Arena Net is doing it right. They are taking a very fair and honest approach with it. Its going to work like this: The in game currency is, (you guessed it,) gold. Gold can be used for buying items, using the auction house, trading with other players and all the other things you use gold for in any standard pay to play monthly MMO. You acquire gold in the game by farming it, completing quests etc...you know the usual stuff.
They introduced "Gems" as the currency you use for the cash shop/micro transactions. So, it's gold for in-game gear, weapons, mats, crafting recipes etc, and gems for the cash shop that will have cosmetic items, vanity items and just stuff to tweak your character look wise, and possibly account services. But no weapons or armor or anything else that could give you an advantage over other players. You gotta work your butt off in game for that stuff, no free passes!
How do you attain these so called "Gems"? This is where they were smart about it.
One way is to pay with real money. No one knows what the exchange rate will be, but if its like anything else I've seen it will be like a 100 gems=1.00. Or maybe even 10 gems=1.00. Just depends on how they price stuff in the cash shop.
The other way to attain "Gems" is in game, with gold! So if player P.j O'Riley Party Pants Esq. III has a bunch of gems he bought off the shop but needs gold for a sweet new piece of gear or a weapon, he can trade his gems for it. If player Cuthbert Donovan Boogie Fever wants to get that new cool vanity pet in the cash shop, but has zero gems and a crap load of gold he can go to the trading post and buy them from P.j O'Riley Party Pants Esq. III, rock down to the cash shop and buy his pet. Mr. Boogie Fever did not have to pay out of pocket for it, he just spent time playing the game!
I'm not sure if you will be able to trade from person to person or not. Mike O' Brien said in his blog that you would have to use the trading post or auction house for this type of transaction, its still a great idea none the less.
I found a diagram that is really helpful in explaining how it works:
As you can tell there will be other forms of currency for other in game activities. I'm not going to go over that stuff, its pretty self explanatory. What I will say is that the box with the "vanity items" description should read cash shop/vanity items. I hope this better clarifies what the system will do.
I like this because it keeps the currency in game. I'm really hoping this will thwart RMTs ( I hate those companies ) and gold farmers. Let the players control the cash flow, and the economy, not outside interlopers!
My verdict is a thumbs up! Good on ya Arena Net!
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