Guild Wars 2

Vol.7601:

Psientist.6437:

Vol, I can only assume you are basing your predictions on the popularity of professions played. I am not challenging your predictions, I think the logic is sound, just wondering where your data comes from.

The impact may be small but still fun to discuss as long as we make sure not to incline players towards speculating.

edit: Our base line for armor type variety drop rate is also important. Should we assume the variety drop rate is even now?

I didn’t factor in class popularity because I don’t have the class splits and it would also make things really complicated. But yes, warriors and guardians I’m confident are the top 2 and they are also very good at farming, so their farming efficiency alone could in theory make up for the drops for mesmers and ele’s (since they are both bad at farming)

I don’t understand not factoring in profession popularity. The proposed change will effect supply based on profession. If there are more warriors and guardians and they are the most efficient farmers then we would expect to see the supply of ore to increase and the supply of clothe to decrease. As mtpelion describes, we would not expect to see an increase in the supply of clothe until dedicated farmers convert from warriors and guardians to elementalists and mesmers. Even then, the change in drop rates would have to overcome the disparity in farming efficiency between those professions.

I guess I don’t completely agree with your logic.

mtpelion.4562:

Farmers are going to start using light armor classes in order to increase their cloth drop rate. They will sell their cloth and compete with other farmers and players which will drive down prices.

Prices are currently high because targeting cloth drops is difficult which means that supply is barely meeting demand. This change makes it easier to target cloth drops by altering your playstyle which will increase the amount of cloth entering the market.

The popularity of classes among non-farmers will play a role, but it won’t be as significant as the role played by people who are willing to change their class to get loot.

I disagree with the last statement. Or at least with your ability to weigh “significant” based on our current knowledge. Even if we assume armor is included with the changes in drop rate variety, the change would have to overcome the current disparity in farming efficiency among professions.

Sauzo,

Point of clarification; the stats for Legendary weapons were raised to match Ascended gear. Your final point is inaccurate to the point of irrelevant.

I can not speak for others but I like to discuss new precursor discovery methods for several reasons. In general, I am compelled to get my hands into complex systems and a new precursor discovery method is a complex system. As well, when the workload of crafting ascended gear runs dry or for reasons not connected to workload, we will likely see an expansion of Legendary weapons and/or armor. When that happens, we will indeed see a new discovery method for precursors.

If Arenanet et al were not interested in a new discovery method for precursors, they are being irresponsible when they say it is still on their radar. A recent post from Colin mentions precursor crafting as well, albeit as a general description of the speed of developing new content.

Vol, I can only assume you are basing your predictions on the popularity of professions played. I am not challenging your predictions, I think the logic is sound, just wondering where your data comes from.

The impact may be small but still fun to discuss as long as we make sure not to incline players towards speculating.

edit: Our base line for armor type variety drop rate is also important. Should we assume the variety drop rate is even now?

As far as I know, Arenanet et al has not released any information concerning a change to the RMT algorithm. I would base your decision to use the gem to gold exchange on your personal need for gems and/or gold. Look at the historical fluctuations of the exchange rate, compare the exchange rates to your ability to earn gold in Tyria, your ability to earn currency in the real world and your desire for items in the cash shop and make your purchasing decisions accordingly. The exchange rate fluctuates within limits now and would continue to do the same after any rumored change.

I am almost tempted not to craft anything until the UI is fixed. The way the existing UI is “structured” gives me vertigo.

Could the fix include something as simple as keeping collapsed subsections collapsed when switching between discovery and known recipes?

The following has nothing to do with topics choice!

Just the CDI in general!

A few weeks ago a player who named themselves Wanze started a thread in the BLTP sub-forum that uses a format that was discussed in a past CDI thread. The format worked well.

Good analysis and I think protecting dungeon runs as a service is worthwhile.

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

Party leader can determine number of votes to kick and who has kick immunity. That would solve everything.

The vote for kick count could even appear on LFG tool.

To conserve energy and make this round of CDIs start faster, I cast a conditional vote for “Dev choice”.

Conditions:
1, Devs nail down the system rationale and ideology behind the topic before announcing the topic. Consider the effect an inconsistent description of the Ranger design philosophy had on the Ranger CDI.

