Guild Wars 2

I’ve got a spreadsheet with detailed analysis of drop rates from bags (I log every single bag I open) and while a bag can shift back and forth between buy and open for best profit, none of them are “way off”. If you see a bag that appears to be selling for more than you think it is worth, chances are it drops something at a very low rate that is very valuable.

HHR LostProphet.4801:

eithinan.9841:

Now you are making up numbers for him. That is a recurring theme in your posts.

You know, there is a subtle line between being effective and being picky. Refreshing ones biddings every hour is effective. Refrieshing ones biddings way faster is not.

Refresh frequency depends on the market. I myself only play in markets where I know I do not ever have to refresh. It limits my profits, to be sure, but I prefer to place an offer and forget about it.

dAcIaW.5107:

I am sure it will come back sooner or later, you know when they need a boost for the fiscal quarter or something. I personally will not buy the watchwork pick, nor any other item from the gemstore because of the watchwork pick since I feel that the pick is vertical progression/p2w.

You know, you undermine your legitimate concerns about convenience item vertical progression when you throw the laughably inaccurate “p2w” in there.

I swear, p2w is becoming the “Godwin’s Law” term for this forum…

phys.7689:

ok, ignoring companies, the point still stands, many individuals can gain more value than merchants can irl through their different abilities. basketball players, inventors, artists, musicians, actors, designers, resource gatherers, transporters, etc. there are many examples of different people gaining more value on an individual basis than merchanting provides.

both traders and non traders get value, traders get it in gold, others get it in items. (and then sometimes turn it into gold)
for example, finding a precursor is gaining value, but it is not necesarrily gaining gold. Getting a ascended box is gaining value, but it is not gaining gold. Getting exotic dungeon armor is gaining value, but it is not gaining gold. finding a rich orichalcum node is gaining value, but is not necessarily gaining gold.

in many real world scenarios, the merchant does not make as much as the producer of the goods.

In terms of value/time, the merchant almost always makes more than the laborer. Luxury markets are an exception, as well as many abstract providers (painters, entertainers, etc.) now that we’ve invented mass media allowing them to quickly distribute their work with very little cost to virtually every human being alive (whereas before a sculptor or painter had to spend hours crafting a single piece which was then sold to a single buyer and a musician had to perform the song many times).

With regard to the Trading Post, we are always talking about currency accrual since every transaction requires currency to happen. The merchant is going to make more value/time than the gatherer/crafter will because the merchant isn’t gathering or crafting, they are efficiently matching up buyers and sellers and collecting a premium for this act.

phys.7689:

my question wasnt about accruing currency, it was about gaining value, also, merchants, are not always the most profitable forms of business. In fact the two most profitable companies last year were apple an exon mobile, who in our version of the world would be a large gatherer, and a crafter.

Profitability is the ratio between revenue and expenses. It is not the same thing as currency accrual rate (though currency accrual is certainly a part of revenue). In Tyria, Apple and Exxon Mobile would not reflect a gatherer or a crafter, but would rather be a large, organized group of gatherers and crafters who are performing specific sets of actions as part of a large profit generating venture. They also have a large force dedicated to trading the commodities and products (almost no large business exists without touching several vertical supply chain stages). We don’t actually have any cartels like this (at least not publicly recognized ones) in Tyria, so we don’t have a good reflection of these real world corporations in game. In meta speak, the end results are achieved but through the individual actions of gatherers and crafters.

That aside, you are talking about accruing currency as that is the “value” that traders gain (gold).

phys.7689:

So you say yes, ok, why? without saying that its because merchant profits should be artificially limited, because that is not required to be the case.

It is required to be the case if your goal is to NOT have traders be the most efficient at accruing currency. My goal is to have the economy be efficient, so I said that yes, traders should have better currency accrual rates than laborers.

In any system that contains currency, those who trade will accrue it at a faster rate than those who don’t trade and are paid it for labor. If you raise wages for labor, you exponentially raise currency accrual rates for traders because the traders get their currency from laborers.

The only way to avoid having trading be the most efficient method of accruing currency is to artificially impose restrictions on trading that are detrimental to the entire economy.

phys.7689:

Do you personally think that a trader/merchant playstyle should give you a greater potential to gain value, than other playstyles in a game that hopes to have many different viable ways to interact with the world.

Yes.

