Economy opinions

[Energizeric]

Your comment is a little misleading.

My comment is not misleading at all. AL is a "free market" meaning there are no price controls. Supply and demand determine the price. It means it's the buyers that determine the price, not the sellers. And if there are so many of an item dropping and not enough folks that are willing to buy it for big money, then the price drops. That is how economics works.

I know everyone wants to get lots of pinks and have them all be worth a million gold, but that just cannot happen. And if it did happen, then we would have mass inflation and it would be the gold that would become worthless.

Unfortunately far too few people in the world (and certainly in this game) understand these simple economic concepts. Just take a look at some of the economies in the third world today (such as some countries in Africa and South America) and you see triple digit inflation year to year. How do you think that happens? Everyone is poor and they protest that they want more money, so the government gives it to them. Then the money becomes worthless.

Basically we see the same thing happen here in this game sometimes. Folks complain about not getting enough good items, so STS responds by increasing the amount of good items, and so the price falls. An item is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it, and folks with a lot of gold want rare items.

[Wowsome]

My comment is not misleading at all. AL is a "free market" meaning there are no price controls. Supply and demand determine the price. It means it's the buyers that determine the price, not the sellers. And if there are so many of an item dropping and not enough folks that are willing to buy it for big money, then the price drops. That is how economics works.

I know everyone wants to get lots of pinks and have them all be worth a million gold, but that just cannot happen. And if it did happen, then we would have mass inflation and it would be the gold that would become worthless.

Unfortunately far too few people in the world (and certainly in this game) understand these simple economic concepts. Just take a look at some of the economies in the third world today (such as some countries in Africa and South America) and you see triple digit inflation year to year. How do you think that happens? Everyone is poor and they protest that they want more money, so the government gives it to them. Then the money becomes worthless.

Basically we see the same thing happen here in this game sometimes. Folks complain about not getting enough good items, so STS responds by increasing the amount of good items, and so the price falls. An item is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it, and folks with a lot of gold want rare items.

well put!

[digitalbot]

i think that.... your all nuts

[Zeus]

Locked crates and a minimal chance at a super rare item are here to stay as long as people are willing to fork over their dough to open them. STS is doing real well off of this strategy. Screw the AL economy, it's all about the STS economy baby! devs gotta eat

It's a smart strategy, and tbh, I like it. Why? I'm not going to use platinum to open the crates, but instead earn enough selling them and merchanting to buy what's inside.

[Mysticaleagle]

i think that.... your all nuts

Same. XD

[Rare]

Increasing drop rates of rare items doesn't have to make the item worthless. Implying that anyone that wants drop rates increased wants it raining AO3 pinks is inaccurate (misleading was the wrong word)

[jtst]

Now items are divided into common that everyone has and uber-ultra-mythic-duper. Smth in the mid would be highly appreciated

[Energizeric]

Increasing drop rates of rare items doesn't have to make the item worthless. Implying that anyone that wants drop rates increased wants it raining AO3 pinks is inaccurate (misleading was the wrong word)

Even a small increase in drop rate can cause prices to crash. Ever watch the commodities market? OPEC will increase supply of oil by 1% and gasoline prices can drop a dollar as a result. Supply and demand is not linear.

[D-:]

With Obama in office, the economy won't be getting any better.

Nevermind, Thread title misleading.

[Energizeric]

With Obama in office, the economy won't be getting any better.

Nevermind, Thread title misleading.

LOL, too funny! IMO it doesn't matter who is in office, the economy won't be getting any better regardless.

But back to the world of Arlor, the economy here is just fine. As long as those junk pinks from the crates do not represent the best weapon/armor available, then things should be ok.

[Rare]

Even a small increase in drop rate can cause prices to crash. Ever watch the commodities market? OPEC will increase supply of oil by 1% and gasoline prices can drop a dollar as a result. Supply and demand is not linear.

You can't compare oil and gasoline prices that are so heavily based on speculators to these game markets. Speculation only occurs in these games when things are about to happen (e.g. ALP nerf, new campaigns, etc). The market quickly stabilizes if the supply isn't flooded. Slightly increasing drop rates (on non mythic/arcane rarity) is not going to drastically affect the value I don't think.

That is completely different to the oil/gasoline industry where the price of gasoline is determined by speculation. These game markets are driven by real supply and real demand.

