Maintenance for the week of May 25:
• [COMPLETE] ESO Store and Account System for maintenance – May 27, 6:00AM EDT (10:00 UTC) - 4:00PM EDT (20:00 UTC)
• [COMPLETE] ESO Store and Account System for maintenance – May 27, 6:00AM EDT (10:00 UTC) - 4:00PM EDT (20:00 UTC)
Casual Player Enfranchisement through Guild Merchant Deflation
-
Agenericname✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭jedtb16_ESO wrote: »Agenericname wrote: »jedtb16_ESO wrote: »Agenericname wrote: »Most casuals want an auction house, for good reason. There's a lot of posters on these forums that are in the high end trading guilds controlling the market, so it's gonna be hard to get neutral opinions on this.
That would be my choice. I read somewhere that there are 1000 trading guilds for 100 spots. I'm not sure how true that is, but even a less exaggerated discrepancy between the two would create an artificial barrier restricting competition which is naturally going to drive the prices up.
There are other ways to cover the gold sink.
100 spots?
not true.... there are over 200
source...
http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Guild_Traders
if you are going to debate it at least get your facts in order first.
You did see the part where it presented as speculation didn't you? It should be taken in context with the following sentence.
why speculate when you can verify?
Partially because without knowing how many guilds are bidding for traders or how much of the supply is restricted, you wouldn't be able to find the ratio. I'm not entirely sure where that Information exists and if ZoS discloses it.
Even then, if you knew the numerator and denominator, you would still have to speculate at the number of people who choose not to participate in trade for various reasons.
The fact that theyre limited still presents the same barrier.1 -
jedtb16_ESO✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭Agenericname wrote: »jedtb16_ESO wrote: »Agenericname wrote: »jedtb16_ESO wrote: »Agenericname wrote: »Most casuals want an auction house, for good reason. There's a lot of posters on these forums that are in the high end trading guilds controlling the market, so it's gonna be hard to get neutral opinions on this.
That would be my choice. I read somewhere that there are 1000 trading guilds for 100 spots. I'm not sure how true that is, but even a less exaggerated discrepancy between the two would create an artificial barrier restricting competition which is naturally going to drive the prices up.
There are other ways to cover the gold sink.
100 spots?
not true.... there are over 200
source...
http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Guild_Traders
if you are going to debate it at least get your facts in order first.
You did see the part where it presented as speculation didn't you? It should be taken in context with the following sentence.
why speculate when you can verify?
Partially because without knowing how many guilds are bidding for traders or how much of the supply is restricted, you wouldn't be able to find the ratio. I'm not entirely sure where that Information exists and if ZoS discloses it.
Even then, if you knew the numerator and denominator, you would still have to speculate at the number of people who choose not to participate in trade for various reasons.
The fact that theyre limited still presents the same barrier.
guild traders are a resource...
like every other resource in the game they are subject to competition.1 -
starkerealm✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭Agenericname wrote: »jedtb16_ESO wrote: »Agenericname wrote: »jedtb16_ESO wrote: »Agenericname wrote: »Most casuals want an auction house, for good reason. There's a lot of posters on these forums that are in the high end trading guilds controlling the market, so it's gonna be hard to get neutral opinions on this.
That would be my choice. I read somewhere that there are 1000 trading guilds for 100 spots. I'm not sure how true that is, but even a less exaggerated discrepancy between the two would create an artificial barrier restricting competition which is naturally going to drive the prices up.
There are other ways to cover the gold sink.
100 spots?
not true.... there are over 200
source...
http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Guild_Traders
if you are going to debate it at least get your facts in order first.
You did see the part where it presented as speculation didn't you? It should be taken in context with the following sentence.
why speculate when you can verify?
Partially because without knowing how many guilds are bidding for traders or how much of the supply is restricted, you wouldn't be able to find the ratio. I'm not entirely sure where that Information exists and if ZoS discloses it.
Even then, if you knew the numerator and denominator, you would still have to speculate at the number of people who choose not to participate in trade for various reasons.
The fact that theyre limited still presents the same barrier.
In point of fact, there was never a point in the game where there were only 100 slots. The original launch era alliance zones alone added 132 kiosks, that's ignoring Cold Harbour and Craglorn.0 -
TheCyberDruid✭✭✭✭✭isailandshootub17_ESO wrote: »Problem: Using guild merchants to make gold on your trades is tremendously more effective than anything else in the game.
