The Fall of ESO’s Economy

Ch4mpTW

I’ve come to the realization that the economy is pretty much in the worst shape that it has ever been. And is steadily getting worse...

There are people buying gold right and left, as well as people selling gold and accounts for real life currency (or PS cards). There is a market now for buying and selling trial skins and titles, as well as buying and selling emperor. There are bots running rampant, with no sign of slowing down. As well as that of a huge increase of hustlers and flippers. The people who sit there are and post in zone chat about how you’ll receive “instant payment”, for selling your crafting materials and to them for far below what they are truly worth. There is no auction houses, no in-game moderators, and no morals when it comes to the community anymore. The price for buying a guild trader for the week is stupidly expensive, and now there is an abundance of “ghost guilds” being made to monopolize and lock certain traders. This of course leading to extortion, as well as other not so nice things which follow said actions.

The solution to this mess...? Well... I don’t think there is a solution anymore. ZOS has let things go unchecked for far too long, and now things have essentially hit rock bottom. The only thing that can be done is a hard reset on the economy and all things of the sort. Not so much of a solution, as it is an extermination. An extermination of grand scale. Something similar to what Rockstar did, when all that modded money and money from duplicating cars spread through GTA Online. Something of that scale NEEDS to happen. It MUST happen. Or else kiss what little fragments we have left goodbye.

Allow me to... Elaborate. . . Those with gold found to be gotten from gold sellers, have their accounts banned and gold striped from them. Guilds which have thrived for years even with said gold in the bank being saved, have it removed (if found to be gotten from gold sellers). Account, skin, emperor, and AP sellers...? Banned. Just like those who sell gold. There must be no softness shown. I’m talking IP terminations. That way they can’t come back for good. Unless if they go and acquire a new IP. It is stupid to frown upon gold sellers, but not emperor sellers. It it is stupid to frown upon account selling, but not skin selling.

And lastly, we must have in-game mods be distributed amongst all platforms of the game. That regularly observe and police the activities which occur on a daily basis. To have order, 1 must be vigilant. 1 must be always ready to respond to something swiftly, and in protocol fashion. And the lack of said GM’s is part of the reason to blame why things are in such turmoil.

That is how you remedy this plague which consumes ESO. Think that it’s not actually this bad, and that all is well and good? Fine. But just be fully aware of the mess that and ever-growing cesspool which grows day by day. Be fully aware of the numerous bots and other unhealthy things which spread, and seem to be glanced over day after day. While more and more complaint threads rise about said issues. If you want a clean AND healthy game, then you must be willing to take the needed steps to acquire it. Not play favorites with 1 thug or another, by view all things for what they are. Regardless of whether or not you or your guild benefits from it. No more of that can exist, if we want ESO to be the best MMO it can be. We must call a spade a spade, and do our parts to insure we have what we seek. Which is a good game.

Blobsky

You must be console, ghost guilds dont exist on PC EU because people dont lowball

MajesticHaruki

Many late additions to the game have ruined the economy : transmutation, outfit system, bots and it's going to get worse if the jewelry crafting makes it to the live servers. Every player can max all professions, farm with the same efficiency anything of value. A healthy economy demands a division of labor. The system from the beginning had flaws, now it is getting worse

AzraelKrieg

Blobsky wrote: »

You must be console, ghost guilds dont exist on PC EU because people dont lowball

Same with PC-NA. No issues on there.

Zagnut123Zagnut123

Ch4mpTW wrote: »

I’ve come to the realization that the economy is pretty much in the worst shape that it has ever been. And is steadily getting worse...

There are people buying gold right and left, as well as people selling gold and accounts for real life currency (or PS cards). There is a market now for buying and selling trial skins and titles, as well as buying and selling emperor. There are bots running rampant, with no sign of slowing down. As well as that of a huge increase of hustlers and flippers. The people who sit there are and post in zone chat about how you’ll receive “instant payment”, for selling your crafting materials and to them for far below what they are truly worth. There is no auction houses, no in-game moderators, and no morals when it comes to the community anymore. The price for buying a guild trader for the week is stupidly expensive, and now there is an abundance of “ghost guilds” being made to monopolize and lock certain traders. This of course leading to extortion, as well as other not so nice things which follow said actions.

