Currency Exchange Missing Is A Game Breaker?????

I've returned as per usual to GW2 because the games top tier, but it has IMO a major flaw I'd have expected to have been sorted years ago. Why is there know currency exchange? you can collect 20-30 different currencies in your wallet but 80% will just keep gathering pending on your current game goals and surrounding location, helping friends etc.We can exchange gold for gems and vice versa but apparently no Race/Faction in Tyria has any reason to exchange their currency for another?Its great having so many things to do in game but when you need to purchase something with a currency only obtained in specific areas or game modes eg' WvW, PvE, Fractals etc which perhaps you dont enjoy it is very frustrating having to drop what you enjoy in game because you have to go and grind somewhere for whatever it may be allows you to get the item or what have you thats needed?I have limited play time due to real life such as work etc etc and when I get a chance to play its rather stink I cant just go catch up and do runs with mates playing and socializing if i have personal goals im looking to achieve, Most things are account bound so its not like you can help or receive help from friends which leaves "i'll try come for a run tomorrow mate once i've grinded for the item or currency I need for my Weapon etc"Why cant I swap the 300 Trade contracts for 100 spirit shards instead of doing daily's for three shards a day? Wahoo now who doesn't like having their game time dictated as to where/what/when? Are we supposed to use the random currencies to purchase salvage bags and exotics or rare items?

Is it just me or did i not look properly for other posts regarding this topic?Thanks all and keep it constructive please :)

The lack of currency exchange is hardly a game breaker - in my opinion you would struggle to find more than a handful of people who would agree with you there.The map-based currency is there to encourage people to play the content and explore the area in turn populating it for other people. Certain items will have a limitation on how they are accessed to prevent abuse of the system. For example, if there was free currency exchange everywhere, you could potentially farm central tyria pre-POF and upon release of the expansion, simply convert all your gold to Elonian currency and have immediate access to all items. This would mean that for some players, they would have little incentive to visit new areas as there are no rewards to be acquired.Some basic/generic items like salvage kits are purchasable in a variety of ways across different areas, however the game is designed to engage you in certain content for specific items.

My advice would be to avoid content you don't enjoy. There is often more than one path for acquisition of certain items. You have mentioned having to run fractals for daily spirit shards, but there are many daily quests you can complete and you only need to run 3.

Gw2 operates diff than most other mmos. Content doesnt get devalued and remains relevant forever more.

With that in mind its crucial for older and newer zones to retain a good balance in player retention for years to come. And gor that diff currencies must exist.

I can see in the future that they could add currency exchange but thats far off when the game has a small population to sustain such vast selection of maps and currencies.

It's to encourage people to play all areas of the game, instead of just farming whatever gives the most gold per hour and ignoring the rest of the game. And also to ensure that when a new map/expansion comes out players can just buy everything they want right away and then complain there's nothing to do.

But the situation you described - being unable to play with your friends because you need to grind the right currency for the weapon you need - shouldn't ever happen unless you're trying to join a hard-core elitist group doing raids or high level fractals and they're insisting on you having full ascended equipment before starting. The equipment system is designed to prevent exactly that.

There's only 6 tiers of equipment (common, fine, masterwork, rare, exotic and ascended/legendary) and all equipment within a tier has identical stats. An Exotic Beserker's Axe you earn for completing a collection in the latest expansion, or which drops from a boss at the end of a hard meta-event in the newest map will have absolutely identical stats to one crafted in the first year of the game. The only difference will be the skin (and even that may not be unique)/ So you only have to save up map currencies and work towards getting those harder to obtain weapons and armour if you want that skin, which makes absolutely no difference to gameplay.

There are some stat combinations which are unique to the expansions, and in some cases the easiest way to get those stats might be through buying them with map specific currency, but again you don't need them to be able to play any part of the game. It might be the best choice for your build, but the difference is never extreme enough that you can't play part of the game without them.

I think the problem is making a fair exchange. If they put in the exchange people will fuss endlessly that it is either too much or too little.

In some cases it's better to just leave things as they are.

@Danikat.8537 said:It's to encourage people to play all areas of the game, instead of just farming whatever gives the most gold per hour and ignoring the rest of the game.

Exactly so. The entire purpose of location-specific currencies is to bring people to those locations. Otherwise, ANet would have stuck with original system at launch: karma for characters, gold for accounts; (nearly) everything tradeable on the TP (including legendaries). It became clear early on that this wasn't good for the long-term health of the game.

@"yakuza snowdragon.4639" said:I've returned as per usual to GW2 because the games top tier, but it has IMO a major flaw I'd have expected to have been sorted years ago. Why is there know currency exchange? you can collect 20-30 different currencies in your wallet but 80% will just keep gathering pending on your current game goals and surrounding location, helping friends etc.We can exchange gold for gems and vice versa but apparently no Race/Faction in Tyria has any reason to exchange their currency for another?Its great having so many things to do in game but when you need to purchase something with a currency only obtained in specific areas or game modes eg' WvW, PvE, Fractals etc which perhaps you dont enjoy it is very frustrating having to drop what you enjoy in game because you have to go and grind somewhere for whatever it may be allows you to get the item or what have you thats needed?I have limited play time due to real life such as work etc etc and when I get a chance to play its rather stink I cant just go catch up and do runs with mates playing and socializing if i have personal goals im looking to achieve, Most things are account bound so its not like you can help or receive help from friends which leaves "i'll try come for a run tomorrow mate once i've grinded for the item or currency I need for my Weapon etc"Why cant I swap the 300 Trade contracts for 100 spirit shards instead of doing daily's for three shards a day? Wahoo now who doesn't like having their game time dictated as to where/what/when? Are we supposed to use the random currencies to purchase salvage bags and exotics or rare items?

Is it just me or did i not look properly for other posts regarding this topic?Thanks all and keep it constructive please :)

The different currencies are from accretion in game design. The layers of new design somewhat invalidate the economy/stockpiles of the old design. Currently you cannot exchange say...dungeon tokens (not that people do those anymore, amiright?) into WvW tokens.

You are right that there are not too many intuitive ways to exchange currencies. You're suppose to grind the next new thing by design. At least gold and gems were largely unaffected.

As others have pointed out, the lack of an exchange is a feature, not a bug. It allows ANet to tie specific purchasable rewards to specific content. Otherwise you would end up with everyone in whatever is deemed the 'best' farm map and the rest of the world being a ghost town.

It is made in order to force you to play and farm.Or else nobody would be here.

However, I do agree with you op.

There is actually some conversion. The ley energy converter in HoT lets you daily buy things with various HoT currencies. One option for each one, each day, is to convert 25 of one to 10 of another. Not exactly what you're asking for, I know.

But unless you have some need to have a currency-bought item now-now-now, just playing the game will have the currency accrue over time until you have enough for the thing you're seeking. You can weight your play towards the area of the game that generates said currency to speed it up.

@Donari.5237 said:There is actually some conversion. The ley energy converter in HoT lets you daily buy things with various HoT currencies. One option for each one, each day, is to convert 25 of one to 10 of another. Not exactly what you're asking for, I know.

But unless you have some need to have a currency-bought item now-now-now, just playing the game will have the currency accrue over time until you have enough for the thing you're seeking. You can weight your play towards the area of the game that generates said currency to speed it up.

There is also Heroic notes from WvW that allow you to buy a variety of PvE currency-specific rewards from the expansion.

And, in a round-about way, Reward Tracks.