Any system that attempts to prevent merchants from making higher profits than other playstyles results in a broken or non-functional economy.

Merchants can only exist in places where one of two things is present:
1. Complete economic control by a governing entity with merchants limited to only those who are authorized to engage in monopolistic trade, usually via buying the exclusive rights to a market from the government (see mercantilism).

2. Free trade, whereby buyers and sellers are able to negotiate prices based on supply and demand.

It is a fact of life that those who engage in trading will make more money than those who don’t. Because it is a fact of life, it is also a fact of game economies that use real life systems.

There is a mess of Raptors in Metrica Province that are my main source of poultry, since we’re sharing market information in order to bring down prices (I assume that’s what’s going on here lol)

phys.7689:

monetary value still works through transition.

if you can trade one apple for one orange, and you can sell apples for 2 dollars, oranges still have a monetary value through apples.
monetary value is the worth of the money you can obtain by trading the item. even if there is a step inbetween, it still has monetary value.
this is the premise of use of currencies between different countries.

Except ArenaNet does not trade apples for oranges, nor oranges for apples. ArenaNet only sells apples for dollars and bans you from ever selling their apples. They let you trade your apples with other people for oranges or they let you trade your apples for some of their ArenaNet bananas. So while oranges and bananas are the reason people are buying apples, oranges and bananas aren’t worth any dollars because no one can buy them with dollars.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

mtpelion.4562:

phys.7689:

from the perspective of anet, yes you can.
this is about what makes anet money, anet can does in fact trade fake money for real money.

like i said this is about what anet can profit off of, and what is of monetary value to anet.
the gold players trade to them is of monetary value to anet.
notice in all my explanations i told you how much money anet makes off these things, not how much i make.

anet gets monetary value from players trading gold, and actual money from people who trade gems.

this is their business model.

Gold can only be traded for gems that have already been purchased though, which is why gold does not have a monetary value. If you could straight up buy gold from ArenaNet, then yes, gold would also have monetary value for them. It is because the only thing you can buy is gems that gems are the only thing that holds monetary value for ArenaNet. Things like gold and gem store items don’t have monetary value, but they do serve to induce more purchasing of gems, but it is still only the act of trading real money for gems that creates revenue for ArenaNet and thus only gems have an actual value to ArenaNet.

I actually see it a bit differently MT. With Gems, I say they have no monetary value, but rather Entertainment Value. I’m paying Anet for a service that entertains me. So the monetary value of the transaction ends once I paid Anet for the privilege to access the entertainment.

I think we see them the same way. My post here was exclusively focused on gems as from the perspective of ArenaNet (where they are like movie tickets, worth $10 to the theater but $0 to the moviegoer). We are completely in agreement that once the transaction occurs, the gems have no value to the buyer as they are purely for entertainment.

phys.7689:

from the perspective of anet, yes you can.
this is about what makes anet money, anet can does in fact trade fake money for real money.

like i said this is about what anet can profit off of, and what is of monetary value to anet.
the gold players trade to them is of monetary value to anet.
notice in all my explanations i told you how much money anet makes off these things, not how much i make.

anet gets monetary value from players trading gold, and actual money from people who trade gems.

this is their business model.

Gold can only be traded for gems that have already been purchased though, which is why gold does not have a monetary value. If you could straight up buy gold from ArenaNet, then yes, gold would also have monetary value for them. It is because the only thing you can buy is gems that gems are the only thing that holds monetary value for ArenaNet. Things like gold and gem store items don’t have monetary value, but they do serve to induce more purchasing of gems, but it is still only the act of trading real money for gems that creates revenue for ArenaNet and thus only gems have an actual value to ArenaNet.

phys.7689:

mtpelion.4562:

Essence Snow.3194:

How can you possibly say gems have no monetary value when it’s in writing that they are sold 800 for 10 dollars? After they are purchased by the player they might not retain that original value, but that does not nullify that they had it at one point.

Gems have a monetary value to ArenaNet prior to their sale. Once they are sold, they no longer have a monetary value (just a monetary cost) since they can no longer be used to acquire anything of value.

this whole converstation is about who and what pays anets money, so the monetary value in anets hands, is the important value.

gems in a players hand still have potential value to anet, because it can then be turned to gold. which has monetary value for anet through gems.

if i can trade fake money, for faker money for real money, then fake money has monetary value.
anet knows this, thats why they can still be in business.

