That was a very well informative link. So I take it progress has been slow on that whole program?

What if NPCs acted as middlemen instead of buyers/sellers? I know this is a bit of a different idea but what if you put your items up on "auction" by giving it to a certain npc. Another player could browse the items on auction whenever (even if you were offline) and buy what they need.

This doesn't really encourage interaction or RP with other players but it might smooth over the economy a bit. There would be a lot of issues we'd have to address, like duration of said times being shown there, and I'm not sure if this idea has been brought up before (prob has).

You both make very good points and I see your logical. Perhaps I didn't think this through entirely and pictured the perfect world scenario too much. I guess PS would have to have hundreds of players on at any given time for this idea to really work.

But like tman said perhaps we ought to think about revising the prices NPC sell things for?

When things like this happen:

[Player one] simply stops the sword cold with her right forearm, the blade hitting the rib of her bracer. She kicks the blade over to [Bystander] as the [You] fumbles it.

...it discourages me. Because what's the point of me being there? If another player player is going to tell me what happens to me or what I do, why don't they just play by themselves and make all that up? Sure I could RP that I kicked you in the face knocking you down and jumped up grabbing my blade and slitting your throat with it, but is that really fun or believable? And I'm sure there are other ways I could of RPed it back to be a "worthy adversary" for you but I just don't want to because I know it will just get into a match where we have to out do each other with more ridiculous and more glorious actions. It's silly.

Don't confuse me not RPing my character as some badass adversary for you as me not putting effort into my RP. Frankly, the RP I've had with you and see you do makes me want to keep my other characters, that could prove to be an interesting opponent to you, out of any RP like that.

Yes I realize an economy fix has been brought up before but hear me out. I did the search to see if there was any like this and I didn't see anything.

So the IG economy is crazy inflated and there doesn't seem to be too much open trading going on. I believe because a lot of it has to do with a focus more on NPC to Player buying/selling. The majority of trading is usually with raw materials - things you can't get from NPCs. Now why don't we do that with nearly everything?

Let's remove the majority of items NPC sell. If a player can make it then an NPC won't sell it. Similarly (and perhaps most importantly) if something can be made/used from that item or if it's a player made item then an NPC won't buy it.  This significantly takes the profit out of a lot of items, because now you need to find someone, a player, to buy it.

This dilemma creates an environment for new characters to come into light. One that isn't strictly a miner/crafter/fighter. He's a merchant, the middle man. Someone who sees all that useless junk people have and searches for another character who needs that material to craft or quest or RP with. It forces players to interact with players and not NPCs.

I think this will go along nicely as things develop: as more and more items are found around the world rather than only from NPCs (creating another character type as the scavenger/forager) and making more uses for items by the player. This will encourage players to specialize their characters rather than have them do everything, as it will be harder and harder to do everything. If they can no longer buy all their ingredients then they will have to hire someone to do it or do it themselves. They cannot simply purchase hundreds of health potions extremely cheap from on NPC, they'll have to interact and rely on other players, making it truly an MMO experience.

Lastly, I think this will even out the economy a bit more and lower inflation (although it won't eliminate it). As prices for goods and materials will change based of supply and demand rather than stay stagnant as the NPC sells them. Such as health potions or cooking ingredients. And when we start seeing more of a use/benefit (buff/debuffs?) for food items and such those will also be a market that becomes available/more profitable.

Now these changes won't happen over night. In fact it will prob be a bit outlandish at first because players will simply not care for objects unless they directly can use them. But I believe after a while tria savings will drain from more experienced players and newer players will need many items (armor, weapons, etc.) leaving markets open and profitability in those areas. This will also give use to lower/middle quality items. As not everyone will be able to afford or need q300 at that moment so they will settle for something cheaper. So crafters that aren't maxed out yet can still see some funds their way for their work and to improve their trade.

Thoughts? Am I on to something or is there something I completely overlooked that just makes this silly?

You play someones character for them. You have an action that forces the player into an RP that you control and has an outcome you desire. Instead of allowing a bit of friction back and forth and eventually a solution, there's a dominate action early on that you give that doesn't allow for much further RP outside of what you already RPed for the other player.

I've also noticed you are quick to respond/interact before allowing another player to play their character. I understand you have a powerful character and you want that character to remain powerful but realize it can be fun too if you don't just dominate everything. I think you'd be surprised. Even the mighty do not get what they desire all the time.