This is a problem? People want to 'shortcut' things by buying them from guild traders, so people who put things up for sale there get the money from those who want to save time. The exchange rate of those transactions is determined by supply and demand. Seems to be a good deal for everybody.0 -
wolfie1.0.✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭Crafts_Many_Boxes wrote: »I think something more important than the "casual versus hardcore" argument brewing here is something else that was touched upon - the inherent imbalance in gold gains between different types of content.
Traders make the most gold. They farm drops for stuff to sell at traders. They loot urns for rare motifs, ad nauseum. They do all the stuff in the game that makes them the most gold, because that's the way they want to play.
The problem is buying power. These traders, because of their money-making endeavors, have far, far more gold than Johnny loves-to-quest, or Billy Battleground. "Normal" pve and pvp content just doesn't award the same gold that farming for specific drops does.
So, the trader players have a lot more gold than everyone else, and they have a lot more buying power. They can buy most of the gear they could ever want, and for the gear they can't actually obtain by throwing money at it, they can pay groups for carries through veteran content, be it dungeons or trials. By comparison, the normal players are limited to doing the content they specialize in and hoping for the best. They just have less options than the traders.
So, the solution was touched upon by the OP here: make "normal" pve and PvP content worth more gold.
Complete a quest at max level? How about 2 or 3k gold instead of 600?
Complete a normal trial? How about 15k gold? How about 30k on veteran?
Your faction takes a keep in cyrodil, and you participated? How about a 15k payout right then and there? How about 10k for participating in a battleground? 15k for winning?
This way, a balance is created. Most traders will still stick to their money-making farming because it will, in theory, net the same profit as other content and be easier for them. PvE players will get equivalent amounts of gold for doing what they actually enjoy, and the same goes for PvPers.
There's nothing stopping a trader from throwing money at a trials guild to tag along on a trial run, so there should be nothing stopping a pver or a pvper from buying mats / gear / whatever that the traders put up in guild stores. That's how you strike a balance.
Now, IF they ever changed dungeons / trials so that non-skilled players simply couldn't enter, this whole argument would be invalid, but such is not the case thankfully.
Would this lead to price inflation in guild traders? Possibly, but possibly not. After all, a good chunk of the buying / selling done at guild traders is done between the traders themselves, and they won't have more gold flowing to them in this scenario.
The one important factor here is that you are not accounting for a way to move massive amounts of gold out of the economy. Right now the competitive guild trader system is the largest gold sink in the game. And its voluntary. You can't just add more gold into the game and say that it will fixed thejedtb16_ESO wrote: »wtlonewolf20 wrote: »WhiteNoiseMaker wrote: »There is however the clear cut examples of market manipulation that goes on.
For example, on NA PC finished Jute used to be commonly found a few months ago at the price of 7-9 gold apiece on average, sometimes even less. Then it suddenly spiked for no discernible reason to the price of 35-40 gold a unit. It stayed this way for two months, before gradually lowering now to the current price of 25 per unit. This is still remarkably higher than it was a mere season ago.,
Oko runes are another example of price manipulation on what used to be a trivially cheap rune. At least in this case, there's a partial reason in that writs have begun to make more use of Oko, but we're talking about price hikes over over 1000% to 2000% increase fro last year.
Just adding this in response to the suggestion that 'things in the basket get cheaper over time'. :-)
Well the price increases make a whole lot of sense if you factor in that selling refined jute was not very lucrative when it was 7 to 9 gold. When you factor in that you can sell it to an npc at 8 gold. Now consider that every raw jute a farmer finds is a missed ancestor silk which sells for 40+ gold each. Now I am an active trader and crafter. I have 30 slots to sell in my guild store and a craft bag. So given a choice I would sell the ancestor silk and leave the jute in my bag. Ofcourse this affects the prices.
how can raw jute ever be an issue?
want raw jute? take a low lvl round a starter island... you'll have enough to make a marquee in half an hour.
My post is more a reflection on why jute prices fluctuate. If my intent is to sell it and the prices are low then I wont spend time doing so. Thus the price goes up. And when you factor in the opportunity cost of farming jute instead of ancestor silk, well you lose gold when doing so if the price of jute is low. Because essentially every jute you farm could be an ancestor silk if you had the right skills or character.
