You insist on applying real-world economic principles to a game economy. The major difference is that the real world does not have a handful of individuals with so great a proportion of the total money supply that they are able to manipulate market prices and currency values at a whim. Neverwinter does. And these individuals have proved time and time again that they want ALL the money they can lay hands on and have no concern whatsoever about the state of the game. So pinning the Zax limit to the highest cost of items on an easily manipulated AH is just plain bonkers.
And even if your best-case scenario panned out, a Zax rate of 1200:1 would kill this game in weeks as free players realised they had no realistic chance of access to Zen.
I'm not the one who labeled myself an economist, and I replied to someone who did. If you don't think that the vast majority of the real world's wealth is concentrated in such a small group that they can manipulate currencies and markets at whim, then I don't know what to say except that you're not very observant.
To your other comments; free players don't have access to Zen now without a 10-day+ wait, by which time that have vastly outleveled whatever it was they wanted Zen for, unless they are in end-game (If they are in end-game they have access to enough AD to realistically buy Zen on occassion.), so I have no idea why you think this matters. Also, that same 10-day window is already winnowing the more fickle of the free players.
Kill this game in weeks? Hyperbole. Further; not pinning Zen to the prices on the AH does nothing more than make it less and less and less and less likely that people will drop $20 for a million AD. Do you not get that the value of that $20 has been consistently going down? Do you not get that being a disincentive to buy Zen?
Why are 3rd party spammers hitting this game so hard? It's profitable! Until it's not they will be here. Disincent them, not the players, and lower the cost of AD by letting Zen float.
I'm not the one who labeled myself an economist, and I replied to someone who did. If you don't think that the vast majority of the real world's wealth is concentrated in such a small group that they can manipulate currencies and markets at whim, then I don't know what to say except that you're not very observant.
To your other comments; free players don't have access to Zen now without a 10-day+ wait, by which time that have vastly outleveled whatever it was they wanted Zen for, unless they are in end-game (If they are in end-game they have access to enough AD to realistically buy Zen on occassion.), so I have no idea why you think this matters. Also, that same 10-day window is already winnowing the more fickle of the free players.
Kill this game in weeks? Hyperbole. Further; not pinning Zen to the prices on the AH does nothing more than make it less and less and less and less likely that people will drop $20 for a million AD. Do you not get that the value of that $20 has been consistently going down? Do you not get that being a disincentive to buy Zen?
Why are 3rd party spammers hitting this game so hard? It's profitable! Until it's not they will be here. Disincent them, not the players, and lower the cost of AD by letting Zen float.
Weeks probably not. But it would get emptier in weeks and dead within months.
I'm not the one who labeled myself an economist, and I replied to someone who did. If you don't think that the vast majority of the real world's wealth is concentrated in such a small group that they can manipulate currencies and markets at whim, then I don't know what to say except that you're not very observant.
To your other comments; free players don't have access to Zen now without a 10-day+ wait, by which time that have vastly outleveled whatever it was they wanted Zen for, unless they are in end-game (If they are in end-game they have access to enough AD to realistically buy Zen on occassion.), so I have no idea why you think this matters. Also, that same 10-day window is already winnowing the more fickle of the free players.
Kill this game in weeks? Hyperbole. Further; not pinning Zen to the prices on the AH does nothing more than make it less and less and less and less likely that people will drop $20 for a million AD. Do you not get that the value of that $20 has been consistently going down? Do you not get that being a disincentive to buy Zen?
Why are 3rd party spammers hitting this game so hard? It's profitable! Until it's not they will be here. Disincent them, not the players, and lower the cost of AD by letting Zen float.
twililght is correct in this case -- in the real world, there exist no small group of individuals that can manipulate currencies or markets of any respectable size on a whim. Large-scale instabilities are caused by governments (which usually CAN manipulate markets if they choose to) or "everybody and their grandma does XYZ action." The rest of your post, I think I agree with.
