Idea to put an end to inflation and stop RMTs

[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?

[tymora]

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.

Like it or not, "getting rich" makes up a good part of the "content" in any MMO. Being "fake" rich in a game is a form of escape in a real world where you can never be (as) rich.

If you don't enjoy this aspect of the game, then you might be happier playing:
1) True "F2P" MMOs - Where you can exchange real $ for fake $ so you don't have to "work" in game for your gil
2) Social MMOs - Where there is no economy at all
3) Single Player Games - Where the economy is entirely NPC based

That said, FFXIV's economy is not "perfect" assuming there is such a thing as a "perfect" economy in the first place. Even the best PhDs out there will not be able to create one, much less a regular gaming company.

[Liniont]

FFXIV's Economy will end up like FFXI's... it's sad to see people actually condoning this or in fact welcoming this. I shouldn't have to go play another game if the economy is s*** in the current game I play... I'm not asking for an "Easy mode" but I don't see anyone else trying to fight RMT's other then join them and monetizing it them self (Blizzard). Honeslt does no one like the idea of smaller economics? I mean seriously... it isn't hard.

None of the NPC's in the game sell all the items but when you sell them an item it has a price, The devs determined this price THUS every item in the game has a price on it all ready. what I was simply proposing is this.

NPC's buying price for rank 5 sword: 1,500 gil (this sword cannot be bought it must be made or found from a drop)
Market Wards minimum selling price: 2,500gil
Market Wards Maximum selling Price: 5,000gil

a PC can only sell within that range keeping inflation down. The entire item team can determine how to obtain [said item] thus determining the value based on those variables.

questions like this should be asked like this.

What level is the item?
where can this item be found?
does it need to be crafted?
how difficult will the crafting process be?
What level will you need to be to craft it?
How much are the materials?

These questions determine the price. The devs implement the price range and we determine what the best price is based on the minimum and maximum.

I know in the real world this doesn't work but in a made up world this could happen if the issue is with time they are already looking to redesign the market wards the interface can be made and the items can be updated before they add anymore.

With this the market becomes stable and worth while to everyone and puts a damper in the RMT's grasp.
Will the markets flood with multiples of the same item? yes
Will the items in the markets be cheap and affordable to all? yes
will it be easier to level both crafting and battle jobs? yes
will a player be able to monopolize the market buy placing multiple important items require for a specific urgent task by giving them a price of 100,000 gil each causing a damper in your fun? no

Thats all I was saying but who cares anymore right I'm just riding a dead horse.... just let the thread die and keep your 150,000 gil Rank 20 swords and gear...

[Roaran]

They did just slam the door on gil flow. OP is probably having trouble because of this. Prices won't fall for awhile, once people start realizing they can't keep spending as much gil as they used to and stay profitable.

But as has been said before, price fixing is one of the worst ideas imagineable for any economy real or not.

I'll try to just give one example. Item A normally sells for 50,000 gil and supply = demand at this price. Now suppose S-E decides to fix this price at 10,000 gil. Well, people aren't going to just accept losing so much gil, they will stop gathering this item and look for something more profitable, and then the supply falls dramatically. Normally people would WANT to pay more to get the item, but they can't. Suppose the price was fixed at a minimum of 100,000 gil. Suddenly everyone wants to farm this item, and supply rises dramatically. Not everyone is able to sell the item, and normally they would want to LOWER the price but they can't. So excess of Item A just lies around uselessly.

Then you would have to ensure that not only are items fixed @ NPCS and the market wards but trades as well. Otherwise people would just resort to a type of black market trading. Or players could use some kind of bartering system with other items, but then this would lead to an eventual need to fix the price of ALL items.

In the end, ALL items would be ARBITRARILY fixed, to meet some unobtainable goal. I can't imagine how much work it would entail deciding how much every single item would be worth, comparing it with others, and then having to make adjustments based on the different populations of characters and different proportions of crafters/gatheres/DOW/DOM.

Basically, Prices are meant to fluctuate to meet the reality of the situation. Price fixing always has, and always will be a bad idea in any economy, real or not.

___________________

That isn't to say there is no problem with r20 items costing 150,000 gil. But the solution isn't to just say "Oh this item is too expensive, let's just force anyone who makes it to sell for much less." This ends up hurting the seller and stops them from wanting to ever make the item in the first place which in turn hurts people like yourself who actually want to buy the item.

If you want a Rank 20 Sword, for example, to become a reasonable price you have to do a few things. I myself am a Blacksmith capable of creating these items. But, I already have much better ways at acquiring gil, so unless you want to pay me as much if not more gil, I'm not going to bother making these weapons. Really what you would have to do is, if you want to pay less for these items, is make it much faster to create them. I could buy enough materials to make 50-100 Rank 20 swords, and make them all relatively quickly with hasty hand, but I do not see myself being able to sell all of them, so I don't bother with it. Fixing the price even lower, isn't going to make me want to make more, it would just have to opposite effect.

[EmeraldHill]

Runescape.

[akisato]

Price fixing is a really bad idea it takes out the personal effort in getting or making an item. this talk about RMT got me thinking about how RMT really breaks a game's economy its not the vast amounts of money that make but the ppl who buy the money they're not smart shoppers they'll any price for any item because they can just get more money with no effort.

[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

[Frein]

As has been pointed out, the OP clearly does not understand economics. Price fixing has been tried many times in real economies and every time it has lead to problems, most notably huge black markets. You cannot fight the natural process of price discovery through supply and demand.

A price fixed economy would be as "fair and balanced" as Fox News.

[Geesus]

Ok I'm going to jump in here because too many people are equating this to RL economics and incase some of you are not aware, our free market economy here, I'm in the US btw.... is SHITE! People are broke and can't afford to live. Well except for the rich folks. So equate this thought then.

RL rich people =RMT broke people=OP and myself in RL and in the game. I know how to make money in the game. OB and release I was close to a mil if not over and all I did was sell my shards and crafted items higher if none were available (OMG HE JUST DID WHAT WE ALL SAID ABOUT SUPPLY AND DEMAND!) omg yes I did.... difference IS ... I wasn't a jerk about it. Example: If I have Square Maple shield R5 and sell it for 5k when there are some in the wards cool. Now when the wards are empty of those shileds I may TRY 10k... not bad and easy to achive by R5 as the starting quests ALONE give you 11k and not including drops and rewards as gil. So it may or may not. If it didn't I'd go to 7-8K. So who the hell cares about the REAL WORLD? This is Eorzea and as much as we want things to be realistic, when SE added that stupid Stamina bar...we all fussed because it was OMG realistic but it sucked didn't it?! Damn right. All the OP is saying is hey, can we find a mutual way to keep things from being absolutely ridiculous and become a tad more "realistic" then all trying to be money hungry asshats?

Idk if the OPs question is workable or not but when I came back a saw rank 1-15 gear at 999,999,999 that's just plain stupid. No item is worth 999,999,999 because it's not the ONLY item that exists in game.