0 -
Juju_beans✭✭✭✭✭
✭jedtb16_ESO wrote: »how can raw jute ever be an issue?
want raw jute? take a low lvl round a starter island... you'll have enough to make a marquee in half an hour.
It really only becomes an issue during events.
I have 6 toons..only 1 is max crafter. The others are not so when they craft during events it's jute.
Now I do harvest when I play these toons and use them for surveys so I'm always harvesting jute one way or another.
But jute is the biggest one because everyone dusts off their non maxed out toons to do writs during events for either the loot or double bonus plus gold.
0 -
Kawall✭✭✭bellatrixed wrote: »Nothing is broken for casual players.
It is incredibly easy to make gold in this game if you try even a *little*. If you are unwilling to try even a little you must not really want whatever you're grinding gold for.
Grinding gold to buy nice stuff is required in every single MMO ever... and ESO is a lot more forgiving than most.
You can make 75k - 100k a week by just selling battle master chests you get from daily battlegrounds.
What exactly are you selling from battlegrounds that brings in that much? I'm lucky if I can get anything that goes above 1000.
Selling the chests was a bug that has been fixed in a recent update.
Didn't know they changed that. Well it was good while it lasted.0 -
jedtb16_ESO✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭Juju_beans wrote: »jedtb16_ESO wrote: »how can raw jute ever be an issue?
want raw jute? take a low lvl round a starter island... you'll have enough to make a marquee in half an hour.
It really only becomes an issue during events.
I have 6 toons..only 1 is max crafter. The others are not so when they craft during events it's jute.
Now I do harvest when I play these toons and use them for surveys so I'm always harvesting jute one way or another.
But jute is the biggest one because everyone dusts off their non maxed out toons to do writs during events for either the loot or double bonus plus gold.
so, you play smart?
0 -
starkerealm✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭bellatrixed wrote: »Nothing is broken for casual players.
It is incredibly easy to make gold in this game if you try even a *little*. If you are unwilling to try even a little you must not really want whatever you're grinding gold for.
Grinding gold to buy nice stuff is required in every single MMO ever... and ESO is a lot more forgiving than most.
You can make 75k - 100k a week by just selling battle master chests you get from daily battlegrounds.
What exactly are you selling from battlegrounds that brings in that much? I'm lucky if I can get anything that goes above 1000.
Selling the chests was a bug that has been fixed in a recent update.
Didn't know they changed that. Well it was good while it lasted.
Given you could open them to check the contents, and then list them for sale if you didn't like the dice roll, or maybe even skim off something you liked, and then list it... yeah, that doesn't sound intentional. (Unless they actually bound when you opened them, but I don't that was the case.)0 -
wolfie1.0.✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭isailandshootub17_ESO wrote: »I'm a casual player. Every few months I stop in to play for a week or so. I usually end up spending a lot of time researching the new flavor-of-the-month builds, and then I attempt to employ it. Farming the gear is time consuming. And time is money. And that's why you're here! Am I right? You got all excited when you saw "Enfranchisement"!
So, instead of giving you my economic philosophy I will merely attempt to explain a simple mechanic which will make things better for most players in terms of a gold/gear to time ratio.
Problem: Using guild merchants to make gold on your trades is tremendously more effective than anything else in the game. If you're not familiar with this please look into it, as you're missing out on tons of gold. But why is this a problem? Lots of gold is great, right? Perhaps not in this case:
1) A minority of players who devote much more time into the game than others spend a lot of time with trading, and they make literally millions of gold. 2) The tremendous comparative wealth has a disproportionate effect on the most powerful items for any given patch. 3) Therefore the prices on these items become commensurately expensive (i.e. hundreds of thousands of gold in some cases). 4) This puts the best items out of the reach for the common player unless they are willing to spend weeks farming the appropriate gear unless they too decide to leave their questing/pvp/grinding to become a master Guild Merchant Trader.
Desired effect: Increase the value of game elements outside of Merchant trading. If we could find some way to make the more fun elements of the game, such as questing and PvP (dare I say) nearly as lucrative as merchant trading, the cost of items will be greatly deflated
Proposed Solution: Sadly, despite deep thought and deconstruction of Adam Smith, I'm afraid the solution is drastic. Unfortunately, the player trading system has become so efficient for some that it has essentially broken the economy for casual players (or even hardcore players if they don't want to spend the time to trade). My first thought is to do away, in some respect, with randomized loot. If a desired set or item could be acquired through a direct quest, that would be great. It would be even better if it could be incorporated into all existing quests.