I think that it's time for the ZAX cap to be raised. I don't buy the argument that AH prices are a bad indicator of the "true" AD/Zen because of a small group of people in NW holding lots of wealth. First of all, I don't think that's true in the sense it's being used here, and second of all, the buyers on the AH are primarily typical people. The highest price at which people are willing to buy Zen market stuff on the AH is a good indicator of, also, the AD/Zen ratio they would be willing to exchange for given 0 backlog.
500 AD: 1 Zen is just ridiculous. I don't think new players would be particularly shocked by a AD/Zen ratio of, say, 1000/1. It's simply the respectable ratio ... your AD are not worth that much (converted) RL money as the game implies right now. Especially because there's nothing in the Zen Market you really need to get through the game (arguably Coal wards, but ...)
EDIT: fixed typo, also this turned out to be a wall of text, sorry
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flambridgeMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 191Arc User
Because there was an infinite AD duplication exploit that went on for months in this game that did not get resolved as of now that World of Warcraft never had (that wasn't fixed)
I'm talking about the economy in general.
I agree that this exploit helped sink everything, but he is not the only reason.
A "horse 4m" simply should not exist in this game is insane. You are talking about "millions", "MILLION",
F ***** MILLION. At this time (3:27 AM in Brazil), Tenser's Disc is 24m, I repeat, "FU 24 MILLION."
Guys, seriously, even seriously, nobody in this game should have 24 millions to buy a mount. This is a joke, I'm laughing here, it does not exist. XD XD XD
In R$ (money of Brazil) this gives "around" "R$ 1,200." My friends, this is almost double the minimum wage here. XD
In dollar should not be too different, but is not the point.
The problem is that, even if I had miraculously this money, refuse to pay for a mount that just popped up.
I already gave two good idea to sink AD. One is to implement rituals (which would not labor for devs and it would be fun to do). And the other, oldest and most important, the price is simply equate ZEN with AD. The price to upgrade was always overrated , and speculators are only overrated further. Will arrive at a point where "even those who have money will not be able to buy something of value."
Guys, I live in a country that has suffered years with monstrous inflation
Came a point here where a mere HQ cost 180 million.
Do you really want to came this point? (Where the general economy NEED reset to return to work.) Fine, I'm out.
But I prefer to be realistic, and I hope everyone (including devs) begin to be.
I repeat, "MILLIONS" is a problem of MMO with ten years or more. The normal player should not have this problem in a game of bit more than a year. U mad, bro? XD?
I'm talking about the economy in general.
I agree that this exploit helped sink everything, but he is not the only reason.
A "horse 4m" simply should not exist in this game is insane. You are talking about "millions", "MILLION",
F ***** MILLION. At this time (3:27 AM in Brazil), Tenser's Disc is 24m, I repeat, "FU 24 MILLION."
Guys, seriously, even seriously, nobody in this game should have 24 millions to buy a mount. This is a joke, I'm laughing here, it does not exist. XD XD XD
In R$ (money of Brazil) this gives "around" "R$ 1,200." My friends, this is almost double the minimum wage here. XD
In dollar should not be too different, but is not the point.
The problem is that, even if I had miraculously this money, refuse to pay for a mount that just popped up.
I already gave two good idea to sink AD. One is to implement rituals (which would not labor for devs and it would be fun to do). And the other, oldest and most important, the price is simply equate ZEN with AD. The price to upgrade was always overrated , and speculators are only overrated further. Will arrive at a point where "even those who have money will not be able to buy something of value."
Guys, I live in a country that has suffered years with monstrous inflation
Came a point here where a mere HQ cost 180 million.
Do you really want to came this point? (Where the general economy NEED reset to return to work.)
Fine, I'm out. But I prefer to be realistic, and I hope everyone (including devs) begin to be.
I repeat, "MILLIONS" is a problem of MMO with ten years or more. The normal player should not have this problem in a game of bit more than a year. U mad, bro? XD?
