People buy krono because they want to turn real money into game currency. If nobody buy it, price will drop simple as that.
from the Krono website: Kronos are high valuable! as @Breta said, if people doesn't want them the price will drop. It's a free economy. People can ask anything for their kronos, the thing is about other people willing to pay. Offer and Demand. People can profit with that. Even the Company allows that. Personally I want Devs continues focusing on the Awesome To Do list and fixing the current issues, again (scouts revamp, lag, itemization, items that cause lag like amplifying effects, etc)
I agree, but also we need to know that the date was close to when SOE was sold and people feared the game will be closed, the layoff of many employees and we had some weeks of silence from devs, community managers, etc. Then SOE was send into oblivion and we get Day Break Games Fear and Speculation is a good tool for stock markets but also illegal in some cases when Feds can prove it. ,also people feared that they could lose items in game, avatar, pixel things [I miss SWG ] , so like the gold vs us dollar or insert your money paper, something solid like Kronos becomes high valuable and people want them.
I'll concede that you have a point, but when you look at change in Krono prices since their introduction the current price isn't a surprise. Every time people claim there are reasons for the increase. And yet...it isn't enough to explain what is happening. Sure, new sources of revenue open up. But a 300% increase each year, every year for the past 3 years? We're on track right now to make it 4 years in a row. All that needs to happen is for Krono to creep up another 2.5k before November. If this keeps up it will be 27k next year. Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? And yet, 9k isn't something to worry about? Was 3k last November a shock? Was 900p the year before a surprise? I'll admit 300p the year before that seemed a bit cheap, but that didn't last. When people speculate in currency (gold, commodities, ect) it can cause a price spike. It can even cause the relative value to grow. The price of Krono is behaving like a foreign currency when the local economy is in free-fall. Just like how the Russians were spending Ruble on anything when oil prices tanked last year. But the major difference is the Ruble can recover because people aren't just printing more of them to make up the difference in value. Unless dev does something to remove plat from circulation EQ2's economic model will just continue to inflate. The one thing that is obvious is that the supply of plat is growing at an astounding rate. Trading krono back and forth just moves the plat around. And something need to be done instead of dev continuing to ignore the problem.
Everything you've listed has been worked on every year and has had changes every year. If dev has been working on improving the economy of EQ2, I can't think of anything I can point to that has been an attempt since the goblin lottery was introduced. That wasn't exactly what I'd call a success either. If the producer for EQ2 took one dev and had them work on this seriously for a week more could be done to improve the economic health of EQ2 than has happened in the last 6 years. It could be rather painful for us, but that is only if the dev follows the approach of trying to make everybody pay. The less painful approach would be to use several carrots. Get the people that accumulate a lot of plat to spend it on things that remove that plat from the economy. I'm not in favor of reducing the amount that people earn. I'm in favor of increasing the things you can spend plat on that removes it from the game. I think doing anything would be better than the burying their head in the sand approach dev has been using for most of this game's lifespan.
Since it's all about real dollars to DGC or any other revenue-driven company, I would imagine they would just simply project the total subscription revenue from the known or suspected Krono dupers and deduct the cost of actually losing the Krono sales outright. If subscription fees > lost Krono sales, they will do nothing. I don't think there's any other meaningful rationale that would influence their stance in their current situation. In the old days, they would simply ban them in a heartbeat. True story and we all know it.
If DBG makes kronor resellable just one time there won't be any market manipulation and this would serve the initial purpose Soe talked about at the beginning. A person who has spare dollars buys krono places it on a broker and after a first purchase it become use it or lose it. like this the only ones who would purchase kronos will be only those who use them to sub. Then the krono market will really be regulated by supply and demand for end usage. This will eliminate lots of unwanted middle men.
