GW PLEASE take my money..

There are a few intersecting topics here.

1. RMTs cannot compete with Anet. It doesn't cost Anet anything to make virtual gold, so they can always sell it at lower than the RMT can. The RMT actually has to put in non-zero effort and incur non-zero cost, so there will always be a price floor below which they simply cannot make money.

2. Allowing the buying of in-game currency with real money is, in principle, anathema to many (most?) gamers because it creates advantage based on real-life wealth and social status. More importantly, it is essentially impossible for normal gamers to make up the difference. People with a lot of disposable income could simply buy anything they wanted at essentially any price; there can't actually be any in-game market if gold-buying on that scale is allowed, because inflation will be constant and rapid. The only way to keep up with that kind of market is to buy gold yourself.

3. Ironically, the argument that "you don't need gold" can also be used to support the argument that gold should be for sale. After all, if 1.5k and 15k armor are the same, functionally, then where is the imbalance in allowing anyone to get 15k armor for free?

4. The concept of 'work' in a game has always been somewhat curious to me. Games set goals and construct an artificial set of rules and limitations under which to achieve those goals. A lot of people see the goal as the point of playing the game, but that's not actually where the crux of a game is; the real meat of a game is in its presentation and mechanics, i.e., the process of achieving the goal. I've said for a while that any game that requires you to do anything that isn't fun has failed in a fundamental way. If the failure is of sufficient magnitude, then the game as a whole fails and people won't play it. Consider the use of grindbots - they exist because the game requires some kind of activity that the player doesn't actually consider fun, and it's sufficiently unenjoyable that people would much rather spend time not playing the game. Any game that sees this sort of phenomenon has failed a cardinal rule of design.

5. As a corollary to #4 above, prestige unrelated to skill needs to make an exit from game design as a whole. The pursuit of recognition through grind and in-game wealth is the root of the various in-game ills we see (e.g., botting), and has no commensurate benefit.

6. There is actually nothing inherently wrong with a "give me everything" button. If everything in the game were free, people wouldn't have to farm or bot - they could just play the game. Even without such a button, giving rewards based on skill would be more meaningful and productive than rewards based on wealth. This is the system used by many earlier platformers and action games - you were given powerups after beating certain enemies or other special points in the game. At no point did you actually have to grind anything - you just had to be a better player.

7. Immersive game worlds make a better case for established in-game economies and wealth systems - some games have such involved economies that there are actually "Merchant"-type character professions. These are games that try to suck you into a fantasy society, and the lack of a solid economy hurts the game's ability to do so. However, GW simply isn't immersive, because much of the design focus is on convenience - instant map travel, re-rolling stats, instanced areas, death penalty system, etc. In this sense, GW is much closer to chess than to other MMO RPGs - the focus is heavily on mechanics (i.e., setting up goals and an intricate system of rules) and actual play, rather than on an immersive fantasy experience. In this sort of context, there's really no use for a wealth system.

Money is useless in GW. Might as well sell it for the people who actually care about e-peen.

GG.........

Thank you. While not supporting or condeming buying gold I think you summed the underlying problems fairly well. I've played enough MMORPG's to know that GW is one of the best when it comes to need to grind (If I ever have to kill another Aqua goblin for his head again or spam flourish's for 80 hours straight I will kill myself). Saying that though, the game can still be better in regards to a mutlitude of styles of play and I feel that selling gold in a controlled and measured way would be the best for the player (both new and old) and especially good for Anet; who's lack of revenue until GW2 must be weighing heavily on NCSoft investors minds.

I would like to take the time to respond to everyone who was kind enough to read through my posts, but I just don't have the time. Thank you again to everyone who posted and especially a big thank you to those who came up with intesesting ideas on how to make this happen. Thank you to the OP too who posted something that I've wondered about for a long time.

P.S. somewhere in the past 20 pages, one poster mentioned that EQ2 has a domain where you can buy items...can anyone point me to that server or information on it?

I am very sorry but you are mistaken about whether or not fairness is an issue here. In fact it was specifically brought up by the pro-gold selling side of this debate arguing that it was not fair for those with more time to have more in gme wealth as a result. In fact the primary pro gold selling argument is not to make money for Anet it is to increase their own in game wealth. As you yourself have said repeatedly, you are supporting the OP because you want to have more in game wealth to spend on your "barbies".

