Guild Wars 2

Edit: Oops, wrong thread.

Halvorn.9831:

Behellagh.1468:

Knighthonor.4061:

Its not a conspiracy.

NOTHING IS RANDOM IN COMPUTERS…. INCLUDING RNG…. thats not random. (FACT)

True but the current PRNG used pass numerous rigorous statistical tests to prove it is similar enough to a true RNG generator (that uses radioactive decay) to be indistinguishable.

No, it is not true. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardware_random_number_generator.

For a first read.

Apart from that the rest of this discussion is…. amusing.

yolo swaggins.2570:

“RNG is RNG”
The main issue here is a lack of understanding regarding the nature of programming.

Yes, after working as a software engineer and architect dealing with RNG, cryptography and security for 25+ years, it MUST be a lack of understanding on my side rather than yours. Because it cannot potentially be true that you might be wrong, or?

Reading through this thread I start to understand why creationism is even a thing.

Let me quote you a section out of the link you provided.

PRNGs use a deterministic algorithm to produce numerical sequences. Although these pseudorandom sequences pass statistical pattern tests for randomness, by knowing the algorithm and the conditions used to initialize it, called the “seed”, the output can be predicted.

All that matters here is that the PRNG passes statistical pattern tests for randomness. Nothing more. We don’t care about predicting what’s next in the sequence based on what came before or that the same seed generates the same sequence. Which it does.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mersenne_Twister#Advantages

2014 Annual Income – direct income not license royalties (re: China) – ordered by start date

Lineage – 37.5% – 1998
Lineage II – 8.5% – 2003
AION – 13.5% – 2008
B&S – 11.8% – 2012
GW2 – 12.2% – 2012
WS – 7.1% – 2014
Other – 9.5% (GW is in here)

Also you are overlooking the fact that ANet is a wholly owned subsidiary of NCSOFT. It’s not a studio NCSOFT controls outright. NCSOFT can’t shut down ANet, they can only sell them off, GW IP and all.

In this relationship NCSOFT is their publisher/banker, willing to advance/loan them the development funds for the development for GW and GW2 which ANet paid back as a step (publisher style) royalty setup. What NCSOFT gets is the ability to co-mingle all of ANet’s income with theirs on paper to look better to their investors and bankers. What NCSOFT doesn’t get is keys to ANet’s vault to loot.

NCSOFT pushed for an expansion because likely the lion’s share of what ANet pays them is tied to “box” sales and not the cash shop. And with new box sales down after nearly 3 years and the advance/loan paid off so the royalty percentage is smaller, the cash flow from ANet to NCSOFT has dwindled. An expansion would give NCSOFT a kick in the cash flow from the “box” sales of the expansion and likely an uptick on “box” sales of the original game. Not to mention the income statement and balance sheet.

I remember finding a site, it was like their (China) YouTube or Twitch like service, when the game first came out there but the last time I checked I couldn’t find any videos there anymore. Of course I can’t type Chinese so that may have limited my search a bit.

Sorry.

Edit: I just went looking again and found these.

http://www.soku.com/search_video/q_guild%20wars?f=1&kb=040200000000000__guild%20wars

@Devata

Still running MMOs
—————————
Lineage – 16+ years
Lineage II – 11+ years
GW – 10 years
AION – 6+ years
B&S – 2+ years
GW2 – 2+ years
Wildstar – 10 months

Closed MMOs
—————————
Auto Assault – 16 months
Tabula Rasa – 15 months
Dungeon Runner – 31 months
City of Heroes – 8+ years

Yep, NCSOFT cashes out of one MMO and move on to the next leaving a trail of shuttered, previously successful MMOs in their wake. NOT

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Knighthonor.4061:

Behellagh.1468:

Knighthonor.4061:

Its not a conspiracy.

NOTHING IS RANDOM IN COMPUTERS…. INCLUDING RNG…. thats not random. (FACT)

True but the current PRNG used pass numerous rigorous statistical tests to prove it is similar enough to a true RNG generator (that uses radioactive decay) to be indistinguishable. Plus it only repeats it’s sequence after 4×10^6001 numbers.

Here, where this. You’ll be in good company.

I cant find the story on the internet. originally saw this story on TV. Was a Programmer that designed the RNG code for Casino Slot Machines and was going broke, and decided to play the slot machines he had designed the code for. he was able to win lots of money because he knew the secret RNG algorithm code for the Slot Machine.

