How Does the In-Game Economy TRULY Work?

akl77

Buy low sell high is a quick way to make some money, I sometimes shop around guild traders buy low priced items like motifs or mats, then sell them at normal price. High turnover means more profit, so I don't sell at high prices, but I do grab it at low prices.

timidobserver

Supply and Demand and speculation about future Supply and Demand.

DaveMoeDee

Emothic wrote: »

To make it short and simple. The economy on this game is a classified as a Free Trade/Free Market economy. Meaning there are limited to no trade restrictions of items in the economy. As a result the economy is based off of player/community decisions. Meaning that the items value is created by the community of players, these are usually set by the Guild Traders. Standard Supply and Demand can take place that will adjust the pricing of items, of which can be preditced with game update's, so a bit of a "Stock Market" investment can be made.

So in a sense. The economy in this game is a Capitalistic Free Trade economy. If you have any specific quetions, please ask me and I will anwser to the best of my ability. I just focused on how the general overall trade works on this game to give you a basic idea of how it works.

I'm not sure I agree that this is based on a Free Market economy. It is based on bidding on prime guild kiosks. I sell for a lot more in my better guilds than in those with lesser kiosks. Buyers typically don't even know what prices are available in kiosks in the lesser locations that they never pass by. Location is more important than competitive pricing in moving product.

nooblybear

Korah_Eaglecry wrote: »

A lot of it is speculation as to the value of something. Just look at how people thought One Tamriel was going to affect the Legendary material prices. People were gobbling them up in fear that there would be a sudden shortage and that the prices would sky rocket.

That's the thing with speculation. It can be based off a reasonable estimate of the future, or it can be based off hope and dreams. Or both. The reality is: until it actually happens, nobody can be certain of anything. I speculate that the prices of improvement materials will go up due to the changes in sustain and people adjusting their builds to compensate. It's a very reasonable speculation, if I say so myself -- but there's how many weeks left of PTS? How many more cycles of adjustment? On top of which, I could just be completely wrong.

And that's what I find is the fun part.

Ch4mpTW wrote: »

Troneon wrote: »

Loads of players exploited gold at launch, never got banned or gold taken away.

Guild Trader Alliance monopolies ever since.

You know, I heard about that. I heard of the huge duplication exploit occurring, and even remember a few as well. Anyone remember the Glenumbra Pig Farm? That exploit lasted for how long, before it caught the attention of hundreds? Thus causing it to be fixed by ZOS. Who knows how many thousands of wax and other improvements people obtained. I remember standing in Elden Root, and seeing people selling stacks of wax for 5k in area chat at the time. Wax was literally that common. I'll say it again. 5k PER stack of dreugh wax. Nowadays wax sells for 5k a piece (1M per stack currently). That's incredible. And people hoarded stacks upon stacks of wax. Just think about how much gold they're sitting on. . .

I've heard of similar things also. I didn't really have much to do with the early markets, but I remember tell of instances of people packing away materials either from exploit or from a market low for later resale. Slowly dribbling those materials back into the market ensures a steady income.

I guess that the price of a commodity item will always fluctuate. If a smart person is able to buy a considerable amount when prices are low, all they need to do is to wait until prices come back up -- which will eventually happen -- and sell high to make profit. Definitely a long-term game.

Given how much gold goes out of the economy through trader bids each week, and the efforts put in by a number of trading guilds to raise that gold, I don't think exploited gold is a significant part of it. Maybe a few traders are backed by such things, but if the vast majority were, why would people go through such efforts to raise gold? A smokescreen?

At least on NA, from my own experiences running a trade guild, the likely explanation is that, while there may be people with exploited gold somewhere in the game, they are not privately backing every trade guild. They may privately back or contribute to one or two to ensure that they're always on top, but they wouldn't involve everyone.

Failing that, there is a giant conspiracy that we're all unaware of. Which I find... very unlikely.

