Gold drain and reducing inflation

[romz]

Not going to happen as people already have multiple accounts going.

I never said they couldn't have multiple accounts. I said they couldn't use multiple accounts.

Example: Can't use 2 accounts at one time and can only log into Lordaeron with 1 account period. However, this would only affect Lordaeron. Or merge all accounts that 1 person uses under 1 system. (Something like Battlenet with multiple wow under same name) Then put a cap on there only affecting Lordaeron. I mean let's be real, there is no real reason to have more than 50k Gold.

[JamesBald]

I would clearly love to see transmog feature for gold and/or some sort of black market on the website

[Shinimasen]

Make Fly services expensive
Make entering ICC cost 500g
Make everybody with 100k gold+ to lose gold every 6 months
Increase AH's tax to 20%
Make it so that every character with 10k gold+ loses 0.5% of the total gold every day.
Lottery and transfmog

[njorde]

Please just consider adding NON-ESSENTIAL gold sinks. A static drain can theoretically work for the economy, but players are going to leave if they're saving up money for something and then they log in to find they're not even close to their goal. I don't mean to be harsh, but a static gold drain is such a grossly inelegant solution that you'll lose any respect for being a 'blizz-like' server. I know this server has exploded and it's doing something progressive and new, but you have to be careful making huge decisions like that. Laziness and losing sight of what is important (elegance) is what killed retail and the very same can happen to Lordaeron.


Gold sinks on the other hand are very simple. Instead of a lottery, just add things to the game that people can buy with gold. This is the Blizzard solution - you add a mount that costs something ridiculous like 100k gold or you add a service like transmog/void storage that is not at all essential to the game, but gives people a little reward in spending their gold. Consider an extremely expensive transmog, you'll know who is rich based on how fashionable they look. Players who don't have the gold for it aren't affected and those who do are almost certainly going to spend it on transmog (everyone will opt for that level of customization if they can and if they don't they're going to be hoarding gold regardless), but it's still a level of customization that is attainable in game and is nothing more than cosmetic. Mounts are another option, but as we see with retail, giving people with money (real or gold) mounts that are cosmetically on par with those that people spend weeks raiding/PvP for really kills the exclusiveness and achievement in that aspect. Sort of a "when everyone's a hero, no one is" deal which has become a primary turn off to the monster retail has become.


But static gold drain? Don't. The cons are huge and the fact that this was even considered is a little worrying. Even if everyone was screwed equally, you've still managed to screw everyone. Last point. The 'solution' is just going to create another problem that it hoped to solve. The people who really know how to make gold in WoW aren't going to be affected by a drain unless they were random and unannounced. If I have 100k gold and there will be a drain, I'm going to buy something on the AH that will be worth 100k the next day after the drain. I'll lose nothing and make relative gains since everyone else had their gold cut. This will create a complete cluster**** in the economy beyond any issue it's currently experiencing every time a drain takes place.

[Gagha]

How about the TCG Stuff?

Make them BoP and add a Vendor in the Capital Citys. (Or add them to the Dalaran Mount/Pet Vendor)
Like for example Spectral Tiger/Magic Rooster sell them for 200k each.
Or some Pets like the Spectral Tiger Cub for 75k.

The Prices could even be more higher.
Just add like a Token (Soulbound ofc) that cost 25k and you need to have 20 for a Mount (Since Goldcap cant handle 500k at once)

Maybe if they are not consider to be added in the Marketplace they could get a good use their.

........... This ?

[hellforge]

It's not about rewards. It's about incentives for the rich players to spend and remove the gold away from the player-to-player turnover themselves (isn't that why the AH and free market economy are being so unnecessarily and foolishly criticized? ).

Whether something costs 100g without drain, or 99.5g after a daily drain is quite the same, if it is equal for example to half a day's worth of grinding quests and looting mobs. So that item costs you half a day spent on collecting the gold - with or without a regular daily drain (or whatever). If it takes, however, half a year to earn that gold, you'll be hit harder by the drain. So it would be a matter of efficiency, and speed, not to lose gold to the drain while you save up for something you want to buy. A casual player will be hurt more than someone who knows the way around, simply because it will take the casual more time to earn that amount. Time is what matters, not the actual %.

Now imagine that there's a super awesomely cool TCG and transmog feature, or a flight that costs 500g as mentioned above. A gold wh@re will never spend a dime on that, me included. I will just fly with my own 280% mount. It won't hurt if I am not transmogged, either. But what about the "new players" that can't yet afford a mount? They'll have to walk their way, back and forth, through an entire continent? It just doesn't make sense.

The game as it is, simply does not provide any kind of gold sink at its endgame stage other than repairs. So if Warmane wants to provide a blizzlike experience, they pretty much have no chance to achieve the inflation control without introducing custom content and going non-blizzlike. Which is not the case.

