What's a living wage in GW2?

[mythical.6315]

1 minute ago, Dante.1508 said:

If you say so. It must be right.

 

So you're saying that 90% of players in this game earn 300G per week?  Do you understand what 300G is in this game?  Do you know how many hours it would take to earn that much from the typical farms?

Edited May 22, 2022 by mythical.6315

[America.9437]

I just spent 20g for that Jackal in PoF and that is a lot of gold.  A lot.  I would expect at a minimum to make that gold back playing the content that the Jackal was designed to do.  There better be some good rewards behind them swirling sand things to justify throwing 20 gold at that mount.

 

But I really bought it because my spellbreaker dagger quest gave a hint that requires me to use it.  So i told myself I was really spending 20g for an ascended dagger and the jackal was a bonus.  20g for an ascended dagger is about what i paid for an ascended sword.  i paid that gold mainly because i was not gonna farm the low level materials.  this is my main gripe with ascended gear.  they force you to use the trading post(which is a scam) to buy t2-t5 mats or grind out those materials spending hundreds of hours doing so.  you cant casually play l80 content to craft ascended.  just not happening.

 

Making gold in this game doing open world content is one helluva hardcore grind.   I threw some $ at anet yesterday cause I really enjoy warrior and I like having the flexibility of changing my gear and builds on the fly between events.  So now i have a core, beserker, spellbreaker, and bladesworn gear/build sets I can switch to them without having to juggle my inventories too much.  But the day i have to turn $ into gold is the day I delete my toons and account and never look back.

 

I started in early March from a 7 year absence.  I started with 265 gold and am at 230g, so from that point of view Im losing.  I did craft 3 ascended weapons and a couple exotic sets.  plus that damned 20g Jackal was a kick to the my wallets groin.  they better fire up the gold minting presses and make em go brrrrrrrr if Im ever going to get that griffon flyer.

[GODh.3892]

20 minutes ago, America.9437 said:

I started in early March from a 7 year absence.  I started with 265 gold and am at 230g, so from that point of view Im losing.  I did craft 3 ascended weapons and a couple exotic sets.  plus that damned 20g Jackal was a kick to the my wallets groin.  they better fire up the gold minting presses and make em go brrrrrrrr if Im ever going to get that griffon flyer.

It always sucks when you have to spend money (especially when you feel that you are "poor"). But mounts are account bound, so you pay once and "enjoy" it forever. Even ascended armor/weapons/trinkets can be shared with other characters (but i do not advice that, because i hate all the swapping). But once your main character(s) have the stuff that you want, then you can building up some spare cash. Focus on the stuff that's important to you and you will be fine... as long you can afford to spend money on waypoints, then you don't have a real problem.

Edited May 22, 2022 by GODh.3892
typos

[America.9437]

1 minute ago, GODh.3892 said:

It always sucks when you have to spend money (especially when you feel that you are "poor"). But mounts are account bound, so you pay once and "enjoy" it forever. Even ascended armor/weapons/trinkets can be shared with other characters (but i do not advice that). But once your main character(s) have the stuff that you want, then you can building up some spare cash. Focus on the stuff that's important to you and you will be fine... as long you can afford to spend money on waypoints, then you don't have a real problem.

its nice that they are account bound.  but even so, i don't have the time to play other professions so the feature is somewhat moot.  im sure there are other ways to make lots of gold or acquire items faster but i do pretty much only story and open world content.  if i want an actual challenge i'll do a jumping puzzle; but yeah - no, those are prolly too challenging for my tastes.  i stay away from instanced content because i do not like competing for other peoples time.  if i want that, i'll walk out my front door and mill about with the rest of the manimals, irl.  the open world content and story is more than enough fun for me.  i enjoy doing that content.  i also like seeing people in their shiney outfits and skins and what not for variety.  i like seeing people with their legendaries and think that it would be cool to have one.  i'll never get one but its nice to see em.

[GODh.3892]

You are playing a MMO. Anet will always find ways that cost you (in game) money. And some stuff will always look cooler than other stuff (which is usually a matter of taste). But again: Focus on the stuff that's important to you and you will be fine... as long you can afford to spend money on waypoints, then you don't have a real problem.

[Majirah.5089]

I always deposit all the mats I earn no matter what content I do. Then I sell unidentified gear, junk, and get coin from opening loot bags and chest. So I end up with probably 5-10g after a play session using sell now prices on the trading post. I don’t really ever quantify how much “gold” I’m depositing in the mat storage. So my real earning could be a fair amount higher.

[Danikat.8537]

I don't think I've ever made 300g in one week, and I've certainly enjoyed playing. 

Also I agree that some people in this thread seem to be missing the point. A living wage is the minimum needed to get by, in real life it would be the average cost of rent or a mortgage for a place with enough space for your family, plus food, electricity, water and other bills, occasional clothing purchases etc - the things you cannot go without buying. It's usually well below the average wage in a country (but also above the legal minimum wage). 

So a GW2 equivalent is the cost of the things you cannot reasonably keep playing without buying. Not one-off purchases or optional upgrades like ascended armour, things where if you couldn't buy them you'd struggle to find anything in the game you could do. Like buying salvage kits (or paying to use the infinite ones) or waypoint fees and TP taxes. 

Just like in real life its not what the average player gets in a day or a week, that's likely to be considerably higher. 

The comparison doesn't quite work because it depends on how much time you spend playing (whereas everyone is alive for the same amount of time and can't just skip days they can't afford) and people who get less gold are also likely to spend less time online and so have fewer costs. 

But if you want an answer for yourself think about what you NEED to pay for when playing, not how much you like to farm in a week or what your current goal is. If you tried to spend no gold at all for a week what things would you have to make an exception for because not paying for it is more trouble than its worth?

Edited May 22, 2022 by Danikat.8537

[Gehenna.3625]

7 hours ago, mythical.6315 said:

No it's not.  I wouldn't be shocked if 90% of the players in this game don't even make anywhere near that much per week.  You really need to understand what a living wage is.

Yeah it all depends on what you do and what your habits are. The person who said that 300g per week if you craft ascended a lot is like making one character fully ascended per week. But what is a lot? 

I agree that most players don't have that kind of income. People tend to overexaggerate fractals as it is, in the sense of how many players do them. With the changes to rewards of fractals (taking out mystic coins) there was a blog or post that stated (if I remember right) that over 90% of mystic coins came from the log in rewards and not from fractals, for example.

This is the problem with anecdotal evidence because you look at what happens around you and think: hey, many people are here. But that's because you are in a place where there's a lot of that going on. But that's not a reflection of the entire player base. So when you see numbers like that, it's a reminder that most people never do fractals because otherwise the percentage of mystic coins would be much more significant.

Most players don't have 300 gold to begin with, let alone 300g per week. All my 18 characters have ascended gear, but I don't make 300g per week. So do I craft ascended gear a lot or not?

It comes down to what you do in this game and what you're used to. But the higher standard you have, the more you should realize that it's not that common to have that kind of income.

Edited May 22, 2022 by Gehenna.3625