Bonus weekends are screwing up the economy

awry

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Dec 2008

Ok, don't get me wrong, I love bonus weekends and a year ago I would have been delighted every month or so when there was some nice bonus points for chests/arenas or the like but nowadays there have been weekend events every week essentially. I don't know if anyone else has noticed it, but a lot of weapon prices have begun deflating and I blame the zchest for this. Why? Well a lot of the bonus weekends have involved double balthazar faction and as a result the price of z-keys have fallen roughly. From 4.7k-5.2k, they've now fallen to the range of like 4k-4.2k. (my condolences to everyone who tried converting their ecto wealth to zkeys)My stash of zkeys dropped precariously and I've personally lost a lot of wealth, but it's far more than that.
For some one who makes items from pvp, it's kinda devastating, how much rare items have lost value. All the cheap zkeys from easy faction have devalued a lot of the high end items that would drop from pve areas. Right now the double faction weekends have been devastating to prices, the supply market has been flooded with cheap items. I don't think many people realize this and I just want to bring some attention to this subject. I know most people trade in ectos but zkeys have driven the price down for everything and it does affect the pve economy too. I think that given a few more series of easy faction bonus weekends and the whole gw economy might fall apart and devalue at this rate. I think arenanet should go back to a few bonus weekends every few months like they did before so this doesn't happen because if they don't the economy is going to tank harder than it is irl.

Coney

Coney

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Aug 2008

Quote:
Originally Posted by awry View Post
Well a lot of the bonus weekends have involved double balthazar faction and as a result the price of z-keys have fallen roughly. From 4.7k-5.2k, they've now fallen to the range of like 4k-4.2k. (my condolences to everyone who tried converting their ecto wealth to zkeys)
LOL, this is not because of bonus weekends. This is because everyone and their mother are now buying up cheap accounts to farm monthly zkey predictions (e.g. *FREE* 15-30+ zkeys/month/account). That, and the fact that the past two months *EACH* basically allowed a lot of the accounts to get double keys from predictions.

Black Metal

Black Metal

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jan 2009

N/

You are absolutely right. However most people like it this way. And it's a trend that's been continuing a long time. I doubt anything will change this, at least in terms of Anet policy changes. This is just how things are. Making things easy and cheaper bring more people into the fold, and more people = more accounts = more money.

Shadowmoon

Shadowmoon

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jun 2006

N/A

N/

zchest does not drop all skins
zchest does not drop most of the skins
Devalue of weapon skins it because people have already gotten them who want them, like tormented weapons. It has nothing 2 due with the zchest or pvp weekends. It seems like a qq thread about how zkeys price have gone south, and the forecast shows no change.

Yawgmoth

Yawgmoth

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Apr 2005

Bonus weekends do close to nothing compared to what FREE zkeys from Xunlai House do. Bonus weekends at least require active playing. Zkeys will drop below 3k if Xunlai House will continue to operate the way it does now, as people just get more and more accounts into it, and lots of new players get to know about it every month.

The only event which actually affected zkey price was the 2-weeks long Wintersday which included Snowball ATS which rewarded massive amounts of reward points, much bigger than GvG ATS do. But that still was at least about active playing (and luck getting Dwayna side).

Rewarding for playing is good, rewarding for nothing is terribad.

MMSDome

MMSDome

Raged Out

Join Date: Sep 2005

Solution: Remove XTH and prices will return back to normal. PvE'ers dont deserve the keys anyway!

awry

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Dec 2008

Quote:
Originally Posted by Shadowmoon View Post
zchest does not drop all skins
zchest does not drop most of the skins
Devalue of weapon skins it because people have already gotten them who want them, like tormented weapons. It has nothing 2 due with the zchest or pvp weekends. It seems like a qq thread about how zkeys price have gone south, and the forecast shows no change.
I don't think i've ever mentioned that it drops all skins. Notice how those skins that they don't drop haven't deflated as considerably as those that are dropped. Grinding dungeons for drops is pointless because you can do the same with pvp more efficently.


I'm not sure about the whole xulnai tournament thing. Sure the reward system should be fixed, but just how many people buy 20+ accounts to farm for fake money? I mean come on, that's really sad.

