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Bonus fact: The economy was in free fall long before housing was introduced. If they had never implemented, the economy still would have collapsed. Anyone blaming housing for their economic woes isn't worth arguing with.
False. Prices were declining a bit, sure... that's to be expected as more people max various crafting and gathering jobs. But the market wasn't in free fall because there really wasn't anything big that everyone wanted to spend money on. Sure, some people spent money on crafted gear, but honestly, that wasn't a priority for most people because of what you can get as loot in dungeons.
Then housing came along... and suddenly, everyone starts saving. Everyone starts farming. Everyone starts crafting. Everyone starts digging up maps. Etc. The rate at which the economy has plummeted since the patch absolutely dwarfs the rate of its decline before the patch... it's not even close.
If you want to insist the economy was in free fall before the patch, then that's fine... but we need to invent a new term to correctly describe the relative change post-patch. How about, "light-speed travel into a black hole."
And yes, the housing system is BAD game design, and not just in one way. The mere fact that housing is actually more expensive NOW than at its release shows just how poorly this content was implemented.
EDIT: I said this earlier, but the real tragedy is that housing should be fueling the economy, not suffocating it. If housing were made more accessible, then SE could create all kinds of furnishings, accessories and sub-systems that would reward farmers/crafters/gatherers and stimulate economic growth. The way it is now, you've got all of this awesome content potential that's completely walled off to the vast majority of the playerbase... and because the economy is sinking so much faster than SE is lowering prices, that wall is only getting bigger, and the content is only becoming less accessible.
It's not just bad design, it's shockingly bad design.
Edited, Jan 4th 2014 11:13pm by Thayos