I don’t think I would put much stock in something I sort of remember happening in some tv show and use it to back up anything.

It was Keno. And 20 years ago.

http://www.americancasinoguide.com/slot-machines/the-worlds-greatest-slot-cheat.html

Today’s PRNGs are a bit more robust. They were downright horrible back then. And anyways this case doesn’t question if the PRNG was random from a statistical sense, just that the future results were highly predictable based on the previous if you had a copy of the code that was using the PRNG or the PRNG code itself. This tends to mean there is a “frequent” repeat rate.

For us players, the PRNG only needs to satisfy the statistical definition of random.

Knighthonor.4061:

Its not a conspiracy.

NOTHING IS RANDOM IN COMPUTERS…. INCLUDING RNG…. thats not random. (FACT)

True but the current PRNG used pass numerous rigorous statistical tests to prove it is similar enough to a true RNG generator (that uses radioactive decay) to be indistinguishable. Plus it only repeats it’s sequence after 4×10^6001 numbers.

Here, wear this. You’ll be in good company.

Thank you Chris.

I don’t see a change at all.

The fundamental problem with MMOs is that the players burn through content quicker than it can be made and released. I find dynamic events still fun after all these years. And I tend to hang around only on three low level maps. And I’m putting in maybe 10 to 20 hours a week if that. Call me odd but I like doing DEs while strip mining maps of their mats unless I’m rushed for time.

I’m not tired of Maw for instance. It’s comfortable and it’s fun seeing all those players in one place. It’s as fun as riding on a same local rollercoaster for the 20th time. It’s old hat but I still enjoy it, well the screams of my fellow passengers.

Hmm, maybe I should roll an Asura next then.

Essence Snow.3194:

Behellagh.1468:

And as I stated in my last post, people are horrible at understanding probabilities. With a low enough chance you can get a significant percentage getting nothing while a relative few get a boatload given enough trys. That’s the nature of randomness. There isn’t a discernible pattern. There will always be “unlucky” and very “lucky”.

Everything else in these threads aside…Why is that a good thing to have in a game? (accounts that remain on the low end of the curve)

RNG loot and the TP was meant to be the great equalizer. No tying of item to specific content.

If you tie doing X to get Y, Y will need to be account bound or Y will be farmed to death if good. But for something like precursors then Y will need to be a ticket you can trade for the exact precursor you want.

And if you can’t do X, well no Y for you. Ever. How fun is that? More or less than one day getting one out of the blue? Same if you never get one but now there’s a chance. And since they are not account bound, they are tradable on the TP so you can get one if you save enough.

And as I stated in my last post, people are horrible at understanding probabilities. With a low enough chance you can get a significant percentage getting nothing while a relative few get a boatload given enough trys. That’s the nature of randomness. There isn’t a discernible pattern. There will always be “unlucky” and very “lucky”.

Devata.6589:

Maybe you could turn it the other way around. You say people grind because they don’t want to buy, or maybe some buy so they don’t have to play… grind the game. What might explain why they design a game to be grindy?

I started a reply earlier in the day about this subject but scrapped it but here it is.

I believe ANet’s reason behind RNG was to eliminate forcing activities onto players. No do X to get Y, as Y can drop from any activity at any time. But that leads to the not getting anything desirable from drops most of the time which forces the player to the TP, whose fees and taxes help keep classical currency inflation under control, to sell the unwanted for coin to buy the wanted from other players.

The Gem Exchange was to provide a means to sell gold, indirectly, for cash while providing a means for players to buy some items from the cash shop, indirectly, with in-game coin. The exchange itself it just that, an exchange as it neither creates gems or coin. Coin is created as a reward from the game, gems are created from actual cash. The exchange rate is determined by the amount of gold and gems flowing in and out of the exchange as well as the amount remaining in the exchange. The exchange also acts as a coin sink which is why it has non-symmetrical exchange rates.

And what developed from those noble intention is a culture where some players feel the need to do a repetitive, undesired activity to, in the end, get what they want. The exchange was never meant for players be able to buy everything they want from the cash shop, indirectly, with their accumulated in-game coin. Nor did they expect players to not understand that very rare means just that. Just because a player bought the game doesn’t mean a modest amount of game play alone will deliver every item they want guaranteed.

