Why is plat so important????

[Rykk]

and by this I mean why is it useful.... think about it, you can't actually buy anything with it other than gems for jewel craft. *which only enchanters do* or spells which becomes irrelevant because you don't need 100k to buy spells from a vendor. People buy items from other players with it, but why....? if there were shops in the game that you could buy useful weapons or armor from then I can see a use for it. In the real world money represents time and time is important because we have a finite amount of it and so because of that we attach a value to it. In EQ you can buy something for 100k which means nothing to the person holding the 100k because they can't actually spend it on anything.... its just the useless trading of monies

[rekreant]

Someone is stoned and in college in this thread and I am not in college atm.

[Ephirith]

http://img594.imageshack.us/img594/856/1291795718267.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/594/1291795718267.jpg/)

[Sirken]

you say plat cant be spent on anything, you are wrong.

most transactions are items for coins or vice versa. in the past before p99 existed i was part of a server with a trade only economy because plat actually was worthless. P99 economy is nothing like that. plat has value. lots of plat has lots of value, little plat has little value.

if you don't think you can buy items for plat, go sit in EC for a few.

<3
Sirks

[Rykk]

legit question, tell me what u can actually do with the plat? if you had 500k and you had 3 people on the server what would be the point of having 500k....you couldn't do anything with it. So why would having this amount on a server with 600 change that? I feel like trading items would be far smarter than buying items on a game

[Anderdale]

i trade SOJS

[Barkingturtle]

I feel like trading items would be far smarter than buying items on a game

/auc WTT 50,000 fine-steel long-swords for fungi tunic. PST

Seriously though, the advantage currency provides when practicing commerce in a tunnel is pretty simple: you don't have to wait till someone wants to trade the item you want for the item you have.

[Vermicelli]

If you want to free yourself of this materialistic burden, I will be happy to shoulder it for you.

[Sirken]

legit question, tell me what u can actually do with the plat? if you had 500k and you had 3 people on the server what would be the point of having 500k....you couldn't do anything with it. So why would having this amount on a server with 600 change that? I feel like trading items would be far smarter than buying items on a game

if u dont see the difference between a 3 man economy, and a 600 person economy, then there's nothing on these forums that can help you.

WTS Economics 101

[Pico]

another enlightened one has come to realize how worthless eq fiat currency truly is

[Lexical]

"Why is the barter system retarded?" is a better question imho.

[Kika Maslyaka]

legit question, tell me what u can actually do with the plat? if you had 500k and you had 3 people on the server what would be the point of having 500k....you couldn't do anything with it. So why would having this amount on a server with 600 change that? I feel like trading items would be far smarter than buying items on a game

you need a class in economics...
or even basic history of ancient civilizations - invention of currency.

[Rykk]

Currency in the real world makes sense.... you can buy food, clothing, shelter, entertainment, transportation etc. In the Everquest world currency isn't real, you don't need to buy food and water, you don't need to buy a house or a car or a beer with friends. What i'm getting at is that you can't buy anything other than an item that someone camped... which took them time and can actually be worn or used... plat has no real "use" so why would you trade the item for something that you can't buy anything with is what i'm getting at. No other real way to get this point across.

[Barkingturtle]

That's just the dumbest fucking thing ever.

[Slave]

Plat can be used to buy Tinkerer Bags, an outstanding item which very few people own 8 of.
Plat can be used to buy spells.
Plat and items purchased from plat are used in the completion of quests, such as Jboots.
Plat can be used to advance nearly all tradeskills very significantly, by buying vendored components.
Plat can be used to advance many skills significantly.
Plat can be used to quickly purchase enormous quantities of nonperishable food and drink.
Plat can be used to engage in rapid, convenient trade with other players, a property that is a function of all these uses, yet also independent of them.

