How to stop the crowns inflation

Amottica

spartaxoxo wrote: »

wtlonewolf20 wrote: »

Addons are not the sole reason for inflation. Go look at the CP2.0 crafting tree.

None of the in-game things are causing it or console would also have it

I expect inflation occurs on all three platforms but to different degrees. Gold sellers are a strong reason for inflation and considering how a PC can operate multipole games at the same time the gold farming for gold sellers should be much more significant on PC.

hafgood

Consoles have been acknowledged by Zos to be about 2/3rds of their player base, on top of this in my main guild we have members ranging in age from about 20 to 70, there are a lot of us 50+ on the console.

If I wanted I could afford to go out and buy the most expensive gaming pc on the market but I CHOOSE to play on the PlayStation.

So comments and suggestions as to the make up of our playerbase are derogatory and insulting.

The fact remains this is a pc problem, and in fact a very small problem affecting a very small proportion of the pc playerbase - those that are complaining about the cost of crowns

Kwoung

Hallothiel wrote: »

Food for thought though, on one platform everyone is playing on a $250-500 device, on the other everyone is using a $1,000-6,000+ device. This in itself can be interpreted many different ways (affordability, frugality, simple preference, etc...), but it is a fairly huge difference.

Sorry but that is rubbish. You seriously telling me that everyone on PC is playing on a mega expensive set up?! I really really doubt it, seeing as when ESO first came out, could play it on my son’s laptop (£400 at the time).

I think your comment is rather derogatory and presumes a hell of a lot about what people play on and why, in a rather snarky way.

First off, $1000 is not a mega expensive PC setup, and currently can barely (if even) buy a gaming PC, as the graphics card costs more than that alone. It is pretty much a bare minimum setup on a gaming PC (even 2 years ago), as you are hard pressed to get any sort of performance out of less and a console would perform infinitely better. Secondly, some of you are really reading in things I did not say or mean at all.

Let's make this easy... maybe console player have way more disposable income and are much more likely to just buy crowns themselves, than have to turn to other players willing to sell them for gold. That alone would depress the crown market on consoles considerably, as unlike PC's, it would be a buyers market and if someone wanted to offload crowns, they would be forced to do it cheaply. I am not saying that is true, as IDK, but it would be yet another difference in the markets.

I was simply stating there are differences between the platforms and the folks who play on them, thus there will be differences in their economies, the value of gold, value of crown items, etc. in peoples minds. If you felt me comparing prices of platforms was derogatory, that is on you, I actually meant it as a complement, as I alluded to with saying frugal, which is a good thing, not a dig.

Say two nearly identical people with the same income, bills, etc...find $100 lying in the street. One of them decides to splurge on an evening out, the other decides he can not afford to do that. Affordability is not just a measure of what you have, it is a personal choice on what you choose to do with, it and for every person it will be different. Some people choose to play on a PC, some on console, there is nothing wrong with either, but to deny that the folks that choose to go one way or the other do not share some commonalities, is the actual rubbish. Anyone reading negative connotations into that, just has some hang-ups, as none were meant. There are benefits to both platforms and both are equally viable to play the game on.

EDIT: And no, nothing should be done on one to fix some perceived issue that would affect the other.

noblecron

wtlonewolf20 wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

wtlonewolf20 wrote: »

There is a solution to all of this and tbh I expect ZOS to pull the trigger on it at some point. And that would be to simply make crown gifting in exchange for gold a banable offense. Or just remove the option to gift crown store items. They can do either.

That's the worst solution imaginable from both ZOS and the player's side, so I really doubt they'd do that. It's a truly terrible way of fixing things.

What they should do is simply destroy the Crown Exchange Discords by offering a proper trade interface for secure trading. If there was no longer a middleman destroying the economy, crown prices would stabilize.

It's not a good solution for ZOS to pull the plug on it. But it would be easier for them to do that than it would be to develop a secure way to process gifting for crowns, and any and all involved hassles. Like i said i expect them to do it at some point, doesn't mean that they will.

The Crown Exchange Discords would still exist because, assuming ZOS goes as far as making a secure way to transfer funds, there would still be a need to get buyers in touch with sellers to ensure the transactions happen. I even know of a few exchanges where the middleperson as it were took absolutely 0 cut from transactions and charged no fees. they do exist.

What a secure system would NOT do is overly impact the prices of the exchanges. I have sold crowns, and i have never had a breach of trust or been scammed. Crown Rates are player driven and based on supply and demand. Right now it is very much a sellers market.

Also, you have to remember this you are talking about IRL funds being consumed in exchange for currency in a digital world where those same digital funds can not be converted back into IRL funds. For someone in my local region to buy crowns right now for 21k its about $165 USD (includes sales tax) that is no small chunk of change, even after a sale. there are a lot of IRL things that I and others can/need to do with those funds that can and will take priority over crowns.

So at the end of the day what we have is ONE currency that is created by playing a game, that is exchanged for another currency that is generated by purchasing an ingame currency used for mostly cosmetic items using IRL funds.

To be perfectly honest here, the conversion rates are likely going to get worse before they get better, and the only relief to it is going to be if ZOS either stops producing crown only cosmetics, Allows players to buy crowns with gold directly from ZOS (setting their own locked conversion rate), or if ZOS permanently decreases crown costs (Sales are temporary relielf). I don't see ZOS doing any of this.

This, we need this

Araneae6537

Troodon80 wrote: »

Araneae6537 wrote: »

Do you mean gold inflation rather than Crown inflation? Because Crowns buy as much as they used to, although some newer items do cost more than some of their older counterparts. On PC NA Crowns were around 200:1 when I started in mid-2019 and they have fluctuated up and down since then. This year the rate seemed to vary between 200 and 400 early on and now between 400 and 600. I think part of it is ZOS improving the Crown store and there are more items that people want so that’s a good thing. Some of my guildies say that it’s TCE setting prices and too many people blindly following what they set. I have no idea about that.

I'm making a wild guess here in saying that they're referring primarily to PC-EU, where the average crown rate is 1500:1. Up from the ~400:1 that it started with in 2018.

It sounds like it’s worse on EU but I see people pushing for higher rates on NA too at times. Of course people may sell their Crowns at whatever rate they want, if they can find a buyer, but some people get weirdly defensive about it. Like someone advertising in zone that they were selling Crowns so I messaged to ask their rate because sometimes I find great deals this way. However, 700:1 is anything but a great deal so I just thanked them for the reply but that it was more than I was looking to spend. I expected the conversation to end there, but they wanted to know what I wanted to spend and then to argue that the rate had been over 800:1 for weeks. Um, no, but good luck with that…

And then there was even an advertisement to use TCE at the rate of 1000:1. Their middlemen must make a killing. Yeah, safe and guaranteed, know exactly how much you are overpaying I guess. At those rates, I’d much rather take my chances.

guarstompemoji

How much do Skyreach carries run on console?

