Guild Wars 2

It’s true that people want freebies. Everyone would be happy with free stuff. But these people who don’t understand how business work, also don’t understand as to why wanting handouts is a bad thing in the big picture of things.

Raion.5280:

John Smith replied to my post star struck

But it’s nothing to brag about when it’s to confirm that your misunderstandings are no conspiracy.

Raion.5280:

I was selling an Emberspire and noticed there were no sell orders. I checked out the spidy… all 70 that were there.. gone. About 30 min later… 1 up for 50g. Clearly manipulation but I just want to know … why this item? It’s not like it’s a super desirable skin. I’m just baffled as to why. Sorry if this breaks any rules.

In a forest, if an undesirable item is overpriced, and there’s no one around willing to buy it, does it still make a sound?

There are a lot of people who don’t understand the basic structure and functions of how a business works. I’ll try to provide a layman’s explanation for why things work as they do in GW2. Warning – Wall of text:

1) Gem Store prices. In most businesses, the price is determined by multiple factors. Cost of production, marketing, shipping, taxes, etc. But in a virtual world, things are a bit different. Prices are most likely first determined by how desirable or how useful the item is. As an example: If the item is too expensive, it doesn’t sell as much. If the item is too cheap, you lose out on potential profits. From my opinion, 800 Gems is a good starting baseline for pricing items, because it’s at point that’s still affordable to everyone.

Other factors need to be considered, such as the psychological makeup of the player base. If an item, say an armor skin, is too cheap, it would be more readily available. That might be good for the individual player, but bad for the overall market. Why? The answer is rarity. If you take a nice looking armor skin, and make it so that everyone can not only afford it, but will also buy it and use it, it becomes “too common”. This will erode the item’s desirable status, and in turn, hurts potential future sales of said item. On the opposite end, if the armor skin is too expensive, less will be sold. The armor skins aren’t meant to be “too rare”. Layman’s explanation – A majority of buyers will not want an item that everyone else has, and will not buy an item that’s overpriced.

Convenience items are different. These items aren’t for looks, but rather functionality. They make your game play easier, such as boosts to XP, quick trait resetting, and even undoing transmutations. As a business, Anet doesn’t want to price these so low, that everyone can buy boat loads of them to use. As such, they wouldn’t want to price these so high as to prevent people from buying them at all. The prices need to be balanced to a point where they look at the cost per Gem, versus the benefit to the player. Layman’s explanation – Prices depend on how the item helps the player.

2) Sales. Most people don’t understand the reasons behind why a business puts items on sale. When there are promotions, the business will sacrifice their profit margins in order to draw new customers in, or get existing customers to come back. In the real world, a market that puts milk on sale for 50% off isn’t doing it out of the kindness of their own hearts. They want you to come in for the milk, and hope you pick up other items (i.e. eggs, bread, etc). In the case of the Gem Store, discounts on items are meant to entice someone to buy something they only considered purchasing, or to make additional purchases affordable (i.e. more infinite picks). The psychological aspect to this is that when you see a discount with a limited period, it makes you want to make an impulse buy. You weren’t thinking about buying it, but since it’s cheap for 3 days, you want it now. In the case of Evon, we would have gotten cheaper Black Lion Keys as a reward for helping him, but that’s a whole other story. Layman’s explanation – Limited sale encourage additional spending.

3) Gem exchange. Anet offers an alternative to getting Cash Shop currency. You’re allowed to exchange in game Gold for Gems (and vice versa). This is a great option for those who don’t want to spend real money on Gems. The exchange itself is like a big pot for all the servers combined. In it exists both Gold and Gems. The less of one is in the pot, the exchange ratio becomes more expensive for the other. To prevent abuse, there’s a buffer (I think it was 30% difference) in the exchange rates for Gold → Gems and Gems → Gold. Layman’s explanation – Anet is nice enough to allow players to get Gems for no real money.

Summary – Players need to realize that all items offered in the Gem Store are completely optional, luxury items. It’s not mandatory to have these in game. But for those who do want them, Anet does have to balance the price points accordingly. It can’t be priced too high, or too low. Items have various reasons behind each price point, so it’s not simply a matter of “make it cheaper to make more sales”.

I’m curious. Why do people feel they’re entitled to cheap Gold → Gems exchange (for no real money), when there are players who pay real money for theirs?

Anet added this exchange not only a Gold Sink, which is healthy for the in game economy, but also a way for players to have access to the Cash Shop without spending cash. Basically, those players are enjoying the benefits of Gems for free, and they still complain?

Meglobob.8620:

There is a serious flaw with RNG in that 1 person can be very lucky and another can be very, very unlucky. The lucky player loves the game and the unlucky player calls the game utter rubbish and goes to play something else forever bad mouthing the game to all the people he knows.

SOLUTION

Keep RNG in the game but implement a method that restricts extreme bad luck which will happen to a considerable amount of players and it being luck, is totally beyond there ability to control.