[fullmetalcoxman]

Currency in the real world makes sense.... you can buy food, clothing, shelter, entertainment, transportation etc. In the Everquest world currency isn't real, you don't need to buy food and water, you don't need to buy a house or a car or a beer with friends. What i'm getting at is that you can't buy anything other than an item that someone camped... which took them time and can actually be worn or used... plat has no real "use" so why would you trade the item for something that you can't buy anything with is what i'm getting at. No other real way to get this point across.
What the fuck are you talking about? Just like money in the real world, plat in game has a value because people give it a value. Bartering is fine when the opportunity presents itself, but bartering for each and every item would be a giant pain in the ass.

[Splorf22]

US dollars are a fiat currency and in the end (2016-2020) will have 0 value.

[Metallikus]

US dollars are a fiat currency and in the end (2016-2020) will have 0 value.

yet p99 plat will still hold it's value. WTT 50k plat for real life bacon.

[koros]

As a real life options trader/econ major, I declare this the worst thread I've ever read.

[Calabee]

I made 1-2m plat in 2 months on live during velious, never had to farm shit again till the day i quit in high end PoP, was kinda nice~

[fadetree]

I demand virtual bacon for in game transactions.

[Tecmos Deception]

I couldn't even read the second post made by the OP before my brain melted.

Holy shit.

[Old_PVP]

Currency in the real world makes sense.... you can buy food, clothing, shelter, entertainment, transportation etc. In the Everquest world currency isn't real, you don't need to buy food and water, you don't need to buy a house or a car or a beer with friends. What i'm getting at is that you can't buy anything other than an item that someone camped... which took them time and can actually be worn or used... plat has no real "use" so why would you trade the item for something that you can't buy anything with is what i'm getting at. No other real way to get this point across.

Well you don't *need* to buy anything in the real world either. Your argument makes no sense. You can go through your life mooching off others and getting the scraps that society graciously throws to you. You can live your life in poverty as a monk. You can be a bum and live off government handouts. What do you need money for in real life right?? You can be homeless and go dumpster diving, you don't need to buy food and water, you don't need to buy a house or a car or a beer with friends.

The fact of the matter is, enough plat can buy you ANYTHING *in game*. The same holds true for real life money.

[Arrisard]

A medium of exchange is an intermediary used in trade to avoid the inconveniences of a pure barter system.

On an unrelated note in my 10 second Google adventure to answer OP's question he couldn't do himself, I did find this little gem (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120219101719AAdgaWI) of a "best answer".

[Alarti0001]

US dollars are a fiat currency and in the end (2016-2020) will have 0 value.

The only way US currency will have 0 value is if scarcity no longer exists. 2050 is a more likely scenario.

[melkezidek]

People have already mentioned a good amount of things plat is spent on. But 1 of the big ones is RECHARGING. Also Gems are used by manny classes for buffs required to raid. As well as items to Port to places like Hate/ Sky. A guild can burn through a lot of plat doing 1 raid.

[Kraftwerk]

The only way US currency will have 0 value is if scarcity no longer exists. 2050 is a more likely scenario.

We'll see what happens. The globe needs to continue using USD as the reserve currency, USD needs to stop being debased so heavily, and there needs to be some semblance of an attempt to try and keep US government spending under control. That's a lot of things that need to happen to keep status quo, I'm not holding my breath.

[Elements]

Just to add to what others have already posted on plat sinks, sky stones, necro coffins, other spell casting components like dots and emeralds. The tink bags are probably the biggest sink until mounts came out.

[Skekekke]

"We have mocked our Economy. And now the Economy has cast its vengeance on us all! We have become lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of the Economy! There are those who will say that the Economy has forsaken us! Nay! You have forsaken the Economy!! And now you know the Economy’s wrath!" - Randy Marsh


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5b/South_park_margaritaville.jpg

[1203jjt]

^ That was a great episode.

[HippoNipple]

Currency in the real world makes sense.... you can buy food, clothing, shelter, entertainment, transportation etc. In the Everquest world currency isn't real, you don't need to buy food and water, you don't need to buy a house or a car or a beer with friends. What i'm getting at is that you can't buy anything other than an item that someone camped... which took them time and can actually be worn or used... plat has no real "use" so why would you trade the item for something that you can't buy anything with is what i'm getting at. No other real way to get this point across.

