Any plans to fix inflation in the economy? (PC/NA)

spartaxoxo

SilverBride wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

I think ZOS needs to do something about the add-ons personally. Lazy writ crafter, for example. Excessive gold sinks would just hurt console players.

I think that would be a huge mistake, especially after allowing add-ons for 10 years. If add-ons were no longer allowed I am pretty certain they would lose a huge amount of their playerbase.

It doesn't have to be every add-on, just very specific ones that are having a bad effect on the PC economy.

Lazy Writ Crafter doesn't do anything but make it faster to complete the daily writs. Saving time allows players more time for the things they enjoy. This does not hurt the economy.

It lets you print money faster than would be humanely possible without the add-on. This results in players being able to generate more coin than they various sinks are able to deal with, and as a result coin becomes less scarce. Since coin is less scarce, it has less value. Meaning you have to do more writs to get the same purchasing power as you had before. It absolutely hurts the economy.

There is a reason that consoles have never had this issue. Both PC servers (EU and NA) have much, much less valuable coins than console.

furiouslog

What we really need to fix this problem is a number of arcane financial instruments that would enable the super rich to invest their wealth and get even more rich while leaving the rest of the ESO player population scrounging for the leftovers. If nothing else, it would increase immersion.

SilverBride

spartaxoxo wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Lazy Writ Crafter doesn't do anything but make it faster to complete the daily writs. Saving time allows players more time for the things they enjoy. This does not hurt the economy.

It lets you print money faster than would be humanely possible without the add-on. This results in players being able to generate more coin than they various sinks are able to deal with, and as a result coin becomes less scarce. Since coin is less scarce, it has less value. Meaning you have to do more writs to get the same purchasing power as you had before. It absolutely hurts the economy.

There is a reason that consoles have never had this issue. Both PC servers (EU and NA) have much, much less valuable coins than console.

It let's us do the daily writs faster but it doesn't generate any more gold or rewards than if we completed these without it.

doesurmindglow

furiouslog wrote: »

What we really need to fix this problem is a number of arcane financial instruments that would enable the super rich to invest their wealth and get even more rich while leaving the rest of the ESO player population scrounging for the leftovers. If nothing else, it would increase immersion.

Hilariously we kind of do have this. Most of the wealthiest players aren't the ones throwing out claims of gold stores in the seven figures.

They're instead heavily invested in highly scarce consumables and items, as well as commodities, that act as both their hedges against inflation and instruments of speculation that they're carrying to an eventual maturity. Their wealth is, like the super rich IRL, exceptionally difficult to quantify and not particularly liquid.

From a purely RP perspective, I think the economy is quite immersive. From a "let's retain new and returning players," it might leave something to be desired.

kargen27

doesurmindglow wrote: »

Zodiarkslayer wrote: »

The only thing I'd like to add is that most players claim they are talking about inflation, while they are actually talking about "wages". Or rather that their labour does not let them purchase the commodities that they want.

🤣 So maybe we should form a union and demand a minimum wage of one million per day! 🤣

I can't speak for others on the thread but I've been talking about inflation -- the fact that the rate of gold production exceeds the rate of gold destruction, and the resulting devaluation of gold as a means of exchange with purchasing power.

There aren't really wages in a customary sense in the ESO economy. Sure, yes, the value of labor could be impacted -- I brought up an example earlier about how crafting writs is considerably less profitable now than simply hedging against inflation by trading out of gold -- but to me that's not really as important as what's going on with the value of currency itself.

And I still maintain that the two keep pace with each other. Compare time spent to be able to get the item whether through purchase or farming and there isn't a huge difference. It is easy to make gold on PC servers and prices reflect that.

SilverBride

kargen27 wrote: »

It is easy to make gold on PC servers and prices reflect that.

This.

spartaxoxo

SilverBride wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Lazy Writ Crafter doesn't do anything but make it faster to complete the daily writs. Saving time allows players more time for the things they enjoy. This does not hurt the economy.

It lets you print money faster than would be humanely possible without the add-on. This results in players being able to generate more coin than they various sinks are able to deal with, and as a result coin becomes less scarce. Since coin is less scarce, it has less value. Meaning you have to do more writs to get the same purchasing power as you had before. It absolutely hurts the economy.

