This is something I've noticed doing grinding for the same outfit twice, example the Revan Reborn Armor Set, me when I grinded to get it for myself I paid at least 17 mil to get the entire set in parts but when I did it for the guy I am in love with the prices skyrocketed.

 

I started making toons so I have a level 10 on every server just to check prices on a particular Armor Set but the prices aren't any better for the one final part the guy needs on his current set, the Sith Recluse. Now I joke with him on how he has expensive taste but the truth is that's not his fault, it's the player base does that. But anywho, that's besides the point the problem lies in the over pricing. Yeah we can grind together and double the amount but the problem comes when we get the prices the item is gone or the prices gets even higher and to both of us, yes we've discussed this, this is beyond ridiculous. He works almost everyday, he is a cop, he gets on swtor to unwind from his job, not to get on this game to have to grind for what he wants. I understand this, especially since I've had it explained to me how taxing his job can be in the stress department. He doesn't want to come on this game to do a grindfest. He like myself, is a Star Wars fan and he like me, enjoys the storyline, for the most part. As I said this is based on talking with him.

 

I'm lucky to have grinding for 6/7 parts for the set but the final part he needs, the truth is it's not worth it. It's actually not helped things between me and him because of other problems between us but despite it all he's still my best friend and I enjoy helping him but the real life aspects aren't taken into consideration when it comes to MMOs. People play the supply and demand game, a real world concept that really should have no playing factor in a fictional world. Me and him don't get on here to grind everyday for credits, we get on to hang and have a good time, at least that's what we would prefer.

 

Honestly, and this just maybe me taking things too personally, but I feel like a failure as a friend who tries to do everything they can to help someone they genuinely care about because I feel like the longer we take the more expensive things get and I've seen this first hand with the Revan Reborn Armor Set, I got mine for 17 mil but the mask is currently up for 25 mil or more?! (The Revan Reborn Armor Set is an example of ridiculous pricing, he has it and I have it as well.) Bit ridiculous if you ask me to get an entire Armor Set for less then a part but whatever. Honestly I'd prefer to grind 17 mil for an Armor Set then 50-100 mil or whatever prices people think they are worth and don't really drop the price either or goes up over time (eg. Someone put the Revan Armor Set up for 1 billion credits, I looked just for the hey and was like ***?!)

 

Anywho I just wanted to put this out here after the discussion with my friend (same guy person I'm in love with, just so that's clear) and makes sure Bioware is aware neither of us are on here for this grindfest of credits the GTN plays. Personally I think making half these credits people are asking for on prices is by selling cheap if you got the ability to do such things, me personally and I do believe he himself, my friend, aren't on this game to have a lot of credits at hand all the time to buy things we want, that's just not really a big deal to us because we're just here to have fun. A game is suppose to be a source of entertainment, not a job, especially for someone like him. This really upsets me as a friend to him and as someone who cares about him deeply. It's no wonder he leaves swtor so much as he does. It's not a relaxing game trying to work and find ways to make credits when in reality all he wants is to get on have fun and run a few flashpoints and whatnot after a stressful day at work and just relax. Not work to get something he wants when he works an already stressful job.

 

Add-on: On an actual personal note, nice to not be hassled by someone and actually have a decent discussion and agreement about an aspect of the game that's bad, makes me feel not so crazy and alone, why I love him.

Edited September 25, 2017 by DarthEnrique

i'm pretty sure that not only is bioware aware of the ridiculous inflation and price fluctuations, but that they introduced it into the game deliberately. credit sinks are a staple of all mmo's for a number of reasons and here, swtor was able to combine that with rewards to their most valuable cash cows (the people who buy hyper-crates). other than that it sucks for everyone else, i'm not sure what you are trying to say here. i doubt that they are going to make any changes to what, (from their perspective) is a feature, not a bug.

GTN Inflation isn't a credit sink, it's transferring wealth from one player to another. A credit sink is something that takes money out of the economy: typically consumables. There's simply not enough, nor enough good ones.

Sith Recluse.

 

Wait for direct sale to roll around?

That inflation has gotten out of control for far too long.

 

I remember buying most of the unlocks and many armor pieces as a preffered status meaning below 350k credits. I don't remember when, probably before SoR.

 

Nowadays it's impossible. Same pieces sell for around 20 million each. and the credit limit has not been raised to match the trend changes.

Sadly I don't see Bioware fixing this, because that forces players to suscribe and play the cartel market game.

That inflation has gotten out of control for far too long.