You can buy those things in the real world because people realize the value in money. You can have the same question in the real world as you can with Everquest platinum. There is no value backing the US dollar anymore, since it isn't on the gold standard (which isn't much better since gold is another perceived value, only maintaining its value since it is limited).

If you produce something that spoils you need to sell it right then and there. You can't wait until someone that has what you want wants what you have.

Whether or not you can wrap your mind around it or not know this. If I wanted any single item that you were currently wearing on your main I could buy it from you for a price. Even from you, the one saying plat is pointless, would make the transaction.

[Skekekke]

Sorry, I keep reading and nothing but South Park episodes just keep blowing up my roflcopter.

http://southparkstudios.mtvnimages.com/images/shows/southpark/vertical_video/season_13/sp_1306_11.jpg

Space Cash!

[Ravager]

The only way US currency will have 0 value is if scarcity no longer exists. 2050 is a more likely scenario.

And this will happen as soon as the banks let all the money they print out into the real economy. Right now inflation is being kept artificially low. We are going the way of the Weirmar Republic because of deficit spending and no regulations and transparency on what the Federal Reserve does. When hyper-inflation hits, and it will, the world will be run by the banks, because guess who owns most of the world's commodities...

[Hitchens]

http://i49.tinypic.com/2j0dn6a.jpg

[Orruar]

The OP is brilliant. You all just can't see it.

[Elements]

and by this I mean why is it useful.... think about it, you can't actually buy anything with it other than gems for jewel craft. *which only enchanters do* or spells which becomes irrelevant because you don't need 100k to buy spells from a vendor. People buy items from other players with it, but why....? if there were shops in the game that you could buy useful weapons or armor from then I can see a use for it. In the real world money represents time and time is important because we have a finite amount of it and so because of that we attach a value to it. In EQ you can buy something for 100k which means nothing to the person holding the 100k because they can't actually spend it on anything.... its just the useless trading of monies



If there were absolutely no plat sinks in the game then this would be true. But plat is paid to vendors for a great many things including recharging clicky items like midnight mallets, WC gate caps, puppet strings, and a large number of other items used on raids, people grouping, soloing, and power levelling. Because of these plat sinks which remain at a fixed rate, then arguably all other services items and commodities that plat can be exchanged for will have a value relative to these fixed rates but also affected by other factors like supply and demand. As such platinum holds value in game relative to the time it takes to accumulate.

[rcasale42]

legit question, tell me what u can actually do with the plat? if you had 500k and you had 3 people on the server what would be the point of having 500k....you couldn't do anything with it. So why would having this amount on a server with 600 change that? I feel like trading items would be far smarter than buying items on a game

For the same reason that having 500K dollars in real life would be pointless if there are only 3 people on the planet, and suddenly becomes use full when there are tons of people.

[Splorf22]

The only way US currency will have 0 value is if scarcity no longer exists. 2050 is a more likely scenario.

The USD has already lost over 90% of its value since Nixon took us off the gold standard.

[Ravager]

http://i49.tinypic.com/2j0dn6a.jpg

Except it's not when there's actually evidence. Read up on the Weimar Republic's hyper inflation, then do a little study on how the Federal Reserve operates (which is only federal in name, it's a privatly run establishment) and tell me they're not doing the exact same thing, except the Federal Reserve isn't doing it to try to hold down inflation, they're doing it to make about 300 bankers obscene amounts of money and in turn, turning that money into commodities, because guess what's going to have value when money doesn't?

[Ravager]

The USD has already lost over 90% of its value since Nixon took us off the gold standard.

The dollar started to lose it's value when the Federal Reserve was created, because from that point forward every dollar was printed as debt. Debt that is paid for by Federal Income Taxes (that's right, if there was no Federal Reserve, there would be no 16 Trillion Dollar Debt and you wouldn't be paying 20% of your paycheck to pay the interest on that debt). If there was no Federal Reserve, the dollar would only be worth a small fraction less than it was in the early 1900's, because the inflation would have matched the amount of new gold coming in the market which would have been less than 1% per year.