How much on PC?

tmbrinks

Araneae6537 wrote: »

Troodon80 wrote: »

Araneae6537 wrote: »

Do you mean gold inflation rather than Crown inflation? Because Crowns buy as much as they used to, although some newer items do cost more than some of their older counterparts. On PC NA Crowns were around 200:1 when I started in mid-2019 and they have fluctuated up and down since then. This year the rate seemed to vary between 200 and 400 early on and now between 400 and 600. I think part of it is ZOS improving the Crown store and there are more items that people want so that’s a good thing. Some of my guildies say that it’s TCE setting prices and too many people blindly following what they set. I have no idea about that.

I'm making a wild guess here in saying that they're referring primarily to PC-EU, where the average crown rate is 1500:1. Up from the ~400:1 that it started with in 2018.

It sounds like it’s worse on EU but I see people pushing for higher rates on NA too at times. Of course people may sell their Crowns at whatever rate they want, if they can find a buyer, but some people get weirdly defensive about it. Like someone advertising in zone that they were selling Crowns so I messaged to ask their rate because sometimes I find great deals this way. However, 700:1 is anything but a great deal so I just thanked them for the reply but that it was more than I was looking to spend. I expected the conversation to end there, but they wanted to know what I wanted to spend and then to argue that the rate had been over 800:1 for weeks. Um, no, but good luck with that…

And then there was even an advertisement to use TCE at the rate of 1000:1. Their middlemen must make a killing. Yeah, safe and guaranteed, know exactly how much you are overpaying I guess. At those rates, I’d much rather take my chances.

TCE has their fees openly stated in their discord. For most sales, it's 3%, far less than what you pay to use a guild trader in ESO. So if you have more than 1 sale in 30 go bad doing it "overland", you'll have lost out.

That said, people are free to do whatever they want, buy wherever. It is an open market. The crowns discords just seek to make it safer (and generally sell at, or just above, market rate)

M0ntie

Actually, usually there is zero management cut in TCE. I sell with them. For example, when someone is buying something worth 2500 crowns for 2500,000 gold, as a seller I collect and keep the entire 2500,000 gold (and gift the item worth 2500 crowns of course). The premium you pay with TCE is because of the security.

The rate used to be 1:400 about a year ago. I don't really understand why there is so much demand for crowns, which is what is driving the price up.

Rasande_Robin

How to stop the crowns inflation?

Get a part time job at mc-donalds and undercut the sales, yourself.

JN_Slevin

Here is what i dont understand about this whole discussion.

What do you guys think will happen if you somehow cap the crown price at lets say a random number 250 g each.

There wont be more sellers, there would be less.

There wont be less buyers, there would be more.

Therefore there would be more buyers to less sellers. Sure youll maybe get your crowns at 250 g each, but youre gonna wait like 6 months before even having the option to do so.

High prices high supply,

Low prices no supply.

Those are the options. You cant just say "YO there is a cap now deal with it, now everything is perfect", you CANNOT just ignore the basic principles of supply and demand. They will always catch up.

jle30303

There is one gold-sink that I would certainly take part in, without hesitation:

There are a load of in-game houses, in the vanilla zones, which can be bought with either gold or crowns "unfurnished", but can only be bought with crowns "furnished".

If it were possible to buy the "furnished" version for gold, I would do so without a moment's hesitation.

As it is, I don't want to buy the "unfurnished" version for gold, because I don't want to have to provide the initial furnishings of a house myself, nor have an unfurnished house. And I don't want to buy the "furnished" version for crowns because there are too many houses and not enough crowns, and I'm saving up enough for the occasional purchase of limited-time houses (which are themselves highly expensive) and don't have enough crowns to spend on the vanilla-game houses.

So I end up spending neither, and the vanilla-game houses which I would like to collect, remain unbought.

Let me buy the furnished versions of vanilla-game houses for gold, and I'll spend tons more gold on them...

K9002

jle30303 wrote: »

There is one gold-sink that I would certainly take part in, without hesitation:

There are a load of in-game houses, in the vanilla zones, which can be bought with either gold or crowns "unfurnished", but can only be bought with crowns "furnished".

If it were possible to buy the "furnished" version for gold, I would do so without a moment's hesitation.

As it is, I don't want to buy the "unfurnished" version for gold, because I don't want to have to provide the initial furnishings of a house myself, nor have an unfurnished house. And I don't want to buy the "furnished" version for crowns because there are too many houses and not enough crowns, and I'm saving up enough for the occasional purchase of limited-time houses (which are themselves highly expensive) and don't have enough crowns to spend on the vanilla-game houses.

So I end up spending neither, and the vanilla-game houses which I would like to collect, remain unbought.

Let me buy the furnished versions of vanilla-game houses for gold, and I'll spend tons more gold on them...

This is a good idea. I think we should be able to furnish already purchased houses as well. To avoid any complications, it should require emptying the plot first.

If only the furnishing limit issues could be resolved, I would advocate for the system formerly used in Rift. Housing plots could have their furnishing limits extended in five tiers. For example the dedicated guild plots usually started at around 600 slots and could be extended to whooping 5000 slots. Every tier could be unlocked with regular gold, regardless of the house being bought with gold, cash shop currency, or obtained through other means like events. I would definitely spend gold to extend the current limits in increments of 10, at increasing costs, so much like the inventory and bank upgrades. Naturally subscribers would get double value out of this.

FeedbackOnly

Invite more people to crown trading discords

Araneae6537

M0ntie wrote: »

Actually, usually there is zero management cut in TCE. I sell with them. For example, when someone is buying something worth 2500 crowns for 2500,000 gold, as a seller I collect and keep the entire 2500,000 gold (and gift the item worth 2500 crowns of course). The premium you pay with TCE is because of the security.

The rate used to be 1:400 about a year ago. I don't really understand why there is so much demand for crowns, which is what is driving the price up.

It makes sense to me that demand would be much higher than a year ago. There used to be sooo little rotating through the Crown store. I even bought some things last year that I otherwise consider overpriced, even including an outfit slot because what else was I going to buy when I had no interest in crates? Now we can gift houses AND so much more has been rotating through the Crown store every month. So in that respect, raising Crown prices reflects a good thing.

Maybe I was too quick to put stock in what some people in one of my guilds were saying about TCE and Crown prices when demand alone could account for it. To me, 1000:1 is too high when the highest in zone is 800:1 (even that is more than I can afford now) but maybe it is the amount of Crowns per transaction and the security and people are welcome to their choices.

spartaxoxo

Araneae6537 wrote: »

Maybe I was too quick to put stock in what some people in one of my guilds were saying about TCE and Crown prices when demand alone could account for it. To me, 1000:1 is too high when the highest in zone is 800:1 (even that is more than I can afford now) but maybe it is the amount of Crowns per transaction and the security and people are welcome to their choices.

