RE:krono inflation

Hi guys I was wondering if you could implement some form of SOE in game cash for membership program to prevent economy inflation that is currently happening in the krono market. the krono is a good option however currently someone across all the servers is inflating the market prices by a huge amount which presents you with 2 problems.
1.less playerbase due to increased price
2.(possibly)Chinese gold farmers resurfacing again

I believe if SOE implemented its own form of gold membership for plat in game it would have a positive effect on both the community of eq2 (ie growth) and also a set price for gametime each month for free players. this would also make eq2 more attractive as an F2P game on the whole and possibly be a positive move to in game economy fixing and also elimination of the Chinese gold farmers. this would also fit into the new and upcoming system of how raiding will work etc in the future expansion and also I feel it would make a lot of sense

I like this idea, your awesome Steo

Except for the part where SOE makes no money off it and plat is just removed from the game at a more significant rate than the economy is based on.

the F2P model is made by items available on the market place not subscriptions to keep funding the game and will make money for SOE still and also fix the economy

So you want the government to come in and fix prices so you can pay for your subscription at the level you want and not allow the free market economy to regulate the cost of the krono?

well im more looking at the negative effect of player population decline due to this, but if your happy playing alone by all means carry on your argument

great idea Steo

the f2p model is fueled by a real world cash injection from when real world people spend real world funds on the purchase of station cash, what is done with those station cash cards that they purchased the cards with real world funding is up to them, they can use them to purchase items or they can auction them off to in-game players (which by the way is unsupported by SOE).

The only real world money that SOE makes off of F2P players is through the sale of station cash cards, in the past players could pay for subscriptions and expansions via station cash, SOE stopped that when people where getting both for a few cents on the dollar because of all the double and triple station cash events., you can pay for your subscription by going out to the real world and purchasing the SC card that also can be entered as a 30 day time card so what you want is already implemented, paying for a subscription with plat has about as much chance of happening as the return of paying for the subscription for pure station cash

As a recurring CC subscriber and have been for years now, I am being negatively affected by this Krono inflation as I am literally receiving comments from ppl I regularly play w/ that they may not be on for a while and that they will check occasionally to see if they have dropped in price to a level they can afford to work with. If I witness the server's active population gradually begin to decline, I myself my consider discontinuing my subscription until prices have fallen.

This shouldn't happen with a in-game currency that was introduced as a way to bring more people to the game. The fact that it is literally exhibiting the potential of having the polar opposite effect now that it is being used as a tool of greed makes me really disappointed. Mainly in the players themselves that are actively exploiting the need some players have to rely on this currency, but also that no action/proposed solution has evolved from those who are there to maintain the integrity of the game. I know there are limitations to what they can do, but there must be a department that is able to think-tank a way to recover the beneficial nature of the Krono before it starts to become a nice thing that players are now being taunted/manipulated with. I think your idea is a great suggestion and if this thread is getting the support it looks like it is, that should definitely be used as a platform to develop a recovery strategy from.

Please don't let the greed of the few ruin the enjoyment of the many

steo, What price are you seeing?

I think SOE was shocked that Krono were "only" going for 700p in EQ2. 3rd party sites charge way more.

The thing is, it's the player base that is setting the prices for the krono. They must be selling at the higher prices, or they'd be coming down in price slightly. Once again it just sounds like the players are looking at SOE to fix a problem the players made. Kinda like the SC cards were doing.

How much do you think kronos should cost?

850pp-upto 2kpp is currently how much it is however the price is going up daily and across all servers, I feel that this is a problem for the average person who wants to play the game with friends and also make up a large majority of the player base.
if this problem isn't addressed its going to get worse and lead to a massive drop in players from EQ2. so its not just the free players who lose out its everyone. do you remember the decline? the server merges? or the current world chat that is dead on some servers?. I like my MMOS with players to play with if I wanted a single player exp id play skyrim

I've seen an increase from 650 to 840 in the past 7 - 10 days. Unrest Server. Price was already inflated to that point in Freeport and is steadily increasing from what I have noticed.

And this is recent after an extended period of stability in the 650-700 range for months.

Clearly demand should determine the market value, so it's a bit odd to request a price, however the rapid inflation is what has me really concerned. It might go back down, but it makes people uneasy to see it fluctuate that rapidly and they lose confidence in it's availability as a future currency option.
I can only assume stockpiling will result and other effects I can't begin to predict.

So... the "average person" or the "large majority of the player base" pay their EQ2 subscription by trading plat for Krono.

Did you know that 87% of statistics are made up on the spot?

show me the figures from a reliable source , if the majority of player based paid CC then why are krono sales so big? now you are just trying to discount me based on whatever reason you have for wanting to try and discount this.

LOL seriously how can anyone be surprised by this? When SOE announced changing plat drops this was vigorously debated and many predicted this very outcome.

While SOE did change the drops for many mobs and instances it was still significantly less plat input than what the old world raid zones were providing. That we are now seeing these increases is only a reflection of the time it took for plat availability to impact market prices. Krono is one of the few real game commodities that experiences shortages. As such it would also be one of the first commodities to be impacted by the amount of plat available to the general populace, as plat becomes scarcer the value of a krono, which is also limited, will continue to go up. Econ 101 guys.

Permafrost is inflated to 900-1500p since one player bought up most of the Krono Market. With the avenues for generating platinum in game however fixed (which was a good thing) some are finding it difficult to generate that much coin every month.
- Which btw others have already knocked the price back down to 975p from that 1500 person that still is more expensive than almost every other server and some can't generate 1000p a month.

As Skwor said, Krono are limited and a reduction in coin will raise the price because those selling don't want to lose their investment. This can (and probably will) have the negative effect of some Veterans leaving because they either refuse to or cannot pay for the game normally. I know a few players who are looking for work and only able to play because of Krono's.

Prices are 1k on Splitpaw (higher demand due to higher amount of boxers than some other servers, Freeport certainly) but that's not really all that much in the scheme of things tbh, our monthly guild plat split is over 2k for mediocre attendence normally. People are willing to pay 15k for myth cloaks in auction too, so it's not like the plat isn't out there for the people looking to make it.

Whenever the price of PLEX gets a little too expensive in Eve (usually due to market manipulators) CCP seems to have a PLEX sale which results in lower prices.

My suggestion to SoE is to look at the data and see what the price point of Krono is when people stop subbing. Then put on a Krono sale when the price gets near that point.

Who gets hurt? No one but speculators. And I'm fine with that.

I would be curious how you figure that. You're saying people will pay more for a Krono if they have less plat...and there's a shortage of Kronos because people have so little plat that they're buying them all up?

I don't see how the plat supply really has any effect on the supply of Kronos, since Kronos are supplied with real currency. Maybe the supply of Kronos is dropping because people aren't spending as much plat now (with the upcoming expansion looming?), so they do not feel the need to sell them for plat. Or maybe the people selling Kronos for plat have realized that the demand for them is relatively inelastic and are trying to see how far they can push the price up. Or, and I haven't paid enough attention to know if this is a reasonable suggestion, but maybe we're just seeing general inflation (not deflation, as you were suggesting).