[fadetree]

The value of money is based on what people will trade for it. There is no such thing as intrinsic value of money, virtual or not. Even gold as a metal isn't worth much compared to its currency value...it's a good conductor, but too soft for much else. But, females like it, and thus ( at least theoretically ) it can be traded for getting laid. Now...*that's* value.

[koros]

Seriously, stfu about the Fed. I've heard all these arguments before. You have absolutely no clue what you're talking about.

[Ele]

Seriously, stfu about the Fed. I've heard all these arguments before. You have absolutely no clue what you're talking about.

Share your wisdom instead of saying everyone else is incorrect!

[joppykid]

I couldn't even read the second post made by the OP before my brain melted.

Holy shit.

This

[Frieza_Prexus]

The dollar started to lose it's value when the Federal Reserve was created, because from that point forward every dollar was printed as debt. Debt that is paid for by Federal Income Taxes (that's right, if there was no Federal Reserve, there would be no 16 Trillion Dollar Debt and you wouldn't be paying 20% of your paycheck to pay the interest on that debt). If there was no Federal Reserve, the dollar would only be worth a small fraction less than it was in the early 1900's, because the inflation would have matched the amount of new gold coming in the market which would have been less than 1% per year.

Yet the population grows at closer to 3% leading to more overall demand relative to the money supply (EDIT: UNDER A GOLD STANDARD) which grows at 1% leading to a deflationary economy.

Who here is brave enough to ride the bimetallism horse?!

[Kraftwerk]

Yet the population grows at closer to 3% leading to more overall demand relative to the money supply which grows at 1% leading to a deflationary economy.

Who here is brave enough to ride the bimetallism horse?!

Energy and Food prices - up.
Worthless gadget prices - down.
Economy labelled deflationary - check.

[Kraftwerk]

Y'all should just chill out anyway. December 21st 2012 bros. I liquidated my 401k, haven't paid rent in months and have spent most of it on hookers and coke. I'm really banking on the world ending in three weeks.

[Splorf22]

Yet the population grows at closer to 3% leading to more overall demand relative to the money supply which grows at 1% leading to a deflationary economy.

Who here is brave enough to ride the bimetallism horse?!

My father told me a story once. In boarding school (50s I guess) and out of cash, he managed to find a $5 bill in one of his socks, which was enough for him to eat for a week on 35 cent chili dogs :D On a more personal note, I remember bitching when gas hit 85c/gallon a mere 15 years ago.

Meanwhile the Fed estimates that M1 has gone up by almost 10x since 1960 - about 6% per year.

How can you possibly call this deflation?

[Raavak]

Think he is saying if we were still on a gold standard we would be in a deflationary economy.

We are in an inflationary one, and the FED is doing it intentionally, as a part of its job. The theory is that some inflation is good. And since inflation devalues debt expect the inflation rate to go up until the US national debt comes under control.

[shooteneq1]

Not only does it devalue debt, it also devalues savings, we are all perpetual serfs to the bankers.

[Raavak]

Yah no kidding. Do you have a savings account? Do you see your interest earnings? Compare them to the inflation rate or cost of living rise... that money in your savings account is actually has less value over time.

Other than it is safe from being stolen there, keeping money in the bank is a big loser.

[Ele]

Yah no kidding. Do you have a savings account? Do you see your interest earnings? Compare them to the inflation rate or cost of living rise... that money in your savings account is actually has less value over time.

Other than it is safe from being stolen there, keeping money in the bank is a big loser.

That's why I try to live paycheck to paycheck, I completely avoid inflation devaluing any savings!

[Frieza_Prexus]

How can you possibly call this deflation?

I'm not. We are absolutely, unequivocally, the literal definition of an INflationary economy. We use a fiat currency (for good or ill) that is subject to manipulation by a specific manager.