Crowns are still mostly 100:1 on console.

xeNNNNN

WereElf wrote: »

Disclaimer: This topic's purpose is not to discuss if anything SHOULD be done about the inflation of the crowns, but rather if the devs were willing to do something, then which would be the most efficient way.

A year ago, crowns used to cost 200 gold each. Now they cost around 1500 gold each, or 7,5 times more. The reason for this is simple: as time passes, more and more gold is generated and stored within the player population. And the more gold they have - the more gold they are willing to spend. Since the biggest gold transactions happen between players, the gold is only being redistributed, instead of being "consumed". There are very few things that you need to buy from NPCs for gold, and they are usually cheap. The expensive things (like houses) are one-time-purchase. So the game is simply lacking a "gold sink", which is the cause of the gold accumulation and the price increases.

On the other hand, we are constantly getting new things to spend crowns on (such as crates), so there is a constant "need" for crowns, and unlike gold - all of them are being disposed of, rather than being redistributed.
When on one side of the scale you put a resource that is constantly accumulating, and on the other side you put a diminishing, scarce resource, then it's normal for you to need more and more gold to purchase the same amount of crowns.

Before I go into "how can we deal with the inflation", I'd just state what would be the pros and cons of this:
Pros: It will be easier for new players to get into the game. The gold generation rate for new players hasn't increased much, unless they actually know what to farm, and sell what they get in the Auction House. But that is not the profile of the average new player (afaik), and therefore the majority of new players is facing bigger obstacles that they need to overcome, than old players had to face in their early days.
Cons: Dealing with the inflation may lead to less crown purchases, depending on the way it has been dealt with. So the management team would have to think if they want to bring more new players into the game, or keep milking the current ones for as long as possible.

And now let's get to the main part of the topic:
1) Introduce a gold sink - bring something to the game, that costs a lot of gold, and is not a one-time-purchase. Like some extremely potent food/drink, that costs 1 mil gold per piece.
Pros: this is the least intrusive way to deal with the inflation. It targets the "accumulative" property of the gold. Would be healthy for the game to have a gold sink, even if its purpose is not specifically to reduce the price of the crowns.
Cons: it may be the least efficient way, if the "gold sink" items are not desirable enough.

2) Make a 1-time gift of 5000 crowns to all players. When the amount of crowns in the game is increased, their value will drop. Players, who needed 3500 crowns for something, and were looking to buy them, will now have 1500 crowns, that they'd want to sell. The market will be saturated quickly, and this will lead to reduced prices.
Pros: It will be highly effective, and it can be presented as "a Christmas gift", for example.
Cons: It's a short-term solution, and would need to be repeated occasionally, if it's to be effective. This solution may lead to losses in revenue, and it doesn't take care of the core of the problem.

3) Gift every player 150-250 crowns every month, even if they don't have ESO+. Similar to solution 2, but in a more balanced manner.
Pros: It will reduce the demand for crowns and thus their price.
Cons: It will not take care of the core of the problem. It will require a few months before the effect of this is felt.

4) Allow players to buy crowns for fixed amount of gold (and vice versa), from designated NPCs. This way the value of crowns will be determined by the game, rather than by the "free market" within the game.
Pros: simple, secure, effective. It works as a gold sink, since players will be disposing their gold, when they are purchasing items for crowns, that they've bought with gold.
Cons: may lead to a loss of revenue, if the price is set too low. Could be counter-productive, if the price is set too high.
Additional thoughts: Introducing new, desirable items for crowns, will be an effective way to control inflation in the future, even after this system has been implemented once. Since this system will be depleting the players' gold, if the demand for crowns is too high, then players will still need to be purchasing crowns the regular way.

In my opinion, solution (4) is the best one. Although, a combination between solutions 1, 2 and 3 could also be effective. Introducing a gold sink, while also starting to give players a sustained amount of crowns every month will keep the crown price in check. While the immediate gift of higher amount of crowns (could be 2000, if done in combination with the rest) will help with bringing down their price more quickly.

I highly doubt that anything will be done in this regard. Especially when we take into consideration how Zeni refuses to even give us a secure way to trade crowns between each other. But sometimes it's nice to speculate, and I kind a wanted to bring their attention to this problem, regardless if they're willing to solve it or not.

Option 4 is the best option there;
Star Trek Online (STO) does the same thing but for "Dilithium", They call it the dilithium exchange, this means that what people earn in-game can help them gain things they otherwise would have to spend money for by trading in those resources in order to gain "Zen" and then in the reverse you can also buy dilithium with "zeN". It is the only damned good thing about that game because the "Zen" you pay for is not only overpriced but their store is excessively overpriced. £35 in some cases for a tier 6 ship and most tier 6 ships can't be earned in-game. Which is just gross.

A gold to crowns conversion market of some sort influenced by the player base would help a lot however ZoS would have to manually control some things to prevent specific groups of players from ripping said exchange and other players. It will have some issues though, if gold suddenly becomes scarce.

I would also argue that based on the prices in ESO, the costs of housing, General store items and various other utility purchases they gain more than enough revenue to do this and risk a loss. Its just a matter of whether or not they care enough about the player to do so. I will also say that this would need to function like a proper exchange system and not something jury rigged. Assuming it happens at all.


And no mods, I am not blaspheming the holy chronicle that is our crown store, I am merely stating the obvious here. Keep that hammer away from me.

Araneae6537

@xeNNNNN Why do you think such a system would be beneficial? Players have the option of going through a service like TCE for security and there are other options too, as in one of my guilds, the officers will upon request help with trades to ensure security. I would expect that if ZOS set up a system to exchange gold for Crowns that both sides would get less — at least this is how it is in GW2 with their equivalent, Gems. This might be at least in part to make it less profitable (if at all) to buy up when the rate is low and sell when it is high. In ESO this isn’t an issue since you’re buying items from the Crownstore rather than Crowns themselves.

Sure, sometimes I can’t find Crowns for the price I want to pay, but I never thought this was a problem ZOS should fix. If I really want a limited time item, I’ll buy the Crowns myself. Otherwise, I am patience and await a good deal. I got a thousand the other day at 400:1 perhaps in part because I told them what the going rate was (Idk, but I assume they were bombarded after posting their WTS in zone chat yet they sold to me).

If the system you propose were to be optional and not take away what we have now, I certainly would have nothing against it.

xeNNNNN

Araneae6537 wrote: »

@xeNNNNN Why do you think such a system would be beneficial? Players have the option of going through a service like TCE for security and there are other options too, as in one of my guilds, the officers will upon request help with trades to ensure security. I would expect that if ZOS set up a system to exchange gold for Crowns that both sides would get less — at least this is how it is in GW2 with their equivalent, Gems. This might be at least in part to make it less profitable (if at all) to buy up when the rate is low and sell when it is high. In ESO this isn’t an issue since you’re buying items from the Crownstore rather than Crowns themselves.

