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"The purpose of any business is to make a profit."

But how does an online game make a profit? Not all that long ago, the answer to that question would be "you purchase the game". These days, that is no longer the case. With the plethora of games to be played, many of them are now free-to-play, how does a game creator make a profit? What is their business model?

Micro-transactions. Small purchases, typically a few dollars/euros, for little in-game items, can have a huge impact on the game. We will discuss the top Gem Store purchases - the ones that every serious player needs to have - presented in reverse order.

6: Storage Expander - https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Storage_Expander

This increases the size of your stored materials by a stack - 250. Many simply believe that increasing from 250 to 500 or 2,000 is simply for hoarders. While this may be true, this also solves a problem. What do you do when you start overflowing on your mithril ore? When you have 253, the natural response is to sell 250, leaving you with 3. This is usually not a problem, but what if you need a few for crafting purposes? Then you have to buy some which is slightly frustrating.

Or do you sell half a stack - so you have some - just in case? But so doing, you are spending more time managing inventory instead of playing the game.

With even just one (1) purchase of the storage expander, you always will have a stack in reserve - just in case.

5: Shared Inventory - https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Shared_Inventory_Slot

Obvious this is dependent on the number of characters that one has. If one has only one character, then having shared inventory slots would be a waste of in-game gold or real-world cash.

If one has multiple characters, then shared inventory slots are extremely valuable. The ability to place items that every character has easy access to makes sense, and make these other gem-store items even more valuable.

4: Inventory Space - https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bank_Tab_Expansion
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bag_Slot_Expansion

Let's face it - we can never have enough inventory space. Even with almost 600 material storage slots, bank tabs, character bags, bag sizes and such, it always seems that we run out. Does any player want to spend time deciding what to keep, what to destroy? Is that actually fun?

3: Travel Gizmos - https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Lounge

If you do not have one of these passes, you really should purchase one. Many of the lounge passes have a two-week option to try them out. Everything is just conveniently placed in a nice compact space and many have special transport to the major cities. It is great for reducing the cost of waypointing from one area to another.

There are several lounge passes, so which one should you get? We recommend the Mistlock Sanctuary as first choice and Royal Terrace (Divinity's Reach) as a second choice.

The Mistlock Sanctuary has the unique feature of returning you to where you used it, great for characters placed in farming locations but who also have crafting abilities.

The Royal Terrace is nice because of the number of special events which occur in Divinity's Reach. Wintersday is coming up.

2: Unlimited Gathering Tools - https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Gathering_tool#Unlimited_Gathering_Tools_2

Most players salvage raw materials when they are running around in the open world. But the problem with the basic salvaging tool is they have a finite usage. This has the problem of running out in the middle of a gathering node, or equipping a new set of tools. This means having extras in inventory, which is a waste of valuable space and more housekeeping instead of game playing.

When coupled with Shared Inventory, this can turn out to be a great purchase.

1: Copper-Fed Salvage-o-Matic - https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Copper-Fed_Salvage-o-Matic

One does not purchase this item to save gold. One purchases this item because it relieves a tremendous amount of stress and boring housekeeping chores. You do an Auric Basin Octovine chest run, and collect a bunch of relatively useless junk. Do you sell each item? Do you carry a few basic salvage kits so you can salvage quickly and easily? With this item, you no longer have to worry about such things. Place this item in your shared inventory slot and very quickly you will wonder why you didn't purchase this sooner.

So what do you think? Do you agree with this list? Did we leave something out? Let your voice be known by leaving your thoughts in the comments section.

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