Being a MMO base it on number of hours played, a 100% guaranteed drop. So rather like the current MF% counter, you could have a drop counter.

For example with exotics, Anet may think a exotic drop every 50 hours played is a ‘fair/average drop rate’, so when you play a counter clocks the hours up to 50, if a exotic drops on the 24th hour it resets to 0 and starts going again, so worse case scenario after 74 hours you would have had 2 exotic drops. The extremely unlucky player would get 2 exotics at 100 hours played. So you still have lucky/unlucky players but theres a LIMIT on bad luck.

Otherwise, without a system like that with RNG as it is now, you have one player who has had 10 exotics drop in 100 hours and another player with no drops in 1,000 hours. Blatantly unfair…

LOL! RNG is never fair…. because it is random. I can’t see how you think RNG is flawed because one person is lucky, and another isn’t.

And as for your suggestion to add some type of counter in place of RNG. That isn’t a solution. That’s called “Entitlement”, because you’re basically asking for free rare stuff every X number of hours/days.

Iluzija.1798:

Woops sorry for the typo at “Don’t force your players to spend rl cash for things… let them out right buy the skins on the gem store.” My bad, was half asleep when I typed this. Was ment to say “Dont force your players to spend rl money on rng chests” because in theory you could spent £300 and never get anything and someone else can spend £5 and get that super rare item you just forked out half your salary for.

Also the problem isnt 100% the gold its also the rate of the drops, anets idea of “rare” is like 00.04%, you really want to fork out cash for that? no.

Also its not that I dont want to spend time in game its that I dont have time, I have a hell of a lot of course work and work 5 or sometimes 6 days a week which takes up most my day, when I come home I do uni work then play games. Like I said, not that I dont want to, its that I cant, I would love to spend time in the game but I would like to pass my course and not get fired. Some players have family and work, cant expect them to give every waking moment of their life in a game?

I know the sample isnt amazing but let these drop rates sink in a little. I know people that spent £300-£400 on keys for the molten ticket, never got it, sounds fair? yeah, totally.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Black_Lion_Chest/Drop_rate

Um…. so you’re saying you don’t have much time to play this game so you want an easier way to get rare skins that are completely optional and has no impact on game play at all? /endlongsentence

Tadz.2870:

I rather strongly disagree, anet said ‘No grinding’ and I believe that should fall under all aspects of the game. The precursor system is flawed, always was, I think anet and its devs were rushed into finishing the game.
What I wrote last night was out of frustration in the early am’s but I will remake very constructive thread hopefully later tonight. Nothing should be a grind, it should most defiantly be a progressive process so you can watch how well you doing and how close you are instead of saving up 800gish in one big hit.

Ahem…

Smooth Penguin.5294:

You’re missing something. There’s no required grinding in GW2. If you grind for something, you do so on your own free will. And by making that choice to grind, you give up all rights to complain.

smekras.8203:

Smooth Penguin, some people don’t have the time needed to go over each obelisk again. if there was a checklist in the achievement description, it would save us all a lot of trouble, even if the location of each obelisk was revealed -after- you had transcribed it

As a counter argument – can you imagine what your UI would look like if they did this? The Living World tab would be 3x the size it is now.

There’s a better way to fix this. Use a pen and paper. It’s oldschool, and still works.

Talonblaze.3175:

Katz.5143:

All the Captains hang out in that bar….Crow’s Nest, I think it is.

Indeed, doesn’t look like she’s doing much there though. ;p

Evon does so much more than her, and he lost the election.

I’m at work, so I’m not aware of the current sales. But if keys are indeed on sale, time to break out Mr. Creditcard! I’m willing to sacrifice a couple of days of venti lattes for Gems.

FYI – BL Keys make great gifts to people you RP with. My in-game GF will be most pleased.

Sini.6510:

Seriously, why can’t you just include a checklist for these things? If your concern is spoilers, at least have a checklist saying #1, #2, etc. and guides like Dulfy can just match locations with those numbers themselves. C’mon Anet, this is a no-brainer.

Because the overall Guild Wars 2 PvE should not be Infantile Mode. We don’t want Anet to have arrows that point out all locations of stuff that should be found by exploring. The fact that we’re using guides is basically shortcutting the experience of finding them for ourselves.

So it is a “no-brainer” that not having an in-game checklist is a good thing. A company doesn’t spend all that time designing new content, only to make so no one can appreciate their hard work.

Seven Star Stalker.1740:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Tadz.2870:

I also recall ’ there is no grinding in GW2’ .

You’re missing something. There’s no required grinding in GW2. If you grind for something, you do so on your own free will. And by making that choice to grind, you give up all rights to complain.

This doesn’t make any sense.

Like, okay, it does if you intend to do nothing or have no real goals. But grind is pretty much the path for anyone who’s unlucky. I for one am so unlucky, that my RNG has been terribad in every game I’ve played (Save for with one mount in WoW but that was only because I was solo-spamming the same dungeon several times a day for two weeks so take that how you will).