During my hardcore farming stage (I bought FOW armor, chaos gloves for my wife's main character, silverwing recurve bow, multiple perfect stormbows , made sure that all recruits to my guild had max armor and a decent weapon set for their main character, bought more than 20 bone dragon minis as gifts for the officers in my guild, and threw an alliance wide party with more than a million gold in contest and door prizes) I earned better than 30k an hour farming. I farmed a couple of hours a day (a little more on the weekend) while holding down a 10-12 hour a day job. Spent time with my family. Helped out around the house. And generally participated in life (and played through all chapters of the game). Please dont generalize about farmers. Oh I called it a phase because once i had everything I wanted (I didnt hoard my gold, I spent it nearly as fast as it came in) I cut back on my farming drastically and now dont have more than 100-200k at any time.

I can assure you that if I had been unable to generate the gold needed for my expenditures I would have bought it if it was legal. I am sorry but not conjecture at all.

I am not saying that people's feelings would be hurt. I am saying that what you are suggesting would actually take their wealth away from them. I am sorry but taking wealth (we are talking about in game money here) away from those who have it in order to give it to those who don't have it (because charging real world money for it is in fact a way of giving it to those who dont have time to farm it) is one of the definitions of socialism.

I know my responses are out of sequence here but.....Sir I must say that I am very sorry that you believe that working for what you have (as you stated above regarding farmers efforts to get enough gold for their needs) is a waste of time.

Basic economics says that if you increase the amount of currency in the economy without increasing the size of the economy that you will have inflation. Period. I am sorry but you refer to wanting a capitalistic society (despite pursuing an in game socialist agenda-more money for those who dont have it--equal income without equal effort--take wealth form the wealthy to give to the poor) but are not paying attention to this very basic rule of economics in a free market. I am not trying to be insulting here but please do not just brush aside facts, yes I said facts not opinions, that you dont agree with. Adding currency to the economy reduces the value of all money in the economy. It always has. Look at germany post WWI.

The example given of (only !?!)1 billion gold added per week as being workable neglects one basic point. The majority of truly expensive items are purchased from players not merchants. As a result that money stays in the economy. By the end of the year you will have added 52 billion gold to the market. But will have actually accomplished nothing to address your desire for more tomes. If a farmer wants the buying power of his gold stockpile to stay the same then he will charge more for his wares. You will then need to buy more gold to meet his inflated prices. Other people will as well.

Those with items to sell will be encouraged to charge astronomical prices for them (after all they do not know what the buying power of their money will be tomorrow so best get as much as possible today). If there is no cinfidence in the value of the currency then prices go up. Embarking on a policy to increase currency supply regardless of how you think you might be able to avoid inflation (no one else ever has) reduces confidence in the value of the economy to disastrous effect. Period. By the way This last paragraph is not a reference to the GW economy specifically. I avoided references to gold because this is an example of what has happened in the real world time and time again when people thought that the solution to their economic woes was to just print more money. If this solution worked payng for Iraq, social security, etc would be easy. Print a few extra trillion dollars. Solved.

There was an old story in which there were artists who were set out to draw a snake each of their own. One of the artists managed to finish early, but he noticed other artists were still busy painting, so he decided to add something to his work. And so he added legs to the snake. The snake he was set to draw was no longer a snake. The legs were extra, and they were not needed. It's the same in this case; if we allow selling gold, this wouldn't have been the game it was set out to be designed. And I'm certain that it won't be a better game, and I do question if it can still count as a game. It would've probably been some kind of vitual reality, which you can play dolls, but the supplies for these dolls will be quite expensive. Consequently, not trying to offend you, wouldn't it be more logical and less expensive to just drive to Toy-R-Us and buy all the dolls you need to play with?

No, really, I have to ask:

Does anyone actually play the game anymore? Seems like people find the aspect of having fun more tiring than having the ultimate of everything. I'd like to know why people have to pay real money for ingame gold... what's so GO RED ENGINE important that you have to use real money for that you can't spend a few days and hours gaining at a regular pace.

I'm sorry, but for anyone who complains you don't have enough money or feel you need an extra boost in gold just because of a reason that probably could do cartwheels over my head... you really make me sick.

This has been suggested before and im going to say the exact same thing i posted in that thread.

I dont wanna see some lv 1 noob who just started the game 1 day ago to have FoW armor...ok? Some of us worked hard for it

I'm sitting here losing it, knowing that....probably over half(and that is being generous) of this community has purchased gold for real money.

Yes they should sell gold.
Why? because they can, and sure as a dead man dies, hundreds, if not thousands of people will buy it. as stated. it has been going on since the beginning anywhos.