Ch4mpTW

DaveMoeDee wrote: »

Emothic wrote: »

To make it short and simple. The economy on this game is a classified as a Free Trade/Free Market economy. Meaning there are limited to no trade restrictions of items in the economy. As a result the economy is based off of player/community decisions. Meaning that the items value is created by the community of players, these are usually set by the Guild Traders. Standard Supply and Demand can take place that will adjust the pricing of items, of which can be preditced with game update's, so a bit of a "Stock Market" investment can be made.

So in a sense. The economy in this game is a Capitalistic Free Trade economy. If you have any specific quetions, please ask me and I will anwser to the best of my ability. I just focused on how the general overall trade works on this game to give you a basic idea of how it works.

I'm not sure I agree that this is based on a Free Market economy. It is based on bidding on prime guild kiosks. I sell for a lot more in my better guilds than in those with lesser kiosks. Buyers typically don't even know what prices are available in kiosks in the lesser locations that they never pass by. Location is more important than competitive pricing in moving product.

Interesting... Truthful, and yet interesting. I wonder if this why sometimes people say that they've found amazing deals at lesser visited locations. In fact, I wonder if there are people who strictly shop in said areas for the amazing deals.

nooblybear

MaximusDargus wrote: »

Ch4mpTW wrote: »

I also have this to bring-up which I'm rather curious about. When did it become okay to prey upon new players, and those who are unaware of certain items?

For example... A guy who'll spend hours on end in say Auridon or Grahtwood, and post the same message over and over again about how they'll buy heartwood for 30g a piece. And kutas 1k a piece. Upon being told that he's wrong for taking advantage of unsuspecting sellers, he immediately responds with an onslaught of insults and profanity. Followed by claiming how if people have an issue with his buying price, then don't sell. Proceeding with commenting about how he's bought thousands over the weekend for that price.

Is that exactly allowed...? Is it actually not in violation of the TOS to take advantage of people, and prey on the unsuspecting and new? Because if not, it would make a ton of sense as to why on PS4-NA those types of people are popping-up more and more frequently. People who'll claim that they'll buy this and that at an absurdly low price, and claim how it's the seller's fault for being ignorant.

Im wondering about this too and I meet this kind of people very often. They will use funny arguments like "im not forcing anybody to sell" or "i buy a lot like that why would i pay more" or sometimes "your MM is guild MM, im not in guild, this is zone chat" - the most pathetic part is when these players are members of large trade guilds with big renown and you can look up their own sales history to see they are selling same items for 5x more using that "bad and terrible MM".

And just like you said, they will try to blame sellers for not knowing the price.

Unfortunately as far as i can tell, there is nothing to be done. Its not against TOS since players agree on a price. Guild identity in ESO is completely dead, you cant look up other players guilds (if you are not in same guild) and most guild leaders dont give a frik what their members do (as long as they dont cheat engine) and care just for sales.

The only thing left is educate, spread information and popularise trade guilds (as opposed to limiting them and charging people gold which is common on consoles from what i heard).

(Should've replied to this in my previous post.)

I honestly think a bit of perspective is important here. When I was playing World of Warcraft some years back, there were plenty of people who did the exact same thing -- this despite the fact that there was a server-wide auction house system already in place -- although not necessarily in identical ways.

I think the key issue is that people are jerks and that some people will always try to take advantage of other people's lack of knowledge on an issue.

Education is really key. Teach your friends, your guildies, your family members (if relevant) critical thinking and let them reason out a good price that works for them. I know someone who, at the start of master writs, was convinced by someone in zone chat to sell a 180+ voucher writ for a third of what the market value was, and left them thinking they had gotten a good deal.

You can't stop people being jerks, and you can't stop people from being taken in by them. The best you can do is call people out on it (something I'll do in zone chat if I see an opportunity) and advise your friends as best you can.

zuto40

i just know, if i was a big streamer like sypher or feng, i'd buy 1000 sharpened swords of some set, make a build using it, and make some massive profit