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

[AlexionSkylark]

Snip.

OK, you wanna know where else this money could be going, if not rotting into a character's pockets? Into the luxury market that FFXIV has become. From the rich, to the rich. Where the cost of things is priced thinking of people with 10 mil+ into their account. By distributing the ammount of gil to a bigger multitude of players, less and less people will be able to afford overpriced stuff, and that would actually provoke DEFLATION, which is a good thing by any standard.

[Intaki]

No it in no way proves your point. In that scenario 1 set of money was made. Went from player A to player B for a sub price, then player B blew it on a house making the money leave the game. There is no economy there. That's just a massive gil sink being funded by real life money.

You still seem to fail to understand what actually occurs under this system. Player A had that money before Player B ever bought a subscription token. Maybe he farmed it, maybe he's a marketboard mogul, whatever. By trading that money to Player B, and Player B buying a house, money that was previously in circulation is now completely removed from the economy. Gone. In this scenario gil was not created, it was removed. This is literally the exact opposite of inflation.

Do you know what WOULD inflate? The price of all those easily attainable goods that you see going for 1 to 10 gil on the marketboard. You could expect some of those prices to start jumping into the low hundreds. Imagine that! New players would actually be able to sell the crap that fills their inventories and make a fair bit of money.

[chrillix]

Now you're finally pointing the finger at the REAL issue: the lack of plot wards for sale. That has been noted time and time again in these forums, and that's where our attention should be focused. If anything, I'll even say this balancing of the economy (money shifting from the 1%ers pockets to a more distributed base) will reinforce the shouting for more plot wards, and that'll end up benefiting EVERYBODY in the long run. This is a much more likely scenario.

BTW, your avatar really looks like an Ul'Dahn monetarist. Heheh. (just a light-hearted funny comment, c'mon, I'm not angry at anybody here )

I would consider the real issue in this situation to be that someone paid real money to obtain something in-game that people actually prevented people playing the game to do themselves. The lack of housing wards is another issue, and I agree they definitely need to add more.

Also, if I could dress myself up like that rich lalafell monetarist in a few of the main story cut scenes I would But I don't think that outfit exists so I chose a goblin merchant instead haha.

[Magis]

In the end, it's people asking to pay money to get ahead. I don't know what kind of mental gymnastics you have to do to somehow convince yourself that isn't paying to win, but no thanks; keep IRL money out of the in game economy.

[KayoZ]

Now, I'm just gonna reiterate my argument, for the sake of staying on topic, that PLEX would help the economy by taking money that would be piling up in someone's wallet, and giving it to someone who will most likely spend it on a money sink, erasing that sum of gil from the economy and helping lower inflation.

Your argument here is full of holes and hypothetical assumptions. Saying the mere transference of gil (minus whatever % the AH keeps) is somehow adding to the gold sink of the game is flawed.

For starters, whats to stop a greedy gil hoarder from buying up his own "sub token" and fattening his pockets even more? Also, do you really think only the 1% will be able to afford this? Wildstar sold their CREDD for $20 and they sold for anywhere between 15k and 20k. Thats next to nothing to high level players there and easily obtainable in a few days. I even read posts of players claiming to have multiple months worth of CREDD tokens saved up. Anyone greedy enough to hoard such amounts of gil could easily use this to hoard even more. Not to mention how the fact you only need one of these per month means it would hardly make a dent on the filthy rich.

Second, just because Player A buys a sub token from Player B doesnt automatically mean he's going to now spend all that in gold sinks. What if he becomes the gil hoarder now spending his hard earned RL money to become the new 1%er? Everyone has the same gold sinks available to them ... thats why theyre there. Everyone needs to repair, everyone who buys in the AH needs to pay the tax. I dont understand why you think the rich have any less of a gold sink available to them than a regular player. Sure, Player B may suddenly be able to buy a 2.5 million gil house, but those arent exactly readily available are they? SE cant even keep up with demand.

Third, what one player does, affects the other. Maybe now that Player B has all this gil, he'll craft even less. Why bother leveling and crafting things to sell when you can just pay SE and you get a hot ticket item and sell it for a large amount of gil? So now someone else has not only less things to buy, now he's seeling less mats. Yes, im building assumptions just as big as yours but both are just 1 of thousands of alternative consequences that can happen which may or may not make things worse. The only way to really fix inflation is with real gold sinks in which players want or need to spend gil on.

THis idea is good on paper for the possible effect it could have on hackers and bots ... however thats already been proven ineffective. Whats left is a 'legal' way of buying gold.

[Magis]

snip

In 2.0, repair costs were extremely high. It was actually a pretty good gold sink, though maybe... too good. People began running dry and couldn't afford repairs, running AK and WP naked to avoid damage. SE then nerfed the repair costs. This was before roulette gave you money. IIRC monsters didn't drop any either, it was all from chests containing Allagan pieces.

To adjust for inflation, maybe SE should bump up costs after adding all these fountains?

[Intaki]

For starters, whats to stop a greedy gil hoarder from buying up his own "sub token" and fattening his pockets even more?

You're one of those people who thinks this system actually creates money, rather than simply moves it around, aren't you?

[Magis]

You're one of those people who thinks this system actually creates money, rather than simply moves it around, aren't you?

He's saying that using IRL money, the gil hoarder can absorb even more money, with no effort put in. Yes, no money was added, but it has now become stagnant in someone not spending in game money. Did you read anything past that about WildStar?

[Tiggy]

You're one of those people who thinks this system actually creates money, rather than simply moves it around, aren't you?

Money moving around is what a a video game economy largely consists of. It's not only about money creation. It's about having enough money moving around for everything to work smoothly. For people to feel satisfied at the end of the day with what they earned because of the buying power it gives them for the next day. If you think it's only about money creation then quite honestly you're missing the point of MMO game economies.

[Intaki]

He's saying that using IRL money, the gil hoarder can absorb even more money, with no effort put in. Yes, no money was added, but it has now become stagnant in someone not spending in game money. Did you read anything past that about WildStar?

You mean how CREDD was affordable to the vast majority of players? Yeah, I did read that. I experienced that first hand. It was pretty great.

A) It does create tons of money each day.

It doesn't. The PLEX system creates zero money. It simply creates a commodity that a player may sell to another player for money.