The State of the GW Economy

I'm just curious as to the opinions of other Guild Wars players.
Do you think the economy is currently stable, inflated, or deflated? Also, why? =o



Sub note: I really don't think there is a standard monetary supply in the economy to which people can pin a zero inflation level (or way in which you can measure that supply); however, I ask that you give your best guess/opinion based upon overall price changes and observed effects of botting.

Economy is crapola. Ecto's used to be pretty stable, but they're in the can too nowadays.

This is fine if you're 'po' but inhibits wealth generation.

I reckon everyone would feel a lot richer if they added another '0' to the end of all drops, item costs etc.

I can safely say I lost bout a million gold thanks to ecto price drop.

Oh well.

Ecto price were over inflated. The recent price drop was a correction.

As to the overall health of the GW economy I can't comment much. I don't do much player-to-player trade and I'm no economist.

Having more than 100k is garnering wealth for wealths sake. Cool a strange unrecognized title. Everything seems to have dropped in price. Is this perhaps due to bots?

Luckily I am.

The drop in price of ectoplasm was to be expected. The focus of lootscaling was to slow the influx of merchanted whites to the economy, which was (is) the primary means of wealth for bots. It served its purpose well, and we now have cheaper everything...runes, dyes, materials, you name it.

The second component of the price change in ecto was due to its loss of utility as a form of currency. Because there are fewer and fewer items that fetch a price of 100k+Xe, the demand for holding ectos has steadily decreased. Also (and this is just speculation on my part) fewer people are crafting fissure armor these days. Most players who desire it already own a set, and the prestige sets in Cantha and Elona look better anyway.

Now...having said all that, who knows where the price will go in the near future. The new favor system and the emergence of EotN will likely change the market in the short run, until people become accustomed to the new environment. Then things will settle out as always.

The in-game economy has become cheaper while player's prices remain the same. Naturally over time, prices of weapons such as Dead Swords and Scar Eaters either gradually decrease or take a complete nose dive, but items such as runes have been completely decimated.

To give you an example:

A few months back, I found a Superior Rune of Vigor that at the time, was worth 40k. Back then, a Woespreader was worth 10-15k. Now, the rune in question is worth 12k but the Woespreader has only dropped to 8k-10k, creating a discrepancy that can't be ignored.

With this said, the built in game economy is at odds with the player economy, and this causes a massive gap in-between.

The economy got "adapted" to suit the player base..slow, boring and nearly dead.

In certain cases it is massively inflated i.e. Mini Pets.

For example, a player recently sold his Mini Kanaxi for 8000 Ecto, well the equivalent in ambraces.

That is for something which numbers 26.

Then there are minis which are numbered in the hundreds selling for 1000 Ecto +

The mini pet market seems to be infested with people who purchase gold.

The number of gold buyers who purchase huge amounts of gold has almost certainly increased. There are more gold buyers than in the golden age of trading and item collecting.

Item wise the economy is sucking majorly rarity wise. There seems to be a huge market for mildly rare inscribable items e.g. R9 Stygian Axe for well over 400e. Yet items numbering only a couple would fail get anywhere near the price of the R9 Stygian Axe e.g. R8 15>50 Ascalon Maul. Rarity is not appreciated now.

The majority of items are rediculously cheap now.

I and several others who have mainly traded since GW's release have decided to give up with it and just work on titles now. As they will carry over to GW2 they are far more useful than items which just get nerfed or depreciate.

Conclusion: The GW Economy is in an awful state. Bulk buying of gold is at its worst. Appreciation of rare items is at its worst. Fear of items being nerfed or their drop rate messed with is at its biggest.

Heh the mini-pet market is keeping the bots in business.

yup, and if u want to see by yurself, welcome to ascalon id

With modification to favour, possibility arises of ecto going back up due to possible erratic timing of earning favour

True. Price wise prob wouldn't be enough to lay any real cash on it though.

I have always avoided there for a reason :P

I can only really see ecto going down long term.

i can remember making over 300k in a day just sitting in town during 1 weekend befor the loot scaling took place i would do this regularly with my items an i even sell my stuff cheap back then in the glory days ...but now ...omg ... now is a completely dif story im lucky to make more than 20k selling my items during the week or weekends ...for me the economy sux bad atm ;'(

Word, what he said

This is, without a doubt, the single worst piece of 'logic' I've seen posted with regard to this topic. What you're suggesting is like trying to tie the price of tomatoes to that of an iPod.

Seriously...learn some basic economics and quit spewing such grotesque fallacy. You're only harming your own argument.

with some recent offers i've had on my minis, i'm wondering where some of this money's coming from.

i've had multiple offers from different people on my kanaxai mini pet as well as my panda mini pet.

some of the offers ranged in the 100k+1500 ectos + 40-100 armbrace range.

seems to me that its inflated atm until anet decides to release more of the limited pets.

for normal items, economy is fairly stable. its just really hard to sell stuff.

Mini-pets are the new Chaos axe+Eternal Shield combo = uber l33tne3ss (pfft)

You can show off your mini-pet in town but not your weapon/shield, plus the new hall of monuments has a section for mini-pets.