Guild Wars 2: The State of the Economy

SBFord

The Guild Wars 2 blog has been updated with a new article from ArenaNet's John Smith. In it, Smith discusses the economy and ways the team has been working since launch to improve it and make it more balanced. Included in the article, Smith the closure of exploits and how players can potentially use surplus items to create something cool through the use of special recipes.

We’ve noticed several markets that are clearly out of sync in terms of supply and demand. It isn’t interesting or fun to have a market flooded with items that contain very little value, so we’re making adjustments to the game every day. Players can expect to see these markets even out over time.

While adjusting the supply and demand will bring markets closer to non-vendor based equilibrium, there is still the matter of massive surplus of some items. To address the surplus, we’ve created some new, limited-time Mystic Forge recipes that use these items. These recipes create boxes that give chances for gold and some cool items.

Read more on the Guild Wars 2 blog.

Newmoon

     I'm glad they're keeping on eye on it. I was tempted to power level huntsman after seeing the massive influx of wood prices at vendor buy price. I'm also REAAAALLLLLLYYY glad as a cook that they finally got the trading post working most of the time now.

arcwest

the only thing i wish Anet would do to "fix" the economy, is either take out the 15% trading post fee, or adjust the minimum price an item can be listed for that accounts for the 15%  TP fee.

Currently players make more money by vendering many items instead of posting them on the TP.  Players will take a cut on many items by placing them on the TP.

 

Personaly I'd rather sell to a player who is going to use said item than destroying it at a vendor.

AwDiddums

Originally posted by arcwest

the only thing i wish Anet would do to "fix" the economy, is either take out the 15% trading post fee, or adjust the minimum price an item can be listed for that accounts for the 15%  TP fee.

Currently players make more money by vendering many items instead of posting them on the TP.  Players will take a cut on many items by placing them on the TP.

 

Personaly I'd rather sell to a player who is going to use said item than destroying it at a vendor.

So let me get this straight you'd rather sell to a vendor than on the TP becuase you believe the listing price tax is too high to make a profit?

Well I wanted to check this out, so I went to a vendor and saw that 19 pieces of thin leather pieces was worth 57 copper, I went to the TP and put up those ame bits of leather and found that after the 13 copper listing price was taking off I recieved 2 silver and 53 copper, you want to tell me how it's better to sell to a vendor and make more money than on the vendor, even with the listing tax?

 

Darkcrystal

HAHAH, fix what, make a trade window, like every other game first of all, and make sure the AH actually works second, ROFL... fix the economy.!

 

Try fixing your game maybe there would be one, and have people actually wanting to trade with others HA!

rankor2

The ah is working fine for me darkcrystal. What's your point again?

MaxJac

Originally posted by rankor2
The ah is working fine for me darkcrystal. What's your point again?

Laughing is serious business, especially with caps.

neotron

Originally posted by AwDiddums

Originally posted by arcwest

the only thing i wish Anet would do to "fix" the economy, is either take out the 15% trading post fee, or adjust the minimum price an item can be listed for that accounts for the 15%  TP fee.

Currently players make more money by vendering many items instead of posting them on the TP.  Players will take a cut on many items by placing them on the TP.

 

Personaly I'd rather sell to a player who is going to use said item than destroying it at a vendor.

So let me get this straight you'd rather sell to a vendor than on the TP becuase you believe the listing price tax is too high to make a profit?

Well I wanted to check this out, so I went to a vendor and saw that 19 pieces of thin leather pieces was worth 57 copper, I went to the TP and put up those ame bits of leather and found that after the 13 copper listing price was taking off I recieved 2 silver and 53 copper, you want to tell me how it's better to sell to a vendor and make more money than on the vendor, even with the listing tax?

Some items, especially low level and high level crafting materials, can be sold at a profit. A majority of items (most weapon/armor below rare in quality) typically sell for 1c over vendor price. This means the not so brilliant sellers are losing money by selling on the trading post. The smarter people will just vendor most items (after doing a AH price check at least).