There is a reason that consoles have never had this issue. Both PC servers (EU and NA) have much, much less valuable coins than console.

It let's us do the daily writs faster but it doesn't generate any more gold or rewards than if we completed these without it.

Yes. It does. I'll make up some numbers to illustrate why

Let's say that you're willing to devote 30 minutes of playtime to writs. And without the add-on, it takes 5 minutes. With the add-on, it takes 2.5 minutes. I can do 6 writs without the add-on, or 12 with the add-on. Resulting in double the number of writs completed (and coin generated) within the same time period.

Those numbers are illustrative but this is precisely the reason that people do less writs on console despite the coin reward being the same. The writs are too time-consuming for most players to do the same amount of writs as PC players.

Automation allows for greater scale.

It is far, far easier for PC players to make coin thanks to add-ons. As a result, coin is less scarce. And less scarce items have less value.

Coin is devalued on PC.

doesurmindglow

kargen27 wrote: »

And I still maintain that the two keep pace with each other. Compare time spent to be able to get the item whether through purchase or farming and there isn't a huge difference. It is easy to make gold on PC servers and prices reflect that.

That's another definition of inflation though, really. "It's easy to make gold and prices reflect that" is describing pretty literally an "inflationary economic environment."

It's not really a problem in the sense of IRL, which is where people go hungry and whatnot because they can no longer afford basic necessities. So sure, I do see that the comparison fails on that count. But some of the IRL characteristics of inflation do still play out here, which is that it's a huge turnoff for new and returning players to look at huge price tags when they have very little to spend, and also, arguably more importantly, those who have gold already are finding what they've accumulated is increasingly worthless.

Basically I'm not persuaded by a counterargument that just restates the problem's existence. It's definitely the case it's easy to make gold, and also the case that the ease of making gold might mean the actual work involved in paying higher prices hasn't really changed. On those two points, I do agree. But there's a couple more points that are very important: one of which is simply the ability of gold you accumulated to retain its purchasing power.

Beyond that, there's also just an aspect to which gold inflation drives a lot of really inefficient, let's call it, "stuff" in markets like these: it has a positive feedback loop, for example, in that players that are economically savvy will quickly notice their gold is losing value every minute it remains as "gold" and, being aware of that, will convert it to commodities and other in-game items that hold their value better. That will then drive up the prices of those items, and also remove gold from banks and put it into circulation. The players that do this will also avoid selling those items unless they actually need the liquidity, which artificially constrains the supply of them and further appreciates their pricing.

It'll go on like this forever, with players who save their gold constantly losing out to players who do not, unless something is done to restore some degree of price stability. The developers do actually care about this and have for the most part done a decent job of balancing it which is why, if we're being honest, it wasn't really a problem until recently and remains fairly confined to certain markets with less of an impact on others. But the fact we've noticed "gold is easier to make than ever" is evidence it's still a problem.

SilverBride

spartaxoxo wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Lazy Writ Crafter doesn't do anything but make it faster to complete the daily writs. Saving time allows players more time for the things they enjoy. This does not hurt the economy.

It lets you print money faster than would be humanely possible without the add-on. This results in players being able to generate more coin than they various sinks are able to deal with, and as a result coin becomes less scarce. Since coin is less scarce, it has less value. Meaning you have to do more writs to get the same purchasing power as you had before. It absolutely hurts the economy.

There is a reason that consoles have never had this issue. Both PC servers (EU and NA) have much, much less valuable coins than console.

It let's us do the daily writs faster but it doesn't generate any more gold or rewards than if we completed these without it.

Yes. It does. I'll make up some numbers to illustrate why

Let's say that you're willing to devote 30 minutes of playtime to writs. And without the add-on, it takes 5 minutes. With the add-on, it takes 2.5 minutes. I can do 6 writs without the add-on, or 12 with the add-on. Resulting in double the number of writs completed (and coin generated) within the same time period.

Those numbers are illustrative but this is precisely the reason that people do less writs on console despite the coin reward being the same. The writs are too time-consuming for most players to do the same amount of writs as PC players.

Automation allows for greater scale.

It is far, far easier for PC players to make coin thanks to add-ons. As a result, coin is less scarce. And less scarce items have less value.

Coin is devalued on PC.

