The effectiveness of even the broker fees largely depends upon the rate of plat entry into the economy. Say, for the sake of argument, that the rate of plat introduction into the economy is 100p/day (I suspect that it is higher by several orders of magnitude). This would result in a monthly plat gain of 2,800p to 3,100p. 10 items per month sold on the broker for 300p results in 300p-600p in broker fees, which is a significant portion of the monthly plat gain. That would mean that, as a plat sink, the broker fees were effective. Now imagine, instead, that the rate of plat introduction is 1,000p per day (again, I suspect that the real total is significantly higher). That would bring the monthly rate up to 28,000p-31,000p. That same 10 items sold for the same amount would still be the same range of broker fees. Only now, with the plat gain being 10 times higher, the broker fees comprise only 1%-2% of the plat gain (instead of the 10%-20% of the previous rate). If the plat gain was 10,000p per day (which, even if the game population dwindled to 5,000 players, wouldn't be that hard to obtain - that would be an average of 2p/person per day), those percentages would range from 0.1% to 0.2% of the total plat gain. In order to be as effective as the initial scenario, 1,000 items worth 300p each would have to be sold each month on the broker - and this assumes that the purchaser(s) couldn't or wouldn't travel to the house to buy the items. I think that a better way to reduce the amount of plat game-wide would be to make the research reduction potions available for, say, 500p-1,000p. If they did that, not only would it likely reduce the ready plat (thus driving the Krono cost down), but it would leave those that complain about the fact that people can only reduce the research time through spending Daybreak Cash without a valid argument (since the research could be reduced through the rewards of gameplay) - although I suspect they'd find something else to complain about . Furthermore, since those items were available quite recently, there is a high likelihood that it wouldn't take much in the way of dev resources to implement it.
You talking like the price of items are static. Prices for items move with the availability of plat. Legendary items in ToV went in the low hundreds of plat. Items in AoM routinely start in the 300-500p range and fairly common but powerful items sell in the 2-3k range. Exceptional items can go for 15k or much more. I've seen 51k paid once. Cyan adorns easily go for 5k. So when your example skips an order of magnitude, so should your prices. Desirable items stay roughly as desirable, and the prices change according to average income. The more plat circulating, the more plat gets offered for even easy to aquire items. Again, items going for 300p now had equivalents that went for 100p just last year. Research reduction potions would help, but I don't think it would be as effective as you'd think. At a certain point its more effective to spend plat to buy spellshards and masters, and I don't think dev would want to make plat vs time look better than DC vs time, because they count on people buying DC.
Thank you Meirril for understanding what I was saying and defending my position. As to the other stuff... Fact: Kronos are on the rise. Fact: Several players are intentionally manipulating the market. It directly effects thousands of players. Fact: I personally won't contribute to the problem by giving them their new asking price. There, fixed. If you guys want to pay 10k for a krono go right ahead. "A fool and his money soon part".
Fact: It's not 10k on every server, at least not yet. Fact: Even if it was, 10k pp is less valuable to me than $18 is, so it's still a good deal to have somebody else essentially paying my monthly sub for me and all I have to do is give them 10k on the broker. I don't buy SLR, so other than Kronos I have no major expenses.
Serious question - Do you believe that people manipulating the contents of the EQ2 broker is something new, and/or unique to Krono? If you do, I am not sure where to begin? People have been manipulating the market since the game launched, on almost anything and everything that can be sold on the broker. If you expected Krono to be some precious little bubble that was immune to free trade, I don't know how to break it to you gently... No one is entitled to Krono at a price they deem affordable. Krono is designed to be capable of being traded as many times as people desire. People have been manipulating the Krono markets long before the notorious 3rd party RMT website started spamming out public channels. While a 3rd party RMT cleanup would be nice, it will not stop people manipulating the market, because a lot of genuine players engage in this legitimate activity. No matter what happens, people who do not like the plat price of a Krono on EQ2's broker, can go to the membership section of their account on the DBG website, and enter their credit card details to pay for gold access. If someone wants to get upset because they can't afford a Krono on the broker, and can't afford to pay for a real sub, and would rather quit than use the games FTP service, they are a freeloading weight that DBG gains nothing from.
They could do that but I will tell you what they are going to do, quit playing. The krono manipulators along with the dupe exploiters are ruining the game and will be the only ones left after they have sucked the game dry, mark my words.
