Addressing the Economy (mudflation)

[Turp_SmokinPurp]

Originally Posted by nilbog [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Maybe cshome needs to release seized gear at auction :P

♐ Release it and solve this easy! Set up a date an set some extreme high starting bids! You can clear out some plat while getting rare items back into the game.

✓Great job on taking out the Platlord im sure it dented a huge part of the problem but a police style auction off would take out another big chunk and end threads like this.

If MASS people still complain (personally i say kick rocks velious will be coming) , but if its still an obvious problem THAN throw in a vendor with some appearance only items or guises like mentioned..for high prices an leave it at that...yes not classic but as countless others have stated neither is a lot of stuff here on p99.

I believe a simple Platlord wipeout (which is already started one account at a time) and a police style auction (hopefully soon to come) will solve all this though.

[porigromus]

Originally Posted by Turp_SmokinPurp [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

♐ Release it and solve this easy! Set up a date an set some extreme high starting bids! You can clear out some plat while getting rare items back into the game.

✓Great job on taking out the Platlord im sure it dented a huge part of the problem but a police style auction off would take out another big chunk and end threads like this.

If MASS people still complain (personally i say kick rocks velious will be coming) , but if its still an obvious problem THAN throw in a vendor with some appearance only items or guises like mentioned..for high prices an leave it at that...yes not classic but as countless others have stated neither is a lot of stuff here on p99.

I believe a simple Platlord wipeout (which is already started one account at a time) and a police style auction (hopefully soon to come) will solve all this though.

I think getting items actually out of the game is important as well. There should be some way to remove items over time and money. Maybe quest to turn in certain items for no-drop rare items that no longer drop? "Please bring me 6 Fungi Tunics and 6 bat wings to recieve Guise ..." No drop is the key word. Not only do this with super rare items lets get some common items. This is the only way to keep items from alway only entering the economy. "Please bring me 100 diamond earrings and 45 hollowed bone bracers to receive FBSS" (Of course the text would be worded better!) Again NO DROP would be the key word. This could could be completed with any items and multiple items of multiple quantities. You want the tradeable stuff? You still have to buy from players or camp them. This would provide other options for items but all of the rewards would be NO DROP. These could lead to chains, so you turned in a massive amount of crap items for your FBSS, now you need a large amount of FBSSs to turn in for a NO-DROP Guise.

This would get items and plat out of the economy. Let's even combine the two. "Please bring me 100000 plat and 25 fungi tunics for X"

Large amounts of money can be removed as well in the same fashion buy buying some type of no drop items off of vendors or I tstill think temporary potions!

[Swish]

I'm not rich, but there's a lot of people sounding butthurt because they have a platinum deficiency...

[Rhambuk]

Originally Posted by Swish [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I'm not rich, but there's a lot of people sounding butthurt because they have a platinum deficiency...

sold mine for 1mil waited 3days before spending any of it because i was seriously considering redistribution All 1mil to lower level nontwinks in 1k increments.

people would still complain...

[citizen1080]

Originally Posted by Rhambuk [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

sold mine for 1mil waited 3days before spending any of it because i was seriously considering redistribution All 1mil to lower level nontwinks in 1k increments.

people would still complain...

"You're only giving us all 1k each? If you have ONE MILLION plat you can afford to give us all 10k each at least you tight wad"

[Swish]

If you didn't spend it Rham you'd be taking out of the system, but would it make a dent? /ponder

[stormlord]

Mudflation was also present in the expansions and the various patches. With or without expansions you will have mudflation, basically. However, with expansison you do have additional content. And that can help to keep your veteran players playing. Lets face it, expansions are an attention-getter too.

Here's somethign I wrote nealry two years ago:

... Underlying cause is that there're increasing numbers of levels and things to achieve with each new expansion and addition. Old players continually want new things to earn and to do. As a result, new players have increasing numbers of things they must do in order to max level and skill. Over time, max level and skill becomes unreachable to most new players - this is particularly true for old games. It also bottlenecks the lower levels by restricting them from participating in the top heavy population - the top heavy population is composed of high level players. (This is the case because most games have large populations at first and then, slowly afterwards, the rate of incoming players declines, until it's a trickle. The population becomes top heavy.) The numbers of things to do keeps progressing players busy and unable to reach the concentration of players at the higher end of the level range. So if a new player wants to participate with the top heavy population, they must invest large amounts of time. As time goes by, each new player will have to invest even more time if they hope to participate with the more concentrated high(er) level players.

The answer: mudlfation.

Mudflation is the shoddy answer to a riddle that has plagued mmo's from the beginning. Essentially, you have to keep old players playing, so you add new things to the game. This usually makes players stronger. The problem is this increases the amount of things a new player has to do to reach maximum output. It grows and grows with each addition to the game. To compensate for the huge mountain that erupted and acted as an obstacle to the youngling player, the answer has usually been to speed up progression and hand out candy. You give them what they need to overcome the additions to the game so they can have a hope of reaching the top.

You must keep in mind that with a game like P1999 that has stretched its content (stagnated even), many of the veterans are not even playing. So those items are not mudflating the economy right now. They -will- mudflate it when those players come back, possibly as the result of the Velious release. Despite this, some portion of the player-base will remain (getting max of max) and resources will move around. One of hte biggest reasons players are so efficient is because this game is so perfeclty understood. Players know where everything is and they know what to do. So new items enter the economy with relative ease.

Now, that's the developer side of it. I've tried to explain why developers will mudflate things to keep players from being overwhelmed by a mountain of progression to the top. Hope I did that.

What about players? What do they do to contribute to it?

Mudflation means that the value of things in the game goes down. It means that the 5dmg/19delay weapon you fought so hard to get when hte game launched is now worth almost nothing. The reverse side of it is that now you can get that 5dmg/19delay weapon or something even better for cheap. For a new player this means gaining access to items that would have been greatly powerful when the game was young. For an old player, the story is much the same. However, things are not all rosy...

AS others have mentioned, players that play EC or RMTing can drive costs up. Buying low and selling high is a way to inflate prices just as RMTing will give a motive to sellers to make their prices high. Another consideration is all the plantinum entering the economy. The old(er) players will accumulate thousands and hundreds of thousands of platinum. They will use this platinum to make purchases (like for their alts to twink them) and so drive prices up. This will mean that for new players prices may seem outrageously high. So very good low level gear will be out of reach. However, they should still be able to find more common items for prices that're greatly lower than they would have been when they were initially released into the game.

Don't be surprised when a veteran drops a bag of decent low level gear on you. The thing with a heavily mudflated ecnomy in EQ is that they can drop a load of gear on you and not sweat about it. It's mainly the really good low level stuff that everybody will go after and thus drive hte price up. A veteran will have thousands of plat so spending a few hundred to buy a low level player some gear is nothing. Any rotting gear that's not marketable they'll jsut give away. For a new player, it's great gear.

In conclusion,...

The mudflation will be bad no matter what happens. What I"m worried about is stretching the content (and interest levels) too thin. Velious offers more content and can regain some interest.

[Darkath]

I actually really liked the idea of giving out no-drop guises for 1 mill.

The firepots idea... not so much [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[raff01]

Just release the darn Velious already !

[Swish]

Originally Posted by raff01 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Just release the darn Velious already !

why can't you wait? [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

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