Whether it takes 30 minutes or an hour, the amount of gold and rewards for doing the same amount of writs is still the same.

As for coin being less valuable because it's less scarce... the coins don't have less value because they allow the player to purchase the more expensive mats from traders etc.. It all evens out.

sarahthes

SilverBride wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Lazy Writ Crafter doesn't do anything but make it faster to complete the daily writs. Saving time allows players more time for the things they enjoy. This does not hurt the economy.

It lets you print money faster than would be humanely possible without the add-on. This results in players being able to generate more coin than they various sinks are able to deal with, and as a result coin becomes less scarce. Since coin is less scarce, it has less value. Meaning you have to do more writs to get the same purchasing power as you had before. It absolutely hurts the economy.

There is a reason that consoles have never had this issue. Both PC servers (EU and NA) have much, much less valuable coins than console.

It let's us do the daily writs faster but it doesn't generate any more gold or rewards than if we completed these without it.

Yes. It does. I'll make up some numbers to illustrate why

Let's say that you're willing to devote 30 minutes of playtime to writs. And without the add-on, it takes 5 minutes. With the add-on, it takes 2.5 minutes. I can do 6 writs without the add-on, or 12 with the add-on. Resulting in double the number of writs completed (and coin generated) within the same time period.

Those numbers are illustrative but this is precisely the reason that people do less writs on console despite the coin reward being the same. The writs are too time-consuming for most players to do the same amount of writs as PC players.

Automation allows for greater scale.

It is far, far easier for PC players to make coin thanks to add-ons. As a result, coin is less scarce. And less scarce items have less value.

Coin is devalued on PC.

Whether it takes 30 minutes or an hour, the amount of gold and rewards for doing the same amount of writs is still the same.

As for coin being less valuable because it's less scarce... the coins don't have less value because they allow the player to purchase the more expensive mats from traders etc.. It all evens out.

You are failing to understand that on console people just plain don't do as many writs, because they don't have the time to do them on 40 characters per day the way some PC players do.

Therefore, PC players make more gold from writs on average, in the same amount of time, because they physically do more writs.

TaSheen

Are there really so many players on PC doing huge quantities of writs? I admit I have no idea. I do writs on a couple of characters a day on three accounts, both PC megaservers.

I have a couple of million gold on each account both PC megaservers - and I don't buy much at all. I really didn't realize there were "megamillionaires" with that sort of gold....

spartaxoxo

SilverBride wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Lazy Writ Crafter doesn't do anything but make it faster to complete the daily writs. Saving time allows players more time for the things they enjoy. This does not hurt the economy.

It lets you print money faster than would be humanely possible without the add-on. This results in players being able to generate more coin than they various sinks are able to deal with, and as a result coin becomes less scarce. Since coin is less scarce, it has less value. Meaning you have to do more writs to get the same purchasing power as you had before. It absolutely hurts the economy.

There is a reason that consoles have never had this issue. Both PC servers (EU and NA) have much, much less valuable coins than console.

It let's us do the daily writs faster but it doesn't generate any more gold or rewards than if we completed these without it.

Yes. It does. I'll make up some numbers to illustrate why

Let's say that you're willing to devote 30 minutes of playtime to writs. And without the add-on, it takes 5 minutes. With the add-on, it takes 2.5 minutes. I can do 6 writs without the add-on, or 12 with the add-on. Resulting in double the number of writs completed (and coin generated) within the same time period.

Those numbers are illustrative but this is precisely the reason that people do less writs on console despite the coin reward being the same. The writs are too time-consuming for most players to do the same amount of writs as PC players.

Automation allows for greater scale.

It is far, far easier for PC players to make coin thanks to add-ons. As a result, coin is less scarce. And less scarce items have less value.

Coin is devalued on PC.

Whether it takes 30 minutes or an hour, the amount of gold and rewards for doing the same amount of writs is still the same.

As for coin being less valuable because it's less scarce... the coins don't have less value because they allow the player to purchase the more expensive mats from traders etc.. It all evens out.

But again, the player in the example only has time to do 30 minutes of writs.

They can do 6 without the add-on or 12 with the add-on in that 30 minute time limit.

Most players don't have infinite time to spend on such tasks. They do they for a bit of time each day and then play something else. Console players do NOT do as many writs as PC players because it takes longer.