The solution to this mess...? Well... I don’t think there is a solution anymore. ZOS has let things go unchecked for far too long, and now things have essentially hit rock bottom. The only thing that can be done is a hard reset on the economy and all things of the sort. Not so much of a solution, as it is an extermination. An extermination of grand scale. Something similar to what Rockstar did, when all that modded money and money from duplicating cars spread through GTA Online. Something of that scale NEEDS to happen. It MUST happen. Or else kiss what little fragments we have left goodbye.

Allow me to... Elaborate. . . Those with gold found to be gotten from gold sellers, have their accounts banned and gold striped from them. Guilds which have thrived for years even with said gold in the bank being saved, have it removed (if found to be gotten from gold sellers). Account, skin, emperor, and AP sellers...? Banned. Just like those who sell gold. There must be no softness shown. I’m talking IP terminations. That way they can’t come back for good. Unless if they go and acquire a new IP. It is stupid to frown upon gold sellers, but not emperor sellers. It it is stupid to frown upon account selling, but not skin selling.

And lastly, we must have in-game mods be distributed amongst all platforms of the game. That regularly observe and police the activities which occur on a daily basis. To have order, 1 must be vigilant. 1 must be always ready to respond to something swiftly, and in protocol fashion. And the lack of said GM’s is part of the reason to blame why things are in such turmoil.

That is how you remedy this plague which consumes ESO. Think that it’s not actually this bad, and that all is well and good? Fine. But just be fully aware of the mess that and ever-growing cesspool which grows day by day. Be fully aware of the numerous bots and other unhealthy things which spread, and seem to be glanced over day after day. While more and more complaint threads rise about said issues. If you want a clean AND healthy game, then you must be willing to take the needed steps to acquire it. Not play favorites with 1 thug or another, by view all things for what they are. Regardless of whether or not you or your guild benefits from it. No more of that can exist, if we want ESO to be the best MMO it can be. We must call a spade a spade, and do our parts to insure we have what we seek. Which is a good game.

Account selling and buying is high atm because console players are sick and tired of there *** not working. If zos allowed server transfers or better yet fix there game this wouldn't be an issue.

Do you have issues with ppl selling skin carries for gold or just cash. Because zos is cool with gold for skin carries but obviously not for money (only zos gets to make money round these parts) but they consider any emp selling an exploit wich is odd but whatever.

They need to do something I getting tired of guild trader wars were one salty person can do what ever they want because they have 10 of millions of exploited gold.

Nemesis7884

i dunno economy seems mostly normal to me on pc eu

Aliyavana

It seems like console has less tos enforcement

Armatesz

I won't lie there are a lot of bots on xbox one na. Almost feels like there is no enforcement there.

Ch4mpTW

Zagnut123Zagnut123 wrote: »

Ch4mpTW wrote: »

I’ve come to the realization that the economy is pretty much in the worst shape that it has ever been. And is steadily getting worse...

There are people buying gold right and left, as well as people selling gold and accounts for real life currency (or PS cards). There is a market now for buying and selling trial skins and titles, as well as buying and selling emperor. There are bots running rampant, with no sign of slowing down. As well as that of a huge increase of hustlers and flippers. The people who sit there are and post in zone chat about how you’ll receive “instant payment”, for selling your crafting materials and to them for far below what they are truly worth. There is no auction houses, no in-game moderators, and no morals when it comes to the community anymore. The price for buying a guild trader for the week is stupidly expensive, and now there is an abundance of “ghost guilds” being made to monopolize and lock certain traders. This of course leading to extortion, as well as other not so nice things which follow said actions.

