Curse

Shyft the Pyro · Jun 21, 2008, 05:47 PM // 17:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by gelei

I could give detailed presentations, but I didn't wanted to. Ecto in GW was a primary income-source, because it was challenging to get.

Fixed that for you.

Ectos were desirable only because a certain status item (Obsidian Armor) relied on them. Creation of Obsidian Armor led to removal of ecto from the players' hands, which left less ectos floating around and kept the price high. Because the price was high, high-end traders (people who wanted more than 100k for their items) decided to place value in ectos directly. Because high-end traders placed value in ectos, farming ectos became a profitable activity.

With more people playing the game for longer periods of time, the decline in ecto price was inevitable. Eventually, more people would get enough ecto for their Obsidian Armor. While this would stop them from crafting more and removing ecto from the market, it would not necessarily stop them from farming ecto, which would effectively flood the market and bring the price down, albeit slowly. The only reason people continued to farm, and ectos remained "a primary income-source," was because the high-end traders still considered them a good replacement for cash and the people were used to getting their cash by farming and selling (or bartering with) ectos.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gelei

update: I still say that there are many great ele builds without perma-SF. like the E/A SF UW solo. it's not perma

That's not the point. The point is that the E/A perma farmer is the most efficient build for the run: it kills faster than A/X, it moves faster than Terra, and it can kill the vast majority of UW things without getting stomped on. If you indeed understand economics as well as you say you do, you should recognize that one of the most basic principles - time is money - is what drives the market.

I trust I don't need to explain my point further?