SilverBride

spartaxoxo wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Whether it takes 30 minutes or an hour, the amount of gold and rewards for doing the same amount of writs is still the same.

As for coin being less valuable because it's less scarce... the coins don't have less value because they allow the player to purchase the more expensive mats from traders etc.. It all evens out.

But again, the player in the example only has time to do 30 minutes of writs.

They can do 6 without the add-on or 12 with the add-on in that 30 minute time limit.

Most players don't have infinite time to spend on such tasks. They do they for a bit of time each day and then play something else. Console players do NOT do as many writs as PC players because it takes longer.

Console and PC do not mix. One economy doesn't affect the other. So it doesn't matter how fast we can do them with an add-on on PC because how much we make on PC has no effect on Console.

spartaxoxo

SilverBride wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Whether it takes 30 minutes or an hour, the amount of gold and rewards for doing the same amount of writs is still the same.

As for coin being less valuable because it's less scarce... the coins don't have less value because they allow the player to purchase the more expensive mats from traders etc.. It all evens out.

But again, the player in the example only has time to do 30 minutes of writs.

They can do 6 without the add-on or 12 with the add-on in that 30 minute time limit.

Most players don't have infinite time to spend on such tasks. They do they for a bit of time each day and then play something else. Console players do NOT do as many writs as PC players because it takes longer.

Console and PC do not mix. One economy doesn't affect the other. So it doesn't matter how fast we can do them with an add-on on PC because how much we make on PC has no effect on Console.

That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that the reason console doesn't have the same issues is because it's harder and more time consuming to make coin.

SilverBride

spartaxoxo wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Whether it takes 30 minutes or an hour, the amount of gold and rewards for doing the same amount of writs is still the same.

As for coin being less valuable because it's less scarce... the coins don't have less value because they allow the player to purchase the more expensive mats from traders etc.. It all evens out.

But again, the player in the example only has time to do 30 minutes of writs.

They can do 6 without the add-on or 12 with the add-on in that 30 minute time limit.

Most players don't have infinite time to spend on such tasks. They do they for a bit of time each day and then play something else. Console players do NOT do as many writs as PC players because it takes longer.

Console and PC do not mix. One economy doesn't affect the other. So it doesn't matter how fast we can do them with an add-on on PC because how much we make on PC has no effect on Console.

That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that the reason console doesn't have the same issues is because it's harder and more time consuming to make coin.

Oh, thanks for clarifying. I certainly do agree with that.

Sakiri

Why is it that everyone's suggestion to remove gold from the economy, instead of reducing the amount of gold generated?

You don't need to do both, but reducing the amount of gold generated isn't a bad thing.

Get something worth money, sell it for market price, and market price stays stable and you're still making money, just it's coming from another player rather than generated out of thin air.

SilverBride

How would reducing the amount of gold help? This would just motivate players to raise their prices to make up for the loss.

Amottica

Zodiarkslayer wrote: »

kiwi_tea wrote: »

Wages can be devalued by inflation like anything else. But releasing more gold in at the bottom in this case (ie, increasing the "wages" for doing in-game "work") will only exacerbate the inflationary pressures on prices because those wages are likely to go straight up into the relatively small number of accounts that are driving prices.

I am contesting the idea of there being an inflation at all. Players who claim that, are in denial about them being rather poor, too lazy to farm gold or unknowledgeable to do so effectively.

Players who leave ESO are the biggest gold sink. And there are players who sit on a mountain of gold, so large that they have to make multiple accounts to hold all their gold. Look to the GMs of the largest trade guilds for some reality check.

There is inflation on specific items. But yes, there is deflation on other items as well. So when players are complaining about inflation they are speaking to that which they want to buy. There is also isolation periods of inflation where an item increases in price due to short-term factors such as upgrade materials will cost more when there is desirable new gear. That is not important since one can simply wait for the price to return to normal or just farm it themselves.

You do hit on an important note. Every player can do exactly what the wealthier players have done. There is no secret to how I obtained all my gold since it comes directly from playing the game (no crown trading). If someone has less gold due to having less time to play then that is a different subject and not relevant to this topic.

kiwi_tea

TaSheen wrote: »

Are there really so many players on PC doing huge quantities of writs? I admit I have no idea. I do writs on a couple of characters a day on three accounts, both PC megaservers.