Except you cannot trade fake money for real money. It’s a one way trade (real money into fake money) which opens up two other options:
1. Fake money for other fake money.
2. Fake money for fake items.

The only way ArenaNet makes money is when people trade away real money for fake money. All of the fake trades after that point do not generate any real money, it is only the initial transfer of real money to fake money that generates revenue.

Nerelith.7360:

They make their money from selling you in game gold. Not Gems.

This statement is false, and self-evidently so.

That you cannot see this speaks to the fact that the rest of your posts on this subject have been complete nonsense.

Other than by using third party black market sites that violate the terms of use, there is no way to buy gold.

Essence Snow.3194:

How can you possibly say gems have no monetary value when it’s in writing that they are sold 800 for 10 dollars? After they are purchased by the player they might not retain that original value, but that does not nullify that they had it at one point.

Gems have a monetary value to ArenaNet prior to their sale. Once they are sold, they no longer have a monetary value (just a monetary cost) since they can no longer be used to acquire anything of value.

phys.7689:

gems are just a conversion of money, people only buy gems to get some other good or service.
If the grocery store you go to tommorow makes you buy Shoprite dollars, which you trade for anything in the store, do you think that means they are no longer selling groceries?

really?
no troll?
you really think they are no longer selling groceries?

what if i go to jamaica, am i no longer buying anything after i convert my US dollars to jamaican dollars.
“I just bought jamaican dollars” anything i got in jamaica was free?

seriously?
this is your economics?

wow people are truely living in a haze.

even with your reasoning, did it ever occur to you that the products you can buy with gems will determine how much money you can get for gems/and how much gems you sell as arena net?
people dont buy gems cause gems are cool, they buy it to get specific items from anet store.

I dont sell items, i sell store credit. wtf
actually you must be trying very hard not to see at this point, there is no other explanation

I really can’t make it any plainer why you are dead wrong. Fake money that is traded for other fake money or used to buy fake things does not make me any real money. Only by selling the fake money in the first place do I make any real money.

If someone else wants to attempt to break this concept down further so that you can understand it, I welcome them to try.

For my part, being called a troll for trying to educate you signals the end of my endeavor to rectify your ignorance.

phys.7689:

first remove gems from your whole mental model, gems are store credit, you may as well think of them as dollars in store credit.

now according to your example, it would only be a good analogy if the store also sells staples.

Wrong. It is a good analogy as it stands because ArenaNet DOES NOT sell gold (staples). ArenaNet ONLY sells gems (paperclips) and nothing else at all.

let me put this to you without gems, gems are irrelevant.

arena net sells items in their store
some people dont want the items in their store, they want paperclips
arenanet tells people they will accept paperclips as payment for the items in their store, at a trade in value of 10 cents for store credit.
arenanet sells paperclips to people who didnt want their other items for 14 cents.

every item a paperclip buyer buys, is giving anet more money overall, than if the normal cash buying customer had bought it.

forget the gems, it messes with peoples minds, its just a conversion factor for money, and a way of saying store credit.

Gems are the ONLY relevant item because gems are the ONLY thing ArenaNet sells.

All gem/gold trades in either direction make ArenaNet $0.00.
All items bought from the gem store make ArenaNet $0.00.

The only transaction of any kind that makes money for ArenaNet is when people buy gems. What they do with the gems does not in any way affect how much money ArenaNet makes.

phys.7689:

Wow. you guys. really dont get it.
it doesnt matter if gems or gold is real or fake pretend, all that matters is that people are willing to pay money for it.
thats all that matters, people are willing to pay money for it.
if a company can sell paper clips for 14 cents, that means every paperclip is worth 14 cents.

anet is essentially giving players store credit in exchange for paper clips at a value of 10 cents, and selling the paper clips to customers at a value of 14 cents.

it doesnt matter if paper clips arent real money, all that matters is someone is willing to pay for it.

kitten , now i see why so many people get ripped off, you throw some pointless conversion factors, and they can no longer see what prices mean.

If I sell 100 paperclips at $0.14 each to customer A, I make $14.00.

If customer A trades 10 of his paperclips with customer B for 6 staples, I make no additional money. Ergo, the conversion rate of staples to paperclips (gold to gems) does not change the amount of money I make.