[Rare]

With Obama in office, the economy won't be getting any better.

Nevermind, Thread title misleading.

BEWARE THREAD DERAILMENT!!!

No single person can fix this economy. Just like no single person can break it. If people are going to be blamed... blame the collective idiots that sit in a giant room together all day and get nothing done.

[Vystirch]

Threads been renamed

[Energizeric]

You can't compare oil and gasoline prices that are so heavily based on speculators to these game markets. Speculation only occurs in these games when things are about to happen (e.g. ALP nerf, new campaigns, etc). The market quickly stabilizes if the supply isn't flooded. Slightly increasing drop rates (on non mythic/arcane rarity) is not going to drastically affect the value I don't think.

That is completely different to the oil/gasoline industry where the price of gasoline is determined by speculation. These game markets are driven by real supply and real demand.

There's a lot more speculation going on in this game than you may think. As a merchant I have become familiar with who the other merchants are, and let's just say that a good percentage of the stuff I list gets purchased by other merchants. All of us buy to speculate and make a profit. There are always updates to the game being made, and these changes always have effects on prices.

[Redtank]

This is what happens when everyone complains about not getting enough pinks. They raise the rate of drops. It's what everyone kept asking for. I hope all the complainers are happy now.

This was exactly what I wanted to say...just too lazy

[Energizeric]

BEWARE THREAD DERAILMENT!!!

No single person can fix this economy. Just like no single person can break it. If people are going to be blamed... blame the collective idiots that sit in a giant room together all day and get nothing done.

Yes, thread derailment indeed. I'll make one big comment on this, and then back to the fantasy world of Arlor.

I've attempted to lecture older folks on what the real problems in the economy are, and nobody really wants to listen although I think they know this to be correct, so here it goes.....

The economic problems that we face are not local to the United States, so blaming it on fiscal policy of one single country that makes up 4% of the world's population is not a sound theory. The problem with the world economy is actually a book-keeping problem and not an actual problem. The issue is that our economy is so tied to "paper" and "records" that nobody bothers to notice reality. Here are some examples of what I mean:

1) "productivity" is defined in $$$. So if I pay someone $100 to dig a ditch and then fill it up, then the economists would say that person contributed $100 of productivity to our economy. Did he?

2) If I buy a computer for my company which is able to allow one person to do the job that 3 previously were needed to do, and as a result I can downsize my staff by 2 people, is that a good thing for productivity? Economists would say that because the total wages I paid out was smaller that we were less productive. I would argue otherwise.

3) If in your home you were able to buy some sort of machine/computer/robot which was able to do make doing the chores take only half the time it previously took, and now people could spend half the time they used to spend doing chores (more time for leisure!) then most people would consider this a great thing. But in industry this is considered a bad thing since it means workers have their hours cut. Why the inconsistency?

4) We live in a world where we pay farmers NOT to produce corn (farm subsidies) so that we can keep the price of corn high. Yet we have people all around the world who are starving and we say there is a food shortage.


Technology is the "evil" here. Not because technology is a bad thing, but because our economic philosophy is based upon an old model that counts productivity by the amount of time we spend and not by the results produced. As technology has been able to handle more and more of the workload, wages have been cut in order to "keep order" and keep most of the population employed. Adjusted for inflation, today 2 members of the family must work to make the same livable wage that one person used to make 30 years ago. But now even at the reduced wages there is no need for much of the workforce. So large companies are closing factories, laying off workers, etc. -- and those jobs are never coming back.

Ever watch Star Trek? What happens when the food replicator is invented? Does the entire food industry get laid off? What happens when the transporter is invented? Does the entire travel industry get laid off? Would such inventions be a good thing for mankind?

The reality is that it is not necessary for much of the population to work in order for everything to get done. And as time goes on, less and less of the population will be needed. Eventually technology will be able to do everything for us. So either we are going to allow for this and let everyone be the beneficiary of such progress, or 99% of the population is going to starve while the elites enjoy the benefits of a futuristic world. It is up to us which path we choose....

That's all I'm going to say. Carry on....