Island Guardian

Island Guardian

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Feb 2009

Kam AD1 farming ^^

Do it for [FAME]

W/E

your 100% wrong.
The reason for the price in the z key was the screw up where people have gotten double the amount they normally do. For example i was supposed to get 100 points, which i did but later the next day i went back to GToB and got 100 more. People have generated double and so the price drop. Getting double faction does nothing on that scale at all. Next Just because the price of say a Z key goes down dosent mean that the price of an item goes down with it. You can have an item worth 200 e\z if all of a sudden z keys go to 1k per that doesnt mean the items is worth 200k, it means more z keys will be needed to achieve the items value. This has happaned before and there were no major problems. The reason why you see the actual dropping in VALUE of an item is because there are more via drops in game or from the chest.
there fore the weekend Events shall and will continue and you need to relook at the True effects.

awry

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Dec 2008

Quote:
Originally Posted by MMSDome View Post
Solution: Remove XTH and prices will return back to normal. PvE'ers dont deserve the keys anyway!
A lot of pve'rs can't even find random arenas on the map... You're giving them to much credit.

Nessar

Nessar

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Jun 2008

West Siiiiiiiiiiiiiide

Gwen Has A Thing For [Pyre]

XTH Pretty much killed the price of zkeys. Once more people found out and bought more accounts, there went the zkey price.
Personally I know a few people, including me, who have predicted on 3+ accounts just for more zkeys.

So, its not so much the weekends, its XTH

RedNova88

RedNova88

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Oct 2007

Behind you!

W/

The thing is that if you get rid of the XTH then who will have Z-keys then? They'll go way back up in prices, and only the already freakishly rich and the more hardcore PvPers will have them. Who cares if they go down in value? It's happened to everything else in this game that used to be worth a fortune. Dead Swords went from being worth a ton to being merch trash, and elemental swords are pretty much the same story. Anything of value instantly becomes over farmed in this game, and it's been that way since day one. There's nothing that can be done that will actually fix the problem. Enjoy it while it lasts and laugh at those that bought tons of accounts.

Gun Pierson

Gun Pierson

Forge Runner

Join Date: Feb 2006

Belgium

PIMP

Mo/

XTH = legal ebay hosted by Anet and it actually works and they get revenue from it, which is good for GW2 and the connections with NCSoft. Another thing to notice is that players give gold for z-keys, it's a trade amongst players. The gold doesn't come directly from npc's etc.

Z-keys will continue to drop in value imo till they balance out around 1-2k I guess. The point where players rather open the chest themselves instead of selling for that price.

Ate of DK

Ate of DK

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Oct 2005

Netherlands

None but Fools [nuts]

I agree, the Xunlai Tournament House should be removed from the game. There hasn't been a single month without people complaining about it. They could spend their resources (2 people?!) on improving the game.

Coney

Coney

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Aug 2008

Quote:
Originally Posted by MMSDome View Post
Solution: Remove XTH and prices will return back to normal. PvE'ers dont deserve the keys anyway!
No way that will happen. This is the best thing for GW revenue they could have ever invented. It gives them extra money with virtually no extra network load, and it also makes gold selling more and more of a moot point. Props to NCSoft/GW!

Shayne Hawke

Shayne Hawke

Departed from Tyria

Join Date: May 2007

Clan Dethryche [dth]

R/

Remove XTH. This free shit for nothing was a bad idea to start with, and it's easy to see how poor everything's become because of it.

jiggles

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Sep 2007

N/

People are still whining about the economy 4 years after the game comes out? ohno make belive money is worthless. The irony nearly kills me tbh.

Nessar

Nessar

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Jun 2008

West Siiiiiiiiiiiiiide

Gwen Has A Thing For [Pyre]

I doubt anet will remove XTH, maybe make zkeys cost more tourny points, but not totally remove it.

[Morkai]

[Morkai]

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Oct 2007

Heroes of Elonia [HE]

W/Rt

The whole XTH system caused this. Anet will not remove it, because it's driven up thier game sales like crazy. Like they care what an in game player base thinks as long as they drag on the life of a dying game for a few more months.