Another issue that I'm fairly certain effects the cost of Krono is the cost of the spell upgrades via the game mechanics. If a player is easily willing (based on how quick the items move) to drop 5,000-10,000 plat per component; then it would seem reasonable to expect more that much plat for a Krono. That, and look at what some of the SLR items go for. Is someone going to spend a decent amount of real life money to sell Krono, only to have that Krono sell for less than a decent upgrade or two? I doubt it! I guess I join the unpopular ranks since I view it as this: Player 1: Can't afford or is unwilling to subscribe to the game or purchase Krono. F2P also seems not to be an option to them. Player 1: Can't seem to earn enough coin to purchase Krono from other players. Player 2: Can afford Krono, rather not visit 3rd party RMT sites, puts Krono up for sale. Player 3: Earns enough coin in the game to afford the luxury of eliminating the cost of a subscription by purchasing Krono. Effect: Player 2 Earns the coin selling it to Player 3. DBG Earns real life money through the sale of that Krono. Player 2 buys a bunch of stuff from other players in the game, some might even buy Krono from Player 2 again! So we have this item, Krono, put into the game that allows players to legitimately purchase the item from the gaming company, then sell it in game, for coin, rather than visiting a 3rd party RMT site. Gaming company makes money, player buys coin from other players without being scammed. Seems like a good plan. But now some expect DBG to control the price so the average player can afford the Krono sold by the players. Of course, the players farming the spell components and those engaging in SLR are not about to lower their prices. So in essence, their expecting someone to purchase a few more Krono, at their expense, so they can get what they desire in the game. Short version: Some players are expecting other players to subsidize their gaming needs by lowering the cost of their Krono that they purchased with real life money.
Of course if other players would learn how to either earn enough coin to pay the asking price to the player, or even enough money to pay the asking price of DBG the issue would not be an issue. I pay a subscription, I don't earn enough in the game to purchase Krono. That takes more time that I don't have in real life to dedicate to pay for a game via playing. I choose to spend my time enjoying the game while supporting the game with money from my job. Others that have more time to play and are capable of earning the coin in game to purchase their subscription via Krono deserve that break. DBG still gets their money, all is good. Cold as it sounds, those that can't afford a subscription have a very generous F2P option. It's not up to other players to price their wares accordingly to permit such players to have a full subscription at their expense.
I've been trying to remember the time frame on things. Krono came out at the end of October 2012, and I believe that was the same time as the plat limit on silver & bronze accounts was removed. A few months later the broker fee was removed from Krono (silver accounts cannot bypass that by purchasing from houses, bronze had to buy a token to purchase from the broker even). It was as if they were, at least partially, targetting the Krono to F2P players to increase subscription numbers. Now it's virtually impossible for a F2P (or Silver) account player to earn enough for a krono before the price has gone up even further out of reach. Honestly, it's a lot of lost revenue for DBG when Krono are priced out of reach of many who WOULD buy them. Sure it's great for those who pay $$ for them to get ingame plat, but not so great for DBG.
I completely disagree with the sentiment. I have never used a Krono for personal account time. However, I have given away over 20 of them, trying to get friends into the game, and as a gift to people I knew were struggling to cover subscription fees when the FTP restrictions were much more severe. Your idea means I could not have helped them in the way I did. Also, when it comes to limiting how many times something can be resold, DBG has as much business limiting the number of times we can resell harvested materials, as they do limiting how many times we can resell Krono. And to be clear, DBG has no business involving themselves in either.
This comment makes me laugh. The price rise in krono actually makes them more desirable to the people that buy them for dollars. As every other commodity has a shelf life in terms of value (ie gear/items are only expensive for a time when they're desirable, but then they drop in value to virtually nothing when a new set of items comes out), then people who sell krono get more buying power in the market if kronos are going up in price. The krono price just reflects the amount of plat in the economy, and as it goes up it helps spread the plat among every player by inflating the cost of everything. Something that would sell for 10pp when kronos were 1kpp now sells for 100pp when kronos are 10kpp, for example. But only for the length of time it's desirable as mentioned above. It is no ones right to have kronos and play for free. It is for the people that have surplus plat who play the game a lot. As long as there are people willing to buy plat with real money then there will be a krono supply. What Daybreak need to do is ensure they keep those players interested, not the ones who don't want to spend real money on the game and just want to play for free with all the benefits. Those players don't actually pay the bills, it's the krono buyers for dollars that do.