And here we are. Oh my oh my this game is so grindy. It’s grindy because players aren’t willing to accept that an MMO is a marathon and not a sprint and trying to sprint a marathon is, well, dumb. Players also can’t be so naive to think a one product company can run on no income and ANet designed the game’s cash shop to not require the use of cash by the majority of players.

You the player don’t want grind, accept Lady Luck as your savior. You the player want that cash shop item, plan to loosen your purse strings or learn to moderate your desires.

Edit: Today I really needed to use readback software.

The OP is using a 64-bit OS. Microsoft’s documentation says a 32-bit app has all 4GB of memory space for code on a 64-bit OS as long as IMAGE_FILE_LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE is set, which it is.

What I’m saying is ANet is forcing a 3 GB maximum use so the game will act the same no matter if it’s running on a 32 or 64 bit OS.

Design and code to the lowest common denominator which is 32-bit XP.

But while it’s completely possible the question would then be why expend that effort. If their plans are to distribute X number of precursors per number of drops it works just as well targeting everyone than a small subset.

Also depending on the activity you are doing can alter your chances. You may have a better chance using the MF than hitting boss chest after boss chest.

If you have a whole lot of gold and a gambler at heart you may play the Mystic Forge a lot more than most, and without qualifying or relying on memory Vs an accurate track other players may end up with a false idea about the actual frequency of success. You could get one on your 1st try or your 101st and then your 102nd try. So is it a 100% chance, a 1.98% chance or a 2.94% chance? Maybe the next gap is 250 or 500 tries and you were just lucky.

Others hearing your success try it and when they don’t get one after 60 or 70 tries they cry that RNG is broken or there are lucky accounts.

Humans simply aren’t wired to understand chance, we fixate on patterns even if they aren’t there. If you have a 1 in 100 chance to “win” you only have a 50/50 chance on the 69th try to win at least once, not the 50th. After 109 tries you still only have a 2/3rds chance of winning at least once. And after 229 tries 10% still would not win at least once, but two out of 100 player would win 6 times and there’s a good chance one player won 7 times.

So we have 10 players out of 100 saying it’s horribly broken while 3 players saying the opposite and 70 with 1 to 3 wins relatively content. Drop the odds to 1 in a 1000, the 50/50 mark is now at 693 tries. But 2 to 3 players out of 100 trying that many times would win 3 times. Again cries of unfair, broken and fixed is raised.

And that’s the thing about RNG, gross results, total number of successes versus odds will be inline with expectations while from the individual’s perspective it can seem grossly broken or some players simply very lucky.

From our point of view in the trenches, we will never know if it’s okay or not. And we don’t know if ANet checks if the distribution of wins versus tries match projections or if they simply putting their faith in mt19937 (Mersenne Twister) which is considered to be an excellent PRNG that has a 6001 digit repeat period (1 with 6001 zeros).

That’s why there’s the sticky thread on altering RNG rewards to toss a bone to the unlucky.

Grind means different things to different people, each with their own threshold to when repetitiveness to achieve some goal becomes to them grind.

Someone in another thread said logging in daily was, to them, a grind. To others clearing a map is a grind or farming for keys.

For many I think they feel the need to “grind” for gold because they don’t want to pay for gem shop items. Or they are looking at buying a precursor or shortcut ascended item crafting so they need the gold. They are willing to suffer to achieve their goal rather than loosening their purse strings a tad.

It’s around 10 gold per $1€. Also it’s always 80 gems per $1€ vs around 14 gold for 80 gems.

Well it is a smallish map. Leave the map, take a break, get something to eat, and then try again.

But I think he may be looking for actual HP and not a 0-full bar.

BattleCat.2098:

If you’re desperate, I’m pretty sure you can buy gems for real money, then sell them for in-game gold.

$10 of gems will get you about 100 gold via the Gem Exchange. Otherwise watch your spending, put in sell orders vs selecting the current high bidder at the TP. Also TP, other players, will pay more than selling to an NPC.

And you are surprised that doing the exact same event 10 times in a row triggered DR? That action pretty much defines why DR was added.

Yes I know. The search for a beta portal is strong but it doesn’t surprise me. Try doing a different area of the map.

Well the story goes the devs expanded GvG into WvW since GW2 was more like a true MMO rather than the hub/instance game GW was.

The game’s a 32-bit application and it ran out of usable memory. Even on a 64-bit OS a 32-bit app is limited to how much memory it can use.