2, Create and manage a permanent thread for player CDI choices.

Hello

I like the idea, I would describe it as conscientious path-finding.
What comes to me at first glance:

1, This idea is not the equivalent of “The buck stops here” but rather “We know what bucks look like”. I would consider a new dev sticky type without specific names of devs, perhaps a team name instead.

2, This idea could make the CDI effectively useless. As the master sticky of known issues grows, players will discuss those issues at a much faster velocity than the CDI could match.

Rognik.2579:

So, if I got this straight: KATE > PIE > CAKE > KATE

Who wants to play a game of Kate, Pie, Cake with me?

You just sent the forum’s gate-keeper kitten running for 3 of its 9 lives

Nefara.2186:

Nefara.2186:

Since you’ve mentioned that “silk wasn’t an accident”, I’d love to know some of the reasoning behind that. When you say you want to add volatility, I’m very curious as to what the benefits are to putting an immense amount of demand stress on to a specific commodity. Doing so effected the price of all cloth (except jute), since Damask is so profitable to craft. However, it is more than triple the price of other ascended materials and all cloth is at least twice as expensive as its counterparts. it’s been terrible for newbs who want to level up their armor related crafting. I don’t understand the need for the imbalance so I’d love some illumination.

On a related note, is there an economic reason why superior runes and sigils are not able to be put into the mystic forge? Adding a mystic forge recipe would help equalize the prices of all of the superior runes, adding value to the, well, crappy ones and adding supply to whichever ones are currently en vogue. Was this inequality something else that was planned and if so, why?

John Smith.4610:

I’m not confident I can adequately explain the concepts you’re asking about in this forum without a significant time investment. Remind me of this question at a later date and I’ll put some thought into it.

Just a nudge in case you do find some time to ramble! I’ve still been wondering about the value of demand stress on a specific commodity (for example charged lodestones in comparison to other lodestones, silk in comparison to other t5 basic mats, etc)

As a well defined, selectively permeable system; the Tyrian economic ecosystem is under tremenbous recursive forces. Consider the kinetic workload as a cymatic structure supplied by potential reserves outside the structure. The size of supply apertures (elastic cross-sections of cones with the cymatic structure) are not necessarily planned in advance and when a supply aperture is constricted, that constriction can provide overall system stability.

Superior sigils and runes into the MF is a source of future workload. I would be tempted to maintain them as a potential workload reserve as well.

Wanze.8410:

pdavis.8031:

I may be repeating a question, but couldn’t find it anywhere. Was there an economic reason for ascended gear being bound (Soul/account) and not tradeable on the TP? And if so, what were those reasons? Maybe a way to minimize a “pay to win” scenario? Or to avoid having a bunch of new items that would reach the cost of legendaries and be seen as unobtainable by the player base?

It was clearly a game design and not an economic decision.

I would like to see the Ockham’s razor able to distinguish between game-play and economics.

Thank you Wanze. I have a good instincts for systems in general, but I do not participate actively in the Tyrian economy and miss certain facts. The workload of exotic weapons is connected to precursor discovery though, just not as directly I has had thought.

If we ever do get a new discovery method for precursors (and if we are ever to see legendary armor or new legendary weapons, a new method is likely), then the stablest method would smear the occurrence of discovery and let the market react rationally.

Unfortunately, it is system rationale for mmo economic ecosystems to react exuberantly.

Imho, honesty without tact is the cliche of ’keeping it real", and tactful honesty is difficult to balance in an anonymous forum. I think John Smith does a decent job, even though he never answered my last questions.

1, Have you ever made a statement concerning the ethics of economic punditry in game or in the forums? I imagine you see posts from people giving not only bad information but purposefully misleading information.

Perhaps a for instance would help. Say I am convinced that Fishing game-play will be released on Monday and want to talk about the effects of fishing on the economy. Would you have pointers or standards you would want players to apply to such a discussion?

I am working on a completely different approach linking the discovery of precursors to the LW.

Some brains here and I have a question. Currently, there is a work-load generated by discovering precursors through the MF, basically all the materials to craft exotic weapons. If another discovery method was introduced, that workload would begin to diminish. Any thoughts on the size of that workload as compared to Ascended armor crafting workload or other workloads?

