UNDERCUTTING....

[DarkDepravity]

You do realise that the kind of price fixing (cartel) a lot of you are describing in wanting stable prices is forbidden in most civilized countries outside of "special" circumstances with regards to the consumer markets?

Not to mention, you're looking only at the gatherer/crafter side of things, the part of the game population that isn't enjoying that part, can't as easily burn through gil as those of us who craft/gather, and artificially high-kept prices would make it harder for them to get in. It would certainly suck for those who might pick up the game post 2.0 (assuming any do), and want to roll on an established server if prices were artifically kept high. Of course, you could argue that they can get into crafting/gathering as well, which they could do, which would make it even harder for you to make money.

You want more money for your stuff? differentiate your merchandise, make HQs, materia multimelds, make something that makes YOUR stuff worth more than everyone else.

This is how the market works, the buyers will go for the ones who sell the cheapest, or the best, or the ones that they like (branding). You can go Harrods, you can go Walmart, or you can look for niches or something in between.

And yes, I DO actually have a degree in economy, and I DO have bot/min 50, along with several crafts.
(although I must admit, I do lean towards Keynesian economics, which to a certain extent invalidates my entire argument :P)


edit: I fully agree on measurements needed to deal with botting though, but that's not what the topic title talks about!

[Matsume]

You do realise that the kind of price fixing (cartel) a lot of you are describing in wanting stable prices is forbidden in most civilized countries outside of "special" circumstances with regards to the consumer markets?

Not to mention, you're looking only at the gatherer/crafter side of things, the part of the game population that isn't enjoying that part, can't as easily burn through gil as those of us who craft/gather, and artificially high-kept prices would make it harder for them to get in. It would certainly suck for those who might pick up the game post 2.0 (assuming any do), and want to roll on an established server if prices were artifically kept high. Of course, you could argue that they can get into crafting/gathering as well, which they could do, which would make it even harder for you to make money.

You want more money for your stuff? differentiate your merchandise, make HQs, materia multimelds, make something that makes YOUR stuff worth more than everyone else.

This is how the market works, the buyers will go for the ones who sell the cheapest, or the best, or the ones that they like (branding). You can go Harrods, you can go Walmart, or you can look for niches or something in between.

And yes, I DO actually have a degree in economy, and I DO have bot/min 50, along with several crafts.
(although I must admit, I do lean towards Keynesian economics, which to a certain extent invalidates my entire argument :P)


edit: I fully agree on measurements needed to deal with botting though, but that's not what the topic title talks about!

This is the greatest part of your post, you admit to the irony and in a sense invalidate what you just have said.

I'll spare you the leson in economics but for the sake of others reading, Keynesian Economics supports the idea of government intervention to stabilize the prices of certain goods and services that can lead to innefficient macroeconomic outcomes. And the fact that Keynesian economics was the standard economic model during the latter part of the Great Depression, World War II, Post War Economic Expansion and our current Global Financial Crisis makes eroneous your statement that "stable prices is forbidden in most civilzed countries"

Hell, China abuses Free Trade by artifically undervaluing the Yuan so as to increase exports by dereasing the price of their products relative to other countries.

But let's not get into that...

agro mobs at gathering points wont stop the new hack/bot ive seen people using lately

one that lets them gather the same node over and over again til it despawns

theyd only need find that 1 noed that isnt in agro range, and refind it every hour or so

and putting agro mobs at EVERY node would just annoy all crafters too much

I hope you're kidding...

I haven't yet seen this bot, and was simply surprised by the gathering bots however innefficient they may be. If this truly is the case I wouldn't be surprised to see teleport bots coupled with this mining hack that just teleports players to a new node then mines til it's done...