fight GC prices rise

fight GC prices rise
Posted 2021-09-06 13:32:23 (edited) #518270 Hi! short version: as it seems the GC price rise is mostly driven by a small handful of players who buy lower trades and resell, a solution to GC prices rise may be (including propositions from commenters): - to put limitations on trades (limit number of trades or puchases per player or per RO, remove money trades, etc.) - to have a raccoon-like character exchanging SC for GC, at a fixed price, in unlimited quantity (so we know GC prices will never ever rise higher than that) - to have more SC sinks for established players (limited-time or biome-specific things buyable with SC, or raise SC prices for already-available raccoon wares, for example) - to make money trading more attractive so more people do it and the monopoly situation stops long version: So SC prices went within a couple weeks from 100-150 sc to 300-500 sc, and everyone in chat complains about GC prices rise. I've heard it said that it's a natural progression, that if sc are easier to get from the quest update then mechanically their value will drop, but when I went to check the GC prices today, I was surprised by the way the "GC for SC" trades titles were all the same. So I opened a few dozen trades, over the first half-a-dozen pages, to check who was the vendor. And lo and behold, most of the trades belonged to the same, like, three people. After a discussion in chat earlier today bemoaning the "buy and resell higher" nature of the TC, I'm pretty sure that price rise is anything but natural (and if it was, it should anyway be controlled), but is in fact the consequence of a handful of people knowingly changing the market, buying out any trades they deem too low to resell at their price, and hoping if they keep at it for long enough it'll stick (and it probably will, unless a group of people makes a concerted effort the other way and loses a lot of money doing so). Now are there ways to control that? I don't know how efficient it'll be, but I have a few ideas (I added too ideas that came up in the thread): - limit the number of trades a player can have up at any time, so that no one person can spam all the trades: they can still buy, hoard, and resell later, but it probably will lower their efficiency. Several people can also band together to do what one person can now, but still: slightly harder to do. - limit the number of purchases one can make in one RO: they can still buy out all lower-prices trades just after RO, but it would limit their actions too; it would be slightly bothersome for regular players (I have like 20 1-use crafting items and 15 carcasses up for trade at any time), but we could only apply this to money trades. Otherwise, I'm fine with lowering the number of trades I have at any time if it keeps one person from controlling the market. - remove money trades. People would still be able to buy items or wolves with GC, SC, or a bit of both, but it wouldn't be allowed anymore to put money up for trade (I'm not quite sure of the consequences of this one tbh). - have a raccoon-like character exchanging SC for GC, at a fixed price, in unlimited quantity: that way we know GC prices will never ever rise higher than that, because if they do buyers will switch to buying from the GC raccoon instead of from other players. It may look like it'd defeat the money-bringing purpose of GC, but nobody will want to grind for weeks at a time just to buy one custom decor: they'll still buy it. Ideas pulled from this thread (I may not have witten everything though) - more SC sinks: more limited-time or biome-specific raccoon wares backgrounds or marking apps, or raise prices for existing ones - more things to gene-check for without needing to buy GC-specific things (immortal jellyfish and immortal slots) - easier trading; maybe reusable templates, or a "trade money" quest, or something to make more people interested in setting up money trades: that way the monopoly over money trades would theoretically stop and it would be harder for the few current sellers to control the market, since they wouldn't be near-alone anymore. If anyone has any other ideas, or opinions on these, I'd welcome it very much.	Fal - semi hiatus #43456

Posted 2021-09-06 13:32:23 (edited)

#518270

Hi!

short version: as it seems the GC price rise is mostly driven by a small handful of players who buy lower trades and resell, a solution to GC prices rise may be (including propositions from commenters):
- to put limitations on trades (limit number of trades or puchases per player or per RO, remove money trades, etc.)
- to have a raccoon-like character exchanging SC for GC, at a fixed price, in unlimited quantity (so we know GC prices will never ever rise higher than that)
- to have more SC sinks for established players (limited-time or biome-specific things buyable with SC, or raise SC prices for already-available raccoon wares, for example)
- to make money trading more attractive so more people do it and the monopoly situation stops

long version:
So SC prices went within a couple weeks from 100-150 sc to 300-500 sc, and everyone in chat complains about GC prices rise.
I've heard it said that it's a natural progression, that if sc are easier to get from the quest update then mechanically their value will drop, but when I went to check the GC prices today, I was surprised by the way the "GC for SC" trades titles were all the same. So I opened a few dozen trades, over the first half-a-dozen pages, to check who was the vendor. And lo and behold, most of the trades belonged to the same, like, three people. After a discussion in chat earlier today bemoaning the "buy and resell higher" nature of the TC, I'm pretty sure that price rise is anything but natural (and if it was, it should anyway be controlled), but is in fact the consequence of a handful of people knowingly changing the market, buying out any trades they deem too low to resell at their price, and hoping if they keep at it for long enough it'll stick (and it probably will, unless a group of people makes a concerted effort the other way and loses a lot of money doing so).

Now are there ways to control that? I don't know how efficient it'll be, but I have a few ideas (I added too ideas that came up in the thread):
- limit the number of trades a player can have up at any time, so that no one person can spam all the trades: they can still buy, hoard, and resell later, but it probably will lower their efficiency. Several people can also band together to do what one person can now, but still: slightly harder to do.
- limit the number of purchases one can make in one RO: they can still buy out all lower-prices trades just after RO, but it would limit their actions too; it would be slightly bothersome for regular players (I have like 20 1-use crafting items and 15 carcasses up for trade at any time), but we could only apply this to money trades. Otherwise, I'm fine with lowering the number of trades I have at any time if it keeps one person from controlling the market.
- remove money trades. People would still be able to buy items or wolves with GC, SC, or a bit of both, but it wouldn't be allowed anymore to put money up for trade (I'm not quite sure of the consequences of this one tbh).
- have a raccoon-like character exchanging SC for GC, at a fixed price, in unlimited quantity: that way we know GC prices will never ever rise higher than that, because if they do buyers will switch to buying from the GC raccoon instead of from other players. It may look like it'd defeat the money-bringing purpose of GC, but nobody will want to grind for weeks at a time just to buy one custom decor: they'll still buy it.

