Gempocalypse (Idea)

With the news around the layoffs being unanimously disappointing to both Anet Emplyees and Fans alike.. I'm just wondering if there's anything we fans can do to maybe help Anet and the developers who are facing termination..

First thing that came to mind was trying to start a mass purchase of Gems by rallying my fellow Gw2 players and asking them to buy some gems to support the game if they can, but frankly I have no idea how much of that money actually goes to Anet nor how much it would actually help.. nor if it would really help at all.

I'm a collectors owner of Gw2 and an Ultimate owner of both expansions as well as a fairly active Gem buyer when there are things in the store I want.. and I've bought both the expansions for a friend as well so I'd like to think i've put a great deal of both money and time into this game since it was released and i'd like to continue doing so on my own free will.

I'm more than happy to buy some Gems right now despite nothing I really want in the store atm just to show Anet and NCSoft that I stand by Gw2 and the Developers who make this amazing game.. and I know there are many in this community who would gladly do the same.But i have no idea if us doing this would actually help.. or if we'd just be throwing money away when there's a better alternative.

I dunno.. I just wanted to share a thought..I love this game and I feel that Gw2 is one of those rare games that is made out of passion and love more than anything else by exceptional people who also love this game and love making it.So long as Gw2 remains a mandatory subfee free game (which I assume it will) I for one will continue to support it and will always splash out on those ultimate edition expansions when they release.

Are they earning money only when buying gems with real money? I was wondering if converting gold -> gems then buy something with them currently give Anet money or not? I've spent several gems with only gold -> gem, apart shrine jackal with RL money. Does it means gold -> gems then using gems isn't supporting them?

@hugo.4705 said:Are they earning money only when buying gems with real money? I was wondering if converting gold -> gems then buy something with them currently give Anet money or not? I've spent several gems with only gold -> gem, apart shrine jackal with RL money. Does it means gold -> gems then using gems isn't supporting them?

I assume they only get money when people buy gems with money but I have no idea how that system actually works.. or where the money goes.I recall someone telling me a while ago there is another company involved that takes a cut of gem purchases but my knowledge/understanding on this kind of stuff is extremely limited hence my uncertainty whether this idea would even be that helpful even if it was successful and thousands of players went and bought gems.

The employees that were laid off were primarily working on non-guild wars projects. Buying gems won't bring them back since it won't be their work earning the company money.

I wish they would make music CDs for the soundtracks. I already have the HoT and PoF albums in mp3, but I can't find the original Tyria one, and none of the three are on CD

@Tzarakiel.7490 said:The employees that were laid off were primarily working on non-guild wars projects

Someone on Reddit said they were originally working on GW2, and were moved to other projects later

@Jura.2170 said:I wish they would make music CDs for the soundtracks. I already have the HoT and PoF albums in mp3, but I can't find the original Tyria one, and none of the three are on CD

There was a soundtrack CD with the original Collectors edition.

@Jura.2170 said:

@Tzarakiel.7490 said:The employees that were laid off were primarily working on non-guild wars projects

I heard something similar and also backwards.. devs working on other projects which were cancelled then they moved to Gw2..I'm not sure which information is accurate tbh.. which tends to be why I prefer Anet come forward and give us the details themselves.

@hugo.4705 said:Are they earning money only when buying gems with real money? I was wondering if converting gold -> gems then buy something with them currently give Anet money or not? I've spent several gems with only gold -> gem, apart shrine jackal with RL money. Does it means gold -> gems then using gems isn't supporting them?

Of course they only earn money when people spend real money on gems. So no, converting gold to gems isn't really supporting them. It's quite the opposite because you avoid spending real money. In short, buying gems with real money and buying expansions, that's how this game makes money.

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@hugo.4705 said:Are they earning money only when buying gems with real money? I was wondering if converting gold -> gems then buy something with them currently give Anet money or not? I've spent several gems with only gold -> gem, apart shrine jackal with RL money. Does it means gold -> gems then using gems isn't supporting them?

oh oki but then where your spent gems are going then? It just disappear into the void? :o :/

Side-note: I saw on for fans by fans they have classes/specs icons pins, could be cool to have asuran colleges pins too.

