Inactivity Cleanup and Gold Squish for a healthier economy

[Shred92]

will the chars in barracks be affected? this question have been asked and no one answered, pls respond ty.

Yes of course. What would be the point otherwise?

[Ironbible]

For deleting of not played characters, name-savers etc - ok. For the gold squish - i will never agree.
Retail never had such bull**** and i have played end of vanilla, full tbc, full wotlk, 1/3 cata, end of wod and full legion there.
With thousands and thousands more per realm than here, with its pretty constant amount of pure gold flowing into economy from quests, vendored etc etc etc... So dont tell me it would not be controllable without squish.
If we say a new exp. release was 'somewhat' a reset with its new prices, new gold values etc - fine. But it happens what, 2-3 years at east? Surely not every 1.
And lets say for Lorda here take the primo for example - ~10,5 of 12 months its price is stable and perfectly fine, not cheap but also not out of reach for many, just fine. A gold squish gets announced and everybody starts running in circles like crazy with hands flying and rolling eyes, the primo price starts climbing, a month after the announce it passes x2 its initial price and continues rising until the date the squish hits. People are stocking piles of mats, piles of primos etc, inflating prices
As i said the primo is taken for example but this is applied for every single AH item.
The day of the squish comes and everything goes back to normal for the next ~10-10.5 months. Zero F-in point! Leave it alone for 2 years you'll see the economy will remain perfect self-leveled.

You don't have a bad idea but a better presentation helps. A gold squish every 2-3 years sounds way better. Last year I think it was in March, maybe even April, and its already happening again in February. It's not even been a full year, and now that it is expected to happen, 3 months before and 3 months after the economy is ****ed with prices all over the place, and never consistent day to day, and then you get maybe 5 good months of economy. Honestly, the economy was better before they even started the gold drain. It was also new player friendly, players/guilds would give away free BoE and gem/enchants. I do agree though, once a year, and it happening earlier and earlier, is a little excessive.

[Ironbible]

If they did it ever 2 years, then skipped next year, without informing players that it was going to be skipped, then it would probably stabilize the economy and wealth distribution because everyone is going to be spending and hoarding in anticipation and then it'll never happen. They'll be a nervous period and then people are gonna start selling low and then hit them with a drain that following year.

I think another good alternative is a 10% drain at the end of every arena season (every 3 months). It comes out to a yearly 40% drained and it's consistent, and its not going to make people panic. 10% every season is a reasonable tax most players would just eat and it'd have a stimulating affect on the economy all year long.

[Nicolette]

I think another good alternative is a 10% drain at the end of every arena season (every 3 months). It comes out to a yearly 40% drained and it's consistent, and its not going to make people panic. 10% every season is a reasonable tax most players would just eat and it'd have a stimulating affect on the economy all year long.

now that's actually a pretty good idea, it's nice to see someone bring a good alternative to the table instead of just whining that they shouldn't do it or that their own special circumstance should be excluded (buying gold, new players with not much gold, etc.)

[sinbadthesailor]

But there is a typical mathematical error here. Percentages works differently. To fit 50% squish per year you must to be drained for about 33% every 3 months (4 arena seasons). Is the idea still good? :)

[ruerue45]

world of warcraft is a game of achievement. It all start by the creation of a character with a specific name. Then you grinding rating and statistics under this name, you also farm a reputation, you grow up in a social way. All this side of the game is directly attach to your name. If you dont play for some time and comeback in the game, you realise your name is not avaiable anymore and you are supposed to deal with it and that all ? Absolutely not, its 100% legit to claim his name back. I dont understand how people care about economy state on a private server, but dosent care about secure their identity wich is everything in the game.

[Obnoxious]

If you dont play for some time and comeback in the game, you realise your name is not avaiable anymore and you are supposed to deal with it and that all ?

Yes, and that isn't up to debate.

[rickrockreggea]

Yes, I have been. And I have yet to find a decent answer.