Think about the target customers. It's not about punishing those who can't figure out how to earn gold, but about allowing those with less in-game time to have their false sense of competitiveness :D

[Ironbible]

Make Fly services expensive
Make entering ICC cost 500g
Make everybody with 100k gold+ to lose gold every 6 months
Increase AH's tax to 20%
Make it so that every character with 10k gold+ loses 0.5% of the total gold every day.
Lottery and transfmog

Just stop talking.

[steffomio]

Just cut all Gold values (Auction House, Mails etc. included) in half when inflation goes too high and you are fine.

[hellforge]

Just cut all Gold values (Auction House, Mails etc. included) in half when inflation goes too high and you are fine.

Are you sure it would not be better to cut it by 3.14159265 times instead of 2.00?

They should make a sustainable mechanism that regulates prices itself, and not rely on GMs doing one-time cuts.

[Feralbeard]

How about some conclusion and staff response?
I can`t see this going anywhere...

[Hopca]

Please just consider adding NON-ESSENTIAL gold sinks. A static drain can theoretically work for the economy, but players are going to leave if they're saving up money for something and then they log in to find they're not even close to their goal. I don't mean to be harsh, but a static gold drain is such a grossly inelegant solution that you'll lose any respect for being a 'blizz-like' server. I know this server has exploded and it's doing something progressive and new, but you have to be careful making huge decisions like that. Laziness and losing sight of what is important (elegance) is what killed retail and the very same can happen to Lordaeron.


Gold sinks on the other hand are very simple. Instead of a lottery, just add things to the game that people can buy with gold. This is the Blizzard solution - you add a mount that costs something ridiculous like 100k gold or you add a service like transmog/void storage that is not at all essential to the game, but gives people a little reward in spending their gold. Consider an extremely expensive transmog, you'll know who is rich based on how fashionable they look. Players who don't have the gold for it aren't affected and those who do are almost certainly going to spend it on transmog (everyone will opt for that level of customization if they can and if they don't they're going to be hoarding gold regardless), but it's still a level of customization that is attainable in game and is nothing more than cosmetic. Mounts are another option, but as we see with retail, giving people with money (real or gold) mounts that are cosmetically on par with those that people spend weeks raiding/PvP for really kills the exclusiveness and achievement in that aspect. Sort of a "when everyone's a hero, no one is" deal which has become a primary turn off to the monster retail has become.

+1 on this

[dovlecel]

Tokens that allow you various things, like faction transfer, to reduce ban time (but not for all kind of bans, maybe just smaller bans like harrasment, racism, again not remove entire the ban, but to reduce its periond, from 5 days to 4 and so on).

Edit: even by able to get extra vote points with them, eg: 1 token to be conveted to 5-10 vote points.

Edit: or tokens by quality,
Eg: copper token for 1000 gold - allow small things
silver token - 5000 gold
gold token - 10000 gold

[hellforge]

Whether you stockpile gold, or its equivalent in primordials, or infinite dusts, or flasks, or leathers, or gems, or whatever else trade good - it does not really matter as long as you can trade it back for what you need.

Gold is just the most commonly used currency in player - NPC interaction, but is not superior to any other resource. It's just what the NPC vendors accept in exchange for their services - repairs, skill training or waypoint flights, etc.

So, if the economy ever becomes so flooded with gold, it will be worth almost nothing. If it ever becomes too easy to obtain, then its value is going to be close to zero and nobody is going to spend time on collecting it. People may be forced to trade via the forums and exchange materials instead of trading via the AH for gold. That is how trade evolved back in the ages when people didn't use money.

On the contrary, if gold is too hard to obtain, then what on earth is this inflation we're talking about?

The only issue about gold is that it has not been clearly stated from the very beginning:
- do the developers want more gold in circulation, or less gold in circulation? Otherwise - do they want active trading, or they want people to work for their gear themselves? That's what matters, not whether we're allowed to trade our gold for more gold.

I assume they just want everyone to level up their own crafters, get their own production chains, and be self sufficient. That looks similar to the item level restrictions they're about to enforce - you have to work for the stuff you're going to use. Gold is not a factor in solo play.

[acdex]

On the contrary, if gold is too hard to obtain, then what on earth is this inflation we're talking about?

The only issue about gold is that it has not been clearly stated from the very beginning: - do the developers want more gold in circulation, or less gold in circulation?

Well, if they don't fix the drop rate in hellfire/zangarmarsh there's going to be A LOT of gold in circulation. Kinda want any kind of response if this is intended or if this is going to remain unchanged/remain likewise for northrend zones. It has already made a huge dent on the economy.

[hellforge]

Yes, of course, but there are already tons of gold sitting in banks.

What if it just stays in the banks and is never put to good use? WotLK is comming soon.

Easy gold = useless gold.