Quote:
While most of what Lalryn said is true, (s)he overestimates the effect gil-sellers have on the economy.
He. Furthermore, none of the arguments I made in any way overestimate anything. In fact, I was patently generous in my allowances.
Quote:
Prices are skyrocketing on lots of big-ticket items, but everyone just blames those damned gil-sellers for ruining the economy. What you're actually seeing are the normal effects of supply and demand working without "government legislation" to keep prices in control.
No. Sniper Rings going from 300k to 800k in about 4 weeks is not "normal effects of supply and demand". A 266.6% rate of inflation is not normal. As a point of reference, in the United States, the current rate of inflation is a little over 3% as of October, with a YTD average of about 2.7%. Granted, the political and economic situation of the US is different; I'm quoting it simply to give an idea of what "normal" is in a somewhat healthy economy. How are newer players even ABLE to afford such horrible markups? I presented a few possibilities in my first post, but the one that's far easier, and becoming more and more preferred: BUY GIL!
Quote:
On the supply side, it's far from stagnant. Archer's Rings are still being farmed up daily, and Gil is still coming from in-game sources, not just being magically printed up by IGE. So there is no forced inflation.
"Stagnation" implies that the supply is remaining the same over an extended period of time. This is simply the cold hard fact of the matter. The rings were camped almost 24-7 before the gilsellers, the rate of drop has not increased, therefore the approximate number of rings are dropping and being listed has not varied greatly. Since the price did not increase sharply like it has now, the only viable conclusion is that the supply has stagnated in that it has not gotten any larger while the demand has grown exponentially. Take now into account who is listing the rings? When did the sharp price increase begin? It's hardly coincidental that it began when the gilsellers started their perma-camp. Just look on the sell list: I checked it a few days ago, and various known gilsellers had 7/10 sales.
As far as IGE "magically" printing up money: they're doing all but. If you paid attention to and understood my GilbuyerSteve illustration, you would understand how the gil recycle works, which is at its core economically devestating. Their money comes back to them easy as pie when they are able to control the drops that folks buy with the gil they bought. That means their supply is doing nothing but going up, allowing them to reduce their prices to make gilbuying all the more attractive.
You give large amounts of money to folks who wouldn't normally have it, extreme inflation is going to result, and the economy will fail. Look at Russia after the Soviet collapse. The problem: The people are poor! The solution: get more money out! So they printed a ton of money, distributed it, and what happened? The monetary unit collapsed, and it took buckets of money to buy things like bread! Now let's apply it to us: Gilfarmers get the drops that folks want. Gilselling companies give large amounts of gil to folks who wouldn't otherwise have it, exponentially increasing demand. Gilsellers increase the cost of the drops because they know damn well demand is going up. Gilbuyers buy the drops the gilfarmers get, and the gil from the purchase goes directly back into the company's pockets. They lower gil prices, and more folks buy gil. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. End result: EXTREME INFLATION.
I'm terribly sorry that you don't see the plain, simple, and blatantly logical nature of this exercise, but the logic and facts remain sound. I also apologize if I missed the original intent of this thread, which I see now was a "Gilsellers aren't really so bad after all" emotional plea. Sorry to rain on your parade, but I'm not about to let the Bleeding Hearts of Ragnarok Association (that's the BHRA, for those keeping track *wink*) downplay a serious problem that has catastrophic implications for the future of the server economy. If it's like this now, what will it be like in 6 months? A year?
That said, Lenelle, you did stumble onto the solution to the problem. The only, and I mean ONLY way that this will be fixed is if:
1) Folks stop buying gil (It's lame, so quit it. Play the game like the rest of us)
2) Folks stop accepting the gilsellers insane prices and refuse to buy their merchandise (Fat chance, I know)
3) SE gets off their lazy, rich, bloated butts and actually UPHOLDS their end of the EULA and ToS, and starts hiring GMs with backbones who will stand up and not be content to simply regurgitate answers handed to them by the Corporate Office.
Sorry for the long posts, wish I could explain it in a diagram or somethin >< (if any of you are artistically inclined and want to try to diagram it in a witty and humorous way, I'd love to see it! :D) Hope this helps clear up any remaining shadows of doubt.