Right?

awry

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Dec 2008

Quote:
Originally Posted by jiggles View Post
People are still whining about the economy 4 years after the game comes out? ohno make belive money is worthless. The irony nearly kills me tbh.
I was wondering when the hypocritical "get a real life" guy would come along.

jiggles

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Sep 2007

N/

Oh no im not saying get a life, mainly because im not a "hypocrit", nor do i have what any modern soceity would call 'a life'. Im just saying why whine about shit you cant change? Unless anet is going to do a massive server rollback to before the XTH was introduced upsetting the majority of their userbase in the process, zkeys are going to diminish in value. Get over it. How is starting a thread on a fan forum about how non existent money is diminishing in value going to do, anything?

If it really makes you that sad though, remember it's down the road, not across the street.

Martin Alvito

Martin Alvito

Older Than God (1)

Join Date: Aug 2006

Clan Dethryche [dth]

Quote:
Originally Posted by jiggles View Post
People are still whining about the economy 4 years after the game comes out? ohno make belive money is worthless. The irony nearly kills me tbh.
It costs time to get make believe money.

What upsets people is when the developers devalue time that was *already spent* acquiring make believe money. People can't adjust their behavior to account for the caprice of the devs, as the community isn't informed of these changes (or their material impacts) in advance.

Can you see how this would upset rational people? Just because other people don't share your values doesn't make them irrational or idiots.

t3dw4rd0

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Dec 2006

Liars Cheats and Thieves [Liar]

D/

Looks like this has turned into yet another "XTH screwed up GW" thread, so I'll put in my two cents:

1. Like everyone else is saying, the drop in zkey prices is because of XTH mostly, but I think some of the recent drops (aka the bigger ones) have been because of double points, which has mistakenly happened TWICE (if I've heard correctly).
2. On Topic: Weekends have nothing to do with it, in fact, as far as I recall, weekend events have been happening every weekend for as long as I can remember. The balth faction makes no difference.
3. The fake economy died a loooonnnngggg time ago.

awry

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Dec 2008

Quote:
Originally Posted by jiggles View Post
Oh no im not saying get a life, mainly because im not a "hypocrit", nor do i have what any modern soceity would call 'a life'. Im just saying why whine about shit you cant change? Unless anet is going to do a massive server rollback to before the XTH was introduced upsetting the majority of their userbase in the process, zkeys are going to diminish in value. Get over it. How is starting a thread on a fan forum about how non existent money is diminishing in value going to do, anything?

If it really makes you that sad though, remember it's down the road, not across the street.
I was wondering when the "omg you guys fail for having an opinion, go kill yourself" guy would come along too.

stanzhao

stanzhao

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Mar 2008

haha, when hasnt the GW economy been RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GOed?

ever since perma sins and uw speed clears the price in everthing has gone down. remember when ectos were 9k a pop? and went down to 3k at one point. and shards were 800g?

dont start a QQ thread because just z-keys have gone down. try and think about why they have gone down. just like everything else in GW. they messeed up the z-key points this month and last month. so prices will drop for a while, while more z-keys circulate the market.

when it gets back to normal they will pop up to 5kish as they were before, once all the nublettes are done trying to get a quick sale.

jiggles

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Sep 2007

N/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Martin Alvito View Post
It costs time to get make believe money.
The majority of this thread is about people whining how other people have numerous 'second accounts' which they use for the sole purpose of getting free money. Honestly if getting a free couple'a million gold (depending on how many accounts you own and how high you can sell your keys for) every month sounds like a time waster then i really need to reconsider how i see the universe.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Martin Alvito View Post
What upsets people is when the developers devalue time that was *already spent* acquiring make believe money. People can't adjust their behavior to account for the caprice of the devs, as the community isn't informed of these changes (or their material impacts) in advance.

Can you see how this would upset rational people? Just because other people don't share your values doesn't make them irrational or idiots.
Of course i can see how this would upset a rational person, but starting a thread with the title Bonus weekends are screwing up the economy and then getting a bunch of people to agree and some to disagree etc isnt the way of going about trying to get the problem fixed. How about starting a poll in sardelacabout why the XTH shouldnt be removed. Then have a nice logical debate with other users about why imaginary money is so important, in the hope that regina/andrew/anet will see said thread and address issues.

