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Buying physical items with ingame gems ...
Voiidiin
Member Posts: 817
in Guild Wars 2
So i was reading about how nVidia is teaming up with CCP/EvE to sell video cards for PLEX (EvE equivalent to Gems).
I think this is really fascinating as it actually puts a real world value on an ingame currency. So i guess i am curious if others think this is going to far in the wrong direction or if this is the begining of something good for players.
Kinda scary thinking you could at some point make money from playing a game without some illegal aspect involved.
Do you think that we might see this happen with GW2 ? If so will it be a bad thing ?
Lolipops !
Comments
I think it would be cool to buy t-shirts and stuff with gems... but... then again I would never pay gold for gems i'd just use real money and so i'd just be buying it @_@ .... nm.
If you could convert gems into something worthwhile the gold price would rocket.
Hmm but you cannot gain a real world monetary gain legally.
You can buy gemsbut you cannot legally sell them for real world currency. It does not go both ways.
Lolipops !
Not only that, but you'll have the physical items setting a base value for gems. People won't spend the equivalent of $200 of gems on a T-shirt, so you'd wind up restricting the range gems can be priced at.
Oderint, dum metuant.
No thank you. There should be no tangible goods you can buy with a GW2 virtual currency. That there is no direct way to trade gems for cash or anything else physical is very important for the system to work.
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
Interesting. I'll bet they'll be at inflated prices, though, in order to make it worthwhile for CCP to buy back their PLEX. For example (to make up some numbers), get a GeForce GTX 550 Ti for $225 in PLEX (roughly double what the card is worth), then Nvidia trades CCP the PLEX for $150. So CCP gets paid $225 in PLEX up front, then pays $150 to buy it back. Meanwhile, Nvidia still gets $150 for a ~$110 card.
This would be a bad idea. A video card can be sold by the consumer at or just under the MSRP. This would indirectly give monetary value to gold, as permitted by ArenaNet. In other words, it's a loophole that allows you to sell gold for real money without getting banned.
While I won't deny that goldsellers will exist, the average player will have little incentive to farm gold for gems unless he wants something in the gem store or just wants to store his gold as gems in case of inflation. It's a bad idea to give a player a way to "cash out" his gems. It creates a different environment and puts pressure on the player to play the game in a way opposed to "fun" in order to maximize real world profits.
"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." -Dr. Seuss
I'm actually concerned about the hybrid nature of the gold currency in GW2 as it has been planned and showed.
Because selling gems for gold means that the gold currency will be always partially real money, even for a player who didn't touched the shop once in his life.
Is like playing poker or black jack... because indeed is a game with some real money, even if you are just shooting fireballs at goblins... and then, having to do do with money, will it be a money-game or a job?
Also the in-game economy will be partially influenced by the real local economy pertinent to the local server, thus e.g. in a european server, will a player from greece/italy/spain/pourtugal feel the weakness of its economy partially reflected in his in game transactions, if compared to a player from scandinavia/germany/uk? i'm wondering.
This real/virtual blurry boundary the gold currency will have in game is a little creepy.
I never played Eve, but if it is similar to that one planned for gw2, so are my thoughts on the nature of its economy.
Have to be very careful. There are a lot of laws involved here. Money laundering. gambling.
There is no telling what could happen. It's why D3 will not have RMT in Korea.
Besides it's nothing new. The same gold farmers who sell gold, buy it.
Also, read up on this game.
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/31/Entropia-Universe.html
No gold is not partially real world money, in fact gems are not real world money either.
Once gems have been purchased their value ceases to exist monetarily. You cannot use them in any real world transaction, well not legitimate ones anyways. You do not have to report your gems or your gold to the government as income or savings.
This is not Diablo 3, you cannot sell items for cash.
This concern is lessened significantly because gems cannot be sold for real money. It's a one way transaction, and so gems have no cash value. They can only be used to buy virtual goods in GW2.
"Cashing out" requires the use of (shady) third-party services and can get you permanently banned.
This is why I think the purchase of physical items with gems should never be allowed.
"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." -Dr. Seuss
I think its great now I can finally get a gtx 680 by playing a game for 6+ months that I will enjoy and saving up gold to buy gems
why not?
Gameplay wise and option wise for players a good thing and I am intrigued from a theorycrafting thought exercise angle, but overall I think its a terrible idea.
There is already debate if in-game currency and items are assets and property. At what point will it be treated as income and therefore taxed by governments?
Uhh... what?
