Guild Wars 2

How does this work in the situation whereby a server has enough people to populate Eternal but doesn’t have enough for the borderlands?

Is the cap across all of borderlands? Is it for each individual borderland?

If that is the case, what of the situation where one server can field lots people while the other two servers can’t? Are the borderlands closed down?

I think the week long match-up may be at play here. After the initial fight, interest wanes and one side begins to dominate the others. As time progresses and one side continues to dominate the score less players on the ‘losing’ servers bother with wuvwuv or they server transfer.

But, here’s my question in all of this, what do you -win- at the end of a match?

Having thought about this for awhile I have come to the conclusion that population within the battle grounds needs to be accounted for.

There are a couple of ways to do this: Average population in all the borderlands + eternal or average population in each individual borderland and one for eternal.

For example, on Tarnished Coast, we do ‘okay’ in Eternal but we lose out on every borderland due to huge population imbalances. This means that the server who is ‘winning’ the war isn’t better as such they simply have more players.

If population was added as a trackable metric then the statistics would gain greater meaning. I don’t think it is reasonable to rank a server as better than another simply because they consistently have more players in the ‘overflow’ borderlands.

Another option, if this cannot be done, would be to weight the fight in Eternal much higher than in the borderlands or, in terms of ranking, to ignore the borderlands entirely.

What I’ve found, unfortunately this is very much limited in terms of exposure since I’ve only played on the one server, is that people fill up Eternal first and then spill over into the borderlands – usually our own borderland first. I don’t know if this holds true on other servers but if it does then Eternal should have a much greater impact to the overall score (for the purposes of ranking only) than the borderlands.

SookmiNahw: Why?

You didn’t really explain why having Trade professionals a bad thing.

Is it because they are making coin and you aren’t? If that is the case, you can join them.

How is copper ore been taking over by mass distributors? I haven’t seen this yet. Could you provide details?

Edited to add a quote by John Smith:

John Smith

I don’t see much evidence of people controlling markets entirely, nor do I see any evidence people are having trouble making money on the TP with some time and effort.

Do you have any specific items you think are being manipulated?

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/bltc/The-economy-is-turning-into-a-speculation-market/first#post158551

wuvwuv has been my best place to get dyes.

Fubuki, you are an inspiration.

Jestunhi.7429

Apply the same logic to GW2, are new areas and new bosses enough reward or do you need items for every perceived achievement too (by which I mean, whenever you feel you have achieved something rather than when you are given an actual in-game achievement)?

It was enough back when Super Mario Bros. came out, is it now?

To me, it is more than enough. When I ran the dungeons for the first time I was really excited to down bosses and move on to the next one. The chests that appeared were secondary. We almost missed a couple of them and were told by someone who had run the dungeon before that there was a loot chest that we ran by.

I think that there is a trend towards providing too many rewards for trivial things but, in the context of the original post, reward systems have always been part of good game design. That particular element isn’t new or something that old school games did not have.

@Jestunhi: You captured my thoughts in their entirety.

In fact, you did so so well i can’t even descripe it.

I agree with Birdy in that there has not been a ‘shift’ in gaming.

The old games one would play at the arcade: High Scores.

All that has happened is that more game designers recognized that providing an incentive in the form of a reward is a good mechanism for keeping people attached to the game.

That reward can take many forms from loot (a visual character reward), a level (a character power reward) experience (a minor upgrade that counts towards the level reward), a high score (a visual reward), a cutscene (a visual reward), level completion (opening up a new level.)

A game like Super Mario Brothers has lots of rewards built into it. That’s part of the good game design. When you complete a particularly difficult level you get a new level and a new boss. You are rewarded with advancement. You are rewarded with points.

One of the things that made World of Warcraft so successful was how quickly one could get rewards and the constant rewarding of effort. Levels are rewards for time in.

All good games reward gameplay.

Jokael.4168:

But instead of no reward as stated I think it should be an extremely tough monster, and it would give tokens and loot. The mob should have scripting like a raid mob, but on a grander scale, thus requiring things like siege weapons, orbs, and full skilled players to remove. Zerg groups should not be able to just barrel roll this mob.

The mob should go from area to area tearing it up until it is either killed or puts the lead server back at 1/3 the map. this monster should be no push over for a zerg, and if it is killed should drop some cash, an exotic/legendary piece of gear and/or tokens. But it should be worth the pain it will bring.

The mob should only spawn randomly during a 72hr+ window after a server has 66% of the board controlled. This would create an even more competative enviroment.

No.

If there were to be a ‘control’ event to reset the map it should not drop exotics or legendaries. That would provide an incentive that is opposite to the intention of having such a control element in WvW. The incentive, if this creature would drop loot or badges would be to spawn it. This, in turn means dominating the map via zerging.

This, in turn, leads to more players concentrating on the high population servers which get this event.

This, in turn, creates the exact opposite result than what was desired – being a way to reset the map to give the underpopulated / losing sides a chance to rally and to fight.

