I waste yet again more time to try and share sense with whomever the topic might concern. I am fairly sure that at this point the gold squish announcement topic really isn't being observed and the feedback from it isn't perceived, or at least no sign of that is shown in the means of communication. With that said, I am going to share my two cents and finish the note with a suggestion to fix the issue, or at least a large part of it.
To write this, I had to answer myself to the simple question of: "what is a gold squish's purpose?" Well, clearly, to combat price inflation. However will it strike you at all as odd that it will do no such thing? Let me explain. I have studied marketing and economics sprinkled with a pinch of common sense. I joined and started playing here at the fall of 2016, being present for the 2017 gold squish. I have also been present for 2018's gold squish which happened in a similar manner during a similar time-span. This is what people call and perceive as a pattern. How is that of relevance. Well, the 2017 gold squish had the biggest effects and longevity because nobody was prepared for it. But a lot of the server's population (I speak of Icecrown in question) are people who have been playing there for the longest time and I think that they, as well as I, have caught onto the pattern of the squishes.
For that reason it had been knowledge to me and these players that there will be a gold squish LONG before you created the announcement two days ago. We have known about it and have prepared for it by stockpiling on items to insanity and beyond so we can sell them as fast as possible after the squish, get the moderate amounts of gold for them and sell them on the coin store when the gold per coin ratio favors us the most. Knowing the date of the gold squish, I will make sure that you cut less than 1 gold on the date of the squish. This is what the people who know the squish is coming will all do and these are the people causing the inflation. How? Well. If I know that there is going to be a gold squish in 1 year, which I do by observing the yearly pattern of gold squishes, I will want to stockpile on items rather than gold. For that purpose, I will buy the most profitable items when the prices of them are low and buy them in large quantities. This process starts to happen about 3 months after the execution of a gold squish. This is the time when I would gather as much gold as I can so I can begin my stockpile on items. Daily quests; weekly quests; soloing old content for maximal profit, etc. Absolutely easily, I would acquire about 13,000 for a week without any auction house interaction whatsoever. This is when I start to buy stockpile while saving a fraction of what I buy in a cut / modified form to null my losses out of it and afford the next large material buyout.
This accomplishes two things:
• It gives me the materials I plan to sell after the next gold squish.
• Increases demand for items I am purchasing. With an increased demand, people increase the prices as they can profit more out of people like me in the short term, which is about what 80% of the population needs gold for. I am happy with my materials, they are happy with the extra buck they are making, but the damage in the form of INFLATION has been done.
With that said, the knowledge that gold squishes have been a recurring pattern to a player equates to people stockpiling on rifles and ammunition before the government is supposed to announce a "surprise" purge. Our survival rate will be higher since we are better prepared, having known for the event for a while and these who first hear of it will be the first ones to fall. In that sense, a gold squish is meaningless.
The thing is, however, that there is a simple fix. The main purpose of gold for more than 60% of the max level community is so they can sell it for coins to the other 40% and get items out of it. The gold per coin inflation has been going up parallel with the gold inflation as I am sure your statistics will prove to be as evident as mine. So, what is the fix?
Affix a set amount of gold per coin for the trade system. 1,450 gold / coin sounds about reasonable If you want further details as to how that will help, do contact me privately.
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Member
Boy O'Boy The Controversial Gold Squish
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Member
Completely agree with what you've said here, I've done pretty much the same thing over the past 2 years, squish hits me, but not that hard cause I keep my gold in items, what's next? Split the stacks of flasks,potions and mats that I have?
But the suggestion of a flat gold-to-coins ratio isn't gonna happen. At 1450g/c you need to do NOTHING other than killing mobs for a short time and you get the best in slot items. Maybe make faction change, recustomization and maybe even proffesion boost gold services? I'd rather give 10k away to get JC@450 than run AH-Mailbox-Trainer-AH loop for at least a couple of hours. Maybe a sort of a black market? Some occasional pets/mounts or old sets show up on the store for some ammount of gold. Those are all more likely than gold-to-coins conversion.
Just drop in a black market or some crazy lottery for players to dump in gold like in real life.
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Banned
What ppl fail to understand is that Warmanes intention with the gold squish is NOT to take 50% away of what you possess.
It's not a issue that rich ppl attempt to invest all their gold in other materials before the squish happens.
The goal of the squish is to reduce the gold inflation by removing 50% of the total gold on the server.
Who is more and who is less affected by it is irrelevant.
The gold gonna be removed and consequently the inflation reduced. It worked in the past and it will work again.
No need to overcomplicate things.
If there is a fixed gold price then the trade system would be flooded by identical gold auctions and ppl would barely sell anything.
The chance that somebody buys your "1,450 gold for a coin" auction is quite small when there are hundreds of auctions with the exact same amount.
In consequence ppl would search for new ways to sell all their gold and the black market would bloom.
Illegal ingame gold trading for gifted coins would be quite common and with it the scaming, etc...Edited: January 19, 2019
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Forum Veteran
Rich people don't buy reagents before squish. They sell them xD
This panic is so fertile and chinese farmers triple their $.
To be honest, I'm starting to develop some conspiracy theories.
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Member
Look at prices, they've doubled and more pre-squish. You'd be silly to sell pre-squish in many cases.
What's next, confiscate all gold and issue Darkmoon Faire tickets?
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Member
And then all the scamming turds that scammed will get perma-banned and the ******* pool of the game will diminish. Also what YOU don't seem to get is that little Billy who's farming his *** out day in and night to get his 280% flying skill isn't the person causing the inflation. It's big d*ck chad over there with 2,000,000 gold across all of his characters he gets by manipulating the auctionhouse. To say that it worked before is ridiculous also when you have CLEAR charts with evidence against it, showing that every single item's price started increasing in August / October until the point when a squish would happen when they'd be in the same state they are now.
I know there is going to be a squish in the end of the next year.
I gather items now.
Squish takes 0 gold from me because I have more than half a chromosome.
Little Billy gets f#cked though. I got his items from the AH for half the gold they're worth and I'll sell em to steal his GF too.
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