Quote:
Originally Posted by awry View Post
I was wondering when the "omg you guys fail for having an opinion, go kill yourself" guy would come along too.
Thats funny because i was wondering when you were going to start ignoring my blatent trolling and actually answer some of my highly valid points. The money is not real, apart from investing time into getting said money, give me another logical reason as to why Anet should care about it (also i'd like to point out right now that anet obviously dont care otherwise the XTH wouldnt of been introduced, and and there wouldnt be weekends every weekend making money easy to get.

Talic

Talic

Academy Page

Join Date: May 2005

Durance Of Fate [DoF]

W/

Quote:
Originally Posted by stanzhao View Post
haha, when hasnt the GW economy been RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GOed?

ever since perma sins and uw speed clears the price in everthing has gone down. remember when ectos were 9k a pop? and went down to 3k at one point. and shards were 800g?

dont start a QQ thread because just z-keys have gone down. try and think about why they have gone down. just like everything else in GW. they messeed up the z-key points this month and last month. so prices will drop for a while, while more z-keys circulate the market.

when it gets back to normal they will pop up to 5kish as they were before, once all the nublettes are done trying to get a quick sale.
I think you got the right idea, although I don't know how long it will take for things to get back to "normal", or if they ever will get there without some change to the perma-sin build. That and the whole HZH deal but I'm not going to touch that in this thread..

edit: Whoops, almost forgot that bonus weekends are a good thing despite what they may do as they get people doing things in game at least.

Verene

Verene

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Jan 2009

[SOTA]

D/

People with 20 accounts for XTH are not what's causing the Zkey price to drop. Why? Because the number of people with a bunch of accounts for that purpose is such a tiny number of total GW players as to be nearly negligible. It's a tiny percentage of people who are on this forum, and forumgoers themselves are a tiny percentage of players.

The reason the prices have dropped so much recently is because things have been messed up the last couple months. I agree with stanzhao - things will even out and then go back up to where it used to be for Zkeys.

HawkofStorms

HawkofStorms

Hall Hero

Join Date: Aug 2005

E/

The economy was messed up LONG before the z-chest was implemented.

And a fluctuating price of z-keys... laugh. They are overvalued anyways (5k for a creme or a gold you will just merchant).

byteme!

byteme!

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jan 2006

On Earth

W/P

Wait.....

We get a ton of "FREE" Zkeys every month and we're complaining about it's value??? Maybe Anet should take away all the "FREE" keys the OP and anyone like minded have gotten. The price will go back up for sure, except you can't have them for free anymore. How does that sound?

Anet should spoil you people less. Then you'll really have something to whine about.

Jensy

Jensy

Site Contributor

Join Date: Apr 2007

Phoenix, Arizona

Blinkie Ponie Armie [bpa]

N/Mo

Guildie of mine got keys three times last month (not this very last round), I got mine doubled. Ended up with a lot left, because I had hoped the price would go back up. It didn't, and I ended up with more to sell when anet said "oh, here, take all the points you earned, and we'll forgive the debt'. I expect this was the problem many people ran into, where the demand was far less than the supply. This is basic stuff, you guys.

If you can remember back far enough, keys were maybe 2.5-3k when the xth first started, it was only after they started churning out the damn title and tonics that the price went up. If we don't get any new tonics after April (as the calendar suggests), then they'll likely stabilize at 3-4, regardless of how many keys are out there.

Martin Alvito

Martin Alvito

Older Than God (1)

Join Date: Aug 2006

Clan Dethryche [dth]

Quote:
Originally Posted by byteme! View Post
Wait.....

We get a ton of "FREE" Zkeys every month and we're complaining about it's value??? Maybe Anet should take away all the "FREE" keys the OP and anyone like minded have gotten. The price will go back up for sure, except you can't have them for free anymore. How does that sound?

Anet should spoil you people less. Then you'll really have something to whine about.
Most people that got free stuff are made WORSE off than they were before. In this case, the only players that benefit are those willing to drop IRL cash on having tons of accounts for XTH. Everyone else (except the devs) loses.

Perhaps an illustration will make this concept easier to grasp.

Suppose you already have lots of zkeys, ectos and armbraces that you invested time acquiring.

Suddenly ANet makes it really easy for other people to get said ectos/zkeys/armbraces. (Ex: 2007 dupe, XTH, perma SF)

The price of everything rare goes up dramatically, because there are tons and tons of new ectos, zkeys and armbraces in the system.

