Does anyone remember that we given a reason for there being so many credit sinks?

[Tricky-Ha]

Yeah, I remember. Of course I can't dig up the quote now because the old forums have been wiped clean, but once upon a time some of the Dev's used to talk to us on these forums & someone, not me, asked a question about why we have so many credit sinks in the game. They were told that it was because of the all the massive credit exploits that had happened at the start of the game & since there was no way to catch everyone that exploited credits illegally, all the credits sinks were put in place to drain those extra credits out of the system to balance out the economy.

 

Now what I want to know is, it's nearly 6 months since launch, have enough of those exploited credits been drained out of the system so that BioWare can get rid of a large number of these credit sinks yet? If not now after nearly 6 months, then at what point in time is enough time to have drained those exploited credits out of the game so that we could finally get rid of a large number of these unnecessary credit sinks?

[Revenaught]

It's easy to make money in game. The credit sinks are fine.

[Tricky-Ha]

It's easy to make money in game. The credit sinks are fine.

 

Not the point of the thread at all, man. We were told that the reason for there being so many credit sinks was because of other players exploiting. I did not exploit credits, maybe you did, maybe that's why it's easy for you to make credits, I really don't know. I'd just like the economy to even out so that there is no need for there to have to be so many credit sinks in TOR.

[GhoXen]

Credit sinks are there to prevent/slow down inflation. The relevant theory is the classic quantity theory of money.

 

M*V=P*Q

 

M = total amount of money in circulation on average in an economy during a period.

V = the average frequency (or velocity) across all transactions with which a unit of money is spent.

P = is the price level associated with transactions for the economy during the period.

T = is an index of the real value of aggregate transactions.

 

Since this is a MMO, T rarely changes unless new content (i.e. expansion pack, higher level caps) becomes available. The most relevant indicator for V is how frequently AH is being used by players. M, of course, is the amount of credits in the market. A good example of where M got out of hand is Zimbabwe.

 

Unlike the real world, where the amount of money in circulation is usually controlled by some government department, people in a MMO constantly generate additional money out of thin air through enemy drops, vendoring items and quests. If any player earns credits without another player losing that same amount, then that event contributes to inflation, assuming all other things being equal. When M increases, and if V and T remain the same, then on the other side of the equation P, the price level, will consequently increase.

 

Credit sinks serve to reduce the net inflow of credits into the market. When a player spents 2.5 million credits buying a landspeeder, when players spent credits removing mods, repair gear, train or even when players pay for taxi and ship fuel, M decreases. Any transaction which reduces a player's wealth without involving trading with another player helps to stablise or reduce the market's inflation.

[Tricky-Ha]

Credit sinks are there to prevent/slow down inflation. The relevant theory is the classic quantity theory of money.

 

M*V=P*Q

 

M = total amount of money in circulation on average in an economy during a period.

V = the average frequency (or velocity) across all transactions with which a unit of money is spent.

P = is the price level associated with transactions for the economy during the period.

T = is an index of the real value of aggregate transactions.

 

Since this is a MMO, T rarely changes unless new content (i.e. expansion pack, higher level caps) becomes available. The most relevant indicator for V is how frequently AH is being used by players. M, of course, is the amount of credits in the market. A good example of where M got out of hand is Zimbabwe.

 

Unlike the real world, where the amount of money in circulation is usually controlled by some government department, people in a MMO constantly generate additional money out of thin air through enemy drops, vendoring items and quests. If any player earns credits without another player losing that same amount, then that event contributes to inflation, assuming all other things being equal. When M increases, and if V and T remain the same, then on the other side of the equation P, the price level, will consequently increase.

 

Credit sinks serve to reduce the net inflow of credits into the market. When a player spents 2.5 million credits buying a landspeeder, when players spent credits removing mods, repair gear, train or even when players pay for taxi and ship fuel, M decreases. Any transaction which reduces a player's wealth without involving trading with another player helps to stablise or reduce the market's inflation.

 

I understand all of that GhoXen, I really truly do, but, I really wish the pre-launch forums had not been wiped so I could provide the exact quote from the Dev about the credit sinks in this game & their relation to to the credit exploits & the possibility that the credit sinks would even out once the bulk of the exploited credits had been drained from the system.

 

I know that MMO's need credit sinks, but it seems to me that in comparison to other triple A MMO's SWTOR has much more credit sinks & we were given an official reason for why. I just hope that server transfers & mega servers will have some kind of impact on evening out the impact on the economy so that so many expensive credit sinks are no longer needed.

 

I'm part of that high percentage of level 50 players that does not have over 1 million credits, what were we, 90% of the overall SWTOR population, IIRC? It just doesn't make sense that Legacy perks cost so much & that credit sinks are so expensive & every other forum poster is saying how easy it is to make credits in this game when BioWare's official numbers show the exact opposite.

[jgelling]

^ What that guy said: Credit sinks are like taxes or the Federal Reserve in real life - they help reduce the flow of currency in circulation so as to limit inflation to reasonable limits, which is astronomically high in an MMO because money is produced out of thin air.

 

They must be doing well since last I heard inflation was only 18% - too high for the real world but reasonable for an MMO where there's money for nothing.

[Grayseven]

I started new characters on a new server. I have one level 32 character and one level 18 character and I already have more than 500k credits...and that is after buying stuff for my characters and my companions.

 

I just started these characters about 12 days ago. I will have more than 1 million credits before I ever reach level 50.

 

It isn't hard to earn credits without exploiting.

 

Besides which, credit sinks can NOT be built around exploited credits or the game would be killed faster than you can imagine. Non-exploiters would quickly leave a game they felt punished them for others crimes and setting credit sinks because exploiters couldn't be caught would be one of the dumbest moves any MMO could make.

 

To top it off, I've yet to see a game where the majority of people using an exploit couldn't easily be found through simple data searches. It might take time, but it can be done.

 

What is with the tinfoil hat conspiracies today? Is Coast to Coast back on the air?

[FourTwent]

Yeah, I remember. Of course I can't dig up the quote now because the old forums have been wiped clean, but once upon a time some of the Dev's used to talk to us on these forums & someone, not me, asked a question about why we have so many credit sinks in the game. They were told that it was because of the all the massive credit exploits that had happened at the start of the game & since there was no way to catch everyone that exploited credits illegally, all the credits sinks were put in place to drain those extra credits out of the system to balance out the economy.

 

Now what I want to know is, it's nearly 6 months since launch, have enough of those exploited credits been drained out of the system so that BioWare can get rid of a large number of these credit sinks yet? If not now after nearly 6 months, then at what point in time is enough time to have drained those exploited credits out of the game so that we could finally get rid of a large number of these unnecessary credit sinks?

 

The only time the forums were wiped was from beta to launch. Since launch its to my understanding that there has not been any forum wipes(that would just be silly). So if there's a post saying this(and it was post launch since you're talking about exploits that would effect the live economy right now) you should be able to find it.

 

It's to my understanding, the reason for all the credit sinks is to keep inflation down. This is what I gathered from the Guild Summit. There were as many credit sinks in launch as there is now. . .maybe even more now. . .but not like 'required' plat sinks. More like luxury plat sinks.

 

And these additional luxury sinks(like the legacy system) aren't in place because of exploits. They know who is exploiting(they know exactly where every single credit goes and comes from and exploiters are punished) so exploits aren't really effecting the live economy(assuming they're being taken care of). These luxury sinks are in place to keep inflation down(at least at launch they had an economist monitoring the economy, so they can react accordingly).