This game needs a reevaluation of how it's economy functions; I understand that most of the decisions about it are aimed at incentivicing the use of the zen store (like the vip thing) but still. The auction house is empty, the zen is overinflated to the point that nobody is selling it, items bound to x are completly arbitrary and inconsistent, all the mechanics and currencies make everything look manipulative and convoluted.
Trading zen for astral diamonds should be a good trade to allow the currency to flow. The process should be buy zen to trade for fast AD to buy what you need, not just get the zen to purchase something; that way it requires the participation of the comunity in order to make better use of them. What's more, refinement points and other currencies should be replaced by AD to increase the consuming of it, increasing it's value and use a bit.
Maybe i'm being too naive about it, i don't know.
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2. Zen exchange works and it is moving. Moving slowly though. I have been getting my Zen. It may seem long but it is short for me. When I started, it took 6 months. It took less than a month last time I got my Zen.
As it is, I get these 50% off coupons, go to the store, and aside from vip or wards, there's not a single thing that I want that I can't get for less in the auction house.
But this is an old story.
The zen market moves, it just does it very slowly. The big issue is that there's no incentive to sell zen (and no waiting 2 months to get a couple of coins isn't "moving")
Reading the queue size alone does not tell you if it is moving or not.
This is encouraging. I wonder if the backlog will continue to diminish as is, or if that drop has already leveled out.
If it was Cryptic's decision, I am sure the economy would be better balanced. Unless someone official at Cryptic states otherwise I am almost certain they have very little say in this matter. Zen is a PWE thing. The cash (your cash) goes to China, and is sent back in paychecks and budget for Cryptic, after they take their cut. That usually how subsidiaries work in the corporate world.
IF PWE and Zen could be done away with altogether, and Cryptic was freed, then they could offer the player multiple stores and markets, a cash store, gold store, and an AD store. They could do away with the Zax and combine the stores together and have multiple pricing. VIP and some services would be cash only items. The rest could be purchase by playing the game and picking up AD and gold.
As I typed that, I could hear some freemium players whine... "But it will be pay to win without the Zax!". No cash players could then buy items for cash, like VIP and offer them AH to the freemium players and grinders. There would be no way to place a cap, the cap would be supply and demand. The AH itself would become the new Zax market. But this will never happen, PWE is large and in charge of finances. I think Cryptic might have some freedom of setting prices in the Zen market, but again, I am not 100% sure.
Basically you can complain all year long about the Zax backlog, the inflation of the items in the AH, or prices in the Zen store. The company you want to address that letter to is Perfect World Entertainment and not Cryptic Studios.
The only reason I am not spending any AD in AH now is because I made a private guild for myself and it will probably take me until August to unlock the last two repositories.