Gold Inflation and What Can Be Done

Northwold

Arthtur wrote: »

And if this still isn't obvious: making something more common so it easier to drop for some ppl will affect everyone. If we double the chances on dropping Dreugh Wax so person B can have 20 instead of 10 it will affect person A who will have 200 instead of 100 as he plays everyday. Do u see the problem or still no? Any single change that will make farming easier for those single players will affect everybody and could even destroy the market.

Actually no, I don't see the problem. Because as far as I can tell from your post the nub of your complaint is simply "I will make less money from farming dreugh wax".

Meanwhile, whole other aspects of the game, notably housing, would move into a more sensible balance.

Arthtur

Ah yes. Somebody has a diffrent option and this is complaining. If u thing having everything costs 500 gold is okay and will not kill trading its okay, just dont expect ppl to believe this.

And sorry but im not trading Dreugh Wax for some time already. U see im at the point where i just get more gold.

Well that's all from me. Have fun.

Vulkunne

Arunei wrote: »

Vulkunne wrote: »

targario wrote: »

hey dear community,

as everyone knows there is a crazy amounts of gold inflation in the game and i want to talk why this is a bad thing for "casual players"(as zos proved that they care casuals more) and my suggestions to fix this.


inflation is bad for new and casual players because it will fear them, the millions of gold is need to get some new items or upgrading stuff. jewelry upgrading was pricey even before this infilation and now its way worse.

what can be done?

well, zos needs to add some mechanics or activities that should require some gold from the players.

Examples: (all below just random thoughs, and prices can be changed accordingly)

Upgrading should ask for some gold:
Blue to Purple, usual mats + 10k gold
Purple to Yellow, usual mats + 100k gold

Outfit system should require for more gold:
500 gold is now 5k
1k gold is now 10k
3k gold is now 30k

Transmutating should require more gold.


and obviously daily writs should give less money, or maybe less for multiple characters.


I would like to hear your thoughts on this subject, and what other things could be done about this problem?

good days.

I'm not certain manual adjustments will fix this. However I can appreciate you and others wanting to understand how this inflation happened.

Based on my observations, it happened over time, starting with Tempers, then Dreugh Wax, Hakeijo's and so forth. And the conclusion I came up with is with a growing player base, all of these items are in high demand yet, think about how they're sold. The Guilds bring the stores and their merchants set the prices and some Guilds, even with a Store, cannot compete in the public marketplace without a Kiosk.

One potential solution is as others have said, to centralize sales around an Auction House. Although I must admit, I've never liked the idea, never wanted it, however seeing how it could work from my New World experiences, varies with population. What I can tell you is that doing this alone would almost certainly bring prices down by like alot.

Right now its basically Guilds vs Guilds however with a central Auction House sales would be based on the individual bidders with no Guild for price sheltering. But I agree you can't just turn you back and say this is not a problem or forcing people to spend days farming when something is clearly overpriced and then say it's ok. It's not ok, things like this are usually a symptom of a greater, yet to be diagnosed problem and will lead to more problems in the future, especially for newer players trying to make their way in the game.

It's not "forcing" people to farm. If people don't want to pay for whatever they're after, then the other option is to farm it themselves, or I guess ask others for it. You can't expect people to sell you whatever you want for cheap just because you don't want to pay.

And guess what? The people that are selling that stuff to begin with had to farm it themselves. If they could do it, anyone can, it might just take some time. Why should the people who are "forced" to farm stuff so others can buy it not be properly compensated for their time? Is their time somehow less important than that of those who can't farm, or those who just don't feel like it?

There really isn't a problem. Prices have gone up not because of inflation, but because of demand for things being greater than they were before. Heartwood is, again, another example. Years ago it was like 100g/piece. Now you're lucky to find it for less than 1k. It's not because "people have more gold" it's because more and more blueprints are always being released that take ridiculous amounts of it, and the fact that we keep getting new or rereleased Houses every so often.