If you don’t get good drops, you have either grind the stuff to flush in the forge, or grind the gold to afford what you need. Still a grind either way.

But the grind isn’t required. You’re making it a requirement because you want it. If your goal is to outfit your character with the best looking gear, then do what you need to in order to achieve it. Just remember that the game can be played without ever having the epic looking skins.

I grind because I want something. Wanted to craft a Legendary, so I had to do dungeons over and over. That was my choice to make as my end game goal. Only for me, I found fun ways to do it.

ArmoredVehicle.2849:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Not sure how the current Living Story is recycled. You have existing enemies yes, but also new events and mechanics.

As for GW1, do realize that the rare items there were a grind. When Tormented weapons came out, you had to farm elite level content over and over in order to get enough special Gems to trade for one. Or spam Kamadan for hours, hoping someone would sell your theirs for a low price.

Guess you don’t play this game much.

“New Aetherblade Secret Base found in LA”
“New hidden Aetherblade area found in Gendarran fields”
“Hidden Molten facility found”
“Lady Kasmeer revealed a tower” – Surprise Surprise

Now the new Zergs,

Scarlet’s minions are attacking area “insert name here” and we have to beat them to “reduce the bar”.

The new stuff in Kessex “reduce the bar” to destroy turret (whatever it is, you can tell I didn’t bother much).

And yes in GW1 there was grind, but if I wanted to get an Obsidian Edge I could do FoW till it drops, Eternal Blade from UW, Exclusive weapon skins from certain dungeons and so on.

In contrast to the above GW2 barely has any, Molten Alliance, Zodiac, Aether, Dreamthistle..etc All these can’t be obtained by playing the game. The only option is to open black lion chests or grind something else till you have enough to buy them directly from trade post. The only thing that comes close to GW1 are the Fractal weapon set.

Every MMO has grind, what really matters is the way it’s presented to the player. All I can say is that the GW1 grind was something I loved, it didn’t keep me hooked 7 years for nothing.

All the above you mentioned is new content. I think the only gripe you have is that it’s all located within the current map. Your argument should be for new zones, which I would love to see.

As for your desire to have nice skinned weapons, you’re just picking and choosing your arguments, while ignoring the rest of the available content. In GW2, there exists skins you can farm (Fractal), skins you can craft (Infinite Light), and skins from luxury chests (Molten, Jade, etc). And most of them, with the exception of Account Bound skins, can be purchased from other players on the open market. So your main argument becomes “The skins you want aren’t obtainable from farming”.

perilisk.1874:

Coldin.2840:

Man do people love to toss out the term “Mary Sue” whenever there’s a female NPC that’s good at something.

Trahearne is a girl?

Trahearne was good at something?

I got all 24 with no problems. What I did, back to back in one sitting, was to kill all mobs that surround the Obelisk. After that, I selected the Obelisk, and let the full animation complete before I moved.

I did follow Dulfy’s guide, but she did make a minor mistake on one of them. I think it was the Mount Maelstrom one, where she had two maps. I initially counted 23 until I saw the other map with the single marked circle on it.

Lorelei.7809:

Thank you so much for that in-depth answer Walhalla! But, in essence, it is that their religion is more dominant than their xenophobia.

I hope they do answer that question well, then.

If you played the Living Story, and read all the dialogue, you’d get an assumed answer to your questions.

Madora.9340:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Lian Olsam.9541:

i’m a customer, usually big company spend alot of money for know what customers want, i tell him for free

I’m also a customer, and bought a lot of Gems with money. So if I say things are ok the way they are, my opinion holds more weight. How? You give yours for free, while I pay Anet for mine.

This is how the business world works.

I bought A-Net stock because investing in gems seems to be a good idea. Since I am an investor in the company, don’t I have equal say if not more say than the rest of you?

Unless you hold a large percentage of the outstanding “NCSoft Corp” shares, a paying customer will always hold more weight than a low level investor. Without us, the company makes no money, which in turn impacts a stock’s value. So that in turn affects not only the per share values an investor paid for, but also potential dividend payouts.

ArmoredVehicle.2849:

Earning rare skins in this game barely exists and the only set I can think of is the Fractal one.

This may seem well and good for ANet profit wise, but for us players it’s a big slap in the face, For those who say buy gems and convert to gold, spending such an amount of money for 1 skin isn’t exactly the best idea.

In the end players have to face it, we’re in a game advertised as buy to play but acts like a free to play. Let’s not even forget the Living Stories, with each and every one we get recycled content that in the end doesn’t make any sense, which I’d go far to say it’s almost a cover up to sell new items in the gem store.

Something I really wish to see in GW2 is a way to acquire rare items like GW1 had instead of gambling or grinding for them.

Not sure how the current Living Story is recycled. You have existing enemies yes, but also new events and mechanics.

As for GW1, do realize that the rare items there were a grind. When Tormented weapons came out, you had to farm elite level content over and over in order to get enough special Gems to trade for one. Or spam Kamadan for hours, hoping someone would sell your theirs for a low price.

