How to Fix the Economy.

aka. How to shut the whiners up.


ANet should eliminate the concept of currency altogether. And eliminate the concept of trade. And eliminate the concept of drops.

Players accumulate bounty points via killing monsters, which are non-transferable, but can be exchanged at their nearest Ascalon Army representative for items such as weapons, armour, dyes etc.

(incidentally the game Parasite Eve 2 offered a similar system

Items can be traded via barter.

After all, in the game, the human nations are fallen, and there's a bunch of different nations in the game. Why would hydras and other wierd monsters drop gold and swords and stuff? Why would they all use the same currency? Why would they have a currency at all? In a state of total war, there would be hyper-inflation and frivolities like gold would be useless.

Only barter would exist. And even if it wasnt, it's not like GW is realistic anyway. So they could just say it's so. :P

So there ya go. Kill things. Get stuff. No farming. No ridiculously low/high prices depending on which side of the nerf stick you're on. No complaining that people took advantage of the last price reset to totally clean up at the traders.

Uh I completely agree, except not with anything you said in that post. That's probably the worst idea ever, this is a G-A-M-E. Not some thing where you get bounty points and swap them for stuff... That's even more ridiculous. I would personally just lie about killing those monsters and somehow trade the imaginary points for stuff.

things that are fun:
- gold
- farming
- trade

now thats a kickin idea

i am sorry i dont believe that would help at all. and there would be no point in killing the more difficult monsters when u can just go outside ascalon city and own every single monster there.

If the latest update is the best attempt at saving the horrifying economy of the Guild Wars community, then I am sadly dissapointed, and I will list various reasons why.

First and foremost, the addition of locked chests into the game was thought of as a great and helpful idea to stop people from farming chests throughout the various "hot spots" where chests were ALWAYS found. I am not for this idea, as finding rare items inside of chests weren't always that frequent before this update. When you now open a locked the chest, the item is basically always Purple or Gold, and if its anywhere near the new area, or surrounding "high level" area's, the item tends to be pretty nice most of the time. So now what you have is people buying up a ton of keys, opening a ton of chests, and selling the unidentified gold or purple weapons for double (most of the time way more) than the cost of the actual key itself. If they wanted to fix chest farming, the number of chests should have been reduced, or chests should no longer drop great items, if anything the prices have gone up because of this, not down.

Secondly, and anyone who has been to the Deldrimor War Camp can verify this. The ratio for groups "LF Boss Farming Group" compared to those "LF Sorrow's Furnace Quest" groups is about 20:1 right now. The green weapons were also first thought of as a way to fix the horrible economy, thinking that people would charge much less for green items, considering anyone can get them now. But what we now have is a bunch of groups forming to go out and farm these weapons, which are all sold at 15K or more. (I've seen plenty go for nearly 100K, if not more). This pattern will continue, if not, worsen. This will not fix the economy, it will seal its fate.

Thirdly, and could be the most important, the various well-known "farming" locations throughout GW. They have taken these area's and tweaked them quite a bit, attempting to take farming and throw it out the window. UW is now harder for full parties, which will in fact, slowly destroy the economy over time. With more and more people in Sorrow's Furnace fighting now, and the difficulty level of UW raised, people will begin to charge higher and higher prices on the Ecto's found in that dungeon. With the claim that they are "much harder to obtain", and the prices will in due time, rise much higher.

Lastly, why all of the sudden must you be filthy rich to obtain skills for your characters? This will also lend a hand in the destruction of our economy, seeing that these prices being outrageous, will in fact raise the prices of "found/farmed" items so that people can actually get enough money to even purchase skills in the first place.

This is only my opinion, and my words in no way/shape/form are those of anyone else but me. I feel that ANet has just created a "Diablo" type of community right before our very own eyes. I am not happy with this, and I feel that the reason most players enjoy Guild Wars over most MMO's (for the main fact that casual players once had a chance to be good at this game) will no longer exist in a few weeks/months, if not much sooner. Being a casual gamer, will no longer be a possibility, with the fact that you will have to spend countless hours farming for items to sell, just to keep money flowing into your pockets.

I hope something is done to fix this, before all of the people that enjoy Guild Wars have to suffer.

I like this idea. I really do. It's just I'm not sure I want to have it in Guild Wars.

And to the above post, different monsters would yield different amounts of points.

Then all those people who's been amasing thousands upon thousands of gold or the somewhat rich will get fustrated on the fact that they wasted a ton of their time =x

Then leave n stuff.

Sorry.

The green item prices are not going to stay that high for long. Honestly, once EVERYONE realizes that they can get one pretty easily things will improve.

Or it would encourage people to farm bounty, just like farming items, and then they would not need to trade at all, so new players and experienced players would not be connected in any way. And then everyone realizes how bad the idea is.

Gold is fine. And even if it isn't, it's not like GW is realistic anyway. So they could just say it's so.