To answer the OP: Yes, they are still banning people for being offensive.

You can swear in public. That’s not why people get banned:

They get banned when the person who was “just swearing” was, in actuality, insulting another person or being offensive.

The occasional swear word, in of itself, is not grounds for being banned. But, calling someone a series of expletives is.

I am very glad ArenaNet is doing this.

When playing on the market think about where the -majority- of players are in terms of levels. The ‘extreme’ players are already level 80 but the majority of players are not.

That majority of players as they reach each new level bracket have a huge impact on the dynamics of relative items within those levels. The demand for items spikes but so does the supply.

By understanding the demographics of the game in terms of player levels you can, essentially, predict the next niche market crash or boom.

Tom Gore.4035:

Just face it, the current transparent, global market is created to benefit the buyer. It’s very hard to make money off the TP and/or manipulate it. I think this is exactly what ANet wanted.

I disagree with the comment that it is “very hard to make money off the TP” part of your statement. I agree with the manipulate part though.

I don’t think it is particularly hard to make money off the TP. It’s just a matter of finding what there is demand for and selling it. Since the market is open to all servers that means that there are lots of buyers out there for sellers.

Volume makes up for small margins.

If I can buy and sell a single item type a thousand times an hour and make 2 copper off of each sale. That’s 2000 copper per hour. Which is 20 silver per hour.

Since I can do that with multiple item types because the volume of sales is that significant one can definitely make money on the market.

Does it take time to manage all of these buy and sell orders? Definitely. You need to baby them and monitor them. You need to adjust the pricing constantly and be smart about the sell orders. But you can definitely, and easily, make money on the market.

Would using the price of gems be a useful relative indicator of how much gold is currently in the system which, in turn, would indicate the possible growth of coming inflation?

Freyar.3254:

Wazabi.1439:

I don’t believe I’ve seen that much complain on the market in eve….

Not really. People tell you to shut it and move on to better markets if Jita isn’t your thing. (Though the economics of Jita was always fun especially with Goon’s impact..) I think part of the problem here is that it’s one market over ALL the servers.

Yep, basically, we’re all trading in Jita. Station trading for the win!

EVE online traders = OP. Nerf them!

I’m not sure how the exchange rate is determined since players aren’t setting the prices as such but agreeing to them.

If no one buys gems for in-game gold, does the price start trending upwards automatically?

If people are buying up gems for in-game gold all the time does that force the price downwards?

I’m guessing the layer of abstraction was introduced as an attempt to prevent market manipulation but I’m still curious as to the mechanics of it.

Is ArenaNet setting prices manually? I’m guessing that’s a no but how do we know? And, does it matter?

If you’re curious how this plays out in a mature game setting take a look at EVE online’s markets.

The biggest difference is that Guild Wars 2 has a single global market while EVE’s markets are localized. In EVE someone can bring goods out into a remote location and charge what they want to get away from the 1c (in EVE’s case 1 ISK) undercutting.

Basically, Guild Wars 2’s trading system is like station trading in EVE – to be successful over the long term one has to constantly monitor their buy and sell orders and to adjust quickly when undercut by 1c.

Since there are so many people active in the market right now it is a ‘full time’ thing to keep your items at the top of the list. I can totally understand how this is frustrating for some people.

I am undecided (but open minded) about the idea of introducing minimum % adjustments to a price lower. I guess it depends how it would be done. Would the percentage be tied to the vendor price of the item (the base price) or would it be depending on the list price?

If I posted something for 10g and it’s vendor price was 1s and there was a 10% requirement in pricing, would someone have to list at 9g or at 9.9g? If the percentage (10%, 5%, 1%, whatever) is tied to the original posting point… hmm. Actually, I am partial to that now that I think about it more.

In terms of regulating the market I think it forces people to make strategic decisions when it comes to market PvP – and, yes, this is very much player versus player. Going back to EVE Online some of the most brutal and expensive forms of player versus player action was on the markets. While someone may lose a ship worth, let’s say a hundred million, on the markets people could, and would, lose billions (or make billions.)

The market is very much a player versus player framework.

The 1c pricing differential thing rewards the attentive and players who put more time into the market. Placing a straight up minimal % rewards players who are not as active in the market since the market would wind up switching to a first in first out (FIFO) system. That way anyone could just list their goods and walk away knowing that they’ll sell in an orderly manner assuming the lowest ‘reasonable’ price point was reached.

So the question is, how much player involvement in terms of time investment should be rewarded?

I can’t even begin to imagine how many hours you put into this game in a single week to be level 80, run all the dungeons, done the PvP thing, and the rest of it.

Did you play for at least 8 hours a day or something?

That’s a crazy accomplishment for ArenaNet to hold your attention for that many hours.

So… you’re upset that your night team is worse than their night team but it’s fair (and working properly) that your peak time team is better than their peak time team?

That reminds me of the complaining in the rock, paper, scissors game when someone is playing rock and complains that paper is OP but scissors is just fine.

