As a community...

kurokazept · May 2013

Erhm.. Hiya everyone. (What follows is kinda my opinion, so don't go nuts on it >.<)

I'll start with saying that, in a MMORPG, and as in any other multiplayer it's kinda of an ecosystem that is run by developers and players themselves... The developers improve the core of the game and give us the world... But we players also have our part in managing the experience itself and such... Hence why I created this thread...

Many complain about the economy and other bugs, and in my opinion it's in their right to do so, of course... Cryptic should be fixing some stuff, I do believe they're trying...

Either way, the economy basically rotates around AD, Zen and the Auction House, being the latter kinda the central piece. Although developers do have control over everything, I believe that we as a community, together, have some control as well.

Hence I ask everyone, what is that "something" that we can do to help reestablish a fair economy?

(We do kinda control the AH altogether and please do not say "WIPE/NUKE!" we're trying to "Terraform" the place, not nuke it.
Also if you disagree, please just say No or give a formulated opinion as to such, I'm trying to be serious as I want everyone to reach a win-win conclusion, be it founder, developer, free-to-play player...)

tormeanted · May 2013

That's like saying police don't run the world we do.
Too bad it's false.
Sorry.
But thanks for playing.

tormeanted · May 2013

That's like saying police don't run the world we do.
Too bad it's false.
Sorry.
But thanks for playing.

kurokazept · May 2013

I actually meant that the developers ran the world, but we participate in it...
Thanks for playing... When you should've read... *sigh* Please, offer some useful insight...

kife1100 · May 2013

I was thinking pretty hard on ways we could restrict the AH, then I thought about if we didn't restrict it.

My suggestion to adjust the AH is to give it a gold option, from there you may bid with either AD or Gold depending on what the seller offers. Give gold more use in this game, the devs limit this currency so much to depend on farming hard or buying Zen while it could be incredibly useful for end-gamers. They could require injury kits at say level 60 (and even possibly depending on tier of dungeon you were in) cost lots of gold. *Just thought off the top of my head, obviously many different implementations could be used.*

Edit: Rereading your post, I actually didn't see community. Not much I am afraid, this voice on the forums is a small vocal minority. Many are viewing for the first time regarding server downtime.

kurokazept · May 2013

kife1100 wrote: »

I was thinking pretty hard on ways we could restrict the AH, then I thought about if we didn't restrict it.

My suggestion to adjust the AH is to give it a gold option, from there you may bid with either AD or Gold depending on what the seller offers. Give gold more use in this game, the devs limit this currency so much to depend on farming hard or buying Zen while it could be incredibly useful for end-gamers. They could require injury kits at say level 60 (and even possibly depending on tier of dungeon you were in) cost lots of gold. *Just thought off the top of my head, obviously many different implementations could be used.*

I have thought about that, would be also a way to convert gold to AD if you kinda think about it, giving it further use, the only downside I can see here is how hard it would be to balance between another currency... Although the idea of kinda letting the overflow go into gold would solve it nice and clean... at least in a quick-theory I suppose.

kife1100 wrote: »

Edit: Rereading your post, I actually didn't see community. Not much I am afraid, this voice on the forums is a small vocal minority. Many are viewing for the first time regarding server downtime.

There's some, but alas most people prefer to either criticize or complain than actually attempting to find an alternative or a solution... They claim to enjoy the game but apparently they do not enjoy it to the point of actually seeing it thrive...
I think most people don't realize that it's kinda a case of Cryptic is the Dungeon Master and we're the players, and one without the other is pretty much nothing. (In the prism of this game ofc)

povcheap · May 2013

I don't think you will ever have a perfect or even great economy in any game. A lot of the people that complain that things get exploited are the same ones that would complain if you made everything BoP or BoA and didn't allow trades of any type and didn't have an Auction House. I would play either way but if there is an Auction house and players are able to trade and sell items we will always have farmers trying to exploit for financial gain. As long as someone is able to make real money off a games economy this will happen from time to time.

kurokazept · May 2013

Yea that pretty much is to be expected, but I think it's also our "job" so to speak as a community to ensure that doesn't happen so everyone can enjoy themselves... Well that and to report bugs when they happen, and respect that as they are possible exploits or such to not use them... Unfortunately most people seem to claim that they enjoy the game while doing such things, which comes up as nonsensical.

nornsavant · May 2013

This is a great idea and a great sentiment. But it can't work. To quote Morpheus, “Your problem is not your technique.”

You are playing with their toys on their field and on their time. But you don't get to know what they want to do with them.

Thats the key thing standing in your way. You can see most parts of this equation except for PWE/Cryptic's intent. Not important?

Well this latests fiasco was discovered back in closed beta and a ticket was put in, subsequently lost and replaced with another ticket put in also lost. A last ticket put in resulted in no action for this critical situation. Now why did they do nothing? Was it not important? Was there no one at the wheel? Were they too busy making money?

What happens when you put in tickets and they get no action? What happens when your kumbayas conflict with PWE's Gimme a dollar mindset? It sounds like you really want a path toward taking some sort of direction as a community but your community doesn't include PWE/Cryptic. So unless you are suggesting an overthrow of some sort, its hard to see it happening Tron.

But listen to me getting all Negative Nancy, you can take it upon yourself as a small to medium group to exert some vigilante style pressure on the player base.

[…]

After writing the rest of that it seemed rather dark and I felt the OP might not appreciate me detailing the measures to which he and others should go if they are serious about taking control of the player base and getting them in line.

In short, if you want to have an impact on the direction of the community you will have to take it and it wont be pretty. Thats just the way all this is set up. There are actually tools in place, in the game, already, for you to do this very thing but in reality sending in disappearing tickets and pleading with damaged youngsters to “be nice” is the best we should expect.

On the upside, you give some small hope for humani... aww nope there it goes.

Hey, shine on though, you crazy (astral?) diamond

screamingpalm · May 2013

There is nothing you can do to establish a "fair" economy in a video game. It is impossible, and if no one has learned that by now, they never will. Some people paid money to get a head start, others surpassed them using the tools provided and suddenly the game is no fun now. Why was it fun letting "Heroes" have a headstart advantage then? It's only considered an exploit if you don't pay for it... amirite?

If you want a "fair" game, get rid of the AH and BoP everything.

Astral Diamonds are a g.i.r.l.'s best friend.

thesexydoctor · May 2013

As long as there is an economy, there will be someone finding a way to exploit it. Exploitations happen and are common, unfortunately. And about gold, I think it should have more use. Honestly, the only time it's ever really used is to buy a mount when you start and get early companions. It doesn't have much further use.

j0mberwaki · May 2013

Your OPINION and your MALICIOUS MOUTH-GRUNTS are unwelcome here, sir... -pokerface-

But no, seriously. The cause of problem with the economy goes so deep as the immense amount of level 60 players in a short span of time, thus flooding the auction house anyway with lower and lower prices. The more supply, the less demand, the smaller AD per item... With that, there's not a lot that can be done to 'fix' the economy, or establish any 'fair' economy, because it simply is as it is; the more people that find very rare's, the less that piece is rare, and T2's suddenly become AH farmable... That's nothing but a problem with drop rate ratio and the fact that so many (if not all) items are BoE rather than BoP. Without items being bound once they're picked up, the economy is flooded with repeat items from all the level 60 dungeon farming.

Good luck, but methinks unless the entire item base of purples exception to few, extremely rare items is coded for binding on pick-up to eliminate so many now common 'very rare's'... then NOPE.

As a community...

Comments