Im Mudbone.1437:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Tadz.2870:

I also recall ’ there is no grinding in GW2’ .

You’re missing something. There’s no required grinding in GW2. If you grind for something, you do so on your own free will. And by making that choice to grind, you give up all rights to complain.

And you’re missing the the fact that just starting the game is a grind and it as well is not required since it’s F2P. -LOL

Ah, but I’m not complaining about the game. And it’s not F2P, it’s B2P. Big difference there my friend.

Melchior.2135:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Melchior.2135:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

No. These are optional luxury items. Their rarity is based on the fact that not everyone can afford to get them. It’s currently working as intended.

No one is suggesting that they’re bugged. What we’re saying is that we don’t like what’s intended, so we don’t particularly care if they’re in accord with that unwelcome intent.

I never mentioned anything about bugs. The complaint at hand is that people feel they’re entitled to get everything in game. It’s either they want to be able to purchase it directly, or earn it as a reward. There’s nothing wrong with not liking the current system, however, the system is working as it was intended, and is working well.

People who complain don’t understand the reasons why they’re complaining. It stems from the fact that they want these rare, desirable items/skins. It’s not a question of why the item they want is RNG, but rather why they can’t easily obtain it. If these items weren’t so rare and desirable, there’d be no complaints as to why they can’t get it.

For example, take the item Final Rest. Months ago, it was the most talked about staff in game. People were on a quest to find out what event dropped it, and then farm it. Since Anet fixed the drop rate for it from the Shadow Behemoth, it went from hugely desirable, to barely noticed. Why? The drops became so common, it no longer held any value to the masses. People stopped farming it, and moved on. THIS is what happens when you take away rarity, and let an item be more available.

The phrase “working as intended” is used in programming circles, this game’s Developers and QA people included, to indicate that an item isn’t a bug.

As for Final Rest, people who want it can actually get it now, yes. I agree. You seem to be under the impression that that’s a bad thing, which I find beyond ridiculous.

1) Working as intended, as in it’s working… as Anet intended it to work.

2) Yes it’s a bad thing. Not many people want Final Rest anymore. That means no one cares about it. Then that also means it’s not worth as much. That leads to the fact that I can’t make money off of it. Also… the “awe” factor is gone.

Tadz.2870:

I also recall ’ there is no grinding in GW2’ .

You’re missing something. There’s no required grinding in GW2. If you grind for something, you do so on your own free will. And by making that choice to grind, you give up all rights to complain.

Lian Olsam.9541:

i’m a customer, usually big company spend alot of money for know what customers want, i tell him for free

I’m also a customer, and bought a lot of Gems with money. So if I say things are ok the way they are, my opinion holds more weight. How? You give yours for free, while I pay Anet for mine.

This is how the business world works.

Melchior.2135:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

No. These are optional luxury items. Their rarity is based on the fact that not everyone can afford to get them. It’s currently working as intended.

No one is suggesting that they’re bugged. What we’re saying is that we don’t like what’s intended, so we don’t particularly care if they’re in accord with that unwelcome intent.

I never mentioned anything about bugs. The complaint at hand is that people feel they’re entitled to get everything in game. It’s either they want to be able to purchase it directly, or earn it as a reward. There’s nothing wrong with not liking the current system, however, the system is working as it was intended, and is working well.

People who complain don’t understand the reasons why they’re complaining. It stems from the fact that they want these rare, desirable items/skins. It’s not a question of why the item they want is RNG, but rather why they can’t easily obtain it. If these items weren’t so rare and desirable, there’d be no complaints as to why they can’t get it.

For example, take the item Final Rest. Months ago, it was the most talked about staff in game. People were on a quest to find out what event dropped it, and then farm it. Since Anet fixed the drop rate for it from the Shadow Behemoth, it went from hugely desirable, to barely noticed. Why? The drops became so common, it no longer held any value to the masses. People stopped farming it, and moved on. THIS is what happens when you take away rarity, and let an item be more available.

Devon – There are separate problems associated with servers at the moment. I didn’t get to read every post in this thread, but here’s what I see the problems as:

1) Incentive. WvW population differs greatly because different players have different priorities. Stacked Tier 1 servers have a majority of the players whose priority is WvW. Their incentive is to be the top of their region, have good fights, get their WvW ranks, etc. PvE players, unfortunately, don’t care that their servers are 1st of 20th, or have WvW ranks, or fight other players. Their focus is doing Living Story, Dungeons, JPs, etc. For them, there is no real incentive to WvW, except to do their Season 1 metas. Due to this, the players who are coming into WvW on the lower tiered servers are not as experienced, thus leading to lopsided battles. Anet can’t force players to change their mindsets. Even if you offered higher incentives to lower tiered servers (i.e. +300% Precursor drops), all this does is encourage players to switch servers for such bonuses. Which leads to the next problem.

