Quote:
Originally Posted by cd288
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I think you have this backwards. If they wanted to MQ to get JBoots they wouldn’t wait on the AC list. They’d farm the plat and go buy the MQ from someone.
And if you were, on the other hand, trying to camp the AC to SELL an MQ to someone, a 120 person long list would absolutely be a deterrent because you could farm just as much plat (if not more) in the time it would take you to go from number 120 to 1 on the list as you would receive from selling the MQ lol.
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I mostly agree with your posts, but I have to nitpick at this one. List size doesn't directly connect to whether it's worth "farming" a JBoots, because of economics. On the one hand, whether there are 500 people who want one or 50, the supply remains fixed: one ring enters the server per AC spawn.
Now, there is
some elasticity in demand (ie. there are people who will buy a JBoots MQ at X price but won't at X + 1), but that elasticity only goes so far: some people will pay almost any price as long as they don't have to sit in line. So when list size goes up, yes it takes more time to "farm" a JBoots ... but you can also charge more for a JBoots MQ, because people will be willing to pay even more not to sit in that extra long line.
Ultimately the market will account for this, and this is one of the great things about letting market forces "stabilize" the ability for people to acquire popular items. I don't think we can say people farming JBoots MQs are inherently a bad thing!
But ... if we're comparing two systems for solving the "X * Y problem" side by side (ie. X people want an item that takes Y time to enter the server, and X * Y is really big), I think
that is when the "endless list and allow MQs" system shows it's weakness. By reducing the "cost" to win something cool in EQ from the normal "price" (you have to be patient and lucky), that price instead becomes "you have to be really, really, really patient" ... and that change makes a huge difference in how many people farm JBoots.
Now, what if we had a very similar system, but without the endless list? We still have the same X * Y problem, and it's still somewhat mitigated by "market stabilization" effects. Now though, you
wouldn't pay people to sit in line for a
guaranteed reward for days at a time ...
SOMETHING NO ONE REMEMBERS ANYONE EVER DOING IN 1999 (your Internet connection probably couldn't even keep going for 48 hours back then, even IF you were super lucky and didn't have to worry about your Mom picking up the phone in that time
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and luck.
That one key change would instantly eliminate a huge swath of OOT's population! No longer could you turn your AFK computer into a plat farming machine: instead you have to sit and actively play the game to earn a reward. Far fewer people will want to sit and roll for chances to kill the AC (vs. sitting endlessly in line), and with less "people waiting in line time" to pay for, the overall price should go down (although of course not too much, because the fundamental supply and demand won't radically change).
But forget about price reductions, what I really want everyone to imagine is this: a system where you play EQ (or at least make periodic random rolls to try and play EQ) to get your loot, instead of sitting AFK for a guarantee of loot being handed to you!