It's time to reevaluate the idea of adding a PLEX/Chronoscroll-like system to FFXIV

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Originally Posted by Tiggy

Inflation is a very valid concern and even you say "it hasn't been anywhere near as bad since' meaning IT DIDN'T GO AWAY. So it's perfectly valid. Please don't deprecate my concerns just because you don't agree. It's not fear mongering to talk about details that clearly did and continue to happen. It's called reality.

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Explain how inflation happens then.

No new currency is minted with the introduction of a PLEX-type system.

So how does inflation occur?

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Originally Posted by Bishop81

Explain how inflation happens then.

No new currency is minted with the introduction of a PLEX-type system.

So how does inflation occur?

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Did you not read that article? I don't have to regurgitate what is already written in that link.

This is a bad idea, subs keep the game running if we introduce a method to make players with more cash get rich faster, then prices will skyrocket due to people having 100s of millions. Not only that there is no counter to having tons of money like in Eve with ships being destroyed permanently, so this removes a currency value aspect from the game. However with mmos, currency is constantly generated while gold sinks are very small and limited. Basically plex works in Eve because its pure pvp with massive gold sinks.

Also RMTs would inflate the plex item prices so yea, you would make the rmt problem worse.

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Originally Posted by Tiggy

Inflation is a very valid concern and even you say "it hasn't been anywhere near as bad since' meaning IT DIDN'T GO AWAY. So it's perfectly valid. Please don't deprecate my concerns just because you don't agree. It's not fear mongering to talk about details that clearly did and continue to happen. It's called reality.

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I'm going to forever remember you all when it inevitably happens and you all cry yourselves out of this game. Don't think for a second this game is some hip niche thing that it won't be a part of because YOU wouldn't support it. Might as well jump ship now, because you're a minority.

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Originally Posted by Laerad3993

I'm going to forever remember you all when it inevitably happens and you all cry yourselves out of this game. Don't think for a second this game is some hip niche thing that it won't be a part of because YOU wouldn't support it. Might as well jump ship now, because you're a minority.

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That furthers the discussion how exactly? Throwing barbs? Come on man. It's not like it's unilaterally supported in this thread with only me as the detractor. There are plenty of other people here in this very thread disagreeing, and other threads in the past that had the same dissension. You're assuming you're in the majority. You don't know that you are. This thread is a poor sample to even make such a distinction. If you can't even realize that basic statistical reality why should I just trust what you say? Or any of your for that matter? You have yet to give even 1 good example of a traditional MMO that did this and DIDN'T have the side effects that have been repeatedly brought up as concerns. Maybe instead of trying to argue opinions you should actually address our concerns with actual facts and examples. Instead you want to throw barbs like a child and act like everyone who doesn't agree with you has some sort of problem.

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Originally Posted by Laerad3993

Not sure I care, or would take a players word on how they feel the economy has been impacted. Being a member since it launched back in 04, I can assure you Jagex was extremely efficient at eliminating a large chunk of betting and RMT. But I'm sure you know all about that being a player yourself and not flocking to opinions and unofficial comments on the matter. /endsarcasm

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So you'd take obvious promotional "statistics" of one week results over real in-game experiences months down the line? Sorry but a week in barely gives RMT'ers the chance to adapt or even take advantage. Pretty much any new measure they take against RMT would give similar results. I wonder how much "wealth injected" drops from gold farmers for the week after SE does their massive bans. As many have already stated here, legal gold buying barely dented the illegal gold selling market in other games that have implemented it. Apparently gold farmers are always willing to sell for cheaper. Cheap enough that enough players still prefer to buy from them despite the security risk. It may even promote more illegal gold buying since its "morally ok" to do it now.

Its a lot like the legalization of a certain "product" thats been happening lately. Even though its legal now, it hasnt hurt the black market sales at all. Ive even read that its gone up a little since its much cheaper and there are less consequences to the buyer. Given the nature of PLEX selling subs, SE is unlikely to sell them for less than the entry level sub of $12.99. Meaning theyd have to sell to other players for the same or more than whatever $12.99 buys. I have no idea how low gold sellers are willing to go ... but its a little hard to compete with a market that steals from players and uses unmanned bots to make their supply.

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Originally Posted by Laerad3993

Might as well jump ship now, because you're a minority.

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I would LOVE to see where you came up with this gem.

Ok so iv been reading some of the posts on here some not all.... I'm not reading all of them.