1, We need to stress the fact that we do not have any information about Precursor crafting. This is all speculation and no one should make buying and/or selling decisions based on speculation. Unless speculating makes your inner kitten purr.

2, Speculation Ahoy!
I agree that the most demanded precursors would drop in price but I do not think the least demanded precursors would rise very much. I think the velocity difference would be comparable to the current velocity difference. (Value change of top demanded move faster than least demanded). I would be more concerned about the overall effect on the economy caused by the capital landscape relaxing. If more players can craft Precursors more players will be shopping for Legendary secondary materials. I would predict very active speculation on those materials and that speculation would occur before the market recorded the drop in demand for those materials in the MF discovery of Precursors.

3, Markets adjust because that’s what markets do.

4, Could anyone offer their opinion on how new Precursor crafting/discovery would effect Arenanet et al’s bottom line? Would a new discovery method increase or decrease RMT?

I would imagine the Sylvari id going into a tailspin. Sylvari depend upon the Pale Tree for the continuation of their species. A real world analogy would be humans losing the ability to produce children.

I wanted to smack Taimi upside the head when she had her tantrum. Tyria depends upon WPs and her narcissism (seemingly the nature and nurture of Asurans) could have cost Tyria dearly. We could have lost both the device and and Taimi. Her behavior is classic Mary Sue.

As commander, I would give her lecture on war profiteering…

Ensign.2189:

Behellagh.1468:

Because there was no pressure to force the price up toward it’s maximum support level.

collapse

Ensign, I reread your response several times. It tasted great. I hope you respond in kind more often. I have never received or pursued institutionalized training in economics and your post has a tone I can not replicate.

Came across this the other day and thought was interesting enough to share with John Smith.
http://www.gizmag.com/iss-nasa-cold-atom-lab/30729/

Questions

1, How would the economy react to an orders of magnitude increase in Precursors without a corresponding increase in other resources required to craft a Legendary weapon?

2, John Smith does not have a title under his name. That is a forum system anomaly. How prevalent is that anomaly?

3, Would John Smith accept a nickname instead of a title and would John Smith be open to suggestions?

4, Players will always want the RMT algorithm described and an analogy for the RMT algorithm’s role within the Tyrian economic ecosystem would help. However, analogies are orders of magnitude removed from the real thing. In this case, that error is also an advantage since it protects Arenanet et al and all Tyrians from unscrupulous modifilers.
John Smith!? The closest enough analog I can come up with is based on cellular biology with the RMT algorithm controlling water moving through the cell wall. The reserves would function as organelles . Worth pursuing or too close for comfort?

edited for Why do I feel compelled to learn Python?

‘, Thank you in advance for any answer and inclination to answer
I am an economist onlyif economists accept currency as the anative function of reality
please be generous with your answer breadth
would I know what I am not asking

1, Hello?
2, Do you have a character avatar?
3, Do you consider yourself Tyrian?
4, Would you consider anative RMT algorithm a system rational Tyrian?
5, 4 and why?
6, What is 6 afraid of?
7, as phi’1,pi’1,phi as
8, How would ‘4 as yes, be named?
9, I xp synesthesia with words on paper, am I typical,atypical?

edit for lovinglilyliveredlovelilies

Smooth Penguin.5294:

I disagree John. That response shows you’re human, and makes you more approachable. Even If we were to disagree on aspects of the in-game economy, we prefer you add in some mild snark every now and then, over a “professor-like” attitude.

Edit – Heck, that’s the whole reason a lot of us like you over other Anet employees.

Pardon

test the contents of your stomach against this

Degrees of gray are being measured and a John Smith needs hot air not abigger balloon.

