Gold Sink ideas

Grimbeard · March 2023

JenniferMarie said:

This entire conversation reminds me of a conversation I had with my dad when I was probably about 9 or 10 and had just learned about the US Treasury and Mint … it was early 90’s and the news was filled with talk of inflation and federal debt (go figure) and I asked my dad “Why don’t we just print more money to pay off the debt?” and he explained that that would cause the value of the dollar to plummet. More dollars in circulation means they’re worth less … so …

maybe the answer isn’t removing gold … but providing players the ability to earn MORE gold just by playing the game. Then the RMT sites wouldn’t have a demand for gold and new or returning players can build their bank balances faster.

Ok let's say Johnny kills hyirus for 1200 a pop how many would he have to kill to earn even one plat? How about 42 ? Keep in mind he could never spend money for say insurance or anything

JenniferMarie · March 2023

And you have just proven my point: increase the amount of gold people get for playing the actual game.

popps · March 2023

JenniferMarie said:

This entire conversation reminds me of a conversation I had with my dad when I was probably about 9 or 10 and had just learned about the US Treasury and Mint … it was early 90’s and the news was filled with talk of inflation and federal debt (go figure) and I asked my dad “Why don’t we just print more money to pay off the debt?” and he explained that that would cause the value of the dollar to plummet. More dollars in circulation means they’re worth less … so …

maybe the answer isn’t removing gold … but providing players the ability to earn MORE gold just by playing the game. Then the RMT sites wouldn’t have a demand for gold and new or returning players can build their bank balances faster.

maybe the answer isn’t removing gold … but providing players the ability to earn MORE gold just by playing the game. Then the RMT sites wouldn’t have a demand for gold and new or returning players can build their bank balances faster.

While making gold more easy to get in the game "could" help reduce the amount of real money trades (if players can get in the game all the gold that they may need, why buy it with RMT ?), I am doubtfull that it would eventually work out...... why ?

Because, I am afraid that then players would simply charge more for their items and it would only spiral up even higher prices and a higher inflation....

i think that it is necessary to go to the root of the problem which it the extraordinary time it takes to get certain in-game items.

Gold, is only a means to get items. The end result, be it scripting or RMT to buy in-game gold is always items which players need/want to enhance their gameplay.

So, I am of the opinion that only by making items more readily available to players as compared to what it is now, it could be possible to address inflation and RMT in UO.

If players can get their high end items themselves, playing the game, because now the time to get them would have been made more reasonable, and thus not need to pay exorbitant amounts of in-game gold to purchase them or use RMT to purchase them or the in-game gold necessary to buy them when they lack the enormous time necessary to get them themselves in the game, I think that prices would go down and RMT no longer be used by many players.

So, to my viewing, the "key" to address these issues is through making items more readily available to players.... that is, taking a lot less time as they may take now for UO players to get them themselves.

At least, that is how I see it.

JenniferMarie · March 2023

I play another game with a very rare cosmetic item ... it's an 11 year old game? 12 years old? ... I have yet to get this cosmetic item, despite spending hundreds of hours over the years to get it.

Rare items aren't supposed to be easy to get.

keven2002 · March 2023

Nails_Warstein said:

AmberWitch said:

There's something here I'm totally missing even with reading the above posts. I don't understand what the value of a gold sink truly would be in this game other than giving players the opportunity to buy a shiny. Wouldn't it be the stereotypical player who buys gold or gets their gold through players who buy gold be the ones who could participate in purchasing a shiny? Wouldn't the amount of gold in game just increase?

I think its because new and returning players get sticker shock. It makes re-entry to the game difficult for them. When they left an ethereal was 1m, now over 50m among many other examples. Now the prices of Legendaries have come down some, but if you want that edge to compete, a new or returning player can't without thinking very creatively or begging for alms.

No offense to you but this is the exact type of thought process that causes issues where someone who hasn't played the game in 20 years thinks they should be able to come back and instantly have some edge to compete.

In my opinion, a returning player (just like a new player) should be putting the time in to understand how things work/what's good etc. In that time they are re-learning the ropes they would be progressing their toons (and knowledge) to the point that they are eventually able to earn some sort of edge. This is the crux of the entire game... players build up to eventually do end-game style content; sure returning players might fast track it a bit but they still need to put in some time (unless they pay $$ for it all).

keven2002 · March 2023

Grimbeard said:

JenniferMarie said:

This entire conversation reminds me of a conversation I had with my dad when I was probably about 9 or 10 and had just learned about the US Treasury and Mint … it was early 90’s and the news was filled with talk of inflation and federal debt (go figure) and I asked my dad “Why don’t we just print more money to pay off the debt?” and he explained that that would cause the value of the dollar to plummet. More dollars in circulation means they’re worth less … so …

maybe the answer isn’t removing gold … but providing players the ability to earn MORE gold just by playing the game. Then the RMT sites wouldn’t have a demand for gold and new or returning players can build their bank balances faster.

Ok let's say Johnny kills hyirus for 1200 a pop how many would he have to kill to earn even one plat? How about 42 ? Keep in mind he could never spend money for say insurance or anything

I've addressed this in another post within this thread. Killing any monster alone for the gold would take forever to get to a plat (I used Miasma as my example). That's not how Johnny is going to "get rich".

Johnny should be killing whatever he wants right now during the lull to build skills (while also planting green thorns) to prep for the upcoming event. Once the upcoming event begins, Johnny can get some drops (likely killing bunnies) to sell for millions each in a much shorter period.

It's not rocket science. I don't want to get this thread locked by accidentally mentioning something I shouldn't but just look at what the people who are breaking the rules do. They make a bunch of average level chars to do X. Before we had events it was resource gathering. For EM events...well just obvious (but more like the lotto). Now we have the same cookie cutter events every 6 months and look at how many multiboxers showed up (until they made the drops for EJ accts bound). Why is that? Because that's what sells and is relatively easy to do / get. I'm not encouraging illegal behavior, it's really just to point out that all you need to do is see what other people are doing with the same basic geared toon to see how to make money.

I'm starting to get a little of topic here but notice how other things aren't farmed 24/7 like Doom or Scalis etc? Several reasons for this but one of the top ones is that you won't make as much gold (for the trouble of doing it) and you also need higher end gear (if not the highest to stay alive). Same premise you don't see Hiryu's farmed 24/7 (outside of the gear you need).

Seth · March 2023

Yup, it's more lucrative to sell the minor arties, average cost is 2m each. Or wait for the next Event to get one balron armor and sell cheap for 175m.

I can also live with the current economy, but not shard bound items that has no proven benefit.

username · March 2023

Seth said:
I can also live with the current economy, but not shard bound items that has no proven benefit.

Shard bound has been a disaster at minimum.

Perhaps 'Account Bound' for a ToT or two would be a great idea: free high items, you just got to earn it. Get people out there playing the game, imagine that! Then who cares about the economy/inflation.

Seth · March 2023

username said:

Seth said:
I can also live with the current economy, but not shard bound items that has no proven benefit.

Shard bound has been a disaster at minimum.

Yup, it's a disaster.

JenniferMarie · March 2023

Can we all just agree that nothing any of us have to say or suggest, no matter how logical or not, will make any difference and find a way to find whatever joy we can eek out of our time playing UO while we can? Going back and forth over the same topics and getting upset with each other isn't an effective use of all of our time and energy - especially so long as the people responsible for keeping UO viable and thriving don't feel the same level of dedication and passion.

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