—> Process Memory <—
Private: 3111MB
WorkingSet: 3064MB
PeakWorkingSet: 3121MB
PageFaults: 126087990
[DbgHelp.dll is C:\Windows\system32\dbghelp.dll]
[DbgHelp.dll version 6.1.7601.17514 (64/32-bit compatible)]

That shows 3GB being used which if I remember is the limit for 32-bit apps with the large memory limit flag set on a 32-bit OS. The game may be coded to not go beyond that even on a 64-bit OS where 4GB is allowed.

A temporary fix since you were 4+ hours into your play session is to shut the game down and restart it every couple of hours. Or there may be game settings that can help. Character model limit might be one if you are spending a lot a time around other players during your session.

The only skins that have “hoops” are BLC ticket ones.

The others do come back around eventually. The ones you listed a few posts back I’m pretty sure I picked up on their second, or later, time around and not when they were introduced alongside the Living Story chapter patch that first put them in the gem shop.

Braham’s skins came out during the Queen’s Jubilee while Belinda’s came out during the time between Chapter 4 of the 2nd Living Story and the 2nd Feature Pack about a year after Braham’s skins were first introduced. However Belinda’s sword was introduced before then so the skin didn’t simply drop out of the sky.

Well to be honest, my mesmer is a Norn and she seems to plod along compared to my quick human thief. That may influence my opinion somewhat. And then there’s JPs …

Hey UO and Evercrack was over 15 years ago. GW 10 years ago. Assuming some of you started playing those MMORPGs in your freshman year of high school that’ll still put you at 24. Add four or more years if you started those games in college. If you were a PC gamer from days of old, playing Gold Box D&D, Ultima or Wizardry series you are going to be much, much older.

Leo G.4501:

Behellagh.1468:

Really? That’s your retort. It’s unfair for players who can’t play (login) over players who can?

Well that’s the way the cookie crumbles. Can’t log in for a LS 1 chapter, you missed it. Can’t log in when a LS 2 chapter was introduced, you now have to buy it. Can’t log in during the multiple week Halloween or Wintersday event, you miss out on the items you could get when they were going on. Weekend sale at the Gem Shop, oh well.

Really? That’s your retort. Make up a bunch of strawman arguments to instill some sort of bad sentiment in what my opinion brings forth?

Notice I mentioned multiple times in past posts that in-game events are a different ballgame. That includes LS1, Halloween, Wintersday, etc.

Gem store items are NOT in-game events. So why do I need to even log in to purchase them at all? Or to know they are there (or not there, as the case may be)? I even specifically said, if it was an in-game event, seasonal or otherwise, missing out on that is the reward for people that log in to play it. Locking out gem store skins that only sell on the gem store and doing so for long periods of time isn’t even close to the examples you mentioned. At least with a lot of those mentioned events (and their related skins) they can be obtain outside of that event. You tell me how that relates somehow.

That all said, and not even bothering to quote the other misguided parts of your post, I get the strong feeling you’re just trying to be contrary rather than being constructive at all. I think I’ll forego replying to anything else you’ve got to say. It’ll save both of us a lot of effort.

What exactly are you asking for here because to me your story keeps changing everytime I call you out. Are you asking for an out of game interface to the Gem Shop? Are you asking for a cash exclusive store featuring all items? Items to be always available? A published schedule of when items are returning?

Others besides me have tried to explain the reasoning behind pulling and reintroducing items with no warning and the benefit that is to ANet’s income. You seem to not accept that reasoning. Heck you even called loging in a “grind” to check the gem shop.

You aren’t going to get whatever you are asking for. It’s not in ANet’s best interest of driving cash purchases of Gems. They’ve decided they can do without your money, you being players who for whatever reason play infrequently or have large gaps between active periods of loging into the game.

Sorry, no skins for you.

I’m over 50.

I have both. Thief is more melee, Mesmer more range, as you would expect. I think a Thief is more “fun” to play. YMMV.

That’s not bad for the Grove.

The two things take Reflections and Shadows down a notch. Also Character Model Limit, which determines how many other players near you are displayed.

But even with all that the game becomes CPU bound with lots of players are around, like WvW, Boss events and the TP/Bank/Craft areas of cities. So an “old” i7-860 could be a hardware issue. Also cities with multiple levels also tax the renderer more than open terrain outside of them. So a drop in frame rate in a city is expected.