Now, if the conversion rate of staples to paperclips gets really high, it may incentivize people to buy more paperclips from me, but I still only make money when people BUY paperclips with real money and NEVER when people trade staples and paperclips back and forth.

phys.7689:

dude, it has nothing to do with real or fake currency.
its has to do with conversions and the tax withing the conversion.

let me illustrate this more carefully.
the only way in which gems are created, is via someone trading cash for gems.
every single gem store item must be obtained with gems.
gold->gem traders are not creating gems, they are trading for them.
gem->gold buyers are trading for gold, not creating gold.

there is a tax on this trade.

so. lets look at the item that is purchased with gems, and trace the paper trail to see how much money must be paid to anet, to bring this item into existence.
i will use all the current actual values for this illustration as cited here
http://www.gw2spidy.com/gem

for sake of simplicity, lets assume the item is 100 gems in cost, its a top hat.
playerA wants a top hat, he trades in his gold for gems.
“100 gems costs 12 g 61 s to buy.”
so he trades 12 gold and 61s to AnettradeBankerMan for 100 gems he gets top hat
but, now AnettradeBankerMan now has 12 gold 61 silver in he can now sell to Player B who wants gold. (note without player A trading, he wouldnt have this gold to sell)

So how much money can he get from Player B for his newly stocked gold?
“1 g costs 0.14 USD to buy through gems.”
he can get 14 cents for every gold, by multiplication we can now see how much was paid to anet corporation in order for this top hat to come into existence.

.14 times 12.61 = 1.76$

so yes the item is paid for by player B, but player B is essentially paying more to bring the same item into existence compared to if he had bought it direct, for 1.25 because of the taxes on gold/gem conversion.

realize that the player who buys gold, is actually trading with another player (through anet currnency exchange) since anet takes a tax, the items created through this trade actually cost more.
just follow the money if you dont believe me.
pick any item, see how much gold must be traded to anet to bring the item into existence, then see how much anet can sell that gold to a different player for. that shows you how much money anet made off that item.

The amount of money ArenaNet makes is exclusively based on the number of gems purchased, not on what was spent in the gem store.

Every single gem store transaction is 100% irrelevant because they are made with currencies that have no value.

Only the initial purchase of gems nets ArenaNet any actual currency, how you use those gems once they are purchased is of no concern whatsoever.

You’re doing a bunch of math that means nothing because you’ve missed the main point. Anything times gold or anything times gems is always equal to 0 because they have no value, just as everything you can purchase in the gem store has no value.

I’d take Shout Master (with Sic Em on your bar) and Mighty Swap for traits 1 & 2 in Beastmastery. For trait 3, I’d stick with Invigorating Bond if pugging, otherwise I’d go with Zephyr’s Speed.

Afya.5842:

Thing is I see very few people turn gem to gold. I know many buy gems for gem store items. But not many turn gem to gold.

We know that few people turn gems into gold as evidenced by the ongoing trend of rising gold prices for gems, so your observation is accurately being reflected in the exchange.

We will eventually reach a point where the number of people trading gems for gold and the number of people trading gold for gems net against each other and the exchange rate stabilizes (within the margin of exchange loss).

phys.7689:

incorrect, they charge a tax.
so in fact lets say item costs 100 gems to come into creation in the game.
100 gems costs 11 g 82 s to buy.
but the market value of gold is
1 g costs 0.15 USD to buy through gems.
so if you multiply 11.82 × .15 you get
1.77
so that item you buy with gold->gems-> gives anet 1.77 $
the item you buy with cash gives anet 1.25$
so essentially you would spend 1.77 to buy gold then turn it to gems, then buy the item
versus spending 1.25 to buy the item.

Gems are only purchased once. In your example, you are double counting the purchase of the gems to reach an incorrect higher price for gem store items. The gem store item price in REAL dollars NEVER CHANGES no matter how many times you trade your fake currencies back and forth. Someone paid for the gems with real cash, and that amount of real money does not go up no matter how far down the amount of fake money you have goes.

All you are doing is trading a larger and larger amount of fake currency for a smaller and smaller amount of another fake currency that was already paid for by someone else.