And again, the people who are selling stuff went out there and farmed it. It might have taken them days or weeks, but they did it. If they could take the time to do it, most others can too. And for those who actually can't, rather than just not wanting to, you at least HAVE the option of buying it, even if that might take you some time of saving up gold.

And the "newer players making their way" thing? EVERYONE who's currently playing had to make their own way when they started, it's not anything new. Everyone was a new player at first who had to work to get the stuff they have.

The thing about economics is everyone has their way of looking at it and I'm not really here to hammer out an economic recovery plan for eso.

That said, I believe you and I actually agree on some things however unless I'm mistaken you may have missed my actual point in describing the marketplace itself. This is a problem that started there and the solution is in there, somewhere. But the way eso kiosks and such are setup, I'm concerned that the marketplace isn't as healthy because there is no friendly competition. Its there but, the guilds are still in control.

You can say whatever u like but paying 20k+ for Dreugh Wax is nothing but greed and I can't help but have a conscience for the less fortunate out there. Thankfully I do know some high end Guilds that try to take care of their people, so there's that. But for the price of 100k I was able to make almost a full build before and now that barely covers one piece, which turns this into a grind game when the point here is to enjoy questing and pvp now and then.

Lastly, let's all regardless of how we feel about this try and have a heart for the new people who are unable to afford the things that you and I were able to buy back in our day. I am, first and foremost in this game and NW a merchant and I know how to make bank. But as you said, we all started from somewhere and the way the economy in the game is setup is a house always wins, rich man's game.

Its almost like a form of Corporate Welfare where I put in -lots- of extra hours a week trying to pay something that is overpriced, the 'seller' knows its overpriced and yet he/she has no problem making a ton of extra money that they really didn't earn. Place I used to work we called this 'upselling'. I just don't think its fair people login to the game to work for someone else whose abusing their time and money. And ZOS doesn't care either then I don't know what to say haha. There's been many Empire's throughout history that fell because of inflation.

With inflation essentially turning citizens into indentured servants, ie rise of serfdom from the Medieval Ages. Its a very big problem but you'll never know it is unless you understand how economics affects different groups of people. Its really bad for everyone to have this attitude of 'self', me me me, I I I, I deserve a gazillion gold for something that is worth tree fitty. And that's a problem with people in general and one I cannot solve lol.

Does that make sense?

Lumsdenml

I would say most casual players can make enough gold for casual needs with about 15min a day and 3 alts. 4 characters with max lvl crafting doing daily Writs would get about 128k a week in gold and enough mats to take care of their own needs with extra to sell off eventually. This would allow you to benefit from inflation, not be hampered by it.

Northwold

Lumsdenml wrote: »

I would say most casual players can make enough gold for casual needs with about 15min a day and 3 alts. 4 characters with max lvl crafting doing daily Writs would get about 128k a week in gold and enough mats to take care of their own needs with extra to sell off eventually. This would allow you to benefit from inflation, not be hampered by it.

Not to be funny but at the point a player is running multiple maximum level characters and using them all DAILY I'm not sure "casual" is the right term? It's a strategy, yes, but quite niche.

Lumsdenml

Northwold wrote: »

Lumsdenml wrote: »

I would say most casual players can make enough gold for casual needs with about 15min a day and 3 alts. 4 characters with max lvl crafting doing daily Writs would get about 128k a week in gold and enough mats to take care of their own needs with extra to sell off eventually. This would allow you to benefit from inflation, not be hampered by it.

Not to be funny but at the point a player is running multiple maximum level characters and using them all DAILY I'm not sure "casual" is the right term? It's a strategy, yes, but quite niche.

I was thinking that an investment of 15 min a day would be a casual player. The alts don't need to focus on anything but mashing out crafting, and they wouldn't be all ready immediately. Get your main lvled up, the start alt 1. Get him up, then 2, then 3. It would take time to get started, but the key is consistency.