Beyond that experiment on your own. Some say that FXAA is a problem but I don’t see it on my system between toggling it on or off. I also disable Depth Blur but that’s a philosophical issue, I don’t like it when the game camera is treated like a real world camera with depth of field, lens flair and/or internal reflection.

BUT TELLING US DOES NOTHING!!!! WE CAN’T DO ANYTHING TO HELP YOU!!!

NOBODY FROM SUPPORT WILL REPLY TO YOU HERE OTHER THAN TELLING YOU WHAT WE ALREADY HAVE!!!

Now submit a ticket asking for an explanation and review, you will get an autoreply that they got it, and wait. If you don’t hear back in 7 days post the ticket number in the Tickets for Review sticky. Just the number, not a plea or explanation. Don’t make multiple tickets as it will slow down the process.

Leo G.4501:

So it’s fair to make a mockery of the gem shop’s fairness by dividing people who have time to log in and who do not. You don’t see the double standard between what I said and what you said?

Really? That’s your retort. It’s unfair for players who can’t play (login) over players who can?

Well that’s the way the cookie crumbles. Can’t log in for a LS 1 chapter, you missed it. Can’t log in when a LS 2 chapter was introduced, you now have to buy it. Can’t log in during the multiple week Halloween or Wintersday event, you miss out on the items you could get when they were going on. Weekend sale at the Gem Shop, oh well.

It’s like complaining you never got a Little League Trophy because you never played Little League. Sorry, you have to at least participate (play), not just buy a glove (game if the analogy isn’t obvious to you).

And as others asked, what in the world does this, missing out on gem shop items, have to do with “grinding”?

Telling us does nothing. Asked for an explanation and appeal.

You have to go to a banker and select the wardrobe storage tab there to preview skins.

Yeah, QoL issue there.

Because often % buffs/debuffs are first summed and then applied and not applied one at a time. So +66% and -66% will cancel themselves out.

Leo G.4501:

Behellagh.1468:

]If rotating items in and out of the Gem Shop didn’t increase cash gem sales over making availability permanent they would do so since it would be to their benefit. If they thought that an availability schedule wouldn’t negatively impact cash gem sales they would publish one. As they add more annual events I imagine items available during those times will return.

Consumerism is very much experimental. You can’t just jump to the conclusion that the seller knows always your interests and issues. The only way you can make improvements is to make issues known and/or make suggestions. Now, unless they have mentioned that something would negatively impact something, don’t jump to the conclusion that it definitely will.

And that’s what I mean by discussion. People will jump to conclusions rather than present evidence. This just side-steps discussion and gets right to the point of dismissing. So tell me how any of the suggested would negatively impact you. What would your reactions be (or would be if you haven’t already purchased all the gem-store items you like)?

It’s not about me, it’s about ANet’s income stream. If ANet thought that leaving items in the gem shop permanently would increase cash gem sales then that’s what would be happening. They, ANet, don’t believe that. So we get items that get pulled, with warning, and brought back, without warning, and in both cases we see an uptick in exchange rates as players rush to convert their gold into gems and if when they don’t have enough gems they break out the wallet. And when the exchange rate goes up it also stimulates buying gems, again with cash, to convert into gold which then lowers the exchange rate by restocking the exchange with gems.

Behellagh.1468:

And yes, if you allow players to bypass the gem system to buy items directly with cash that are not currently available in the Gem Shop will cause the perception of a two class system. If you think the cries of “Pay to Win” are without merit, a move like this will strengthen that claim since many who equate “win” in this game with gem shop items like skins and high demand/price TP items like precursors and legendaries.

Please do not create strawman arguments. What I’d have suggested is, temporary gem-store items could be purchasable with only real cash when not in the gem store. I don’t see how it creates some sort of class system that doesn’t already exist now. There will be the people with the item and the people without the item. Whether you choose to buy it when it’s in the gem store or buy it when it’s not or wait until it’s in the gem store again, it leaves the classes the way they are just adds another option.

And no one’s talking about precursors or legendaries.

There is no difference between what you said and what I said. You want to be able to use cash only to buy items not in the gem shop. Which is what I said earlier and you said just now. It’s a two tier class system because players who don’t have the disposable cash can’t get “currently unavailable” items from the “cash only” store when you can. That makes a mockery of the Gem Shop’s fairness between cash bought and gold bought gems since both groups can only spend gems on what’s in the Gem Shop at that time. Your suggestion breaks that by making those with cash “better” by bypassing the wait for an item’s return. That’s two tiers, two classes of player.

