Speculations on Guild Wars 2 Economy: Part 2

Blank Slate

What drives the current GW economy can be summed up in one word: style. The more awesome something looks the more it's worth. The same goes for rarity, if it's hard to get it's expensive whether or not it's any good. So naturally this mentality will continue on into the next game. But at the start you're not that likely to find anything extra rare or that looks specifically amazing. Take that along with the pseudo-heirloom gear you can get from your accomplishments in the previous GW series, there won't be much of a market for any of this at all for some time. So with that there won't be any semblance of the original economy even though most of the player base will be used to it and likely still participating in the original one.

But since there's no money in the economy of any significance why bother thinking about this now?

Simple, there's a need for cash. Always is. Your skill ups won't be free, new leveling gear isn't free. Any upgrades you want for an exceptionally powerful piece for the level range aren't free either. And of course, raw materials for crafting won't be free either. So there's still plenty of opportunities to start your business empire early. You provide for people who have the same needs as you: get to max level in style and power. Granted since I've been looking forward to this game for a while I won't be spending all of my focus on the gold like I was before I stopped playing wow. But I'll always have my eye out.

Starting out in a completely even financial playing field doesn't make things as difficult as you may think. It's the same as starting with zero gold in wow. It all comes from somewhere just like the raw materials. You get drops here and there, some get vendored and others used from crafting. You use a gathering profession while leveling (which should be a no brainer for you all by now) and you begin to collect your seed money. That's my plan at least. Like I stated many time in my "From the ground up" entries, you have to have a good eye for what can be sold and what should be vendored.

So far the announced professions are mining, herbalism, and tailoring. It has also been stated that there will be an in-combat consumable similar to your basic wow mana potion. In GW players have a large 'energy' pool but slow regen to make you manage it. From that, we can safely assume that there will also be black smithing, alchemy of sorts, and a way to gather cloth for tailoring. Although the cloth is likely to be the same as wow and is just a standard world drop. With tailoring you will be able to create things called Crests which, in a nut shell, give the gear you're wearing a set bonus. That's so that if you love the set bonus of rogue T8 but hate the looks compared to t10 there's no problem, you keep the set bonus stats and the looks. Pretty nifty imo.

There will also be something called transmutation stones which allow you to combine the looks of different armor sets to make your own unique look. They will be available in the game store for real $ but will be found in game as well. These things will be near worthless at the beginning due to the rapidly changing gear, just like any gear modification usually is, but will be priceless later on.

That's all for today. Tomorrow I'll be going over a number of things that may or may not have a very profound effect on the economy and making money in general.


Thanks for stopping by!