tmbrinks wrote: »

trackdemon5512 wrote: »

tmbrinks wrote: »

1. High demand for items lately, popular crates, etc...
2. No "free" money from stimulus checks that was fueling some people having additional disposable income.
3. Crown pack prices were more than doubled in many countries.
4. Steam "loophole" where people were faking where they lived to take advantage of exchange rates was closed.
5. Inflation in game, lots of gold going around, makes the gold you have less valuable.

Combination of all the above has led to a sellers market and higher prices.

You can think it's because people are greedy, or manipulating the market or whatever, but there are real-life reasons for a crunch in the crown supply.

Remember, if you are buying items with in-game gold... that is "free" other than your time... the person you are purchasing crowns from is putting down real money.

Point 2 involving the stimulus checks cant be a factor. If it were crown prices would have simultaneously dropped for all 3 platforms. Or more specifically for the 3 NA platforms with the EU ones taking no hits.

Instead we’ve only seen prices dramatically increase on PC NA and EU. Exchange prices for crowns have remained consistent on consoles for almost two to three years now at 100g per.

Even if crown pack prices doubled in several countries that hasn’t affected console at all so it can’t be that.

It boils down to not enough gold sinks and too much gold being accumulated too quickly on PC. And the only thing that really differentiates PC from consoles: ADD ONs.

There were stimuluses in other countries... and when the money was being given out, prices did drop on both NA and EU. Now that those support programs have (mostly) stopped, prices have gone back up, along with much higher demand due to a lot of desirable items added to the crown store.

Yes, gold is much easier to get on PC and that is the reason why the exchange rate is higher on PC.

Also, just from a math standpoint. Going from 400 to 500 on PC (or 800 to 850) is the same as going from 100 to 125 on console... as a percentage change. Can't look at absolute change, need to look at percentage change to get an idea of "inflation"

tmbrinks wrote: »

trackdemon5512 wrote: »

tmbrinks wrote: »

trackdemon5512 wrote: »

tmbrinks wrote: »

1. High demand for items lately, popular crates, etc...
2. No "free" money from stimulus checks that was fueling some people having additional disposable income.
3. Crown pack prices were more than doubled in many countries.
4. Steam "loophole" where people were faking where they lived to take advantage of exchange rates was closed.
5. Inflation in game, lots of gold going around, makes the gold you have less valuable.

Combination of all the above has led to a sellers market and higher prices.

You can think it's because people are greedy, or manipulating the market or whatever, but there are real-life reasons for a crunch in the crown supply.

Remember, if you are buying items with in-game gold... that is "free" other than your time... the person you are purchasing crowns from is putting down real money.

Point 2 involving the stimulus checks cant be a factor. If it were crown prices would have simultaneously dropped for all 3 platforms. Or more specifically for the 3 NA platforms with the EU ones taking no hits.

Instead we’ve only seen prices dramatically increase on PC NA and EU. Exchange prices for crowns have remained consistent on consoles for almost two to three years now at 100g per.

Even if crown pack prices doubled in several countries that hasn’t affected console at all so it can’t be that.

It boils down to not enough gold sinks and too much gold being accumulated too quickly on PC. And the only thing that really differentiates PC from consoles: ADD ONs.

There were stimuluses in other countries... and when the money was being given out, prices did drop on both NA and EU. Now that those support programs have (mostly) stopped, prices have gone back up, along with much higher demand due to a lot of desirable items added to the crown store.

Yes, gold is much easier to get on PC and that is the reason why the exchange rate is higher on PC.

Also, just from a math standpoint. Going from 400 to 500 on PC (or 800 to 850) is the same as going from 100 to 125 on console... as a percentage change. Can't look at absolute change, need to look at percentage change to get an idea of "inflation"

The US has had 3 stimulus packages. With the assumption that they had an effect you would see crown prices in US regions drop some after the first, return to normal, drop a little less after the second, return to normal, and then drop a LOT after the third.

We didn’t see that. We’ve seen a steady increase over the last two years for the exchange rate on PC while consoles have stayed the same. 100-1 has been the average on PS NA that it’s now standard. Sure there are those that sell above or below but they are few and far in between AND to be expected of any statistical data curve.

.. and they did... the 80:1 cited happened during the first stimulus

Not to get into "real world" stuff.. but maybe by the 3rd stimulus, people realized that this was going to be longer than what it was before and they didn't use it on vanity purchases... AND the steam loophole was closed by the time the 3rd happened. (I think that's the biggest factor in the whole thing)

We didn’t see that. We’ve seen a steady increase over the last two years for the exchange rate on PC while consoles have stayed the same. 100-1 has been the average on PS NA that it’s now standard. Sure there are those that sell above or below but they are few and far in between AND to be expected of any statistical data curve.