Sure, sometimes I can’t find Crowns for the price I want to pay, but I never thought this was a problem ZOS should fix. If I really want a limited time item, I’ll buy the Crowns myself. Otherwise, I am patience and await a good deal. I got a thousand the other day at 400:1 perhaps in part because I told them what the going rate was (Idk, but I assume they were bombarded after posting their WTS in zone chat yet they sold to me).

If the system you propose were to be optional and not take away what we have now, I certainly would have nothing against it.

Optional generally is what I have in mind as thats the framework for what it is in STO as well.

While I generally don't have anything against people selling crowns for gold individually, I'd much prefer a place where those who are afraid of getting scammed (because it does happen) to go so they can exchange their gold for crowns and vice versa when in need it of it via an exchange, alternatively it can be for new players as well to get them used to such a thing. The alternative is of course added a new currency to trade for crowns, but then it would just become like the other games, perhaps its the only way though.

I will also say, the amount of gold circulating the game now is staggering and as that occurs it becomes more and more pricey for items on guild stores meaning that more and more people will be priced out of the stores. As more and more new players come to try and play the game they'll find themselves in a position where they can't afford anything and that its so daunting attempting to acquire that much gold that they might just give up. We need some way to force prices down, because I dont think ZoS will artificially change the drop rates in order to do that, at least from what I have seen they wont anyway. I perceive this as a problem, at least for now.

We can't pretend like this is a real economy, without a tax system without some sort of controls and a proper exchange system we somewhat have to wing it.

wolfie1.0.

xeNNNNN wrote: »

WereElf wrote: »

Disclaimer: This topic's purpose is not to discuss if anything SHOULD be done about the inflation of the crowns, but rather if the devs were willing to do something, then which would be the most efficient way.

A year ago, crowns used to cost 200 gold each. Now they cost around 1500 gold each, or 7,5 times more. The reason for this is simple: as time passes, more and more gold is generated and stored within the player population. And the more gold they have - the more gold they are willing to spend. Since the biggest gold transactions happen between players, the gold is only being redistributed, instead of being "consumed". There are very few things that you need to buy from NPCs for gold, and they are usually cheap. The expensive things (like houses) are one-time-purchase. So the game is simply lacking a "gold sink", which is the cause of the gold accumulation and the price increases.

On the other hand, we are constantly getting new things to spend crowns on (such as crates), so there is a constant "need" for crowns, and unlike gold - all of them are being disposed of, rather than being redistributed.
When on one side of the scale you put a resource that is constantly accumulating, and on the other side you put a diminishing, scarce resource, then it's normal for you to need more and more gold to purchase the same amount of crowns.

Before I go into "how can we deal with the inflation", I'd just state what would be the pros and cons of this:
Pros: It will be easier for new players to get into the game. The gold generation rate for new players hasn't increased much, unless they actually know what to farm, and sell what they get in the Auction House. But that is not the profile of the average new player (afaik), and therefore the majority of new players is facing bigger obstacles that they need to overcome, than old players had to face in their early days.
Cons: Dealing with the inflation may lead to less crown purchases, depending on the way it has been dealt with. So the management team would have to think if they want to bring more new players into the game, or keep milking the current ones for as long as possible.

And now let's get to the main part of the topic:
1) Introduce a gold sink - bring something to the game, that costs a lot of gold, and is not a one-time-purchase. Like some extremely potent food/drink, that costs 1 mil gold per piece.
Pros: this is the least intrusive way to deal with the inflation. It targets the "accumulative" property of the gold. Would be healthy for the game to have a gold sink, even if its purpose is not specifically to reduce the price of the crowns.
Cons: it may be the least efficient way, if the "gold sink" items are not desirable enough.

2) Make a 1-time gift of 5000 crowns to all players. When the amount of crowns in the game is increased, their value will drop. Players, who needed 3500 crowns for something, and were looking to buy them, will now have 1500 crowns, that they'd want to sell. The market will be saturated quickly, and this will lead to reduced prices.
Pros: It will be highly effective, and it can be presented as "a Christmas gift", for example.
Cons: It's a short-term solution, and would need to be repeated occasionally, if it's to be effective. This solution may lead to losses in revenue, and it doesn't take care of the core of the problem.

3) Gift every player 150-250 crowns every month, even if they don't have ESO+. Similar to solution 2, but in a more balanced manner.
Pros: It will reduce the demand for crowns and thus their price.
Cons: It will not take care of the core of the problem. It will require a few months before the effect of this is felt.

4) Allow players to buy crowns for fixed amount of gold (and vice versa), from designated NPCs. This way the value of crowns will be determined by the game, rather than by the "free market" within the game.
Pros: simple, secure, effective. It works as a gold sink, since players will be disposing their gold, when they are purchasing items for crowns, that they've bought with gold.
Cons: may lead to a loss of revenue, if the price is set too low. Could be counter-productive, if the price is set too high.
Additional thoughts: Introducing new, desirable items for crowns, will be an effective way to control inflation in the future, even after this system has been implemented once. Since this system will be depleting the players' gold, if the demand for crowns is too high, then players will still need to be purchasing crowns the regular way.

In my opinion, solution (4) is the best one. Although, a combination between solutions 1, 2 and 3 could also be effective. Introducing a gold sink, while also starting to give players a sustained amount of crowns every month will keep the crown price in check. While the immediate gift of higher amount of crowns (could be 2000, if done in combination with the rest) will help with bringing down their price more quickly.

I highly doubt that anything will be done in this regard. Especially when we take into consideration how Zeni refuses to even give us a secure way to trade crowns between each other. But sometimes it's nice to speculate, and I kind a wanted to bring their attention to this problem, regardless if they're willing to solve it or not.

Option 4 is the best option there;
Star Trek Online (STO) does the same thing but for "Dilithium", They call it the dilithium exchange, this means that what people earn in-game can help them gain things they otherwise would have to spend money for by trading in those resources in order to gain "Zen" and then in the reverse you can also buy dilithium with "zeN". It is the only damned good thing about that game because the "Zen" you pay for is not only overpriced but their store is excessively overpriced. £35 in some cases for a tier 6 ship and most tier 6 ships can't be earned in-game. Which is just gross.

A gold to crowns conversion market of some sort influenced by the player base would help a lot however ZoS would have to manually control some things to prevent specific groups of players from ripping said exchange and other players. It will have some issues though, if gold suddenly becomes scarce.

