Combating Credit Inflation, increase tax of GTN? Patch Notes.

[Mournblood]

but doesn't it inflate the prices, because at 6% i'll sell it for 50 mil, and at 8% tax i'll sell it for 52 million.. I don't see how the consumer wins?

 

Your example is in the minority of the market. There's not a whole lot that sells for 50m or higher. Most items on the GTN sell far below that, and for the majority of goods sold on the GTN, prices won't change at all for a time. However, the amount of credits floating around will slowly begin to decrease. As this happens over time, players will have less credits to spend and therefore won't be as willing to spend more for items, which of course will bring prices down, as market prices are based on what players are willing to spend.

 

If you want a more common example, extrapolated, take a SH deco that sells for 1m credits right now. That price probably won't change, as the difference between 6% and 8% GTN tax on that 1m deco is only 20k. Multiple that by several hundred sales over the course of several months, there would be millions of credits no longer in circulation. Now multiply that again by all the different types of items that are more commonly sold on the GTN, such as mats, augments, augment kits, mods, and so on and so on. Very quickly over a relatively short amount of time there would be billions of credits no longer in circulation. After quite a few months of this we'll start to see the prices for items come down - as players have less money, they'll spend less, which will force sellers to lower their prices.

 

For the more rare, high value items, such as the 50m example you provided, prices will go up in the short-term as you try to compensate for the increase in GTN tax, but eventually, you won't be able to sell those items at those higher prices and you'll end up lowering prices just like everyone else.

 

In the end, months down the road, the consumer will in fact win.

[TrixxieTriss]

It is just too easy to make credits in this game. Honestly an increase on gtn tax is not that big of a deal. The only folks who will be affected in any significant way are those that have yet to figure out how to make credits.

 

 

Put in the time and level those crafters and companions. You will make more than enough credits for those high priced items in your wish list. If you do just a small amount of searching these forums you will find loads of ways to make credits and not care about gtn tax.

 

What people are failing to understand is it won’t fix inflation, it will actually make it worse. If they want a credit sink, call it a credit sink and don’t try to say it’s to stop inflation on the GTN.

 

Taxing it more just means people list higher.

[TrixxieTriss]

...does nothing to negate the point of the increase which is to remove credits from the gamespace.

 

Which is the definition of a credit sink, not a measure to reduce inflation.

[TrixxieTriss]

Or a better idea just leave the Night Life Casino year round with really nice high end items... It's a good credit sink some people just like to gamble...

 

Well I know I would like to gamble in game ALL the Time! Lol

 

Yes, that would be an effective credit sink and they don’t even have to do much work to get it going. Just activate the event and leave it on. Which means more resources aren’t spent making new credit sinks. Just use what you’ve got and if hat doesn’t work, then try something else.

[Mournblood]

Taxing it more just means people list higher.

 

That's only going to be true for rare, high value items, and only in the short-term. For more common, everyday stuff, like augment kits that sell for 50-75k each, most sellers aren't going to raise their prices because an additional 2% tax is a whopping 1k - 1.5k difference. Most players aren't going to care about that, and those few misers who do and try to raise their prices to cover that additional 2% are probably going to get under sold.

 

As for those pricey items that sell for 50m or more, smart consumers just won't buy them and will wait for the market effects to play out. Eventually, in a few months from now, those players selling those expensive items will be forced to lower their prices too if they want to see it sell.

 

And let's be honest here. In most cases, players selling something expensive (50m+) are making 100% profit, regardless of whether it sells for 50m tomorrow, or for 25m 3-6 months from now. As market prices are usually dictated by what the market will bear, after billions of credits are no longer in circulation, the market will no longer bear current prices because players aren't going to be as willing or able to blow 50m on something (which includes those who are currently rich enough to afford those prices now).

[RikuvonDrake]

I think they should just remove 10 million credits from all players across the board, subscriber or not, and if you don't have 10 million total on all your characters you end up in the minus so you have to earn credits to get back on positive. I think that would be a fair way of quickly dealing with the credit inflation. /s

 

There is no solution that makes people happy when you have to decrease credit circulation and credit gain, there is no way to do this that makes people happy, the increase in GTN tax is at least fair and ensures limited impact on players while still helping to reduce inflation as the effect is slower. So far nobody has presented a sustainable alternative to reduce inflation, nightlife event is a cute thought, but for the majority of the active player base who already have all rewards and achievement, it won't have any effect.

Edited March 20, 2018 by RikuvonDrake

[jimbocolorado]

The idea of a special vendor does have some merit, however that will only apply to those who actually want those items. I may not be the average player but I have no interest of special cosmetic items, doesn't add anything to the game for me. Also consumables also don't do anything as I never need to use any, the game is too easy as it is to need them. I am sure they know just how many as a percentage of players would use such vendors vs how many use the GTN.

A GTN tax would touch much more players on average, Yes the cost will be added to the prices by some if not most but that extra 2% will be removed from the game. They should bring back training expenses as well as well as some slight increase in travel expense etc. It is way to easy to make money as it is.

[Andryah]

The idea of a special vendor does have some merit, however that will only apply to those who actually want those items. I may not be the average player but I have no interest of special cosmetic items, doesn't add anything to the game for me. Also consumables also don't do anything as I never need to use any, the game is too easy as it is to need them. I am sure they know just how many as a percentage of players would use such vendors vs how many use the GTN.

A GTN tax would touch much more players on average, Yes the cost will be added to the prices by some if not most but that extra 2% will be removed from the game. They should bring back training expenses as well as well as some slight increase in travel expense etc. It is way to easy to make money as it is.