There are many ways this could be done. For example. Imagine a clever daedra finds a niche in collecting rare armaments (i.e. set items). He carries almost every set item in game, all selectable through his trade menu. But he doesn't care for gold. Instead he desires a special form of life essence. He gives you a gem or something else whereby every enemy you kill grants life-force points to the object, which can be traded for his items (like soul gems, but automatic without need to aquire the gems).
Or you could have a faction merchant who awards glory points for quests completed to trade for these items. Or there could be a nefarious merchant who will accept infamy points for bad deeds, thieving, and dark brotherhood contracts. Anything. I suppose there is already something like this in Cyrodiil for certain PvP sets. But I'm talking comprehensive with even less chance.
The key here is that with a moderate amount of play, someone can receive the items they desire without having to engage with the Guild Merchant traders (which are too inflated for them). Furthermore, you can level and quest with your friends even though you both want something different.
What will this mean for Guild Merchants? Will it do away with the need for them? I certainly hope not! It seems that this would simply stabilize the value of set items and move the Guild Merchant market from such items to mats and crafted goods, which in turn enfranchises crafters.
So there you have it; my humble economic musings.
Back to Tamriel for me, before the next patch makes my nearly completed character non-competitive....
Actually we already have token merchants in the game. Ap merchants, Tel Var merchants, writ voucher merchants and of course gold. The entire concept of currency at its base is that you have a token that represents a unit or units. Your solution still requires the one resource that casuals either dont have a lot of or are unwilling to dedicate to the game. That resource is time. Your token idea would require lots of time. Farming gold requires time. All your doing is redirecting the activities. It will change nothing except cause confusion and be a barrier to entry.
3 -
jedtb16_ESO✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭wtlonewolf20 wrote: »isailandshootub17_ESO wrote: »I'm a casual player. Every few months I stop in to play for a week or so. I usually end up spending a lot of time researching the new flavor-of-the-month builds, and then I attempt to employ it. Farming the gear is time consuming. And time is money. And that's why you're here! Am I right? You got all excited when you saw "Enfranchisement"!
So, instead of giving you my economic philosophy I will merely attempt to explain a simple mechanic which will make things better for most players in terms of a gold/gear to time ratio.
Problem: Using guild merchants to make gold on your trades is tremendously more effective than anything else in the game. If you're not familiar with this please look into it, as you're missing out on tons of gold. But why is this a problem? Lots of gold is great, right? Perhaps not in this case:
1) A minority of players who devote much more time into the game than others spend a lot of time with trading, and they make literally millions of gold. 2) The tremendous comparative wealth has a disproportionate effect on the most powerful items for any given patch. 3) Therefore the prices on these items become commensurately expensive (i.e. hundreds of thousands of gold in some cases). 4) This puts the best items out of the reach for the common player unless they are willing to spend weeks farming the appropriate gear unless they too decide to leave their questing/pvp/grinding to become a master Guild Merchant Trader.
Desired effect: Increase the value of game elements outside of Merchant trading. If we could find some way to make the more fun elements of the game, such as questing and PvP (dare I say) nearly as lucrative as merchant trading, the cost of items will be greatly deflated
Proposed Solution: Sadly, despite deep thought and deconstruction of Adam Smith, I'm afraid the solution is drastic. Unfortunately, the player trading system has become so efficient for some that it has essentially broken the economy for casual players (or even hardcore players if they don't want to spend the time to trade). My first thought is to do away, in some respect, with randomized loot. If a desired set or item could be acquired through a direct quest, that would be great. It would be even better if it could be incorporated into all existing quests.
There are many ways this could be done. For example. Imagine a clever daedra finds a niche in collecting rare armaments (i.e. set items). He carries almost every set item in game, all selectable through his trade menu. But he doesn't care for gold. Instead he desires a special form of life essence. He gives you a gem or something else whereby every enemy you kill grants life-force points to the object, which can be traded for his items (like soul gems, but automatic without need to aquire the gems).
Or you could have a faction merchant who awards glory points for quests completed to trade for these items. Or there could be a nefarious merchant who will accept infamy points for bad deeds, thieving, and dark brotherhood contracts. Anything. I suppose there is already something like this in Cyrodiil for certain PvP sets. But I'm talking comprehensive with even less chance.
