Gold As The Currency In The Future?

In a lot of games I have played gold has had basically no value. In gW gold is the currency, but will that change? Just wondering if anyone thinks that something else will become the new currency. It would suck to stock up on gold then one day have it be worthless.

Gold has a pretty solid value as it's rare enough to be found on earth to still be worth something. However, maybe if when we start travelling in space, we may find planets and such that are abundent with gold that it's used in the cheap caster jewellry.

On GW though, No. The only thing worth more is platinum and that is worth 1000 gold. You wouldn't really carry around 1k gold with you, so it's automatically converted to 1platinum.

wow cmon looking for some serious replies

If you want a serious reply make what you say legible.

What? That was a serious reply.

Wont happen, npcs rely on gold as does getting into the underworld, crafting armor, buying crafting stuff, etc.

how is it not legible.

pretty clear actually


ramus thanks for the reply

i dunno i have more plat then i know what to do with ... i think sigils are the new money 75k a piece .

Yeah- Sekkira's reply seemed about as serious as one could get. No need to really add more onto it, since it's spot on.

Unless you'd like to refine the question?

"In gW gold is the currency, but will that change? Just wondering if anyone thinks that something else will become the new currency."

That makes no sense. Why would it change it isn't losing value. It isn't based off any type of standard like in real life.

I guess the question was so ridiculous it didn't make sense to me at first.

Right now Platinium seems to be more prominent sales wise than gold. A.net caped the item prices at 100,000 gold or 100 plat. At least now sigils wont be going for 250k in the near future. I like the money system in game as it is now except they need an auction house.

Well, you're finding alot more gold on monsters/stuff then you're spending gold on armors. There's alot more gold coming in the game then going out. So gold's value will go down. Once you're level 20 and that you have the 1500 gold armor (and if you don't think you need that 15 000 gold armor), you'll only bring more gold in the game and won't spend any gold on the merchants/etc.

I'm starting to wonder if sigil will reach the 100k soon, saw a guy buying for 70k at lion's arch the other day :|.
Seems like gold's value is going down way faster then sigil's value, so I say it'll reach 100k soon .

(not flaming anyone, just saying)

First, anyone who buys a sigil is an idiot IMHO. Second, anyone who pays 250kpp for a sigil is an idiot. An old crap guild of mine got theirs for 30kpp. I'm in a good PvP guild now, and we're gonna work on builds and win our own sigil before even starting GvG. =O

I am lvl 20 and am working on my second set of 60k armor =P but the fact of the matter is more gold floating around isn't why prices are higher. Prices are higher because there is so much demand and not enough supply... the koreans be taking all our sigils.

The problem right now is the lack of decent gold sinks. 15k armor upgrade only attracts those who wants to look good. It is the last thing on my mind because I much rather spend the gold I have on rare runes. I am sure a lot of people see from similar viewpoint. It's sad to see that new players will have to pay much more gold compare to 2-3 weeks ago. This trend will only worsen untill either arenanet makes new gold sinks or untill all players are equally stinking rich (no new players).

At the current trend, black dyes and celestial sigils will be the currency. I'd invest in those instead of gold.

Gold isn't worth jack in this game and the economy will soon be down the hole because of it.

-Virt

Why? A PvE guild will have plenty of gold, no desire to PvP, and might want a meeting place of their own.

Although this is illegal, and I don't condone it, I'd like to point out that you can purchase 100 platinum, or 100k gold, online. It started out at $1 per 1000 gold, and is now $1 per 4000 gold.

I'm worried this may ruin the game's economy...

Money per account maxes out at 1400p. If something else is going to be the currency, it's probably going to be something like ectoplasm or the other super-rare crafting materials that stack to 250, since inventory space is finite too =p

I disagree on the buying. Some guilds arent around to PvP or GvG but still want a Guild hall because they are neat and can be accessed easily for social meeting and what not.
Even though i feel it ok to buy sigils i do think that the sigil should be earned in some manner. Buying them for 50k+ now seems like earning it by raising the money, however it is far easier to get that money than winning it.