Inaya

I'm super casual and have 5 alts - 4 max level - all leveled thru crafting, events for more chances at event loot, farming dailies for patterns, etc..

I spend about 15-30 mins doing crafting writs on them all. Right now I am using them all to help farm the new Deadlands furnishing patterns but most times they just do writs. Quest gold, gold mats, surveys.... more than worth the 15-30 mins.

I'm in an awesome trading guild, you can be social if you like, but you can also just use them to sell. I also have more gold than I know what to do with.

I play at my own pace...it's taken me a couple years but I have both Master Angler and Master Crafter.

xXSilverDragonXx

Northwold wrote: »

Arthtur wrote: »

And if this still isn't obvious: making something more common so it easier to drop for some ppl will affect everyone. If we double the chances on dropping Dreugh Wax so person B can have 20 instead of 10 it will affect person A who will have 200 instead of 100 as he plays everyday. Do u see the problem or still no? Any single change that will make farming easier for those single players will affect everybody and could even destroy the market.

Actually no, I don't see the problem. Because as far as I can tell from your post the nub of your complaint is simply "I will make less money from farming dreugh wax".

Meanwhile, whole other aspects of the game, notably housing, would move into a more sensible balance.

Housing is as balanced as it ever was. When it first came out, we all paid massive amounts for different items that could not be bought at vendors. The houses are still the same price. Some of the mats have increased in price, but their drops aren't that great to be blunt. I think they dropped a bit more a few years ago, but I really am not sure because I was never a farmer. However, there has never been a time when any of those drops for housing (recipes or whatever they are called) were not very expensive. When housing started, greens were 5k! Crappy little vases, if you didn't want to wait a month or two, you could find those recipes and items for thousands because everyone was buying them up. Blues were in the 10k mark. Purples 15k to 500k depending on the item. There was also far less to choose from. So really, there was never any sensible balance with housing. Drops are low because they want you to go to the crown store. This is not about people being rich. It is about supply and demand. Less supply. More demand. People can price outrageously for things that are extremely rare in the game. It's that simple. No amount of messing with the market or trying to (note I said trying to ) curb inflation will ever change that.

Amottica

Northwold wrote: »

Arthtur wrote: »

And if this still isn't obvious: making something more common so it easier to drop for some ppl will affect everyone. If we double the chances on dropping Dreugh Wax so person B can have 20 instead of 10 it will affect person A who will have 200 instead of 100 as he plays everyday. Do u see the problem or still no? Any single change that will make farming easier for those single players will affect everybody and could even destroy the market.

Actually no, I don't see the problem. Because as far as I can tell from your post the nub of your complaint is simply "I will make less money from farming dreugh wax".

Meanwhile, whole other aspects of the game, notably housing, would move into a more sensible balance.

The notion of a “more sensible balance” really comes down to perspective.

The reality is the higher the price the greater the drive to farm more materials and sell which in itself creates a balance with the demand. That’s what drives the price.

For anyone who doesn’t want to pay the going rate, that has been decided by players agreeing to a price, go farm the materials yourself. That’s essentially free and a fabulous solution that Zenimax already provided.

Northwold

xXSilverDragonXx wrote: »

Northwold wrote: »

Arthtur wrote: »

And if this still isn't obvious: making something more common so it easier to drop for some ppl will affect everyone. If we double the chances on dropping Dreugh Wax so person B can have 20 instead of 10 it will affect person A who will have 200 instead of 100 as he plays everyday. Do u see the problem or still no? Any single change that will make farming easier for those single players will affect everybody and could even destroy the market.

Actually no, I don't see the problem. Because as far as I can tell from your post the nub of your complaint is simply "I will make less money from farming dreugh wax".

Meanwhile, whole other aspects of the game, notably housing, would move into a more sensible balance.