It is not lost revenue. Regardless of who redeems a Krono, DBG already has the money. DBG does not make any actual money from an FTP/Silver player that uses a Krono. Even if an existing subscriber uses a Krono, it is the most expensive subscription model available. This is good for DBG. I really hope it is not that difficult to understand the following: If the in game plat price point of Krono drops too low, people who buy Krono (from the DBG store) are given less incentive to buy them. That discourages an environment where DBG makes money. If the in game plat price point of Krono is high, people who buy Krono (from the DBG store) are given more incentive to buy them. That promotes an environment where DBG makes money. That is why I will continue to say, when people come to the forums complaining about high in game broker (plat) prices of Krono, DBG will do nothing but laugh. It is in DBG's interest for Krono's to be selling for an arm & and leg on the broker in EQ2.
True, DBG gets paid for every krono purchased. Honestly, with most of the broker sales being (apparently) simply flipping the krono and raising the price, how many are actully coming into the market newly purchased?
While your statement is correct, your missing the argument entirely. The real core of the problem is the amount of plat that is circulating. People that have a lot of plat have started to spend it. With more plat circulating the price of everything with any value has increased. As things loose value (because they are easier to access, less rare, or better items come along) the price drops. Krono don't loose value. It is exactly 1 month of subscription time. As such, its one of the few things you can use to measure inflation. EQ2 like all game economies is a very simple economy. Players assign values to things traded amongst themselves and they use anything the players deem as valuable to trade. Most games try to facilitate this by creating an in-game currency. The currency here is plat. From all indications we've got rampant inflation occurring. Now if everybody horded plat instead of spending it, there wouldn't be a problem. But for some reason the price of Krono has nearly doubled in 6 months. Actually, its been climbing in price rapidly ever since it was introduced. At a certain point it seems reasonable. There were excuses. Like when you could run PR solo for plat. Or when they first introduced the small plat bags. I think we've gone far beyond that. We're accelerating fast enough that I think we'll meet the 300% inflation we've seen every year and that Krono will be 9k in November. Does that really mean 27k by next November? I also don't see a legitimate excuse for Krono to be tripling in price again this year. It doesn't mean that there are exploits, but without being able to see the overall economy I can't really say where its all coming from or if people are just spending more than they use to. I will say that 5k for a rare component, 5k for not-so-rare cyan adornments, 51k for a really rare drop would of been slightly above what anyone would of been willing to pay during ToV. They are common place now. They would of been totally unthinkable during DoV. During RoK something going for 1k was a huge deal. Now 1k is when people start to spend real money. 500p is the starting point for anything decent going up for auction. 300p was ToV. All of that has to do with the amount of currency around, not the quality of the goods or the amount of desire.
The trend toward more complaints about Krono being too expensive suggests more is at play than too much plat in the economy. A section of the player base has had their ability to adequately participate in the economy significantly reduced. There are no PR style chests or fabled items from the previous expansion that can be muted for current tier materials. Also, there seems to be a reduced quantity of Krono being made available. Finally, it also might be that more people are waking up to realize that Krono are a hedge against increased platinum supply and are more actively pursuing Krono. What seems certain to me is that the increasing Krono prices and complaints about the prices are not merely a simplistic consequence of global plat supply in the game. It isn't that simple.
Dont you think maybe DBG is buying the kronos from the brokers? The more they buy the higher the price. The higher the price the more krono they sell for cash. They can create as much plat as they like. It is theoretically there own way of selling plat only THEY dont have to farm it. But then DBG/SOE would never screw it customer base would they? Oh wait rofl
Actually no, I think the plat spammers are buying them, then selling them for $7 to players who put them on the broker where the plat spammers buy them again. With every cycle the plat value is higher, but the spammers keep getting $7 by recycling the krono. Just a guess.
