A New Currency Item - Discuss

Hey, I checked the Index of Ideas and searched, but nothing like this came up. If there is something like this and I just have poor searching skills, feel free to show me the thread

Anyway, here's my idea. Currently, ectos are being used as currency in trades of over 100k, since we can only hold that much at once. My suggestion is this: have a specific item, worth maybe 5k each, that could be used instead. There would be a merchant for these who would sell them for 5k and buy them for 5k. I don't know about others, but the fluctuation in ecto prices disconcerts me somewhat. For instance, if I wanted to sell an item for 100k+20 ectos, and then the next day ectos were up 1k, I would've lost 20k. Maybe not that much to someone who just sold the item, but still a considerable amount.

So, to say again...

There would be an item that is worth maybe 5k each. They would max at 250 per stack. A merchant in major towns would sell these for 5k each, and buy these for 5k each, thus keeping the price stable. These could then be used instead of ectos to have a more stable and easy-to-understand currency item. I know I don't want to have to calculate 6.5k * 6 ectos, it would be much easier to just calculate 5k * however many of this item.

However, there are some visible problems with this. The ecto market may die down some, with people who were purchasing ecto for use in trades no longer needing them. This may drive the price down. Also, unless the item had a totally unique icon, it could be mistaken for another item and be used to scam.

Discuss.

I like the way you think, and it actualy might work to solve 2 "problems":

1. ecto price goes down a bit, SO if he was like 7k, it goes stable for 5k. Fow armor easier to obtain (but still well over 1 000 000g to make maintaining the challenge).

2. no need to use craft materials as trades whitch i always saw as a drawback of economy.

I would also like to suggest diferent "tokens" for that porpouse, they would be like sigils in someways. Major towns would sell them and would be like 3 "models", copper, silver and gold OR 5k, 10k and 15k ea. They buy and sell for the same price and have no other use then high - end trades.


Another workarround for this would be the implement of another currencie unit, not only more GOLD then PLATINIUM, but a third one that would worth 1 000 plat. The max quantity would be of 1 of those on the storage (to avoid farming people getting ultra - magnificent rich) and it would solve all the "craft items in trades" problems.

BUT, in other hand, the "pseudo - economy" that GW sustains is already fragile enough whithout major chages, so I am not 100% sure if i would sign or not now, OR if I would like to change anything to it (other then an auction house).


Latter.

Isn't shard about 3k? And black dye around 6-8k?
I guess should estimate the ecto to be the lowest price (that would sell to merchant) and not the current price... unless you like to play the speculation game.

But I don't see too many problem to introduce such item... but what could it be? Should it have a use too? Can it be tradeabe by merchant? Where would such thing drop?

Sounds like a good idea.

But the item should not go over 5k. The higher you make it the more money people could hold. I don't think Anet wants people to have so much gold.

/signed

Brother Gilburt

To answer some questions...

It wouldn't drop. Its only purpose would be as a cash placeholder. You would buy it only from this merchant and other players, and sell only to this merchant and other players. In this way, it's something like a gift card that you can sell back.

And like I said, although the prices of items are somewhat stable, the main currency item, ecto, can vary in price up to 1k over the course of a couple of hours. This new idea would create a completely stable currency item, as it would only be obtainable for 5k, and sellable for 5k.

You could not purchase it for less, because the player would rather sell to the merchant to make more money.

You could not sell it for more, because the player would rather buy from the merchant to save money.

Thus, the price is kept exactly at 5k. And I don't believe it should go any higher...currently ectos vary between 6-7k and it seems people are rich enough as it is. Adding this new item should not have a major impact on the value of other items.

This seems like a good discussion, let's keep it up! Oh, and please, no trolling or flaming. This is to be a logical discussion outlining the benefits and risks of adding the idea, and to see who is in favor of the idea and who is not. Thanks in advance for being thoughtful and civil!

/signed

I love the idea. In fact, I now feel kinda cheated that this doesn't exist! Damnit, Anet! Get off yer hands and get to work on this!

I know I sound sarcastic, but I'm serious, this really sounds like a great idea that just should've always been there.

What about use for merchants? it might seem useless, but you could use it for buying armor, or something. like a merchant charges you 20k. you give him 4 token/placeholder thingies.