The thing with Guild Wars is that max armor and max weapons isn't all that expensive. You have very little need to get more except to show off, and the people who do farm enough to get the Obsidian armor and crystalline swords spent a lot of time on it.

The only reason you would want to buy ingame gold using real money is to buy the big e-peen things like 15k armor and flashy weapons. That would make them meaningless to the rest of the community. That would also destroy the economy, possibly to the point where people don't bother farming. No game out there is like that, and Guild Wars will not be the first to start. You can perform just as well as another player who does have the expensive equipment. I see little need for ANet to sell in-game gold.

Anet should not sell gold persay, but should sell customizable weapons/armors for a certain rl cash prize, therefor the gold influx into the game won't be terribly altered. But yea, I support OP's idea.

I stopped reading your post right there.

Arena Net programmers can just give accounts 1,000 plat in a couple seconds.

RMT companies have to use bots or cheap labor.

RMT companies can't compete with Arena Net if Arena Net wanted to sell gold.

Uhh I didn't read any of the replies yet... but no they shouldn't.
You don't need mo' platz to get things you "need" to "enjoy" the game... the amount of money you "need" can be gained in a few hours (without farming lolOMGz!!/!0)... and by the time you get to where you can get your max armor for whatever campaign(s) you own - if you actually play and don't get a run - you should have the money by then.

Yup.

I understand the Op's concerns however when I think about it there are so many players that have a job, a family, a real life.......and they aren't poor players. If they can do it, so do you.

- Ganni

The thing with your point #2, you say the gold injection brought on by anet selling gold will be limited. Well fact of the matter is, gold is still being added to the game You might restrict the gold thats entering but no matter what, gold is being artificially (with respect to the normal methods of gaining gold) injected into the game, this causes inflation.

To me, inflation is the biggest problem I would have with RMT from anet. Of course I'm a little vain like everyone else, and would feel like my elite items now show less accomplishment but thats beside the point.

I can think of 3 responses to counter what I said:

Point 1.

You restrict the amount of gold able to be purchased to an amount respective to how much you might earn from normal play. For example, and I think most of us can agree to this, in about an hour of play you should earn about 1-2k just from normal drops. That is of course if you're in level 20 areas. Now you say that the casual player might play about 10hrs in one week. Thus say the cap on gold purchases be about 15k in one week. The argument would be that, I'm not getting anymore gold than what just would have been earned through regular play.

Well to counter that, guess what, you are earning more than what would have been earned through regular play.

When you go out and buy the gold you gain what would have been earned through casual play. Well guess what, when you go out and do quests yourself, you're earning gold on top of what you purchased. Suddenly in the same week of casual play you earn 15k as well as the 15k you purchased. This might seem like a drop in an ocean, but if thousands of players also do this... it starts to add up. It would be especially noticeable in less expensive items like runes and materials.

Now you might say that I don't have time to play, so since I didn't play those 10 casual hours in the week, I buy to gold to make up for that. Nothing is gained above what I would have normally achieved. Well that still leads to inflation, normally the total gold in the economy would not have increased since you didn't play but because you purchased gold it in fact did. Its an artificial increase, once again if thousands of people do it... there will be inflation.

Point 2.

Fixed prices on items. If there are fixed item prices then inflation won't occur. The gold you earn from farming has just as much value after I go out and buy a trillion gold.

Well in a game just being designed this would be an ideal situation. In GW however, fixed item prices would be impossible to implement. With the exception of armor, id kits, lockpicks, collector weapons and things of that nature. All prices are determined by the player base. A basic supply and demand economy is present, where if there is high demand, prices increase or vice versa. Its pretty much impossible to implement fixed prices on all items without pissing off alot of people and really messing up farmers. Not to mention who would decide what each item is worth? Would it be based on rarity?

Fixed prices on all items in GW is just impossible to put in without losing probably almost all the player base. People don't want to go out and pay 100k +80e for that voltaic spear and then suddenly next week anet has fixed the price that the spear is going to be worth 80k.

Point 3.

A special currency purchased from anet that can only be used on things available from merchants/armor crafters/collectors basically any vendor that already has fixed prices.

Well the problem with that is, suddenly the gold you earn from normal play isn't being used to buy lockpicks, armor and ID kits anymore. The value of your gold has increased above the casual players because you can save up and spend your gold just on weapons or tomes or materials. The casual player still has to divide his gold among those previously mentioned fixed price items as well as the weapons and tomes they wish to purchase.