Mark your words? That some people will rage quit if they can't get free gold access by parting with a fraction of their monthly plat intake? I doubt DBG cares. If your marked words come to pass, a potential benefit from a reduction in freeloaders may be better server performance for those who actually pay the bills? Would be nice.
A fraction of their monthly plat intake? More like 2, 3 or more months' plat intake for many...just for one krono.
Do you have a legitimate argument here or are you just trying to jab people to make yourself feel like someone that has a clue? Nothing you've stated contributes in any way, shape or form to this conversation. That babble about "entitlement" and "freeloader" stuff that you're spouting is condescending to say the least. People play this free to play game to get away from your lingo. This is EQ2 and your adventure experience is what you make it. But ridiculing players who do something or play a certain way that falls in your narrow spectrum of acceptability is unwanted here. Please contribute to the discussion or don't comment. Thanks. Krono cost is on the rise, that's the subject. Please don't attack people that differ in opinion. This thread will just get locked if you do.
The accusations aren't that the prices are being manipulated. The accusation is the price is continuing to rise at an unreasonable rate. Market manipulations are nothing new. As long as the supply of whatever doesn't change drastically, or a sudden shift in demand, prices usually stay stable. Market Manipulations involve people with deep pockets or special access to materials either creating a shortage or a glut. If someone is trying to drive the price of Krono up artificially, they are doing an awesome job. Around the time AoM launched it was 3k on AB. Last time I looked it was 6-7k on AB and that is 6 months later. That means that someone is pumping enough plat into circulation to cause a stable price increase of 100%. This isn't like a normal market manipulation, because in those cases there is a bubble where the price spikes or plummets, and then after the manipulators take advantage of the situation, they want it to go back to normal so they can profit from it. It isn't going to go back to 3k. The rising price is the new normal. I've already pointed out that this is the current rate of inflation and it isn't likely to slow down unless something is done to remove a lot of plat from the economy. The way things are going, your a fool to keep a supply of plat. Every month it looses about 10% of its buying power. The only item that you can buy that will hold its value is Krono. So all the people that took economics classes are buying Krono which drives the price up even faster. Even funnier, people who have a lot of plat and pay for their subscription should be trading plat for Krono because plat isn't stable. Now, are you still happy with the current situation? Wouldn't it be better if there wasn't a 300% inflation in plat prices?
I do not need your permission to post on these forums. Just because I am not supporting your cause, does not mean I am not contributing. As for ridiculing? Sounds like a guilty conscience. The facts are the facts, freeloaders are exactly what they are, and someone who believes they are entitled to something, when by design they are not, has a sense of entitlement. It is not my problem if this does not sit well with you. As for my alleged narrow spectrum of acceptability? Amusing. My position is that if you can't afford to pay for a subscription, and can't afford enough plat to buy Krono off the broker, and refuse to play EQ2 using the FTP model, you're a dead weight and a leech on the services that should prioritize performance for those who actually pay the bills that keep the lights on. The game provides a generous number of options for people doing it tough, but guaranteed access to affordable Krono on the EQ2 broker was never one of them. And this is a problem, how? SOE never made any guarantee of Krono being easily affordable on the broker. It was actually designed to be a luxury purchase for those with large amounts of disposable plat. Some people were screaming bloody murder when Krono first pushed up toward the 1000 (yes, 1 thousand) plat mark, vowing to never pay such a heinous amount and contribute to the extortion etc. Here we are again.
Market manipulation was used as an argument in this thread, so my reply on that matter was fair game. As for the price rising at a reasonable rate? It is a free market. Prices can only go as high as people are willing to pay. The free market will dictate what is and is not reasonable. If the price point is too high, demand is reduced while incentive for supply is enhanced, resulting in a flooded market with one inevitable outcome, a price crash. So if the accusation is unreasonable pricing, it will quickly sort itself out. As for the pricing of Krono, has the thought occurred to you that perhaps AoM is introducing more generated plat per person than prior expansions, and after several months it can take a toll as peoples other expenses diminish (from having everything else they want)? Combine this with a supply (of Krono) that is not guaranteed, and the price rises we have seen are far from unthinkable, they are actually well within a margin of reason. As I mentioned before, DBG makes their money from the people who originally buy the Krono from the DBG website, so that is the only real part of the transaction DBG cares about. Who ends up using the Krono is inconsequential. Given that Krono is a luxury, not a necessity, people can price them on the EQ2 in-game broker for what ever they want.
