How Gems will impact the game gold economy

[Deleted]

A general misconception is that the introduction of gems alone will cause inflation in the gold economy.

The gold economy is based on gold entering the market through mob/pvp drops in various forms, through gathering and processing of materials and through event completion rewards.

Gold in the market moves around between players. This unlike in the real world doesn't create more money. In fact it removes gold from the economy through fees on auction transactions and ingame mail. As a comparison this is the foundation of which poker sites business model is build. Taking a piece of the pie every transaction.

The gold economy is thus an almost closed loop. I'll get into the "almost" in a couple of lines.

Gems enter the market as an representation of items. A list of the items that can be bought for gems can be found here: http://www.guildwars2guru.com/forum/...9.html?t=32319

Trading 5000 gold for 50 gems will not directly create gold or gems in the market. In fact it will remove gold.
The player that had 5000 gold before, now has 50 gems minus a gold transaction fee.
The player that had 50 gems before, now has 5000 gold minus a gold transaction fee.

Gems will however due to some of the buffs you can buy with them create inflation, though not directly.
For gems you can buy 20% Karma boost for an hour, and 10% larger chance of finding rare items for an hour. Items bought with Karma might be vendored I don't know the details for this, but rare items will be worth more than normal items. You can therefore pay to change the drop rates.

Other ways Gems will impact the gold economy is everything in the shop that you would have spend gold on but now can buy for gems.
Repairs, Resurrection, bags, loot bags.
This is because that equipment you wear should be seen as an expense. So items you get from gems will save you gold or karma.

In the end inflation comes down to how much gold enters the economy and how much leaves the economy. Perceptible inflation comes down to the individual. Some may find they have an abundance of gold while others struggle.

Gems can serve as a redistribution system, as people who are clever at playing the market ingame will be able to acquire items that cost real money but trading them for in game gold. And the family dad that want's gold for WvWvW schematics can indirectly trade real money for gold.

Prices will adjust overtime. Both the gold and the gem market will have to ensure enough ways for them to exit the economy or else we will see inflation. The Gem shop is mostly filled with consumables and this is a good thing. If it was items you only bought once the gem market would become stagnant and overtime the value of a gem would drop.

All in all I think the introduction of Gems is done very clever. The real test of time is the games ability to balance the 3 currencies, Gems, Gold and Karma against time played and real money. This will require good gold sinks. I hope they get it right

[Sinnarr]

Well put together post, but there have already been several posts about this topic.

[wartywarlock]

Nicely written, sadly those who need to read it and clam down, won't!

[Deleted]

Well put together post, but there have already been several posts about this topic.

Yes and so has there been on GW2 Guru, but people continue to claim that Gems will inflate gold in the game. I just wanted to show that even tho gems will impact gold it wont be to the extend of high inflation. And the damage done will be redistributed in the market.

[Hulari]

I've got a feeling after looking at that, that gems will be about £1 per 100, so £20 for 2000.

Character slot would cost £8, which is similar to GW1? I can't remember :s

I wouldn't say that's too bad tbh.

[Deleted]

They will be <<good gold sinks>> from pvp prospective
12 deaths in Battlegrounds or WvWvW > broken gear

Nice post btw

[Hulari]

Just scrolled down a little more in that thread..

"Gems cost ~5$ for 400 gems (saw another leaked picture.)"

I hope that's true! That means it works out at less than £1 per 100. Which really isn't too bad. I could see myself easily spending £10 a month on gems as if it were a sub fee.

[Jovanaar]

Just scrolled down a little more in that thread..

"Gems cost ~5$ for 400 gems (saw another leaked picture.)"

I hope that's true! That means it works out at less than £1 per 100. Which really isn't too bad. I could see myself easily spending £10 a month on gems as if it were a sub fee.

Probably the same as the game itself. Over prized for anything not American.

[Delias]

Probably the same as the game itself. Over prized for anything not American.

Probably the same as most computer related things*
You know how often the UK gets a better deal on steam sales than the US? Not nearly as often as it is the other way around, that's for sure.

[Lusitan]

Just scrolled down a little more in that thread..

"Gems cost ~5$ for 400 gems (saw another leaked picture.)"

I hope that's true! That means it works out at less than £1 per 100. Which really isn't too bad. I could see myself easily spending £10 a month on gems as if it were a sub fee.

it works at 1.25 per 100, cause we all know $1 = £1 look at the prices of the game

[Deyadissa]

Just scrolled down a little more in that thread..

"Gems cost ~5$ for 400 gems (saw another leaked picture.)"

I hope that's true! That means it works out at less than £1 per 100. Which really isn't too bad. I could see myself easily spending £10 a month on gems as if it were a sub fee.

You can get 1200 gems a month with $15 a month.


Basically enter in a dollar amount and multiply it by 80.. you have your gems.


Since I'm a die hard guild wars fan, I'll probably spend over $40 a month... even as a college student. I don't smoke, so most people end up wasting over a hundred a month sucking cancer.


The cash shop is reasonably priced compared to some of the games I have been playing... if anyone has an iphone/ipad they'll know what I'm talking about.