Pardon if that makes alittle sense

edit for grr synesthesia syhc

PTWE ™: NO.
Bitcoin ™: duck
BGs ™: WEEOOOWEEOOWEEOO
Bitcoin tm: duck
PBG ™: Finn!
/shrik
PBG ™: JAKE!
Jake ™: Consider ‘cryptocurrency discovery’ as a train leaving a station and the station only has one opening, the gate the train leaves from. As the train increases in length, the engine must work harder and harder to keep that train leaving the station. Consider what would happen if you pluck cars from the train and threw them away.
GFP ™: Every bit of currency can be considered as the fourth dimensional shadow cast by a fifth dimensional paritied object.
Bitcoin ™: Can I say something besides duck?
LSP ™: As long as it has something do with the market value of lumps,

John Smith.4610:

John Smith.4610:

Conncept.7638:

but there is no way you have the numbers to claim that the players think so, from a psychological perspective.

You’re adorable.

Economists have ways to measure how much your parents love you and the scariest part of all… it works.

I’ve gotten a lot of mixed feedback about this comment and I wanted to agree that it’s unnecessary. It’s an overly caustic response to an accusation (which isn’t the worst thing in the world), but it’s been pointed out that this isn’t a two way street which changes the situation entirely (and makes it really bad). My community team are saints and allow me the time and medium to interact with the players, I’ll be focusing more on providing positive responses as much as I’m able.

Cheers all, questions welcome.

Pride, the way the word works, is the heat an individual can apply internally to warm themselves.

Cheers and I hope Conncept sees this, for the quantum and relativistic effect.

Torsailr.8456:

John Smith.4610:

Lodius.5392:

How about offering incentives to recruiting people?

This is a bit beyond my scope, sorry. Also it falls into my future things coming out clause, so I can’t answer twice, but I’m sorry twice as well and I hope that makes up for it.

Is this indirectly saying that Anet is working on some kind of incentivized recruitment or am I reading too much into what you said? If so, I have to admit I’m curious about what it would look like.

Participants would be wired into a quantum computer….
this might sting a moment

John Smith.4610:

Psientist.6437:

John Smith.4610:

Ayrilana.1396:

He’s referring to the conversion rates of gem and gold within the gem store most likely.

Ah, I see.
As a note, while RMT is accurate, it is generally used to refer to third party traders, hence my confusion.

This is not a returned volley:

Thank you John Smith for asking for clarification, thank you Ayrilana for providing clarification, pardon me not clarifying myself in a timely manner.

The RMT label is accurately applied to Arenanet et al. ‘You’ have collapsed the traditional third party responsibilities of RMT into the responsibilities of Arenanet et al.

Question

Have you as a game theory economist ever considered partnering with other game theory economists to create the backbone for a third party neutral RMT company that would provide RMT services to participating game worlds?

I have thought of it, I think it would be very interesting to have new worlds to work inside constantly and honestly more games need to start using economists. I also have extremely negative feelings about third party RMT because I watch them steal and destroy what players have created and it sickens me. Competing them out of business would be worth it alone.

Applying competitive advantage authority would be extremely difficult, perhaps to the point of not being worth the inertia. Pardon being used as an analog, but “a John Smith” would be competing using currencies minted against player calorie. That standard is too quantum to not apply comparative advantage authority.

It is more fun arguing with you than against but I do love arguing up.

CureForLiving.5360:

Magical items would most likely be items with concentrated magic in side of it, so for the ED it’s probably a nice easy source of magic. However as we’ve seen with Mordy they (or maybe just him) can also absorb magic from the ley-lines.
As for the PCs being magic… yeah I guess. All professions except engineers use magic either consciously (elementalists who train and hone their magic abilities) or unconsciously (like warriors who use it to supplement their abilities). The very fabric of reality if composed of the mists (which are also magical), and in the last few LW releases we know that the mind and soul (or maybe just ghosts… although the dichotomy is a bit tricky) are also magic.
However I’d say that magical items have a far higher magical content than say some random NPC, and thus would be the primary focus of the EDs.

Thanks for the effort of organizing your thoughts, the effort shows.

Sounds like magic theory is missing a magic particle force carrier and a field to work across. Would Aether qualify? If we allow for a force carrier we could look at “magical items” as meta-materials (sentient and asentient). Items such as Gwen’s Flute (asentient) would be a very stable meta-material with predictable behavior, while sentient meta-materials would be less predictable and able to apply will power to affect the magic particle carrier.

Your description of ED’s consuming magical items makes me wonder whether magical items, once consumed, can be retrieved as they once where. Could EDs be approached as black holes?

edited for syntax

Since Tyrian dragons store magic by eating magical items, my characters have been asking if they qualify as magical items.

