Square Enix. Please hire an economic advisor.

[myahele]

I'm glad that I decided not to level up a crafting job.

People have always questioned the futurenof crafting, with gear being given away via doing quests.

Now I've made my gil selling the treasure maps.

Maybe things will even out in the future, but we'll see

[blowfin]

Maybe SE should find a company that has 10 years of experience running an economy in an MMO, then they can help with the economy in XIV?

[WandererSabaku]

I think Square Enix should set a gil fee to take items off the market early, as well as increase the % of taken taken on an item for every adjustment the player makes to the item's price. This would help reduce ridiculous price fluctuations at least. I understand supply-demand changes, but microeconomies like this shouldn't require players to check prices every 5 minutes if they want to keep up with market trends. On Final Fantasy XI, the tax cost of placing items on the auction house helped keep players from constantly changing their price, especially on high ticket items. Just my two cents.

Or, Square Enix, let me dye all of my mounts pink and I'll magically forget I had any problems to begin with.

[Noata]

I think looking up what a market crash is and realizing that it cant happen in this video game economy would be a good start. your perception of a crash is a market getting flooded with supply, and therefore a price drop, which is actually merely an increase in supply. this is not an economic crash, and in many cases due to affordability results in a better economy. Now if your personally hit and realize the money you could make off of x has decreased you may be disappointed that the supply has increased, this however means little to the economy and more to you.

[Ashgarth]

this is not an economic crash, and in many cases due to affordability results in a better economy.

That would be true if the economy was based on consumable items.
Also it would work if there were not arbitrary stated gil amounts (Like a 40m small house) that dictates what is worth selling and what is not.

This game crafting system is teorically based on consumables. Food, Potions and equipments should be constantly being consumed and destroyed, the problem is... they are not.

-Food is basically ignored by 90% or more of the population.
-Don't even get me started on alchemy potions.
-Then we get to gear, the most expansive share of the economy... based in a materia system that less and less people use every day.

[Noata]

This holds true in even non consumable markets, which due to spiritbind are arguably consumables themselves. Gearing up is much easier now and so the need for consumables for high end content will rise. It is also easier to make money, allowing for players to be more willing to part with gil for larger purchases they would normally hold off on. the amount of potential consumers this patch brings is going to make even some small markets experience more purchases. The market need not only function off of consumables their is a great need still for everything, and with individuals more capable of purchasing, all aspects of the market should benefit.

Though on an individual level some sellers may see due to supply a drop in a per unit gain, the markets themselves should see more purchases and overall gil flow. So a healthier economy but some sellers may be angry they don't make as much.

[Millimidget]

Devs, you guys are bad at this. Get some help. It can only improve the game if you do.

I'd say they're doing quite a bit better than the studios I've seen taking your advice and employing an economist.

[Arbitrage]

I'm glad that I decided not to level up a crafting job.

People have always questioned the futurenof crafting, with gear being given away via doing quests.

Now I've made my gil selling the treasure maps.

Maybe things will even out in the future, but we'll see

that's funny

I'm glad I did craft, because being first to market with a variety of things profited me over 250m

you guys who think crafting is down, its obviously going to fall in time, the cost of materials are also down, money can still be made you just have to look for it

it is too easy though to raid for gear compared to making your own gear however, I have all premade gears and there is no comparison to crafted jewelery which accounts for 5/12 slots?

seems pretty good to me

[RaideDuku]

Except there are no consumables for the high end content aside from food, and now that its effect carries through death, people have to buy even less of it. Having more people get to end game content will balance it out a little, but food has always been simply a consistent money maker, not a large one. They typical high end items that people spend money on in MMOs, generally crafted high end gear, do not exist. As time goes on, people will want what crafted armor there is less and less, especially with tomes dropping like candy, and Crystal Tower gear bridging the gap between Darklight and Myth gear.

[dejavutwo]

The game I've played that seemed to have the best economy was Tera. It worked well because it took all gear that dropped and turned it into a commodity through their enchanting system (Also the primary gold sink). This created a dynamic where low geared players would buy gear from higher geared players, and higher geared players would still have stuff to buy from lower geared players. Thus gold is able to circulate, instead of only trickling up. I will also note that after going F2P, there were no gold sellers because the cash shop sold trade-able cosmetics that allowed players to convert cash to in-game gold.

Explination of Tera's economy:

Gear was divided into tiers. Within each tier there were multiple sets of gear - fodder, low end enchant-able, high end enchant-able, and crafted. In order from best to worst, with only the crafted being bind on pickup.

Fodder was used as sacrificial gear to try to enchant. The higher the quality of your fodder, the better the odds of succeeding your enchantment. All players need fodder every time they upgrade a piece of gear and it provided an easy way for everybody to make money off the market, albeit in small-medium quantities.

Low-end enchanted gear would drop from bosses, and could be enchanted up to +12. All content for a tier is designed to be completed at +9 of the low end enchanted, and selling it could give you a moderate boost in money when a new tier comes out, and acts as entry level gear to the harder dungeons of the current tier. The price drops relatively fast down to a point that newer player can afford it easily.

High-end enchanted gear would drop only from the most difficult boss in the game, which had a lockout timer. This enforced scarcity, but the gear itself was still trade-able, so good players would be able to make a fortune.

Crafted gear was the absolute best, and the materials only dropped of the most difficult boss, but since it was bind on pickup, it didn't play much role in the economy.