First, it doesn't matter where the plat comes from. Rampant inflation means that the in-game currency is constantly diminishing at an outrageous rate. There are two solution to that. One is to remove a lot of that currency. The other is to remove the source of new currency. If either isn't solved, the currency will continue to devaluate. There are lots of accusations of dupes introducing plat to the economy. I'll trust dev to make that call. Even if there is billions of duped plat in the economy now, DB isn't going to rip it out of the player's hands because it would cause a massive loss of subscriptions. If duping isn't the cause, then the devs just need to do a better job matching the plat sinks to the actual income. And from what the price of Krono (the main marker point we have of an item that doesn't loose in-game value with each expansion) has been doing for the last few years, we can see that historically that economy management has been abysmal. More to the point that no real effort has been put into it, and new sources of plat have definitely been introduced. The really strange thing is if you wanted to desperately grasp at straws, you could blame the excess plat on people quitting. When people quit, if they care they can attempt to convert their plat into Krono because it should hold its value. Very successful people that suddenly quit would spend several hundred thousand plat on Krono in a very short period of time. That could be what is driving the inflation, but it seems unlikely to me. Especially since the price of Krono would only be temporarily driven up by a few extremely rich people quitting. The price has been a constant rise, which would indicate a constant stream of new plat entering the economy. So that means tons of rich players are quitting? Not in waves, but on a consistent basis? The problem isn't the price of Krono, the price of Krono is a symptom of the real problem. Wrap your head around that.
You also have to consider Krono supply. If the people who are likely to buy Krono for cash quit playing or becomes disillusioned with the game to the point of not being willing to buy Krono, then there will be the same quantity of platinum chasing fewer Krono. There appear to be signs that the inflation goes beyond Krono, which suggests plat supply is at least part of the problem. However, the same situation that could be causing Krono sales to go down could also be affecting time investment of the players doing difficult content, which could drastically reduce their supply of excess gear. My point is plat supply is not the only factor at play in the market.
Question is why do you feel entitled for buying Krono with plats? Somebody had to buy it for real money and it's price is determined by demand. If you can't afford Krono you can always sub for dolars or stay F2P.
It's not a problem at all unless DBG is/was hoping that krono would increase the number of subscribers. With the current pricing all they're really doing is letting existing subscribers save a few dollars now and then by purchasing one when they have the extra plat. Not much increase in revenue when all that does is lose DBG a credit card payment and substitute it for a krono payment that month.
Do you think you are providing some kind of special wisdom? For some historical perspective, I was one of the few people pushing hard for the Protectors Realm gravy train of mass farmed plat to be fixed. And oh boy did people get their panties in a vicious twist over the suggestions I was making. So when you try to tell me about symptoms of real problems, to wrap my head around things like plat sinks vs plat incomes, you're a few years late, but welcome on board! You have a lot of catching up to do. As I have already stated, AoM introduces plat into EQ2 at a faster rate per person, per hour played, than any prior expansion. If people want to create a discussion about overall inflation, good on them. If people want to use Krono as merely one of many examples of inflation such a thread, great. But when I see threads where Krono prices dominate the discussion, with people who claim the current in-game broker prices of Krono is ruining their game play experience, and they will rage quit unless SOE/DBG immediately makes Krono easily affordable on the EQ2 in-game broker, there is no question as to the motives at play.
I was not privy to any internal discussions about why Krono was introduced, so I only have my opinion, based on events which unfolded. If anyone has any additional or insider info, would be curious to hear it. SOE introduced the Station Cash cards. They could be used for game time, or SC (and for a while SC could also be used for game time). The Station Cash cards had no in game support, but people were selling card codes for plat in the game, something which opportunistic people of questionable integrity were quick to exploit. SOE made it clear that people who got duped by fake SC card sellers would receive no assistance. Players were calling for an in-game alternative to SC cards, well before Krono was introduced. I believe Krono was designed like it was so as to not make SC cards completely redundant, while providing a safe means for both parties in a transaction where plat for account time was a desired transaction. I believe the intention was to take a slice of the revenue that 3rd party RMT sites were getting. Instead of taking the risk with shifty 3rd party sites, people can give SOE/DBG real money, for an in-game item that SOE/DBG hopes has a high plat value (thus incentivizing people who want plat to buy Kronos). That is why I believe SOE/DBG does nothing but laugh at people who complain about high plat prices of Krono on EQ2 brokers.
And when nobody can buy the kronos whats then? You have nothing when you buy a krono for real money but no one buys it with platin, because its to expensive?