Buck Valor is convinced he is a magical item, but he doesn’t use gravity so I do not trust his instincts.
The Manafang sisters are less convinced. They are scientists. They point to the evidence that even when they remove their weapon, armor, and jewelry, they are still able to use utility skills and racial skills.
Being an amateur scientist, I remind them they they are still wearing underwear.

edited for “Somehow BrunoBRS is closest”

John Smith.4610:

Psientist.6437:

John Smith.4610:

Conncept.7638:

but there is no way you have the numbers to claim that the players think so, from a psychological perspective.

You’re adorable.

Economists have ways to measure how much your parents love you and the scariest part of all… it works.

The EULU allows Arenanet et al to data-mine chat logs.

John Smith, there are so many ways to shape information for thermodynamic effect. Your response to this player is almost caustic.

Questions!

1. The RMT algorithm, does it process every gold and gem bit as individual bits (ie do gem and gold bits queue in a single line), process bits as batches, or both?

2. The RMT algorithm, would it translate simultaneous “no demand” for gems and gold into a vector?

1. It’s more complicated than that, but as you know I cannot discuss the specifics.

2. If I’m understanding correctly then no. The exchange requires player activity for change, it does no interpret a lack of activity as value.

This is intended as a returned volley.
One of the ways I measure differences between pseudo-realistic economic ecosystems and realistic economic ecosystems is with system rational quantum ethics and system rational relativistic ethics. When you respond to one Tyrian asking;
“How do you know me without talking to me?”, with “We are watching you and your mother!”; you are expressing a quantum ethical bit. “Dye gate” describes Arenanet et al’s relativistic ethics.

This is not intended as a return volley.

1. Quantum causality table tennis is difficult to play as a spectator sport, but it is a spectator sport. While I have no interest in recycling gems (you have access to my history) other players are interested in recycling gems. Every bit of Tyrian currency is the equivalent of the box containing Schrodinger’s cat. Tyrian currency must be spent (the box opened) before its true value can be measured. When John Smith describes the parity between potential workload expression and kinetic workload expression, that is what he is referring to.

2. That answer makes me a bit nauseous. Before I express the nausea as thermodynamics I need to ask a clarifying question that I know will be very difficult to answer. By “vector” I meant a change in state.

Question: Would Arenanet et al’s RMT algorithm translate a complete lack of player input as any change of state. In other words would the reserves return to parity by relaxing or do they save the compression created by player activity.

My historical position on Arenanet et al’s use of an algorithm has matured. I would like to retract my earlier blanket description of an algorithm’s use as unethical. Algorithms have inertia and while GW2’s fan parents had to work hard to overcome the potential inertia of a newly born algorithm; current GW2’s fan parents can rely on the kinetic maturity of the algorithm. In theory at least.

John Smith.4610:

Ayrilana.1396:

He’s referring to the conversion rates of gem and gold within the gem store most likely.

Ah, I see.
As a note, while RMT is accurate, it is generally used to refer to third party traders, hence my confusion.

This is not a returned volley:

Thank you John Smith for asking for clarification, thank you Ayrilana for providing clarification, pardon me not clarifying myself in a timely manner.

The RMT label is accurately applied to Arenanet et al. ‘You’ have collapsed the traditional third party responsibilities of RMT into the responsibilities of Arenanet et al.

Question

Have you as a game theory economist ever considered partnering with other game theory economists to create the backbone for a third party neutral RMT company that would provide RMT services to participating game worlds?

John Smith.4610:

Conncept.7638:

but there is no way you have the numbers to claim that the players think so, from a psychological perspective.

You’re adorable.

Economists have ways to measure how much your parents love you and the scariest part of all… it works.

The EULU allows Arenanet et al to data-mine chat logs.

John Smith, there are so many ways to shape information for thermodynamic effect. Your response to this player is almost caustic.

Questions!

1. The RMT algorithm, does it process every gold and gem bit as individual bits (ie do gem and gold bits queue in a single line), process bits as batches, or both?