Housing is as balanced as it ever was. When it first came out, we all paid massive amounts for different items that could not be bought at vendors. The houses are still the same price. Some of the mats have increased in price, but their drops aren't that great to be blunt. I think they dropped a bit more a few years ago, but I really am not sure because I was never a farmer. However, there has never been a time when any of those drops for housing (recipes or whatever they are called) were not very expensive. When housing started, greens were 5k! Crappy little vases, if you didn't want to wait a month or two, you could find those recipes and items for thousands because everyone was buying them up. Blues were in the 10k mark. Purples 15k to 500k depending on the item. There was also far less to choose from. So really, there was never any sensible balance with housing. Drops are low because they want you to go to the crown store. This is not about people being rich. It is about supply and demand. Less supply. More demand. People can price outrageously for things that are extremely rare in the game. It's that simple. No amount of messing with the market or trying to (note I said trying to ) curb inflation will ever change that.

Indeed hence why I have pointed out, in multiple posts, that the obvious way to deal with the schizophrenic interaction of housing and the trading system is to improve the drop rates for basic furnishing materials and to think again about the furnishing plan item requirements. There's no problem with something like a luxury window requiring a king's ransom of materials. It's a different matter for a small section of wall. That feels very much like real world money price gouging via the crown store.

My response to the poster in question was because I really struggle to fathom how rebalancing certain drop rates would "break" the game's economy. (Well I don't struggle to fathom it. It wouldn't break the economy, full stop.)

deleted221205-002626

Theres only 3 possible solutions to your inflating gold issues..

1. Give half your gold to me!
2. Delete half your gold or donate to your favourite charity
3. Give half your gold to or make it a joint acct with US gov't millitary and give them unlimited spending on it!
4.

Bradyfjord

In game economies are built, like all mmo systems, on time played. The more time a player plays a piece of content, the more likely a player is to receive the gear/gold/etc from that piece of content (not log in, but actually play a given piece of content).

The limiter is time. If a player can't spend the time to be viable for a piece of content, then they won't be able to participate. This includes gear, skills, and knowledge of mechanics. But it also includes getting into a static group instead of using a queue. Without having these things, a player is going to be locked out of participation in the economy.

I took an eight month hiatus from the game. I came back and no longer are in guilds. I tried playing without guilds and found my gold generation is limited to about 100k-200k a week due to time commitments. If I had joined even one trader guild I could have made far more. But since I knew I wouldn't stick around I didn't join any. I only play if I sub, and ESO isn't worth a sub right now.

Hopefully ZOS fixes the things that push me away. Mainly it's performance, and how it affects their choices about balance. My opinion is that if the game performed more like it did at original launch, we wouldn't have cooldowns on abilities. This is one of my main issues with how the game is, past, present, and how it keeps developing going into the future.

rotaugen454

I just hope my 44 million is still there after yet another patch today.

Scaletho

ESO buy/sell "market" are a completely arbitrary system created by players and not controlled by ZOS afaik.

The best solution to avoid super crazy gold inflation should be some marketing controlling system. Considering the total control by players and the insane amount of gold some professional trade players have, any attempt by ZOS to create a better market system in ESO will be source of huge "top richer players" complaints.

So, no way ZOS will meddle with this mess.

DarrowLykos

The inflation is going to follow real life inflation, nothing you can do about this in game unless you were to stop all crown sales and that is not going to happen..ever. When the economy out here settles down it will settle in game as well just watch. In the meantime if you cannot afford said items due to time constraints etc then you will have to farm those mats yourself or save up. Either way it's going to take more patience on your part to get what you need. You cannot expect an entire ecosystem to bend around the few, it just does not work this way. Some people have more time than others and like stated above plenty, time is money. Obviously you know all of this because you are complaining about the prices of items you either can't or won't put the time into gathering yourself but expect the prices to fall to what you can afford. Think about it. The game will always cater to the masses and right now the masses have far more time to play than you do.

