Are some of the servers economies complete trash?

[Bsrking5]

How is this a flaw when every mmo I know of, and real life, do this?

Runescape with their is price bracketed with updating prices daily I think. They also sell individually, not as hard stacks by the seller. You can't see how others are selling within the brackets.

[TwistedTea]

Q&A with Naoki Yoshida on Final Fantasy, MMO Markets and Economies

...Since we’ve designed it so that rewards from high-difficulty contents are more valuable in the game, we’ve limited the possibility for gil prices to soar for gear synthesised by Disciples of the Hand. But, we’ve incorporated intentional design decisions so that at the early stages of clearing raids, it is such gear synthesised by Disciples of the Hand that must be relied upon to deal out the most damage or provide the best protection. Consumables like medicines and meals equally serve an important role during those periods...

...Yes, as we monitor the gil like I previously mentioned, a remarkably high sales value for certain items would indicate to us that those items are not being made available enough. In times like this, we employ various forms of control such as increasing the item drop rate with hotfixes or reducing the number of materials required in recipes for crafting...

As others have mentioned, with how 'accessible' crafting/gathering now is, everyone and their aldgoat is a omnicrafter/gatherer. Plus SE doesn't really seem to tackle the rampant botting.

This interview with Yoshi P should indicate SE's priority is to make items more 'accessible'/available rather than players making tonnes of gil.

Whether or not this is the right decision to take with the economy, only time will tell but so far the game has only grown in popularity with SHB.

[Chasingstars]

Depends on the world within the data center you are shopping in when shopping for something specific. Also depends on the intent of the world hopper, like are you trying to corner a market or are you just being frugal with your gil?

[ForteNightshade]

The economy is rubbish for 2 reasons, Crafting is ridiculously accessible and botting is rampant. Supply and demand takes care of the rest.

People really underestimate both botting and crafting having become a total joke playing such a significant role in bombing the economy. Back in Stormblood, the crafted raid gear lasted nearly the entirely of two full patches at a decent enough price. Although, it did start to fall off in odd numbered patches. Which is another issue. Augmented i490 is piss easy to obtain, thus rendering hurting the crafted gear even further. Frankly, instead of a token exchange, they should have made it so you needed new materials to craft it. This would give crafters a new patch of "newish" gear to sell.

Ultimately, SE wanting to make everything extremely accessible killed the economy system. Supply and demand really only became a problem because there are far too many people flooding the market now.

...Yes, as we monitor the gil like I previously mentioned, a remarkably high sales value for certain items would indicate to us that those items are not being made available enough. In times like this, we employ various forms of control such as increasing the item drop rate with hotfixes or reducing the number of materials required in recipes for crafting...

Ironically, it this exact stance which has prompted so many complaints towards crafting in Shadowbringers. It certainly doesn't help there is virtually no real end-game for crafters except the market board. And no, having a 12 day craft-athon doesn't mean much when it only happens every 4-5 months.

[Jojoya]

Because it’s the one thing that creates the undercutting and destroys the market. Remove the ability to see how much people are selling items and only allow people to see the history and people have to guess prices. Will keep prices the same, improving the MB.

No one is going buy things when the prices aren't displayed. That's a breeding ground for scams where players go to buy a level 40 item just to find out they paid 500k for it.

If you're thinking "well, just hide it on the retainer interface, not at the MB itself", that won't work. Sellers will start camping marketboards to look at prices before they list on their retainers. PC players will have an even greater advantage since there are third party tools already at play in the market that wouldn't be affected by your proposed change. You'd end up with more players feeling pushed into using those tools because you've made it harder for them to get the information manually.

Hiding prices won't do anything but create an even bigger mess.

Also, did you ever stop to consider that buyers do not see higher MB prices as an improvement to the system?

[Edax]

No one is going buy things when the prices aren't displayed. That's a breeding ground for scams where players go to buy a level 40 item just to find out they paid 500k for it.

If you're thinking "well, just hide it on the retainer interface, not at the MB itself", that won't work. Sellers will start camping marketboards to look at prices before they list on their retainers. PC players will have an even greater advantage since there are third party tools already at play in the market that wouldn't be affected by your proposed change. You'd end up with more players feeling pushed into using those tools because you've made it harder for them to get the information manually.

Hiding prices won't do anything but create an even bigger mess.

Also, did you ever stop to consider that buyers do not see higher MB prices as an improvement to the system?

In runescape, you can make an offer, such as 30k to buy something. The system will check and a sale will be made if a seller was offering it at that price, or lower than what you offered it for. If no seller is offering it for 30k or below, your offer will remain on the market until someone takes you up on it, or you raise your offer.

[Jojoya]

In runescape, you can make an offer, such as 30k to buy something. The system will check and a sale will be made if a seller was offering it at that price, or lower than what you offered it for. If no seller is offering it for 30k or below, your offer will remain on the market until someone takes you up on it, or you raise your offer.

Now why would I bother going to all that trouble when I could make the item in less time than it would take to play guessing games about what a seller is willing to accept as a price?

That sort of system only works when buyers are dependent on sellers to get the items they need or want. They have to hope a seller shows up with the item they're looking for.

It's not going to work when the player can choose to become self-sufficient and spend 5 minutes gathering mats and crafting the item on their own. That's what's happening in this game now. SE made it too easy for players to be self-sufficient.

If you want to sell on the marketboard, you either need to have an item a buyer cannot get on their own or you need to convince them that it's cheaper and more convenient to buy from you than put in the effort to get the item themselves.

Start hiding prices and you've just stripped away a substantial chunk of the convenience factor. That would be a pity if the price the seller was asking was one I would have happily paid if it had been listed clearly in the first place.

[Edax]

Now why would I bother going to all that trouble when I could make the item in less time than it would take to play guessing games about what a seller is willing to accept as a price?

It's really no trouble at all. Just bid high and you'll be sold the lowest sellers item at the seller's price and you have it instantly.

[Theodric]

They've already completely reworked other aspects of the game so it wouldn't be too out there to expect some changes to how the marketboard works in the future.

[Jojoya]

It's really no trouble at all. Just bid high and you'll be sold the lowest sellers item at the seller's price and you have it instantly.

Why would I bid high and possibly get locked into paying high when I could just go make the item cheap?

Again, the system is only going to work when the buyer doesn't have other options nearly as convenient for getting the item.

I did a little checking online about Runescape crafting. Seems that it's very slow and tedious to level - unless you're already very rich in the game's currency. That's a major deterrent to entry, making it more likely for players to skip crafting and rely on buying what they want from other players who go to the effort to level it

Sounds like how it used to be here, doesn't it? Either a player already had millions of gil they could spend buying levekits from other players to level their crafting (wasn't an option for gathering) or they were stuck doing it the long, tedious way.

That's not how things are anymore. It's quick and easy to level crafting and gathering, especially as a player who has at least completed the 3.3 MSQ. The only deterrent to leveling them is a lack of interest in crafting and gathering.

Implement the Runescape system here and you're not going to see high bidders unless the item is a rare and very desirable RNG drop. Anything else? Bid low - if you don't instantly get it just go make it yourself. It's not going to have the effect desired by many of the posters in this thread because there are now relatively few buyers than are reliant on sellers for the majority of the things they want.

They've already completely reworked other aspects of the game so it wouldn't be too out there to expect some changes to how the marketboard works in the future.

They just changed crafting and gathering this expansion. They want to change the marketboard to be data center wide instead of world specific.

Clearly they aren't interesting in changing the market to improve things for sellers.