I have a couple of million gold on each account both PC megaservers - and I don't buy much at all. I really didn't realize there were "megamillionaires" with that sort of gold....

Some guild leaders are sort of forced to do insane numbers of writs on multiple accounts to generate enough gold to compete for guild traders. I know of some trade guild leaders who feel pressure to do that on top of what they generate through sales.

I think they're a very small minority, but yes. There are definitely a handful of very prominent players who do huge quantities of writs on PC.

Sakiri

SilverBride wrote: »

How would reducing the amount of gold help? This would just motivate players to raise their prices to make up for the loss.

Nope. Under my idea, gold mats and master writs, surveys, would drop more often giving people more things to sell. More gold shuffling between players rather than generated from nothing.

kiwi_tea

Sakiri wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

How would reducing the amount of gold help? This would just motivate players to raise their prices to make up for the loss.

Nope. Under my idea, gold mats and master writs, surveys, would drop more often giving people more things to sell. More gold shuffling between players rather than generated from nothing.

I think ZOS have given off a general impression that they don't want to *force* players into the guild trader market, and I think that's a fundamental problem with solving everything via that market. ZOS clearly intends players to get income from playing the game and doing certain tasks exterior to the guild trader market. They obviously put a lot of thought into the gameplay loop of mats & research->writs & master writs->gold/writ vouchers. Given set up can be a significant time investment, I doubt they want to risk breaking what isn't broken and forcing players into the commitments involved with guild trading. It's a game, and they probably don't expect ALL (or even a majority) of players to enjoy trading or to want to participate in that gameplay loop.

There's also always the risk, when removing gold *generation*, of some form of liquidity crunch. I don't know how much gold overall writs put into ESO's economy, but if people are already struggling to meet price points due to inflation, I suspect it would cause at least a mild crunch, and make the grind for players further down even more pronounced even after a long adjustment period and market "correction".

That adjustment would probably hurt the game far worse than a mild contractionary policy that reduces the size of the economy by removing excess gold at the site where the excess is collecting: The top. The gold excess that causes inflation doesn't collect at the point of generation, and removing it from the point of generation potentially just prices out more and more of a larger and larger pool of players.

Sakiri

kiwi_tea wrote: »

Sakiri wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

How would reducing the amount of gold help? This would just motivate players to raise their prices to make up for the loss.

Nope. Under my idea, gold mats and master writs, surveys, would drop more often giving people more things to sell. More gold shuffling between players rather than generated from nothing.

I think ZOS have given off a general impression that they don't want to *force* players into the guild trader market, and I think that's a fundamental problem with solving everything via that market. ZOS clearly intends players to get income from playing the game and doing certain tasks exterior to the guild trader market. They obviously put a lot of thought into the gameplay loop of mats & research->writs & master writs->gold/writ vouchers. Given set up can be a significant time investment, I doubt they want to risk breaking what isn't broken and forcing players into the commitments involved with guild trading. It's a game, and they probably don't expect ALL (or even a majority) of players to enjoy trading or to want to participate in that gameplay loop.

There's also always the risk, when removing gold *generation*, of some form of liquidity crunch. I don't know how much gold overall writs put into ESO's economy, but if people are already struggling to meet price points due to inflation, I suspect it would cause at least a mild crunch, and make the grind for players further down even more pronounced even after a long adjustment period and market "correction".

That adjustment would probably hurt the game far worse than a mild contractionary policy that reduces the size of the economy by removing excess gold at the site where the excess is collecting: The top. The gold excess that causes inflation doesn't collect at the point of generation, and removing it from the point of generation potentially just prices out more and more of a larger and larger pool of players.

The only source of gold I suggested shutting off was writs.

barney2525

It's just the hazard of
an in-game economy.

As more gold enters the economy from Non Player sources, like daily crafting, players have more to spend. Whatever players Need (for recipes or whatever) is always in demand. As more people can afford the prices due to accumulation, prices will rise.

And they will never come down.