Now iv never played a game that has this type of system so iv no real in depth understanding of it. I know that wild star had this type of thing.

But id have to say no no no NO to this type of thing it would greatly derail the markets. As well make the game pay to win by buying clears from clears sellers god I hate clear sellers.

Why any one would want this besides the rmts and people who buy runs is beyond my understanding no one in their right mind would want this.

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Originally Posted by Tiggy

Did you not read that article? I don't have to regurgitate what is already written in that link.

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This one? http://services.runescape.com/m=foru...46,68,65222901

Funny that link also has people disagreeing about whether bonds are to blame.

I don't think that can be considered "inflation", all that happened was that a new good was introduced. People switch from producing a certain good A, to the new good B (i.e. bonds). Prices of good A increases due to reduce supply.

Price fluctuations like this happens all the time, every time something new is introduced into the game. New armor that is very good and requires a motherlode of electrum ore? Electrum ore surge in price. Players try to cash-in, switching production from cobalt ore to electrum ore. Cobalt ore raises in price due to reduce supply.

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Originally Posted by Bishop81

Funny that link also has people disagreeing about whether bonds are to blame.

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People disagreeing on the internet? You don't say.

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Originally Posted by Bishop81

I don't think that can be considered "inflation", all that happened was that a new good was introduced. People switch from producing a certain good A, to the new good B (i.e. bonds). Prices of good A increases due to reduce supply.

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Except that doesn't appear to be case. People didn't stop using those cheaper items moving on to others instead leaving the supply lower. They just got more expensive and the demand on them stayed the same. Meaning the supply and demand relationship for these crafting items didn't change but per item price went up. Inflation.

You know people keep saying the word poor people what the heck dose this mean. This is a pay to play game if your willing to pay the sub tour not really poor.

Use better wording people this system would be just bad period.

I don't think SE will adopt the CREDD style system of account payment. Simple reason being that takes money from the development of the game. once you remove the need to give SE money for an account, profits decline, production slows, updates come fewer and further between. i think they would only introduce a system like that IF the game was starting to see a decline in population. If you really want a good measuring stick to see how SE will handle this game, look at the 10+yo FFXI. If a system like that were to be introduced, it would be there first.

Regardless, I don't really want it. To me, it sounds like one of those desperate please "Come Play Me! You can play for free if you can earn enough in game money!"

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Originally Posted by MageBlack

I don't think SE will adopt the CREDD style system of account payment. Simple reason being that takes money from the development of the game. once you remove the need to give SE money for an account, profits decline, production slows, updates come fewer and further between. i think they would only introduce a system like that IF the game was starting to see a decline in population. If you really want a good measuring stick to see how SE will handle this game, look at the 10+yo FFXI. If a system like that were to be introduced, it would be there first. Regardless, I don't really want it. To me, it sounds like one of those desperate please "Come Play Me! You can play for free if you can earn enough in game money!"

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SE gets the same amount of money. A months subscription time always comes from SE and always requires real money to be created, just under the proposed system you can buy more months than you need and then sell them on the market board in-game.

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Originally Posted by DoctorPepper

That's the idea, it allows rich players in game to play for free and allows rich people out of game to prosper with no effort.

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Well i would still pay my sub with my own RL money but i would also start to play tradeable sub markets to make even more in-game currency, because money making is one of the funniest "mini-games" in MMO's imo.

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Originally Posted by Jandor

SE gets the same amount of money. A months subscription time always comes from SE and always requires real money to be created, just under the proposed system you can buy more months than you need and then sell them on the market board in-game.

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Ah, that's true. But unless the cost of those "CREDD/PLEX" items on the market boards can be regulated and limited to a set cost of gil, then either the players selling will end up making huge profits off this or get undercut so badly that the items become worthless as in game money.

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Originally Posted by MageBlack

Ah, that's true. But unless the cost of those "CREDD/PLEX" items on the market boards can be regulated and limited to a set cost of gil, then either the players selling will end up making huge profits off this or get undercut so badly that the items become worthless as in game money.

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If everyone undercuts and it becomes worthless then people will stop buying them from SE and as they are consumable the price will slowly increase until buying them from SE to sell in-game is worthwhile again. It should regulate itself to a degree.

Although considering how often people on this forum find something to moan about I'm sure every little fluctuation in price would result in a 100 page mega-thread asking Yoshi-P to step in ;).