My comment was directed at Ravager when he invoked the gold standard. It seemed, to me, that his tone was in support of the gold standard. To which I rebutted that the gold standard is inherently DEflationary because the gold supply has, historically, always been less than the population's growth rate. Because, under a gold standard, population (hence demand) grows faster than the supply, the scarcity of money continually increases increasing its relative value.

Hence my remarks that a gold standard is deflationary. I then mentioned bimetallism (essentially a gold AND silver standard) as a wry reference as bimetallism has not been seriously discussed outside of academic circles (See: Friedman or Kindleberger) since the late 1800's.

[Hitchens]

No serious economist advocates a return to the gold standard. Not a one.

[Naerron]

this is a little off topic, but a worthy tangent. Check out this article http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/17/magazine/17lootfarmers-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 if u want to cut through the non-relevant stuff, just do a page search for everquest. On a more related not tho, plat here def reps time spent, which gives it value, talk to people like nizzler or regular fungi king campers...Also do you know about the massive amount of RMT that went down during the IB/TR exodus? And also, i have been around since the servers first days, and there was about 100 of us who played. During that time plat did not seem as valuable i must admit, i mean the community was so small that people generally just passed gear along when they upgraded. And when there was commerce it generally was bartering. However, as people reached to a lvl where they could farm things, even in groups, plat quickly became a hot commodity, maybe because it now time factored more into it's value. Which would be a direct result of people farming instead of manifestly being there to lvl. Take it as what you will, but i think you might not be getting an A in your theory class.

[Splorf22]

\To which I rebutted that the gold standard is inherently DEflationary because the gold supply has, historically, always been less than the population's growth rate. Because, under a gold standard, population (hence demand) grows faster than the supply, the scarcity of money continually increases increasing its relative value.

Isn't it a good thing when stuff gets cheaper? Sure I agree a small constant deflation is probably bad but its much much worse to have a government in charge of printing money whenever they feel like it.

And Hitchens, in my humble opinion the entire economics professions should be taken out and shot for crimes against humanity. There is a reason there was no Nobel prize is economics - 90% of it is unscientific blather which is used by people who run our country (i.e. the bankers) to justify looting and plundering.

[Slave]

And that is why platinum is so important.

[Snagglepuss]

I'm sad that no one has made a Conspiracy Keanu meme yet...

[Frieza_Prexus]

Isn't it a good thing when stuff gets cheaper? Sure I agree a small constant deflation is probably bad but its much much worse to have a government in charge of printing money whenever they feel like it.

And Hitchens, in my humble opinion the entire economics professions should be taken out and shot for crimes against humanity. There is a reason there was no Nobel prize is economics - 90% of it is unscientific blather which is used by people who run our country (i.e. the bankers) to justify looting and plundering.

Deflation tends to make goods cheaper in terms of the amount of currency spent on the item, however consider the effects of this on an economy in the aggregate. Being paid less for your goods results in less income, and because you have less money, salaries (and everything else) must lessen to reflect this reduced income in terms of the number of dollars coming in.

That said, if $0.95 buys the same thing that $1.00 would have a year ago, there doesn't seem to be much of a problem. In terms of absolute buying power, everyone has the same amount.

The problem is most visible in areas where the currency is dealt with in absolute invariant numerical terms. IE: debt. If you owe $100 today, your money is worth less next year but you still owe the same $100. This means that the absolute debt becomes increasingly burdensome.

That said, inflation also reduces the value of a person's savings and it is also arguably terrible. However, strong inflation tends to be less disastrous than strong deflation. Inflation means all debts are cleared more easily whereas deflation leads to all debts stagnating.

Both are sides of the same coin and both represent a problem if left unchecked. Our current society has been constructed via the use of debt and leveraging and its benefits are undeniable to our current capitalistic model. Inflation is simply more controllable and less harmful to our current social construction.

