Purpose of COTOs? (SOLVED by @spoon - thx to all just the same)

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!!!! Why did they not confiscate these exploited COTOs from the perpetrators? That's crazies!!! >_<

Well, the only other way to get COTOs is to farm them from mobs. Is that what you are hinting????? O_O

 

Property taxes were not really a good gold sink anyway because they affected different players differently and so were impossible to balance in a meaningful way. The players with the most gold had tax-free deeds and didn't pay any taxes; the players with the least gold had taxed deeds or no deeds. All this did was incentivize players to skip taxed deeds altogether and save up for tax-free deeds. In the mean time, the rich got richer and the poor got poorer.

The most effective gold sinks are gold sinks that affect every single player no matter how they play. Like the repair costs of gear. Like reagents, food and consumables.

In the game, I personally never eat food or drink potions, walk around in broken armor, and buy cheap swords from NPC merchants, and this is because its an effective way to play the game for the content I play. I can grind a lot of gold over time without having to worry about spending any gold. Just sayin'.

 

Mr. @Spoon Thank You Very Much for explaining to me in the way that I can finally understands!!!!!!!!

I now understand why COTOs was introduced from your B) answer!!!! Your explanation finally helped me to see and understands.

The key concept i didn't see or understand was that it only works if it is tied to something of value, which in this case are the crown shop items. And this relationship maintains the perceived value of the COTO!! No matter what happens in the game world, a world war, a catastrophe, a typhoon, a hurricane, a 200 mile diameter meteor come smashing down, the COTO will still be able to buy the same items at the same prices as before. And your 2nd point also helped me to see was the "dark ages" examples, which I do remember from UO and WoW. I remember those games' economies suffered (due to many various reasons like exploits, duping, gold farmers, etc.) and gold prices sliding seemingly out of control. Those games' items didn't have the protection of a 'hard' currency so the economy was not healthy at all (not that the economy of SoTA is healthy -- it is not, but with COTOs it has some protection and i see that now)

I apologize for not doing homework, at the time of your message (and actually, now still) i am working... i still want to investigate those links and videos you provided!

I actually feel better now that I see the purpose of the COTOs in the game. It was really bothering me not understanding. I had various negative ideas about them which were hovering over me like black storm clouds that wouldn't go away. >_<

I fails! i admit i never liked homework and never liked tests! >_<

did i be more specific? i didn't even know i did that! i just post what i was thinking as always lol. You welcome! I thank -- YOU!!

Not sure what to say but i didn't really abandon my original question. It was always my main goal -- to understand what was the purpose and reason for being of COTOs. Until your explanation i still thought there was no real valid reason for them and they served no purpose and this was bothering me a lot. But all those other questions, and aspects are related. I guess I branched into those topics so that I could gain insight and answers that may contribute to answering my main question.

Again, you explained this clearer to me than anyone else so far. Thank You! Again apologize if your homework had an explanation for this. But in the meantime I'll take your word for this. I have to be honest and admit i am still a bit skeptical since i have not tried it and have not experienced this truth myself. You know what i mean? sometimes when you explain something a million ways to someone, they still don't truly understand or believe, there is still a pocket of doubt -- that is, until they go through it themselves. i know this, from my own experience and from trying to convince others and see the same manifested in them -- they need to experience it to acknowledge the truth being implored to them.

You're right i think i could have worded more carefully to convey my thoughts more clearly -- which was my interpretation of Chris' sentiments. Now reading his quote again, i realize i misinterpreted him. I thought he implied that COTOs would put a stop to inflation. Now i see he is saying that it doesn't add to the inflation.

Thank you for making this distinction! Agree!

Again i should have chosen my words more carefully. For this sentence i was trying to convey that money is not created, but rather, it was a mechanism that simply "stirred the pot" -- didn't add or remove gold, but circulated them with sufficient fluidity movement that it would serve all the players demands for gold. (like when someone needed gold, someone would be supplying it at the right time -- a currency system in perfect equilibrium -- whenever and wherever this is demand for some gold, there would be gold available just in time) So i wanted to convey all that by "supply/demand pressure" but i guess it didn't exactly do that.

This is the Eureka moment for me! Thank You! Question: did you tailor your explanation in the manner that you did specifically for me to understand? (i.e. did you see how others were failing in getting through to me and surmised what was missing in their explanations?) or was this simply your non-specific but intended way of explaining this topic (to anyone)?

