Hack Line Play Gems
Malena Bower
So when I started GW2 I brought some gems and converted them to gold because I *really* wanted some weapon skins that were many hundreds of gold on TP. Later I realized that really wasn't satisfying at all, so I started buying *everything* I needed with gold farmed in-game.
Now I'm debating with myself where to draw the line; I brought living world seasons with gems that I could've converted from gold, so maybe I could've done a couple weeks worth of fractals instead? I also want the 5 shared inventory slots pack, and I *could* liquidate my material storage to get that instead of buying gems...
It's already been shown that farming for gold in-game is NOT at all an efficient use of your time objectively, compared to working and then buying gems. But then, neither is playing the game at all! I enjoy the game, and to some extent I feel like using real world money to buy the things I want cheapens my experience. On the other hand, at what point should I deem something too much of a pointless grind and drop the cash, saving myself time to play content I enjoy more?
I've never been much of an MMO player before GW2. I played games like League of Legends, where the enjoyment came solely from playing, so buying skins with money to enhance that enjoyment was a no-brainer. In MMOs, a lot (not all) of the enjoyment comes from progression - and you can BUY progression, which makes for a strange dynamic.
I don't draw a line in the sense you're describing it. When I want to buy something I'll work out what it costs in real money and think about whether it's worth that much to me. If so I'll get it (buying gems if I don't already have enough). If not I'll work out what it costs in gold and think about if that's worth it. I tend to value gold less than real money, partially because it has fewer uses because I can only use it to get stuff within GW2 and partially because I rarely farm gold so whatever I have was earned while doing things I'd do anyway and therefore basically free. But that doesn't mean I'm going to get things I don't really want when there's always something else I could buy with it.
The second one has an added complication because the exchange rate often shoots up when new items come out, meaning exchanging gold on the spot makes things more expensive than they would otherwise be, so I won't do it then - I'll wait until I feel like I have some spare gold and the exchange rate is reasonable and do it then. (Sometimes I'll sell excess materials to get gold, but never ones I have a use for.) So that can mean missing an item's availability (although that's less of a problem recently, stuff seems to stick around for longer) and then I have to wait to get it later.
I know it sounds complicated, but usually if it takes me more than a minute to decide it's because I'm not sure if I really want the thing, not deciding how to pay. For example I think the Rebel Long and Short Boots look cool, but all the character's I'd use them on already have access to other skins which are just as good, so I'm not sure it's worth buying them when it's not really adding anything. I'm tempted but it's hard to justify the purchase in either currency.
As far as I remember I haven't bought gems to convert to gold. In-game items I just get with gold.
I understand the maths, but this idea never made much sense to me because there's too many other factors. For one thing there's so many other things I can do with real money, many of which are more appealing to me than items in GW2 that if I'm earning extra from work I'm not likely to spend it on items in the game. (And yes, for the same reason it's quite common that when I'm going through the process above I decide I like something, check what it costs in real money and decide I don't like it that much.)
But more importantly in my experience spending extra time farming (or just playing) a game is much more flexible than doing extra work. I've had a lot of different jobs and none of them have allowed me to randomly do an hour or two of overtime as and when I felt like it. Most of the ones which did offer over-time were so badly paid that there was a lot of competition for the extra shifts so they restricted how many you could do and there would always be something more important to spend it on. My current job doesn't allow me paid over-time except in very specific cirumstances, instead I get extra time off to balance it out. I know there are 'gig' jobs where you're sort-of self-employed and can do it as and when you feel like it but even that is a lot more hassle than sitting at the computer on a Saturday morning eating my breakfast while running around a map gathering materials. I'm not convinced it's a practical option for the majority of people. Also those jobs will eventually remove you from the system (effectively 'firing' you even though they say you were never an employee) if you don't do shifts often enough.
Maybe it works for aspiring whales who want to be regularly spending significant amounts on the game, but I suspect most people just want to buy the odd thing now and again (I've worked out I spend about 8,000 gems per year and I suspect that's more than a lot of people do) so it doesn't make sense to approach it that way.
