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Thursday 29 September 2011

[GW2]The Flow of Gold

I don't know about you, but in Guild Wars recently I've become somewhat tight-fisted. My arms have most definitely become shorter whilst my pockets have become considerably deeper. I cling onto my coffers of platinum like a wizened old miser and am loathed to shell out for even a salvage kit or lockpick if I can really avoid it.

Currency is a necessary thing in online games, it adds "value" to items so that they might be traded for other items of equal "value". If a developer doesn't implement a currency system you could be damn sure that the player base would soon create one (Ectos being a perfect example). As time goes on and I set my sights higher and higher the monetary demands upon my bank become greater and greater. I know it's a long slog to attain the kind of wealth I'm going to need to buy the Party Animal title so every single penny which is wasted buying ID kits and salvage bags hurts like a bitch.

I'm hoping that Guild Wars 2 will engender a much more laid-back approach to accountancy in my playstyle. Rewards for dynamic events pop up in the corner, glow and glint for a bit and then disappear into your inventory. You could be ranging through the undergrowth and encounter 10 different events and complete them each (probably obtaining different levels of participation depending upon the effort you put in) and with each one completed the little notice would shine in the top right hand corner showing exp, karma, and coins earned. It seems so blasè:  
"Oh, those coins? Oh yeah, I got them for killing those undead or something. I dunno man, I was busy, I had a whole pack of kvedulf to deal with".

The money flows out just as easily; the travel costs a few coins here and there and I can't imagine it becoming an issue that it costs a little bit of dough to travel from one side of the map to the other.  
"But it's 1 silver and 36 copper, Marjorie! It's not the cost, it's the PRINCIPLE of the thing." 
 "Sigh, just pay the man, Arthur, christ - have you checked your account recently?"

I'm not saying that it's going to be very easy to make money in the game, just that I get the feeling that the flow of money will be far more dynamic with the introduction of the marketplace, minigames and minor monetary transactions for travel, mail etc. I'm sincerely hoping that in 5 years time, when GW3 is just on the horizon I'm not sitting on the wall at Lion's Arch saying:
"Nope, not getting down. No! Have you seen the price of the travel to Divinity's Reach? 2 SILVER! 2!! I've got a party title to fund, you know?"

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