The fact that there is a minimum price (vendor sell price) and people are selling it at that price when there's a 15% cut is silly. Nice as a buyer I guess.

Lord.Bachus

The TP is bugged, because its worldwide and not server wide... To many people selling and none buying during their leveling experience.

At level 60 buying greens for less then a silver is totally wrong.

Master10K

Originally posted by Lord.Bachus

The TP is bugged, because its worldwide and not server wide... To many people selling and none buying during their leveling experience.

At level 60 buying greens for less then a silver is totally wrong.

Greens and good blues are basically vendor trash. Only yellows and better are worth anything in this game. Though I do love seeing some good greens in the TP whilst levelling. Because I never really have to spend more than 2s, just to make sure my character is always geared for her level and then just vendor it off soon after.

AwDiddums

Originally posted by neotron

Originally posted by AwDiddums

Originally posted by arcwest

the only thing i wish Anet would do to "fix" the economy, is either take out the 15% trading post fee, or adjust the minimum price an item can be listed for that accounts for the 15%  TP fee.

Currently players make more money by vendering many items instead of posting them on the TP.  Players will take a cut on many items by placing them on the TP.

 

Personaly I'd rather sell to a player who is going to use said item than destroying it at a vendor.

So let me get this straight you'd rather sell to a vendor than on the TP becuase you believe the listing price tax is too high to make a profit?

Well I wanted to check this out, so I went to a vendor and saw that 19 pieces of thin leather pieces was worth 57 copper, I went to the TP and put up those ame bits of leather and found that after the 13 copper listing price was taking off I recieved 2 silver and 53 copper, you want to tell me how it's better to sell to a vendor and make more money than on the vendor, even with the listing tax?

Some items, especially low level and high level crafting materials, can be sold at a profit. A majority of items (most weapon/armor below rare in quality) typically sell for 1c over vendor price. This means the not so brilliant sellers are losing money by selling on the trading post. The smarter people will just vendor most items (after doing a AH price check at least).

The fact that there is a minimum price (vendor sell price) and people are selling it at that price when there's a 15% cut is silly. Nice as a buyer I guess.

Then may I suggest only selling resources rather than the end product if this is what gets you a profit, I've looked at the market and the only good sellers items wise have been the top tier armour/weapons, everything else that is selling well has been resources.

I've kept my focus on resources, nothing else, all my items that I have mae I have then either donated to guildees or taken to the Mystic Forge and tried to get better items.

 

mCalvert

One fix they need is to drop less loot. I would also lower the vendor buy price of everything to 1c. This reduce the money faucet making players have to rely on the TP, and allow market prices to more better reflect supply and demand.

gogabonk

I think its fine as it is. Worldwide market stops people from gaming the market. Yes its harder to become rich, but i guess thats the point. Its a buyers market.

Cod_Eye

Originally posted by mCalvert
One fix they need is to drop less loot. I would also lower the vendor buy price of everything to 1c. This reduce the money faucet making players have to rely on the TP, and allow market prices to more better reflect supply and demand.

Wouldnt work people would still sell low to get rid off stuff, and if they get 2 copper as apposed to 1 copper then phsycologicly they feel they made a better deal, people seem to not understand they lose out with the cost of putting items on the trading board in the first place.  Personally I'd like the access to BLTP restricted to towns and not freely available like a Martini. 

Nailzzz

Originally posted by mCalvert
One fix they need is to drop less loot. I would also lower the vendor buy price of everything to 1c. This reduce the money faucet making players have to rely on the TP, and allow market prices to more better reflect supply and demand.

This would be a nightmare for all the lvl 80's out there. Given how much money we spend on armor repair and waypoint's it actually becomes somewhat difficult to make money at endgame. especially if your trying to help out lowbie friends who like to waypoint around alot.

Tardcore

Originally posted by Suzie_Ford

The Guild Wars 2 blog has been updated with a new article from ArenaNet's John Smith. In it, Smith discusses the economy and ways the team has been working since launch to improve it and make it more balanced. Included in the article, Smith the closure of exploits and how players can potentially use surplus items to create something cool through the use of special recipes.