2) Transfers. Another problem with WvW is that people are allowed to transfer between servers so often. It doesn’t matter that there’s a Gem fee for doing so, or a week cooldown. The fact that people can switch sides often creates instability. Of course, drawbacks exist to server stacking. One of the main negatives is queue time. Higher tiered servers have the longest queues, so it’s sort of a self-imposed punishment to stacking.

3) Point System. The next problem is the way points are scored. WvW is a 24 hour battle between worlds, so of course there won’t ever be a balance between one server with a heavy NA population, and one with a more balanced NA/EU/SEA population. When you have points given on a timer as it is now, the servers with the most coverage will always win. OK, fair enough. But you take one world (Server A) with the best players and coverage for 10 hours of the day, but are weak for the remaining 14 hours, that is what creates such large point discrepancies. As long as the score is based on Points Per Tick, the servers with the best coverage in their time zones can earn points for doing nothing, thus creating artificial point gaps.

Suggestions:

1) There isn’t much Anet can do to create incentives for WvW while staying fair and balanced. Sure the psychological makeup of the player can be altered by way of carrots. Offer stuff like Precursors, and you instantly have lower tiered servers’ population skyrocket. But this would be unfair to the servers with the WvW-centric players. “Why does Server X get the good bonuses when my server is already 1st place?”. Unfortunately, I can’t think of any suggestions to resolve this issue. Anet needs to be fair across the board, or else you just have more server hopping.

2) Transferring servers should be changed slightly to discourage server stacking, although it might be too late for this. Season 1 has a great idea, where your “Home Server” is the one you began with once the season started. Off-season should have something similar. When you change servers, you’re with your previous WvW world for X weeks before you can WvW with your new server. In essence, you’re technically “guesting” to the new server for X weeks before you officially join. The wait period forces players to consider long term goals of their choice to move, and also prevents instant server stacking for quick weekly wins.

3) Get rid of PPT. As others have brought up, score the points based on actually doing something. Points for objective captures. Points for defending (as in active defending). Points for killing opponents. Points for JP chest even. Just don’t give points for a server owning everything, and just waiting around for the competition to show up. This creates the best balanced situation, as points then become more skill based. If Server B decides to run away from a fight, and hide in a tower they own, they don’t get any points. But if the other server attacks said tower, then Server B players can defend for points with the current 3 minute event timer. Successful defense earns X points per player. Heck, give points for repairing damaged Gates/Walls too. This type of change would encourage people to actually fight each other. To add to this, reduce repair costs or even get rid of armor damage altogether in WvW. People run because they either don’t want to be killed, or don’t like to pay for repairs.

Here’s a couple of issues within this thread:

1) What difference does it make it characters of the same gender are close? Obviously the writers aren’t providing all the details, and rightfully so, because you don’t want to open Pandora’s Box in this day and age. Clever hints allow the player’s imagination to go where it goes.

2) Don’t assume all close relationships are sexual in nature. This goes for both same or opposite gender couplings. I have a guy friend who I buy stuff for all the time, but that doesn’t make me gay nor place us in a relationship. The term “brotherly love” comes to mind.

Mance.5640:

K only 15 SG and 5 DA… come play =(

Do you drop Pristine Toxic Spore Sample when we kill you? If not, sorry. The Kessex train doesn’t stop for anyone.

Behellagh.1468:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Gibson.4036:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

You can save the world without the optional luxury items.

Yeah.

This thread had me thinking earlier this morning. I was imagining a novel where King Arthur had to kill thousands of White Stags for Stag Hearts and Stag Antlers to refine them so he can craft Excalibur in order to defeat the Green Knight once a day for a month to earn the gold needed to buy the Holy Grail from a wealthy merchant.

But Excalibur wasn’t an optional luxury item Arthur needed to purchase. It was bestowed upon him by the Lady of the Lake after he became King.

“Oh, but you can’t expect to wield supreme executive power just because some watery tart threw a sword at you.”

" If I went around saying I was an emperor, just because some moistened **** had lobbed a scimitar at me, they’d put me away!"

Note – Wasn’t sure if one of the words are bad, so I took it out for safety.

SleepingDragon.1596:

Can Maguuma stop bringing out their 1-3 man crew to fight? I don’t like wasting too much time to complete my dailies and fighting small crews doesn’t cut it. Where’s the huge force that was there during reset???

Most of us are PvEing Krait. But in regards to your current problem, it’s hard to get your daily kills when you face Mag players with epic skillz. The other day, 6 JQ wiped to a single Mag Guardian. Can’t say the same for SoS, since they only come out when Maguuma is busy with JQ.

When the tin foil hats present proof of their allegations of insider trading, I’ll believe it. Until then, the burden of proof lays with the finger pointers.

Gibson.4036:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

You can save the world without the optional luxury items.

Yeah.