Not to mention those who buy items with their purchased currency would be able to resell those items for a real gold profit(lockpicks probably being the most prominent item)

Those are the 3 counters I can think of to the problem of inflation caused by being able to purchase gold. I think that I have outlined flaws in those counters and shown that they're not viable. If anyone can think of more counters that inflation won't be a problem please post them and encourage more discussion .
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A little side note here: The only way I think it would be possible for anet to be able to sell "in game currency" would be to just sell items directly for real world cash. These items of course would have to be customized. However this still cycles back into point 3 that I mentioned above. If you have these items purchased from real money, suddenly the gold you have from normal play becomes more valuable. You don't have any expenses to spend it on so you either horde it in your inventory or you dump it into the economy thus again causing inflation.

Bloody Hell this topic spreads like medieval plague.....i knew something is wrong with GW from the start.....did u notice that in game there`s not fat & ugly people at all.......Anet i wanna be fat & ugly char......i can pay..... !

POLL TIME. NOW.

One vote for "I've never bought gold with the use of real money."

This point is quite correct, and a great recent example is RunScape. The devs there just took up a communist regime and put set prices on everything, and in the process the economy completely blew up. Some of the high-end trading stuff (rare holiday items and the like) were put at the so-called actual valve, and now are worthless as no one is selling, so no one is buying. Set prices cause stagnation.

About RMT, I am sorry but I am increasingly alarmed by the realization that more and more people do RMT, which is just sad. I think that RMT represents a gamestyle that should not exist in MMOs: the immature cheater. Now I am not using immature as an insult, but as an adjective. Let me explain with a story...

The first games I ever played were strategy games, starting with Civilization II. Of course, I was a little kid (12 or so), so naturally I cheated. A lot. It was fun for me, because I enjoyed winning with E=mc^2 men and having 90+ cities when I defeated my opponents. I never really understood the mechanics of Civ II as it was way over my head, so cheating was really the only way to "have fun". I then started to play the Age series, starting with Age of Empires II. Still cheated, but began understanding the game more (like gathering resources, making armies and such). Age of Mythology. I cheated for a long while, but then I realized "what if I don't cheat?" I then discovered a wonderful world that really made RTS special to me. I think that was a epiphany of gaming for me, and there began my exploration of different genres, starting with Halo 1 for FPS, and then Guild Wars for MMO, which leads me to today.

Sorry for that long story, but the "immature cheater" that I describe in the paragraph before was me as the 12-year-old playing Civ II. Someone who doesn't understand game mechanics either because they are physically/mentally incapable of understanding them (me) or because they simply choose not to because it is not interesting to them. The second person I described is the one that buys gold, and I'm really sad that they refuse to understand why what they do damages the game as a whole and I wish to tell them, but this type of gamer is also usually stubborn, so reaching them is almost impossible. Therefore, I believe that it is the developer's decision whether or not to support or not support RMT. ArenaNet made its decision, and since they chose the latter, they should do everything necessary to eliminate RMT from Guild Wars 1 and preventing it in GW2. I just hope that the "immature cheater" is not a significant part of the player base, which I think is unlikely because their focus on one game is limited (trust me, I know, as well as many of you.)

Thanks for reading!

That's a shame. There was lots more to read.



Is that so. Do any of us honestly think that an RMT company is just going to wave the white flag and say, "Ok! We give up! you win!" if Anet ever offered Gold in the in-game store? If it were that easy, banning thousands of bots would have put this fire out long ago.

They can and they will compete. If you go underground and read the pro-RMT forums and read the posts of players from various games who either a) buy it on a regular basis, or b)work for the companies; You quickly find out that their ability to instantly deliver an order is equally quick as what Anet could do. The RMT business would have been dead, long ago, if they had "Please allow 2 to 4 weeks for delivery" on their pages, but that's not the case....unfortunately.

Shifts of operators running their bots, paid for in "cheap labor" by the owners of the services. Even in games that are true F2P, with cash shops, RMT services still run business for those games because where there is a market in the first place, there's the market of players who still want it cheaper and cheaper.

Competition doesn't always equal taking all customers. You don't create a game like Guild Wars expecting to bury WoW. It typically means, when there's a lot of competition, you aim in getting the biggest slice of the pie you're capable of getting. Afterall, there was once a time where it was thought a high-quality, non-subscription based MMO/CORPG, was planning ones own funeral in the online gaming market. An online MMO without a subscription? That's not possible! They will never compete! Yet, here we stand today. No, Guild Wars doesn't have the largest percentage of their market, but it's a piece against some mega giants in the industry.