WrathOfInnos

There's only one way to stop gold inflation. Gold created needs to be equal to gold destroyed. Right now gold is created in large scale through activities like writs, antiquities, thieving, vendoring loot and even trial plunder. The minimal gold sinks simply cannot keep up. The few expensive things that are worth spending gold on are one-time purchases, and a temporary solution at best (houses, bank/bag space). The fact is that useful recurring items cannot be purchased from NPC's, so gold remains in the economy.

I think gold generation needs to be vastly reduced, writs and trials should give alternate rewards, such as materials or gear to trade with other players. We also could use NPC's that sell items we need (not current NPC junk). Potions would be a great one, Alliance Potions can be purchased with AP, why not have a gold option. At current prices that would be 500x200 or 100,000 gold removed from the economy every time someone purchased a stack of spell power pots.

Adaarye

No one has to pay current prices for upgrade or housing mats.

Go farm them if the prices are too high. Easy solution.

DarrowLykos

I don't understand how destroying gold or sinking it will solve anything. This just happened in New World. There was not enough ways to make gold so people were selling things for pennies and it crashed the markets on many servers. There has to be a rarity. A want for certain items. This it what drives people to work and earn the things they want. Yes Utopia would be nice or a resource based in game economy but, that I feel would take a lot of fun out of any game if you don't have to actually work for anything, most MMO's would turn into giant chat rooms. Imagine logging in each day and getting handed all the gold mats you needed. Where is the fun i that? At least in ESO there are plenty of ways to make money and yes it can take some time but that is also part of the fun, learning new ways to do so and finding a niche' to dig into. It's not going to be for everyone so if you cannot handle this system then perhaps Skyrim is more for you then an online world that constantly changes and you have to work to keep up with it

zaria

WrathOfInnos wrote: »

There's only one way to stop gold inflation. Gold created needs to be equal to gold destroyed. Right now gold is created in large scale through activities like writs, antiquities, thieving, vendoring loot and even trial plunder. The minimal gold sinks simply cannot keep up. The few expensive things that are worth spending gold on are one-time purchases, and a temporary solution at best (houses, bank/bag space). The fact is that useful recurring items cannot be purchased from NPC's, so gold remains in the economy.

I think gold generation needs to be vastly reduced, writs and trials should give alternate rewards, such as materials or gear to trade with other players. We also could use NPC's that sell items we need (not current NPC junk). Potions would be a great one, Alliance Potions can be purchased with AP, why not have a gold option. At current prices that would be 500x200 or 100,000 gold removed from the economy every time someone purchased a stack of spell power pots.

Guild trader fees is the primary tax and its an good one as it tax the rich players in good trading guilds most.

NPC merchants could be an way to solve the problem, especially for stuff like heartwood.
Spell power pots are worth 500 gold each on pc-eu, so making rading less lucrative will hurt some

Gaeliannas

DarrowLykos wrote: »

I don't understand how destroying gold or sinking it will solve anything. This just happened in New World. There was not enough ways to make gold so people were selling things for pennies and it crashed the markets on many servers. There has to be a rarity. A want for certain items. This it what drives people to work and earn the things they want. Yes Utopia would be nice or a resource based in game economy but, that I feel would take a lot of fun out of any game if you don't have to actually work for anything, most MMO's would turn into giant chat rooms. Imagine logging in each day and getting handed all the gold mats you needed. Where is the fun i that? At least in ESO there are plenty of ways to make money and yes it can take some time but that is also part of the fun, learning new ways to do so and finding a niche' to dig into. It's not going to be for everyone so if you cannot handle this system then perhaps Skyrim is more for you then an online world that constantly changes and you have to work to keep up with it

What happened in NW was the exact opposite of ESO actually, massive deflation due to lack of gold. I think the point is, there is a sweet spot and many feel ESO is more in the inflationary area than the sweet spot. I actually agree the game could use some more actual gold sinks to remove wealth from the server, but only on the PC platforms, as it isn't a issue on consoles it seems, where their economy has stayed pretty stable over the years.