 

I remember buying most of the unlocks and many armor pieces as a preffered status meaning below 350k credits. I don't remember when, probably before SoR.

 

Nowadays it's impossible. Same pieces sell for around 20 million each. and the credit limit has not been raised to match the trend changes.

Sadly I don't see Bioware fixing this, because that forces players to suscribe and play the cartel market game.

 

Whilst the first post was tldr you make a point on things being just too over priced that i's actually become detrimental to players as a whole i.e. they see the prices (subbed or preferred) and just can't see themselves everp ossibly affording that sort of thing. Thus something that was an attraction to play the game (being able to play space Barbie, spend some cash or time and you'll get there) now becomes more like a slap in the face and thus a deterent.

 

The bad news ... there is nothing I can see that BWA can do about it - it's just too late.

 

Well there is one thing they could do but they seem to refuse to do so (making me wonder if they are somehow involved in making money from credit selling). That is quite simply targeting credit sellers in a very ongoing and damaging campaign against them.

As this takes toll credit prices to buy quickly rise due to supply issues and those who were previously buying a lot of credits now spend money on the CM to change their cash to credits. This means more supply of CM goods and thus cheaper prices.

 

Not sure why BWA never target RMTs in this game because I bet it's costing them significant revenue.

GTN prices are not a problem for me. I just don't buy items that are overpriced. If you do then clearly its not a problem, otherwise you would not pay it. There is nothing on GTN that you must have or need. Yes there are items I would like and if I think it worth the asking price sure why not. However very little is worth it, so rarely buy anything these days.

 

If BW start putting restrictions on players, on what they can sells items for, well then that would be a problem and am absolutely positive you OP be one of the first to complain if BW did.

That inflation has gotten out of control for far too long.

 

I remember buying most of the unlocks and many armor pieces as a preffered status meaning below 350k credits. I don't remember when, probably before SoR.

 

Nowadays it's impossible. Same pieces sell for around 20 million each. and the credit limit has not been raised to match the trend changes.

Sadly I don't see Bioware fixing this, because that forces players to suscribe and play the cartel market game.

 

It started to get completely out of hand with the duplication (or what was it; I don't even remember properly) exploit when 4.0 hit and wasn't fixed for what, 2 months or more? The ingame economy got screwed up by it, the punishments from BW hit mostly the people who only cheated a little bit, but the players doing it in big schemes were able to keep most of their billions. The economy never recovered from it.

 

There are people here on this forum claiming that it is so easy to have billions nowadays and that many players actually have that many credits. It's not true. If you have a life outside of this game and not hundreds of Euros ready for CM shopping every month, you won't get billions of credits. I don't know why these people claim this.

 

This as well:

 

(...)things being just too over priced that i's actually become detrimental to players as a whole i.e. they see the prices (subbed or preferred) and just can't see themselves everp ossibly affording that sort of thing. Thus something that was an attraction to play the game (being able to play space Barbie, spend some cash or time and you'll get there) now becomes more like a slap in the face and thus a deterent.

 

The bad news ... there is nothing I can see that BWA can do about it - it's just too late.

Yeah, the whole "buy low, sell high" crap doesn't fly. As low these days is millions.

 

You'd have to get lucky with a missed typo to subscribe to that philosophy.

Wait for direct sale to roll around?

 

But it already got one, it's gonna be a long wait.

Overpricing on the GTN is not a problem. There's nothing overpriced that you "need", only things that you "want".

It's time to put on your big boy pants and accept that "you can't always get what you want".

My thinking is that it is actually the players themselves that cause this problem. Don't blame the company, put the blame squarely where it belongs. When I post on the GTN, and run into an inflated market, I try to post at a value that makes me a nice profit, and one that new players could afford to pay. Maybe that makes me stupid, but I get comfort that someone might find a good buy and be made happy.

 

So, if you all want to see inflation go away, then start posting at reasonable prices. I guarantee that the prices will come down, and will stay down as long as folks continue to post at reasonable prices.

 

This is not EA/Bioware issue - it is 100% a player generated problem.

 

Just my 2c

My thinking is that it is actually the players themselves that cause this problem. Don't blame the company, put the blame squarely where it belongs. When I post on the GTN, and run into an inflated market, I try to post at a value that makes me a nice profit, and one that new players could afford to pay. Maybe that makes me stupid, but I get comfort that someone might find a good buy and be made happy.

 

So, if you all want to see inflation go away, then start posting at reasonable prices. I guarantee that the prices will come down, and will stay down as long as folks continue to post at reasonable prices.

 

This is not EA/Bioware issue - it is 100% a player generated problem.