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Originally Posted by Tiggy

Except that doesn't appear to be case. People didn't stop using those cheaper items moving on to others instead leaving the supply lower. They just got more expensive and the demand on them stayed the same. Meaning the supply and demand relationship for these crafting items didn't change but per item price went up. Inflation.

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And I'm telling you, it happens.

Say they introduce a new ore, and the ore is need for new popular weapons. New ore will be in high demand. Some players stop mining old ore and mine new ore. Old ore price increases due to lower supply.

Low supply = higher price (assuming no change in demand)

Problem?

What you are calling "inflation" is just the market changing as the types of goods available for sale changes.

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Originally Posted by Tiggy

People disagreeing on the internet? You don't say.



Except that doesn't appear to be case. People didn't stop using those cheaper items moving on to others instead leaving the supply lower. They just got more expensive and the demand on them stayed the same. Meaning the supply and demand relationship for these crafting items didn't change but per item price went up. Inflation.

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I think you have a fundamental misunderstanding of what "inflation" means as an economics term. Inflation only refers to buying power: when inflation is high, buying power increases at a slower rate than the average price of goods. When inflation is low, your buying power (per unit currency) remains steady or slightly increases compared to the rate of increase of price of goods.

Imagine a hypothetical scenario where all RMT activity (bots, gil buying, account hacking, tellspam, etc.) were completely eliminated tomorrow by some magical force. What do you think would happen? RMT botting activity causes inflation because it injects massive amounts of gil into circulation, as well as trivializing the supply of certain basic goods like shards, fleece, etc. It also allows the buyers of RMT gil to compete to pay a premium for certain extremely high-end luxury items like rare minions, HQ crafted equipment, materia for melds, the prices of which are all driven up by pent-up demand and surplus of gil concentrated in the hands of the "rich". If all RMT were eliminated instantly, it would have a complex impact on the economy in which low level basic goods like shards and fleece would increase in price and extreme luxury items would decrease in price as a result of natural redistribution of wealth through "normal" commerce. It's easy to misconstrue that Runescape forum thread to suggest that the introduction of Bonds caused inflation, when in reality, it merely caused the economy to normalize itself along producer and consumer lines. Currently, it's impossible to make a profit in FFXIV by producing low level goods because you're instantly out-competed by RMT bots who can afford to undercut you forever. If all bots are eliminated, the price of shards would invariably go up (this is not "inflation") since it would now actually require effort on the part of real players to produce this basic good. However, this ultimately stimulates the economy because the players who go through this effort are rewarded with larger profits than before.

I still see people perpetuating the myth that PLEX could be easily defeated by RMT if the RMT merely lowered their prices. It doesn't work that way. Are you mad when you get undercut 5 minutes after putting something up on the Market Board? By putting players in competition with RMT, you have every single PLEX-buying player in direct competition with RMT who will undercut the living hell out of the RMT constantly. THAT's why PLEX beats RMT.

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Originally Posted by axemtitanium

This is explained in more detail in this post (follow quoted post)

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Originally Posted by axemtitanium

I think you have a fundamental misunderstanding of what "inflation" means as an economics term.

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I'm afraid I don't have that problem. In the example I was referring to no new money was added to the system, but the buying power for the items in that example was no longer the same. Their prices inflated. There is more than one way to create inflation. It's not solely through minting new money. It's about how much buying power a dollar/gold has. In the above example the buying power clearly decreased for the items presented.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflation

An excerpt from the above article.

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Economists generally believe that high rates of inflation and hyperinflation are caused by an excessive growth of the money supply.[6] However, money supply growth does not necessarily cause inflation. Some economists maintain that under the conditions of a liquidity trap, large monetary injections are like "pushing on a string".[7][8] Views on which factors determine low to moderate rates of inflation are more varied. Low or moderate inflation may be attributed to fluctuations in real demand for goods and services, or changes in available supplies such as during scarcities.[9] However, the consensus view is that a long sustained period of inflation is caused by money supply growing faster than the rate of economic growth

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So while clearly adding money is the primary and definitely accepted general form of inflation it is however not the only form of inflation. If you're going to continue to try and "school" me on inflation then please try to understand it yourself first. The example above is absolutely an example of low/moderate inflation as referenced in that wiki article. Everything you just described is just explaining WHY the inflation happened. It was in no way an explanation of why it isn't inflation.

