Food for Thought.

I am no economist but... I can make this prediction for you. In a year or less, all your in game shinnies will be valued for what they really are.. pixels. This game is going to die off as GW2 is underway and ppl stop playing GW and ANet stops spending resources on GW.

As price is determined by supply and demand, demand for in game shinnies is going to disappear like the bubble bursting in the financial markets after the internet go go days and real estate market crash the last couple of years.

So why do you care people are able to speed clear some higher difficulty areas solo or duo for their shinnies, when having 100,000 ectos will basically mean squat when the GW2 comes on?

Why play any games at all? Why post on forums on the Internet?

Three words: Hall of Monuments.

Any kind of reward that you can stick in there can potentially have some kind of benefit in GW2. What we know is that these benefits will be cosmetic and can't be traded. However, there is no telling whether every single minipet, weapon, title, armor, or hero is going to reap an individual and unique benefit, individual and general benefit, or whether having a whole Monument filled out is just going to result in one prize.

Basically, pouring wealth into the HoM in GW could allow you to gain some trinket in GW2 to show that you had a lot of wealth, or great deal of "skill". Whether anyone's going to think that will amount to anything once GW2 is released remains a mystery.

I don't see how this comment relates to my post. To be more plain. Why care about others using SF and 600 Smite? Just play the game and enjoy it for what it is not about the shinnies.

Provided you can still add stuff to HoM after GW2 is opened and the bonus of HoM is worth anything then there will still be a demand for that. So while these req7 rare skin weapons might drop in value there will still be a demand for minis, hero armors, tormented weps and consumables like ales, snowmen etc that adds to the titles. My guess is that these will rise in value compared to items that cannot be put in HoM.

Some people want the shinies because they believe that the shinies will confer benefits in GW2 via HoM.

If you don't believe that, don't chase the shinies. You are correct to assert that ecto is not transferable, but ecto is just a means of exchange. People don't want the ecto. They want what they can buy with the ecto now because other players recognize that the ecto has value now.

You might as well ask why AC/DC sings about money in addition to women and booze. Money is a means of getting the other two in the simple, three good universe that AC/DC lives in. If the U.S. government started dropping money from helicopters as Friedman once suggested, people that already have a lot of money would be upset and people without a lot of money would be happy. Just how it is.

Some people just like amassing wealth. Like IRL. We are all going to die anyway so why amass wealth?

Because they are shiny.

Like I said, I am no economist, but... do you really think that ANet will make HoM the only path to the end all, be all, neat-o benefit in GW2? To base benefits on something that they, ANet, will have a hard time making future money on? I don't think so. In fact if I was a shareholder of ANet and they did something like that I would demand that the company do its job and maximize profits.

That is kinda sad.. GW v. Real Life comparison.. or maybe its not sad but profound... idk...

The world is gonna be destroyed on 2012, so why u care about ppl robbing and stealing. Just play some GW for our last 2 years.

I agree so hard. Why if GW2 isn't even out, should we stop making money etc? In the end, it's always worthless, you're spending a lot of time getting money etc, because it is and stays a game.
Stop thinking about when GW2 comes, everything will be worthless. Now there's no GW2, just GW, play it and showoff with your xxx ecto's while it is.

Correct, but when the "currency" will be devalued in the near future... why care about it at all, especially how others make the currency.

I understand the reason why ppl care, but I think they are being shortsighted and uninformed.

Is it point out of the obvious day?

Of course things are going to lose value. That's what happens with all things.

Same concept. irl there are people obsessed with wealth, same in the gee dubs

Because that impacts players' ability to get things now. If ecto is the means of exchange, then mass ecto farming devalues existing stores of wealth, disproportionately values time spent when the easy ecto farm is available, and distorts the value of the shinies people really want.

Elaborate.

Well I guess, it's obvious, but yet people care and post so much about skill nerfs targeting the elimination of farming builds?

Noting the irl you can pass on wealth to heirs.....HoM is sort of like a will. Things you can pass on my still hold value, but other things should depriciate dramatically. Having said that...I understand how certain items (shinies if u will) can retain value. I do not however understand the value in items that cannot be passed on as we get closer to the "demise" of GW1.

ex) High-end minis=retained value......Old school rare weap=depleting value

That was simply an example as I know all those "shinies" (bds,emblade,eblade,froggy, etc..) that r not "oldschool" will fall into the same catagory.

Kind of my point its all gonna be devalued anyway so whats all the hub bub? Not in a couple of years but next year by this time. --directed at the players.

Why spend time and money on restricting how some people play the game? In an overall best interests of the company perspective how does this help the bottom line for ANEt?---directed at the ANet management

many powertraders like to have a bigger epeen than others, and when farmers(who actually work for their wealth) come up with comparable amounts of shiny crap, they come on guru complain and whine to anet to nerf farms. essentially, like stock traders calling menial labor degenerate. couldn't give two shits either way, too busy actually playing.