Say if WoW gold was $1 per 1000, you could get 10,000 gold in WoW for 800 gems as an example. Notice how that seems ridiculously low? Thats because the majority of the game is low on gold... the rich can get gems quite easily selling it to the poor.

My father alone has over 100,000 gold which in theory could give him 8000 gems.

it works at 1.25 per 100, cause we all know $1 = £1 look at the prices of the game

Maybe you should know how VAT works before you complain about it.

In the United States we pay roughly 7-9% sales tax after the base price. IN Europe all prices have 20% VAT included in it. If the base game is 45 euro and costs 60 USD in America you actually save more money than we do. Because VAT is included you have to count for the fact that all prices are raised by 20% in the BASE PRICE. Europe takes nearly 10 euro away from Arenanet. IN the United states because sales tax is added after, arenanet makes the full $60 and then the state takes 10% of it after its payed for.

So what happens? Developers have to raise the prices by atleast 20% or else they end up getting 20% less. (I.E Arenanet would get $47 dollars when they price it at 45 euro) [45 * .80 * 1.31]

When your cash is worth 20% less, it makes your 1.31 euro into 1.05 USD. This is even before income taxes!


Quit complaining, many companies just take the euro and convert it to a dollar sign. It costs a whole lot more money to launch internationally so it should be more expensive.

[Deleted]

To compliment what Deyadissa said. The Gem system could in his wow example function as a way to redistribute accumulated wealth, quite ingenious.

[grandpab]

Idk how they're testing this or anything, and I don't really think the gold to gem ratio will stay the same at release, but right now there's one picture that shows gems selling for 67 silver for 100 gems on average, 27 silver was the 5 day low, and around 1g 15s for the 5 day high...seems pretty damn cheap.

[Deleted]

I don't like the boosts at all.. Extra bag slots and and bank tabs I can live with but i don't like that either.

[Deleted]

You shouldn't be able to buy any boosts, that defeat the point of the game

[Delias]

Idk how they're testing this or anything, and I don't really think the gold to gem ratio will stay the same at release, but right now there's one picture that shows gems selling for 67 silver for 100 gems on average, 27 silver was the 5 day low, and around 1g 15s for the 5 day high...seems pretty damn cheap.

I don't know if gems are even PURCHASABLE in the closed beta. Why would they be? Would be a waste of 5$ to buy an EXP boost for the closed beta. :P
If they are available, they're probably free for testing or something, which would explain the price.

[Deleted]

I just want to clarify, gold to gem ratio will not be set fixed. It will be the market forces that determines the price. It's a trade between two players and the price is what they agree upon.

[Deyadissa]

I just want to clarify, gold to gem ratio will not be set fixed. It will be the market forces that determines the price. It's a trade between two players and the price is what they agree upon.

That is correct. There is no magical vendor that sells gems for gold, that would defeat the purpose.


Ncsoft wants more money, if people could get gems created from a vendor through gold they lose money. Not only that, if gold inflates and the gem price for gold is fixed... it becomes cheaper to buy gold illegally and buy gems through the vendor. In addition, it would be a joke to even try to buy gems with cash because it has inflated so much.


They can counter this by making the players decide what the gems will value ingame, not themselves. 100 gems will be worth 50 gold today and could be worth 5 (AFTER INFLATION) gold in the future if it was set by an NPC. Where as if the gold was set by players it would simply be worth more gold over time.

[grandpab]

Of course the price isn't set or anything, that's just basic stuff, but I guess I'll have to explain how it seems like the system works a little more, so you know what I meant by my comment.

From what I could tell, with the picture I saw, you'll sell and buy the gems through the website with a system that's very similar to the marketplace. It shows you the average price they've been selling for, as well as a 5 day low, and a 5 day high price.

If you're a seller you're able to set your asking price for your gems through the website. Since I'm assuming it'll be like the marketplace I'm guessing that as a buyer you'll be able to set you're how much gold you're willing to pay and if a seller matches it then you'll just automatically purchase it. I'm guessing that the sellers will be able to see a list of buyers and what the price is that they're willing to pay, and choose to sell it to them if they want. Don't take my word for that last couple parts though, it's just what I'm assuming from what I saw.

[Delias]

Of course the price isn't set or anything, that's just basic stuff, but I guess I'll have to explain how it seems like the system works a little more, so you know what I meant by my comment.

From what I could tell, with the picture I saw, you'll sell and buy the gems through the website with a system that's very similar to the marketplace. It shows you the average price they've been selling for, as well as a 5 day low, and a 5 day high price.

If you're a seller you're able to set your asking price for your gems through the website. Since I'm assuming it'll be like the marketplace I'm guessing that as a buyer you'll be able to set you're how much gold you're willing to pay and if a seller matches it then you'll just automatically purchase it. I'm guessing that the sellers will be able to see a list of buyers and what the price is that they're willing to pay, and choose to sell it to them if they want. Don't take my word for that last couple parts though, it's just what I'm assuming from what I saw.

Oh, I thought you were saying that gems would be cheap based off of that.
My bad, misunderstood. :P