If items don't sell, players lower the price and try again. But with the amount of gold available prices in general won't drop and the Company is not going to intervene. That would be a no win situation. They would have to remove all gold and have everyone start from 0 again. Imagine the reaction to That. Additionally, they are advertising an in-game economy. They are not going to get involved and set prices. If something normally sells for 100 gold, and someone is silly enough to pay 10,000 gold for it, well, that's fine and dandy. Will it affect the price afterward? Absolutely.

But that's what rich people do. whether its in a game or in real life.

Or maybe you thought a chair had a Real value of $10,000 or more.

Zodiarkslayer

TaSheen wrote: »

... I really didn't realize there were "megamillionaires" with that sort of gold....

There are. I know several who are at the gold cap, that is the maximum amount of gold a character and the bank can hold.
Look for the GMs of trade guilds and clans. Most have several accounts to mange their amounts of gold.

In terms of numbers take 2.1 billon multiplied by number of characters plus one for the bank. So, in theory, 44.1 billon per account at maximum. But I can't say I have seen that. 😳

Edit: Clarification

edward_frigidhands

ItMustBeThursday wrote: »

I've been wondering if there is anything planned to address the rampant inflation affecting the in game economy.

The price of certain items has gone absolutely insane, and it feels like you'd have to aggressively farm gold to be able to buy even the most basic necessities.

Which mega-server do you play on?

Which items in particular are you noticing this with?

edward_frigidhands

xylena_lazarow wrote: »

I_killed_Vivec wrote: »

"I don't like doing [insert unfavoured task here]. ZoS, change the game so I don't have to do it."

It's a game not a job. If the game is making you do unfavoured tasks to progress, yes that's the game's problem.

There's no reason PvPers should need to spend hours picking flowers to be competitive in PvP.

Everyone else has to though.

Some people may classify everything but PvP to be "unfavorable" including farming sets from PvE or getting crafting materials to craft gear that can be used in PvP. It doesn't change that the tasks are part of the game and a necessary process in acquiring what you need.

I think its a bit unreasonable to just want everything to come from a single part of the game just because that is the only part of the game you like.

LaintalAy

MJallday wrote: »

The way to do it is to increase supply.
Simply introduce an amount or supply of said materials which will render the high price null and void, driving prices down

Anyone had a look at the contents of their Anniversary Gift boxes?
... increased supplies of said materials.

So can we stop all the whingeing now? You got what you asked for.

SydneyGrey

I took a two-year break from ESO, came back last month and suddenly it seemed like everyone in the game was a millionaire except for me. LOL.

Luckily, though, I had some items in my character's inventories that were worthless two years ago, but now are worth something, so I managed to get some money through selling old items. So, I'm still poor, but not super poor.

hiyde

Zodiarkslayer wrote: »

TaSheen wrote: »

... I really didn't realize there were "megamillionaires" with that sort of gold....

There are. I know several who are at the gold cap, that is the maximum amount of gold a character and the bank can hold.
Look for the GMs of trade guilds and clans. Most have several accounts to mange their amounts of gold.
In terms of numbers take 2.1 billon multiplied by number of characters plus one for the bank. So, 44.1 billon per account.

Wait, you're saying there are multiple people out there who've socked away 44.1 Billion Gold on multiple accounts from running a trade guild? Could you maybe get one of them to drop by and confirm?

I've been doing this since the start and I've never met one. I've never *heard* of one. To get just ONE account to "44.1 Billion", even if they'd been at it for 10 straight years, that's an average PROFIT (after paying for the bid) of **85 Million Gold** a week.

Meanwhile, back in reality, most GMs and Officers of trade guilds are busting their butts every week just to cover the bid and maybe put a little extra in the bank for backup bids/inflation/warchest etc.

If you wanna be a billionaire in ESO, running a trade guild would be one of the slowest and most time-consuming ways to get there lol.

kiwi_tea

LaintalAy wrote: »

MJallday wrote: »

The way to do it is to increase supply.
Simply introduce an amount or supply of said materials which will render the high price null and void, driving prices down

Anyone had a look at the contents of their Anniversary Gift boxes?
... increased supplies of said materials.

So can we stop all the whingeing now? You got what you asked for.

The problem is the overall *trend* on PCNA for gold to be worth less and less. A one-time seasonal injection of rarer commodities into the market *may* cool prices a tiny bit for a little while, but because it's only a temporary increase in supply, commodity speculators are likely to very quickly soak all those mats up.