The same is said with RMT. No, an RMT wouldn't hold the biggest slice against Anet, nor would it for WoW, nor do they hold a monopoly against f2p games who offer cash shops, but it would still have a hand in making it.

We all know the mentality of such a business. They don't care about game economies, they just want to make their quota. They don't care about who it hurts, they're getting paid on peoples lazy behavior. They don't care if their bots get banned, they make more. They certainly don't care about you and if you get banned, unless they run an automated "I'm Sorry for Your Loss" sympathy card program I'm not aware of.

There is one thing they care about - getting money from you instead of their competition. The proverbial Bottom-Line.

If people are so willing to fork over money to Anet for gold, then it can and would go so far and for those same people to do it cheaper. It's the nature of the beast. Always has been, always will be.

One vote for "I've never bought gold/any items from any games with the use of real money because I believe it's a waste of money/programmers time"

Once you buy EQ2 and login you can see the servers and just like all SOE servers they usually tell what type they are. Then head to the SOE EQ2 forums and you'll be able to find this server group from those threads. One hitch is you cannot respond or talk about anything or even ask a question about the game until you have BOUGHT IT. SOmething I never agreed with or cared for in the SOE world thus one of the many reasons I left. I found it pretty much the same as EQ1 and they lied about the solo content which although certainly within EQ2 there's not a lot of places you can solo. WE/I were under the impression that ALL the content would be soloable and not just bits and pieces. Before I left there was at least one server dedicated to selling you ingame materials to include weapons, armor and other necessities. Not that many people actually played in it though just to give you an idea of how unsuccessful it was.

Ever heard of collector armor??? Same exact stats, and some designs even like stuff you might buy for 1.5k in the city.

/notsigned

If you don't want to work for it, then that's your problem. Like life, everything isn't handed to you on a silver platter. What's next? Hey ANet, can I pay to have the title "God amongst mere mortals" because I don't have any time to work on it, and wnat good hall of monuments for GW2???

And I personally hate seeing noobs that bought like 1000k going around acting like their all leet or something in their fow armor, and expensive weapons and what not, even though they started playing like a month earlier.

And not only that, it would ruin the economy.

And seriously, what enjoyment is there in a game where you work for nothing?

Well, I guess the real problem of purchasing in game gold is the devaluation of content that was designed specifically for players who like to spend game time achieving something unique. And of course if purchased gold was not flagged to mask it from NPC traders, then it would bork the economy.

A better solution would be NPC Bankers that loaned you 100k and then garnished all your loot and earnings until you paid it back with interest. It would also remove the need for bought gold and likely gut the gold farmers market. Gold borrowed could be flagged differently, partly masked, when used at an NPC trader, keeping the market stable. (Unlike our current housing market, and the poor lending practices, that have shaken the entire global economy.)

Those desperate for Vanity items could borrow for it, at a cost. The longer it takes you to pay back the larger the penalties. If you shelve a character with borrowed armor, there could even be a repo squad that strips you of purchased goods. Thus players couldn't just borrow vanity items across the board and strut around like peacocks. (See U.S. consumers)

Maybe for GW2.

unbelievably bad idea

^So an invisible NPC taking drops...like loot scaling but with a purpose!

Some of the suggestions around this make GW feel far too much like real life. I don't know about the majority of the people here but when I play a game it is to escape my lifestyle for a few hours.

Should just sell items. Not gold itself.

you are SO wrong about that

Na.. that wouldn't work either....

They shouldn't sell gold. I mean, how hard is it to really get gold? Just dedicate yourself to stand in LA or Kamadan for a few hours and power sell. It's not that bad.

If you really want your armor to look better, you can render it yourself some how.. google it or something

How do you get cat pictures, i want to post some so this stupid, people thinking their money is everything thread can go away.

Cat pictures are found here.

QFT. This is the reason why RMT should stay out of the game. Legit RMT makes the game less of a game and brings in all sorts of problem that get in the way of the fun. Though you have to admit that MMOs are a bit more than traditional games, where you don't spend the amount of time discussing with people and about the game as we're doing here!

Comprare how much time it takes to become competative in GW with a game like WoW. Anet has already done as much.

I'm trying but I just don't see it. They don't have anything better then you. You have access to the same runes, armors, weapon stats, etc. They may have something shinier, but nothing gives them an advantage over what you have.