2. The RMT algorithm, would it translate simultaneous “no demand” for gems and gold into a vector?

mtpelion.4562:

Psientist.6437:

The work involved is just the work involved and the world manages much bigger problems. My question stands unanswered.

1. If it were up to you, would you have released all of the information concerning changes to the dye system at once?

Reading between the lines, I gather that John isn’t going to say anything else because he has coworkers who may not like his answer and he has to work with them every day.

When I combine the game theory and economic theory of:

rational expectations
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rational_expectations

with

John Smith’s comment from this thread. (Pardon my inability to use permalinks)

“There’s a lot here, but I want to present something that may make you think slightly differently about your questions. Are economies static? MMO Economies move at hyperspeed and games change very quickly. This is especially true in Guild Wars 2 when we constantly update the game adding new content and changing the game. For many of these questions there isn’t a single answer, but we move in cycles; we increase and decrease, we update and change, we add volatility and stability sometimes both. The change makes the market more interesting, more fun and allows us to keep the economy balanced.

If you like I can still answer those questions in general about working in MMO economies, or I can wait to see if you’d like to rethink the questions at all for GW2 specifically."

and RMT

I do not grok your reply as a legitimate excuse. Instead I grok the need to get John Smith and the other relevant employees into a room together for the specific purpose of answering this Question:

Did the final bit of information describing the change to the dye system (the change in laurel cost) include the information generated by the market as it processed incomplete information. In other words, please explain the bubble in dye price and whether Arenanet et al’s handling of information influenced that bubble.

John Smith.4610:

Psientist.6437:

Would this derivatives market have anything to do with the unique features of Tyrian lore or just be an addition to our mercenary marketplace?

I would attempt to incorporate any game feature into the world as a piece of the world.

I think a Tyrian, lore- rational, economic cycle represents an untapped gold-mine of game theory and business plan. Consider CCP’s Eve economic ecosystem….without rolling your eyes. The free expression of Randian market ethics in Eve is system rational/ethical (enough so to make it into the MMA). But does that free expression of Randian ethics translate into a game world where no one makes bodily contact with anyone?

As a fantasy mmo, GW2 could tell a compelling economic story, a story that would rival the economic story of WWII.

Mckeone.9804:

John Smith.4610:

What I would personally, as a player, love to have is a derivatives market. It could be a lot of fun, but there are also a huge quantity of problems that go along with it, so it would most likely need to be build into the game from the very beginning.

Yes yes a thousand times yes. You could even implement it as an escrow-contract system with money and items held by a special type of BLTC agent. Adding leverage could make it difficult, but it couldn’t be that hard to implement a futures and options system. I’d volunteer

Would this derivatives market have anything to do with the unique features of Tyrian lore or just be an addition to our mercenary marketplace?

John Smith.4610:

Psientist.6437:

Color me an impressed Tyrian.
I hope the color isn’t account bound because Wanze and John Smith deserve some of that color, in shades.
I haven’t made it through the first page and I had to post at least that sentiment.

My question:

Information releases that talk about changes to in game systems impact the market. The information concerning changes to the dye mechanic came in dribbles and the market reacted as any market would to incomplete information.

If it were up to you, would you have released all of the information concerning changes to the dye system at once?

Unfortunately, releasing problem isn’t a single variable problem. There is an unbelievable amount of work required to release information in an official/public way.

You had me at “isn’t a single variable problem”; and then lost me with “releasing problem”. Not sure how that works since the later was former. Anyway…

The work involved is just the work involved and the world manages much bigger problems. My question stands unanswered.

You mentioned earlier in this thread just how volatile a virtual economic ecosystem can be. That is because they are small and well defined and changes in information keep the thermodynamics buzzing longer than expected of larger less well defined systems. Consider the effects of a stone of equal weight dropped into a teacup and the Atlantic.

RMT adds pseudo-reality to this virtual reality.

1. If it were up to you, would you have released all of the information concerning changes to the dye system at once?

Color me an impressed Tyrian.
I hope the color isn’t account bound because Wanze and John Smith deserve some of that color, in shades.
I haven’t made it through the first page and I had to post at least that sentiment.

My question:

Information releases that talk about changes to in game systems impact the market. The information concerning changes to the dye mechanic came in dribbles and the market reacted as any market would to incomplete information.