You guys need to accept that some inflation happens in these types of systems. By ignoring the obvious you aren't building a solid case for yourselves.

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Originally Posted by axemtitanium

it would have a complex impact on the economy in which low level basic goods like shards and fleece would increase in price and extreme luxury items would decrease in price as a result of natural redistribution of wealth through "normal" commerce.

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This is only partially true. Yes, the low level items they bot farm would jump in price due to a decreased demand.

However, in FFXI when they cracked down on RMT the price of luxury goods got higher because it turned out those RMT were gather those items as well so now the supply was considerably lower thus raising prices. The scorpion harness was a prime example of this problem in action.

It's not as simple as you think.

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Originally Posted by Jandor

SE gets the same amount of money. A months subscription time always comes from SE and always requires real money to be created, just under the proposed system you can buy more months than you need and then sell them on the market board in-game.

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this systeme often come from free to play, indeed wildstar have try to do this, but let's face it, the game will soon go in free to play then...
this systeme have only work with one game Eve online. by the way, do you really think they need to do this actually? i doubt it. people simply want to play for free and forget that a mmorpg need cash for be developped, like have said yoshida the advantage of the monthly fee allow them to be able to predict them budget for the developpement, where the free to play or freemium can't know how many cash will enter for the month. then it's harder to devellop content or even maintain a team dedicated to that.

no the free to play, freemium or creed/plex system is a very bad choice and must be used only when the game will die. if you can't afford the price of the sub from FF14, you must'nt play it first. because let's face it, the price of the subs is really low. (one of the lowest ever see for a mmorpg of this quality)

ps: and if you only want an easy way to grabs gils by using your real cash, maybe you must reconsider how you play to a mmorpg....

Did you actually read the rest of my post, or did your ego get so bruised by my first sentence that you ran first thing to Wikipedia to the safe nurturing embrace of an encyclopedia than anyone can edit?

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Originally Posted by axemtitanium

Did you actually read the rest of my post, or did your ego get so bruised by my first sentence that you ran first thing to Wikipedia to the safe nurturing embrace of an encyclopedia than anyone can edit?

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I read every word. Did you have a such a problem with the response that you have to swing back to insults? You don't understand inflation in it's fullest. What I posted shows that. Accept it and move to a better argument. Lashing out at me won't edit that page and change that aspect of inflation.

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Originally Posted by axemtitanium

Wikipedia to the safe nurturing embrace of an encyclopedia than anyone can edit?

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That doesn't make what it said in that quote any less accurate. You're just saying that as scapegoat because you don't want to accept it.

Let's go further shall we? How about Forbes?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnthar...ses-inflation/

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Inflation is simply a rise in the average price of goods and services in the macroeconomy. Which particular goods and services depends on the measure we are examining. Consumer price inflation is the one usually in the news, and it takes a weighted average of various items purchased by the typical household (the list being determined by survey and then updated periodically). The average can rise while some prices have actually fallen, and how much it reflects your personal situation is a function of how closely the basket of goods and services in the index matches your buying patterns. But, the bottom line is that we say that inflation has occurred when the average price of those goods and services has increased.

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So it seems it's not just the wiki that understands inflation isn't just about minting money. It's literally about the price of goods and services increased. Lowering our buying power.

Whew. It's a good thing more places exist in the world as references other than Wiki right. Or are you going to lash out at forbes now?

For everyone else. That article was a pretty good read. I recommend it. He goes on to detail other inflation causes other than minted money.

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Originally Posted by Bayohne

As you know, the promise wristlets were designed to be tradable so that one person would be able to purchase a pair of wristlets and gift one to their partner.

While the trading and selling of these items for gil is not against the terms of service, in the event this type of trend continues and topics continue to arise regarding whether or not this is considered real-money trading, we will have no choice but to change the design of this system. Therefore we would like players to stop selling and trading the bracelets for gil so that they can continue to be used for their intended purpose.

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They KNOW how much rmt trading can screw up an economy, because they tested it.

You can come up with as many excuses as you want to explain away how the problems people are referencing will simply not exist, but the risk-reward ratio of legitimized RMT is far too low to be worth the developmental expenses associated therein.

Plus they will undoubtedly lose a large percentage of loyal, subscription paying customers, particularly legacy, who have been funding this game since 1.0 launch. As a means to entice the often-rule-ignorant freeloaders to play.

And you thought the free weekends were bad, heh.