How many more players would buy gold if it were legal? All those honest players, all those who were once afraid of getting banned, all those looking for an easy way into the end-game, they would all start purchasing gold instead of the relatively few that currently do.

So your solution is to limit the gold sold in a week or raising the price such that folks won't go all out purchasing gold? All that does is legitimatize the gold sellers and make it easier for players to rationalize purchasing from them, cheaper prices and no waiting in line to purchase gold. Will players get banned if caught, sure, but by your own admission they won't all be. Heck there are still stacks of duped ambraces around after all this time and the big stink they made.

And where will all this magic gold go anyway? The current gold sinks already do little to curb the amount of gold generated daily by normal play. Kits are free, materials are cheap, no one buys from the skill trainers and armors are a one shot deal. It'll end up going to other players for their tomes, for their weapon mods, for their rare skined items and mini-pets. And up and up the rank it'll go till it ends in the hands of the super rich who already dictate prices. And because so much gold will be floating around, the prices will just have to raised a little more, just out of people's reach and this vicious cycle begins all over again.

MoriaOrc is saying you'll be introducing a billion gold into the economy each week, not how Anet will make in cash. If you honestly can't see how that will crash the economy, then there's no point in arguing anymore.

At lvl11 you won't be able to test a build. Nor will you likely be where that build is suppose to be effective. Your solution of just making another character doesn't make any sense.

Made all the worst when players feel they have to start paying real money just to buy anything in-game.

Proof? The only "cheats" I'm aware of Anet having are their test outposts and that one dev skill and neither of them are on the live server. Where and for whom are they pressing this magic button for?

Honestly, with all that you've revealed of yourself, I can't believe you'd say that. Because in your world you drop everything for 4 years and not have to worry about the wife and the four kids and their future college tuitions, since there are plenty of free places of higher learning around with guaranteed six figure careers waiting for you, right?

P.S

Play the sims2 ctrl+alt+c motherlode :P~

time management. if you don't know how to time manage, you fail.

Actually, there's evidence (but not proof) that it wouldn't happen, see data on EQ2 here:
http://playnoevil.com/serendipity/in...s-winning.html

This has already been said - but it merits saying again. If you want something in GW, go earn it by spending the time it takes to make the money you need for it. With the exception of FOW armor there is no reason someone can't have 15k armor by the time they finish one of the campaigns, if not sooner. You can get max armor for very cheap to last you along the way... Why would anyone think they should have 15k armor and a 50k sword and 50k shield (examples) when they haven;t spent enough time to even beat one campaign?????????

there's my mini rant on the topic

cheers

And with that, when you make it too easy to get gold, then there is no sense of achievement since any kid can get FoW armour after their B-day.
The problem is not so much that it isn't handy for people who don't have a lot of time to play but that it ruins the game for the people who do have more time to play and want to achieve something that isn't cheapened by someone just wipping out his credit card.

Listen folks, the solution to this is for ANET to sell a percentage of gold earned from merchants selling consumable items, rarest materials or some elite armors. This way, the economy doesn't get flooded with new money.

For this to work, consumables can only be purchased from merchants. Drop rates for the rarest materials should be extremely low, to appease the its-not-fair-i-am-on-a-budget crowd and to be fair. Use for these materials could be weapons with a unique skin, armor, etc. Purchased armors shouldnt have any pve or pvp advantage, but would have a skin worthy of "real money" (i.e. Look-at-me-ive-got-a-lot-of-money-to-spend-and-be-stupid).

I've been playing MMO since Ultima Online and companies cannot stop people from purchasing items, rare weapons, cash, etc. without them ruining the game, alienating a portion of the playerbase or constricting the game's growth (ie auto customization of drops/weapons, massive bannings, etc.)

"Cheapening" can be avoided by having items EXCLUSIVELY for players who play the game normally and those who wants to pay for items. Same function but different looks. A lot of people here keeps on saying "If you want it, you gotta work for it" ... the person with 3 kids, a wife and a job paying hard earned real money is no different from an 18 year old who have 8 - 12 hours to work towards an in-game item. They just go different routes to achieve the same goal.

Some people here talk about hyperinflation or what not. I wont go very far but if the real world hasn't stop this phenomenon, what can the programmers do short of taxing players?

Now if they have real estate in this game, itd be a different story (For those of you who've played SWG, you know what im talking about).

Guildwars is built for gamers of different types (I didnt say it, the company did). Adding a pay-real-money-for-something-in-game serves a class of gamers. Its a natural progression for a game that captivates more than 5 million people from all walks of life.




Vladimir Drakken