Thing is most of those millions were likely created by the exploit. Billions upon billions were probably created. Now I'm not saying that everyone that's rich in game exploited, but they likely sold some stuff. I doubt there is a single account at this point who is active on the ah selling their loot that does not have a large % of their ad that was created from this exploit. In real world terms there is probably multiple times more counterfeit money than official money in circulation. Everyone isn't a counterfeiter but at this point everyone probably has some counterfeit bills in their pocket.
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flambridgeMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 191Arc User
Thing is most of those millions were likely created by the exploit. Billions upon billions were probably created.
What's scaring me that "there are players who finding it normal." Seriously, dude, THIS IS NOT NORMAL.
Just as the Brazilians found this sh ** normal until the point where "inflation was 200% a day."
We will propose solutions to fix this tangle "NOT FIND WHICH IS NORMAL SOMEONE HAVE MILLIONS IN A YEAR PLAY".
Get my point? Even the rich "should not have 24m to buy a mount." In the real world this equates to "selling a hiate demanding gdp of a small country." XD
What's scaring me that "there are players who finding it normal." Seriously, dude, THIS IS NOT NORMAL.
Just as the Brazilians found this sh ** normal until the point where "inflation was 200% a day."
We will propose solutions to fix this tangle "NOT FIND WHICH IS NORMAL SOMEONE HAVE MILLIONS IN A YEAR PLAY".
Get my point? Even the rich "should not have 24m to buy a mount." In the real world this equates to "selling a hiate demanding gdp of a small country." XD
I'm not saying it's normal. I'm saying it's abnormal and in real world terms created by criminal activity which in a game is known as exploiting. It's not something normal players do. However it went on so long that a few were able to create a massive problem that now has to be fixed with no real good ways of doing so.
All Cryptic can do now is weed out AD hoarder and trader accounts and try to thin the supply by-hand. Obviously this is a completely futile undetaking considering how many hundreds of billions were likely exploited within the past eight months. There's no other practical way to help, in fact they could've reacted to it when it started if they were actually paying attention like they were supposedly paid to...
They dropped the ball BIG TIME on this one, people should be losing their jobs for a muck-up like this, this is WAY beyond an "oops, my bad". The sheer lack of foresight required for something like this to happen proves how little they actually care about the in-game economy, hell, maybe it even served their inscrutable purposes somehow (would certainly explain a lot).
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
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flambridgeMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 191Arc User
I'm not saying it's normal. I'm saying it's abnormal and in real world terms created by criminal activity which in a game is known as exploiting. It's not something normal players do. However it went on so long that a few were able to create a massive problem that now has to be fixed with no real good ways of doing so.
You may not be, but many players are.
I see several players finding "normal" these prices, and some even finding viable (?) .
And this also includes devs, Gond proves my theory.
That event was planned to "legendary players", and this type of player should not exist (not one year).
Players with full rank 10 should not exist, players with full legendary artifacts should not exist, and especially players with millions of AD should not exist.
All these problems (and others) are games with ten or more years. Are "legendary players vs normal players."
I just want to put a bit of senses in this madhouse, before the turn Arkham Asylum. XD
You may not be, but many players are.
I see several players finding "normal" these prices, and some even finding viable (?) .
And this also includes devs, Gond proves my theory.
That event was planned to "legendary players", and this type of player should not exist (not one year).
Players with full rank 10 should not exist, players with full legendary artifacts should not exist, and especially players with millions of AD should not exist.
All these problems (and others) are games with ten or more years. Are "legendary players vs normal players."
I just want to put a bit of senses in this madhouse, before the turn Arkham Asylum. XD
R10's should absolutely exist. I've made them, with absolutely no exploiting. It's a long process and painful but you can do it in this time period. Same with artifacts if you worked at it. Everygame has people that rocket to BiS, they just put in a lot more hours of play time than what is needed here.