Meanwhile 400g to 800g to 1 is absolutely outlandish. There simply is no way to account for that as across all three platforms the in-game methods for accumulating gold are the same. Rewards are the same per quest, selling items to merchants, rewards for harvesting, etc. Resources for gold are exactly the same across the board as PC doesn’t have some additional feature that puts more gold into the economy built in by the developers.

when they first announced crown trading, I told my friends I'd expect the rate to buy to be well over 1000g/crown. I wouldn't have personally even considered selling for anything less than that, my RL money to make to get fake currency in a game back? I was shocked when people were selling at 200/250... then it dropped to below 100:1 for a while. Yes, I've bought a TON of things with gold, from people selling their crowns, as I could more easily make the gold in game to buy items than I could make money IRL to buy the crowns. Even at the 600/700/800:1 it's at now, it's about a even push for me (I live in an area with a very low cost of living of the US), and I, for the most part, enjoy the activities that earn me that gold.

As such it falls to what then sets PC apart that allows such wealth to build without being used. That falls squarely on two things. The use of add-ons with their affect on play; and the nature of PC players themselves.

PC has a player created problem that’s absolutely ruining its economy and if the players can’t moderate themselves then the best thing for ZOS to do is limit add-ons to PTS.

PC economy is completely different than the others. The economy considers all things, including the fact that gold is easier to make on PC because of add-ons. I make (made) my gold doing daily writs. I certainly wouldn't have done writs on 36 characters a day for 3 years on console. So yes, there's more gold, and when you're doing a crown exchange, you are exchanging crowns (REAL MONEY from somebody) for time spent in game (EARNING GOLD), and since it takes less time to earn gold on PC, because of add-ons, it certainly follows that the exchange rate would be higher.

We don't need to turn this into another "ban add-ons" thread... as that is a completely different topic that has been beaten to death in other threads.

tmbrinks wrote: »

trackdemon5512 wrote: »

tmbrinks wrote: »

trackdemon5512 wrote: »

tmbrinks wrote: »

trackdemon5512 wrote: »

tmbrinks wrote: »

1. High demand for items lately, popular crates, etc...
2. No "free" money from stimulus checks that was fueling some people having additional disposable income.
3. Crown pack prices were more than doubled in many countries.
4. Steam "loophole" where people were faking where they lived to take advantage of exchange rates was closed.
5. Inflation in game, lots of gold going around, makes the gold you have less valuable.

Combination of all the above has led to a sellers market and higher prices.

You can think it's because people are greedy, or manipulating the market or whatever, but there are real-life reasons for a crunch in the crown supply.

Remember, if you are buying items with in-game gold... that is "free" other than your time... the person you are purchasing crowns from is putting down real money.

Point 2 involving the stimulus checks cant be a factor. If it were crown prices would have simultaneously dropped for all 3 platforms. Or more specifically for the 3 NA platforms with the EU ones taking no hits.

Instead we’ve only seen prices dramatically increase on PC NA and EU. Exchange prices for crowns have remained consistent on consoles for almost two to three years now at 100g per.

Even if crown pack prices doubled in several countries that hasn’t affected console at all so it can’t be that.

It boils down to not enough gold sinks and too much gold being accumulated too quickly on PC. And the only thing that really differentiates PC from consoles: ADD ONs.

There were stimuluses in other countries... and when the money was being given out, prices did drop on both NA and EU. Now that those support programs have (mostly) stopped, prices have gone back up, along with much higher demand due to a lot of desirable items added to the crown store.

Yes, gold is much easier to get on PC and that is the reason why the exchange rate is higher on PC.

Also, just from a math standpoint. Going from 400 to 500 on PC (or 800 to 850) is the same as going from 100 to 125 on console... as a percentage change. Can't look at absolute change, need to look at percentage change to get an idea of "inflation"

The US has had 3 stimulus packages. With the assumption that they had an effect you would see crown prices in US regions drop some after the first, return to normal, drop a little less after the second, return to normal, and then drop a LOT after the third.

We didn’t see that. We’ve seen a steady increase over the last two years for the exchange rate on PC while consoles have stayed the same. 100-1 has been the average on PS NA that it’s now standard. Sure there are those that sell above or below but they are few and far in between AND to be expected of any statistical data curve.

.. and they did... the 80:1 cited happened during the first stimulus

Not to get into "real world" stuff.. but maybe by the 3rd stimulus, people realized that this was going to be longer than what it was before and they didn't use it on vanity purchases... AND the steam loophole was closed by the time the 3rd happened. (I think that's the biggest factor in the whole thing)

We didn’t see that. We’ve seen a steady increase over the last two years for the exchange rate on PC while consoles have stayed the same. 100-1 has been the average on PS NA that it’s now standard. Sure there are those that sell above or below but they are few and far in between AND to be expected of any statistical data curve.

