Curse

Entreri · Aug 04, 2007, 01:11 AM // 01:11

Please read through the whole plan. If you don't like it, please give specific reasons as to why something is bad.

If you plan to reply with something like 'No, that sux', please do us both a favor and punch yourself in the balls. Then look at the sentence above about giving specific reasons for your opinion before writing that reply.

Step 1
A new numeric value is added to each account (not per char, per account). This value is incremented whenever you receive gold from a gold drop or when you pick up an item from the ground (increased by the merchant value). Any items you dispose of (drop in the trashcan in inventory) decreases this amount by the merchant value of the item.

The value above is divided by a time spent value to calculate a ratio. Time spent is the number of days since this change is implemented or the age of your account, whichever is smaller.

If your ratio exceeds a certain amount, say 30,000, you can no longer pick up items or gold from the ground and are not included in the party for gold splits. The player is given a message when they are close to this limit and when they hit the limit... like how balthazar faction works.

Why?

This step limits the amount of gold that can go into the economy per day to a certain amount per account. Bots will be the main accounts affected. A bot can farm non stop 24/7. If this was implemented then bots would hit this limit in a few hours and then wouldn't be able to further profit until the next day. If a bot hits this limit after 4 hours then we have cut the effectiveness of running a bot to 1/6th of what it is today.

Casual gamers should never hit this ratio ever. People who do mad farming could hit this limit, but it's a ratio so as long as they don't do hardcore farming (4 hours+) every day they also won't get affected. If they do hardcore farming every day, they still have the option of disposing drops they don't want in the trash to reduce their ratio and continue to be able to pick up drops.

Inflation in the game is reduced so every gold piece your character gets is effectively worth more. Players win, bots and gold farmers lose. Dropping the effectiveness of automated farming is absolutely necessary for the next steps.

Step 2

A new item is added to the online store. Gift cards. They're digital and can only be used to purchase things from the online store. These can be bought in $1 increments. New accounts can't be purchased with gift cards, only upgrades to accounts. Importantly, these are also stackable items in game. Like other items they can be traded. To prevent issues, gift cards can't be dropped or disposed of via the trash can.

Why?

This step is used to improve sales and profits for Anet/NCSoft. The idea is that now there is an option for players to trade gift cards for in game gold if they desire. Anet makes all the profit from this, they're basically prepaid for purchases. No additional gold is introduced into the economy so inflation isn't introduced and other players aren't adversely affected.

Third party gold selling companies want cash, not upgrades for their accounts. So they have no reason to take advantage of this to obtain cards. Since players are setting the price, the system is self moderating and players have incentive to undercut whatever the third party gold sellers current price is.

Step 3

Add a trader to common trading areas like Lions Arch that works like other traders but buys/sells gift cards.

Why?

The valid option of trading gift cards for gold is made more convenient than purchasing gold from a third party company. The general price people are willing to trade cards for is known, which cuts down on people spamming unreasonable prices for gift cards. People still have an advantage to trade directly since there's like a 20% spread between trader buy and sell prices. If people use the trader, gold is removed from the economy via that gold sink.

Step 4

Profits are increased for Anet through increased sales from gift cards. Anet/NCSoft puts this extra cash where it's needed, development of additional content between GW:EN and GW2. The goal is fast releases and reasonable prices for said expansions. Anet/NCSoft has more stuff to sell that wouldn't exist otherwise and the cycle of profit continues.

Step 4 is where the players get the most benefit out of this idea. We get new content and the new content should be priced reasonably since the development costs were paid by money from the tapped value of gold trading that currently goes to other companies.

It would be even better if these added profits could be used to speed up GW2 but it's harder to see if you're really getting results if you're just adding money to an existing project.

Everybody wins (except gold farming companies). The end.

holababe · Aug 04, 2007, 05:54 AM // 05:54

I like the concept of adding gift cards that are purchasable via ingame gold. I don't have a credit card and therefore cannot buy character slots/upgrades.

The Lurch · Aug 04, 2007, 06:06 AM // 06:06

Sounds like you can purchase gift cards ingame, which makes no sense. If you can purchase them ingame, why would anyone pay real money for them?

Other then that, the whole money-limit thing sounds great

/signed

Entreri · Aug 04, 2007, 08:45 AM // 08:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Lurch

Sounds like you can purchase gift cards ingame, which makes no sense. If you can purchase them ingame, why would anyone pay real money for them?

Every gift card which will exist will be initially purchased with real money from the online store and for a set price. Anet always gets paid with real money.

People will be able to purchase them in game but only if someone who owns gift cards is willing to trade them for gold or items. The price would fluctuate at first, but a certain 'fair' equilibrium price would be reached between gift cards and in game gold where people are willing to trade in both directions.

People would still pay money for gift cards even if you could purchase them in game for all the reasons people purchase gold from third party companies now. They now have an alternative where they don't have to worry about getting ripped off from a sketchy company and don't have to worry about violating their EULA.

All the profit goes to Anet/NCSoft instead of to an outside company and the suggested checks prevent a ton of new money flooding into the in game economy and causing problems for the average player.

sykoone · Aug 04, 2007, 11:49 AM // 11:49

So basically, this is just a roundabout way to buy in-game gold with real money. Right? And since this, couple with the gold-limit idea, would effectively cut the amount of gold the bot companies farm and sell, it would raise the blackmarket price of gold. Then, with this inflated price, you $1 gift cards to people for their gold.
Sounds like a bad idea to me.

Entreri · Aug 04, 2007, 12:36 PM // 12:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by sykoone

So basically, this is just a roundabout way to buy in-game gold with real money. Right?.

Remove 'just' and replace 'roundabout way' with 'way that helps Anet stay profitable and avoids adverse effects for other players' and you're pretty on target.

Also, don't forget that currently there's a direct way to buy in-game gold with real money that enough people use to make it a profitable business. And that way does have adverse side effects for other players. Ignoring this is burying your head in the sand.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sykoone

And since this, couple with the gold-limit idea, would effectively cut the amount of gold the bot companies farm and sell, it would raise the blackmarket price of gold.

Step 1 by itself would do this because bot companies are still the only game in town.

Step 1 + Step 2 moves this existing market to trading between players which is intended to undercut bot companies and make it unprofitable for them to operate.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sykoone

Then, with this inflated price, you $1 gift cards to people for their gold.

I don't understand this sentence.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sykoone

Sounds like a bad idea to me.

Here's the part where you say '... because' and give reasons why you think it's a bad idea. (or punch yourself in the balls as suggested in the first post)

Keep in mind that this idea gives Anet a revenue stream to potentially add extra game content nobody is ever going to see otherwise (see step 4). Your 'bad' should outweigh this 'good'.