Inaya

If people would stop paying 21k for wax the price would come down. If people would start farming their own mats the prices would come down. As long as I'm using some of my time to farm something that others don't want to then I'll charge what the market will bear. And in truth, just like in real life it's no ones business how much gold someone has.

DarrowLykos

Adaarye wrote: »

No one has to pay current prices for upgrade or housing mats.

Go farm them if the prices are too high. Easy solution.

This seems to be the best way to look at it, if you don't like it then do it yourself If people are paying current prices and there does not seem to be a shortage in them getting sold well I guess someone out there has figured out a way to earn that money and buy what they want

cepheus74

It seems like players still don't know how to farm efficiently.

Gaeliannas

Inaya wrote: »

If people would stop paying 21k for wax the price would come down. If people would start farming their own mats the prices would come down. As long as I'm using some of my time to farm something that others don't want to then I'll charge what the market will bear. And in truth, just like in real life it's no ones business how much gold someone has.

In real life, government's control how much currency is in circulation, just like a game should, in order to keep the game economy healthy.

wolfie1.0.

Vulkunne wrote: »

Arunei wrote: »

Vulkunne wrote: »

targario wrote: »

hey dear community,

as everyone knows there is a crazy amounts of gold inflation in the game and i want to talk why this is a bad thing for "casual players"(as zos proved that they care casuals more) and my suggestions to fix this.


inflation is bad for new and casual players because it will fear them, the millions of gold is need to get some new items or upgrading stuff. jewelry upgrading was pricey even before this infilation and now its way worse.

what can be done?

well, zos needs to add some mechanics or activities that should require some gold from the players.

Examples: (all below just random thoughs, and prices can be changed accordingly)

Upgrading should ask for some gold:
Blue to Purple, usual mats + 10k gold
Purple to Yellow, usual mats + 100k gold

Outfit system should require for more gold:
500 gold is now 5k
1k gold is now 10k
3k gold is now 30k

Transmutating should require more gold.


and obviously daily writs should give less money, or maybe less for multiple characters.


I would like to hear your thoughts on this subject, and what other things could be done about this problem?

good days.

I'm not certain manual adjustments will fix this. However I can appreciate you and others wanting to understand how this inflation happened.

Based on my observations, it happened over time, starting with Tempers, then Dreugh Wax, Hakeijo's and so forth. And the conclusion I came up with is with a growing player base, all of these items are in high demand yet, think about how they're sold. The Guilds bring the stores and their merchants set the prices and some Guilds, even with a Store, cannot compete in the public marketplace without a Kiosk.

One potential solution is as others have said, to centralize sales around an Auction House. Although I must admit, I've never liked the idea, never wanted it, however seeing how it could work from my New World experiences, varies with population. What I can tell you is that doing this alone would almost certainly bring prices down by like alot.

Right now its basically Guilds vs Guilds however with a central Auction House sales would be based on the individual bidders with no Guild for price sheltering. But I agree you can't just turn you back and say this is not a problem or forcing people to spend days farming when something is clearly overpriced and then say it's ok. It's not ok, things like this are usually a symptom of a greater, yet to be diagnosed problem and will lead to more problems in the future, especially for newer players trying to make their way in the game.

It's not "forcing" people to farm. If people don't want to pay for whatever they're after, then the other option is to farm it themselves, or I guess ask others for it. You can't expect people to sell you whatever you want for cheap just because you don't want to pay.

And guess what? The people that are selling that stuff to begin with had to farm it themselves. If they could do it, anyone can, it might just take some time. Why should the people who are "forced" to farm stuff so others can buy it not be properly compensated for their time? Is their time somehow less important than that of those who can't farm, or those who just don't feel like it?

There really isn't a problem. Prices have gone up not because of inflation, but because of demand for things being greater than they were before. Heartwood is, again, another example. Years ago it was like 100g/piece. Now you're lucky to find it for less than 1k. It's not because "people have more gold" it's because more and more blueprints are always being released that take ridiculous amounts of it, and the fact that we keep getting new or rereleased Houses every so often.

