Originally Posted by
Sir William
Alright so I've decided to chime in with my two cents about this whole issue with wanting better guild war rewards.
While I do agree that the rewards need to be updated, I think it's important to look at a few other things first which may help put things in perspective for some of you about Gree's position.
I think the most important thing to look at here is Gree's valuation of gems, gold, certain armors, etc..
Don't forget the retail price of gems and gold in this game for players:
$100 will get you either 800 gems, 1.2 million gold, or 1 million gold with 500 gems.
$50 will get you either 375 gems or 550,000 gold.
$25 will get you either 175 gems, 250,000 gold, or 150,000 gold with 120 gems.
$10 will get you either 65 gems or 75,000 gold.
$5 will get you either 30 gems, 30,000 gold, or 20,000 gold with 20 gems.
$2 will get you 10 gems or 10,000 gold.
It's important to remember these prices when talking about rewards given out by Gree.
Now, when you think about guild war rewards, it's best to assume that the top tier rewards will have larger guilds. Probably an average of 30-35 but more than likely a full 40.
First place in guild war will land you an epic+ armor (which doesn't have a specific dollar value, only what the market deems it is worth; in this case most fairly over $200 each new war.) along with 20 fusion boost armors, 100 gems, and five dark prince keys.
The fusion boosts are also hard to value because they aren't specifically for sale, but considering you are given 20 when you buy the 999 gem chest ($125) they're probably not worth very much. Maybe $10-20 total.
The gems themselves are worth only about $15.
The dark prince keys are worth 20 gems each, so for 5 you're looking at 100 gems so another $15 or so.
Now when you add all of this in together from Gree's point of view, they're valuing the entire reward for first place at at least $45, but up to roughly $250.
Assuming top guild is full, that's $8,000 in rewards.
If you scale back the prizes to follow suit down the ladder then the amount of money adds up very quickly.
$250/player in first.
$200/player in second.
$150/player in third.
$100/player in 4-10.
$75/player in 11-25.
$50/player in 26-50.
Etc. etc.
Now obviously these are very rough estimates. I'm not saying this is necessarily even remotely accurate, however the model is a good way to discuss this issue further.
What comes next is considering the 'value' of gems, and virtual currency in general.
In the case of Knights and Dragons, as far as we know, there is no limit to the amount of gems Gree can create/produce/distribute. It's not like bitcoin where there are a finite amount of gems, or like the US Treasury where each and every gem has to be backed by hard currency like gold or silver.
In theory, Gree is literally setting an arbitrary value for what gems are worth. When the game came out, those in charge determined 800 gems is worth $100. Now that's fine of course, but the game is no longer in the same position now as when it was initially released. When I first started playing over a year ago, very few people were buying $100 worth of gems at a time. Buying gems at all was a way of separating yourself from almost everyone.
Now, buying gems is not a way to separate yourself from the rest and have an advantage. It's merely how you play. Day to day play (on an even remotely competitive status) is mandatory on gem purchasing. That's the nature of free to play games.
To ElJayk's point about the slope and the separation between the top 1% and the rest growing, this is a fine example. It's no longer feasible to be a 100% free player and remain competitive like it used to be.
So how do we fix this to where everyone is happier? Better rewards mean Gree has to raise the value of their prizes, but that affects their bottom lines. It may not be within their goals or power to raise the value of the reward tiers because perhaps that would cease to make them a profit.
Who knows.
But in my opinion, the first thing that I mentioned is what most needs to be updated. Gree's value of gems and gold, and the prices they sell each for, are no longer applicable in this day of the game.
It is not monetarily worthwhile to spend $100 on 1,200,000 gold which can be gathered on your own in 3 or 4 days per player. It's not helpful for guilds that require 75-100 million for a 1% raise in bonuses.
In my opinion, the amount of gems and gold being sold for various amounts is what really needs to be revamped. The cost so to speak of playing the game has gone up tremendously whereas the value of our money hasn't risen with it.
I'm sure I have left something out, but ill comment back more as I remember.
All comments and open discussion are welcome and I'm happy to engage in some healthy discourse.
Thanks for reading.