If it were up to you, would you have released all of the information concerning changes to the dye system at once?

Do they sell anything you describe during trade shows or conventions? (the Rytlock statue is the only thing I can think of)

As long as the manufacturing was ethically sourced, collectables would be a great idea.

FLASH of brilliance! Arenanet needs a 3D printer!

Hi Zoxea

You can’t blame the BLTP for the ever accelerating cost of precursors. The BLTP, like any commodity trading floor, is a competitive arena; and low supply, wealth inequality and inflation are all working to push the price of precursors faster and faster. To lower the price of precursors using the BLTP, Arenanet would need to convince players not to act in their own best interest (the player’s self interest, not Arenanat’s).

If you want to blame anyone for the ever accelerating cost of precursors, you would need to blame the game theory behind Legendary weapons. While I hold the position that the game theory behind Legendary weapons is more business model than game theory, that position describes my personal taste.

My only advice to you is this:

If you do not want to compete with other players for precursors, don’t.

edited for syntax

I read Belinda’s death scene a bit differently. I think some artists decided it would look really cool to splot-light her mangled corpse, and that’s all.

Her death does not progress the story one lick. Marjory did not need any more motivation. No one needed to be reminded of the danger posed by Mord. Belinda would have been better used as a way to explore the relationship between Marjory and Kasmeer. Belinda’s death was just schadenfreude. The writer’s need to stop watching Lost and The Walking Dead.

I hope the HR department at Arenanet finally installed the ‘mount thread warning system’. It is just plain unhealthy for developers to consider the effects of increasing character modeling loads by 200-500%, or the effects on the camera box of increasing the height of characters….

Mungrul.9358:

The irony is, I can only see this driving an even larger wedge between GW2 and lapsed players. The longer someone takes a break, the more they’ll have to pay in order to catch up on content.

So if I decide to revisit the game in 2015 (I’m really not likely to this year given how much current development strategies disgust me), I will not be able to play any new content unless I pay for it. I will be faced with the same game I left because I thought they were leaning too heavily on the gem store in the first place.

ArenaNet and GW2 have completely lost any faith I had in them.
I hope, sincerely, it comes back and bites them hard. They don’t deserve the adulation of their fans. And they certainly don’t appreciate it anywhere near as much as they should.

This thread is full of people defending them, who don’t realise they’re trapped in a soul-sucking loop of trivial, mediocre gameplay.
They’ve been doing it so long, they’ve forgotten what value is and don’t realise there are games out there that offer so much more than GW2 for less money.

Defending episode unlocks is not equivalent to defending every monetization decision Arenanet et al has made. I agree with you that GW2 often feels more like a business plan with a game attached than a game with a business plan attached.

However, unless you have attempted to sell your own art, you really can’t judge another artist’s attempts to sell their art. In my opinion, the LW is the closest thing the developers have to unique art. In my opinion, the most ethical place to put the price tag is right under the work of art.

I would argue against other monetization methods employed by Arenanet et al, but never this one. Well, unless they decide to torture it out of shape.

captainteemo.6537:

Chase.8415:

You have 2 weeks or more to log on for 30 seconds to unlock an episode.

If you can’t even do that, then yes you have the option of buying the story and unlocking it. But keep in mind your friends can take you into the story instance for free, you just wont get any rewards.

This didn’t work. GF logged in a few times during the week. Did dailies and changed skins. Logging in today the story is locked for her, and the 1st season 2 story needs to be bought for 200 gems. Cycling through every level 80 character, we couldn’t find an option to play the 1st part of season 2 without paying.

That sounds like a bug, I would submit a support ticket.

I don’t think a new acquisition system for precursors is necessarily a good idea unless the Legendary rarity is expanded with new weapons or other equipment slots. The “perceived value” of existing legendary weapons is already unstable and adding another acquisition method would only destabilize the “perceived value”.

Don’t give up hope though. The Living World provides plenty of room for new content. Perhaps a Tyria-wide, LW story rational, economic cycle told with RTS that awards a currency that could be used towards precursor parts? The acquisition method would keep players interested in the LW. I have more but just been too lazy, disinterested to put the plan to paper.