@hugo.4705 said:

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@hugo.4705 said:Are they earning money only when buying gems with real money? I was wondering if converting gold -> gems then buy something with them currently give Anet money or not? I've spent several gems with only gold -> gem, apart shrine jackal with RL money. Does it means gold -> gems then using gems isn't supporting them?

Of course. They are a fake currency. In the end they don't really exist. The main reason why cash shops in games have such currencies is to trick people into spending more. You might think twice when spending 20 dollars or euros on a mount skin but once you bought the gems you no longer have that cause it's gems you're spending and not real cash anymore.

GW2 is a bit unique in the point that they have a conversion between gems and gold. This is mostly to appease people because you can buy stuff with gold and not have to spend real money. One big criticism of micro-transactions is that people are more or less forced to buy them because they have to spend real money on them. This way they can say that you can do it with in game currency as well. Of course, if you don't have the time to play 10 hours a day and don't enjoy farming all day, the gold that you make and spend on things like the 200 gold for the griffon mount and a lot of stuff costing some gold most people cannot effectively buy everything they want from the gem store with gold unless they stop doing stuff in game that they are working towards like legendary stuff etc. So in the end a lot of people are pushed into buying gems just the same. It's a common practice but make no mistake, companies have little qualms about tricking you into spending more.

There are indications that ANet is not suffering from a lack of income but from the fact that they chose to spend a lot of the income generated by GW2 on the development of other games that never saw the light of day while at the same time draining resources from the game that generated that income in the first place (GW2).If that makes you want to give them more money in the form of buying gems is up to you.

When you convert gold to gems you are buying gems someone else purchased with real money. Behind every gem you get through conversion there is real money someone spent to originally get that gem.

So by purchasing gems with in game gold you are at least partially stimulating people who do spend real money on gems to get more of them.

The layoffs are unrelated to gw2.

@kasoki.5180 said:When you convert gold to gems you are buying gems someone else purchased with real money. Behind every gem you get through conversion there is real money someone spent to originally get that gem.

So by purchasing gems with in game gold you are at least partially stimulating people who do spend real money on gems to get more of them.That's illusory though. What this system does is essentially a giant gold sink. That part is actually quite clever. But do you really think that if people stopped buying gems with gold that they will stop selling gold for gems?

@hugo.4705 said:Are they earning money only when buying gems with real money? I was wondering if converting gold -> gems then buy something with them currently give Anet money or not? I've spent several gems with only gold -> gem, apart shrine jackal with RL money. Does it means gold -> gems then using gems isn't supporting them?

Yes, they only get cash when they're paid cash. However, I haven't heard anything to make me think that they're financially hurting or that the game is in any danger.

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@kasoki.5180 said:When you convert gold to gems you are buying gems someone else purchased with real money. Behind every gem you get through conversion there is real money someone spent to originally get that gem.

So by purchasing gems with in game gold you are at least partially stimulating people who do spend real money on gems to get more of them.That's illusory though. What this system does is essentially a giant gold sink. That part is actually quite clever. But do you really think that if people stopped buying gems with gold that they will stop selling gold for gems?

I'm not sure what does your question have to do with anything, Gems that you buy on the exchange store with in game gold are gems that someone previously bought with real money.

Also buying X for Y is the same interaction as selling Y for X.

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@"kasoki.5180" said:When you convert gold to gems you are buying gems someone else purchased with real money. Behind every gem you get through conversion there is real money someone spent to originally get that gem.

So by purchasing gems with in game gold you are at least partially stimulating people who do spend real money on gems to get more of them.That's illusory though. What this system does is essentially a giant gold sink. That part is actually quite clever. But do you really think that if people stopped buying gems with gold that they will stop selling gold for gems?

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Currency_exchange

From the resource provided in the wiki:

To be clear. The exchange has a supply of both Gems and Gold. When you trade to the exchange you influence the supply of each. The exchange rate is relative to current supply of each. The price changes geometrically as one pool empties creating a better exchange rate for the low supplied currency. For this reason it's VERY difficult for the exchange to run out of currency.

