The value of gil is worth 10x less due to inflation

[StouterTaru]

Ah yeah, that's the other thing. Despite being on a legacy server I'm not a legacy player, and still did just fine economically.

Yes, you started on a server where people had millions of gil to buy things at launch. On other servers, all the gil had to be created from NPCs, which was insanely slow in 2.0. That's why the economy and prices were vastly different; 800k on your server, 50k on others.

[LloydShade]

The problem with most modern MMORPG is that the upkeep for a character is either minimal or non-existent. It should be hard to run out of things to buy by anyone but the wealthiest players and there should be recurring costs to prevent currency from simply accumulating. The later is the easiest to implement.

Rich players should spend a significant amount of currency to enjoy a "wealthy lifestyle" within the game. Think special conveniences and combat bonuses. It should look and feel good to be rich, but quite costly.
Poor players should enjoy a "carefree lifestyle" with no convenience or bonus. This is suitable for a questing and leveling character.
The other players, let's call them the middle class, should fall in between. They should be capable of affording the combat bonuses (for higher end content) or conveniences, but not both without extra work.
Give free companies options to add different conveniences (no combat bonus) for an added cost.

You end up with a system in which you cannot remain forever rich by doing nothing and benefiting from every advantages. It does not even need to be very high costs.

For instance, set the wealthy lifestyle (complete package of bonuses and conveniences) to 100'000 gils per month. Set only the combat bonuses to 10'000 gils per month. This system feels rewarding to the players spending the gils, because the gils you give offer something meaningful in return. It does not negatively affect the leveling player, but still adds an optional objective. Let the combat bonuses be affordable simply by doing one or two roulettes and it will not feel like a burden. Have the wealthy style be easily achievable for any level capped player and it will undoubtedly be popular.

I see owning an individual house, having access to an extra servant, access to a private market board to be valuable visible conveniences. I see "well-rested" as an inn/room/apartment special bonus (with a cost), a justifiable way to get a few percents extra health and damage. Even as low as 1%, it is meaningful in high end content.

Want to go one step beyond? Make the monthly cost a variable amount to change based on the highs and lows of the server's economy. Make the calculations based on the server's market board activity over the month and adjust the price every 1st of the month. Want to stimulate the server's economy? Lower the costs. Want to slow down inflation? Raise the costs.

[VanilleFang]

It doesn't, so long as you don't care about having a functional economy. If you do care about having a functional economy and would just rather have a number that keeps going up for a currency, then it's fine.

The economy does function. It may not be nearly perfect but it still functions.

Not only that but isn't economy also server based? It's rather hard to determine what one item is worth unless you go to every server and calculate an average. Some servers have more bots than others, for example, which would hurt the economy on that server much more.

[Cakekizyy]

For 2.0 it was true, and then later on it was true for latecomers who joined nearing Heavensward because they didn't have any time to accumulate wealth before 3.0 went live. Remember back in 2.0 mobs didn't drop gil. If you wanted gil, your options were: Leves, FATEs, the few coffers in dungeons that gave allagan coin pieces, or you needed to sell stuff on the market board. If you only went through the quests and didn't "grind" any of those gil sources, then you'd be sitting with more or less 400k.

I still remember back when the very first pre-relic weapons were being listed on the market board for my server (Tonberry at that time), they went for 500k each, and it was more than my whole worth.

I had 2 mil when I finished SB. Down to 400k now and I will need to spend that for relic. That doesn't even count crafted items I will need to buy.

[Melichoir]

So, Just some more points in regards to an economy.

You want a functional economy in an MMO if you want there to be some way for players to give value for their efforts to other players, much like how real currency works. A dollar is (in theory beyond it being backed by gold or something) is a statement of value for productivity or product from one individual to another. Or simply, I pay you a dollar for your labor. You can use that Dollar to pay another person for their labor or goods. It makes it possible for us to trade with each other in a means beyond straight up bartering.

In the MMO sense, it allows players who do crafting or gather or other methods of labor to sell that labor to other players more easily. If I craft a table you want, or a piece of armor, or etc, I can say that my labor is worth so much in gil. You pay that amount by accruing gil for your OWN labors.

The issue of why you want a functioning economy in an MMO is that without one, things get really screwed up real fast. If theres to little or to much Gil, it becomes extremely difficult to quantify the value of goods and services and ultimately collapses the player bases ability to trade with one another effectively. It's much easier for me to say "I want 20k Gil for this peice of armor" and actually have potential buyers than say "I need 50 mythril ore, 25 Ewe Lumber, 6 Dalamud Popotos, and 2 HQ Straw for this Armor piece."

This is why inflation is bad. As more and more money is pumped in, the value of Gil Drops substantially as it is easier to acquire. The intrinsic value of items still remains (Glamours, crafted armors, food stuffs, etc) but requires more and more Gil to meet the value of the item due to inflation. Overtime, Gil becomes meaningless and costs skyrocket and the market collapses due to inefficiency. This gets worse because NPC and non player items are not adjusted for inflation. Potions still cost the same as the day the game launched. So did all the NPC Materials, low level armors, and the like. Houses have also not increased in value, broadly speaking. So people that have accrued 500 million gil essentially are overcapped cause that money isnt spendable on anything. Theyre to well to do. But more money is still being fed into the system ambiently, but not leaving it fast enough to drive inflation down.

If you want to fix inflation so that everything stabilizes in the markets, you need to remove pretty much all sources of passive Gil earnings. So no gil from MSQ quests, no Gil from dungeons. Increase costs on NPC items, reduce what items can be sold to NPCs. Place taxes on properties, increase the intrinsic value of NPC items, etc etc.

Essentially start running the NPC side of the equation like actual businesses that absorb player generated money, and reduce whats being pumped into the economy passively through just going through the motions.

[Stormfur]

We just need to have more gil dumps in the game besides housing.

[Jellybums]

This is the kind or quality of conversation that belongs in a barber shop when anyone wants to talk about "the economy" has zero consideration to per capita income or the general price level of goods and services, other economic indicators. Just oh, you can make this much and I know people who have made this much by now so certain things should cost more and the free market system is broken. How did you even come up with the inflation rate? Is EVERYTHING costing more gil now than an expansion pack ago? I don't even the math.

[Melichoir]

This is the kind or quality of conversation that belongs in a barber shop when anyone wants to talk about "the economy" has zero consideration to per capita income or the general price level of goods and services, other economic indicators. Just oh, you can make this much and I know people who have made this much by now so certain things should cost more and the free market system is broken. How did you even come up with the inflation rate? Is EVERYTHING costing more gil now than an expansion pack ago? I don't even the math.

Doesnt take an economics degree to understand that printing money lowers its value as it comes easier to acquire.

And in FFXIV, and in most MMOs, that is exactly what happens because more money is being pumped into the player pool thorugh NPC interactions than being pulled from the player pool.

[QueenSophie]

Can I just say to anyone that says " gils " ....please just stop.....

[Jellybums]

Doesnt take an economics degree to understand that printing money lowers its value as it comes easier to acquire.

And in FFXIV, and in most MMOs, that is exactly what happens because more money is being pumped into the player pool thorugh NPC interactions than being pulled from the player pool.

That's not causing inflation if that money isn't raising the prices of goods /reducing the purchasing power of gil. You just have a growing economy. But if your gil can't buy crap now that it used to be able to purchase years ago, then yes you clearly have inflation. But I don't see things in the market board costing more than they used to when I first tried this game. So it's ironic to claim there's inflation therefore raise the prices in the housing market when doing so causes inflation in the housing market when there was none to begin with.