The key here is that with a moderate amount of play, someone can receive the items they desire without having to engage with the Guild Merchant traders (which are too inflated for them). Furthermore, you can level and quest with your friends even though you both want something different.
What will this mean for Guild Merchants? Will it do away with the need for them? I certainly hope not! It seems that this would simply stabilize the value of set items and move the Guild Merchant market from such items to mats and crafted goods, which in turn enfranchises crafters.
So there you have it; my humble economic musings.
Back to Tamriel for me, before the next patch makes my nearly completed character non-competitive....
Actually we already have token merchants in the game. Ap merchants, Tel Var merchants, writ voucher merchants and of course gold. The entire concept of currency at its base is that you have a token that represents a unit or units. Your solution still requires the one resource that casuals either dont have a lot of or are unwilling to dedicate to the game. That resource is time. Your token idea would require lots of time. Farming gold requires time. All your doing is redirecting the activities. It will change nothing except cause confusion and be a barrier to entry.
well put.
same for all mmos.... not grind but time.0 -
Juju_beans✭✭✭✭✭
✭OP: if you only log in for 1 week every couple of months you won't be rich and you won't be competitive.
And really there's no point trying because you're only playing for 1 week.1 -
zyk✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭Which items are out of reach to you as a casual player? The economy in this game has already been drastically modified to benefit casual players.
The game constantly showers players with gold and other rewards, and harvesting nodes spawn incredibly quickly.
I don't understand why so many players who seem to dislike progression based games with virtual economies choose to play them and then over time demand that those elements be marginalized.Edited by zyk on June 22, 2018 10:38PM1 -
JumpmanLane✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭Pixel_Zealot wrote: »There isn't competition for the 'Master Traders.' My trading guild is currently in a great spot in Summerset, and I make 50 - 100k a week selling crafted items, motifs, trash etc.
Having said that, some prices are ridiculous 'cause the only way to compare prices in the game is to actually use TTC/MM or other add-ons, with that, if objects become less rare in the store, the price drops slowly. If the game was constructed in such a way as a Global (server) auction house, it would affect the market tremendously as rarity/frequency would have a stronger effect on price to stable it out quicker, at the end reaching the main objective to remove the ridiculous overpricing of some of these benign objects.
We've had numerous polls and several threads discussing this, and most people defending the current system are the die-hard Master Traders making millions monthly, as they're probably taking advantage of the current system. Scouring TTC for deals, buying them up and selling them for a profit.
The current system is made to be exploited as it is, causing the constant undesired effect on the economy. Changing the loot system wouldn't even temporarily fix it.
My traders in Rawlka and I make that in like 15 minutes lol0 -
Tonturri✭✭✭✭✭This all sounds...weird.
Things likely aren't expensive in a new patch primarily because there are players with lots of gold running around - they're expensive because everybody wants it and wants it /now/. It's been that way for every patch in...pretty much every MMO ever for things that can be sold.
I'm a casual player - I pop back in when new content drops. I don't kiosk-flip or w/e the term is. I just (re)join a trade guild every time, go through the content, and sell stuff. Made 600k in about three days after Summerset dropped just doing stuff I normally do in game (bgs, pledges, etc) because I got a decent amount of jewelry, deconned and sold the stuff.
Your post leaves out a lot of other important aspects to all this and I'm bamboozled as to why you feel that things gotta change just because some people in the game are rich, or that you have to work to afford stuff using gold that lots of people want...or you have to farm it up yourself (perhaps until the price falls).1 -
zyk✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭WhiteNoiseMaker wrote: »There is however the clear cut examples of market manipulation that goes on.
For example, on NA PC finished Jute used to be commonly found a few months ago at the price of 7-9 gold apiece on average, sometimes even less. Then it suddenly spiked for no discernible reason to the price of 35-40 gold a unit. It stayed this way for two months, before gradually lowering now to the current price of 25 per unit. This is still remarkably higher than it was a mere season ago.,
Jute isn't being manipulated. Its demand goes up when players are incentivized to complete Crafting Writs on alts like during the Anniversary event a couple of months ago. This combined with its scarcity, because it's likely much less harvested than top level mats, keeps its price where it is.Edited by zyk on June 22, 2018 11:09PM0 -
IcyDeadPeople✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭Anyone can make millions of gold, even level 3 players with no gear and no abilities unlocked. Just spend a lot of time picking alchemy flowers and harvest nodes for mats. The way it works in this game you kind of need to trade time doing boring stuff in exchange for gold.
