NPC Prices (CPI?)

[Nohmaan]

The inflation adjustments would need to be done on scoring the averages against the averages of other segments of the market; and then balancing that with the average increases in the transactions. My original post is a bit elementary to explain the concept in mind, but there could be measures taken to help prevent that issues. Items on the CPI could be rotating, to prevent sharking certain items for example.

Asiaine is right, I'm not saying that they aren't doing a decent job regulating things now (even if it is pretty hands off regulation)- and not even saying that this would be a measure to handle that entirely. I'm saying it could help make the NPC goods an active part of the changing economy. And in regards to things like INT materia, and etc, every market will have it's tulips.

[Catapult]

I would not say they lack anyone competent in economics. I spend a fair bit of time examining what the NPCs buy and sell, and at what rates. There is a definiate logic behind those settings. SE is doing a lot of work (and succeeding well) in controlling the prices of craftable items for gear below level 40.

This is making it very simple for people to level up crafts to 40.
This is making it very affordable for people to buy equipment up to level 40.
The relaxation on upper tier goods costs is allowing a more dominant free market for those items (also influenced by the presence of non-craftable items).

There is a lot of work and tweaking being done, and they are doing a good job at it.

(If you do not believe they are doing a good job, think of this: How many people have 10s or 100s of millions of Gil. Now think of how the price of most materials has hardly budged over the last 6 months. The biggest 'movement' is in Dungeon Drops and Materia (especially Int materia when Garuda was in 'easy' mode)).

You do seem to understand what is going on here.

SE are regulating the market and controlling inflation to ensure socially equitable conditions are not screwed over for those outside the elite crafting sphere.


And - yes, this is a pet peeve of mine - you are not asking for a CPI.

You: "SE, can we please have a CPI?"
SE: "Sure, here is the information on how much market prices have changed over the last period of time."
You: ".....and how does this change anything?"
SE: "It doesn't. All you asked for was a CPI. So we gave it to you."

A CPI is a statistical measure. On its own, it does nothing to an economy. In fact, it exists irrespective of whether you measure it or not. If a player wanted to, they could go and calculate the CPI themselves using the 20-most-recent sales tab. It just provides you with information that can help make an informed decision.

You are asking for a CPI to be utilised in economic management and influence market movements. Very bad idea, because this causes a circular behaviour where what you are measuring is used to impact what you are measuring = a recipe for uncontrolled inflation = bad news.

[Asiaine]

Also it should be noted that CPI is a lagging indicator, useful really only for reporting on how things went, not for how things should be changed in the future.

It also falls in line with the stock market 'back testing' strategy, which in reality is not a proper way to base future economic growth. Although maybe that's how the EU does things >.>;

Either way, what MIGHT be a more reasonable request is to have an NPC community that participates in the player economy more dynamically (without suggesting CPI or the exact mechanic it is based on). But, this would be *VERY* *VERY* hard to do in a fair way. We would also have to prepare for a lot of:

NPC: No, I will not buy more of your junky item drops. I just bought 10,000 stacks and have no need for it. Go away.
NPC: Yes, I will gladly sell you some straw, but not at 100 gil today, at 10,000 gil! It's so popular! What? no money? GO away.
NPC: I'm sorry, I don't have that item anymore, someone bought it all out.

And this will lead to:
RMT: Let's camp the NPC when it respawns the item, buy it all out, then sell it for double. If we do this to all NPCs we can corner the market on NPC sellable goods.


This entire route would be very very complicated, and will lead to some very undesirable end results due to the unrealistic nature of the world we live in. If we do want a vibrant realistic economy then almost every aspect of the game would have to change to fit that.

Then we would have a realistic economy where those who play a lot (work hard) make lots of gil, and those who can not play a lot (part-time) make so little they can not compete.

I'm not sure that is what SE or the people want from FFXIV. However, if it is something people are interested in, there are some alternatives out there like, Second Life or Project Europa.