This thread had me thinking earlier this morning. I was imagining a novel where King Arthur had to kill thousands of White Stags for Stag Hearts and Stag Antlers to refine them so he can craft Excalibur in order to defeat the Green Knight once a day for a month to earn the gold needed to buy the Holy Grail from a wealthy merchant.

But Excalibur wasn’t an optional luxury item Arthur needed to purchase. It was bestowed upon him by the Lady of the Lake after he became King.

No. These are optional luxury items. Their rarity is based on the fact that not everyone can afford to get them. It’s currently working as intended.

Why are people complaining about more content?

BilboBaggins.5620:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Amun Ra.6435:

Behellagh.1468:

Prove that morrolan. How is ANet manipulating the TP?

Manipulation might not be the most appropriate word to use, but Anet controls all prices in the game…I say again…all prices in the game.

I would hope you don’t need a detailed explanation on how.

We as players are just left with the scaps to play with and set the prices. Again…we are only setting prices based on the scaps Anet gives us…should Anet not like the price we set they give or take away scaps and thus “Manipulate” the prices we see in game…Anet has done so many times…

When a developer has nothing better to do (no ideas) then simulate the real world economy…they HAVE to intervene and change prices as they see fit (“whats best for the economy”)…haven’t heard that before…lol…

Actually, Anet can control the “availability” of items. We players control the prices. If I want to sell a Dusk for 100 Gold, Anet’s not stopping me from doing so. On a related note, it wouldn’t be Anet’s fault if another player put in a Dusk Buy Order for 600 Gold. That’s one player’s own personal choice. So then I’ve just made six times as much money as I initially wanted.

Actually there are guilds that grind gold, pool their resources and have certain members manipulate item prices by buying at one price, posting incrementally higher sell prices to create a run on the purchase of an item because people see the value rising then sell off huge amounts at a profit.

If you believe this kind of manipulation is ok, then there’s no argument i can provide that will change your mind.

The tin foil is strong in this one.

Dreamslayer.7659:

Wait, are you saying we should all be under the impression that absolutely no players abuse advanced knowledge of game changes and updates because Anet got them to “pinkie promise” not to do so?

Yes. Thanks for agreeing with me.

Dromar.1027:

This two week content is getting to be too much, not just because it’s every two weeks but because its also mundane. Calling it a living story gets more ironic with each patch.I think you peeps at anet need to take a break yourselves to develop some engaging content instead of revamping older content or just ballooning the achievement points tab and throwing skins in the BLC, and you seem to do that with the best weapon skins to.

Do you realize that you’re asking Anet for less content?

SRG.3607:

We’ll soon be at 1 gold = 1 gem, and even below. That won’t never stop as the number of gold generated by players if continuously growing.
ANet won’t do any thing about this ratio (their statement is that this gold to gems conversion “is working as expected”).

The only possible reason why the ratio would be 1 for 1 is that there’d be no more Gems in the pot. On the opposite end, the Gems for Gold rates would be tremendously high at that point. So in theory, there’l never been an empty pot, since there’ll always be a player who takes advantage of something like 100 Gems for 10 Gold.

Gibson.4036:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

On the subject of feeling entitled to rare skins because other people can afford to get them: It’s like asking the government to pay for your filet mignon steak dinner, when you can only afford hot dogs.

Makes total sense in the real world.

Kinda odd in a game where every player is playing a hero that was instrumental in saving the world from an elder dragon.

You can save the world without the optional luxury items.

I think with some time and effort, JQ will be almost as good as SoR is. That’s the highest compliment I can give.

Hockey.2417:

Mag win 1 or 2 battles, check the lead JQ has, its about the war. SMH

Maguuma already won this match. Our skill level far exceeds that of T1 JQ. This is evident when you have 80-man JQ zergs running away from 15 Mag KH groups. Much of that lead is from JQ taking empty maps. <3 /hugs

Shiz.3274:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

mage.3570:

A couple of weeks back, I opened 25 chests, got 5 scraps.

Today, I opened 15 chests, got 0 scraps. ZERO!!! This is really ridiculous. What kind of sick RNG is in the game?

You opened those 40 BL Chests will the full knowledge that there are no guarantees that you’ll get what you want, and then complain that you didn’t get what you want? It’s like going to the store to buy an apple pie, then getting upset there wasn’t any strawberries in it.

that’s a horrible way of making your point… i get what you’re mean but surely if you’re going to buy an apple pie you don’t buy it because you hope there would be strawberries in it… bl chest have a chance of giving what you want, apple pie by definition will never give you strawberries.

The point is that he was making the assumption that he would get what he wanted, but in fact everything is random. It’s the same as assuming an apple pie might have other fruit in it (i.e. blueberries, strawberries, peaches, etc). Sometimes is does, sometimes it doesn’t.

foofad.5162:

Stop defending a stupid system.

It’s stupid. It’s completely asinine that people have to spend an enormous money on a GAMBLE (and it is that, gambling) in a game like this.

It doesn’t matter what the expectation is for the user, beyond this: People expect to invest time/money and be rewarded accordingly. Not on the whim of RNG.