We’ve noticed several markets that are clearly out of sync in terms of supply and demand. It isn’t interesting or fun to have a market flooded with items that contain very little value, so we’re making adjustments to the game every day. Players can expect to see these markets even out over time.

While adjusting the supply and demand will bring markets closer to non-vendor based equilibrium, there is still the matter of massive surplus of some items. To address the surplus, we’ve created some new, limited-time Mystic Forge recipes that use these items. These recipes create boxes that give chances for gold and some cool items.

Read more on the Guild Wars 2 blog.

Meh. I'm not sure that creating artificial scarcities is the best way to go about fixing this issue. Personally I think crafting in GW2 is far too easy as one toon can max all professions and gather all gatherable materials. I see trying to fix this by making crafting mat material sinks as a potential way to send the economy even more out of whack. For example look at the cooking changes. They took certain items off vendors and made them world drops, yet depending on the time of day I've seen two of these items (chocolate bars and butter) actually cheaper per unit on the TP then when they were vendor only.

The problem as I see it stems directly from A-nets choice to make every toon a jack of all trades, and making maxing all crafting professions, and gathering every mat node one can find, too desirable for everyone due to the outrageous amount of XP one gets from these activities.

Dakirn

There really isn't an economy when most items are at a set price because nobody wants them.

 

Not to mention Arenanet's "brilliant" idea to create temporary mystic forge recipes allowing players to combine 250-500 of a single item.

 

Their thought was "hey lets get rid of all these extra crafting mats!"  Unfortunately what ended up happening is all of the rich level 80s ended up buying those mats and driving the prices back up to almost the price of high level crafting mats.. leaving the average crafter wanting to buy mats screwed.

 

There are already tons of posts on their forums about it from upset players.

 

You can't have a free economy when you interfere with it.  EVE doesn't have devs going in and buying up mats to artificially inflate prices.  All you end up with a mess you didn't account for.

Dakirn

Originally posted by Tardcore

Originally posted by Suzie_Ford

The Guild Wars 2 blog has been updated with a new article from ArenaNet's John Smith. In it, Smith discusses the economy and ways the team has been working since launch to improve it and make it more balanced. Included in the article, Smith the closure of exploits and how players can potentially use surplus items to create something cool through the use of special recipes.

We’ve noticed several markets that are clearly out of sync in terms of supply and demand. It isn’t interesting or fun to have a market flooded with items that contain very little value, so we’re making adjustments to the game every day. Players can expect to see these markets even out over time.

While adjusting the supply and demand will bring markets closer to non-vendor based equilibrium, there is still the matter of massive surplus of some items. To address the surplus, we’ve created some new, limited-time Mystic Forge recipes that use these items. These recipes create boxes that give chances for gold and some cool items.

Read more on the Guild Wars 2 blog.

Meh. I'm not sure that creating artificial scarcities is the best way to go about fixing this issue. Personally I think crafting in GW2 is far too easy as one toon can max all professions and gather all gatherable materials. I see trying to fix this by making crafting mat material sinks as a potential way to send the economy even more out of whack. For example look at the cooking changes. They took certain items off vendors and made them world drops, yet depending on the time of day I've seen two of these items (chocolate bars and butter) actually cheaper per unit on the TP then when they were vendor only.

The problem as I see it stems directly from A-nets choice to make every toon a jack of all trades, and making maxing all crafting professions, and gathering every mat node one can find, too desirable for everyone due to the outrageous amount of XP one gets from these activities.

 

I would agree except for the price it costs to do that.  I am working on 400 crafting in all professions and I've got Weaponsmithing and Artificing so far.  It costs me almost 40s each time I want to swap a profession out.  The price keeps growing as I get more and more crafting professions to max.

 

40 silver is a lot even at 80 just so I can swap between professions.  I certainly am not going to do it "on the fly."  I wonder what it'll look like when I get another one at 400.

ste2000

The state of the Economy? In one word.......bad
I kinda like this game but the Economy and the Universal Trade Post are a disaster, and they still haven't done anything about after almost a month.
Deflation is killing people enterprise.