I would also argue that based on the prices in ESO, the costs of housing, General store items and various other utility purchases they gain more than enough revenue to do this and risk a loss. Its just a matter of whether or not they care enough about the player to do so. I will also say that this would need to function like a proper exchange system and not something jury rigged. Assuming it happens at all.


And no mods, I am not blaspheming the holy chronicle that is our crown store, I am merely stating the obvious here. Keep that hammer away from me.

They can go with option 4, but I would expect items such as DLCs to be removed from the crown store and crowns from subs to disappear as a result. In addition I expect IRL costs of everything to go up.

Kwoung

xeNNNNN wrote: »

It is the only damned good thing about that game because the "Zen" you pay for is not only overpriced but their store is excessively overpriced. £35 in some cases for a tier 6 ship and most tier 6 ships can't be earned in-game. Which is just gross.

They are noobs at this, this is what they could be selling.... and yes that is US Dollars for a digital ship in a game that will probably never "release" and you generally can't play for more than 30 minutes without crashing:

Sylvermynx

Kwoung wrote: »

xeNNNNN wrote: »

It is the only damned good thing about that game because the "Zen" you pay for is not only overpriced but their store is excessively overpriced. £35 in some cases for a tier 6 ship and most tier 6 ships can't be earned in-game. Which is just gross.

They are noobs at this, this is what they could be selling.... and yes that is US Dollars for a digital ship in a game that will probably never "release" and you generally can't play for more than 30 minutes without crashing:

Um. And I thought I was a big spender.... Holy *words I can't say on camera*....

xeNNNNN

Kwoung wrote: »

xeNNNNN wrote: »

It is the only damned good thing about that game because the "Zen" you pay for is not only overpriced but their store is excessively overpriced. £35 in some cases for a tier 6 ship and most tier 6 ships can't be earned in-game. Which is just gross.

They are noobs at this, this is what they could be selling.... and yes that is US Dollars for a digital ship in a game that will probably never "release" and you generally can't play for more than 30 minutes without crashing:

Ah yes, Star Citizen.....
I really do not know what to say about those prices other than whoever is buying them is destroying their lives or simply has too much money.

Alternatively;
I wonder if they're using those ship prices as a form of tax avoidance? You know...dump money into "ships" in game and then leave them there as accumulated wealth. Then take it out as a company. Kind of like storing your money off shore. Something to think about.

xeNNNNN

wtlonewolf20 wrote: »

xeNNNNN wrote: »

WereElf wrote: »

Disclaimer: This topic's purpose is not to discuss if anything SHOULD be done about the inflation of the crowns, but rather if the devs were willing to do something, then which would be the most efficient way.

A year ago, crowns used to cost 200 gold each. Now they cost around 1500 gold each, or 7,5 times more. The reason for this is simple: as time passes, more and more gold is generated and stored within the player population. And the more gold they have - the more gold they are willing to spend. Since the biggest gold transactions happen between players, the gold is only being redistributed, instead of being "consumed". There are very few things that you need to buy from NPCs for gold, and they are usually cheap. The expensive things (like houses) are one-time-purchase. So the game is simply lacking a "gold sink", which is the cause of the gold accumulation and the price increases.

On the other hand, we are constantly getting new things to spend crowns on (such as crates), so there is a constant "need" for crowns, and unlike gold - all of them are being disposed of, rather than being redistributed.
When on one side of the scale you put a resource that is constantly accumulating, and on the other side you put a diminishing, scarce resource, then it's normal for you to need more and more gold to purchase the same amount of crowns.

Before I go into "how can we deal with the inflation", I'd just state what would be the pros and cons of this:
Pros: It will be easier for new players to get into the game. The gold generation rate for new players hasn't increased much, unless they actually know what to farm, and sell what they get in the Auction House. But that is not the profile of the average new player (afaik), and therefore the majority of new players is facing bigger obstacles that they need to overcome, than old players had to face in their early days.
Cons: Dealing with the inflation may lead to less crown purchases, depending on the way it has been dealt with. So the management team would have to think if they want to bring more new players into the game, or keep milking the current ones for as long as possible.

And now let's get to the main part of the topic:
1) Introduce a gold sink - bring something to the game, that costs a lot of gold, and is not a one-time-purchase. Like some extremely potent food/drink, that costs 1 mil gold per piece.
Pros: this is the least intrusive way to deal with the inflation. It targets the "accumulative" property of the gold. Would be healthy for the game to have a gold sink, even if its purpose is not specifically to reduce the price of the crowns.
Cons: it may be the least efficient way, if the "gold sink" items are not desirable enough.

2) Make a 1-time gift of 5000 crowns to all players. When the amount of crowns in the game is increased, their value will drop. Players, who needed 3500 crowns for something, and were looking to buy them, will now have 1500 crowns, that they'd want to sell. The market will be saturated quickly, and this will lead to reduced prices.
Pros: It will be highly effective, and it can be presented as "a Christmas gift", for example.
Cons: It's a short-term solution, and would need to be repeated occasionally, if it's to be effective. This solution may lead to losses in revenue, and it doesn't take care of the core of the problem.

3) Gift every player 150-250 crowns every month, even if they don't have ESO+. Similar to solution 2, but in a more balanced manner.
Pros: It will reduce the demand for crowns and thus their price.
Cons: It will not take care of the core of the problem. It will require a few months before the effect of this is felt.

4) Allow players to buy crowns for fixed amount of gold (and vice versa), from designated NPCs. This way the value of crowns will be determined by the game, rather than by the "free market" within the game.
Pros: simple, secure, effective. It works as a gold sink, since players will be disposing their gold, when they are purchasing items for crowns, that they've bought with gold.
Cons: may lead to a loss of revenue, if the price is set too low. Could be counter-productive, if the price is set too high.
Additional thoughts: Introducing new, desirable items for crowns, will be an effective way to control inflation in the future, even after this system has been implemented once. Since this system will be depleting the players' gold, if the demand for crowns is too high, then players will still need to be purchasing crowns the regular way.

In my opinion, solution (4) is the best one. Although, a combination between solutions 1, 2 and 3 could also be effective. Introducing a gold sink, while also starting to give players a sustained amount of crowns every month will keep the crown price in check. While the immediate gift of higher amount of crowns (could be 2000, if done in combination with the rest) will help with bringing down their price more quickly.

I highly doubt that anything will be done in this regard. Especially when we take into consideration how Zeni refuses to even give us a secure way to trade crowns between each other. But sometimes it's nice to speculate, and I kind a wanted to bring their attention to this problem, regardless if they're willing to solve it or not.

Option 4 is the best option there;
Star Trek Online (STO) does the same thing but for "Dilithium", They call it the dilithium exchange, this means that what people earn in-game can help them gain things they otherwise would have to spend money for by trading in those resources in order to gain "Zen" and then in the reverse you can also buy dilithium with "zeN". It is the only damned good thing about that game because the "Zen" you pay for is not only overpriced but their store is excessively overpriced. £35 in some cases for a tier 6 ship and most tier 6 ships can't be earned in-game. Which is just gross.

