Curse

Perishiko ReLLiK · Jun 21, 2005, 05:45 AM // 05:45

While an auction house could create some lag issues, with the constant pulling up of information from thousands of other players. I do think something of the sort needs to be implemented... and i personaly think it's sad that i can't talk or find a group in lions arch without switching districts a few times. It shouldn't be this way, and people should be using the trade channel... It's incredibly annoying, and not to mention it does them no better then the trade channel would.

**I think even adding a trading section (Call it something catchy) and adding a new zone, would be incredibly effective. And personaly i would call it a "quick fix" compaired to an auction house... And more effective, since not all people in certain towns are there for trading... it would make the spam in towns go down(since some kids would still be peddling around like morons... can't create a fix for stupidity

), and create a quicker area for trading. I personaly think the maximum number of people in it could be higher, and make no merchants or anything of the sort, just the storage, and anything like that... which is a must for trading.**

The only problem i see with having a trading channel is those that may somehow create "trading bots". and that would be hard to spot, but meh... at least they'd save alot of bandwith over making an auction house, or having player set up shops.

TopGun · Jun 21, 2005, 04:21 PM // 16:21

Thoughts flying around regarding an auction house that you don't need to be logged in for are unreasonable- the data is still stored on ANet's servers, so its still taking up space. Not only that, but you also have to handle the load of all the people trying to view the webpage. Better off with an in-game auction house.

vostok4 · Jun 21, 2005, 04:56 PM // 16:56

Hmmm, if only this much effort was put into solving REAL LIFE problems.

Main problem I see is that even for the nub who JUST bought the game, sees some item go for 75K (Sigil or so). He sees that other items go for 120gold, 500gold, so damn, that Sigil must be expensive. Now, someone mentioned the only currency in this game is TIME.

Well, enter eBay. Time goes out the window. This game cost me 60$, I'll make that much in 2 hours at work. Now, if I work another hour, then I can buy myself 200K gold. If I invest as much REAL money into this game as I did to buy the game, according to the price breakdown that amounted to 500k posted by someone, I'm set till the end.

THAT is where your inflation is coming in! New people are working weekends or so to pump REAL money into this game, because itll take them 2-3 hours to get 200-300plat, but tell me, how much gold will you get from farming in 2-3 hours?

Look at one unnamed seller on eBay. 122 100K packages sold in the past month. That's over 3 grand real money he just MADE there, and 12 million gold pushed into the economy (which is a LOT when items should NOT cost as much as they do).

If we didn't have buying on eBay, these items would not be nearly as expensive, no, they would be trade-for-trade only. The rate at which gold drops would make it useless to farm for gold in order to get a Sigil, and you wouldn't sell a Sigil for 10K because that 10K doesn't get you much. A sigil would go for a tricked out sword, or a sup rune of something, but thats about it.

The game's design isn't too much of a problem (ie. if you really want to sell something, you can), its the greed and the immaturity of people buying/selling on eBay that are ruining the experience for all.

That said, does anyone know where I can get 12 mil gold?

TopGun · Jun 22, 2005, 08:59 PM // 20:59

Join a guild, then sell the sigils. Could that be another source of inflation- massive guilds acquiring sigils and selling them high? Because they're worth so much, everytime a guild wins in HoH, they essentially gain 100k.

Aug · Jun 22, 2005, 09:21 PM // 21:21

The only source of inflation is the gold dropped off mobs and chests (either directly, or in the form of merchant-salable items).

Sigils, runes, and really rare weapons do not cause inflation. They don't create any gold. You can't 'create' more than 1 platinum off of a Sigil (what it sells to a merchant).

Rieselle · Jun 22, 2005, 10:09 PM // 22:09

I've never particularly liked the idea of AFK shops - having to leave my pc on and connected to the game and selling whilst I'm away really bugs me. Plus I think making people talk to one another to buy things is a good thing, you can haggle, trade, argue and all that fun shopping stuff.

I think a quick fix, fairly easily implemented, and kinda fun would be this:

Open a bazaar/shopping district in most/all towns. Now, WHILST YOU ARE STANDING in that district, you are able to make a Persistant Speech Bubble (which I will call a "billboard" ) appear above your head, one that has a variable size so that people can read your entire post. So rather than spamming the trade channel, you stick the billboard up above your head and stand in the bazaar.

Obviously, everyone has the option to turn off the Billboards so that they can't see them, so it wont be annoying. Possibly also an option to only display the Billboard of your current target.

It would make "shopping" kinda fun - you go to the bazaar, walk around, look at the various people advertising stuff, haggle with them over whispers and stuff, just like a real shopping trip

Asgaroth · Jun 23, 2005, 02:08 AM // 02:08

Now that sounds like a plan to me...

JoDiamonds · Jun 23, 2005, 03:44 AM // 03:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aug

The only source of inflation is the gold dropped off mobs and chests (either directly, or in the form of merchant-salable items).

Sigils, runes, and really rare weapons do not cause inflation. They don't create any gold. You can't 'create' more than 1 platinum off of a Sigil (what it sells to a merchant).

That's true and yet not true.

Obviously, it's true that gold only enters when gold enters, or items enter that get sold to merchants (adding gold into the system)

However, wealth is indeed created by new items that aren't chopped into gold. Added wealth does create inflation. If everyone (or some people) becomes more wealthy, the average cost of goods will go up: hence inflation.