And again, the people who are selling stuff went out there and farmed it. It might have taken them days or weeks, but they did it. If they could take the time to do it, most others can too. And for those who actually can't, rather than just not wanting to, you at least HAVE the option of buying it, even if that might take you some time of saving up gold.

And the "newer players making their way" thing? EVERYONE who's currently playing had to make their own way when they started, it's not anything new. Everyone was a new player at first who had to work to get the stuff they have.

The thing about economics is everyone has their way of looking at it and I'm not really here to hammer out an economic recovery plan for eso.

That said, I believe you and I actually agree on some things however unless I'm mistaken you may have missed my actual point in describing the marketplace itself. This is a problem that started there and the solution is in there, somewhere. But the way eso kiosks and such are setup, I'm concerned that the marketplace isn't as healthy because there is no friendly competition. Its there but, the guilds are still in control.

You can say whatever u like but paying 20k+ for Dreugh Wax is nothing but greed and I can't help but have a conscience for the less fortunate out there. Thankfully I do know some high end Guilds that try to take care of their people, so there's that. But for the price of 100k I was able to make almost a full build before and now that barely covers one piece, which turns this into a grind game when the point here is to enjoy questing and pvp now and then.

Lastly, let's all regardless of how we feel about this try and have a heart for the new people who are unable to afford the things that you and I were able to buy back in our day. I am, first and foremost in this game and NW a merchant and I know how to make bank. But as you said, we all started from somewhere and the way the economy in the game is setup is a house always wins, rich man's game.

Its almost like a form of Corporate Welfare where I put in -lots- of extra hours a week trying to pay something that is overpriced, the 'seller' knows its overpriced and yet he/she has no problem making a ton of extra money that they really didn't earn. Place I used to work we called this 'upselling'. I just don't think its fair people login to the game to work for someone else whose abusing their time and money. And ZOS doesn't care either then I don't know what to say haha. There's been many Empire's throughout history that fell because of inflation.

With inflation essentially turning citizens into indentured servants, ie rise of serfdom from the Medieval Ages. Its a very big problem but you'll never know it is unless you understand how economics affects different groups of people. Its really bad for everyone to have this attitude of 'self', me me me, I I I, I deserve a gazillion gold for something that is worth tree fitty. And that's a problem with people in general and one I cannot solve lol.

Does that make sense?

No your argument doesn't make sense. Look there isn't a material or other normal item in the game that you can use that hasn't dropped in game. You just need to be willing to invest the time to go get it. That's it, you just need time. Now to save you time I am willing to sell you X item at Y price so that you don't have to invest that time. If you think it's a good deal then you buy. If you don't then you can find someone else who will sell cheaper, pay more for the convenience, or go farm it yourself.

Me as the seller, if you buy my item at the price I am selling at then I will sell more at that price. If it doesn't sell then I either hold it until prices are back to where I feel I can sell it, I use it for myself, or I lower the price. If an item sells too quickly then I will raise the price.

There isn't any indentured servitude going on here. No one is forcing players to buy from me or others. No one is forcing players to go out and farm either. Players are choosing to do it.

If you really want to combat inflation as a player start a trading guild, then go out there and declare war on trading locations to get them to spend more on their locations. The more they spend the less gold there is in game.

Adaarye

Inaya wrote: »

If people would stop paying 21k for wax the price would come down. If people would start farming their own mats the prices would come down. As long as I'm using some of my time to farm something that others don't want to then I'll charge what the market will bear. And in truth, just like in real life it's no ones business how much gold someone has.

Agreed.

I think that's the most unsettling thing is players that need mats but don't want to spend time farming mats or buy mats at current market value want to place a value on the time spent by players who do farm and who sell some or all of the mats gained. That somehow doesn't seem fair to me.

