Quote:
Originally Posted by Loftus
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To make a statement like this only shows how naive you are about the intricacies of any economy, including virtual ones like that on P1999. An imbalance, and it looks like a severe one at that, is introduced when you let real-world economy intrude on the P1999 economy. One can easily foresee the end state: a monopoly by those with enough spare real-world cash to buy all the virtual P1999 platinum. This would force a condition of "no RMT, no way to afford anything in the p1999 economy" - a trend we are starting to see.
If P1999 platinum had no real-world cash value, the motivation to farm platinum for the sole purpose of exchanging it for real-world cash would not exist. With this lack of motivation comes a lack of platinum-flooding.
There's alot of things people would do in a virtual world if the virtual success can be converted into real-world success that they would never otherwise consider.
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Listen, it sure CAN affect the economy like you are saying and it likely is in a small way, but people are greatly overstating it's effect. I have quite a lot of motivation for plat that has nothing to do with RMT and I think the number of people who farm plat for pure RMT purposes are way lower than you think and is maybe making up a very small percentage(5% or less is my best guess) of the plat/items being farmed. The monopoly situation you describe is simply not happening on a scale that makes a difference.
The real issue is a huge amount of 60s sitting at level cap in Kunark era for far too long with nothing to do but accumulate plat every hour they play. The price fluctuations are that, and honestly, it isn't that bad when YOUR items that you can farm sell for more. It's supply and demand and nobody has to buy a thing from Sonaa and Sonaa certainly isn't monopolizing the market.
I'll repeat this again: RMT is bad and we should be aggressively banning anyone who participates. Just trying to point out that some price increases are not due to RMT, it's due to the top-heavy server population.