So no, ArenaNet does not make more money off of gold to gem people because the gems the gold to gem people are getting were already paid for by someone else. No new real world money is given to ArenaNet as the result of each exchange.

phys.7689:

if you really want them to get the most money per purchase, without slaving away for days, buy gems, turn it to gold, then turn the gold to gems and buy the gem store item.

Except ArenaNet makes the exact same amount of money.

If I pay $10 for gems, convert those gems into gold, convert that gold into gems, and then buy a gem store item, ArenaNet made $10.

If I pay $10 for gems and then buy a gem store item, ArenaNet made $10.

It doesn’t matter if you buy gems yourself or use gold to buy gems, ArenaNet makes the same amount of money because SOMEONE had to buy the gems with real money before you could buy those gems with gold.

phys.7689:

even by your own theory you are still incorrect because anet can make money off my gold.

It still has a monetary value to anet even after i have it. When i go turn gold into gems, anet takes that gold i gave them, and sells it to someone else.

Still has monetary value, it can still be sold. just because i myself cant sell it, doesnt mean it doesnt have monetary value.

Anet sells the virtual goods you provide them. that means your service of providing goods has a monetary value to anet.

which means your time has value to anet, even if you arent giving them money by buying gems, you are still of monetary value to anet because they can sell your services.

Now you are changing the entire discussion to be about whether there is value for ArenaNet.

Of course ArenaNet has value for virtual items because they are the only ones permitted to sell them.

The discussion has been about whether they have any value while you hold them, which they do not because you cannot monetize them.

phys.7689:

first of all it isnt about what one person can do with something, its about what it is worth.
look at the definitions. AND like i said, even by your definition, anet is selling the gold you trade to them, that means it still has an economic value. Just because i particularly cannot sell an item doesnt mean it has no monetary value.

does the work of slaves have no monetary value, because they cannot specifically sell their own work? shocking because there was a lot of people who placed monetary value on their work and profited off of them.

how much someone is willing to pay for something is the monetary value of that item.

The monetary value of gems only exists when ArenaNet holds them. Once you buy them, the monetary value is gone as you are unable to ever recoup anything of value for them.

If you sell Beanie Babies for $10 each and people buy them for $10 each, then the Beanie Babies you have are worth $10. If I am stupid and offer you $1,000,000 for a $10 Beanie Baby and you make the deal, is my Beanie Baby worth the $1,000,000 that I paid for it, or is it worth the $10 that every other person on the planet is willing to pay me for it?

That is the difference between cost and value. I paid a cost that was much higher than the value of the item. The cost I paid has no bearing on the value of the item once I acquire it as the value is determined by what I can get for it should I decide to sell it.

Since you aren’t allowed to sell any of your virtual goods, they have no value. They have a value to ArenaNet before they are sold to you, but that value vanishes the instant you acquire them.

phys.7689:

mtpelion.4562:

Nerelith.7360:

mtpelion.4562:

Nerelith.7360:

Both Cash, and In Game Gold can be used to Purchase Virtual Goods and Services which have real world value. Therefore Both In game Gold, and Real world cash have economic Monetary value.

Ah… here is the issue.

In game gold and virtual goods and services have a COST. You have conflated cost with value.

Virtual goods and services have no value, but they do have a cost. When you buy them, you are exchanging real world value for virtual items with no value.

I am going to leave this discussion be, since all I am doing is going around and around repeating myself, as you go round and round repeating yourselves.

You have your opinion, I have mine, let’s agree to disagree, as neither is going to convince the other at this point. We each have our own opinions.

Mine is that your opinions as mine are opinions, yours is that your opinions are facts.

Since neither is going to convince the other we may as well admit that this is just a waste of time as we argue in circles. I am sure I will again be told that your opinions are facts, but i am bowing out.

If it were a matter of opinion, I’d agree to disagree. It is a matter of you being factually incorrect on this point, however.

Virtual items have no value because they cannot be resold. Value is what you can acquire with them, not what they cost to acquire (this is “cost” which is completely independent of value). Since you can acquire NOTHING with virtual items, they have NO VALUE whatsoever.

This is the case in all situations where your right of first sale has been violated.

no petelion, they have value because they were sold to begin with, a cost is infact a monetary value.

that was the monetary value when you bought the item.

gold is sold by anet even after i have it, therefore even by your inccorrect stance, it still has monetary value.
this is why monetary value is about what people are willing to pay for something.
its a price.