Any advantage that cash buys a player already brings up cries about “Pay to Win”.

• It’s shouted when players are told about the Gems to Gold option on the exchange.
• It’s shouted as the exchange rate increases and it gets harder to accumulate enough gold to either buy gems with gold for Gem Shop items or buy highly desirable items from the TP.
• It’s shouted as prices of precursors and legendaries prices go up because the perception is that their prices are high because of the 1% crowd have bid the price up to that point and one way to get to be in the 1% is buying gold with [sarcasm] dirty, filthy cash bought gems (the other is by being an evil TP flipper) [/sarcasm].

And you don’t see that a “got cash, then right this way to the exclusive shop of currently unavailable items” would simply aggravate that issue? That it isn’t treating one type of player very differently than another, making a defacto two classes of players?

I was under the impression that what you specified was always legal. As long as one keypress or mouse click only did one action on one account at a time it was fine.

Lots of people confuse multiboxing with single user action controlling multiple accounts simultaneously.

The Living Story was who the game handled content updates by having a story that affected the world in a permanent way. If you missed it, you missed it. At least that was how the first season worked. It ended with the destruction of Lion’s Arch and awakening the next elder dragon.

The second season of the Living Story is more or less permanent content that was free if you were playing when it was introduced but cost a “token” amount of money for each chapter you missed. There is now an item at the gem shop under Upgrades that will let you buy all that you missed at a 20% discount over buying them one chapter at a time. I believe the cost is $16 or 1280 gems for all of them.

The second season is about the elder dragon’s influence invading Tyria while also setting up the backstory to the expansion.

Leo G.4501:

Behellagh.1468:

@Leo G

So what you want is a direct or alternate proxy currency to purchase items if they are in the regular Gem Shop or not. Offering a service like that would alienate the player base.

OR some sort of rotational/seasonal schedule for the items.

OR rotating more things through the store more often.

Please don’t try to twist my intent to sound like I feel entitled thus the bad guy.

And this is what many are talking about with the forums at large being toxic. People feel some sort of agenda to create conflict and argument. They don’t see people expressing ill content that could be resolved or mitigated. They’d sooner label people as a minority and thus nothing should be done and dismiss their proposition at best, and at worse label that person a whiner and try to silence them.

You tell me what bad could happen if the devs considered doing any of what I suggest. And a currency to alienate players? You can’t be serious. I wouldn’t go so far as to think people could have such thin skin to feel alienated about purchasing a gem-store only item outside of in-game means. I mean, geeze, I could feel alienated that certain skins are being held from me for no reason other than for false scarcity but I don’t.

I don’t know how you are reading my comments as toxic? I’m simply pointing out why it won’t work, it’s not like these ideas haven’t been discussed before. If rotating items in and out of the Gem Shop didn’t increase cash gem sales over making availability permanent they would do so since it would be to their benefit. If they thought that an availability schedule wouldn’t negatively impact cash gem sales they would publish one. As they add more annual events I imagine items available during those times will return.

And yes, if you allow players to bypass the gem system to buy items directly with cash that are not currently available in the Gem Shop will cause the perception of a two class system. If you think the cries of “Pay to Win” are without merit, a move like this will strengthen that claim since many who equate “win” in this game with gem shop items like skins and high demand/price TP items like precursors and legendaries.

Maybe you weren’t here when ANet “mistakenly” mentioned that the Gem exchange goes the other way and you can buy gems and exchange it for gold. Didn’t matter that the exchange always had that feature there were enough cries about “Pay to Win” that ANet discontinued having that in Evon’s Tuesday Black Lion blog post only after a few weeks. Even though an upswing in gem to gold conversion would lower the rate for gold to gem.

My mention about another currency, well there is a reason everyone now use proxy currencies for their cash shops. It’s a legal thing to dodge any need to reimburse actual cash to a player as players are buying a proxy currency and not items directly. So if they aren’t going to take cash directly and you are bypassing the gem shop then the only way to do that is a second proxy currency.

I’m sorry you felt attacked, it wasn’t my intention. But at the end of the day companies tend to do what’s best for their bottom line, as long as it doesn’t alienate (more) their customers. Your ideas will either reignite cries of “Pay to Win” or simply aren’t proven to increase cash gem sales over what forced scarcity, surprise limited time returns and surprise sales. I’m simply pointing that out.

