A -real- economic discussion about 2.0?

[Vindrax]

The 1/10th Gil Reduction
Reducing the amount of gil everyone has by 1/10th will do nothing, IF the current gil inflows remain exactly the same. The chance of this happening are low. How this policy effects us will fully depend on how easy or hard it is to make gil in 2.0. If it is easier to make gil in 2.0 than it is now, the economy will benefit a lot, as new players will feasibly be able to catch up.


Consequences of Server Differences (Effect on Monetary Policy)
To me this is the biggest problem 2.0 faces. By having new servers, you create a scenario where some servers will have a massive money supply, in the 100s of millions, while others will have a money supply of zero. Both economies will on average grow at the exact same rate. So the older servers will always have a fixed difference in money supply.

Overall good read. I have a few counterpoints to these two that you've stated. The first being that SE has already stated that gold inflows will be 1/10th what they are now, so without any evidence to the contrary I don't think it's worth speculating that the rate is going to be anything but that. However, counter to what you wrote, unless the gil given by quests/leves is dramatically increased, gil received by questing will not be the main way of "catching up" for new players. The only real way players are going to catch up, is through obtaining raw type materials in the economy that are valuable and selling those to players with a large gil supply. Point being, if you do a leve now that rewards you 3,000 gil and takes you 10 minutes to do, versus farming 5-10 boar leathers in that same time, each which sell for 6,000 gold. Players have had so much time amassing gil through the convential means that the really only feasible way for a new player to break into the economy is through selling items, questing will make an extremely minor impact on the amount of gil these players will obtain.


The second point is also invalid, because over time the two economies over a long enough period of time, should reach an equilibrium. This is because in your example, the Wutai money supply is going to be having millions and millions sucked out of its economy by the AH tax, while on "Fairy" a paltry amount of gil in comparison will be taken out. Over time they should balance out and it's not really unfair since it's % based.

[Azurymber]

based on this argument, every time WoW released a new Recommended server, they would put custom npc prices, which never happened and people dealt with it.
If worst happens, they'll just cut requisites like Ragnarock (but remember, that happened just because ragnarock have few people, not because was a different server)

There's a difference between games that have balanced inflows and outflows, where economies tend to move towards each other. Vindrax mentions this in his second point:

Overall good read. I have a few counterpoints to these two that you've stated. The first being that SE has already stated that gold inflows will be 1/10th what they are now, so without any evidence to the contrary I don't think it's worth speculating that the rate is going to be anything but that. However, counter to what you wrote, unless the gil given by quests/leves is dramatically increased, gil received by questing will not be the main way of "catching up" for new players. The only real way players are going to catch up, is through obtaining raw type materials in the economy that are valuable and selling those to players with a large gil supply. Point being, if you do a leve now that rewards you 3,000 gil and takes you 10 minutes to do, versus farming 5-10 boar leathers in that same time, each which sell for 6,000 gold. Players have had so much time amassing gil through the convential means that the really only feasible way for a new player to break into the economy is through selling items, questing will make an extremely minor impact on the amount of gil these players will obtain.


The second point is also invalid, because over time the two economies over a long enough period of time, should reach an equilibrium. This is because in your example, the Wutai money supply is going to be having millions and millions sucked out of its economy by the AH tax, while on "Fairy" a paltry amount of gil in comparison will be taken out. Over time they should balance out and it's not really unfair since it's % based.

To start with, i fully agree with the second point you made, as its completely correct. My concern is that the AH taxes we have aren't high enough -at the moment- to do this. That doesn't mean they won't be in 2.0. But for this to occur the gil outflows from concentrated spending (like AH trade) has to outweigh whatever gil inflows there are right now. At the moment a few months month or more of AH taxes is probably equivalent to what I can make in a day off of leves.

As to the first point, your correct. It's difficult to speculate at the moment. However, if they go the route of "make gil at the start from questing" we can assume that for Y period of time, all economies will generally grow equally, as most new players on average will level up a new job (assuming its there) with the questing system to experience it. So economies will grow equally for Y and then what you said will happen. If done well it will happen fast and ah taxes or alternative means can balance economies, but if a new server was created now it would take years for it to occur (at least thats what I would predict). So I'm not sure if SE will manage to find a way to create balances.