Free weekends are fine by me, its provides people a sort of "extended trial" once they hit the lv 20 cap on the free trials. But to have a system where you could play the game entirely free is not feasible, as this game requires upkeep and there is no real P2W options for a F2P market.

Also id hate to see FF go F2P, As currently the sub acts as a buffer to the "F2P types".

Simple having legit RMT causes inflation, since prices will be dictated by supply and demand, not only that players with lots of money can monopolize the whole market and manipulate it. EvE is a prime example of inflation rates.

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Originally Posted by Duuude007

They KNOW how much rmt trading can screw up an economy, because they tested it.

You can come up with as many excuses as you want to explain away how the problems people are referencing will simply not exist, but the risk-reward ratio of legitimized RMT is far too low to be worth the developmental expenses associated therein.

Plus they will undoubtedly lose a large percentage of loyal, subscription paying customers, particularly legacy, who have been funding this game since 1.0 launch. As a means to entice the often-rule-ignorant freeloaders to play.

And you thought the free weekends were bad, heh.

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uhhh, numbers wise, the 1.0 community is far in the minority. Not only that, it screwing up the economy, I.E. driving baby goods prices up would be a good thing. It allows newer players access to gil to get into the mid and higher end markets.

This thread is like watching Bill Cosby's kids say the darndest things.

E: Bolded fun words.

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Originally Posted by Tiggy

http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnthar...ses-inflation/

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I wonder if you have actually read the article you linked. Most of it doesn't apply in the game.

Slight inflation is harmless. It's part and parcel of the operation of the market - prices go up and down; get use to it.

But that's not what most people mean when they say "inflation" in a causal context. Run away inflation will destroy an economy, but that's won't be the kind of inflation you get when you introduce a PLEX type system.

Gil farmers who farm gil non-stop flooding the economy with gil, making things crazy expensive to buy (without buying gil) is what will kill a game. PLEX introduces zero gil to the economy, ergo, this won't happen.

I noticed you also haven't answer my previous post,

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Say they introduce a new ore, and the ore is need for new popular weapons. New ore will be in high demand. Some players stop mining old ore [1] and mine new ore. Old ore price increases due to lower supply.

[1] Note, I didn't say what the old ore is used for. But say it's used only for making potions and nothing else.

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This will cause prices to raise too. Is that "inflation"? Should SE never add anything new because people might stop gathering old mats and resulting in increased prices?

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Originally Posted by Duuude007

They KNOW how much rmt trading can screw up an economy, because they tested it.

You can come up with as many excuses as you want to explain away how the problems people are referencing will simply not exist, but the risk-reward ratio of legitimized RMT is far too low to be worth the developmental expenses associated therein.

Plus they will undoubtedly lose a large percentage of loyal, subscription paying customers, particularly legacy, who have been funding this game since 1.0 launch. As a means to entice the often-rule-ignorant freeloaders to play.

And you thought the free weekends were bad, heh.

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I am a 1.0 legacy player and was glad to save RL money on my plat wedding because they said it wasn't against the ToS I was able to get one from someone in the PF. Just saying that not everyone who played 1.0 thinks the same way as you do. Saving real money is huge for me thats why I like stuff like sub tokens. I would be really happy if FFXIV gets sub tokens like WoW is doing, because I would save so much money.

Since Blizzard is SEs biggest competition they should look into it since it may earn them more profits which would be good for their company.

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Originally Posted by ScarletDawn

Free weekends are fine by me, its provides people a sort of "extended trial" once they hit the lv 20 cap on the free trials. But to have a system where you could play the game entirely free is not feasible, as this game requires upkeep and there is no real P2W options for a F2P market.

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Erm... people are not playing for free, from the viewpoint of the company. they don't lose a single penny in revenue by doing this, what happens is that SOMEONE ELSE is paying for the sub of those "freeloaders".

They should never, ever use such P2W systems like PLEX which can give people a large advantage in game in terms of in game money aka Gil in this one. Systems where people can make vast amounts of Gil in game for the selling of items like PLEX bought with RL money is P2W.

In every single MMO I have played that has used such systems it led to a ruined in game economy. The only exception is (potentially Eve) but Eve's economy is not similar to this one, the two are not alike and what works for Eve will not work for this one. SE I think has had and continues to have the same ideology as most other people against the suggestion presented here because it is P2W, hence why their cash shop only sells vanity items that cannot be sold or traded in game.

