Before analyzing the Market please read.

[OSUBuckeye4]

Wow, I need to drink my morning coffee BEFORE posting.

Sorry, by "gil in circulation", I meant the overall pool of gil.

The overall pool of gil is increasing every day due to the reasons I typed above (dailies, roulettes, leves, trash mobs dropping 7-8 gil per kill in dungeons, treasure maps).



As far as gil in circulation... I can only assume it's going down, because as the overall pool of gil is increasing the prices on just about everything are dropping. (Source? Playing the game. If you want to argue it's just my server... well, I can't argue with you on that. Looking through the forums though, people from almost every server are reporting the same thing)

Some of this can be explained by saying that early lvl 50 crafters were operating with EXTREME profit margins. I will buy into that. Another part of this can be explained by saying that FC's are having fire sales to raise capital for housing. I can buy into that a bit as well.


We're past the initial rush of FC housing though and it's pretty apparent that the tide has turned when it comes to the marketplace. Yesterday I bought a lvl 43 HQ sword for 398 gil... there were 6-7 other swords on the market for under 1000. That is insanely cheap.

You're going to come back and say, "see, but you bought the sword... so the market works!". The only reason I bought the sword was because it was 398 gil. If it was 3,000 gil... I would have passed and just re-ran a dungeon and hoped for a free drop of an item that is better than the sword anyways. Plus, I would have walked away from the dungeon with some extra gil in my pocket, due to the trash mob gil drops and the reward for completing the dungeon. (even after repairs)

I'd actually agree with you on 398 being the market price if it wasn't for the fact that SE offered the same item (well, the non-HQ version) to me in a quest, but then gave me the alternative of taking 6 Allagan silver pieces (3000 gil).


It's not just one item that is cheap either. Every time I'm offered Allagan pieces or quest armor, I check the market board to see how much that quest armor is going for. It is universally selling for between 10-35% of the Allagan reward.

That is either horrible game design by SE (it's like a boss offering employees $1000, or the option to take a $150 coffee maker, everyone is going to take the cash... if you want the coffee maker you can go buy it and have $850 left to spend on other things)... or, the market is broken.


I'll try to sum it up:

It would make sense if people were making more money and things cost more.

It would also make sense if gil faucets were closed (say, trash mobs no longer dropped gil in dungeons... or, leve rewards were exp/seals only), and things started to cost less.


It doesn't make a lot of sense that "normal people" (people running quests/dailies) are making more money than ever, and almost everything is cheaper than it was prior to a lot of these gil faucets opening.



All of that being said, unlike a lot of people, I don't think we're at a code red point. Right now, there is still money to be made in the market for newer players. And also, newer players have it good to a certian degree... we can get HQ lvl 43 swords for 398 gil.

I just see the writing on the wall, and I hope that SE sees it as well and finds ways to deal with it in subsequent patches. (hint hint: personal housing)

If left unchecked, it's going to turn into a huge problem. Regular players making 25k gil per day profit, and spending none of it (nothing to reasonably spend it on), is not a good path to go down. It's going to discourage new players from entering the world and it's going to send the crafters looking for a new game to play.

OSU, did your FC get a house? if not yet then.. there is where you spend your saved up gil

We will buy housing (we have the gil for it) when housing provides a benefit other than vanity. Right now, that isn't the case.

EDIT: We will also look into purchasing housing when the depreciation stops, even if there is no addtional benefit added by SE.

Right now, there is no point in buying a house because:

A) It does nothing but occupy space
B) The devs have publically stated that they are committed to offering the same product at a reduced price every 6 hours. What is the point of buying right now again? To say that we own the best plot? Why? It's like saying you own the best paperweight in the world. Big deal. We go after useful things... like attaining rank 8 for our FC so that we can spend seals on buffs to lower transportation cost. We've done that.


So yea, for now... horde that gil. SE better realize that is what is going on though, and they better do something about it. If they don't, there won't be an economy when 3.0 rolls around and they will have to resort to nerfing everyones bankroll again.

[Xystic]

Snip

I'm not going to counter argue all your points.

This thread indicates that the only way you can prove the market is going one way or the other is specifically the gil in circulation numbers. This gives us a much better overall view of the market. Personal numbers and even a few handfuls are small compared to the gil in circulation numbers.

A lot your arguments are based off your own independent thoughts of what you see is happening. You've even included the fact which, you used the forums as a source of your information. The forums is a great source of information like wikipedia but should not be used as a legitimate source just like wikipedia.

Once again, a lot of your arguments contradict each other just like the previous post and some of them are also logically flawed.

Unless you can provide these numbers, we can't soundly argue good or bad.

[OSUBuckeye4]

I'm not going to counter argue all your points.

This thread indicates that the only way you can prove the market is going one way or the other is specifically the gil in circulation numbers. This gives us a much better overall view of the market. Personal numbers and even a few handfuls are small compared to the gil in circulation numbers.

A lot your arguments are based off your own independent thoughts of what you see is happening. You've even included the fact which, you used the forums as a source of your information. The forums is a great source of information like wikipedia but should not be used as a legitimate source just like wikipedia.

Once again, a lot of your arguments contradict each other just like the previous post and some of them are also logically flawed.

Unless you can provide these numbers, we can't soundly argue good or bad.

So essentialy your answer is... "Until you can hack into SE's systems and obtain data that they have refused to release.... I'm not going to respond to anything you said. Know that I disagree with a lot of it though, I just won't get into it".

Allright then, have a good day.

I'll leave you with one thing to think about before I leave.

This section of the forum has blown up with people pointing out warning signs/red flags. SE has come in a few times and responded, they've even gone so far as to set up a subforum about the most complained about thing (housing).

They read these posts, they see what is going on. Yet... they choose not to release any of the data that you say we need to see in order to judge the economy. The closest we ever got to seeing the "big picture" was when Yoshi tried to explain the rationale behind housing prices ("x" number of players had ABSURD amounts of gil, and some of it needed to be purged from the economy)... he refused to provide concrete numbers though.

Hmmm... why do you think that is the case?

[Shyen]

They read these posts, they see what is going on. Yet... they choose not to release any of the data that you say we need to see in order to judge the economy. The closest we ever got to seeing the "big picture" was when Yoshi tried to explain the rationale behind housing prices ("x" number of players had ABSURD amounts of gil, and some of it needed to be purged from the economy)... he refused to provide concrete numbers though.

Hmmm... why do you think that is the case?

Cause the amount of gil generated, circulated and depleted is sensitive data that no company executive in their sane mind would divulge to the public. And rightfully so. They already have a problem controlling BOTs and their influence on the gil flow; I think divulgating such data might turn into an even bigger problem by offering the wrong people ways to hoarde/sell more currency on a silver tray.