Ideas pulled from this thread (I may not have witten everything though)
- more SC sinks: more limited-time or biome-specific raccoon wares backgrounds or marking apps, or raise prices for existing ones
- more things to gene-check for without needing to buy GC-specific things (immortal jellyfish and immortal slots)
- easier trading; maybe reusable templates, or a "trade money" quest, or something to make more people interested in setting up money trades: that way the monopoly over money trades would theoretically stop and it would be harder for the few current sellers to control the market, since they wouldn't be near-alone anymore.

If anyone has any other ideas, or opinions on these, I'd welcome it very much.

Fal - semi hiatus
#43456

Posted 2021-09-06 13:36:51

#518274

I think the raccoon character idea is a good one, maybe it could be the mate of the raccoon wares one? But yes, I agree with you and support your idea!

Night Mare
#8864

Posted 2021-09-06 13:45:07

#518277

While I would love an npc to trade sc/gc, I don't see that being implemented.
GC is how this site makes actual money, which is needed to run it. If you create a way to obtain GC without anyone actually purchasing it, it cuts into the money Wolvden gets.

As you mentioned, as SC becomes more plentiful, the value of it compared to GC is reduced, ESPECIALLY if GC becomes less plentiful due to people not purchasing GC.

There have been more ways to obtain SC implemented lately. When Wolvden began, you could pretty much only get a few SC from exploring, a handful from quests, and about 200 from the Raccoon. SC was VERY valuable then, and you could buy GC especially cheaply because it was abundant due to a lot of the early access players having GC.

Now, you can get SC from a LOT of different things.
That means that it's not as highly valued as it used to be when it was incredibly hard to get.
All of the GC in circulation was at some point purchased by someone with real money, and there are GC sinks in the game so not all GC stays in circulation forever. So there may also be less GC to SC overall as well, which would further increase the price of buying GC with SC.

Chirp
#2670

Posted 2021-09-06 13:52:23 (edited)

#518286

don't support for the most part, because of the suggestions to limit how many trades a player can have, how many times they can purchase, and removing money trades. that just seems really unfair imo.

this would ruin income for a lot of people, at the moment the only reliable way ive been getting money is posting a lot of trades, bumping them, and hoping they eventually sell. rarely my trades sell and selling gc has been a significant portion of my income (which is still very small by the way, im super broke all the time)

imo the solution to this is actually just simple: dont buy the gc. if they dont sell, prices will go down. people will post at cheaper prices. i think limiting peoples ability to engage in the tc is really unnecessary. i am not totally against the raccoon character idea though, but im worried it might count as getting free gc which isnt allowed, which would make this suggestion null.

☘️ [Slow] Kaziah (Kaz)
#16535

Posted 2021-09-06 14:04:53

#518291

Oops, hadn't thought about it possibly being considered "asking for free GC". Huh, mods? if it does fall into this category, I can remove the GC-raccoon idea.

Fal - semi hiatus
#43456

Posted 2021-09-06 16:45:49 (edited)

#518422

I don't support limiting the market; I think gc buyers (with real money) should be able to make as many trades as they want. In general I agree with Kas that if nobody buys inflated gc then there will be no incentive for people to post inflated gc trades and the market will correct itself.

But I would like to see some greater sc sinks to combat inflation. The OG Blue Moon background would have been a fantastic sc sink if it had really come back in August, and it would be nice if we got more limited-time items in Raccoon Wares like that. And it'd also be nice to have new heritable non-lethal mutations (I'm not suggesting any particular kind of mutation, just anything that will have people Gene-checking wolves without needing to buy immortal slots and jellyfish).

Lionel
#34199

Posted 2021-09-06 18:42:57

#518502

I don't support limiting the market but I think having more ways to spend sc can help. Previously WD has been criticized for having too many sc sinks, making the game too difficult, but that's because lots of sc sinks are tied to core gameplay that mostly affect newbies (den expansion, curing wolves, recalling wolves that leave). Now there are more ways to earn sc players hopefully shouldn't struggle as much, so I think we can have more luxury sc sinks like maybe some raccoon wares exclusive markings applicators.

Allowing sale of LT in the trading center might help f2p players earn gc too.

Fran
#19368

Posted 2021-09-07 00:00:03

#518605

Oh, good ideas! I'm editing the first post

Fal - semi hiatus
#43456

Posted 2021-09-07 07:46:46

#518702

I also don't agree with any of the suggestions limiting TC use, but I do possibly like the idea of Raccoon wares selling only SC in turn for GC (and not vice versa). The conversion rate could be decided by the community beforehand.

I also agree with Fran on the "having more ways to spend sc" aspect. Biome-exclusive applicators would be cool :o More Cool bases to spend SC on. A battle-arena style game where you have to spend SC on powerups and abilities would be nice! (Definitely like that last idea the most >.>)

KittyKookiez
#34644

Posted 2021-09-07 12:24:52

#518977

I think it's good that GC prices have gone up. I haven't given the game a single penny since buying my early access account (so maybe $10? can't remember) and am currently sat on 397 GC that I have no idea what to do with, purely because I bought a bunch with SC when the price was a lot lower. I was just banking my SC as GC, basically. I really don't think I should be able to accrue that much.

What I think the game really needs is more SC sinks that affect established players - ones that have already expanded their den with SC as much as it is possible to do so.

Coal
#476

fight GC prices rise

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