A gold to crowns conversion market of some sort influenced by the player base would help a lot however ZoS would have to manually control some things to prevent specific groups of players from ripping said exchange and other players. It will have some issues though, if gold suddenly becomes scarce.

I would also argue that based on the prices in ESO, the costs of housing, General store items and various other utility purchases they gain more than enough revenue to do this and risk a loss. Its just a matter of whether or not they care enough about the player to do so. I will also say that this would need to function like a proper exchange system and not something jury rigged. Assuming it happens at all.


And no mods, I am not blaspheming the holy chronicle that is our crown store, I am merely stating the obvious here. Keep that hammer away from me.

They can go with option 4, but I would expect items such as DLCs to be removed from the crown store and crowns from subs to disappear as a result. In addition I expect IRL costs of everything to go up.

It wouldn't effect DLC that much honestly seeing as bassically everyone and their mothers subs anyway.

As for everything else, as I pointed out to another above - it would be optional it wouldn't replace any existing system and the rates would likely be controlled which is why if it did happen it would probably not be gold but a new currency. ZoS wouldn't allow it to be done with gold anyway.

Blacknight841

DreamsUnderStars wrote: »

And in MMOs we will never run out of gold unless the generators that make it (the mobs) stop spawning. [snip]

[edited for bashing]

I agree with the source, but not necessarily the means of normal gameplay

Mobs may generate the gold, but when the mobs are farmed by bots… then it no longer is the mobs generating gold, but rather the bots generating gold.

Oreyn_Bearclaw

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Araneae6537 wrote: »

Maybe I was too quick to put stock in what some people in one of my guilds were saying about TCE and Crown prices when demand alone could account for it. To me, 1000:1 is too high when the highest in zone is 800:1 (even that is more than I can afford now) but maybe it is the amount of Crowns per transaction and the security and people are welcome to their choices.

Crowns are still mostly 100:1 on console.

That's because gold is worth much more on console. Almost everything that can be bought with gold is cheaper on console, which is 100% not surprising. What is the elephant in the room here? Much harder to do writs on console. Less gold comes into the game on console. Inflation is not nearly as much of an issue on console.

Not sure how many ways to say it, but Crown prices aren't about greed, they are about the value of the currency (in game gold) being used to purchase crowns from other players. The ability to easily print money (gold) out of thin air (crafting writs) drives inflation, which devalues the currency. Is it the only driver of inflation, of course not, but it is a massive contributor to the problem.

Kwoung

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Araneae6537 wrote: »

Maybe I was too quick to put stock in what some people in one of my guilds were saying about TCE and Crown prices when demand alone could account for it. To me, 1000:1 is too high when the highest in zone is 800:1 (even that is more than I can afford now) but maybe it is the amount of Crowns per transaction and the security and people are welcome to their choices.

Crowns are still mostly 100:1 on console.

That's because gold is worth much more on console. Almost everything that can be bought with gold is cheaper on console, which is 100% not surprising. What is the elephant in the room here? Much harder to do writs on console. Less gold comes into the game on console. Inflation is not nearly as much of an issue on console.

Not sure how many ways to say it, but Crown prices aren't about greed, they are about the value of the currency (in game gold) being used to purchase crowns from other players. The ability to easily print money (gold) out of thin air (crafting writs) drives inflation, which devalues the currency. Is it the only driver of inflation, of course not, but it is a massive contributor to the problem.

There is another part of the equation, which is the funneling of said vast amounts of gold to a smaller group of players, who can now afford pretty much anything (and I am not referring to the folks doing the writs). Thus prompting threads like this from those who haven't figured out or care to engage in that gameplay... and now see the exchange rate fly even farther out of their reach.

Oreyn_Bearclaw

Kwoung wrote: »

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Araneae6537 wrote: »

Maybe I was too quick to put stock in what some people in one of my guilds were saying about TCE and Crown prices when demand alone could account for it. To me, 1000:1 is too high when the highest in zone is 800:1 (even that is more than I can afford now) but maybe it is the amount of Crowns per transaction and the security and people are welcome to their choices.

Crowns are still mostly 100:1 on console.

That's because gold is worth much more on console. Almost everything that can be bought with gold is cheaper on console, which is 100% not surprising. What is the elephant in the room here? Much harder to do writs on console. Less gold comes into the game on console. Inflation is not nearly as much of an issue on console.

Not sure how many ways to say it, but Crown prices aren't about greed, they are about the value of the currency (in game gold) being used to purchase crowns from other players. The ability to easily print money (gold) out of thin air (crafting writs) drives inflation, which devalues the currency. Is it the only driver of inflation, of course not, but it is a massive contributor to the problem.

There is another part of the equation, which is the funneling of said vast amounts of gold to a smaller group of players, who can now afford pretty much anything (and I am not referring to the folks doing the writs). Thus prompting threads like this from those who haven't figured out or care to engage in that gameplay... and now see the exchange rate fly even farther out of their reach.

There are lots of parts to the equation. Gold (wealth) is consolidated, gold sinks are lacking, bots are farming, all this stuff is a factor.

But end of the day, crown prices (i.e. selling crowns to other players for gold), comes down the respective values of each currency, assuming overall supply and demand is relatively stable (no reason to think its not). Crown cost and prices in the crown store have been relatively stable. The ultimate issue is that gold, the currency used to purchase crowns, has devalued over time due to inflation. The most obvious source of inflation, as evident by the drastically different economies on console vs PC, is the ease at which players can create gold by doing writs. The supply of gold, especially on PC, is simply unsustainable (if keeping inflation in check is a goal, maybe its not).

Nobody, at least the people that do writs, wants to admit it, but it is clear as day. I really don't care. I don't buy crowns with gold (I have a good job IRL), and thanks to writs (which I almost never do anymore), I am rolling in in game gold and gold mats. I could play for another decade without making another gold piece and be just fine.

That said, if you want to address the problem of inflation, which in turn directly has caused the price of crowns for gold to increase, writs would be a darn good place to start, especially on PC.

Kwoung

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

Kwoung wrote: »

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Araneae6537 wrote: »

Maybe I was too quick to put stock in what some people in one of my guilds were saying about TCE and Crown prices when demand alone could account for it. To me, 1000:1 is too high when the highest in zone is 800:1 (even that is more than I can afford now) but maybe it is the amount of Crowns per transaction and the security and people are welcome to their choices.

Crowns are still mostly 100:1 on console.

That's because gold is worth much more on console. Almost everything that can be bought with gold is cheaper on console, which is 100% not surprising. What is the elephant in the room here? Much harder to do writs on console. Less gold comes into the game on console. Inflation is not nearly as much of an issue on console.