I'm thinking that video has a little too much tinfoil coming from a user named end times news. Sorry but it's just not reputable.
Even if the video isn't reputable you have to be a complete sheep to believe that "no group exists with the capital to manipulate markets". Attempting to make such an argument is naive in the extreme to say the least... Hell, I can name any number of corporations/families/banks whose profits easily surpass the GDP of entire countries (and I'm not talking about an island or an African desert either).
Even if the video isn't reputable you have to be a complete sheep to believe that "no group exists with the capital to manipulate markets". Attempting to make such an argument is naive in the extreme to say the least... Hell I can name any number of corporations/families/banks that would easily surpass the GDP of entire countries (and I'm not talking about an island or an African desert either)
I don't question that there are groups that do it. However they usually need to combine to do so effectively and even then they may be hit with monopoly laws. Because of this I agree with the general spirit of the statement and vehemently disagree with the letter where it was stated small groups do it.
edit*
Yes I'm being a stickler for details but I think in this case they are very important details.
Meanwhile, backlog stopped to increase, and even decreased a little. It is a good news giving us a bit of hope for the future, on the other hand it shows how much impact had the exploit on the economy.
I don't question that there are groups that do it. However they usually need to combine to do so effectively and even then they may be hit with monopoly laws. Because of this I agree with the general spirit of the statement and vehemently disagree with the letter where it was stated small groups do it.
Yeah, but that's why they just bribe the government via lobbying to get the laws changed to favor their practices. Companies with this kind of power DO manipulate the markets every day, and not just with the sheer volume of liquid capital they have, but by influence in the government (promising executive corporate positions to politicians who played ball when their terms end).
In this game, however, I have caught wind of several small groups manipulating the AH to MASSIVE success. For instance, the last CTA there was a small group of people buying out every intellect devourer that was posted under a certain price. This is the reason that this particular companion is so much more expensive than other CTA companions (even ones that are as good or better). By buying out so many of them at a time they were able to set the new market price. Additionally they could count on their set price increasing after the event ended because, obviously, it won't drop anymore.
Meanwhile, backlog stopped to increase, and even decreased a little. It is a good news giving us a bit of hope for the future, on the other hand it shows how much impact had the exploit on the economy.
You sure on that? I only check it once a day and yesterday I remember seeing it at 12M something and now it's at 13M something, so overall it looks like it's still trending up.
You sure on that? I only check it once a day and yesterday I remember seeing it at 12M something and now it's at 13M something, so overall it looks like it's still trending up.
Are you sure? I wasn't here entire day, but when I checked it was about 13.300. Btw, I got my zen yesterday, after exactly 13 days.
Meanwhile, backlog stopped to increase, and even decreased a little. It is a good news giving us a bit of hope for the future, on the other hand it shows how much impact had the exploit on the economy.
Its just too bad that the big time exploiters who used the infinite AD bug for months now have spread several billions of exploited AD into the economy and there's probably a lot of whales keeping them safe
Its just too bad that the big time exploiters who used the infinite AD bug for months now have spread several billions of exploited AD into the economy and there's probably a lot of whales keeping them safe
At least their supplies are not infinite anymore. Of course it would be better if all exploiters go banned and all exploited AD removed, but hey, we've made a big progress anyway.
At least their supplies are not infinite anymore. Of course it would be better if all exploiters go banned and all exploited AD removed, but hey, we've made a big progress anyway.
Only the suckers who were lured into trying out the exploit for "curiosity" got banned. The whales who have been using it for months smartly stayed away from it when they released it.
Also, a lot of the exploited AD probably have spread into the economy so it would be impossible to remove them unless you do a 6-month rollback. This is why we've seen weird patterns in enchantments etc.
Only the suckers who were lured into trying out the exploit for "curiosity" got banned. The whales who have been using it for months smartly stayed away from it when they released it.
The exploit got removed within hours after being reported, so there was not much of a warning.