• John Smith (Former head of analytics and in charge of the GW2 in-game economy until April 2017)

So yes, essentially the exchange will run out of gems, and the last few gems will be exchanged at exorbitant gold prices.

Every single gem in GW2 is bought with real money with following exceptions:

• gems gained via achievements
• gems purchased at a rebate

So yes, in theory purchasing gems on the exchange would cause the gem-gold value to change favorably towards gaining more gold per gem, which in turn would stimulate people to purchase gems and exchange them for gold bringing the price back down and netting Arenanet revenue.

@Teratus.2859 said:

@Jura.2170 said:I wish they would make music CDs for the soundtracks. I already have the HoT and PoF albums in mp3, but I can't find the original Tyria one, and none of the three are on CD

They shouldn't have made it Collectors only. They should have sold it on Amazon by itself

@Jura.2170 said:

@Teratus.2859 said:

@Jura.2170 said:I wish they would make music CDs for the soundtracks. I already have the HoT and PoF albums in mp3, but I can't find the original Tyria one, and none of the three are on CD

The soundtrack that came with the CE was maybe 10 minutes long if that. It was a tiny sampler. The full set of tracks was in the disastrous DirectSong release, a 4 CD set that shipped late if at all and people that never got it got a horrible runaround from DirectSong customer "service" and never got their money back. At least it was cheap, 20 bucks or so for 4 cds in a custom folding cover hand signed by the composer.

Anyway, as to the OP -- your heart is in the right place but the money losses seem not to be related to GW2 itself. And even if they were, a one-time spike in gem purchases wouldn't alter their corporate big picture, even if the spike were large. Sorry :(

@"Donari.5237" said:The full set of tracks was in the disastrous DirectSong release, a 4 CD set that shipped late if at all and people that never got it got a horrible runaround from DirectSong customer "service" and never got their money back. At least it was cheap, 20 bucks or so for 4 cds in a custom folding cover hand signed by the composer.

I wish Anet would make a new CD set

and sell the mp3s as well

@Jura.2170 said:

@"Donari.5237" said:The full set of tracks was in the disastrous DirectSong release, a 4 CD set that shipped late if at all and people that never got it got a horrible runaround from DirectSong customer "service" and never got their money back. At least it was cheap, 20 bucks or so for 4 cds in a custom folding cover hand signed by the composer.

That they can't do, Soule retains rights to that music. They could do a CD of the HoT and PoF and other such tracks though, and I wish they would. I was so sad when the HoT tracks came out -- on vinyl. With digital copies available. I grew up with vinyl and have no regrets about its loss. What's next, a craze for hand cranked gramophones?

A CD set of their newer music though, that I would buy in a heartbeat. The more and higher quality merchandise we can get GW2 related, the better (none of these flimsy skimpy t shirts that shrink a full size in one normal washing and lose their art into a vague smudge ... yeah I'm a tad bitter ... ). Heck, a lot of hit movies have made hugely more profit off the merchandising than the film itself, why not GW2? Then, ideally, NCSoft would see it as a real breadwinner, and encourage the game to get ever better so as to incentivize people to buy physical merchandise associated with it, which in turn gets its logos and images more in the public eye. That could, properly managed and with an eye to quality, do a lot more than etherial gem purchasing spikes.

@Donari.5237 said:Anyway, as to the OP -- your heart is in the right place but the money losses seem not to be related to GW2 itself. And even if they were, a one-time spike in gem purchases wouldn't alter their corporate big picture, even if the spike were large. Sorry :(@Jura.2170 said:

@Donari.5237 said:The full set of tracks was in the disastrous DirectSong release, a 4 CD set that shipped late if at all and people that never got it got a horrible runaround from DirectSong customer "service" and never got their money back. At least it was cheap, 20 bucks or so for 4 cds in a custom folding cover hand signed by the composer.