Not sure how many ways to say it, but Crown prices aren't about greed, they are about the value of the currency (in game gold) being used to purchase crowns from other players. The ability to easily print money (gold) out of thin air (crafting writs) drives inflation, which devalues the currency. Is it the only driver of inflation, of course not, but it is a massive contributor to the problem.

There is another part of the equation, which is the funneling of said vast amounts of gold to a smaller group of players, who can now afford pretty much anything (and I am not referring to the folks doing the writs). Thus prompting threads like this from those who haven't figured out or care to engage in that gameplay... and now see the exchange rate fly even farther out of their reach.

There are lots of parts to the equation. Gold (wealth) is consolidated, gold sinks are lacking, bots are farming, all this stuff is a factor.

But end of the day, crown prices (i.e. selling crowns to other players for gold), comes down the respective values of each currency, assuming overall supply and demand is relatively stable (no reason to think its not). Crown cost and prices in the crown store have been relatively stable. The ultimate issue is that gold, the currency used to purchase crowns, has devalued over time due to inflation. The most obvious source of inflation, as evident by the drastically different economies on console vs PC, is the ease at which players can create gold by doing writs. The supply of gold, especially on PC, is simply unsustainable (if keeping inflation in check is a goal, maybe its not).

Nobody, at least the people that do writs, wants to admit it, but it is clear as day. I really don't care. I don't buy crowns with gold (I have a good job IRL), and thanks to writs (which I almost never do anymore), I am rolling in in game gold and gold mats. I could play for another decade without making another gold piece and be just fine.

That said, if you want to address the problem of inflation, which in turn directly has caused the price of crowns for gold to increase, writs would be a darn good place to start, especially on PC.

While quite true that inflation is a major factor (BTW, my situation is almost exactly like yours apparently), distribution is also just as much so. If it were simply inflation, everyone would be able to afford whatever the rate was, because the inflation happened across the board and affects everyone evenly, which is far from the case.

So even without inflation, the distribution factor would still come into play. As long as a set of players can afford something, the folks selling that something will price it accordingly, and leave a whole other set of players unable to even afford it. Kind of like houses in the US (I can't speak for the rest of the world). But back in the day, an average Joe working any blue collar job could afford a home for his family. This however, has not been the case for a great many years now. We all live here, we all experience the same inflation, but now Joes money isn't enough to buy a home, simply because others can afford to pay more for the home than Joe can.

EDIT: To clarify and stop beating around the bush, it is my belief that addons such as TTC, MM, ATT & AGS have had a much larger impact on the economy and exchange rates, than doing any amount of master writs has.

Oreyn_Bearclaw

Kwoung wrote: »

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

Kwoung wrote: »

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Araneae6537 wrote: »

Maybe I was too quick to put stock in what some people in one of my guilds were saying about TCE and Crown prices when demand alone could account for it. To me, 1000:1 is too high when the highest in zone is 800:1 (even that is more than I can afford now) but maybe it is the amount of Crowns per transaction and the security and people are welcome to their choices.

Crowns are still mostly 100:1 on console.

That's because gold is worth much more on console. Almost everything that can be bought with gold is cheaper on console, which is 100% not surprising. What is the elephant in the room here? Much harder to do writs on console. Less gold comes into the game on console. Inflation is not nearly as much of an issue on console.

Not sure how many ways to say it, but Crown prices aren't about greed, they are about the value of the currency (in game gold) being used to purchase crowns from other players. The ability to easily print money (gold) out of thin air (crafting writs) drives inflation, which devalues the currency. Is it the only driver of inflation, of course not, but it is a massive contributor to the problem.

There is another part of the equation, which is the funneling of said vast amounts of gold to a smaller group of players, who can now afford pretty much anything (and I am not referring to the folks doing the writs). Thus prompting threads like this from those who haven't figured out or care to engage in that gameplay... and now see the exchange rate fly even farther out of their reach.

There are lots of parts to the equation. Gold (wealth) is consolidated, gold sinks are lacking, bots are farming, all this stuff is a factor.

But end of the day, crown prices (i.e. selling crowns to other players for gold), comes down the respective values of each currency, assuming overall supply and demand is relatively stable (no reason to think its not). Crown cost and prices in the crown store have been relatively stable. The ultimate issue is that gold, the currency used to purchase crowns, has devalued over time due to inflation. The most obvious source of inflation, as evident by the drastically different economies on console vs PC, is the ease at which players can create gold by doing writs. The supply of gold, especially on PC, is simply unsustainable (if keeping inflation in check is a goal, maybe its not).

Nobody, at least the people that do writs, wants to admit it, but it is clear as day. I really don't care. I don't buy crowns with gold (I have a good job IRL), and thanks to writs (which I almost never do anymore), I am rolling in in game gold and gold mats. I could play for another decade without making another gold piece and be just fine.

That said, if you want to address the problem of inflation, which in turn directly has caused the price of crowns for gold to increase, writs would be a darn good place to start, especially on PC.

While quite true that inflation is a major factor (BTW, my situation is almost exactly like yours apparently), distribution is also just as much so. If it were simply inflation, everyone would be able to afford whatever the rate was, because the inflation happened across the board and affects everyone evenly, which is far from the case.

So even without inflation, the distribution factor would still come into play. As long as a set of players can afford something, the folks selling that something will price it accordingly, and leave a whole other set of players unable to even afford it. Kind of like houses in the US (I can't speak for the rest of the world). But back in the day, an average Joe working any blue collar job could afford a home for his family. This however, has not been the case for a great many years now. We all live here, we all experience the same inflation, but now Joes money isn't enough to buy a home, simply because others can afford to pay more for the home than Joe can.

EDIT: To clarify and stop beating around the bush, it is my belief that addons such as TTC, MM, ATT & AGS have had a much larger impact on the economy and exchange rates, than doing any amount of master writs has.

Well inflation impacts you relative to the amount of gold you have. You are right though that wealth consolidation (most of the gold in only the hands of a few) absolutely moves the needle on luxury items. In my view, it's probably second place in terms of what is driving the boat here.

There is nothing more luxury than the crown store. We see this IRL. It's also why things like tickets to concerts and sporting events have gone through the roof? There are enough people out there that can drop 500-1000 bucks a ticket without blinking an eye to fill all the available seats.

Obviously both things can be true. We have rampant inflation, especially on PC. It can be seen in both things like the increase in the price of crowns and the rapid increase in the price of the basic commodities like gold mats. We also have severe wealth consolidation that particularly impacts luxury purchases, like buying Crowns with Gold. Debating which is the biggest factor, is mostly academic.

As to your edit, I am not sure I agree with that part. I think they play perhaps a larger roll on the wealth consolidation side of the argument, but they aren't driving inflation outright. You don't print new money when you buy sell goods between players, you print money when you do writs.