Meanwhile 400g to 800g to 1 is absolutely outlandish. There simply is no way to account for that as across all three platforms the in-game methods for accumulating gold are the same. Rewards are the same per quest, selling items to merchants, rewards for harvesting, etc. Resources for gold are exactly the same across the board as PC doesn’t have some additional feature that puts more gold into the economy built in by the developers.

when they first announced crown trading, I told my friends I'd expect the rate to buy to be well over 1000g/crown. I wouldn't have personally even considered selling for anything less than that, my RL money to make to get fake currency in a game back? I was shocked when people were selling at 200/250... then it dropped to below 100:1 for a while. Yes, I've bought a TON of things with gold, from people selling their crowns, as I could more easily make the gold in game to buy items than I could make money IRL to buy the crowns. Even at the 600/700/800:1 it's at now, it's about a even push for me (I live in an area with a very low cost of living of the US), and I, for the most part, enjoy the activities that earn me that gold.

As such it falls to what then sets PC apart that allows such wealth to build without being used. That falls squarely on two things. The use of add-ons with their affect on play; and the nature of PC players themselves.

PC has a player created problem that’s absolutely ruining its economy and if the players can’t moderate themselves then the best thing for ZOS to do is limit add-ons to PTS.

PC economy is completely different than the others. The economy considers all things, including the fact that gold is easier to make on PC because of add-ons. I make (made) my gold doing daily writs. I certainly wouldn't have done writs on 36 characters a day for 3 years on console. So yes, there's more gold, and when you're doing a crown exchange, you are exchanging crowns (REAL MONEY from somebody) for time spent in game (EARNING GOLD), and since it takes less time to earn gold on PC, because of add-ons, it certainly follows that the exchange rate would be higher.

We don't need to turn this into another "ban add-ons" thread... as that is a completely different topic that has been beaten to death in other threads.

1) 80:1 was NEVER a console standard. Some players may have dropped to that but the vast vast majority did not. Furthermore the first stimulus was spread over several months and its initial offering period coincided with a ZOS crown sale that always results in some sellers dropping prices. Nonetheless the console price of crowns remains steady to this day at 100:1 while PC creeps up evermore still.

2) When they announced crown gifting I assumed a ratio determined by the houses. The homes all had a gold value AND a crown value and thus establishing a base line for how much gold a crown should be worth is easy. I mean why spend more gold on getting gifted crowns when you can buy a house yourself? Of course there wasn’t home gifting initially but there is now and it still rings true.

That said there’s clearly an incredibly stable population of crown sellers and buyers on consoles. 100g per is a natural equilibrium where enough will buy and people will healthily sell here. But as I said 500, 800, 1000 per are absolutely ridiculous amounts.

3) OP states that crown exchange values are out of hand but this isn’t the first post like this nor is that sentiment limited to crowns. The forums in recent years are littered with posts about mat costs, drop rates, etc that are PC only issues and clearly attributable to Add-ons affecting their market.

It’s rather clear that despite the benefits of some that the add-ons are destabilizing a system that clearly works well without them as evidenced by the healthiness of the consoles. Dropping add-ons on the live server solves a whole host of issues including addressing the OP’s problem of crown exchange values getting more and more ridiculous. I would be remiss in not bringing it up and addressing it.

and you know that rate for most of the manors is like 300-350:1, right?

- from Faunter's ESO house price spreadsheet, shared elsewhere on these forums

If people want to spend their real life money on crowns and sell them for 100:1, that's their choice. As I said, me personally, it would have to be over 1000:1 for me to even consider selling, my RL money is simply worth WAAAAAY more than getting 100:1 in a fake, in-game currency.

I'm happy to be able to buy at any price, as it means I don't have to spend additional real-life money on additional things in the game.

My threshold might be different if I were on PS4, as the economy is different, and I'd have to consider the time spent in game to make the amount of gold.

I can safely say, that for PC/NA, at the 600-800:1 they're at now, I can comfortably make the gold to buy items in a similar amount of time that I would work to buy the crowns outright, AND enjoy playing the game at the same time.

When that calculus changes, I'll re-evaluate.

tmbrinks wrote: »

4. Steam "loophole" where people were faking where they lived to take advantage of exchange rates was closed.

Snowstrider wrote: »

Does ZOS do anything about people that are scamming? I just got scammed and I sent a mail to support but they only sent that generic bot reply I lost 5000 crowns ffs..