that come from RNG-based loot drops, with some exceptions (ie Mystic Coins from Daily achievements, crafting components from NPC vendors, etc).

The developers determine the rate of tradeable items through drop rates for RNG based items and determine the gold/token amounts for NPC acquired items. Therefore, the supply of all items available in-game and subsequently the Trading Post is determined by ArenaNet at the game-wide scale, which is characteristic of a monopoly. In fact, I would say that all MMO (or even video game) market structures are ultimately monopolies.

In terms of the Trading Post, the players still drive the economy by generating items from playing the game and control the supply of items on the Trading Post itself. Through the Trading Post, there is a “free” market of sorts, where different types of items are in different markets of varying levels of competition. For example, common items may be in sub-markets that are nearer to perfect competition while rarer/limited items may be in sub-markets that are more closer to oligopolies, where a few player sellers control the supply of those particular items.

However, the developers determine the rarity of those items in sub-markets since they control the rate of item drops received by players. The players may control the generation of those items through playing the content, but that can all change with a patch. So even while sub-markets on the Trading Post may have different market structures, the market structure of the game economy as a whole is ultimately a monopoly.

Who would win? The Grand High Viscount of Candy Corn from the Mad King doors or the Legendary Skeletal Lich from the Bloody Prince doors?

My money is on the Viscount in 1v1. Lich has Life Steal, Retaliation and Protection but can only spawn one skeleton in this scenario. However, Viscount has tons of armor/HP along with waves and waves of knockbacks. Additionally, the Viscount can summon minions of its own, though not of the buffed kind that the Lich can summon.

Here is my Guardian, legendary in hand!

Here’s my Elementalist

This is the best use of tonics in-game I have seen thus far!

Joined the club today, thanks to my Guardian. Proud owner of a Liadri the Concealing Darkness Miniature. Good luck to all the others out there still seeking to get the achievement and the miniature.