If you remember from Sophus' Theory of Inflation, I theorized on how the current lead cause for economic inflation was stored gil entering the economy.
Well, here's two things that you may already know:
1) Gil-selling companies like IGE are MASSIVE gil stores (not stores as in selling, stores as in kept or placed in storage)
2) IGE has been doing a "holiday sale" in which gil has been sold for an incredibly cheap price
Take a break from clammering and bickering about the high prices of SH, Vermy Cloak, and the like and turn your attention to what's actually about to happen. In fact, it could be happening already!
1) A giant "store" releases massive amounts of gil into the economy. This makes gil already in the system worth less.
2) People are going to buy that gil and finally have money to buy the items they've always wanted.
3) Those items will begin to run out on the AH as even more people buy them.
4) Sellers will take advantage of this item rush and charge even more, insane amounts of money for their items
5) Prices of everything on the AH will increase dramatically
Here's what sparked this. In another thread, Xamer made the following post:
Quote:
Inflation hurts gilsellers the most. Since obtaining gil will most likely take them twice as long now they have to gain 3 or 4 times the amount they used to, just to make the same amount of $US
The problem is, gil sellers don't obtain gil; they obtain items. These items are then sold on the AH for gil.
Doesn't it strike you odd that IGE is selling gil so low for the "holidays?" It doesn't make sense to drop the price of gil so much. Common sense says "they're going to lose a LOT of money by doing that." But IGE (and other companies) aren't stupid; they know exactly what they're doing.
There HAS to be an ulterior motive...
With this in mind, I ask you to think about alternatives. Study. Theorize. What is the motive? What will happen to the economy as this gil is purchased?
For starters, IGE will obviously lose some money due to holiday sales. BUT! they just dumped hundreds of millions (or even billions?) of gil into the server. What does this really mean? It means that hundreds of millions (or billions) of gil was just moved from storage and put into our economies. In other words, they are purposefully adding to inflation. The effect? Gil is worth even less while items are worth even more.
Who has gil? You.
Who has items? Them.
The harder we allow the inflation to hit, the more dependant you will be on their "services." The more dependant you are on their services, the more they can charge you. And since inflation has already hit (hard), they can keep buying that gil low from sellers, and selling it high...to you.
Have I scared the crap out of you yet? Good. Because if you really care about it, here's a few things you can do:
1) Don't buy gil if you plan on spending it. I'm not going to point fingers and say "Gil buyers/sellers are bad, m'kay?" But the fact is that the more gil we have in the economy, the less each gil is worth. If you buy gil to spend, you are adding to inflation
2) Don't put up items for exuberant amounts of gil. If the last sale was 5mil, don't sell yours for 6mil. Yes, you CAN make more money putting it up for 6, but you are ******** yourself over as well.
3) Don't pay exuberant amounts for items. If the history is 5mil for an item, don't bid 6mil. Let them lower the price.
4) Don't get pissy when players don't have the l33test uubergear. Don't let them slack, but don't berrate them if they are a thf without an emp hairpin. If they don't have the money to buy it, do you really want them buying gil to make you happy for the next 2-3 hours?
5) Camp for the items you want. Put down the Dynamis. Say goodbye to Kirin for a while. Read up on the information at your fingertips and then hunt your own damn nms. It's not impossible--nor improbable--to beat "those nasty monopolizers" (/sarcasm) to the mobs. In fact, the more effort you give, the harder it will be for them to win. Eventually they miss quota and move on (or maybe get fired?).
6) Put the blame where the blame is. Don't join in on the "I hate gilsellers" bandwagon. When it comes to inflation, you're just as much to blame as they are.
I could be wrong about this. I could be 100% dead wrong--but I'm still taking a chance and telling you what I see as about to happen. If you really want to end this crazy inflation, now is the time to do your part.
Either we make a difference or we don't. *Something* is eventually going to happen. It's up to us to determine what that something is.
This has been another one of Sophus' incredibly long posts. Sorry :/