I'm a casual player. Every few months I stop in to play for a week or so. I usually end up spending a lot of time researching the new flavor-of-the-month builds, and then I attempt to employ it. Farming the gear is time consuming. And time is money. And that's why you're here! Am I right? You got all excited when you saw "Enfranchisement"!
So, instead of giving you my economic philosophy I will merely attempt to explain a simple mechanic which will make things better for most players in terms of a gold/gear to time ratio.
Problem: Using guild merchants to make gold on your trades is tremendously more effective than anything else in the game. If you're not familiar with this please look into it, as you're missing out on tons of gold. But why is this a problem? Lots of gold is great, right? Perhaps not in this case:
1) A minority of players who devote much more time into the game than others spend a lot of time with trading, and they make literally millions of gold. 2) The tremendous comparative wealth has a disproportionate effect on the most powerful items for any given patch. 3) Therefore the prices on these items become commensurately expensive (i.e. hundreds of thousands of gold in some cases). 4) This puts the best items out of the reach for the common player unless they are willing to spend weeks farming the appropriate gear unless they too decide to leave their questing/pvp/grinding to become a master Guild Merchant Trader.
Desired effect: Increase the value of game elements outside of Merchant trading. If we could find some way to make the more fun elements of the game, such as questing and PvP (dare I say) nearly as lucrative as merchant trading, the cost of items will be greatly deflated
Proposed Solution: Sadly, despite deep thought and deconstruction of Adam Smith, I'm afraid the solution is drastic. Unfortunately, the player trading system has become so efficient for some that it has essentially broken the economy for casual players (or even hardcore players if they don't want to spend the time to trade). My first thought is to do away, in some respect, with randomized loot. If a desired set or item could be acquired through a direct quest, that would be great. It would be even better if it could be incorporated into all existing quests.
There are many ways this could be done. For example. Imagine a clever daedra finds a niche in collecting rare armaments (i.e. set items). He carries almost every set item in game, all selectable through his trade menu. But he doesn't care for gold. Instead he desires a special form of life essence. He gives you a gem or something else whereby every enemy you kill grants life-force points to the object, which can be traded for his items (like soul gems, but automatic without need to aquire the gems).
Or you could have a faction merchant who awards glory points for quests completed to trade for these items. Or there could be a nefarious merchant who will accept infamy points for bad deeds, thieving, and dark brotherhood contracts. Anything. I suppose there is already something like this in Cyrodiil for certain PvP sets. But I'm talking comprehensive with even less chance.
The key here is that with a moderate amount of play, someone can receive the items they desire without having to engage with the Guild Merchant traders (which are too inflated for them). Furthermore, you can level and quest with your friends even though you both want something different.
What will this mean for Guild Merchants? Will it do away with the need for them? I certainly hope not! It seems that this would simply stabilize the value of set items and move the Guild Merchant market from such items to mats and crafted goods, which in turn enfranchises crafters.
So there you have it; my humble economic musings.
Back to Tamriel for me, before the next patch makes my nearly completed character non-competitive....
So, instead of giving you my economic philosophy I will merely attempt to explain a simple mechanic which will make things better for most players in terms of a gold/gear to time ratio.
Problem: Using guild merchants to make gold on your trades is tremendously more effective than anything else in the game. If you're not familiar with this please look into it, as you're missing out on tons of gold. But why is this a problem? Lots of gold is great, right? Perhaps not in this case:
1) A minority of players who devote much more time into the game than others spend a lot of time with trading, and they make literally millions of gold. 2) The tremendous comparative wealth has a disproportionate effect on the most powerful items for any given patch. 3) Therefore the prices on these items become commensurately expensive (i.e. hundreds of thousands of gold in some cases). 4) This puts the best items out of the reach for the common player unless they are willing to spend weeks farming the appropriate gear unless they too decide to leave their questing/pvp/grinding to become a master Guild Merchant Trader.
Desired effect: Increase the value of game elements outside of Merchant trading. If we could find some way to make the more fun elements of the game, such as questing and PvP (dare I say) nearly as lucrative as merchant trading, the cost of items will be greatly deflated
Proposed Solution: Sadly, despite deep thought and deconstruction of Adam Smith, I'm afraid the solution is drastic. Unfortunately, the player trading system has become so efficient for some that it has essentially broken the economy for casual players (or even hardcore players if they don't want to spend the time to trade). My first thought is to do away, in some respect, with randomized loot. If a desired set or item could be acquired through a direct quest, that would be great. It would be even better if it could be incorporated into all existing quests.
There are many ways this could be done. For example. Imagine a clever daedra finds a niche in collecting rare armaments (i.e. set items). He carries almost every set item in game, all selectable through his trade menu. But he doesn't care for gold. Instead he desires a special form of life essence. He gives you a gem or something else whereby every enemy you kill grants life-force points to the object, which can be traded for his items (like soul gems, but automatic without need to aquire the gems).
Or you could have a faction merchant who awards glory points for quests completed to trade for these items. Or there could be a nefarious merchant who will accept infamy points for bad deeds, thieving, and dark brotherhood contracts. Anything. I suppose there is already something like this in Cyrodiil for certain PvP sets. But I'm talking comprehensive with even less chance.
The key here is that with a moderate amount of play, someone can receive the items they desire without having to engage with the Guild Merchant traders (which are too inflated for them). Furthermore, you can level and quest with your friends even though you both want something different.
What will this mean for Guild Merchants? Will it do away with the need for them? I certainly hope not! It seems that this would simply stabilize the value of set items and move the Guild Merchant market from such items to mats and crafted goods, which in turn enfranchises crafters.
So there you have it; my humble economic musings.
Back to Tamriel for me, before the next patch makes my nearly completed character non-competitive....