 

Just my 2c

 

My main source of GTN income is colour crystals. Now I see all the time that advanced reds are often priced at 100K each, way too much considering the cost to make them on average isn't all that much even when levelling.

 

I price mine at about 50K but every 5 or so I'll stick one up for 10K. Generally my intention is to make it available to somebody with not many credits in the bank but I guarantee a lot of the time it's the buy low/sell high types getting them.

 

The markets in the state that even if you try to throw people a bone by marking down your prices somebody will buy it and sell it on for way more. It'll take way more effort to drive prices down.

But it already got one, it's gonna be a long wait.

 

“All good things comes to those who wait.”

I think you just made this post to talk about the "friend" you "love so deeply".. :D:D

There are people here on this forum claiming that it is so easy to have billions nowadays and that many players actually have that many credits. It's not true. If you have a life outside of this game and not hundreds of Euros ready for CM shopping every month, you won't get billions of credits. I don't know why these people claim this.

 

That's not true though. I have billions and billions more in items to sell. I spend maybe 1 hour a day on average creating my fortune (1 toon in the morning and 1 at night listing 8 pages of auctions in a really basic sense - it's less than an hour but I spend more time in the weekends so the average seems fair) and maybe 2 hours per day back when I wasn't as rich and was building by item base (crafting and crew skills to start my wealth base to be able to horde CM items the way I do).

 

I've never spent a single cent on CC in this game and I don't make all that many CC through referrals (be lucky for 1000 a month).

 

So just because many people aren't aware of the means in which to easily make credits with little effort or time doesn't mean they don't exist. You do need to have a math geared, analytical mind though I would say so if numbers give you a headache then it's probably not going to be as time efficient or enjoyable as it may be for others.

 

Even though I have so many credits etc. the buying power of said credits has reduced and auctions on the whole have slowed (so less individual items selling meaning more work long term). All in all I would say 100 million a couple of years ago is about the 1 billion of today in regards to buying power of CM items and vice versa in making credits from them.

The problem of course is when you credits don't come from a CM related activity that massive increase in CM price is not offset by your own personal gain in wealth (as mine has due to being purely from a CM source) meaning things look really grim.

 

I would prefer things were cheaper so more people were buying more (and I would hopefully be just as wealthy as I am now, the number of credits I have would just be a smaller number).

 

Of course it could be argued I am part of the problem selling things for such high prices, buying out stock and driving prices up but these are market prices and if the credits weren't there I wouldn't be able to do so (and would sell cheaper to suit the market). To sell cheaper now for me would be silly for me as someone would just buy and re-list for a higher price because the market will allow it so I'd be cutting myself out of credits.

That and the whole GTN activity is one of the few activities I still enjoy in the game. *shrug*.

Yeah, the whole "buy low, sell high" crap doesn't fly. As low these days is millions.

 

You'd have to get lucky with a missed typo to subscribe to that philosophy.

 

Yet another fallacy. In another thread I outlined exactly how you can do just this and starting out at an incredibly cheap buy price and start building from there.

 

Just because people refuse to learn doesn't mean it can't easily be done.

My thinking is that it is actually the players themselves that cause this problem. Don't blame the company, put the blame squarely where it belongs. When I post on the GTN, and run into an inflated market, I try to post at a value that makes me a nice profit, and one that new players could afford to pay. Maybe that makes me stupid, but I get comfort that someone might find a good buy and be made happy.

 

So, if you all want to see inflation go away, then start posting at reasonable prices. I guarantee that the prices will come down, and will stay down as long as folks continue to post at reasonable prices.

 

This is not EA/Bioware issue - it is 100% a player generated problem.

 

Just my 2c

 

It's 95% the companies fault solely because of their inability to deal with credit sellers and thus farming bots (who generate wealth illegally ideally) and how poorly they dealt with credit exploits that easily would have generated 100's of billions if not into the trillions into the game (maybe not the economy, depends what the people who cheated and got away with it did with the credits).

 

Poorly as in anyone who bothered to semi try to launder their credits got away with the lot.

My main source of GTN income is colour crystals. Now I see all the time that advanced reds are often priced at 100K each, way too much considering the cost to make them on average isn't all that much even when levelling.

 

I price mine at about 50K but every 5 or so I'll stick one up for 10K. Generally my intention is to make it available to somebody with not many credits in the bank but I guarantee a lot of the time it's the buy low/sell high types getting them.

 

The markets in the state that even if you try to throw people a bone by marking down your prices somebody will buy it and sell it on for way more. It'll take way more effort to drive prices down.