In fact, one side of the argument is that addons like MM make it easier to spot opportunities for arbitrage (buying low and immediately selling high), and thus, people that spend their time in that department make more money thus consolidating wealth, but the other side is because these addons are available to everyone, it is much more likely that an item from a random seller get listed at least in the neighborhood of market value, so its more likely to go to a user and not a flipper.

Kwoung

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

Kwoung wrote: »

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

Kwoung wrote: »

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Araneae6537 wrote: »

Maybe I was too quick to put stock in what some people in one of my guilds were saying about TCE and Crown prices when demand alone could account for it. To me, 1000:1 is too high when the highest in zone is 800:1 (even that is more than I can afford now) but maybe it is the amount of Crowns per transaction and the security and people are welcome to their choices.

Crowns are still mostly 100:1 on console.

That's because gold is worth much more on console. Almost everything that can be bought with gold is cheaper on console, which is 100% not surprising. What is the elephant in the room here? Much harder to do writs on console. Less gold comes into the game on console. Inflation is not nearly as much of an issue on console.

Not sure how many ways to say it, but Crown prices aren't about greed, they are about the value of the currency (in game gold) being used to purchase crowns from other players. The ability to easily print money (gold) out of thin air (crafting writs) drives inflation, which devalues the currency. Is it the only driver of inflation, of course not, but it is a massive contributor to the problem.

There is another part of the equation, which is the funneling of said vast amounts of gold to a smaller group of players, who can now afford pretty much anything (and I am not referring to the folks doing the writs). Thus prompting threads like this from those who haven't figured out or care to engage in that gameplay... and now see the exchange rate fly even farther out of their reach.

There are lots of parts to the equation. Gold (wealth) is consolidated, gold sinks are lacking, bots are farming, all this stuff is a factor.

But end of the day, crown prices (i.e. selling crowns to other players for gold), comes down the respective values of each currency, assuming overall supply and demand is relatively stable (no reason to think its not). Crown cost and prices in the crown store have been relatively stable. The ultimate issue is that gold, the currency used to purchase crowns, has devalued over time due to inflation. The most obvious source of inflation, as evident by the drastically different economies on console vs PC, is the ease at which players can create gold by doing writs. The supply of gold, especially on PC, is simply unsustainable (if keeping inflation in check is a goal, maybe its not).

Nobody, at least the people that do writs, wants to admit it, but it is clear as day. I really don't care. I don't buy crowns with gold (I have a good job IRL), and thanks to writs (which I almost never do anymore), I am rolling in in game gold and gold mats. I could play for another decade without making another gold piece and be just fine.

That said, if you want to address the problem of inflation, which in turn directly has caused the price of crowns for gold to increase, writs would be a darn good place to start, especially on PC.

While quite true that inflation is a major factor (BTW, my situation is almost exactly like yours apparently), distribution is also just as much so. If it were simply inflation, everyone would be able to afford whatever the rate was, because the inflation happened across the board and affects everyone evenly, which is far from the case.

So even without inflation, the distribution factor would still come into play. As long as a set of players can afford something, the folks selling that something will price it accordingly, and leave a whole other set of players unable to even afford it. Kind of like houses in the US (I can't speak for the rest of the world). But back in the day, an average Joe working any blue collar job could afford a home for his family. This however, has not been the case for a great many years now. We all live here, we all experience the same inflation, but now Joes money isn't enough to buy a home, simply because others can afford to pay more for the home than Joe can.

EDIT: To clarify and stop beating around the bush, it is my belief that addons such as TTC, MM, ATT & AGS have had a much larger impact on the economy and exchange rates, than doing any amount of master writs has.

Well inflation impacts you relative to the amount of gold you have. You are right though that wealth consolidation (most of the gold in only the hands of a few) absolutely moves the needle on luxury items. In my view, it's probably second place in terms of what is driving the boat here.

There is nothing more luxury than the crown store. We see this IRL. It's also why things like tickets to concerts and sporting events have gone through the roof? There are enough people out there that can drop 500-1000 bucks a ticket without blinking an eye to fill all the available seats.

Obviously both things can be true. We have rampant inflation, especially on PC. It can be seen in both things like the increase in the price of crowns and the rapid increase in the price of the basic commodities like gold mats. We also have severe wealth consolidation that particularly impacts luxury purchases, like buying Crowns with Gold. Debating which is the biggest factor, is mostly academic.

As to your edit, I am not sure I agree with that part. I think they play perhaps a larger roll on the wealth consolidation side of the argument, but they aren't driving inflation outright. You don't print new money when you buy sell goods between players, you print money when you do writs.

In fact, one side of the argument is that addons like MM make it easier to spot opportunities for arbitrage (buying low and immediately selling high), and thus, people that spend their time in that department make more money thus consolidating wealth, but the other side is because these addons are available to everyone, it is much more likely that an item from a random seller get listed at least in the neighborhood of market value, so its more likely to go to a user and not a flipper.

No no... I agree, the addons I listed have nothing to do with inflation, they are only affecting the consolidation. The thing is, while available to everyone, not everyone uses them, or uses them to make vast amounts of profit in very short order. Let's compare console & PC in this respect (this is NOT a slam on consoles, so please don't anyone hijack the thread over it).

On console, you can become a high end trader/merchant type, it just takes a ton of work. Building suppliers, tracking prices yourself, knowing the values of many different things if you are flipping, etc.. and building a reputation as being the place to shop for whatever it is you are selling. It is also near impossible (I would assume), to corner the market on anything, because short of visiting every guild trader in the game and searching its inventory with the tools the game provides, a very time consuming process, you simply can't buy all of anything up, as someone may have just listed that same items right behind on the vendor you just passed.

On PC however, anyone looking for anything, for personal use or flipping, simply opens the TTC website, see's who has it cheapest, and goes and buys it, even if on some out of the way vendor no one would normally visit. If that one is sold, they go to the next trader down the list. If you are flipping or corning a market, no issue at all, do the same exact thing, just buy every single one of them up, and relist them at a much higher rate, which in many cases seems to be double to triple previous normal value. On PC, you also have the option to just set some very easy filters in your guild store app to look for items that are underpriced, and only show those to you, no search at all involved. Simply open a guild store, buy whatever shows up as vastly underpriced and go resell it. Basically, anyone can do this regardless of time investment & market knowledge, but most don't... thus the movement of wealth.

I am not by any means saying there are not some very wealthy players on console, who quite honestly put in considerable effort to get there. But since it is so easy to achieve by simply loading an addon on PC and being in the right guilds (to get good pricing data), but it takes a lot of work and dedication on console... this is a pretty huge difference and IMHO helps mitigate the easy movement of vast amounts of wealth to a select few, which is a market stabilizing factor.