Wouldn’t this just lead to the person with the most market “muscle” dominating? They’d undercut everyone and everyone would see they’re cheapest forcing even more deflation.
Portals already make it very hard to be distinct - your location almost doesn’t matter.
This would basically leave us with 1 shop? And that shop owner would be able to buy at rock bottom prices as no one else would have any coin in their baskets.
This, no data sceens or lists.
I still say the best option is a “Shop Stand Atlas”.
The atlas shows all the shop stands. Add an item to show shop stands selling only that item.
Atlas idea could be cool. Hotter zone for recently filled baskets
The only thing I can agree with what you’re saying is how there aren’t that many items in the game. That will change.
This whole fear of “racing to the bottom” is pretty irrational. This doesn’t happen in real life. Certainly doesn’t happen in retail or video games. It just doesn’t happen. You think Steam has made competition between game companies force prices to be sold at rock bottom? No. This has never once happened in the history of Steam.
There’s zero evidence that having a snap shot of the market of Iron Bars or Compact Diamonds is going to cause those items or any other item to start going lower in price.
If someone wants to start undercutting the person next to them by 25%, then they can no differently than how they can right now. Doesn’t mean that they can sustainably hold that 25% undercut to everyone else. The best shops are going to run off the idea of using a strategy that is sustainable and reliable rather than flash sale pricing strategies that really aren’t competition anyways.
I really wouldn’t worry to much about these two bolded points you made. First of all, even without a world or universe market screen someone can already dominate the market of certain items. It’s just about putting the time and effort into it. Having 30 million coin does help, but if you’re willing to put the time and effort into preparing then it will do you a lot more. The coin does help. The issue with all this fear though around these kinds of ideas is that it wouldn’t be much of a thing if we had 10 times as many items in the game and that won’t happen until years from now.
I don’t see it being a negative thing to have when we have thousands of items in the game. Right now, I can agree that the world market screen idea doesn’t really have a place in the game. Cause when there’s tens of thousands of players in the game and literately thousands of portals going all over the place across a couple hundred worlds, then something like a world economy screen would be nice to have.
Racing to the bottom is irrational? Coils went from 10k-2k in a month. Bitter bean prices went from 120c to 60c in 2 weeks. Its not irrational at all.
And 1 guy undercutting another in a city doesnt effect the market as a whole, right now.
But it would if it was listed for everyone to see, because then a new person will think thats the right price. and all of a sudden the market value is down 25%
Edit: You cant base steam and IRL prices for games as the same as in game coin.
If the game provides a central bank or market or general prices, then it should be pulled from across the universe.
If the info is provided in a world UI or something similar, I think that average item prices from within the world would suffice.
I think it would be awesome if it would say “John’s Beans & Brews / Some-town”. This would help keep the personal feel & branding. Good shops/merchants would become known. ie: if I’m running thru Finata and I see “Sally’s Gems & Machines” I could be like “Oh yeah! I remember her store on Angel & it’s great…I’m going to stop here”.
Maybe it could be listed in a new shop stand UI and you could select it like a location in your locations list. You would then follow your GPS to the shop.
If you’re going with #3 and decide to pull a lot of info from the DB, maybe an average price of all items would be helpful. Not sure how much lag this would cause tho.
Instead of trying to explain why it is I’ll just say I’ll just agree to disagree with you. Saves us both time.
The real world isn’t a very good analogy. There’s no difference between any of the bitter beans. In the real world consumers are sensitive to differences even if they are just image, presentation or imagined. The ONLY difference between your beans and my beans is price. Even location hardly matters.
Price lists are a terrible idea. It would lead to market stagnation. All the smaller shops would be wiped out. The big guys would just undercut them. There is a reason why the U.S. has laws against undercutting prices.
The SEARCH for the lower prices, finding the hidden deals, is one of the great things about this game.
Everyone having the same prices would be terrible and damage the economy even further.
No price lists, not ever. That’s a deal breaker for me.
The damage the offsite lists and discord (and, frankly, this site) have already done is readily apparent when you see Advanced coils going for 2-2.5k.
(Lord, I wish there was a way to ban offsite databases.)
I get what you’re saying.
Competitive prices and competition between shop owners is what’s going to drive prices down to the lowest sustainable and reliable point they personally can maintain.
I think the context of this entire discussion is going to change when the game is multitudes larger than it is.
We don’t. We have a free, capitalistic economy.
There’s something fun about knowing a shop where there’s a bargain.
It might work having prices available on the planet you are on if there was a coin cost in using a portal.
The most advanced in game market is EVE. It limits how far you can see prices - where markets are potentially hours away.
Look up “anti-dumping laws.”
Every MMO I play has some sort of bank, list, market, avg price indicator, etc…even ones that added it at a later date. Not a single one was ruined. It helps the economy stabilize. I’ve run thru Merika and seen oort shards for 1000c. Sometimes noobs have no idea what to price their items. I’ve also seen people sell some items for silly low prices…they can’t maintain their stock or burn out usually. It sorts itself out.
Until someone dominates the market. Then they are broken up. Oil. Telecoms. Data next?
I’m well aware of our laws, monopolies, etc. Thanks. Boundless is a fictional game with it’s own economy, “laws”, etc. I don’t equate real life rules and laws to playing any MMO. Not the same.
I don’t want prices stable. I want every store to be different.
If prices stabilize, there is never a reason to visit multiple shops.
They will continue to be. You have players at different levels, on diff planets, making/selling diff items. People could have the same prices right now if they wanted to but everyone values items differently. That won’t change.
The economy will reach economic equilibrium whether you like it or not. It will happen no matter what.