Still, Neverwinters Pricing model is focused on sucking a small group of whales dry, so there is a chance that Cryptic will not touch whales as they are hard to replace and sink a lot of money into the game.
The exploit got removed within hours after being reported, so there was not much of a warning.
And who released the exploit? One of the long-time exploiters. There was a neatly made youtube video put up clearly detailing how it was done when it was released which means this wasn't discovered that day.
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ironzerg79Member, Neverwinter Moderator, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 4,942Arc User
The whales who have been using it for months smartly stayed away from it when they released it.
Whales aren't the rich people. Whales are the people who plow a lot of money into the game. If someone's getting rich from exploiting the game, they're not a whale. They're a cheater.
Whales aren't the rich people. Whales are the people who plow a lot of money into the game. If someone's getting rich from exploiting the game, they're not a whale. They're a cheater.
One billion AD is worth, at the absolute most, $5,000 in US dollars. (1 billion/1 million)X$5. At the most. actually, if they're selling exploited AD to the 3td party sites then cut that in half, or more.
No one's getting rich who doesn't own a 3rd party sales company.
Just been looking on the AH...has anyone else noticed prices starting to fall?
Just checked.
No.
I CAN say that the "skipping" of the ZAX for posting overinflated coal wards on the AH is alive and well, however. The first 24 listings of coal wards are from the same user, who has them at 566k each. Obviously, it gets much much worse the further down the list you look.
I think we'll have to wait until some time after mod 4 hits to make an honest assessment of the economy and what is truly happening besides "it's buggered". There are going to be weird market conditions for a little while here with a "forced" influx of new players trying it out, etc.
Just been looking on the AH...has anyone else noticed prices starting to fall?
They are dropping a bit, but not much. Just remember, no one is forcing you to buy from the AH, if more people knew that, prices would be more reasonable. As long as there's one person willing to shell out a million for any item, it's going to stay that price. Be smart, be patient, if you don't agree with the price then let it fall back on the seller. Like many things, always be able to walk away from an unreasonable offer.
"I don't know, I'm making it up as I go..." Featured Foundry Quest:Whispers of an Ancient Evil [v3] - NW-DQ4WKW6ZG Foundry Quest: Harper Chronicles: Blacklake - NW-DCPA4W2Q5
Comments
I'm not the one who labeled myself an economist, and I replied to someone who did. If you don't think that the vast majority of the real world's wealth is concentrated in such a small group that they can manipulate currencies and markets at whim, then I don't know what to say except that you're not very observant.
To your other comments; free players don't have access to Zen now without a 10-day+ wait, by which time that have vastly outleveled whatever it was they wanted Zen for, unless they are in end-game (If they are in end-game they have access to enough AD to realistically buy Zen on occassion.), so I have no idea why you think this matters. Also, that same 10-day window is already winnowing the more fickle of the free players.
Kill this game in weeks? Hyperbole. Further; not pinning Zen to the prices on the AH does nothing more than make it less and less and less and less likely that people will drop $20 for a million AD. Do you not get that the value of that $20 has been consistently going down? Do you not get that being a disincentive to buy Zen?
Why are 3rd party spammers hitting this game so hard? It's profitable! Until it's not they will be here. Disincent them, not the players, and lower the cost of AD by letting Zen float.
twililght is correct in this case -- in the real world, there exist no small group of individuals that can manipulate currencies or markets of any respectable size on a whim. Large-scale instabilities are caused by governments (which usually CAN manipulate markets if they choose to) or "everybody and their grandma does XYZ action." The rest of your post, I think I agree with.
I think that it's time for the ZAX cap to be raised. I don't buy the argument that AH prices are a bad indicator of the "true" AD/Zen because of a small group of people in NW holding lots of wealth. First of all, I don't think that's true in the sense it's being used here, and second of all, the buyers on the AH are primarily typical people. The highest price at which people are willing to buy Zen market stuff on the AH is a good indicator of, also, the AD/Zen ratio they would be willing to exchange for given 0 backlog.