Haha thats the old D2 thing there. Sojs were the curency for trades back then they would be something equilevient to 20k gold in guild wars. D2 always had gold but gold was never worth anything. You really couldnt do anything with it. Sojs became the currency even though its a rare drop item. Charecters would end up having 6 or 7 Sojs and use them like high end currency. Was kinda sad to see the economy fail and revert to solid trading and no buying (using gold).
I dont see guild wars doing this anytime soon. I think the game would eventually turn that way but i think the economy will be reset by the new chapters. More people will want new guild halls so sigil prices will go up. More armors and weopons for new charecters. I would hate to see people trading tanned hides as currency in the future.

I'm not an economist or anything so please forgive my extremely uninformed and totally unreliable ramblings. I'm one of those people that likes to talk about things they know nothing about, so here it goes.

Gold, silver, platinum or whatever in the game is not strictly speaking a commodity like in real life. In real life, precious metals have industrial applications and can be used to make things prettier thereby giving them intrinsic value. In the game, it's simply a unit of measure like dollars, yen, gil or adena.

Also, gold and other precious metals have a limited supply in real life. In-game gold can be created in unlimited quantities presumably based on consumer demand. Therefore, as has already been mentioned, the value of in-game gold will only go down as more gold is introduced into the economy.

However, I did leave out one valuable use of real life gold that can also apply to in-game gold. In real life, gold is valuable because it is also a very convenient method for storing and transporting real wealth. Although the world's currencies are no longer tied to the price of gold, most of the world's banks still store their "wealth" as gold bars. I believe this is because gold has a high value to weight (or volume) ratio, is non-perishable and difficult to counterfeit.

So what is the value/weight ratio of in-game gold? I really have no idea, but there must be one. A previous poster mentioned that there is a cap on the amount of gold that can be held by one account. If this is the case, then I suppose it is possible for rarer stackable items to become more useful as a way of storing wealth. However, since the rarity of items can be easily changed by the devs on a whim, investing in any one type of item is a bit risky.

My totally uneducated guess would be that stackable luxury items will continue to be rare and valuable even as more people start playing and get rich. This is because luxury items are not strictly necessary to "play" or "enjoy" the game, so there is no real pressure for the devs to bend to the wishes of the consumer. Luxury items can be used as a way for a few lucky people to distinguish themselves from everyone else. I haven't been playing long enough to figure out what these items would be. Rare dyes are probably an example of a stackable luxury item.

Another real life benefit of gold that may be applicable to in-game gold is that it's value is recognized by almost everyone. For example, if you show me money from a country I never heard of, I'll have no idea of what it's worth in my own currency. If you show me gold, I can quickly determine it's exact worth in my own currency and know that the value will not change drastically over time.

In the game, I know exactly what I can buy if you give me X amount of gold. But I don't know what your special rare crafting component is worth on the open market. Most people will be more likely to demand gold for payment rather than items they don't know about.

Since GW does not seem to have a convenient way of "checking the market" like an auction house, gold will probably continue to hold value simply because it's inconvenient to trade with anything else. But if a better market and trading system were to be introduced, the value of gold will probably drop dramatically.

Anyways, sorry for rambling on. I just like talking and thinking about mundane things like this and hearing what other people have to say.

-Myrian

Myrian- despite you not being an economist, most of what you said is fairly well thought out.

I however, am an economist. So allow me to expand:

There are several things that a currency needs to have in order to perform well. I'm going to focus on three: liquidity, ease of transport/exchange, and scarcity.

Liquidity refers to the ease at which a currency can be spent or transferred. US dollars are highly liquid- you can use them to buy just about anything, anywhere in the world. A plasma television set is very non-liquid. It might be very valuable, but try paying for groceries with it*.

Currency needs to be easy to transport and exchange. US dollars do very well for this- they are small and fit easily in one's pocket, and to transfer them, you just hand them to someone else. They can even be stored and transferred electronically.
Plasma televisions, not so much. It's not practical to carry one or more around every where you go, in the event you have to make a transaction.

For a currency to be worth anything, it needs to be fairly scarce. There's lots of US dollars, but since they're printed in a fixed ammount regulated by the government, there's a set money supply at any given time- and there's always people who want more money. Leaves aren't- hence the phrase "money doesn't grow on trees." If it did, it wouldn't be worth anything.
Of course, if a currency is too scarce, no one is able to make transactions. If the only recognized currency is plasma televisions, not too many people are going to be buying groceries.

