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Ascended crafting and account magic find set to shake up Guild Wars 2 economy
ArenaNet's resident Guild Wars 2 economist John Smith and game designer Linsey Murdock posted a detailed dev blog today outlining big changes to the game's magic find and crafting systems. The first big change comes in the form of account magic find -- Magic find will be granted only by guild buffs, utility infusions, and consumables and will be account-wide and permanent (up to 300%). Magic find on existing items will be replaced with the option to select stats for that item. Ascended weapon crafting is the second big change. Players will be able to level their crafting skills to 500; the professions that produce weapons will make use of a new refinement system and ascended inscriptions to create new ascended weapons. Ascended armor crafting is due later this year. Both changes are expected to have a big impact on the Guild Wars 2 economy, with Fine and Masterwork salvaging items seeing increased importance due to account magic find and the value of weapons and armor fluctuating thanks to ascended crafting. Smith noted that ArenaNet doesn't intend to apply such big modifications to the Guild Wars 2 economy very often but that some features are worth adding due to the value added for players.
Guild Wars 2 writer laments racial lopsidedness
It's never been a secret that a majority of MMO players tend to gravitate toward human (and the most human-like) races when it comes to rolling characters, so if you thought Guild Wars 2 was going to break that trend with interesting races like the Asura and Sylvari, think again. ArenaNet Writer Peter Fries sent out a recent tweet in which he lamented the lopsided racial balance: "Guild Wars 2 race popularity makes me sad. People avoiding Charr and Asura are missing the strongest story stuff in our game, IMO." According to a numberless chart from Game Economist John Smith, Humans were by far the most popular race in the game, often twice as much as the others. Norn have the second place, with the remaining races roughly equal.
Guild Wars 2: The state of the economy
Guild Wars 2 has been out for a while, and now that it's trading post is up and the window for saying that we can't judge the economy because the game is brand-new is closing, ArenaNet's John Smith is here to grace you with some insight and knowledge. In a new Guild Wars 2 news post, Smith takes a look at the state of the economy in the game. Between the rough start that the trading post had and the veritable flood of crafting items created as players raced toward mastercraftsman status, several markets are more than a little out of whack. Smith said that adjustments are being made to bring markets "closer to non-vendor based equilibrium" (praise be!) and that to help clear up some of the excess supply, limited-time Mystic Forge recipes will be implemented for players to use up some of their heaping piles of butter overloaded items. He also addressed the problem of exploits and their effect on the market. For all the painstaking details and a nifty chart, hit up the official news post.
Guild Wars 2 posts online manual, talks economy and art
One of the unsung heroes of MMOs is the economist -- the guy or gal in charge of making sure that supply and demand doesn't get all wonky. Whether you think about in-game economy or not, its function impacts everyone. For ArenaNet, the man in charge of keeping Guild Wars 2's money ship float is John Smith, and he's created an interesting infographic showing the state of the economy from the beta process. From the chart, Smith deduces many interesting trends that may or may not play out in the live game. The largest sources of income during the beta were rewards, followed by dynamic events and tasks, while the most frequently traded items were crafting materials. He notes that an abnormal percentage of players gravitated to jewelcrafting as a profession, although he speculates that this was because of the temporary nature of the beta. Smith even compares the rate of gems to gold to Facebook's recent IPO and finds a similar pattern therein. Keeping up with the information reveals, ArenaNet has released the online manual for Guild Wars 2 that covers everything from "getting started" to "competitive play." If the economy and manual don't interest you, perhaps art does. MSNBC interviewed Art Director Daniel Dociu about the look of Guild Wars 2, and you can watch it right here after the break.
Senior staff leave 'The Agency' to start new studio; SOE claims game unaffected
The Agency has lost some top agents as several members of Sony Online Entertainment's Seattle studio have left to form Detonator Games. The losses include art director Corey Dangel, studio director Matt Wilson and producer John Smith -- the latter two were founding members of the development house. Eurogamer reports the departures have ignited rumors that the The Agency will experience a reboot or overhaul -- which wouldn't be the first time the production team has had to go on the defensive. SOE denies that there's any reboot going on and notes that company is "looking forward to showing you new content in the future." Let's see if the game makes its 2010 release.[Via GI.biz]
