Devs do us honest players a solid

Discussion in 'Gotham City (General Gameplay)' started by OG ELITE, Dec 5, 2019.

  1. Hraesvelg Always Right


    I will broadly agree with your critique of capitalism in regards to the US and real life situations. Breaking into a higher tax bracket in real life is incredibly difficult, requires more luck than a lot of people are willing to admit, and it really helps if you have resources going into it. That being said...

    This is a game. No one is going to starve or be homeless because they didn't get a Neon chroma. The stakes aren't even close to being the same, so drawing a direct parallel is a faulty comparison. It's OK to have winners and losers in a game, which this is.

    We don't have generational wealth here. I've been playing for nine years. It's perfectly logical that in that time I will have learned the skills and resources with which I need to play and will have a competitive advantage. We might as well ask that skill points be capped or reset every year or so if we're just going to turn back progress because of the whims of people that want what others have. I'm not living on someone else's work/luck.

    The barrier to entry into the marketplace in DCUO is also relatively easy to break into. It's basic economics...you have something someone wants, someone else has something you want. It can be simple barter, or it can be with currency. If I get a second OP drop (I know these aren't a thing any more, but substitute with any expensive item...) someone will want it but I don't want it. So I trade it for an item (or cash equivalent) so that I can use the new item or spend that cash on something I need. Capuchin monkeys are easily trained to treat grapes as currency. It's hardwired into us as primates. It could be moderately rare, ultra rare, or even common. A million here, a million there, and suddenly we're talking about real money...even if the economy as a whole gets shaved down by a massive percent, and it's "a thousand here and a thousand there". We're talking relative terms, here. Don't let a lot of zeroes give you sticker shock. You can work your way into it with exos, even, which has a smaller return, but it based on pure, hard work rather than the whims of the RNG.

    You can then use that seed money to snipe smaller sellers and resell for higher prices, assuming the market will bear higher prices. That's based purely on supply in a monetarily stable system (no dupes). The market will cap itself based on the amount of currency in circulation. An item can't sell for a billion dollars if a billion dollars doesn't exist, for an extreme example. The more things are floating around, the less they'll be worth because other people will sell it for cheaper. If someone else values an item at a higher price than you're willing to pay, but someone else pays it...that item was valued at the higher price. No one should have to minimize their own profits in this type of system. Small supply drives up prices, but that is out of our hands. That's up to the RNG.
  2. Reinheld Devil's Advocate

    I did read it, but it was a lot of typing...so snipped for space's sake not to minimize the content of your post.

    Talking about bad practices and dirty dealings in America's past is not the same as what's going on here. Yes the rich do tend to get richer, but until very recently in game, there was a chance of clawing your way up IN GAME to get the top end items. Just as in the real world everyone has had a chance (although not 100% equal...agreed) to claw their way up in life without getting dirty. Real world 'quick fix' ideas to get ahead are normally related to some crime or another, bending if not strictly breaking the rules....whether it's your only viable option or not. And as most criminals know, "if you can't do the time...don't do the crime"....well many have done the crime and are sitting just fine right now. Yeah, the RNG system is rigged against us....'US' the players...equally. I have no problem with some lucky guy who opens 1 TC and gets the rare item while I might open 10 and get 10 pieces of junk. That's RNGsus and he hates us all equally. That's not the recent issue...if it had been, you'd only need to print a few 100 mil and buy your Neon or whatever...that's not what was happening.

    I started the same as you probably did (that's the good thing about this virtual world....black, white, green, plaid...we are all equal in game...economy wise if not skill levels....at the start) running things to get cash, farming things to get more cash and then later opening TCs to hopefully win a jackpot RNG lotto. Doing that I've always been able to maintain things without spending much RL money or doing any dirty dealings although the opportunity was there. Did I charge as much as the going rate was...probably...or just under so I didn't need to sit in trade chat all day trying to move the line up another mil or 2 each time as some do. That option is now being removed as this 'fake' money that has been pumped in, along with the hoarding of any items of value that are out there, means that most of the wealth is gathered by a few who will have no need to ever distribute it if they don't want....and without those items in circulation, as they would otherwise be, the climb to the top will be impossible.

    Whereas you used to be able to get something of moderate value, hold it and sell it for cash of greater value, then buy something on the cheap...then repeat that until you can get to where the high ticket items dwell. That will be much harder if not impossible for most now as some of those buyers who hold the high ticket items eventually needed the cash and would sell those items. At this point what would they need that cash from you for....to add to the trillions they have now...for what purpose?

    Even god awful old capitalists like Rockafeller or Hurst eventually needed something as they weren't printing their own money no matter how bad their practices were. They would pay for those services, and the guy they paid would then start his climb. Eventually he might climb high enough to parallel those he used to work for. This is the difference here....bogus money has entered and screwed things up so bad it's probably unrecoverable for years...if ever, because that printed money gap represents a void you can't climb past.

    It's a bad debate, sure...most will never see it the same way looking at it from a 'real world' perspective, but it isn't the real world...it's a game, and unlike the real world it should be easier to enforce the rules and keep things somewhat balanced. I'll leave it alone after this one but mainly replied because you are dragging in factors we don't have in game ....race and politics...long running institutional problems that don't really exist in a virtual world.

    Reinheld
  3. jamiejacket Well-Known Player

    DEVS - I am very disappointed with the state ot the game this weekend. The new DLC (and the rest of the game) is full of bugs and the broker / trading is still disabled. Think I’ll come back when you get it all sorted out.
  4. Miss Adora Loyal Player

    I know it's slim chance to none but t doesn't hurt to ask. Or maybe they will up the chance of getting one so us plumbians have a chance of getting one in the tcs.
    • Like x 1
  5. kingmasternova Loyal Player

    If they do that item Can't be traded or sold on broker