Slashdot Mirror
ArenaNet Suspends Digital Sales of Guild Wars 2
kungfugleek writes "Throughout the launch of subscription-free MMO Guild Wars 2, ArenaNet has stated that the player-experience is their top priority and, if necessary, they would suspend digital sales to protect their servers from crushing loads. While the launch has been considerably more stable than most big-budget MMO's in recent months, some players, especially those in Europe, have experienced trouble logging in and getting booted from servers. So yesterday, ArenaNet held true to their word, and temporarily suspended digital sales from their website. Personally, I think this is an incredible show of customer-centered focus. To turn down purchases, especially first-party purchases, where the seller gets a higher percentage of the sale, during a major title's first week of sales, would be inconceivable by other companies. Is this a bad move for ArenaNet? Will there be enough of a long-term payout to make up for the lost sales? And does this put pressure on other major studios to follow suit in the face of overwhelming customer response?"
New submitter charlieman writes with related news: "Yesterday ArenaNet banned players for exploiting an error in their new game Guild Wars 2. The so called exploit was in fact an error on ArenaNet's side, leaving weapons at a low price from some vendors. Players saw this and started making profits buying and selling the items.
Should players be penalized for errors committed by the game developers? Taking in account that the game is fairly new, the economy hasn't stabilized yet and most don't know the value of things. Today they've given these players a 'second chance', but shouldn't they be apologizing instead?"
After a very cursory and unscientific perusal of the comments on reddit and slashdot, I find it interesting that (in general) slashdotters seem to more supportive of the banning of people who exploited the bug, while redditors seem to think that ArenaNet acted too harshly.
LegendMUD
WTF is with these "economies" in video games? People can't even set up a properly working, stable economy in the real world due to greed, corruption, and outright stupidity. If thieves like Goldman Sachs are allowed to cheat and get away with it to the tune of billions of "real" dollars, who the fuck cares if someone makes a few extra gold coins in a fucking video game?
Except that in this case, the refiner was selling it for one currency, and would buy it from you for another currency. So you couldn't repeat the process indefinitely, instead, it served as a means to convert your one currency that you find useless (it is, totally useless) into something more valuable (the currency used on the auction house). It's not clear that this was unintended on ArenaNet's part, and it's not clear, if intended, what the exchange rate should be. We don't know what karma is meant to be worth, but we do notice that karma is massively abundant while gold is enormously difficult to obtain especially considering the gold sinks in this game are ENORMOUS compared to how much gold you obtain actually playing the game.
So much so, trying to complete bugged (overtuned, broken) dungeons bankrupts you in repair costs. Teleporting at 80 on the same map costs 1 and a half silver. Teleporting across the world at 80 costs 3 silver. Repairing your gear costs a silver and a half PER PIECE. Most group-based events at 80 give 2-3 silver and can take as much as 20 minutes to complete, while having a modest probability of killing you. Monster density in higher level zones are such that it's very dangerous to solo because in the course of fighting one mob, you might pull more and die, and the mobs are often ranged or VERY fast so you can't just kite them like in lower zones. And drops sell from 80b to 1s40b. Few people have more than a few gold after playing for over a hundred hours, and 80 items from the vendors cost 20-30 gold EACH, and upgrading things in WvW can cost over 50s, and conquering the castle only gives you 2s (but something like 40000 experience and 1200 karma)!
With how easy it is to buy karma gear, it seems that it should be relatively easy, as well, to buy currency gear. Part of this issue is that the AH hasn't been up, so people have TONS of stuff they need to sell but can't, so currency can't accumulate in those who take higher risks. The other part is that the sinks are WAY too expensive. Especially considering dying in this game is a double-sink. An item becomes damaged (1s50b) AND you have to teleport to a waypoint to revive (another 1s50b). So you're out 3s every time you die except in WvW or in a dungeon. Pretty fucking awesome, isn't it? At this point, we're being discouraged from actually playing the game. So finding a way to dump karma and gain currency is a clear victory: it solves the issue of having massive quantities of a useless currency and makes the game playable and enjoyable without worrying that you're broke and therefore must spend 3 hours running through maps or wait for someone to come resurrect you because you died to an overtuned mob (despite having AMAZING gear) and can't teleport to the waypoint. Electric vehicles have range anxiety. GW2 play has gold anxiety. You need it to play the game and enjoy it comfortably. Yet it's UNFUCKINGOBTAINIUM in-game. So it wasn't clear at all that this wasn't the intended method to obtain gold at a reasonable rate.
To correct your analogy, the merchant you found is from a planet where unobtainium is relatively common (they have over five trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion tons of it, for chrissake, they need to get rid of it!). But to them, your currency is rare and they really want it, so they're willing to buy things from you with their cheap unobtainium but will only sell it back to you for your currency. And likewise, on your planet, your currency is unbelievably common, so common in fact it's useless to you (much like the merchant's unobtanium). So much so that you can't actually buy anything of value to you with it. Nothing. It's utterly fucking useless. Why it even exists in this universe, you have no clue. So you find a merchant that will trade you this worthless substance for something you actually want! WOOT! But when you actually do that, God (ArenaNet) peeks through the veil and says "LOL MOTHERFUCKER, GOTCHA" and then smites you down in the form of a permanent ban, and then sends that vendor 500,000,000,000 lightyears away to a part of the universe light hasn't reached yet as a punishment for trading with you.
Sounds reasonable, doesn't it?