[KillaSkillz]

Thanks for killing the thread energizeric! lol
I agree with most of that assesment. Also like to say cars, air conditioners and a whole bunch of trade jobs will always need someone to fix them. The last 30 years+ has seen everyone pushed towards a higher education, and as a result more people with more debt looking for a management job, but not having the cheaper education of the service type job requires. the plan for the future all those years ago was wrong. People need to be debt feee and working, not spending 4 years to get a piece of paper for a job that doesn't exist, or has too many candidates alreay looking for a job.


Like here in AL, the window of opportunity is closing, something new needs to be created so a new demand will rise, then there will be more sales and more money being made. The economy still works here in AL, just in smaller chunks. The only get rich quick is ultra hard to get, as it is in real life, as it should be.

[Cremated]

So I got a couple of legendary level 26 items and when I was going to sell in AH they are all priced at below 300g each.. Being they are LOADED with stats and possibly the best armor for each class it seems all the people buying thousands of platinums and opening hundreds and thousands of locked crates are getting multiple items and diminishing prices.. This is absurd because the only thing you can profit on now is literally Mythic Items, Hammerjaw, and LIKE A HANDFUL OF LEGENDARY items dropped by elite bosses.

This has gotten out of hand, Locked Crates are priced at 3k each, We need new content, what is the point of playing the game right now? To farm for a HANDFUL of legendary items with a drop rate of 000000000000.1% or spend thousands of platinums trying to get a mythic helmet or arcane pet or hook to sell.

There is literally nothing to do, I rather not play until new items are implemented and hooks, hammerjaw and mythic helms aren't the only source of income , since the other handful of legendary items have a percentage of dropping equal to hitting the powerball.

People who buy thousands of plat should just buy gold with?

[ShadowGunX]

lol.
i see threads only to enjoy by seeing ppl posting how many plats they wasted; golds wasted; time wasted; etc.
this thread is best :-P
AL is again like must plat based games or u r poor in game.

[Wowsome]

Yes, thread derailment indeed. I'll make one big comment on this, and then back to the fantasy world of Arlor.

I've attempted to lecture older folks on what the real problems in the economy are, and nobody really wants to listen although I think they know this to be correct, so here it goes.....

The economic problems that we face are not local to the United States, so blaming it on fiscal policy of one single country that makes up 4% of the world's population is not a sound theory. The problem with the world economy is actually a book-keeping problem and not an actual problem. The issue is that our economy is so tied to "paper" and "records" that nobody bothers to notice reality. Here are some examples of what I mean:

1) "productivity" is defined in $$$. So if I pay someone $100 to dig a ditch and then fill it up, then the economists would say that person contributed $100 of productivity to our economy. Did he?

2) If I buy a computer for my company which is able to allow one person to do the job that 3 previously were needed to do, and as a result I can downsize my staff by 2 people, is that a good thing for productivity? Economists would say that because the total wages I paid out was smaller that we were less productive. I would argue otherwise.

3) If in your home you were able to buy some sort of machine/computer/robot which was able to do make doing the chores take only half the time it previously took, and now people could spend half the time they used to spend doing chores (more time for leisure!) then most people would consider this a great thing. But in industry this is considered a bad thing since it means workers have their hours cut. Why the inconsistency?

4) We live in a world where we pay farmers NOT to produce corn (farm subsidies) so that we can keep the price of corn high. Yet we have people all around the world who are starving and we say there is a food shortage.


Technology is the "evil" here. Not because technology is a bad thing, but because our economic philosophy is based upon an old model that counts productivity by the amount of time we spend and not by the results produced. As technology has been able to handle more and more of the workload, wages have been cut in order to "keep order" and keep most of the population employed. Adjusted for inflation, today 2 members of the family must work to make the same livable wage that one person used to make 30 years ago. But now even at the reduced wages there is no need for much of the workforce. So large companies are closing factories, laying off workers, etc. -- and those jobs are never coming back.

Ever watch Star Trek? What happens when the food replicator is invented? Does the entire food industry get laid off? What happens when the transporter is invented? Does the entire travel industry get laid off? Would such inventions be a good thing for mankind?

The reality is that it is not necessary for much of the population to work in order for everything to get done. And as time goes on, less and less of the population will be needed. Eventually technology will be able to do everything for us. So either we are going to allow for this and let everyone be the beneficiary of such progress, or 99% of the population is going to starve while the elites enjoy the benefits of a futuristic world. It is up to us which path we choose....

That's all I'm going to say. Carry on....

good read!