Perhaps putting in the time to farm mats would change that perspective a little. It's time consuming to farm mats and everyone's time is valuable.

ixthUA

I farm materials whenever i can (veteran dungeons with purple drops), collect raw materials from the world, receive daily materials from levelled crafts. Never had problems with gold inflation or material prices.
Also, you cannot fight inflation by generating more gold.

Runefang

Adaarye wrote: »

Inaya wrote: »

If people would stop paying 21k for wax the price would come down. If people would start farming their own mats the prices would come down. As long as I'm using some of my time to farm something that others don't want to then I'll charge what the market will bear. And in truth, just like in real life it's no ones business how much gold someone has.

Agreed.

I think that's the most unsettling thing is players that need mats but don't want to spend time farming mats or buy mats at current market value want to place a value on the time spent by players who do farm and who sell some or all of the mats gained. That somehow doesn't seem fair to me.

Perhaps putting in the time to farm mats would change that perspective a little. It's time consuming to farm mats and everyone's time is valuable.

Well wax used to be 3.5k, then 7k now 21k. What made it 3.5k a few years ago? Was the wax farmers time back then worth less than now? Or is it gold supply after many years of this game running creating a world where 1 gold is just worth less than it was a few years ago?

And telling people to not pay 21k isn’t going to help. Many people have more gold than they know what to do with because there are no sinks. So they pay whatever they want for wax rather than farm it.

Gaeliannas

Runefang wrote: »

Adaarye wrote: »

Inaya wrote: »

If people would stop paying 21k for wax the price would come down. If people would start farming their own mats the prices would come down. As long as I'm using some of my time to farm something that others don't want to then I'll charge what the market will bear. And in truth, just like in real life it's no ones business how much gold someone has.

Agreed.

I think that's the most unsettling thing is players that need mats but don't want to spend time farming mats or buy mats at current market value want to place a value on the time spent by players who do farm and who sell some or all of the mats gained. That somehow doesn't seem fair to me.

Perhaps putting in the time to farm mats would change that perspective a little. It's time consuming to farm mats and everyone's time is valuable.

Well wax used to be 3.5k, then 7k now 21k. What made it 3.5k a few years ago? Was the wax farmers time back then worth less than now? Or is it gold supply after many years of this game running creating a world where 1 gold is just worth less than it was a few years ago?

And telling people to not pay 21k isn’t going to help. Many people have more gold than they know what to do with because there are no sinks. So they pay whatever they want for wax rather than farm it.

The disconnect is many folks equate more gold to meaning more wealth, which it doesn't. What does happen though, is the rich get super rich and can buy anything at any price, and the average Joe/Casual player this game caters too, really can't afford squat when it comes to the nice/desirable things. And to put my comment in perspective, I am in the first group and have more gold than I could ever spend, and the pile just keeps growing.

barney2525

Arbitrarily scrugeeing over New Players simply because established players have amassed large amounts of gold is NOT a good formula. You want players to be required to spend 100k - 150k just to make One outfit on the Outfitter ??

That's beyond ridiculous.

The Market prices will be as high and low as the Market will bear. Put an item up for 200k - if players want it for that price, they will pay it. If they Don't want it for that price - They will Not pay it, and wait for it to drop into a level they feel it is worth.

Just wiping out all the gold won't change things in the short term. Everyone is used to the prices we have now. Everyone knows what to expect the price will be when selling/buying their items, It would take months before anything dropped, and even then, players would be making more gold during those months. So the eventual change would still be minimal.

Despite my disdain for the phrase, the market "is what it is". Its not going to change. And it shouldn't. Wiping out everyone's gold with huge sinks - which would be seen by players to be basically a game mechanic implemented to simply steal the player's gold - would have a negative effect permanently. The huge static gold sinks you installed would Not go away once the stashes of gold the players previously had were gone. At that point you have huge gold sinks and not enough gold income to sustain anything.

This is Not a good plan.

IMHO