Economy on AB

[Cyrrena]

Removing plat from the game that many players have worked since game launch to acquire is a ridiculous idea. This same idea comes up in every single MMO game platform, those with less currency want to remove the currency from those that have. If you want to drop the prices on the broker, then flood the market with the items, remove the rare tag from harvests and make them common drops. Remove the drops of spells etc, and make them merchant purchasable with this plethora of in game currency we all have. Boom, prices will fall like a rock.

Add in realistic plat sinks or items for plat that are actually useful. Spell reductions, zone resets, reforging etc. Not major reductions, 1-2 hours reductions, trade plat for market place credit, their are endless ways to do it, just have to want to.

No business is going to remove an item that makes money for the business, Krono's sell steadily and make them a profit. The market went crazy when they shut down transfers from IoR, open that market back up and all the servers will see a decrease in the plat and broker costs.

There is no way there should be marketplace credit for plat. There is way too much duped plat out there for that!!!!!

 

[gambitak]

The economy is horrible on AB would do the server well if 90% of the plat was removed across the board for the entire server. Broker could be used again.

First, please understand that I completely agree.

Second, it will never happen. Too many people (just enough of a small percentage) would be upset enough to move on to another game after complaining loudly and often enough that I suspect it would hurt the company's bottom dollar.

Third, it might possibly allow customers who have spent a lot of RL money to sue DBG and/or their parent company. There seems to be an inordinate amount of incredibly wealthy (in my opinion) players who will drop hundreds, if not thousands, in RL money for krono or upgrades or gear or whatever, to remain competitive.

Fourth, RMT seems to be an integral and fundamental part of the the EQ2 sales plan, so much so that DBG/EG7 are probably justifying the horrible economy by stating that the only way to keep EQ2 viable is through P2W tactics.

These are all just speculations on my part, but I've run large budgets and have devised multinational sales plans and, based on my experience, these observations seem to explain why the business lets the economy, as well as stat inflation, continue to rot.

 

[Avianna]

First, please understand that I completely agree.

Second, it will never happen. Too many people (just enough of a small percentage) would be upset enough to move on to another game after complaining loudly and often enough that I suspect it would hurt the company's bottom dollar.

Third, it might possibly allow customers who have spent a lot of RL money to sue DBG and/or their parent company. There seems to be an inordinate amount of incredibly wealthy (in my opinion) players who will drop hundreds, if not thousands, in RL money for krono or upgrades or gear or whatever, to remain competitive.

Fourth, RMT seems to be an integral and fundamental part of the the EQ2 sales plan, so much so that DBG/EG7 are probably justifying the horrible economy by stating that the only way to keep EQ2 viable is through P2W tactics.

These are all just speculations on my part, but I've run large budgets and have devised multinational sales plans and, based on my experience, these observations seem to explain why the business lets the economy, as well as stat inflation, continue to rot.

I like your points, but I would like to address some of them

yes, people who did not understand basic math and what is happening would be upset initially, however, once they saw and understood that the wealth gap didn't change rich were still rich and poor were still poor this upset would quickly subside into joy that the game could be played as intended again and paying 1,000 plat for a krono for example would be expensive again. Of course, to make that a reality it would take the removal of 99% of the plat or more....

I think they would also be very wise to phase out the krono because it opens a whole can of worms that an exploit on one server in one game is now an exploit on every server in every game company wide. So, it would be good to stop selling Krono and when the ones that currently exist are used up, they are gone; or at least restrict them to the game/server they are purchased for rather than account wide any game any server company wide. there have been several good ideas in these forums to address this problem.

as far as legal matters, No, customers would not be able to sue DBG because it clearly states that in game items and stuff that you're spending real world money on have no real-world value, thus preventing a lawsuit.

I have stated in other forums that the marketplace in general is a double-edged sword for EQ2, on one hand it probably saved the game, and the game is definitely more profitable because of it, on the other hand gameplay in general has suffered because of it. I would like to see the marketplace go back to fluff only stuff and especially get rid of P2W stuff. This was the "slippery slope" we warned about when the marketplace was first introduced. We were assured that this would never happen and well...... here we are.

 

[Cyrrena]

I like your points, but I would like to address some of them

yes, people who did not understand basic math and what is happening would be upset initially, however, once they saw and understood that the wealth gap didn't change rich were still rich and poor were still poor this upset would quickly subside into joy that the game could be played as intended again and paying 1,000 plat for a krono for example would be expensive again. Of course, to make that a reality it would take the removal of 99% of the plat or more....

I think they would also be very wise to phase out the krono because it opens a whole can of worms that an exploit on one server in one game is now an exploit on every server in every game company wide. So, it would be good to stop selling Krono and when the ones that currently exist are used up, they are gone; or at least restrict them to the game/server they are purchased for rather than account wide any game any server company wide. there have been several good ideas in these forums to address this problem.

as far as legal matters, No, customers would not be able to sue DBG because it clearly states that in game items and stuff that you're spending real world money on have no real-world value, thus preventing a lawsuit.

I have stated in other forums that the marketplace in general is a double-edged sword for EQ2, on one hand it probably saved the game, and the game is definitely more profitable because of it, on the other hand gameplay in general has suffered because of it. I would like to see the marketplace go back to fluff only stuff and especially get rid of P2W stuff. This was the "slippery slope" we warned about when the marketplace was first introduced. We were assured that this would never happen and well...... here we are.

Many other games have marketplaces and only sell fluff items and some of these games have millions more players that EQ2.

 

[gambitak]

I like your points, but I would like to address some of them

yes, people who did not understand basic math and what is happening would be upset initially, however, once they saw and understood that the wealth gap didn't change rich were still rich and poor were still poor this upset would quickly subside into joy that the game could be played as intended again and paying 1,000 plat for a krono for example would be expensive again. Of course, to make that a reality it would take the removal of 99% of the plat or more....

I think they would also be very wise to phase out the krono because it opens a whole can of worms that an exploit on one server in one game is now an exploit on every server in every game company wide. So, it would be good to stop selling Krono and when the ones that currently exist are used up, they are gone; or at least restrict them to the game/server they are purchased for rather than account wide any game any server company wide. there have been several good ideas in these forums to address this problem.

as far as legal matters, No, customers would not be able to sue DBG because it clearly states that in game items and stuff that you're spending real world money on have no real-world value, thus preventing a lawsuit.

I have stated in other forums that the marketplace in general is a double-edged sword for EQ2, on one hand it probably saved the game, and the game is definitely more profitable because of it, on the other hand gameplay in general has suffered because of it. I would like to see the marketplace go back to fluff only stuff and especially get rid of P2W stuff. This was the "slippery slope" we warned about when the marketplace was first introduced. We were assured that this would never happen and well...... here we are.

I don't think it would prevent a lawsuit; in the US, a person can sue anyone at any time for anything. It might preclude the initiator from winning the lawsuit, but that would be money spent by the company, even if just to prepare a 1 day, or week, defense.

I have a much more cynical view of people, especially the kind who need billions, or in some cases, trillions, of currency for a game. They are the type that spend a lot of RL money and would, in my mind at least, have no problem finding an attorney to represent their "investment".