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So how do various proposed currencies for Guild Wars measure up?

GOLD:

Gold is extremely liquid. Computer vendors deal solely in gold. (The scope of these vendors will be discussed below.) If you want to get rid of gold, it's very easy to exchange it for something, although maybe not something you specifally want (just go to Lions Arch district 1.) I don't think people will ever have a problem buying things with gold.

Gold is easy to carry and transfer. Gold is probably the easiest concievable item to carry, since it doesn't take up an inventory slot, and the currency limit is very high.

Gold is reasonably scarce. It is true that with every hour more gold is put into the system, and this is likely more than is taken out to pay for things from vendors. However, in the real world money supplies generally increase over time- inflation. So prices may rise.
However, vendors are a great equalizer as they take money out of the system (rather than giving it to another player.) The higher quality of vendors in the game, the more scarce (and liquid!), and therefore more relevant gold will be.

DYES (Black):

Black dies are extremely liquid, potentially moreso than gold. At just about everytown, one can sell black dyes to merchants for gold, or to players waiting to pay out many gold pieces. Concievably one might trade a black dye straight up for rare items (runes, flaming swords, etc.)

Black dye, like all inventory items is easy to transfer. It does cut into carrying capacity slightly (one inventory slot, as it's stackable). This is not likely to impact too negatively on Black Dye.

Black dye is scarce- in fact I've never seen one drop. However, there clearly are black dyes being bought and sold, so they are in circulation.
Consider though, that from drops and the dye traders, more black dye is being put in circulation, presumably at a fairly constant rate. (How one defines 'constant' in this context is up to debate.) It is possible that just as the market for gold may get flooded, so too will Black Dye.

RARE ITEMS (Runes/Sigils)

Rare items tend to be liquid, although there are fewer potential buyers for certain runes. Sigils and popular runes will likely attract buyers of all classes, whereas less used abilities will only attract buyers of the appropriate class.
Obscure rare items, however valuable, are incredibly non-liquid due to the restraints of the buyer. (As a case in point, if you are a monk with 7 smiting prayers, I've got a great staff to sell you. No, you're not? Didn't think so.)

Rare items are not stackable, so good luck carrying them all around with you. I'd advise only keeping the most valuable for trades (i.e. sigils, maybe major runes and turbo weapons)

Rare items are generally scarce. The actual scarcity of Sigils is open to debate. They are rare, but alternate means of acquisition exist that will eventually bring the price down. (I believe that there is a 'bubble' in the Sigil market, that will fall out. Watch out for speculation on Sigils.)
Runes and Sigils also have the effect of taking themselves out of the market (as they have innate consumable value), which makes them bad for long term currency- eventually people use them.

UBER RARE CRAFTING ITEM

Not much for liquidity... yet. There has to be demand first. This might be something to watch, especially if these crafting items are useful for multiple classes.

Crafting materials are very transportable and transferable. The same as dyes.

Uberrare crafting items, are, by definition very rare, so scarcity is a given. Since I've only seen one person in game ever mention ectoplasm, I suspect the scarcity is too high to make it a currency at this time. And if it's good for crafting, it should take itself out of the market quickly as it's used to make uberrare items.

THE VERDICT:

Gold is here to stay. Why? The sheer liquidity. The big detail is this: gold can be exchanged for dyes and sigils via vendors. If there wasn't a Dye Vendor and a Sigil Vendor, gold would probably end up being replaced by Black Dye as a standard high-end currency.

As is, gold can buy dyes and Sigils. Suppose Black Dye costs X gold from the vendor, and you need 3 for a Dragon sword? Just pay 3X gold. Most people will be willing to skip the middleman and just take the dozens of platinum or whatever required.

If the prices of Black Dyes start spiraling too high, expect more to get sold at the Dye Vendors. Similarly with Celestial Sigils. That will in turn bring the prices down.

The fact that gold can be easily transferred into what people are speculating on being the replacement currency is it's best selling point.

I do expect Black Dye and Sigils to remain a popular second trade good and the source of much speculation and investment. Also expect to see general inflation in all prices for player-driven items.