Even if you are not member of trading guild you can sell in zone chat; however, there are also many trading guilds open to casual players1 -
AnonomissX✭✭✭✭So...OP, I put more time into activities in game that earn gold, and you want the same goodies for less time and effort?
So, if I work for 40 hours at a job, and you plop in and work 4 hours...you want the same paycheck?
LOLOLOLOL.....LOL.
B/Ebonheart Pact, Nord Templar/healer on NA Xbox server. My main toon WAS a tall and foxy redhead - now she has been gamma-irradiated and has green skin and black hair. 3 other characters I only use for writs. Can't be bothered to create multiple toons - EXCEPT now my WW is getting spooled up for Cyrodiil - Blood For The Pact! IRL cranky sometimes redhead chick at large in Las Vegas, NV0 -
klowdy1✭✭✭✭✭isailandshootub17_ESO wrote: »I'm a casual player. Every few months I stop in to play for a week or so. I usually end up spending a lot of time researching the new flavor-of-the-month builds, and then I attempt to employ it. Farming the gear is time consuming. And time is money. And that's why you're here! Am I right? You got all excited when you saw "Enfranchisement"!
So, instead of giving you my economic philosophy I will merely attempt to explain a simple mechanic which will make things better for most players in terms of a gold/gear to time ratio.
Problem: Using guild merchants to make gold on your trades is tremendously more effective than anything else in the game. If you're not familiar with this please look into it, as you're missing out on tons of gold. But why is this a problem? Lots of gold is great, right? Perhaps not in this case:
1) A minority of players who devote much more time into the game than others spend a lot of time with trading, and they make literally millions of gold. 2) The tremendous comparative wealth has a disproportionate effect on the most powerful items for any given patch. 3) Therefore the prices on these items become commensurately expensive (i.e. hundreds of thousands of gold in some cases). 4) This puts the best items out of the reach for the common player unless they are willing to spend weeks farming the appropriate gear unless they too decide to leave their questing/pvp/grinding to become a master Guild Merchant Trader.
Desired effect: Increase the value of game elements outside of Merchant trading. If we could find some way to make the more fun elements of the game, such as questing and PvP (dare I say) nearly as lucrative as merchant trading, the cost of items will be greatly deflated
Proposed Solution: Sadly, despite deep thought and deconstruction of Adam Smith, I'm afraid the solution is drastic. Unfortunately, the player trading system has become so efficient for some that it has essentially broken the economy for casual players (or even hardcore players if they don't want to spend the time to trade). My first thought is to do away, in some respect, with randomized loot. If a desired set or item could be acquired through a direct quest, that would be great. It would be even better if it could be incorporated into all existing quests.
There are many ways this could be done. For example. Imagine a clever daedra finds a niche in collecting rare armaments (i.e. set items). He carries almost every set item in game, all selectable through his trade menu. But he doesn't care for gold. Instead he desires a special form of life essence. He gives you a gem or something else whereby every enemy you kill grants life-force points to the object, which can be traded for his items (like soul gems, but automatic without need to aquire the gems).
Or you could have a faction merchant who awards glory points for quests completed to trade for these items. Or there could be a nefarious merchant who will accept infamy points for bad deeds, thieving, and dark brotherhood contracts. Anything. I suppose there is already something like this in Cyrodiil for certain PvP sets. But I'm talking comprehensive with even less chance.
The key here is that with a moderate amount of play, someone can receive the items they desire without having to engage with the Guild Merchant traders (which are too inflated for them). Furthermore, you can level and quest with your friends even though you both want something different.
What will this mean for Guild Merchants? Will it do away with the need for them? I certainly hope not! It seems that this would simply stabilize the value of set items and move the Guild Merchant market from such items to mats and crafted goods, which in turn enfranchises crafters.
So there you have it; my humble economic musings.
Back to Tamriel for me, before the next patch makes my nearly completed character non-competitive....
I actually came here expecting to see another whining *** thread. I've found when someone gives their "secrets" for success, those avenues close almost immediately due to everyone taking them. It was a pleasant surprise to find a post that isn't completely tearing down ZOS.0