The solution to this mess...? Well... I don’t think there is a solution anymore. ZOS has let things go unchecked for far too long, and now things have essentially hit rock bottom. The only thing that can be done is a hard reset on the economy and all things of the sort. Not so much of a solution, as it is an extermination. An extermination of grand scale. Something similar to what Rockstar did, when all that modded money and money from duplicating cars spread through GTA Online. Something of that scale NEEDS to happen. It MUST happen. Or else kiss what little fragments we have left goodbye.

Allow me to... Elaborate. . . Those with gold found to be gotten from gold sellers, have their accounts banned and gold striped from them. Guilds which have thrived for years even with said gold in the bank being saved, have it removed (if found to be gotten from gold sellers). Account, skin, emperor, and AP sellers...? Banned. Just like those who sell gold. There must be no softness shown. I’m talking IP terminations. That way they can’t come back for good. Unless if they go and acquire a new IP. It is stupid to frown upon gold sellers, but not emperor sellers. It it is stupid to frown upon account selling, but not skin selling.

And lastly, we must have in-game mods be distributed amongst all platforms of the game. That regularly observe and police the activities which occur on a daily basis. To have order, 1 must be vigilant. 1 must be always ready to respond to something swiftly, and in protocol fashion. And the lack of said GM’s is part of the reason to blame why things are in such turmoil.

That is how you remedy this plague which consumes ESO. Think that it’s not actually this bad, and that all is well and good? Fine. But just be fully aware of the mess that and ever-growing cesspool which grows day by day. Be fully aware of the numerous bots and other unhealthy things which spread, and seem to be glanced over day after day. While more and more complaint threads rise about said issues. If you want a clean AND healthy game, then you must be willing to take the needed steps to acquire it. Not play favorites with 1 thug or another, by view all things for what they are. Regardless of whether or not you or your guild benefits from it. No more of that can exist, if we want ESO to be the best MMO it can be. We must call a spade a spade, and do our parts to insure we have what we seek. Which is a good game.

Account selling and buying is high atm because console players are sick and tired of there *** not working. If zos allowed server transfers or better yet fix there game this wouldn't be an issue.

Do you have issues with ppl selling skin carries for gold or just cash. Because zos is cool with gold for skin carries but obviously not for money (only zos gets to make money round these parts) but they consider any emp selling an exploit wich is odd but whatever.

They need to do something I getting tired of guild trader wars were one salty person can do what ever they want because they have 10 of millions of exploited gold.

This is a perfect example of what I’m talking about. How tf can a company sit back and be like, “Yeah, we have an issue with people selling emperor and AP. But, go on ahead and sell trial skins and titles. That’s perfectly fine.” That is stupid. Literally stupid. The only difference is that 1 thing takes places in PvE, and the other takes place in PvP. That’s it. That’s the only difference. And to allow 1 in 1 aspect of the other game, but not the other is wrong.

Boosting is boosting. No matter how you look at it. It’s still someone not earning something, and being given it instead. Whether it be: A rank, a skin, a title, an accomplishment, etc. And boosting is something that no player you’d tolerate and be cool with.

Have we truly fallen that much gamers? Have we as a community which calls ourselves gamers fallen so far, that we have now accepted and encourage boosting? Really? Because if that’s the case, ZOS and other dev teams in other games might as well put your achievements for sale in the cash shop(s). At least that way players who want to get boosted, can acquire said skins and titles and ranks from the official developers. Rather than from somebody they hardly know, and could run off and scam them. It’s literally the same thing.

madchuska83

Armatesz wrote: »

I won't lie there are a lot of bots on xbox one na. Almost feels like there is no enforcement there.

There isn't. I've taken numerous screen shots and made reports and the bots are still there in the same damn places.

Hurbster

I blame Napster.

Ch4mpTW

madchuska83 wrote: »

Armatesz wrote: »

I won't lie there are a lot of bots on xbox one na. Almost feels like there is no enforcement there.

There isn't. I've taken numerous screen shots and made reports and the bots are still there in the same damn places.

