Quote Originally Posted by Rau View Post
I'm still have trouble wrapping my head around how Materia is a gil sink. Sure the item is gone, and you lose all selling power, but the money you invested to buy it in the first place is still circulating with whomever sold it to you.

I've always assumed that Gil Sinks is something that would take Money out the system entirely, such as buying from an NPC, Retainer stalls and taxes, and Airship fees.
It's not a gil sink because there isn't an NPC shop around to buy materia from, taking it out of the game.

In 1.0, people used to buy a lot of items to meld, or buy the materia to meld them. Some people also spent a lot of time farming and crafting items they could have otherwise sold, investing time and energy. When they blew up, they would lose their investment in the items that went, in the hopes that a few good materia would stick.

Most of the time they did not go to the market ward to sell these multi melds, they would use them. If after a while, they got a better item, or melded a better item, they could then sell the one they had. The price reflected the current market as well as the extreme rarity of good Triple melds. It also reflected the demand for the melded gear in that particular class.

With the new system (unless there is an NPC that unbinds items) you have a choice, you either use it, or you sell it. You can't do both. It's not taking gil out of the system, it's taking GEAR out of the system. In theory, this will reduce supply and increase the price of the item that has a good meld on it. But that's only if people are still dependent on melding in the first place.

Remember, materia is not going to be the "I Win" button it once was. Will people still clamor for multimelds in the same way as they did in 1.0? If demand lowers sufficiently, that could offset the drop in supply. Also, materia melds won't be rigid stacking any more. What you need in a meld will depend on what character stats you have. If most people will be making their own melds, the demand will drop that way too.

All this is theory and we don't really know the consequences of this decision, but I'm predicting that it's going to be a good thing because it'll give crafters more to do. And what's good for crafters is good for gathering!