500 AD: 1 Zen is just ridiculous. I don't think new players would be particularly shocked by a AD/Zen ratio of, say, 1000/1. It's simply the respectable ratio ... your AD are not worth that much (converted) RL money as the game implies right now. Especially because there's nothing in the Zen Market you really need to get through the game (arguably Coal wards, but ...)
EDIT: fixed typo, also this turned out to be a wall of text, sorry
I'm talking about the economy in general.
I agree that this exploit helped sink everything, but he is not the only reason.
A "horse 4m" simply should not exist in this game is insane. You are talking about "millions", "MILLION",
F ***** MILLION. At this time (3:27 AM in Brazil), Tenser's Disc is 24m, I repeat, "FU 24 MILLION."
Guys, seriously, even seriously, nobody in this game should have 24 millions to buy a mount. This is a joke, I'm laughing here, it does not exist. XD XD XD
In R$ (money of Brazil) this gives "around" "R$ 1,200." My friends, this is almost double the minimum wage here. XD
In dollar should not be too different, but is not the point.
The problem is that, even if I had miraculously this money, refuse to pay for a mount that just popped up.
I already gave two good idea to sink AD. One is to implement rituals (which would not labor for devs and it would be fun to do). And the other, oldest and most important, the price is simply equate ZEN with AD. The price to upgrade was always overrated , and speculators are only overrated further. Will arrive at a point where "even those who have money will not be able to buy something of value."
Guys, I live in a country that has suffered years with monstrous inflation
Came a point here where a mere HQ cost 180 million.
Do you really want to came this point? (Where the general economy NEED reset to return to work.) Fine, I'm out.
But I prefer to be realistic, and I hope everyone (including devs) begin to be.
I repeat, "MILLIONS" is a problem of MMO with ten years or more. The normal player should not have this problem in a game of bit more than a year. U mad, bro? XD?
Thing is most of those millions were likely created by the exploit. Billions upon billions were probably created. Now I'm not saying that everyone that's rich in game exploited, but they likely sold some stuff. I doubt there is a single account at this point who is active on the ah selling their loot that does not have a large % of their ad that was created from this exploit. In real world terms there is probably multiple times more counterfeit money than official money in circulation. Everyone isn't a counterfeiter but at this point everyone probably has some counterfeit bills in their pocket.
What's scaring me that "there are players who finding it normal." Seriously, dude, THIS IS NOT NORMAL.
Just as the Brazilians found this sh ** normal until the point where "inflation was 200% a day."
We will propose solutions to fix this tangle "NOT FIND WHICH IS NORMAL SOMEONE HAVE MILLIONS IN A YEAR PLAY".
Get my point? Even the rich "should not have 24m to buy a mount." In the real world this equates to "selling a hiate demanding gdp of a small country." XD
They dropped the ball BIG TIME on this one, people should be losing their jobs for a muck-up like this, this is WAY beyond an "oops, my bad". The sheer lack of foresight required for something like this to happen proves how little they actually care about the in-game economy, hell, maybe it even served their inscrutable purposes somehow (would certainly explain a lot).
You may not be, but many players are.
I see several players finding "normal" these prices, and some even finding viable (?) .
And this also includes devs, Gond proves my theory.
That event was planned to "legendary players", and this type of player should not exist (not one year).
Players with full rank 10 should not exist, players with full legendary artifacts should not exist, and especially players with millions of AD should not exist.
All these problems (and others) are games with ten or more years. Are "legendary players vs normal players."
I just want to put a bit of senses in this madhouse, before the turn Arkham Asylum. XD
R10's should absolutely exist. I've made them, with absolutely no exploiting. It's a long process and painful but you can do it in this time period. Same with artifacts if you worked at it. Everygame has people that rocket to BiS, they just put in a lot more hours of play time than what is needed here.