/signed

The '5k Nugget' :P


-LiamB

Instead of this, why don't they increase the amount of gold you can carry and trade?

actually i think this is kind of a bad idea. Anet is trying to keep a lid on inflation by limiting the amount of money you can carry around. Allowing another stable form of currency sort of messes that up.

ditto to akumaz.

But, if this happened, there would be no real point in having a gold cap, would there? Because on a fixed-price item, there would be absolutly no risk to buying as many as you wanted...

Suggestions like the OPs come around every few months. I haven't seen anyone even attempt an answer to this question when raising the gold limit would be eaiser for ANET to implement and eaiser for people to use.

But instead, because ANET has fixed the gold limit for whatever reason, they propose a more complex susggestion that would have the exact same effect as changing the gold cap.

/unsigned - Its too complex a suggestion when a much simpler one would have the same effect.

but wouldn't it end up that the farmers would end up with storage chars full of stacks and stacks of these items allow then to obtain more and more money

Why would that matter to you? Someone has more money than you do...so what? They can do the exact same thing with Ecto's at the moment.

Agreed with AkumaZ though, seems way simpler to just increase the amount of gold you can carry...

I'm all for it. Its like a stock market. True I lost 3.4mil in ecto value when factions was released but i made over 800k back during the dragon festival selling black dye when i switched my ecto over for stability. So this does allow you to not only store in a different way and playing the market at the right time. It should be some kinda material valued and stable around 8-10k mark.

/unsigned

I just dont see the point of needing over 1mill gold at all. This also allows people that sell money online horde more then 1mill in gold futher increasing the sell of gold online.

IMO, I think Anet should just raise the amount of gold you can carry. It would just make things easier. If they introduce a new trading item it will just lead to more scamming. They should just secure the trading system, and create something where you type what the bargained price is and the trader submits that specific price or it won't trade. <--that is what they should do.

Nice thinking there.

/signed

I have another idea if thats ok.... I say we are able to actually USE the present box that we get during our birthday and christmas. We can use our boxes to store items and money, kind of like a "giveaway" storage. And we can choose if other people can see it or not (eitherlike an actual present for our friends or to trade with nother people)

But as for this idea...
/signed

/signed

i think this a great idea in order have item which is worth a solid value

also this one of the few ideas that doesn't feature giant robots.

/notsigned

It would be nice to see a slightly higher cap on gold, be it through an actual cap increase, or simply another way to get around the system. having a more stable way of getting around the system won't change much(except to insure you don't lose money) because (as mentioned) people already get around the cap using ectos, dye, etc.
My two cents: If they do this, how bout using sapphires or jewels that haven't been given a purpose yet? Just make sure you can't get them from crafters...

One thing of concern... at least for my own personal taste, is that it could promote further inflation to the hardcore farmer, leaving casual player out of the game. (or atleast turn them off)

Personally, I do hate how some item is costing over 100k, which turns it into a money game, and de-value and de-route it form true fun. (especially for the future development, as a new idea have to blance with the impact to the economy) I think game money should be what they are, game money. Of couse, that is just a personal taste.

Will not work. Knowing how Anet thinks somewhat, the introduction of new moneys would colaptes the already established economy, and destablize the materal value system.

Imagine that this "Token" worth 5K was introduced, then all players bought them instead of ectos, ecto prices would plumit down to like 100G over night, because their would be no need for them anymore, most common craft items would be uneffected based on use. Also this would mean the FOW armor would be worthless as well, as more players will be able to abtain it due to ecto surplus.

Anet would devalue armor or weapons, before letting that happen, in fact they already did in factions. Their really is no problem with the way it is set up, the problem is with greedy players who try to sell items for more then they are worth, and dumb players willing to buy them, if anything increase personal money hold per character to 250K and make it a rule that if a player wants more then that even for a crystaline sword, then it is really not worth it.

I would not pay 600K to 800K for a perfect,or near perfect crystaline sword. with all the reference materal out their, I could just as easy get a group together and farm for them myself.

The point is not to haf over 1mil gold; its just to b a 2nd currnecy, like ecto, that doesn't fluctuate in price. So if you sold sumtin for 100k +15"5k nuggets", then you'll haf always sold the item for that much. It won't ever go above 5k in value.