Is it so that currently all the end game raiding stuff is way overpriced?
Is it so that currently fresh players are in capable of buying any raw mats?

I dont see this being discussed? If so please link it.

[rickrockreggea]

I'd say make shopkeepers that sell vanity items but severly overprice them. That way you get something back.

[Nicolette]

world of warcraft is a game of achievement. It all start by the creation of a character with a specific name. Then you grinding rating and statistics under this name, you also farm a reputation, you grow up in a social way. All this side of the game is directly attach to your name. If you dont play for some time and comeback in the game, you realise your name is not avaiable anymore and you are supposed to deal with it and that all ? Absolutely not, its 100% legit to claim his name back. I dont understand how people care about economy state on a private server, but dosent care about secure their identity wich is everything in the game.

I'm pretty sure this is the same person with yet another account, get over it dude. Warmane isn't even the only game that does this, League of Legends does too.

How about you imagine not being able to get any names you can even think of because of the strict rules of the naming system (no numbers, can't be 3+ of the same letter in a row, maximum characters allowed, etc) and even using the random name generator button doesn't work because all of those are taken too. All because most of the names are locked in accounts that haven't been played in years.

The world doesn't revolve around you. All you had to do was log into that character once in the last 6 months prior to the cleanup. You literally just had to log in once and immediately log off. I doubt you had any serious hardships in your life preventing you from being able to access the internet and log in (war, deployment, critical illness, homelessness, etc.), otherwise you wouldn't be complaining about such a small issue as if someone stole your life savings.

[Nicolette]

Yes, I have been. And I have yet to find a decent answer.

Is it so that currently all the end game raiding stuff is way overpriced?
Is it so that currently fresh players are in capable of buying any raw mats?

I dont see this being discussed? If so please link it.

your inclusion of the word "currently" makes you sound like a troll. It's not about the current market (time period between the squish announcement and the actual squish) it's about what would happen if inflation isn't controlled in some way.

Here you go, and if you can't understand this explanation then I guess it just comes down to "if you have to ask, you'll never know"

Keep in mind my friend, it's not only the squish that happens, it's also an inactivity cleanup and name resets.

Back to the squish, just look at all the previous squish announcement threads and read the replies very carefully. Some other dudes and I tried to explain it in great detail to anyone having doubts about it. I believe you'll understand that I won't write all that stuff again here, please just look it up.

I have one quick question tho, let's say the squish never happened. Let's also say you just started on this ( reasonably old ) server. How would you feel if your level 80 starter gear would cost you around 3-4 times the amount it costs now? Or a single +20 strength gem going for 1-2k? Old players wouldn't really mind, since their wealth grew and inflated with the economy, but newbies? They would definitely find it odd.

There is a huge, pretty constant amount of pure gold flowing into the economy every day, from quests and vendored items. It just gets generated. Without the squish it would not be controllable.

Not to mention the gold cap of 214k, which cannot be overwritten given the nature of the system. After a while this cap wouldn't be enough.

[angrylol]

But that's not really the problem. You can look at this argument from the other side also. If new player can sell his gems for 1-2k, isn't it really easy for him to buy spells, riding, talents and whatever else? Earn more gold, spend more gold. Prices in economy is not dictated by "old players". It's dictated by people why buy things(players progressing), usually new players.

Only difference is number, it does not matter if gem is 300 or 2000 gold if the effort/time to get that amount is the same. Telling that squish helps new players is just foolish. And steady inflation over years is definitely better for "players". Keep in mind, we don't know how big inflation would be at these rates, all we know is prices back when gold drops were x7 or x10 or whatever. I don't recall anyone crying how they cant afford gems or anything, does anyone?

Logical conclusion is that squish has nothing to do with prices, healthy economy or new players, we can just suck it up and go about our day milking gold from noobs.

[Nicolette]

But that's not really the problem. You can look at this argument from the other side also. If new player can sell his gems for 1-2k, isn't it really easy for him to buy spells, riding, talents and whatever else? Earn more gold, spend more gold. Prices in economy is not dictated by "old players". It's dictated by people why buy things(players progressing), usually new players.