You’re arguing over luxury items that have no impact on the game. They’re all optional items, and if you make the choice to play the RNG for them, knowing full well that nothing is guaranteed, you give up all rights to complain.

kaisez.4968:

Omg i cannot win this maguma ultra-super power open field tactic ** .. sorry Jq we have to learn from them …
I understand why price of Sup Ac going up so fast….

You ran from us in the Open Field, so it makes sense that we chased you into SM.

Dreamslayer.7659:

Even if you can’t prove that this sort of insider trading is happening, it would be foolish to operate from the perspective that “since nobody has proved it, it must not happen”.

That’s the opposite of a security mindset and since this is about protecting an economy from people using information to make large gains with little risk, while costing the community as a whole – it should be assumed that it is either happening or could be happening.

If I were in charge of testing new features, I would, when possible, withold some changes while mentioning some false changes.

That could compromise QA to some degree, but I doubt the change in silk was something that really needed to be play tested – or perhaps it’s tested on cotton, then implemented in silk, etc.

There are other things you could do with heuristics but it would be complicated. You can never completely prevent these things, but I think they should take actions to increase risk and reduce the reward and make the whole thing a bit uncertain.

Wait, so what you’re saying is that we players should always be under the impression that the company is allowing others to cheat the system? There isn’t enough tin foil to make a hat that big.

mage.3570:

A couple of weeks back, I opened 25 chests, got 5 scraps.

Today, I opened 15 chests, got 0 scraps. ZERO!!! This is really ridiculous. What kind of sick RNG is in the game?

You opened those 40 BL Chests will the full knowledge that there are no guarantees that you’ll get what you want, and then complain that you didn’t get what you want? It’s like going to the store to buy an apple pie, then getting upset there wasn’t any strawberries in it.

Essence Snow.3194:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

It’s sad that people keep wanting stuff to be handed to them, just because someone else has it. The argument that it’s unfair that one player has more time to play/farm over a “casual” is one of the worst I can think of. It’s like a rich person being jealous of a low-income family getting government assistance/free food.

What? That doesn’t make any sense. Might want to rethink/rephrase that maybe?

I’ll try again.

On the subject of feeling entitled to rare skins because other people can afford to get them: It’s like asking the government to pay for your filet mignon steak dinner, when you can only afford hot dogs.

Nike.2631:

((Holds beloved Infinite Light close)))

I have one of the rarest skins in the game – I’ve seen it once on another player as opposed to the unending cavalcade of Legendaries out there.

It took me 8 months as my primary goal to get it. That’s saving every copper from dungeons, fractals, general play… Weeks upon weeks of farming high level air elementals ‘till I was on a first name basis with every spawn point for them in the entire game. But truthfully I wanted it because it fits the theme for the character that now has it, not because it’s rare.

I get it people want stuff for the aesthetics, rather than the perceived uniqueness. But expecting other players to just hand over their goodies on the cheap will not fly as a game design policy. Its adorable when your tastes grossly outstrip your means, but if you want to be happy, you’d better figure out what meets your needs within the circle of effort you’re willing to put forward. It may not make for the best masturbatory power fantasy – “Heroic” – simulator on the market, but its a pretty understandable model for them to use.

Indeed. While your sword isn’t as flashy as, say, Twilight, I still admire ANYONE who carries it. Part of it stems from the fact that is does look nice. But the other part of it is because it’s so rare.

It’s sad that people keep wanting stuff to be handed to them, just because someone else has it. The argument that it’s unfair that one player has more time to play/farm over a “casual” is one of the worst I can think of. It’s like a rich person being jealous of a low-income family getting government assistance/free food.

RoyalPredator.9163:

John Smith.4610:

I’m not sure I entirely understand what the problem is, if someone could elaborate objectively on the argument I would appreciate it.

Problem is that the game has tradeable Black Lion ticket weapons that hase insane price.
Who on earth will buy/farm ~300 Keys to get a 7 ticket Fused weapon? Not so many.
And its price gone up from 260 to 350 in the days I’ve mentioned Fused Short Bow’s price.

Our problem is still the SAME since a whole year.: RNG.
Black Lion Chets has no sure drop of scraps at least, so optaining these items are way harder than the game promised. We can buy them now IF someone puts them up to the TP, but their price is something that casual players (whos the the game designed for) can’t really get.

It is time to change buisness and reward systems. Stick to the kitten achievements to unlock new skins, or sell them DIRECTLY.

We lack of skins to chose from, we can’t be really unique due there is no better crafting even, so at least make all the game items (excluding Legendaries and Ascendeds) collectable for casual gamers too.

You still don’t seem to understand this concept. If you can’t afford a certain skin you desire, you weren’t meant to have it. That’s as simple as I can get. It doesn’t matter what a “Casual” player wants. What matters is what he can afford (with Gold), or what he’s willing to pay for ($ → Gems).

