Idea to put an end to inflation and stop RMTs

[Liniont]

now I ask you that you read this with an open mind as it's an idea I had for my MMO a long time ago, I'm giving you this idea because I love you yoshi-p and I have high hopes for FFXIV. Also I hate the Inflation and I hate RMTs.

My idea was simple take every tradable/sellable item in the game and give it an ultimate minimum/maximum asking price. for example.

We'll use a level 5 wooden shield (I forget the name)

currently on my server a Level 5 shield goes for 20,000 to 50,000gil

my Idea will set a minimum price of 1,000 gil that the shield is allowed to be sold at and a maximum allowing price of say 2,500 gil.

The dev team already has an NPC asking price. When you sell the shield to an NPC I do believe the NPC would buy it off of you for about 1,000 or 1,500 gil

so based on the rank requirements for gear and "possible" items crafted with crafting materials we can determine a price tier to not only lower prices of items in the market and force RMT's to sell items in that price tier but this still allows the market to be competitive as for as prices are concerned.

The benefits would be easier access to crafting materials
which in turn allows the market to always have the gear you need at reasonable prices

now I'm not saying make everything in the game cheap, but the dev team is responsible for maintaining a fair and balanced economy free of the RMT choke hold.

We can't beat them at the tug of war prices they set everything at because their job is to farm items they don't play the game like us. They are online 24/7 farming items and destroying the economy with their ridiculous prices I found rank 15 through 20 gear in the market between 70,000 to 100,000+

every MMO's free, unmonitored, decided by the player market gets exploited by RMTs.
Why? Because they have the time to gather more items then the normal player and because they have that quantity they ultimately have the power over pricing.

I really don't want to farm like I did in FFXI, I would farm and gather for days just to buy a single piece of gear for my PLD at level 45 - 50.

feed back is appreciated. I understand that some of my ideas aren't always good so I would like to know what people think.

[MattyWS]

Capping the highs and lows is not the answer, that is something the playerbase needs to figure out, what an item is worth. RMT may try to sell for high prices but Ultimately, the real players of this game have the choice to lower the price if they want to when selling items.

[Chain]

Capping the highs and lows is not the answer, that is something the playerbase needs to figure out, what an item is worth. RMT may try to sell for high prices but Ultimately, the real players of this game have the choice to lower the price if they want to when selling items.

LOL!

You most def didn't play XI when scorpion claws were 30mil did you? When RMT get a hold on the economy its all out of the players hands.

[Liniont]

LOL!

You most def didn't play XI when scorpion claws were 30mil did you? When RMT get a hold on the economy its all out of the players hands.

Thank you chain I couldn't have said it myself ^_^

[VydarrTyr]

LOL!

You most def didn't play XI when scorpion claws were 30mil did you? When RMT get a hold on the economy its all out of the players hands.

And you definitely didn't take economics in school.

First, do you really want one person at SE to decide how much every item in the game is worth? Do you really think that one person is going to do a better job of balancing the entire economy than the players?

I mean, every time a new item is added to the game -- whether it's a new material, or a new item that can be crafted, or a new weapon/tool/gear -- then every price in the entire game would have to be changed. If a new rank 30 armor comes out, then the price of every other piece of r30-ish armor would go down, and the price of all the mats necessary to make those armors would go down. Mobs are constantly being changed and relocated. So if more mobs of a certain type are added or moved closer to a camp, the value of their drops needs to go down because more of them are available.

Do you think one person at SE is capable of constantly balancing those things? Considering all the other changes that need to be made to the game, I think they've got better things to do with their time than constantly monitor and balance the entire economy on every server.

One person cannot balance all of those prices better than every person playing the game. If you have one person doing it, there are going to be imbalances and loopholes all over the place. (And yes, there are imbalances in the NPC economy right now so that people can buy things from an NPC for cheap, easily convert it to something else, and sell it back to NPCs for a ridiculous profit.)

Second, how did RMTs force players to sell their scorpion claws for 30 mill? Buy up lower priced ones and sell them for 30 mill? I really, really hope that someone starts doing that on my server. I would be farming scorpion claws like crazy and selling them to RMTs for 29 mill each. The people getting rich from that type of hair-brained scheme wouldn't be RMTs.

Third, do scorpion claws still cost 30 mill? No? That's because a free market economy corrects its own imbalances. You don't need price controls.

Fourth, if you want to see the problem of having one person set all prices, just look at the OP's suggestion:

currently on my server a Level 5 shield goes for 20,000 to 50,000gil

my Idea will set a minimum price of 1,000 gil that the shield is allowed to be sold at and a maximum allowing price of say 2,500 gil.

The dev team already has an NPC asking price. When you sell the shield to an NPC I do believe the NPC would buy it off of you for about 1,000 or 1,500 gil

So I can sell my shield in the Market Wards -- which may take days or weeks or months -- for 900 gil (1K minus 10% tax); or I can sell my shield to an NPC and instantly get 1500 gil.

Under that system, you can get more money faster from selling it to an NPC. So nobody would ever sell shields in the Market Wards. The only way to buy shields would be from NPCs.

In addition, I can sell a completed shield for 900 gil, or I can sell the materials that are used to create a shield for more than 900 gil. Why would I ever make a shield if I can make more money with less effort by selling the mats? Again, nobody would ever sell shields in the Market Wards.

If SE is going to set prices for everything, then you may as well get rid of the Market Wards altogether. If you want to buy or sell anything, just do it through NPCs.

Fifth, how do you propose to enforce this system? Players can still trade items individually outside of the Market Wards, for any price they want. Is a GM going to have to approve every trade in the game now?

A price controlled economy would be impossible to enforce. And it wouldn't work as well as a free market economy.

[Liniont]

Wow... I thought I was playing Final Fantasy XIV not Monopoly XIV to be honest i'd rather do business with NPCs then other people because like you everyone who sells items for that high is greedy and because of your greed I have to stop leveling and having fun to farm for hours to make money. I dunno about you but I work 40+ hours a week I don't want to come home and work too aka "make money" I already do that, this game is suppose to be an escape not another F***ing job my goal isn't to get filthy stickin "fake" rich in a video its to explore and experience the content. Can't do that if all my gear costs a total of 1 million gil or requires a month of crafting and gathering. Let's not even talk about the repair system. Take your economics and shove it, I want the games economy to be fair and balanced not out to get me like reality is. Curious other then the obvious RMT's reason what are you gonna do with all that gil you have stashd away not doing anything?

[VydarrTyr]

Take your economics and shove it

You ask us to read your idea with an "open mind," but this is your response to someone who disagrees with you?

/sigh

[Jabo]

It is also A LOT of work to adjust the prices. You have also +1, +2, +3 gear and so on.

The problem isn't the inflation. The problem is that low rank gear is/was useless, but the recipes were complicated.
High rank gear is very cheap now, compared to the earlier days.

[tymora]

My idea was simple take every tradable/sellable item in the game and give it an ultimate minimum/maximum asking price. for example.

Too much work for the dev team + price regulation will cause the general community to revolt.

Besides the ones selling the expensive gear are more likely to be regular players than RMT.
I believe most RMT are focusing on selling fish and shards nowadays so you are targeting the wrong group.

[Souljacker]

Worrying too much about RMT is what got us a game with no mailing system and the Market Wards in the first place. I'd argue it's time to worry more about the players and less about the RMT.