 

Anyone wanting to make a good amount of credits with little effort this poster has just identified a market to do so.

Find the server, confirm the crystals will sell for 100K and buy him out every time he lists and re-list.

 

Granted you need some credits to get started in this and rely on the crystals selling at a decent rate (so they sell before he and the competition re-lists) but this sort of should give people an idea on how easy it is to make credits in this game.

I feel like I've read this story before. Something about trying to save your relationship with your boyfriend by grinding out a set for him in a game he doesn't even play any longer.

 

You're wasting your time, btw.

Anyone wanting to make a good amount of credits with little effort this poster has just identified a market to do so.

Find the server, confirm the crystals will sell for 100K and buy him out every time he lists and re-list.

 

Granted you need some credits to get started in this and rely on the crystals selling at a decent rate (so they sell before he and the competition re-lists) but this sort of should give people an idea on how easy it is to make credits in this game.

 

They don't sell for 100K. They sell lower though.

 

I've seen pages and pages of 100K crystals both cartel and crafted, even tried it myself and nothing. Doesn't draw attention like a bargain does.

 

However 1 50-60K crystal in a sea of 100s gets the buy button twitching. Bulk and reasonable pricing is always the way.

 

I sell in 20s, keep an eye out kids and you'll be Donald Trump in no time.

 

Oh and next time Bounty Contract week comes up, sell those contracts. I made 7 million from those last server week.

 

This guy I've quoted is a little bit up his own you know, but he's right. You want to rip people off, "nice" guys like me are the way to do it. Greed vs. Need.

“good things comes to those who wait.”

 

One of my favourite quotes. waiting certainly can be rewarding.

One of my favourite quotes. waiting certainly can be rewarding.

 

If we wait long enough SWTOR will be shut down. Wait, is that not what people mean?

Of course it could be argued I am part of the problem selling things for such high prices, buying out stock and driving prices up but these are market prices and if the credits weren't there I wouldn't be able to do so (and would sell cheaper to suit the market). To sell cheaper now for me would be silly for me as someone would just buy and re-list for a higher price because the market will allow it so I'd be cutting myself out of credits.

That and the whole GTN activity is one of the few activities I still enjoy in the game. *shrug*.

 

Just a general question, not targeted at you specifically, but do you see the perpetual cycle caused by pricing so high?

 

You and others have acknowledged the problem that credit sellers make for the economy. But they wouldn't have a market if people weren't seeing things listed in the dozens and hundreds of millions and despairing at how long and how much time it would actually take to make that much money in a reasonable amount of time. Some GTN warriors tell them to run heroics and they'll be there in no time ( ). Or create a market for crafting (and hope that someone else doesn't already have this market cornered and won't just simply undercut you until you have to give up and you've already wasted all the time and money to find out too late that this will happen). Or spend inordinate amounts of times mat-farming against bots only to run into the same issue.

 

Yes, fortunes can be made this way but most people do not have the time or patience to do things like that. Then they see someone selling millions upon millions of credits for what seems like chump change and they can now, instead of months of time grinding, buy all the credits instantly and buy that 200mil weapon. Then the seller says "Hey, this is the market price! I'll sell the next one for 225mil and it will still sell!"

 

Don't get me started on someone who listens to advice given here or other areas, grinds for two months straight doing heroics until they can't stomach playing the game anymore, finally gets to their goal and goes to buy the item they've wanted so much only to see the price has doubled, tripled, quadrupled, or worse.

 

I'm not saying any advice given is always wrong (misguided, sometimes), but the advice given amounts to months of grinding for the items that the sellers giving advice post for deliberately very high prices. Then there's the credit seller who cuts the grind and perpetually legitimizes the very high prices.

 

I'm not complaining. I'm not after some unicorn item and I haven't been burned personally. I don't buy credits. But I've seen both sides of this in-game with friends and guildies, from people actually connected to credit sellers to people artificially pricing way too high to people getting burned when they tried to follow well-intentioned advice only to have the rug pulled from under them at every turn.

 

Until Bioware completely gets rid of the credit sellers, no discussion of the economy (and lies about it being a healthy economy) matters. Sellers aren't the foundational enemy here, they're just exploiting (maybe too harsh of a word?) the people who use the credit sellers. They would have to sell at lower prices if there wasn't so much "dirty" money in the economy.

Really, all the inflation tells me is that even the most populated servers are being impacted by the population decline. It has a lot less to do with credit rewards and far more to do with reduced interest trickling down the line.