John Smith must walk on tip-toes in this forum. Unfortunately for John Smith, anything he says can and will have an impact on the Tyrian economic ecosystem and the Arenanet et al economic ecosystem. Consider the broad spectrum of the player base; player one could use information posted by John Smith accurately and in their best interest, while player two could be confused right off an economic cliff. John Smith is provided with considerable incentive to keep both player one and player two participating.

I think the root cause of player animosity towards the Tyrian economy has nothing to do with understanding economic theory. A real world Tyrian equivalent doesn’t exist.

I think the root cause is the cognitive dissonance built into Tyrian role-playing. Tyria, as a world, a place telling a story, needs Wonder Woman and Captain America, while the Tyrian economy trains Ayn Randian mercenaries.

To grok gems for missed LW episodes, you must first grok that there is no carrot, there is no stick….there is only carrotstick!

If you grok the carrotstick, you know that you need to also grok with a carrotstick.

In other words, Arenanet et al will likely need to expand the way the LW is monetized and it would be a shame to see the carrotstick devolve into something more like a stick and/or more like a carrot.

Some thoughts on how to expand the carrotstick without loosing system rational/ethical parity.

1. Never offer a bundle package of episode unlocks. The carrotstick only functions because Arenet et al wants, and benefits most, when players show up and participate in the current episode. A bundle package must ask players to plan ahead on not participating and leaves the possibility open for a player to have episode unlocks that they may never use. While it is important to limit the player to one unlock at a time, it is also important to provide some incentive in the form of cost reduction for multiple episode unlocks. I would recommend a reduction for each successive unlock or say the 5th unlock for free.

2. Season unlocks are a no-brainer and can be bundled, price-slashed, or flown to the moon and back without risking the carrotstick.

3. Season overview machinama builder.

What I am trying to build here is the equivalent of the photograph offered for sale after riders get off the roller coaster. This could be stressful for the carrotstick. The machinama builder would provide players with the tools to compose a short 4-7 minute season overview. The builder would include journal entries from LW characters, game-play clips, PS style story-boarding, voice overs, music tracks; enough content to make many unique season overviews.

One of the biggest obstacles to a successful LW is player narcissism, the notion that Tyria revolves around our character. The machinama builder would allow players to compose a system rational version of the telling of the LW that highlights the plot devices the player cares most about…and share that telling with the world. Imagine the internet filled with player composed synopses during the LW off-season.

Thanks for reading

Jemmi.6058:

Complaint is like TV. If you miss the show love you likely have to pay for the DVD or download

I would caution against using a TV series as an analog for the LW. As a storytelling medium, a persistent MMO is more plastic and makes very different demands on the viewer. A mmo is more akin to live action interactive theater.

If you take a look at some of my past posts you know that I have very high standards for the ethical monetization of players and I think charging players a small gem fee for previous chapters is system rational and ethical. To maintain system rational and ethical, I would only warn against offering time sensitive sales on “previous chapter unlock” bundles.

Lukyromero.6780:

Actually to be honest here I think Deflation is occurring because the game is just boring…at least until JULY FIRST I CANT WAIT; until then I TP FLIP. Also just because Jhon Smith says something, doesn’t mean he’s correct; he alone didn’t make the game.

Wait….

If we consider the game as a balloon; inflation describes the balloon growing and deflation would describe the balloon shrinking?!?!?

I would prefer a growing, inflating to bursting game!

Hrmmm…

we may have to put up with inflating precursors if we want to be superheroes in Tyria
but we really could use a meaningful way to discover them

edit for Tree

I grew up with just enough to be primary translator for more no mock here

Ayrilana, please stop stabbing the pig and trying to convince us that the pig is singing.

The DC signal can fit within a 2 type currency channel. Type 1 could be as numerous as needed and would behave as Bitcoin. Type 2 would compile comparative advantage internally and maintain relative to type 1 landscape.

“why not bounce”
is to
Legendary Heroic Parity
is to
ding-a-lings ping-a-ling-ing ping-alant-ing-ian-ism

release the Kritten

please accept the atypical nature of how I communicate.
very big abstracts
not enough words
extreme social anxiety

edited for clarity ;p