At least the gathering tools seem permanent items in the shop now. I suppose that they weren’t seeing bumps in cash gem sales when they returned anymore.

GW2Spidy queries roughly every 5 minutes and the day chart shows that. GW2TP queries every 1/2 an hour. If you compare the two numbers you will see a major difference at similar times.

Now at UTC 5:13 the API returned 17.24 gold with a 20 gold query. GW2TP has it’s UTC 5:13 price at 17.21 gold while GW2Spidy has it’s UTC 5:12/13 price at 18.89 gold.

GW2Spidy may be using the API but the value is high. I probably can figure out the query amount it’s using based on the values it’s charting if I put my mind to it but I think I demonstrated in my previous post that it’s currently well below the current 100 gem price so the number of gems it returns is well bellow 100 gems so the simple query price / gems received is causing significant error.

In short if you can’t fire up the game to check the current rate using the exchange itself, use GW2TP to get the price within the last half an hour or the API with a large enough coin query, like 20 gold (200,000 copper) for a more up to the moment price. GW2Spidy is inaccurate after Aug 10, 2014. It shows trend, up or down, but that’s it.

Try the Player Helping Player board and not the General Discussion board. At least the ratio of those genuinely wanting to help Vs griefing is considerably higher.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/players

@Leo G

So what you want is a direct or alternate proxy currency to purchase items if they are in the regular Gem Shop or not. Offering a service like that would alienate the player base.

The way we have it now, the playing field is level-ish. Doesn’t matter if you bought Gems with cash or with the dragon hoard pile of gold you have, both can only get items only when they are available. You want to use cash only as a way around that. That’s no better than VIP or some other kind of exclusive pay wall to content.

ANet doesn’t want two classes of players.

Pretty much section 10a of the user agreement says sorry, stuff can change.

10. SERVICE AND AVAILABILITY

a) You acknowledge that NCSOFT may in its sole and absolute discretion provide subsequent versions, enhancements, modifications, upgrades or patches related to any part of the Service.

Because when charged quartz crystals came out they were used for Celestial armors which was the “new” armor at the time (since they gave bonuses on 7 stats not just 3) and so to prevent wealthy players from getting them on day one, charging was limited to once daily. And by account binding it and the armor’s creation, it was a reward that if you want, you and only you had to work for it.

It was sort of the test case for ascended.

party buddy.4956:

how can something be wrong that is taking the data directly from the API, if anything, it is just delayed by a little bit, because it does not refresh in real time.

Possibly because the API shows a non-linear aspect to the exchange and Spidy is using input values to low. The current API only has a “how many gems can I get for X coins”.

For instance I’ll try to use the API to quickly get the rate for 1g, 10g and 100g (primed in three tabs and rapidly switch between them and hit return).

1g reports the rate as 20.00g per 100 gems (5 gems)
10g reports the rate as 17.85g per 100 gems (56 gems)
100g reports the rate as 17.60g per 100 gems (568 gems)

You can see that the per 100 price that the API returns is simply the amount you entered divided by the amount of gems that it will buy, disregarding any excess you paid.

The problem started when the new API came out. I don’t remember if the old API worked similarly or if it was more logical and you inquired the cost of X gems and got an exact amount of coin down to the copper.

You almost need to set it up recursively with the first result giving you the ballpark value to inquire a second time to get a more accurate result.

@Leo G

Well your situation, while not unique, is certainly in the minority. ANet has to draw the line somewhere in terms of activity. So we get weekend specials or items that last a few weeks before vanishing for a while. A few times there been daily sales but that revolves around some real world event, a con, the game’s aniversary, the holidays. But generally I believe they expect players to log in and play at least some time on the weekend or during the week.

To satisfy players like yourself then the item needs to be in the gem store forever, without the sales tactics that drive gem sales while also depleting in game gold reserves. If the last returning item drained your gold reserve the latest sale may drive you to buy gems with cash and in the end, that’s what ANet wants to happen.

If it’s always available you could save up gold to buy it which eliminates the desperate gem purchases because it’s leaving in 12 hours. In short the sale tactics on the Gem Store cater to the large majority of players who play daily or at least weekly. The work 3 weeks, have a week off to binge play player is an outlier.

