A few turns of the moon ago I wrote about Guild Wars 2 having structured PvP (“sPvPâ€) as an insulated game separate from the first game. This last update has made one slight (from a gamer’s perspective) change that I feel is going to start felling that wall of insulation separating the first game (PvE et al.) from the second game (sPvP). The change is that sPvP is now part of the Guild Wars 2 economy.
This morning I did a very brief test. I played two rounds of sPvP on a random server (8v8). I lost one round and won the second round along with getting a bunch of top player points (more Glory). I made about 25 silver and around 300 Glory and change. (I meant to do more, I apologize, but a Scarlet Invasion and then Toypocalypse stole most of my time last night.)
Getting a dozen or so silver each match is a new thing. It does not compare to PvE champ farming or dungeon speed-running, but it is also a non-negligible amount. The most important thing is that the umbrella currency of gold does not become stagnant simply because one wants to play sPvP.
The ~300 glory also can be converted in to another decent chunk of silver because there is a new Wintersday vendor that sells tradable items for glory. I am hoping this trend continues. I would have loved to supplement say the Nightmare Tower with glory for toxic spores, or anything along those lines.
I know it’s just the start of things yet to come, but it feels like the wall is crumbling down. It already feels like there is no choice between one game type and another game type. I plan on playing much more sPvP because of this change, and I’ve already been doing the sPvP dailies almost as a byproduct to just getting in an arena and fighting.
It’s a good change, and I hope there are many more like it coming to sPvP. sPvP was always fun, but it never seemed to align with any of my goals. I would play it just to have a bit of fun or a break from other parts of the game. Now it’s creeping in towards the center, and quite more quickly than I would have guessed. See you in the arena (I’ll be the one dumping a million conditions your way).
–Ravious
People still do Scarlet Invasions?!
We did last night because people wanted Molten Alliance for the daily.
GW2 has a remarkable stable gold economy. What most people don’t see is that sPvP cannot just be a source of gold, it’s inevitable to also get gold sinks.
PvE content is already gold starved. You don’t earn enough gold just by playing. That’s true for luxury (legendary) and things you must have (ascended weapon/armor). You must go out of your way to farm gold (or buy gems). If you’re interested in things like fractals you’ll have to farm gold outside of them to get ascended equipment.
Now, if you start pouring gold into the economy through sPvP you make the situation worse for PvE player because material prices will go up but their gold income won’t. But there really is no room for that to happen, being able to buy even less would just not be fun anymore.
The only way to prevent that is to add gold sinks to sPvP the same way gold sinks exist in PvE. And I’m sure that’s going to happen rather soon, probably when they remove glory.
The other thing is that they want to sell gems. Selling gold through gems is one way. If they can find a way to make sPvP player have use for more gold then they earn, they can sell them gems.
sPvP will end up as gold starved as PvE and you will have to farm or buy gold to stay “competitive”.
Excellent points!