Again, i'm happy to take your word on this though i have my reservations. (my natural affinity/bias against the behavior you have presented -- maybe i'm frugal/cheap? mere simple conveniences would not win my business.. when i still loved this game, i regularly scoured the ends of Novia for the best prices... hours of vendor hopping)

i haz flunked many!

Agree that the current gold sinks are very mundane (reagents, crafting recipes, crafting supplies, etc.) and the items in the crown store are also 'meh' to me. there is nothing for me to spend on. nothing.

this was before i joined SoTA. amazing. i wish i knew this and other history tidbits prior to diving into the game. my mistake.

i am *both hands full facepalming* with you.

this is a sore spot for me. still harbor lots of bitterness whenever this comes up. i don't think i'm a whale, maybe a salmon, but still for me it's significant.

Actually i don't like the suggestion you are making here. These small nickel-n-dime sinks you are suggesting would irritate the crap out of me. Again, this is maybe due to my natural frugality. Before they removed the choke points in the game i would rather stumble through those dangerous areas and die countless times to get to the other side instead of paying the douchebag magician 10g or whatever to teleport me safely to the other side. The cheapskate in me, lol.

I do agree however, that items sold for gold have been neglected and needs to be revitalized with many new exciting/enticing items for players to buy. even the crown store catalog needs refreshing, like 90% of the items in there i don't want to see again.

 

The devs may say that, but the devs aren't particularly strong on economic topics as we have seen numerous times. No offense to the devs, EVE hired an economist to straighten out their system. Adding currency to the game, as either IGG or COTOs causes inflation. COTOs aren't a hedge like gold, Port can mint new COTOs at will, as they control the drop rate and wealthy players could crash the market in instants by buying millions of them (which I'm sure Port wouldn't mind). Selling IGG or COTOs affects inflation the same way, the later just stimulates additional economic activity.

Unlike the real world, almost everything folks hoard in SotA can be liquidated at only a small loss, goods never decay and obsolescence is rare. In the real world, owning a warehouse full of iPads is much different than having a millions in cash. In SotA, ore, ingots, hides, beetles, cotton, etc. are just about as good as cash as they can be converted every readily with only a modest conversion fee. If SotA's player base were larger, virtually all assets would be liquidatable easily enough to make them effectively cash.

 

To support the game.

 

According to Chris in one of the livestreams they recovered about 60% and banned some accounts. Although it was mostly one individual doing it.
(Well at least if that was the incident he was talking about, they usually never give too much info on exploits for obvious reasons.

(Me personally, I would love to see a ban banner ticking up all the time. That would send a message of them clamping down on things behind the scenes which we naturally can't see).

No worries, glad to help.
That response just made my day.
As you might have noticed I get a bit ranty when I get started so apologies for the length.

I would recommend the vids from Extra Credit, they are fun and insteresting.

Great. I think that is the way the brain works.
If we don't feel the small stepping stones on the way, then we won't look up to see the whole picture.
Which is why it is so much better with the "but if X then why Y" format.

Because the ones explaining when explaining goes directly to the end concept skipping over how to get there. But through having more specific questions, it forces the explainer to give more concrete answers.

(I try to do that a lot at work when holding training sessions).

Yea. I'm the same. I use wiki frequently when discussing things, since when friends try to explain they mix things up and I don't get it - while if I get the same thing in text it kinda sticks.
But then I need to "feel it" to believe it.
Sceptic through cynicism... hehe.

I have a bunch of vendor locations if you want to try the concept, hit me up in game I'm Spoon there as well. I have far too many to keep them stocked anyway.

Truth!
I fully agree.

Little bit of both and neither.

I think the diff in my explanation is that I take at face value that you are speaking the truth from your perspective. So if you say you don't get X then I better explain X. While most would take shortcuts.

Funnily enough - that is one of the things that I don't get. I just can't wrap my head around how they can't see the effects of the decisions they make. I mean they can track the metrics much better than any player.

 

Yupp, and they are still in business.
What I find fascinating is how they made it sound like such a simple decision to make at that time, when really almost no one else was doing that.


But I'm biased, Eyjo is such a great and funny guy that I take anything he says as gospel. Pitty that he is not still with the company.
I especially loved his take on transparency in market economy back in 2009.

Not that they are doing bad, but Eyjo was special. Well at least to me.

 

I'm actually glad that they don't do this because it could send the wrong message.

 

Yea thinking it through you are right. It would be the wrong fit for this title/project.
More of a competitive FPS thing.

 

Like to say something good, like well it was a crown of the obsidian until I stole it from them, now it is a crown of the avatar.

But really I typo’d the first one and went with it throughout.