In a state of total war, there would be "hyper-inflation", as you put it. This means that everything costs more, so something valuble, such as gold, would be required. Because of the inflation, people would have to pay outrageous prices, like four gold for a head of lettuce (Josephine, the man in Gates of Kryta).

I don't believe this.

Because the gold and purple item supply is higher now, people won't be overcharging at really high rates.

Keys, IMHO, aren't really worth it. They are a gamble, and I rather stick to drops and selling my drops (1k each run) and minor/major runes then spend it all on keys for a chance.

I disagree. Green items drop at almost every boss drop, even during quests. While you get a slight better chance with a small farming group, those in quests can also get a green item.

I got my green hammer during the high priest quest by killing a warrior boss outside. No farming, just straight playing.

People can still farm, but it's not longer a necessicity to sustain yourself in the game. They will be richer, but the gap isn't big anymore. This is a good thing.

While the prices of ecto might increase, it seems to me that UW and FOW were meant for the hardcore gamer, not the casual. Seriously, who would spend 15k and spend all that time just to LOOK different? Not the casual gamer.

Filthy rich? I only have 15k, that isn't filthy rich. You can sell 100 common material for 1k. If you cannot get 1k before you get a skill point, you are NOT doing something right.

This would pretty much destroy the "economy". Good job.

So if i want barter points, I have to kill stuff? Yay! Let's go farming, people.

Face it, the game would be terrible without gold.

The only way the game can slow down the inflation is to slowly stop creating gold ie. drops and merchants, WITHOUT getting the gold from another source. What is that source you ask me? Tax. Yes, tax. This isnt the first thread i have voiced this opinion, but if you think about it, it would help. Take 1% of everyone's gold per week, or bimonthly, whatever is needed. I dont even think i would notice 1% of my gold missing, especially if you play the game. Anyways, by taking this gold through tax, or death penalties, whatever way they choose to peel the gold from out death-grips, they could recycle this gold back into the game via drops and merchants.

And your idea about the points traded for items wouldnt work out. If items were the only thing you could get from the game, something else would turn into the "currency". Such as, if you could get red dye from a trader for X number of your immaginary points, people might just start using red dye as their form of currency instead. Such as, "WTS: ITEM for 2 red dyes" Ponder this.

I don't see how that would work.

Monster carrying gold? Its not realistic, its game-istic.
Gold is just to make the whole currency lot eaiser, just like the Instant Map moving function.

It still won't help with the farming. The biggest "fun" many people have is getting gold. With out this sense of accompanishment, lots people would leave.

I still want to see a better way to fix the economy, and this just isn't a good way.

Hi, the whole economy question has been eating me for awhile. This is what I've come up with so far (feel free to rip into it, as that's how bugs are found and got 'round):

say I go farming right and get 2k and 3 good items, my choices then are:

1. To sell items to NPC
2. keep items
3. Sell items to another player

If I sell to NPC, then the cost of those items (if available from an NPC) should decrease ie. if black dye is being sold for 10K then 500 gets knocked off price, lowering value. Item then gets 'put back into circulation'.

If I keep items, cost goes up 10g eg if black dye selling for 10k, then goes up 10 010g.

If I sell to other player, then cost does not change - stays the same.

This way, if people want to bring prices down, create more drops of that item. If I get black dye drops, I sell to NPC cos I need the cash more than I need the colourful (?) armour.

If price of somethings drop too low, eg wood down to 10g, then create less wood drops, it gets rarer and people have to buy it, causing price to go up. An algorithim can be created that will cause a balance in the economy.

Fixing the current economy is no easy task. After some thoughts, I would suggest:

First to blance the current high differnce between that of a "young" player and one that is in the game for long time. To do that, could have it so the young player will have some chance of getting a more rare drop (say one who only play the game for 10 hour will have higher chance of getting black dye) that the high level player want, thus flowing some money out of their hord and into the pocket of the younger player.

2ndly, possible add some charge fees to the service of higher level play zone, thus adding more money sink. Like the entrance fee of Fissure and Underworld, this will take some money away from the higher people. (an optional choice that is) Also upkeep fees for hight guild hall add ons.

3rdly, auction house to promot trade. With better infromation of prices, it will help drive the price on some item down.

4thly, reduce the amount of gold one character can hold. Allow a bank feature to store extra gold and item, but with charge of fee.

5thly, add more stuff that people want, but at few cost of gold. Things like Earning a Title or Aura or emot and such. This help get people's mind off straight farming.

6thly, a better system of controling the drops. A back checking system that would monitor how much rare item is in the cirrculation. To do that (taking some idea from the OP), could also make the gold drop less, but drop more "Monster Droppings" (like Minotaur Horn and such) that one can trade in for money back in town. But the gold traded back will be depended on how many there are (like that of wood) So if lots people farming Gryphans, the price of Gryphan Winds will drop to its min price, while a Storm eye will still remain a good price.

That would be my suggestion, unsure which would be possible, but the economy really need to be fix before chapter 2.