Guild Wars 2

When it was announced that GW2 was employing a real economist to help manage the economy I have to say I was a little bemused.

Economics, of course, is more like to Philosophy than say, Engineering, and so I wondered what kind of economy we would be taking part in. Economics is all about the values you ascribe to the X’s and Y’s in the equations – and even some of the equations are still being argued.

At the present time, either by accident or design, we are playing in an economy that is good for bankers and bad for manufacturing, and you get fined for jaywalking if you backtrack to help an old lady cross the road.

Ahem, this post got a little more theoretical than I envisioned starting out – anyway, where was I? Oh yeah – Waypoint costs are just too kitten high!

I’d like an extra weapon swap slot for every profession, personally.

Yes to solo Story Mode Dungeons as an option.

Astral Projections.7320:

I would like the waypoint costs reduced also. I am trying to save up money for the things I need and now, if I see someone in chat asking for help, it makes me stop and consider my funds before I go. Many times now I just ignore people wanting help over chat once I total up costs to get there, possible armor repair costs, and cost to waypoint back to where I was. And from what I’ve read, I’m not the only one. High waypoint costs stop people from being social.

Oh yes, nice point – I forgot that the waypoint cost is actually doubled to help people _ the toll there, and the toll back again. Hobbit movie title reference unintended.

I might also mention that time spent running through explorable areas with speed buffs is not time you spend much looking at scenery and appreciating the beauty of the world. Like most things that stand between you and your goal, it all just fades into the background. All perception is essentially filtering information after all.

So yeah, killing off waypoint costs would actually increase the time spent smelling the roses – not the reverse.

Gold sinks may be necessary for an inflationary economy, but this particular one comes at the expense of realism and mobility (which increases boring downtime), and of course, it stands as a punishment for helping strangers.

The waypoint costs were annoying at low levels and are exasperating at higher levels.

Firstly, lore-wise, it seems absurd. Regarding one’s suspension of disbelief, it clearly makes no sense that more powerful heroes pay more for a basic service available from the start than new characters. Really, is this what you call internal logic in a fictional world?

Secondly, it hampers social interaction – why ever should anyone pay the equivalent of 1 or 2 hearts in earnings to cross the world to help a guildie, particularly if they are only an acquaintance?

Thirdly, for a casual, non farming player, it makes the use of waypoints a serious economical dilemma. In GW1 I grinded my way to obsidian armour and many other sets for a main character, and even earned 20 or so titles, so I am not utterly against working in a game for my prizes.
However, in GW2, if one decides to, say, maintain a couple of crafts at a rate equal to level, and also save enough for training manuals, waypoint travel just isn’t in the budget anymore. In my case, I don’t even have the 1 gold right now to afford the middle manual for my main level 70. Did I mention repair costs?

There will be posters here that admonish me for poor playing strategy or terrible gold management, but really, I spend very little – even my crafting materials were 80% farmed by me. I am that average guy who actually just plays the game more or less as intended by the developers, except I haven’t been using waypoints since about level 30.

I mentioned a lot of costs here, but I don’t really mind any of the other costs. Waypoint fees scaling by level though is both story breaking and gameplay hampering.