That is incredibly incorrect. The cost of acquisition plays no part in the value of something you hold. Even if your position was true and the acquisition cost determined the value of something, when you are prohibited from reselling the item you acquired (as with all virtual items), you’d STILL be incredibly incorrect.

Nerelith.7360:

mtpelion.4562:

Nerelith.7360:

Both Cash, and In Game Gold can be used to Purchase Virtual Goods and Services which have real world value. Therefore Both In game Gold, and Real world cash have economic Monetary value.

Ah… here is the issue.

In game gold and virtual goods and services have a COST. You have conflated cost with value.

Virtual goods and services have no value, but they do have a cost. When you buy them, you are exchanging real world value for virtual items with no value.

I am going to leave this discussion be, since all I am doing is going around and around repeating myself, as you go round and round repeating yourselves.

You have your opinion, I have mine, let’s agree to disagree, as neither is going to convince the other at this point. We each have our own opinions.

Mine is that your opinions as mine are opinions, yours is that your opinions are facts.

Since neither is going to convince the other we may as well admit that this is just a waste of time as we argue in circles. I am sure I will again be told that your opinions are facts, but i am bowing out.

If it were a matter of opinion, I’d agree to disagree. It is a matter of you being factually incorrect on this point, however.

Virtual items have no value because they cannot be resold. Value is what you can acquire with them, not what they cost to acquire (this is “cost” which is completely independent of value). Since you can acquire NOTHING with virtual items, they have NO VALUE whatsoever.

This is the case in all situations where your right of first sale has been violated.

Nerelith.7360:

Both Cash, and In Game Gold can be used to Purchase Virtual Goods and Services which have real world value. Therefore Both In game Gold, and Real world cash have economic Monetary value.

Ah… here is the issue.

In game gold and virtual goods and services have a COST. You have conflated cost with value.

Virtual goods and services have no value, but they do have a cost. When you buy them, you are exchanging real world value for virtual items with no value.

Archery builds are “selfish” in that in order to make them work you have to sacrifice just about all forms of group support.

They are basically the “Magic Find” gear set of the profession specs.

Nerelith.7360:

mtpelion.4562:

Anything earned while playing a video game (gold) is “free” from a real world perspective because you have already decided to throw away opportunity to earn and instead use your time on a purely recreational activity (gaming).

As such, anything earned in game (gold) that is used as a substitute for a currency with an actual value (real life money) is “free” in the sense that you were able to convert valueless time into valuable time by trading a worthless currency for something that normally requires a valuable currency.

Gem store items purchased with cash are not free as they require you to expend resources that have already been earned.

Gem store items purchased with gold are “free” as they require you to expend no resources that have not already been expended on profitless endeavors (gaming). They are a gift to you for your time spent.

Your opinion not fact. My opinion is that the only time anything in gw2 is free is if someone gives it to you as a gift. If you " farmed" or" did dungeons" or " did Champions" etc… and said time accrued Gold, which you then converted to gems, and with which you purchased something that can be puchased for real world cash, you have earned the real world cash it would have taken to purchase the virtual goods an services you purchased with in game gold.

Free means with no effort. When you play the game you are not " making zero effort." Free means a gift. means you logged in, and did nothing, and someone just walked up to you and handed it to you.

THAT is free. In my opinion, if you put effort, even into an MMO, and then use the fruit of thjat effort…in game gold, and exchange it for gems, and then use the gems to buy things that could be purchased for real world dollars, then the effort it took, is = to the real world dollars it would have taken.

So no… when you convert in game gold to gems, and use the gems to buy virtual goods and services, the virtual goods and services you purchased were not free.

My “opinion” above is my attempt to explain abstract economic principles to the thread since it has been derailed by an uninformed discussion of these principles.

As that explanation appears to be above your head, I don’t think there is anything else I can do here other than request that you reread it with a more open mind.

Sorry :\

EDIT: I decided to attempt to do one more explanation.

When you chose to spend your time playing a video game, your time lost its value. Anything that has value that you are able to acquire (including an offset to an expense) using your valueless time is not a reward for effort, nor is it earned since your time has no value. It is, for our purposes, “free” in that you were given something of value while expending your time on an activity that has no value.

If my electric company told me that going forward, they will no longer charge me money for the time I am asleep, the offset to my electric bill would be “free” because I did nothing to earn it.