Only difference is number, it does not matter if gem is 300 or 2000 gold if the effort/time to get that amount is the same. Telling that squish helps new players is just foolish. And steady inflation over years is definitely better for "players". Keep in mind, we don't know how big inflation would be at these rates, all we know is prices back when gold drops were x7 or x10 or whatever. I don't recall anyone crying how they cant afford gems or anything, does anyone?

Logical conclusion is that squish has nothing to do with prices, healthy economy or new players, we can just suck it up and go about our day milking gold from noobs.

I would agree with you if it wasn't for the gold cap and the fact that there are players who don't like farming and using the AH and instead prefer to just get the gold they need from doing daily quests.

As someone who uses the AH for most of my wealth generation, if I were a new player I would prefer high prices because it would be easier to get server goods and I would just sell my items at market rate and buy the items i needed at market rate - and I've explained to new people who complain about the high AH prices on icecrown (at any time of the year, not just right before the squish) about the benefits of being able to afford your epic flying mount, training, repairs, etc easier.

But if someone instead prefers to quest then without the squish those quest rewards would get severely diminished over time. Not everyone enjoys using the AH to multiply their gold as we do and should be able to play the game like they want without the economy ruining it for them.

With the gold cap i'd rather not have prices inflate to the point where I need to send gold to alts everytime i go to clear my bank toon's mailbox. It's already gotten to the point where i need to do that at least once a week. Last week I gave some random noob 5000g just because i needed space and he happened to be running by. #champagne problems am I right? ;)

Furthermore, what happens when inflation is so bad that you need to sell items at a price above the gold cap?

[angrylol]

Right, only certain % of people play AH. Squish reduces people who would play AH, why bother to stack some gold when it's going to disappear. Afterall everything is obtainable just by playing, never going near AH.
People farming quests, It's not that people specifically like it, it's just viable strategy, huge competition on ores/herbs is a major point there. People just go for most effective way, at least what looks like it.

And it will take like 5 years for most expensive items to go to gold cap, well idk, maybe some Pendulum of Doom type of item will reach it sooner. When items reach that, people will just barter, as they always do. People bartering or people storing mats, because can't store gold, who knows which is better.

[Nicolette]

Right, only certain % of people play AH. Squish reduces people who would play AH, why bother to stack some gold when it's going to disappear. Afterall everything is obtainable just by playing, never going near AH.
People farming quests, It's not that people specifically like it, it's just viable strategy, huge competition on ores/herbs is a major point there. People just go for most effective way, at least what looks like it.

And it will take like 5 years for most expensive items to go to gold cap, well idk, maybe some Pendulum of Doom type of item will reach it sooner. When items reach that, people will just barter, as they always do. People bartering or people storing mats, because can't store gold, who knows which is better.

Well it's not even that people don't play the AH because they'll lose gold in the squish, some people just really don't like using the AH to make money. As an AH speculator and someone who has tried to mentor guildies in the past, some people just don't have the patience/aptitude for it. Think of "earning gold organically by playing" as a minimum wage job, not everyone has the qualifications to attain a job above minimum wage and when inflation happens it's the people making minimum wage/on fixed incomes that get hit the hardest because their earnings can't keep up.

as far as it taking 5 years for things to inflate enough to go over gold cap, gold squish has been going on for 5+ years now so that is about where we'd be if they had not been doing it each year.

As far as people storing mats because they *can't* store gold, well if you let inflation run rampant then your stored gold would still lose value anyway. Perhaps not at the same rate as 50% a year but over time things will cost 2x, 3x + and your gold is effectively worth half as much without losing any. This kind of hording/panic buying happens in real life too, look at places like Venezuela or Argentina where the inflation rates are wild. People have a "buy now so I don't have to pay more later" attitude in places like that. They don't save their money (in their own currency at least) because "the price of everything is just going to keep going up"