It’s like the whole gem exchange/gem shop. If you don’t have a lot of disposable income but have time to play, you can grind for gold to buy items from the gem shop. If you do have a lot of disposable income but not a lot of time to play you can buy gems with cash and either buy gem shop items or in game gold. But if you don’t have either, time nor disposable income, you’re left out in the cold.

ANet can’t satisfy all types of players.

Currently most T5 to T6 promotion is a net loss. On AVERAGE it’s roughly seven T5 in yields one T6 out. If the T6 costs less than 7 T5s, don’t promote.

And when I say AVERAGE I mean it. On individual conversions you will likely get less than that 1/7th as the range is for 50 T5 is 5-12 T6 out.

I would like to buy some white space and capitalization. If you want to express your idea or opinion have the courtesy of making it readable.

I’m a solo player 99% of the time, yes, I know it’s an MMO but that just means there are other players in the same map as you, doesn’t mean you have to team up.

Of course as it turns out that the few activities here than do produce the most gold per hour of play (which I find ridiculous as a metric for playing) are team activities. Except they are team activities which the collective “wisdom” says you must play a certain way with certain builds with certain gear slotted a certain way to participate with groups getting that high gold per hour rate. Why go to all that trouble? What does an extra day or week to earn the same amount of gold without all that grief?

ANet didn’t decide on the dungeon Meta, players did. Min/Maxers. Players who are trying to recreate the limitations that a standard MMO trinity enforces in terms of play during raids. And no matter how many things ANet changes with Trait 3.0 will alter things. A new Meta will be found quickly and those who want to join the elite groups will have to have. Same with changes to skills, upgrades or whatever else ANet tinkers with.

So the choice is either conform to this rigid style of play so you can get your reward quickly or choose individuality and accept that you can’t get everything yesterday. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither should your character. MMOs aren’t sprints, they’re marathons.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

https://www.gw2spidy.com/gem

Currently, as I write, 100 gems costs 19.99 gold to buy.

1800 gems =X gold
100 gems =19.99 gold

1800 gems divided by 100 gems = 18
18 times 19.99 gold = 359.82 gold

Of course, that amount of gold will be different by the time you try to buy gems and you will need to redo the math.

Spidy has been wrong (reports higher costs for gems, lower for gold) for quite some time when it comes the exchange prices, since last August, it’s listing 100 gems at 19.74g. GW2TP is much closer to the actual cost per 100 gems. The API even closer.

Or you go to the exchange in game, click on the custom button and actually see what 1800 gems will cost you. And remember it’s a different rate than what you get selling 1800 gems.

Leo G.4501:

pdavis.8031:

Leo G.4501:

Celtic Lady.3729:

As a B2P, they’ve got to make money with their store since they have no income from monthly subs. At least their store is less essential to actual gameplay than many others where you feel like you can’t hardly do anything without buying something.

I’d complain about that!!

If they want to make money off me and want me to buy their stuff, THEN LET ME FRIGGIN BUY IT! Let me pull out my wallet and BUY (not grind) for the stuff they sell, like Shadow Dye kits, Braham’s Mace/Shield skin, Belinda’s Greatsword skin, etc. I can understand they want to keep players playing and buying gems, but when there’s nothing in the gemstore I want (or more aptly, what I want isn’t in the gem store) what do they want me to do!?

Umm…you can?

Buy gems, convert to gold, buy whatever you want from the TP. Buying gems and converting to gold was put in there so people can use cash to bypass the “grind” and farming. They can get those skins for cash.

However, people look at the exchange rate, and don’t feel that it current rate for gold via gems is very good, so they don’t use it. But what they also fail to realize that in order for gem to gold prices to rise, they need to convert gems to gold. This also lowers the cost of gold for gems.

In any event the system is in place to do just what you are describing. Pull out your wallet, buy gems, convert to gold, and buy the skins you are looking for.

Ahem…
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Braham%27s_Mace_Skin
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Braham%27s_Shield_Skin
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Belinda%27s_Greatsword_Skin

Which I got with gold bought gems. I convert a % of my gold to gems every week, saving them up for when something goes on sale, returns or simply cool at the Gem Shop.

As for the conversion rate from Gems to Gold being low? One RMT is offering 1000 gold for roughly $98. At the exchange at the moment 999 gold cost 7,597 gems or $95. One can get you into trouble and one can’t and can’t happens to be cheaper at the moment. I think the exchange rate is fine and dandy.

The i7-3770K was introduced 3 years ago. April 29th, 2012 to be exact.