It’s just as bad on PS4-NA. Bots are all over the place.

Kova

As others have said, pc has none of these problems. We just get lifeskillers from other mmos complaining there's no auction house.

FireCowCommando

Theres close to zero moderation for the console platforms, pretty much anything short of holding a *** rally (actually happened on ps4, they even handed out bans to even random people in the zone) ZoS completely ignores.

Voxicity

I played a game where the maximum amount of gold you could even hold in your bag/bank was around 4 billion. Individual pieces of gear were going for 200 billion a piece. The community had to unanimously pick an item to ''hold'' gold so you could buy a bunch of that '1 bil worth item' to store your billions and trade with that item rather than gold

ESO economy is absolutely fine

supaskrub

Why do i still make over 500k per day everyday?

Rawst

I'm not sure if selling skin runs (for gold) can be stopped, that's technically not cheating, but selling Emperor really should be punished somehow.

Would be nice to have a handful of ingame moderators (on each platform and server). There's that loadscreen text telling you not to fall for anyone pretending to be a GM, because real GMs have a Z next to their names, but there are none to be found unfortunately.
If they were present, zone chat would be much nicer and they could ban bot accs instantly. Why are there no GMs?

Anrose

“Money can be exchanged for goods and services.”

If someone wants to pay in-game gold to a PvE guild for a carry through vMoL or vHoF to get the skin, what’s the issue? It’s their gold to spend.

If soneone wants to pay in-game gold to a PvP guild for them to help them farm the AP needed and then to flip the ring to get emperor, what’s the issue? It’s their gold to spend. (Notice I did not use the word “boost” as it’s possible to achieve this without boosting AP.)

You’re paying other players for a service with an agreed upon value. As long as these things are not bought with IRL money, then you have no arguement.

Ch4mpTW

FireCowCommando wrote: »

Theres close to zero moderation for the console platforms, pretty much anything short of holding a *** rally (actually happened on ps4, they even handed out bans to even random people in the zone) ZoS completely ignores.

@FireCowCommando The people who were banned are back on PS4-NA. Every single 1 of them. ZOS didn’t do an IP ban, and peep this. Some of the folks who were banned from it were cocky enough to use their same aliases, with just a letter or symbol at the front and or ends of their new PSN ID’s. Lmao. So now all of those racist and elitist scumbags who had that rally back in full effect.

Rawst wrote: »

I'm not sure if selling skin runs (for gold) can be stopped, that's technically not cheating, but selling Emperor really should be punished somehow.

Would be nice to have a handful of ingame moderators (on each platform and server). There's that loadscreen text telling you not to fall for anyone pretending to be a GM, because real GMs have a Z next to their names, but there are none to be found unfortunately.
If they were present, zone chat would be much nicer and they could ban bot accs instantly. Why are there no GMs?

See. This bothers me. It “triggers” me, as a lot of the new millennial generation love to say. Why is it not acceptable in PvP, but totally fair game in PvE? That is so screwed up to me. It shouldn’t be tolerated across the board, and should be punishable to highest level. Boosting should NEVER be acceptable. Period.

Mettaricana

Let it hit rock bottom i think the issue was we all placed to much value on our junk and now we cant afford the inflation of our junk...

Simple fix majority stop paying so much prices will drop. And zos needs to stop letting crap go un checked

N0TPLAYER2

I think you make these posts from the toilet while you aren't playing eso.

Mitrenga

I can talk for PC EU only and can tell there is no gold seller problem at the moment. It was terrible at the first year of the game.

As for the general state of the trading, I believe PC EU is having a good amount of people starting or returning the game since the Morrowind Chapter. As a recruiter for the three of the top guilds in PC EU, I can tell the new players are enjoying about learning to trade and looking for tips to earning "legit" gold.