The exact same thing applies here. ArenaNet is giving you an offset to your “electric bill” (i.e. a discount towards gem store items by using gold) simply because you are asleep (spending your time on valueless activities such as being logged into the game).

Gold, when used to acquire a discount at the gem store, is “free” because it is acquired with time that has no value.

Anything earned while playing a video game (gold) is “free” from a real world perspective because you have already decided to throw away opportunity to earn and instead use your time on a purely recreational activity (gaming).

As such, anything earned in game (gold) that is used as a substitute for a currency with an actual value (real life money) is “free” in the sense that you were able to convert valueless time into valuable time by trading a worthless currency for something that normally requires a valuable currency.

Gem store items purchased with cash are not free as they require you to expend resources that have already been earned.

Gem store items purchased with gold are “free” as they require you to expend no resources that have not already been expended on profitless endeavors (gaming). They are a gift to you for your time spent.

Viking Jorun.5413:

^

Thank you. There do happen to be a lot of us who like the sword in its current state as an anti-kite weapon, and changing it would devastate its purpose. I feel that the best option would be to simply add a second mainhand melee weapon to the Ranger’s kitten nal rather than fixing what, contrary to many beliefs, is not broken. You may think it’s broken, but it’s due to the fact that you personally don’t like how it functions and it’s the only mainhand melee weapon we currently have.

It IS broken for PvE users and great for PvP users.
The reason this thread keeps popping up is because PvE users are effectively required to bring the sword in dungeon groups because it brings top DPS. You think it isn’t broken because you are using it for PvP where it isn’t broken. Other players think it is broken because they are using it for PvE where it is broken. Everyone is right here.

Which is why I want them to simply boost the power scaling for Greatsword or Longbow so that it can out perform sword for a pure DPS build against a single target while in party range. Then the PvPers can have their non-broken sword and PvEers can have their non-broken GS/LB.

Like I mentioned earlier, our weapons need more distinct roles in order to prevent this kind of thing.

Rengaru.4730:

If everyone bought a sprocket pick, ANet would react by releasing another similar tool:

• Oricalcum Mining Pick (has a small chance to reward Oricalcum on each swing.)
• Ectoplasm Mining Pick (has a small chance to reward Ectoplasm on each swing.)
• Eternity Mining Pick (has a small chance to reward Eternity on each swing.)
  Warning, may contain traces of exaggeration.

Don’t get me wrong, im not against ANet earning money, just not if it’s done by forcing vertical progression into the game.

I don’t think that the pick was ever intended as a “vertical progression” to the gathering tools, but rather a way supply the watchwork sprockets that otherwise have no real method of creation now that Scarlett’s minions are gone.

If everyone bought a sprocket pick, the value of sprockets would drop to vendor price and the pick would lose the value of its bonus.

Food for thought…

I do think that each temple should have 3-4 defend events after which the event chain is automatically reset (via a reset event, not a “everything just disappeared and started over” function).

This would allow a mix of offense and defense with the events and should appeal to everyone if implemented correctly.

Alternately… a tower defense style event that gets harder each wave (as suggested above).

Rouven.7409:

Zaxares.5419:

Interesting idea, although my vote would be for material tier downgrades rather than cross-material promotion.

Would you reverse the output ratio in that scenario or leave that the same?

I wouldn’t do a full reversal, as there should be some loss as a result of the conversion process, but a downgrade should output more units than the input.

Sigmoid.7082:

This happens with most movement skills like leaps. When it hawpens with hornets sting and it gets me killed I am not impressed at all.

Yeah, any skill that changes your character’s location, especially ones not tied to a target and their location, is susceptible to rubberbanding if you have even a small amount of latency.

How about a compromise?

You can now buy the lowest listing (the undercutter) or the highest listing. The ones in the middle are still off limits until the ends have been bought out.

This lets you reward the only guy who didn’t undercut by buying his item first if you want to.

Well, you’ve all got your answer now. Best to buy one so you can get those sprockets as not buying one didn’t send the message you wanted.

I use http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Pile_of_Salt_and_Pepper to counter the blandness.

ExTribble.7108:

Remember the big buy-up of quartz before a patch a while back? Ended up being all for nothing. I’m definitely not jumping in to hoard these since nothing official has been stated. I might actually sell those that I have :P

I made a small fortune during that buy up by unloading my hoarded stash. I rebought my stash right after the price crash for less than half of what made selling it.