 

Yeah... more vendors of expensive rare items will please some, but it won't do much about lowering the credit supply across the player base on a server as it's too specialized to have a broad impact. Current maintenance fees on gear will do far more over the same time frame... and while they could increase maintenance and other sunk costs to play day to day... that actually penalizes those lease able to pay AND is very unpopular with players.

 

The GTN tax increase is a great choice for several reasons:

 

1) I DOES persistently remove credits from the player economy and sine much of the in game commerce moves through the GTNs.... it literally touches and extracts from everything at every level of price and player interest.

 

2) It's a small peanut buttering of the credit soak across the entire player economy, and it's certainly modest enough to not actually matter to a players pocket book.

 

3) People are free to buy directly from other players and not go through the GTN if the 2% means that much to them. But they won't because 2% just does not matter in the larger context of a sale.

 

4) the only real measurable impact will be on very expensive priced items.. and frankly.. if 2% makes or breaks you in buying something off the super rare collectors market.. you have no business buying the item to begin with. 2% on 1M credits is 20K. 2% on 50M credits is 1M. These are not fee swings that make or break any buyer/seller.

 

5) it won't effectively drive prices higher because unlike some claims that sellers will simply pass the cost on to the buyer.... market forces largely prevent that because if you actually want to sell then you need to list at current market prices or less.... NOT more. There is just too much seller competition to allow sellers to blanket markup listings to make up for 2%. Market prices for items swing much more then this all the time day to day in the GTNs. Not that any major seller on the GTNs really cares that much about sales costs as long as they are reasonable.. and 8% is quite reasonable when compared to many other MMOs.

Edited March 20, 2018 by Andryah

[Andryah]

As I stated in the other thread.......I think people have a skewed view of the term "inflation"

 

To say inflation is simply based on credit supply is wrong. Credit supply is only one factor and just like in real world economies.. it is NOT the critical factor.

 

The critical and dominant factors, are supply/demand driven, which are human driven factors:

 

1) Demand-pull inflation. That's when demand outpaces supply for goods or services. Buyers want the product so much they are willing to pay higher prices.

 

2) Cost-push inflation is another cause. That's when supply is restricted but demand is not.

 

Note: I am not saying credit supply is not a factor, only that it is not the largest and most critical factor. This change is unlikely to change this.... but it will help dampen future increases in credit supply which in turn can apply modest pressure longer term over the demand-pull and cost-push elements that are the actual drivers of price inflation.

Edited March 20, 2018 by Andryah

[TrixxieTriss]

I think they should just remove 10 million credits from all players across the board, subscriber or not, and if you don't have 10 million total on all your characters you end up in the minus so you have to earn credits to get back on positive. I think that would be a fair way of quickly dealing with the credit inflation. /s

 

There is no solution that makes people happy when you have to decrease credit circulation and credit gain, there is no way to do this that makes people happy, the increase in GTN tax is at least fair and ensures limited impact on players while still helping to reduce inflation as the effect is slower. So far nobody has presented a sustainable alternative to reduce inflation, nightlife event is a cute thought, but for the majority of the active player base who already have all rewards and achievement, it won't have any effect.

 

LoL, I’m guessing you have plenty of credits to spare. Can you pay my share please

[TrixxieTriss]

That's only going to be true for rare, high value items, and only in the short-term. For more common, everyday stuff, like augment kits that sell for 50-75k each, most sellers aren't going to raise their prices because an additional 2% tax is a whopping 1k - 1.5k difference. Most players aren't going to care about that, and those few misers who do and try to raise their prices to cover that additional 2% are probably going to get under sold.

 

As for those pricey items that sell for 50m or more, smart consumers just won't buy them and will wait for the market effects to play out. Eventually, in a few months from now, those players selling those expensive items will be forced to lower their prices too if they want to see it sell.

 

And let's be honest here. In most cases, players selling something expensive (50m+) are making 100% profit, regardless of whether it sells for 50m tomorrow, or for 25m 3-6 months from now. As market prices are usually dictated by what the market will bear, after billions of credits are no longer in circulation, the market will no longer bear current prices because players aren't going to be as willing or able to blow 50m on something (which includes those who are currently rich enough to afford those prices now).

 

When I list things and I want a certain amount for them, I factor in how much Bioware will tax it and add to it. If the prices are lower than what I want to sell it for, I hold off or I still list it at the price I want and hope the ones below get sold.

You can even manipulate the market a little by listing things much higher than normal if there are only 1 -3 listed. What happens is the whales buy the cheap ones anyway to control the market, but won’t touch yours and usually list it higher again. If demand is there and supply is short, some people just assume that’s the market price and pay it.

I agree that not everyone will add on the extra 2% because most don’t even think about it. But as the prices creep up a little from people who do add the extra 2%, inflation will continue.

This move isn’t to stem inflation, it’s soley to remove credits from the game.

[TUXs]

There's no such thing as "inflation" here. How many things do you actually NEED credits for? Repairs? Pulling mods? You get a new currency for every new piece of content added to the game. In-game currency has a fake value that only matters to the players and it's almost exclusively used to exchange goods that we've bought with other types of currency in-game. It's only real value is from player to player, not much else.

[RagnarAugustus]

I'm not sure how this is going to help either...Maybe it's just me being slow.

 

It removes credits from the players, less credits mean that people are less able to pay exorbitant prices. But let's face it, with 4.0's heroics credit boost where credits were easy to come by the horse left the barn on inflation and I doubt that this will have much effect in combating credit inflation.