Honestly the market is completely worthless right now, the zen to astral exchange is not fair for the price someone has to pay, this being said, I think a few things can change this and bring the market on the rise again. Arc, you've attempted to bring the market up, trying to get it to where PC is at, to do this you'll need to "sacrifice". I use "sacrifice" sparingly because it's not really giving up anything. You need to adjust zen prices with the market, doing so will make players buy from you, rather than from outside sources. Take the ratio between the computer version and the xbox version and adjust the price of zen so that it compares to the astral outcome of PC. Let me give you an example.
Lets say PC version is 450 astral per zen, Xbox being 150 astral per zen, these prices not being too far off from what they are now. To equal this, and to make it fair and more profitable for your company, you must make it so that everyone feels 11000 zen is going a long way. $100 on Xbox gets you 11000 zen, which translates to 1,650,000 astral, not a lot at all. On computer, this same dollar amount will provide you with 4,950,000 zen, a far greater amount, making players continually turn to outside sources for a fair use of their money. It's not working in your favor when someone can get your product for a fraction of the price, that's poor business and unrational. My proposition is for you all to discount the zen rationally, about 60% at this current time, and make it worth buying from you. While you discount, the market will rise, and you can alleviate the discount over time.
Players, you can help the market too. Stop undercutting zen sells to make a quick sell, acquire patience and there will be a much bigger payoff.
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You are looking at the exchange from a perspective that ignores factors like purchasing power and Zen bought/exchanged from AD.
Try looking at it from the opposite perspective. Consider in which economy you can get the most Zen for the fewest AD. Xbox is clearly better. So from my perspective where I want the most Zen for the least AD, I like the current situation. I find this situation superior because I can get AD for free and make Zen. I cannot obtain the Zen for free and convert to AD, that must be purchased with cash or AD.
But the real test comes from the purchasing power. What good is getting 3 times the AD for your Zen (your original numbers), if the prices in the AH are 3 times or more higher. I'm not saying they are, I'm not going to check. That is the area that needs investigating. I don't know which is better.
Bascially, the PC exchange rate gives you better value per dollar for set AD prices like the Wondrous Bazaar and the Xbox rate gives a better return for Zen purchases using converted AD. Both economies are almost the same in a straight up cash to zen purchase like $1 = 100 Zen = 1Starlight Parcel. There are some Zen price differences on some items that keep it from being exactly the same.
A low exchange rate, as on Xbox, means that there is enough new Zen (cash purchases) or a low demand for Zen to offset the out of thin air nature of AD. A higher rate, like when PC was maxxed and had a 7 day or more wait to convert AD to Zen, means that there is not enough cash Zen purchased to cover the FTP/conversion markets.
The are several sinks to remove AD from the economy, AH fees, Wondrous Bazaar purchases, Campaign costs, etc. There is only one sink to remove Zen from the economy, the Zen Store. There are things like double AD and 15% off Zen to help regulate the economy in increasing. A 60% discount would not be a good way to regulate as they have learned the hard way. Regulating Zen/ AD needs to be done in small steps.
TL:DR version
There are benefits to both a high and low exchange depending on the player's goal. The tie-breaker for better economy will be best purchasing power in the AH. Anyone want to look into that?
The PC market, now that one is broken.
Trust me...xbox HAS the better economy!
Character:
7thS1n---Trickster Rouge LV 70(perma-Stun build)
7ThH3AL3R-- Devoted Cleric LV 70 (Divine Oracle Haste/DPS build)
7ThM4G3-- Control Wizard
7ThW4rL0CK-- Scrooge Warlock
7THW4R--Great Weapon Fighter
SoonerGM - HR Trapper
Haven - Righteous Cleric
Ethereal Justice - OP Paladin
Thier Zen is that expensive because thier economy was ruined, technically xbox1 is healthy, it goes up and down regularly with events and currently playing online fluctuations, however since there seems to be fewer players and/or so many events and new items we've been flooded with things to sell and support ourselves meaning its not necessary to buy Zen with actual money.
If they stop flooding the markets with old event items or new ones the prices will go up and Zen with it.
Character:
7thS1n---Trickster Rouge LV 70(perma-Stun build)
7ThH3AL3R-- Devoted Cleric LV 70 (Divine Oracle Haste/DPS build)
7ThM4G3-- Control Wizard
7ThW4rL0CK-- Scrooge Warlock
7THW4R--Great Weapon Fighter
wrong threadJoin us brothers and sisters and distant relations and confused onlookers.
Join us in the shadows where we stand mostly vigilant... although slightly distracted by our inventories.
"In war, unqualified. In peace, disorganised. In death, mild irritation."
JOIN US.
Give me stuff for my money.. Mount should be 5$ max, as there mostly for looks and thats it.
Anyway, to get back on track, basically i hate to see one day i can buy zen at 120 AD each, then 2 weeks later its 150, it annoy me... i don't like this whole "welcome to the exchange" aspect. I know some players do there money this way, but me its just a waste of time and an annoyance.
Its like the gold... what a damn useless thing it is... honestly the other day there was a dude selling GMOP and i think its was the first time in my 30 days of play(read 30x24hours for total playtime) that i saw someone SELL something really usefull. I see people wanting to buy all the time, others selling junk , but that it. I literally gave the dude all my gold, as in many months of play, it was the first time i felt it had use....
If only ennemies would drop AD, no need to be a ton, but more or less the value in copper of what they drop now... something like that. One currency should be enough
Casual players should be having a good time, since they can get Zen really easy. Most players should be able to afford the bigger packs (Hero of the North, Feywild, Dragonborn) pretty easy, along with any other items they need. Even the most casual player should be able to afford VIP. And hey, everyone could use a few more keys.
Perfect World should be happy, because to get that 1,000,000AD mount from the market, the players who just HAVE to have it need to drop significantly more Zen.
Even paying users should be happy as the current market volatility means an initial investment can let you make a healthy income just by playing the market. As long as they aren't the sort that demand the best of everything right away, the current environment is ripe for exploitation from the well-off.
Join us brothers and sisters and distant relations and confused onlookers.
Join us in the shadows where we stand mostly vigilant... although slightly distracted by our inventories.
"In war, unqualified. In peace, disorganised. In death, mild irritation."
JOIN US.
One think that i see going on that bothers me is the systematic devalulization of items over time buy the makers. These value drops seem to trickle down. Most of what we looked forward to getting when buying keys is now so low buying keys doesnt pay out unless you get a mount. We all know the odds of that. We need new items to get put in the upcoming boxes so we can make them worth buying again.