Our government also favors inflation as it gives them more to play with. Control of the money supply is a vital tool under most modern economic models. If you're interested in ideas or constitutional amendments to fairly and justly control the expansion of the money supply, I suggest you read Free to Choose by Milton Friedman, specifically chapter 9: The Cure for Inflation.

[shooteneq1]

The problem with returning to the gold standard is the same bankers causing all the problems also own vast amounts of gold. We need to just eliminate the fed and our own government should be creating its own money rather than letting a bunch of bankers create it and us then borrow it at interest. the problem is the bankers also own all our politicians so they are never going to get rid of the fed.

[HeallunRumblebelly]

Because RMT.

[Doors]

Because RMT.

[Ravager]

Think he is saying if we were still on a gold standard we would be in a deflationary economy.

We are in an inflationary one, and the FED is doing it intentionally, as a part of its job. The theory is that some inflation is good. And since inflation devalues debt expect the inflation rate to go up until the US national debt comes under control.

It is true that inflation will make paying off debt easier, but with the astronomical amount of debt there is, inflation will have to sky rocket to bring the debt under control, but the debt will be the last thing on anyone's mind when they're paying $100K for a loaf of bread. It's remarkable how many people look at the words $16 Trillion Debt and never stop to think and realize just how huge a number that is.

[Ravager]

That's why I try to live paycheck to paycheck, I completely avoid inflation devaluing any savings!

I don't try to do this, myself, it's just a happy coincidence.

[falkun]

Isn't it a good thing when stuff gets cheaper? Sure I agree a small constant deflation is probably bad but its much much worse to have a government in charge of printing money whenever they feel like it.

And Hitchens, in my humble opinion the entire economics professions should be taken out and shot for crimes against humanity. There is a reason there was no Nobel prize is economics - 90% of it is unscientific blather which is used by people who run our country (i.e. the bankers) to justify looting and plundering.

I'd love to admire the Nobel prize, but they lost my respect when they gave the Nobel Peace Prize to Barak Obama in 2009. He was inaugurated president in January 20, 2009, submissions for Nobel candidates had to be postmarked by February 1, 2009, and he was selected as the winner on October 9, 2009. I'm not saying the man doesn't deserve a Nobel medal, that's a separate argument, but I fail to see what he had done in 11 days to get him recommended. As a counterpoint, the 2010 recipient, Liu Xiaobo, has been advocating for democracy in China since 1989. That's 21 years of work compared to 11 days.

This thread may now resume its regularly scheduled trolling.

[shooteneq1]

I'd love to admire the Nobel prize, but they lost my respect when they gave the Nobel Peace Prize to Barak Obama in 2009. He was inaugurated president in January 20, 2009, submissions for Nobel candidates had to be postmarked by February 1, 2009, and he was selected as the winner on October 9, 2009. I'm not saying the man doesn't deserve a Nobel medal, that's a separate argument, but I fail to see what he had done in 11 days to get him recommended. As a counterpoint, the 2010 recipient, Liu Xiaobo, has been advocating for democracy in China since 1989. That's 21 years of work compared to 11 days.

This thread may now resume its regularly scheduled trolling.

Kills innocent people with drone bombs, wins nobel peace prize.

[Llodd]

I'd love to admire the Nobel prize, but they lost my respect when they gave the Nobel Peace Prize to Barak Obama in 2009. He was inaugurated president in January 20, 2009, submissions for Nobel candidates had to be postmarked by February 1, 2009, and he was selected as the winner on October 9, 2009. I'm not saying the man doesn't deserve a Nobel medal, that's a separate argument, but I fail to see what he had done in 11 days to get him recommended. As a counterpoint, the 2010 recipient, Liu Xiaobo, has been advocating for democracy in China since 1989. That's 21 years of work compared to 11 days.

This thread may now resume its regularly scheduled trolling.

I think it's safe to say that taking note of the nobel laureate awards is akin to sticking your dick in jelly.

It feels nice and the recipients get a shaking feeling all over but ultimatly it leaves you feeling completely watered down.

Waste of space.

But dick in jelly is nice, try that.