On the server I’m on we have a great team at peak hours, we have a decent team at night, and a weak team in the mornings.

Other servers have different times at which they are good and some at which they are bad.

Maybe take a night out during the weekend and stay up late to teach your “bads” how to play since you’re so good?

Rarespawn.6028:

Guild Wars 2 has worked very hard to make everything accessible/doable to both the hardcore and the casual gaming player. Obtaining cool armor should be no different.

It isn’t different.

You can obtain the gold by purchasing gems and selling the gems for gold.

This may be an expensive way of getting the armour set but it’ll take very little time. Anyone can get the cultural tier 3 armour in less than five minutes.

I just want to wear some cool armor…is that a crime?

Not at all. There’s plenty of cool armour in the game. The cultural tier 3 is not the only set. You can buy all sorts of neat stuff from karma vendors in the various zones.

You can also get dungeon sets (although they’d take longer than the cultural tier 3 set) and you can also just buy the items using gems.

Does Arenanet do something about scammers?

I’m used to EVE Online where it is definitely player beware.

There are definitely folk who RP on Tarnished Coast.
I’ve run into them in the taverns and in random locations in the world.

Sometimes, I even try to RP as well.

Tarnished Coast is also fairly strong at WvW – we have been in the lead in our battlegrounds most of the time since the start of the game.

Anyway, feel free to look me up if you come to Tarnished Coast. Always good to meet new folk and make new friends.

ShawnBuzu.8045:

I don’t think materials would increase in price if the income becomes higher. Because people would be happy with the income. If it was me, I’d increase material prices BECAUSE I’m not getting enough from drops not the contrary.

Okay, let me see if I can try to illustrate why inflation happens when more money is entered into an economy.

You are looking the price of materials from a seller’s perspective without thinking about the buyer. To complete a transaction you need to actually do a transaction.

If I list an item for 100g and no one buys it then what do I do? Well, I’ll relist the item at 90g. If it does not sell again I’ll drop the price. Eventually, I’ll reach a price point where other people are willing to buy the item.

If the majority of players have under 5g banked then they are going to think about each purchase and decide if it is -really- worth it. A purchase of 50 silver is significant.

Now, if the majority of players have over 1000g banked then they are not going to think about a purchase of 50 silver. 50 silver out of 1000g is insignificant. So, they’d shell out 50 silver in a heartbeat. The sellers of item will react to this by listing new sell orders at a higher price. Well, 1 gold is still insignificant out of 1000g so people will still be willing to buy at that price. Sellers will increase the price again to 10g.

For some people, 10g may be the limit of what they are willing to pay so they’ll drop out of buying. But, for many others, 10g will still be within the ’that’s kinda steep but I’ll suck it up and pay it’ realm. So they’ll buy at that price. Sellers will continue to raise the price until the market reaches the points of what the market is willing to pay.

Perceived value is a significant factor in determining actual pricing.

What are people willing to pay for something?

Or, put another way, if people are willing to spend 10% of their current savings on an item then they will continue to be willing to spend 10% of their future savings on an item.

At level 10, someone may be willing to spend 10% of their banked amount on a awesome weapon for their level. If the player has 1 silver, that’d be 10 copper.

At level 20, someone may be willing to spend 10% of their banked amount on a awesome weapon for their level. If the player has 10 silver, that’d be 1 silver.

At level 80, someone may be willing to spend 10% of their banked amount on an awesome weapon for their level. If the player has 10 gold, that’d be 1 gold.

The ratio remains the same for the perceived value of what it is they are purchasing.

This is why when you increase the amount of gold into the system the price of everything would go up to reflect the value proposition of each item.

People have a ‘comfort’ level in which they will buy something based on what they think the item should be worth. What they think an item is worth is broadly determined by comparable offerings, what the item will do for them, rarity, and marketing.

I’m assuming the question was: Is the Economy terrible?

The answer to that is: No.

This is one of the few games out there where inflation is not running rampant yet. There are enough money sinks built into the game that they are balancing the income faucets. This means that having a single gold is actually worthwhile.

If the income faucets were increased then instead of things costing silver (or, at the extreme multiple gold) they would all cost gold and, at the extreme thousands of gold.

Your totem or scale which, apparently, cost 2 silver would increase in price to 2 gold or 20 gold or 200 gold.

Effectively, it would still be the same ratio of time in (to gain the gold) to the relative cost of the item.

The only way to break out and become ‘wealthy’ in the game through a legal manner is to learn how the game’s trading house works (buy low, sell high, corner specific markets, learn what highly desirable goods exist and spend a little time farming them and selling them with sell orders not to buy orders) or you need to collapse your expenses (stop using way points for example) and build your wealth slowly.

If you get a rare item selling it within your zone is a worthwhile endeavor. Even if another player offers you a mere 50 copper more than the vendor price you’ve come out ahead.

Good luck with figuring out how the economy works.