There would be no benefit to NCSoft/ArenaNet for using Steam as a distribution platform.

This isn’t a single player game with a multiplayer add on, so the majority of the benefits of Steam immediately disappear. Considering Valve would also be taking 30% of the revenue and providing no benefit, there is no reason for GW2 to be on Steam at this time.

Now, years from now when GW3 is out and GW2 is an antique, sure, distribution via Steam means that NCSoft will occasionally get some revenue from the game without having to expend effort maintaining the distribution channel.

Delta.4697:

How much gph would I be getting at Orr? Is it worth spending MF Boosters for? Also, should I aim for max MF?

The GPH will depend on the loot you get. As you improve your Magic Find, your GPH will rise.

Definitely use your MF Boosters, and use a class that can tag a lot of mobs quickly.

Maxing MF is expensive. Get it to about 100%, then let it grow naturally via salvaging.

RoseofGilead.8907:

Out of curiosity, were those of you who are having this trouble wearing the item when the wardrobe system went in? There are people in my guild who had that issue with items their characters were wearing at the time of the change.

Probably, since they were town clothes hats and could thus occupy the hat slot and not my inventory.

Delta.4697:

I heard that frostgorge is pretty good, but is Orr better? Also, I heard about farming black lion keys, but is it really worth my time? What can I convert into gold out of those?

Frostgorge is for champ trains, and those are terrible ways to make gold.
Orr is where the events are that spawn TONS of enemies to kill which maximizes your kills per hour.

Keyfarming was no where near profitable last time I checked. Granted, that was a while ago, but the sheer monotony of it combined with the excessive gambling aspect (and the fact that only a tiny number of ultra rare things that come from the chests have any value) would keep me from doing it even if it has shifted into net profit range.

I’d rather get a part time job and use that cash to buy keys directly since it would be about as much fun lol.

Delta.4697:

Thanks for all your input everybody. I’ll try to rack up some cash via dungeons, but one thing I’m going to hate after completing all of this is the lack of rewards after every dungeon I do. Are there certain ones that give a lot of in-dungeon loot that I can repeat? Or are there other ways to make money? I’ll get to dungeoning straight away.

If you want loot, the name of the game is “Kills Per Hour”.

Dungeons offer quite possibly the WORST kills per hour of any content because most groups skip everything that is not a boss.

Head over to Orr and hop on the event trains (NOT the champ train). Buff your Magic Find and you’ll be rolling in loot drops as you tag hordes of undead.

Getting loot is like playing the lottery. Would you rather have 1 ticket every day or 1,000 tickets every day?

Pure Heart.1456:

I’m not sure we’re taking about the same thing…
By “rubber banding” I mean the game ‘jumps’ (teleports) you to where it thinks you should be after bad network lag… at least, that’s how I perceive it.

Rubberbanding is where you jump back as expected, but then the game returns you to the location where you jumped from and puts your skill on CD (meaning if you used it to get away from that big OHKO, you just got placed right back into that OHKO).

Happens pretty frequently with SB3 if there is even a slight hint of latency.

RoseofGilead.8907:

mtpelion.4562:

I never got my tailpipe bandana hat either. I had it on at least 2 characters.

Did you have one or both of those characters talk to the NPC to get them converted?

Both.

Luckily, I can still get the hat on any of my other characters (my sister went and got it post wardrobe patch), I just have to make a trip over there.

There aren’t that many keybinds in GW2, so a gaming keyboard is a waste of money (especially since any macro that does anything other than keybind will get you banned).

I love having my skill keys on my mouse though, as they are much easier to reach with a thumb than with your movement hand.

I never got my tailpipe bandana hat either. I had it on at least 2 characters.

If you have an Ecto, you can list it to make 36s05c net (after TP tax).

You can also salvage the Ecto for 1.8 (approximately: based on limited wiki data across all kit types) Crystalline Dust.
To buy 1.8 Crystalline Dust matching the highest buy order, it would cost you 39s43c.

Essentially, you save 3s37c every time you salvage an Ecto you have versus selling the Ecto and buying Crystalline Dust.

Whoops! Looks like Mystic beat me to it. Didn’t see that since it got moved to the top as the answer lol.