The value of the time you invested previously drops. The contents of your storage are now worth, say, 30% less than they were before in terms of in-game gold. But the real value (what you can actually buy with the contents of your storage) may have been cut by 70-90%. Yes, the numbers were that bad during the dupe.

dilan155

dilan155

Desert Nomad

Join Date: May 2007

living room

N/

they shouldn't have invented the z-key or the chest in the first place, ofc im not complaining much cause i do make money this way though its only with one account and the max key i got was like 16 compared to 100+ keys some people get by using alt accounts, hey if you got the account might as well use em. there were some bonus weekends that wrecked GW, but the thing is there really isnt much they can do for the weekends by limiting all pvp weekends.

awry

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Dec 2008

Quote:
Originally Posted by byteme! View Post
Wait.....

We get a ton of "FREE" Zkeys every month and we're complaining about it's value??? Maybe Anet should take away all the "FREE" keys the OP and anyone like minded have gotten. The price will go back up for sure, except you can't have them for free anymore. How does that sound?

Anet should spoil you people less. Then you'll really have something to whine about.
sounds nice. Never gotten any zkey for "free" before. So go ahead, take them all.

Ate of DK

Ate of DK

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Oct 2005

Netherlands

None but Fools [nuts]

True, sometimes you wonder what you played/farmed for. Go to the mediamarkt, saw them sell GuildWars for €10,--. Buy 3 new accounts, register them. Get 100 points each account every month (not that hard) and you end up with 60 z. Keys! And 12 new character slots you can use as mules... How much was it to buy a new character slot for your old account? It's a joke.

Need More Donuts

Banned

Join Date: Aug 2008

D/W

I have to agree somewhat these bonus weekends have driven down the z keys price quite a bit taking away a huge chunk of my income it's

Minako Sawai

Minako Sawai

Academy Page

Join Date: Jul 2008

A/

Really funny seeing PvPer's going on about how those darn PvEers don't deserve z-keys, considering that the XTH freebies have greatly increased the interest level in PvP among most of the PvEers (including me) that I know. They are now watching the tournament matches (or just regular ones), talking about the different guilds playing, and getting more interested in playing PvP because "it looks like fun!"

So Anet has a feature that not only gives away free stuff, but also increases the interest in a part of the game that many players might otherwise ignore. Seems like a win-win for all of us to me.

awry

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Dec 2008

Quote:
Originally Posted by Minako Sawai View Post
Really funny seeing PvPer's going on about how those darn PvEers don't deserve z-keys, considering that the XTH freebies have greatly increased the interest level in PvP among most of the PvEers (including me) that I know. They are now watching the tournament matches (or just regular ones), talking about the different guilds playing, and getting more interested in playing PvP because "it looks like fun!"

So Anet has a feature that not only gives away free stuff, but also increases the interest in a part of the game that many players might otherwise ignore. Seems like a win-win for all of us to me.
true, but that doesn't mean everyone has to have the stuff in their box turned into merchant fodder.

Jensy

Jensy

Site Contributor

Join Date: Apr 2007

Phoenix, Arizona

Blinkie Ponie Armie [bpa]

N/Mo

Quote:
Originally Posted by Minako Sawai View Post
Really funny seeing PvPer's going on about how those darn PvEers don't deserve z-keys, considering that the XTH freebies have greatly increased the interest level in PvP among most of the PvEers (including me) that I know. They are now watching the tournament matches (or just regular ones), talking about the different guilds playing, and getting more interested in playing PvP because "it looks like fun!"

So Anet has a feature that not only gives away free stuff, but also increases the interest in a part of the game that many players might otherwise ignore. Seems like a win-win for all of us to me.

This. This is me exactly!

Skyy High

Skyy High

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: May 2006

R/

Wait, wait, you think faction bonus weekends are the reason there are so many Zkeys around?

lololono

Taixen

Taixen

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Apr 2008

England

A/

Instead of completely removing the XTH System, wouldn't it make more sense to decrease the amount of keys that you can obtain per account? (Possibly a point made already, haven't read in detail).

Hopefully the prices will sort themselves out with the April Update, which will hopefully contain a few balances/ changes to problematic skills.

Also, removing the XTH would get rid of people QQ'ing about not getting their free stuff on time, which is always slightly amusing to see each month.