Dre4dwolfb14_ESO wrote: »

pugyourself wrote: »

One thing to consider is that current prices have been determined by the guild system.

I think the implementation of an auction house would result in pricing that fluctuates around NPC vendor prices.

There is no doubt in my mind that the economy would shrink exponentially in terms of total gold value of sales per month if such a solution was implemented.

Everyone loses in that situation.

I would, however, support the ability for guilds with as few as a single member being able to bid on a kiosk. I think that would be a nice accommodation for people who don't want to "join a guild".

Edited for spelling

Half the Kiosks that already exist dont even have any items listed in them for the most part.
Adding more kisosks and letting nobodies bid on them, would just result in more of what everyone hates in the current system.


I have studied economics.

All resources tend to trend (in price) towards production costs.
So if it costs a player say 100g to farm an item, the item will start off selling somewhere above 100g and slowly as more players (sellers) enter the market free market competition (supply and demand) will dictate that the price of the desired good will approach 100g or get as close to 100g as possible where the human beings who are gathering that item feel like its still worth their time.

In the real world this is great, because lets say if we are mining gold, and everyone wants gold (no reason why just go with it), miners will start off mining gold and selling for very high prices, and evnetually more miners will come in and prices will get competative, this process is repeated until the demand dries up (everyone has gold and no longer wants anymore)

this is the same with all resources (food/energy/minerals) etc.
Its great because (the people want something and everyone gets what they want) and the miners/crafters get currency to buy soemthing else from someone else playing the same game with a different resources.
its a win win win loop feedback that has an expiration time (the moment where the population has reached satisfaction with the material wealth it has created/gathered) , everyone ends up with a car, a house , energy to fuel the things they like etc.... and the people providing those things are rewarded with money that lets them buy what they want.

When you are designing a virtual economy, the only question that needs to be answered is, what kind of economy do you want?
Do you want an economy ruled by scarcity where everyone is poor and there are not enough goods to satisfy everyones wants/needs.
or
Do you want an economy ruled by demand?, where, the supply IS THERE if you go get it, you just have to pay the right price.


The primary problem the real world faces is, we have a scarcity model, things like energy , food, etc. are scarce (they have a finite supply) and we use debt to finance its extraction , since debt is inflationary (everytime you borrow money, new money is printed out of thin air under fractional lending), you are stuck in a model where
Money is not scarce
Goods are scarce
The money you work for buys less and less as time goes on (wages are "sticky" they dont go up as fast as the rate of inflation for most of the population).

A fixed monetary system in a game, with an elastic supply of goods (a supply that expands with population) (done by rapid spawn rates, boss spawns, fast timers no cooldowns etc)
will result in a virtual economy where everyone drives a benz and lives in a mansion.

An elastic/inflationary monetary system in a game with a finite supply of goods (a supply that dwindles as incentive to gather them deminishes will result in half the people dropping out of the labor force/giving up on gathering/crafting/farming.
(Ironically what we have in the real world).
This creates great depressions.


So you have to be careful when trying to tweak a virtual economy as to reward players for the work they put in, while still creating incentive for players to pay high prices for items.