FloppyTouch

Guild illuminati xb NA you cant have a guild trader if it's not okay with these guys #fact

Kiralyn2000

Ch4mpTW wrote: »

See. This bothers me. It “triggers” me, as a lot of the new millennial generation love to say. Why is it not acceptable in PvP, but totally fair game in PvE? That is so screwed up to me. It shouldn’t be tolerated across the board, and should be punishable to highest level. Boosting should NEVER be acceptable. Period.

Pretty sure guilds selling runs for things that they "have on farm" has existed for a long time. I certainly remember people doing it in vanilla WoW with the 40-man raids. Can't imagine no-one did it in earlier games. Seems like a normal part of MMO culture.

PvP, on the other hand, is theoretically supposed to be a fair competition between opposing teams - which means that 'selling' any of the results of that is the result of match fixing/collusion/cheating/etc.


(Or, IRL - getting a group of folks together to build a deck for your construction-impaired buddy is fine, rigging the football game isn't. Paying an artist to paint you an awesome portrait is good; paying a couple dudes on the opposing basketball team to throw the game, not so much.)

NoTimeToWait

Ch4mpTW wrote: »

I’ve come to the realization that the economy is pretty much in the worst shape that it has ever been. And is steadily getting worse...

There are people buying gold right and left, as well as people selling gold and accounts for real life currency (or PS cards). There is a market now for buying and selling trial skins and titles, as well as buying and selling emperor. There are bots running rampant, with no sign of slowing down. As well as that of a huge increase of hustlers and flippers. The people who sit there are and post in zone chat about how you’ll receive “instant payment”, for selling your crafting materials and to them for far below what they are truly worth.

Some would argue that these are the signs of a bustling and healthy economy. Every MMO has economy issues to a certain extent. ESO is no different, but I don't think that it's not healthy.

When a new player (one-two month into the game without deep knowledge about existing markets) can get enough ingame legit gold in reasonable time (2-3 weeks) to support any idea that might appear in his head - I thinks this is a sign of a healthy economy. When you don't need to dedicate yourself to gold farming and can support your day to day PVE or PVP activities by the means provided ingame - that is well balanced economy

Dapper Dinosaur

Be honest. If anyone ever sells their items for those prices, don't they deserve to be robbed?

Peekachu99

AzraelKrieg wrote: »

Blobsky wrote: »

You must be console, ghost guilds dont exist on PC EU because people dont lowball

Same with PC-NA. No issues on there.

Umm there was a ghost guild in Rawl literally two weeks ago beside Ethereal Traders. They had some worms in their shop and that’s about it. So you don’t know what you’re talking about.

The economy in this game is broken af. Why we’re debating it at this point seems like willful ignorance.

Ch4mpTW

Dapper Dinosaur wrote: »

Be honest. If anyone ever sells their items for those prices, don't they deserve to be robbed?

No. Because they can be no players, that may not know the value of what they have. It’s incredibly disheartening to come across a new player in zone chat, who is disgruntled and depressed at the fact that they sold away tons of tempering alloys for as low as 5k each to someone who made them believe that they were buying them at their market price. You really can sit back, and say, “Well, that’s their problem for not checking.” Really? Especially when their new to the game, and unfamiliar with things like price checks and all that?

If so, then I have to ask you this. Since when did we as a community find predatory practices like that okay? It was only within the past year or so that people started popping up, and making those posts in zone chat like what you listed. Some of those people who post those types of things even go on to later brag in guilds that are merchant/trader oriented of how they scammed and or tricked new players out of millions of gold worth of items. That’s sick, dude. Seriously. That’s seriously F’d up.

TequilaFire

@Ch4mpTW are you sure your name isn't Chicken Little in real life?
I kid, I kid!

Ch4mpTW

TequilaFire wrote: »

@Ch4mpTW are you sure your name isn't Chicken Little in real life?
I kid, I kid!

It’s Stuart. Stuart Little. But the homies in the park call me Stu’ for short.

lucky_Sage

as ive played both console(ps4) and pc, console economy is trash everything is overpriced. its a lot easier to do real money on there since they just give a code so 12 year kids can do it. they just ask the mom for 10 psn and they get then by gold