It is interesting to see inflation on this private server, I know back in the days the damage of inflation is really contained by the value of rares (Party Hats, Santa, Masks, etc.). Given there are no storeholders of value, with all the people alching and creating more GP in the game. Values of goods I observed have gone up over the weeks.
Are there any concerns to the state of economy to this game in the long run? maybe it’s a good idea to bring back some of the rare items so that can be used to store hold excess GP in circulation to stabilize the prices?
I don’t follow your logic. Injecting rares into the economy is not going to take gp out. When someone buys a phat, the seller now has a stack of cash they are going to go spend on other stuff. The money remains in circulation.
MMO economies are very unstable things, because MMO logic doesn’t work like real life. Money and goods appear out of nowhere any time the players do something, so there is a delicate balancing act of sources and sinks. RuneScape has always been a bit of a weird example because the most expensive items tend to be ones that are not consumed, like combat equipment, so once they enter the economy, they almost never leave, which has a deflationary effect as the supply increases.
I don’t know enough about the technical specifics to say what the game population has to do with inflation, though, since demand is also scaling up with population. I think the main place we see high prices are with items with high requirements to make, like glories and rune items you can’t get in a shop. The population has grown rapidly, but very few of those joining are putting in the time to make the high-demand items, so the prices soar. But again once the items enter the economy, they tend not to leave, so I’d expect the prices to chill out over time so long as the population doesn’t keep growing, which it doesn’t seem to be.
Okay after carefully rereading your post, I think I understand what you’re saying. Rares have a fixed supply and are therefore immune to inflation, so you can buy them as a store of value so your money isn’t becoming worthless while you hold it. That’s an interesting angle, but will people actually do this? I feel like only the merching types will think ahead like this and invest as such.
The way I play is to grind only until I get what I want, then I go do the thing I was really trying to do. I imagine most others play the same way. I’m not holding a huge cash stack, so I don’t really feel inflation.
That said, inflation of currency is only half of the story. As I said earlier, the most valuable items tend to enter but not leave the economy, so the items themselves are also inflating. A well-designed MMO would have these cancel out, but again I can’t speak for RuneScape’s specifics.
Yes, this just serves as a interesting discussing point. I didn’t know if anyone else is seeing the impact of not having rares in the game down the line. If there are no rares as store holder of value, then inflation will become rampant. When there are rares, then the GP in circulation would make the point of feeling rich meaningless, which would cause people that are skillers to lose interest/motivation to play the game.
this is also how i feel. without rares players will achieve everything they want (items/enough food/pots/etc) and lose interest. with rares ingame, they scale with the economies inflation, meaning theres always something to chase.
I think we all agree that the server economy is not doing well. Prices are floating, tending to get higher even if more players are harvesting resources. The interest of players to what buy, sell or produced is based too on what first pages are grinding. Fletching and alching are obvious examples.
And another thing. Rares don’t stabilize the market, it’s not that simples. The inflation in RS3, for instance, is enormous.
rares dont fix inflation, correct. however they can alleviate item inflation - for example players with big gp stacks cant have it sit in their bank whilst resources keep increasing right, that would mean they have less buying power sitting on their gp. So, they spend their gp to hoard resources, what would players hoarding resources do? reduces the available supply, which pushes the pricing up even more.
bring rares in and they now have the option to try hoard a discontinued item which is where they sink their gp into, this aleviates the demand on hoarding resources and should lower inflation on items.
to what degree it would help lower pricing, if any? i dont know i’m actually a crayon eater 5 days a week.
Do you crave for rares that much? Is they the main reason do you enjoy RS? Go for 99’s or alike. Rares are nice too but I don’t think justify many hours efforts at the game alone. Not against them per se but if done wrong they can be carcinogen for the server.
When trade restrictions go into place in a few years it wont really matter how much money you have. The only way it might work is if its at a store for a set very high price. That would be an extra economy sink. But then how would the price be set? And if its set how could it continue to increase in value? Add to all this that some who would have those rares may want to stay on an older year server? Lets say 2004? Or 2005? Or 2006?
A lot of inflation right now is balancing the economy around 100k an hour jobs , alchs, and once cannonballs settle all the ores will fall into place. Everyone rushing right now and overpaying for things will eventually stop, ride the wave!
Rares is nice, I would like to get one myself, however, the point I am raising is regarding the continuation of the community for the maxinum number of players and to increase player retention.
The psychlogical drive of any MMO is motivation, having rares would be another pillar of this motivation. Without proper motivation, players will leave, which would cause a death spiral, this is a MMO afterall.
My in game name is Chakrakilla, feel free to pm me. I also being around for a long time, I started Runescape in 2001, was one of the first 5000 runescape players ever. Seen the up and downs of this game since, took a 12 year hiatus since 2012.
Inflation will stabilize as PVM and PVP relevant updates release and player count increase. There’s not enough of a reason to burn expendables like potions and high level food yet.
Let’s give it time. The game has natural money sinks built in as the player-base scales.
What natural money sinks does it have built in? Potions and food aren’t exactly money. If anything, players being more incentivized to burn those will increase prices due to supply and demand. It will have no influence on inflation.
Players are naturally creating coins every day. The main money sink is buying items such as runes and feathers from shops. This just isn’t outpacing the rate the coins are injected into the game, so inflation occurs.