As stated earlyer in the thread, it would create a "depression" if it was implemented, ectos would fall drasticlly in price witch would lead to ppl selling more ectos to save what they can(same as NC-Soft with the online store).
This would lead to a collaps of the whole in game economy.
In order for this to work A-net would have to let players exchange ectos for the new item at a set rate, and that would make to many ectos disepere from the game, resulting in a rise in ecto prices unless the drop rate of ectos was adjusted, etc etc

Hey all, thanks for the great discussion. ^^

The main problems with this idea that have been mentioned are...

1) Ecto would drop in price (which I stated in my original post as a likely issue)
2) This wouldn't be needed if Anet would raise the money cap.

Knowing all the suggestions about raising the gold cap that have come around, I decided that Anet doesn't even look at them anymore. Heck, I'd rather see that than this. But since it seems Anet won't change it, I decided to find some other way to keep prices more stable.

One thing though. Apparently, it seems that the number of people who are purchasing ecto for the sole use of being a currency item is higher than I thought. I don't need ecto, since I don't want FoW armor and I won't be buying anything over 100k. I thought that the majority of ecto buyers were aspiring to get FoW armor, but apparently I was wrong. So it seems the price would drop more than I imagined, which was a drop of about 1k.

I am by no means an expert in Guild Wars economics, so I do not claim that without a doubt this would have little effect on the economy. I'll let those who have studied it a bit more be the judges.

So, to sum things up...

1) I would rather see an increase in the gold limit before this. But, since Anet won't increase the gold limit, I came up with this idea to alleviate that problem instead. bilateralrope is correct in that because Anet won't increase the gold limit, a suggestion like this is created instead.
2) I realize the effect this would have on ectos, though apparently I drastically underestimated it. I thought that most people buying ectos were doing so for FoW armor, but it seems I was wrong.
3) This is just one in many ideas to improve the economy and trading system that GW uses. There are many other ideas I would love to see implemented before this, such as an auction house. But those ideas have all been said, so I created this one as well.
4) Thanks a ton for the great discussion! Hopefully we can continue this as well as it's been going. I'm surprised that in 20+ posts none has really been what I would call a flame. Thanks for that, and let's keep it up! If anyone else has something to say on this, go ahead, but please keep it civil. Thanks in advance

EDIT: Added some stuff.

I guess should ask your self... why was the money cap there the first place?

Since the item would be worth a fixed ammount for all intensive purposes it will be treated as if it was that ammount of gold, so you would be raising the gold cap as this would have the same effect. Except changing the gold cap would be much eaiser for ANET to do, and allow ANET to keep control of the cap.

Lets sumirise this suggestion of yours:

ANET won't increase the gold cap, so lets propose something that would affect players in the same manner, but be harder for ANET to implement.

So tell me what this suggestion offers that raising the gold cap won't.

You may note that I have not stated weither I support raising the gold cap or not. Thats because for discussing this suggestion it doesn't actually matter.

Feh. Damn farmers and their bizarre "problems".

/unsigned.

/notsigned

they wont raise the cap and they wont do anything more complex. I have 15k emperial and am cool with that. all FoW says is i wasted more then 75k on my armor. and all the 75k says is hey it aint 1.5k

I would rather see other improvments such as more quest/missions.

~the "WTF is a ecto" Rat~

I am surpise at the increase people who /notsigned this idea.

The OP had good point, and this will help smooth the transaction. Chris Blackstar and few other did come up with good counter reasons. I am more impress by the crticial thinking exhibit by the fourmer, and not just sheeps with one line reply.

I perfer the limited platnium capacity, it helps keep prices more reasonable.

The last thing I want to see is a device which allows players to save, spend, and charge even more ridiculous amounts for products.

Prices of ectos may fluctuate, but so do many other saluables, I perfer that even more safeguards and alternatives be added to reduce the cost of saluables throughout the game.

/NOT signed

First of all, there is nothing you really need to be buying for over 100k.

Second, ecto and other material trading is a gold sink. This idea would be taking out gold sinks that help keep the economy in check.

/signed

For all the people saying that there is nothing in the game worth over 100k then don't buy it. There are other out there who are willing to spend that much on particular items hence it is worth that much even if its not in your mind. Its fake money if you can't spoil yourself in a game with pretty items when can you?

Well, I think everything that can be said on this has been; anything else will just be a repeat of arguments. Therefore, please only reply with /signed, /notsigned, or /unsigned unless you have another argument or something to add. Thanks in advance!