This game was meant for everyone to play. Luxury items that have absolutely no impact on the game are just optional addon. If you’re still having a hard time understanding this, I’ll use a real world example. Not everyone can afford to buy a Lamborghini. Just as not everyone is entitled to one.

laokoko.7403:

Amun Ra.6435:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Amun Ra.6435:

Behellagh.1468:

Prove that morrolan. How is ANet manipulating the TP?

Manipulation might not be the most appropriate word to use, but Anet controls all prices in the game…I say again…all prices in the game.

I would hope you don’t need a detailed explanation on how.

We as players are just left with the scaps to play with and set the prices. Again…we are only setting prices based on the scaps Anet gives us…should Anet not like the price we set they give or take away scaps and thus “Manipulate” the prices we see in game…Anet has done so many times…

When a developer has nothing better to do (no ideas) then simulate the real world economy…they HAVE to intervene and change prices as they see fit (“whats best for the economy”)…haven’t heard that before…lol…

Actually, Anet can control the “availability” of items. We players control the prices. If I want to sell a Dusk for 100 Gold, Anet’s not stopping me from doing so. On a related note, it wouldn’t be Anet’s fault if another player put in a Dusk Buy Order for 600 Gold. That’s one player’s own personal choice. So then I’ve just made six times as much money as I initially wanted.

Yes…but what if Anet does not like the prices being set…what happens then? Not like they haven’t messed with prices before…

And to the bold part of your response…Yeah, like that happens…ever. Unless you are talking about the insider trading going on, ala “The Crossing”…Anet really needs to get their kitten together on that kitten.

well, he’ll probably spend a very long time explaining players are the one setting the price. And talk about economy 101. Like he did to me before.

In which, I think he’s missing the point. People are complaining because items are too hard to acquire. In which is what people are discussing. The availability of item.

The main problem here is that people feel entitled to getting all the good stuff in game. And by “good stuff”, I mean all stuff that individual player desires. New rare Chainsaw Greatsword skin outs out, and it’s “That’s awesome! I want it!” kinda deal. And when that player can’t get it, and sees the prices on the TP, it turns into “manipulation” complaints.

Rare items are rare for a reason. Because they’re rare. If they weren’t rare, then they’re be more common. And if they’re more common, the following occurs:

1) It’s no longer desirable since everyone has it, so the game gets saturated with the not-so rare skin.
2) People spend less money, because wanting a common skin isn’t worth paying Gems for.
3) It ends up being a bad business decision as sales fall.

Just look at the fancy Zenith skins Anet gave everyone for free. They were awesome looking for the first hour after release. Now days, you don’t see people showing them off in LA, because there’s nothing to brag about… nothing awe inspiring to see. Everyone has them, so it’s no longer a big deal.

Take the new Bat Greatsword, with flying bat animations and unique look. People gawk at how great it, because it’s rare (or semi rare), and looks good. Without the rarity, the “looking good” part fades to the point where no one is impressed anymore. Then it’s time to move on to find the next great temporary skin. Then you give birth to the Skin Treadmill.

Amun Ra.6435:

Behellagh.1468:

Prove that morrolan. How is ANet manipulating the TP?

Manipulation might not be the most appropriate word to use, but Anet controls all prices in the game…I say again…all prices in the game.

I would hope you don’t need a detailed explanation on how.

We as players are just left with the scaps to play with and set the prices. Again…we are only setting prices based on the scaps Anet gives us…should Anet not like the price we set they give or take away scaps and thus “Manipulate” the prices we see in game…Anet has done so many times…

When a developer has nothing better to do (no ideas) then simulate the real world economy…they HAVE to intervene and change prices as they see fit (“whats best for the economy”)…haven’t heard that before…lol…

Actually, Anet can control the “availability” of items. We players control the prices. If I want to sell a Dusk for 100 Gold, Anet’s not stopping me from doing so. On a related note, it wouldn’t be Anet’s fault if another player put in a Dusk Buy Order for 600 Gold. That’s one player’s own personal choice. So then I’ve just made six times as much money as I initially wanted.

Arreyanne.2683:

Ascended gear and the gated content to get it was BS, it added something to the game they said they would not add all during development, GEAR CREEP, The players they have in their little testing group that were selected from the closed beta told them it was not a good addition. They didn’t want to hear it and added it anyway.

They they coated it over a little by allowing you to craft it, funny but crafting from 400- cap now will cost you well over 500 gold, unless you want to spend months collecting the items.

Which as a WvW player i do not wish to do no have any interest in gated content which was another thing they said they would not introduce into the game.

But lets all be realistic here, they need us to grind stuff to spend gems whether you trade gold for gems and then buy something or you pay RL moneys for gems.

Thats the bottom line and if it adds a serious amount of in game time for each individual to get whats needed for the gear grind then thats what they are going to add, sad but very true.

FYI – You can get Ascended gear for free in WvW chests. But remember that using Ascended gear is completely optional, since the minor attribute bonuses over Exotic doesn’t amount to much.