Economic Suicide.

[Eurac]

One of my favourite pastimes in PS is to buy and sell but there are so few markets to exploit these days that this once lucrative activity seems somewhat futile. There may be things that the devs can do to improve the current economic structure bit the players are also causing an economic disaster.
Its nice that everyone is kind and generous in PS, if I need something a guild mate will no doubt be able to provide it or acquire it for for me. If not a little RP or just a tell to a player, even a shout in gossip, will provide me with what I am looking for and when payment is offered it is often refused. What a wonderful world this is where everyone shares, well, no, not really.
How nice it is to arrive in Hydlaa and be provided with a set of leather armour and a couple of shiny swords, but it is to easy. Yes a lack of players causes problems with such activities but the generosity of all the wealthy, experienced players, which most of us are, to each other and to new players does not let the market flourish, there is no trade just gifts. I think it is time for PS to get back in character.

[Echoes91]

Great and diffused welfare, small potential market, lack of necessity. This is a recipe that would cause prices to fall, even to disappear, even in real world market. People generally tend to behave like people even when roleplaying.
With abundance of wealthy characters that have no need to satisfy and lack of a large customer base that has some need, it's actually natural to create such situation.
Why shouldn't I give it for free when nobody can give me anything that i really need in return (unless it's just a greedy character)? And why should I pay as long as somebody is likely to give me it for free? Yliakum looks like an utopian world right now, it would probably change as soon as a larger customer base (new players) will show up.
To shake the market right now some king of necessity could be added, for example food. If I need to buy it for eating then I have a reason to ask for some money. Then let's say that higher quality food gives greater/longer lasting benefits, so much that somebody has a reason to put some effort into cooking because he will sell at higher prices than a NPC would do.
These are called a black holes, something where value (money or items, makes no difference) have to disappear because food would be a non optional consumable.

Now somebody could argue that he can already do that as pure RP, but since I'm not a good RPlayer I need game mechanics to drive me and probably the market does too.

Maybe one day I'll apply for the rules team and I'll try to propose and balance something like this.

[Eurac]

Food being a requirement within game mechanics had crossed my mind, I think it would be a part of the solution, eating food to gain a boost of some kind would work better if not eating was penalized in some manner such as a slight reduction in stats or skills.
Items provided by GM events alone would also create a market, as it used to before, this also gives the GM team some control over the economy in that they could flood or restrict the market. Another consideration similar to the food idea is a tax, citizen tax, guild house tax.
Of course none of this would solve the real problem, lack of player customers but that is not the whole issue. It may however make the game a little more interesting, a game that is sometimes to easy.

[Rigwyn]

Who should be the arbiter of what is fair and reasonable, the game or the players?

I think asking for a working marketplace supported by the mechanics AND for players to be reasonable and IC about their spending is asking for both. I don't think that works in practice.

Why is it not IC for a wealthy character to piss away an amount of money that is insignificant to them on a poor character? I would argue that its OOC for wealthy and poor characters to interact like equals. IN the real world, society is segregated by wealth and culture. Billionaires don't typically hang out in the ghetto and vice versa. In Planeshift, there is no culture. Everyone is just lumped together - right now, because the world is so damn small.

[MishkaL1138]

Who should be the arbiter of what is fair and reasonable, the game or the players?

I think asking for a working marketplace supported by the mechanics AND for players to be reasonable and IC about their spending is asking for both. I don't think that works in practice.

And Riggy just thought of the idea for an auction house. Honestly, a guild could fill in the gap. Players give them items, pay a fee, put it up for auction, and choose for how long should it run. End of the story. If I played, I'd go back to squeezing nooblets out of their hard earned tria.

I'm a heartless greedy jew cat

[Jilerel]

We can try to create services, and a new player-made currency, ruled by players.
Add taxes to get regular services, add PVP, or add more RP jobs.

Reviving the economy might be as simple as stopping using trias.

[MishkaL1138]

We can try to create services, and a new player-made currency, ruled by players.
Add taxes to get regular services, add PVP, or add more RP jobs.

Reviving the economy might be as simple as stopping using trias.

Is that you, Donari? This has been suggested before. Didn't work. Probably because everyone hated the Empire ˇ\_(ッ)_/ˇ

[Jilerel]

Is that you, Donari? This has been suggested before. Didn't work. Probably because everyone hated the Empire ˇ\_(ッ)_/ˇ

I know that this has been suggested, I just point out what we've already discussed.

And yeah. To fix the latter, you'll need to find someone else to do that.

[Dilihin]

We can try to create services, and a new player-made currency, ruled by players.
Add taxes to get regular services, add PVP, or add more RP jobs.

Reviving the economy might be as simple as stopping using trias.

Is that you, Donari? This has been suggested before. Didn't work. Probably because everyone hated the Empire ˇ\_(ッ)_/ˇ

well srly this has been suggested tons of times by many ppl but it never took wind to it, it has to be something else.

[Rigwyn]

Hey by all means, try it.  What the hell do you have to lose?

[Dilihin]

Hey by all means, try it.  What the hell do you have to lose?

Lose? A lot. Time, effort, focus and potentially more. So if one really doesnt want to do  it, then he shouldnt do it.

[Echoes91]

I don't get why a new player made currency should help. I mean, why should I or anybody accept it since it won't let me interact with the setting and probably anybody else?
I can understand a pure RP reason like a parallel black market or a whole "shadow society", but still it would remain good for a niche while what the market needs is a larger customer base.

[Jilerel]

Services. Services ain't used by NPCs.

[Dilihin]

Oh the trias, so wanted currency... yet there is no real use for it. Once one has maxed all stats there is not much use for it, is there? From that point on you have pretty much more than enough of it.
That's why there should be player currency or smthing, because you can't grind vast amount of it like trias.

[Eurac]

Some nice ideas, a player driven economy with its own currency is a very exciting prospect, it would be a lot of fun. The need for a larger customer base for trading in with tria is not something we as players can do much about other than RPing in game, activity will hopefully capture the attention of passing players and help get them to stick around.