It's a little counterintuitive, because the price for the exact good being sold goes down (when there are more sigils, the price of sigils goes down), but all sigil-owners, who don't need sigils (or need the item less, in case of other things) now have more gold to spend on other things. This inflates the price of all other items as a result.

Dax · Jun 23, 2005, 04:37 AM // 04:37

I am by no means a economist, but this whole discussion of setting up shops and inflation doesn't seem to me really the problem. There just isn't to me too much to spend money on except high end items.

So far I've played this game to progress at a reasonable rate, and except for upgrading armor I haven needed to spend that much money. Money is a non-issue. If people set up shops it would make no difference. I do farm for items but it's just as easy to sell them to merchants and npc traders.... I've pretty much given that up because everything is provided for me and I've got more money than I really know what to do with (not that I'm saaying I'm rich, just that there's nothing to spend it on).

I think the game would be far more interesting if they limited the levels items can be used, give the myraid of item drops some worth other than salvagable value, and make thing that people will be interested in spending money on that can't be dropped by mobs (or farmed by high level players to be sold for thousands). At this point a store or an auctionhouse would be interesting because everybody not just highlevel players could participate.

sino-soviet · Jun 23, 2005, 04:42 AM // 04:42

People complain about soaring prices of weapons, yet the best of weapons are available to everyone from collectors. Assuming beating roleplaying will get you enough money to buy armor, and collectors will supply the weapons, the problem does not seem to be as drastic as people have made it out to be. Thus, the neccesary funds required to sustain a character would around 100k + various upgrades. The only commodities that would require a larger amount of gold would be runes and weapon upgrades. It really is ironic how people say 15k armor is a waste of money yet go ahead and spend over 500k to buy a sword with gold lettering. The problem is only as complicated as people are vain.

Red Locust · Jun 23, 2005, 04:45 AM // 04:45

well actually, I believe collectors give you the best base weapon. They don't come with prefixes/suffixes, which have to be bought in the form of grips/hafts/heads/wrappings.

It's these upgrade components that people charge an arm and a leg for, and for a good reason. The good ones, especially those with perfect stats, are incredibly difficult to find. And having enchantments that last 20% longer or weapons that do 15% more damage is a huge advantage.

sino-soviet · Jun 23, 2005, 04:50 AM // 04:50

Then I say add an upgrade trader. Therefore, gold will begin to leave the economy, as every item in the game is bought by gold. Then, every single item for a character is buyable and people dont need to go to the money horders to buy good upgrades. Assuming people are not as vain as they say, there will be no problems.

Dax · Jun 23, 2005, 04:50 AM // 04:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by sino-soviet

People complain about soaring prices of weapons, yet the best of weapons are available to everyone from collectors. Assuming beating roleplaying will get you enough money to buy armor, and collectors will supply the weapons, the problem does not seem to be as drastic as people have made it out to be The only commodities that would require a larger amount of gold would be runes and weapon upgrades. It really is ironic how people say 15k armor is a waste of money yet go ahead and spend over 500k to buy a sword with gold lettering. The problem is only as complicated as people are vain.

I have to agree somewhat, so why not then have people spend thier money on a wider variety different styles of armor (within thier level range), potions, and reasonable weapons ...and make them earn through quests the elite uber items rather than buy them.

TopGun · Jun 24, 2005, 12:15 AM // 00:15

Just a quick question for all of you; Now that we've been focusing on weapon costs and inflation being related to them, I must ask...

Does anyone think that even if the amount of money in the game was reduced, that there would be a drop in price for sigils? Reducing inflation may be totally irrelevant to their cost. The fact of the matter is, if the playerbase is WILLING to pay 100k for a Celestial Sigil, than the sigil's WORTH is 100k. Inflation is irrelevant.

On the other hand, if the value of a gold was worth more, it wouldn't be necessary to have 100k prices for a sigil, because it would suffice to the seller to have a lower price and a better chance of attracting people to buy his merchandise.

The best way to fight sigil costs would be for a guild to win HoH repeatedly, then sell them at lower costs in order to saturate the market.

Lestat Requiem · Jun 24, 2005, 12:54 AM // 00:54

I think A net would make smthing like lower the max money you can wear to 30k, why 30k ? first ^^ it permice to buy 15k armor piece in a rune

speaking about fissure ...

Second ^^ if you guys dont know 1 lingot of a thing = 1kg of a thing so 30k would be 30kg ^^ still hard to hold in your bag ahah !

And then apply 30k max limit to shops , rune = 30k max , cigil = 30k max ===> general deflasion of the market xD

TopGun · Jun 24, 2005, 01:02 AM // 01:02

So what happens to all of the people who have over 30k? Right now? They loose it? Damn, I'd be pissed if I lost 70,000 gold, do you know how many hours upon hours of playing that is?

Lestat Requiem · Jun 24, 2005, 01:07 AM // 01:07

Gold simply go in Storage lol ....

TopGun · Jun 28, 2005, 08:37 PM // 20:37

If that were to happen, we'd probably get people selling and buying in two payments. It wouldn't stop inflation, just attempt, likely in a failing manner, to cease overpricing.