I would buy that :)

Specially if it had the Heart of Thorns theme which is my personal favorite track in/was in the game.. also Maclaine Diemer's creepy version of Fear not this Night which is outstanding ^^

@Cyninja.2954 said:

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@"kasoki.5180" said:When you convert gold to gems you are buying gems someone else purchased with real money. Behind every gem you get through conversion there is real money someone spent to originally get that gem.

So by purchasing gems with in game gold you are at least partially stimulating people who do spend real money on gems to get more of them.That's illusory though. What this system does is essentially a giant gold sink. That part is actually quite clever. But do you really think that if people stopped buying gems with gold that they will stop selling gold for gems?

To be clear. The exchange has a supply of both Gems and Gold. When you trade to the exchange you influence the supply of each. The exchange rate is relative to current supply of each. The price changes geometrically as one pool empties creating a better exchange rate for the low supplied currency. For this reason it's VERY difficult for the exchange to run out of currency.

• John Smith (Former head of analytics and in charge of the GW2 in-game economy until April 2017)

• gems gained via achievements
• gems purchased at a rebate

I know that but it doesn't change the fact that the gems are bought with real life money. I didn't want to go into the complexity of the system because it's done quite cleverly but in no way does it change the fact that only buying gems generates cash. They had to do something with buying gold with gems because otherwise it would be an unlimited supply on top of the other generators of gold in game resulting in a lot of inflation. You see gold sellers such as they are sell gold that comes from the game. They sell them illegally but they do not create gold out of nowhere, it's generally done by scripted farming or people farming all day in cheap labour countries. All nefarious practices but the gold is still generated in game. So for them to introduce a way to stop the inflation of new gold being introduced into the economy they can do it in different ways. They chose this way which I think is a clever way because it does give multiple advantages but they could also simply have slightly raised existing gold sinks and let a part of that tax be the gold that people can buy. That would mean that buying stuff from vendors, waypoints and TP transactions would provide the gold.

It's an ingenious system as such but it still is a design choice that gives certain benefits but do not think that by buying gems with gold you are really supporting gem sales. I also don't believe for one second that it's a free market that is purely subject to supply and demand. Their algorithms surely have thresholds and buffers. It is way more expensive to get gems with gold than gold with gems for example. It's not even close. That should tell you something.

In other words if no one bought gems with gold, they still will allow people to buy gold with gems but then would balance the game's economy differently. That's why it's illusory because it also serves other purposes than just provide gold for gem buyers and is not required. It's an artificial construct that gives people the feeling they contribute perhaps but it's illusory because it could work just fine without it. The important part is that the gold bought with gems comes from the existing economy and is not added on top of it to combat inflation and it can be done without the exchange. If you want to support ArenaNet financially buy the gems don't think that you're supporting them financially by buying them with gold. And as for the OP's idea, it's not going to help much to do a fund raiser like this. They need a steady income month after month. And since they reorganization has been decided it's too late to change that. So feel free to support them but I do not see how this would turns things around.

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@Cyninja.2954 said:

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@"kasoki.5180" said:When you convert gold to gems you are buying gems someone else purchased with real money. Behind every gem you get through conversion there is real money someone spent to originally get that gem.

So by purchasing gems with in game gold you are at least partially stimulating people who do spend real money on gems to get more of them.That's illusory though. What this system does is essentially a giant gold sink. That part is actually quite clever. But do you really think that if people stopped buying gems with gold that they will stop selling gold for gems?

To be clear. The exchange has a supply of both Gems and Gold. When you trade to the exchange you influence the supply of each. The exchange rate is relative to current supply of each. The price changes geometrically as one pool empties creating a better exchange rate for the low supplied currency. For this reason it's VERY difficult for the exchange to run out of currency.

• John Smith (Former head of analytics and in charge of the GW2 in-game economy until April 2017)

• gems gained via achievements
• gems purchased at a rebate

Okay, let me rephrase this based on how this system works:

Any gem used or owned in the game except for the 2 aforementioned exceptions is real money bought.

The gems exchanged via gold are simply a lot more expensive gold wise on the games economy (which is a benefit of its own).