Even if the video isn't reputable you have to be a complete sheep to believe that "no group exists with the capital to manipulate markets". Attempting to make such an argument is naive in the extreme to say the least... Hell, I can name any number of corporations/families/banks whose profits easily surpass the GDP of entire countries (and I'm not talking about an island or an African desert either).
edit*
Yes I'm being a stickler for details but I think in this case they are very important details.
Yeah, but that's why they just bribe the government via lobbying to get the laws changed to favor their practices. Companies with this kind of power DO manipulate the markets every day, and not just with the sheer volume of liquid capital they have, but by influence in the government (promising executive corporate positions to politicians who played ball when their terms end).
In this game, however, I have caught wind of several small groups manipulating the AH to MASSIVE success. For instance, the last CTA there was a small group of people buying out every intellect devourer that was posted under a certain price. This is the reason that this particular companion is so much more expensive than other CTA companions (even ones that are as good or better). By buying out so many of them at a time they were able to set the new market price. Additionally they could count on their set price increasing after the event ended because, obviously, it won't drop anymore.
You sure on that? I only check it once a day and yesterday I remember seeing it at 12M something and now it's at 13M something, so overall it looks like it's still trending up.
With module 4 introducing legendary weapons and belts the time of cheap level 60 items will be over. People will use them for refininig.
Are you sure? I wasn't here entire day, but when I checked it was about 13.300. Btw, I got my zen yesterday, after exactly 13 days.
But they drop frequently. They can get to that point with a couple hours of farming too.
Its just too bad that the big time exploiters who used the infinite AD bug for months now have spread several billions of exploited AD into the economy and there's probably a lot of whales keeping them safe
At least their supplies are not infinite anymore. Of course it would be better if all exploiters go banned and all exploited AD removed, but hey, we've made a big progress anyway.
Only the suckers who were lured into trying out the exploit for "curiosity" got banned. The whales who have been using it for months smartly stayed away from it when they released it.
Also, a lot of the exploited AD probably have spread into the economy so it would be impossible to remove them unless you do a 6-month rollback. This is why we've seen weird patterns in enchantments etc.
The exploit got removed within hours after being reported, so there was not much of a warning.
Still, Neverwinters Pricing model is focused on sucking a small group of whales dry, so there is a chance that Cryptic will not touch whales as they are hard to replace and sink a lot of money into the game.
And who released the exploit? One of the long-time exploiters. There was a neatly made youtube video put up clearly detailing how it was done when it was released which means this wasn't discovered that day.
Whales aren't the rich people. Whales are the people who plow a lot of money into the game. If someone's getting rich from exploiting the game, they're not a whale. They're a cheater.
One billion AD is worth, at the absolute most, $5,000 in US dollars. (1 billion/1 million)X$5. At the most. actually, if they're selling exploited AD to the 3td party sites then cut that in half, or more.
No one's getting rich who doesn't own a 3rd party sales company.
Just checked.
No.
I CAN say that the "skipping" of the ZAX for posting overinflated coal wards on the AH is alive and well, however. The first 24 listings of coal wards are from the same user, who has them at 566k each. Obviously, it gets much much worse the further down the list you look.
I think we'll have to wait until some time after mod 4 hits to make an honest assessment of the economy and what is truly happening besides "it's buggered". There are going to be weird market conditions for a little while here with a "forced" influx of new players trying it out, etc.
They are dropping a bit, but not much. Just remember, no one is forcing you to buy from the AH, if more people knew that, prices would be more reasonable. As long as there's one person willing to shell out a million for any item, it's going to stay that price. Be smart, be patient, if you don't agree with the price then let it fall back on the seller. Like many things, always be able to walk away from an unreasonable offer.
Featured Foundry Quest: Whispers of an Ancient Evil [v3] - NW-DQ4WKW6ZG
Foundry Quest: Harper Chronicles: Blacklake - NW-DCPA4W2Q5