If they implemented a PLEX style system I would quit playing as would a large amount of other people as represented in any thread where such P2W systems are discussed and was partially the reason for the huge uproar on here when the cash shop was announced, thankfully they kept and continue to keep cash shop items limited to vanity pieces with no ability to trade or sell other than to potentially an NPC which will give a microscopic amount of Gil for such items.

This is another one of those thread that people will never let die because they have it in their heads their idea is the best thing since sliced bread.

I would like to point towards similar thread topics like:
SMN Egi's need reworking
rework the battle system
redo housing
Add in NM's
(and the list goes on)

All of which had hugely detailed expressive writeups explaining how good it is, how it should work, etc. They all have one thing in common, the community and devs alike didnt really care and the devs had their reasons for doing things the way they did and they don't have to explain themselves in detail. Why? Because it is their game. If they add it, they add it. As the OP mentioned, they have commented on this already a loooong time ago with a resounding "maybe?" the successful relaunch is a little over a year old, let the game grow a little before adding something like this in. i just wish the RMT would quit commenting on this post and supporting it.

No thank you

Not interested.

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Originally Posted by silentwindfr

this systeme often come from free to play, indeed wildstar have try to do this, but let's face it, the game will soon go in free to play then...
this systeme have only work with one game Eve online. by the way, do you really think they need to do this actually? i doubt it. people simply want to play for free and forget that a mmorpg need cash for be developped, like have said yoshida the advantage of the monthly fee allow them to be able to predict them budget for the developpement, where the free to play or freemium can't know how many cash will enter for the month. then it's harder to devellop content or even maintain a team dedicated to that. no the free to play, freemium or creed/plex system is a very bad choice and must be used only when the game will die. if you can't afford the price of the sub from FF14, you must'nt play it first. because let's face it, the price of the subs is really low. (one of the lowest ever see for a mmorpg of this quality)

ps: and if you only want an easy way to grabs gils by using your real cash, maybe you must reconsider how you play to a mmorpg....

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I haven't actually said I'm in favour of this idea in FFXIV. I play Eve online though and I see a lot of people using Eve as an example in this thread so I added my 2 cents.

As far as PLEX in FFXIV goes, I don't really care. I really don't think it would make much difference day to day for most players.

I...i'm thinking really hard. But I can't see of any reason why this would be useful in any way to FFXIV.

Unless you somehow don't have $14 a month, or don't have access to a credit card.

No, sorry. Nobody should be able to buy their way into gil.

World of Warcraft may have just adopted it, but that doesn't make it a good choice. There should NEVER be a way to buy gil.

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Originally Posted by Freyar

There should NEVER be a way to buy gil.

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There already is.

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Originally Posted by Intaki

There already is.

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That doesn't mean we should be adding more ways.

No. How much money someone has in real life should have zero influence over how much money they have in-game.

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Originally Posted by LunaHoshino

No. How much money someone has in real life should have zero influence over how much money they have in-game.

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It already does, and I'm not even talking about wedding bands. Go find the most successful martketboard moguls on each server, and ask them how many retainers they have. The smart money is on most of them providing a number greater than two.

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Originally Posted by Freyar

That doesn't mean we should be adding more ways.

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I believe the point is, people are going to buy gil one way or another. They do so now and they will continue to do so with or without SE's "blessing".

Now that I think about it, it's kind of like the Prohibition of the 1920s in the US. Gangsters became filthy rich manufacturing and trafficking booze. But when it ended in 1933 and everyone could legally get in on the market, their income dried up. Is booze good for you? Hell no. Was the Prohibition a good idea? I don't know. But it definitely was good for the gangsters.[1]

On one hand, I agree with you on principle, that RL money should have zero influence on achieving game objectives/rewards. On the other, we have a cash shop that give the RL rich cooler crap than the rest of us "peasants" while gil/gold selling is alive and well in just about every MMO - WoW has been fighting it for over 8 years.

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[1] The ban on buying gil with RL money is kind of like the Prohibition. RMT has a monopoly on RL money to gil conversions, just like the gangster had a monopoly on alcohol production and sales. People still bought gil, just like people back then still drank alcohol. Gangsters got rich because of their monopoly, just like RMT is getting rich now.

PLEX basically legalize gil buying with RL money - without minting more gil and flooding the economy - where every buyer of PLEX is effectively a gil seller. Without their monopoly, RMT's income will drop, just like the post-1933 gangsters.