Concerns of Economy

I'm trying to may some purchase descissions and struggling with them because of concers I have with the economy. In my opinion, it is the responsibility of the fine crew at Portalarium to shape the economy to an extent, and keep it from spinning out of control......the major issue I had with UO. My new concerns stem from the fact that on the add-on store, a city lot costs $1050 and in game it can be purchased for 100,000 gold. Are we really saying that 1 gold is worth about $.01? That ratio is kind of crazy to me. There is going to be a real problem when game goes live if this is true. So the way I see it;

Option 1: City deeds Should be cost 1 mil or more gold in game
Option 2: Make add-on deeds tax-free. That kind of money ($1050) deserves the rareness that is tax-free deeds.
Option 3: Both the above.

Additionally; to control the economy, and again in my opinion, gold should be offered on the add-on store. This would fix the price/value of all things and prevent rediculous inflation.....keeping the game fun and honest.

 

Why #2 is not tax free is probably because they have the pledges tied in with tax free deeds. Maybe they want to encourage you to get the tax free version of plots via pledges instead?

 

I hear ya, the price is pretty steep for real cash, relatively cheap in game.....not balanced in my opinion.

 

In game wise, yes. Probably be adjusted later as they get closer to launch, yes? But good to give them feedback so they keep it in mind

 

The price you are seeing in game for lots is just temporary because there will be more server wipes, once the game actually launches the in game price of a lot deeds tax-free or otherwise will be much, much higher.

 

Gold in game in measured in quantities of time, not number.

If it takes 1 year of farming to get that 100,000 gold it would be very different than 1,000,000 that only took 1 hour.

 

Some how, and from the state I'm seeing in game now, some are generatin that kind of gold rather quickly.

 

Totally agree my friend!

 

I guess otherwise stated, I'm to pay $1050 for a city deed...PLUS pay a tax on it. Makes it seem over-priced to me. Unless the taxes aren't as bad as Im expecting. Furthermore, if owning a PoT....I can see having to buy deeds from the add-on store to use in your own town....but not having to pay taxes on it in your own town however.

 

I hope this is true; any Dev discussion to back this?

 

Hi Duke Zef yes it is true, no numbers in the game are the true numbers right now. It's easy to forget the Devs are placing systems in game and then before launch will be getting them fleshed out. A lot of that will be with our help. We can only play with what we have and expect continuous changes, that is our world right now

 

I think it would be a mistake at this time to price almost anything in-game at 1,000,000 gold.. or even 100,000 gold. Just by it's very nature it's devaluing in-game currency before the economy ever kicks in which is already inviting out of control inflation simply by virtue of public expectation.

Devs have said many times.. nothing right now is set in stone and everything is subject to change. Nothing is balanced. At the risk of incurring the ire of some by saying this.. the game is still in pre-alpha. It's not feature complete, let alone content complete. Expect prices to change.

Richard has even talked about multi-denominational currency before.. bronze and silver coin which I am entirely in favor of.

 

***support*** I DO understand numbers are not fixed yet and everything is subject to change. I just hope they make sure the effort in game is comparable to the effort IRL it takes to make $1050. I know , for me at least, it takes a bit of effort.

 

Majoria70,

You make a very good point and I appreciate it! Sometimes I forget that its still pre-alpha =P

Have a great R17!
v/r
Zef

 

Bowen,

Thank you for the enlightenment....points understood, well taken, and much appreciated! I agree....multi-denominational currency would be awesome and innovative!

v/r
Zef

 

Totally agree Kit! I'll be watching the situation carefully....and maybe a good idea for me to stop my spending spree for the meantime

v/r
Zef

 

You need to keep in mind that lot deeds purchased from the addon store or in game will be pretty much worthless without the LOT SPACE you can use them on. It is that lot space that will be truly valuable given the whole limited housing thing. And it will be the lot space that will be appearing on RMT sites - not the deeds.

I doubt you will see any sales of lot deeds from the addon store post release. Except by people mistakenly believing there will be a lot in game to use it on.

 

Right you are Ashlynn.....which is exactly why I bought a Town size PoT.

 

On that note.. the devs have stated a commitment to not have more deeds sold than space available and that was before player own towns came into play. Though we can speculate how player towns will effect release plans.. it still remains that they plan to have more lots available at launch than deeds sold.

Keeping in mind also that they've said more towns could be opened up depending on demand and each new EP is supposed to double the size of the world map.. so each episode will open up new lots with a total of 5 episodes planned. That does not however, guarantee lots will remain open for long. Anyone who waits too long to find and claim a lot could theoretically be out of luck and have to wait for more real estate to open up.

 

Great counterpoint. This has been a great line of discussion to expand my original narrow-minded thoughts.