I've never spent any money on the game other than the original release and all expansions. I've bought tens of thousands of gems with gold (probably hundreds of thousands actually). I always have more gold than I know what to do with so it never made sense to buy gems with real money. I did use some gem cards that I received as gifts though. I think 4,000 gems worth. I've always just been lucky with gold, I got a huge payoff from an early investment, and even got a decent profit ecto gambling, both the core and the PoF achievements maxed. Apart from that, I never really made much of an effort.
I bought a few cosmetics items over the years (like equipment 5 skins, 2 mount skins and 2 glider skins) but I barely use them anyway (really just using 1). I do make a look for a character, maybe small variation for each build, mostly just colours and never touch it again. There are more than enough in game skins for me and they even look better.
Mounts, I have not been impressed by non vanilla skins I bought or got lucky with with blc keys (in game ones, never buy those). The vanilla mounts are just so well designed down to each detail. The store ones just seem a step behind, there is a little bit of polish missing. So not buying those anymore.
So it comes down to convenience for me. And there is just not that much you can get there and even less I actually need. And I have thousands of gold with nothing to spend on. So yeah not spending money is not a problem. I might buy some gems with $ instead of gold to support and because it's not really money I miss. But it's minimal.
Anyway, I can totally relate to much of what you've said, including that obviously the easiest way to make gold is to not play the game, spend more time on paid RL work and then buy gems, but that's completely contrary to the fact that GW2 is meant to be a game played for fun! I've had similar thoughts.
Since you asked, my rules are essentially that I'll happily spend RL money to buy gems for things that improve my overall gameplay experience and avoid me wasting time on busy work, but I do NOT spend RL money to buy gems and exchange for gold so I can buy resources to craft legendaries. The reasoning being that the former makes my gameplay more fun and saves me time microing things but the latter would actually replace gameplay with paying RL money instead - I want to earn Ascended/Legendaries etc in game rather than through my credit card as that makes the game pointless to me (sounds like you feel a bit the same).
So, I have purchased infinite gathering tools (two sets actually, I bought a second for another character as the first was so nice being able to always be gathering with top level equipment and not messing around with replacing them), the coppermatic and silvermatic salvagers (again, nice to stop messing with buying salvage kits), and a couple of lots of the 5 shared slots packs (I think I have about 15 shared slots now, some from expansions or giveaways but most purchased). I have a few extra bag slots and inventory/build slots I have purchased too, plus other miscellaneous things, tho I've got as many of these from things like Prime Gaming giveaways, Twitch drops, etc. Note that some of these things do save/make money over time (eg avoiding buying salvage/gathering kits, plus my gathering tools are unbound and volatile so make a bit of money slowly) but I'm fine with that.
Using RL money to buy skins would be a grey area for me, something I don't intend to do. Generally I'm happy with the skins I can unlock in game so I haven't felt a need to spend RL money on skins but that's just me. (I guess I have in a way for the gathering tools but really that was about utility and the cosmetics was just a bonus).
I should add that I'm also happy sending some of my RL money Anets way. I can afford it and I really enjoy GW2 so it's a way of showing my appreciation and obviously the more people who do that the more resources they have to keep working on the game.
I don't draw a line in the sense you're describing it. When I want to buy something I'll work out what it costs in real money and think about whether it's worth that much to me. If so I'll get it (buying gems if I don't already have enough)...
For me it's not a problem and I generally follow a variation on what Danikat is saying. If there's something in the gem store that I want, I'll use real money to buy the gems to get it. The gold I get ingame mostly goes for legendaries. That gives me an ingame goal to work toward and I enjoy the process of making gold in this game to reach my current goal. Oh, and I'm not rich irl - far from it. I'm retired and live on a small Social Security check. It's enough to leave me with a bit of disposable income every month and that's what I use to buy gems with when there is something in particular I want.
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