StationCash + Gifting = Platinum?
With the ability to gift StationCash items restored to Norrath, players with thousands or even tens of thousands of platinum want to know: Am I going to get banned for trading Platinum in exchange for StationCash items?
An unexpected response from SmokeJumper after the jump…
The EQ2 Economy
For years, the in-game economy of EverQuest 2 managed to keep inflation under control with various platinum sinks (means of removing platinum that don’t go to another player) and quests giving small amounts of coin. However with almost all LEGENDARY and FABLED gear now non-tradeable (HEIRLOOM), solo quests rewarding upwards of 18-36 gold each, and really no platinum sinks other than mender repair and broker fees, the EQ2 economy is starting to run rampant.
It’s not just level 81-90 rares that are 7-10 platinum each. I’ve seen level 30, 40, and 50 rares going for 3-5 plat. Due to Transmuting changes, Adept spells and dropped Treasured armor which were previously worth 1-2 gold now run for 8-12 gold each. Very little money is being taken out of the game, and the value of dropped items is going up — a dangerous combination.
Some players have clamored to stop the auctioning of Loot Rights to fabled gear acquired via raiding. However this is one of the last things left for raiders and hardcore grouping players to buy. Last year, I saw a Ranger/Monk T4 chest pattern go for 1200 plat. At the time, it was shocking and unheard of. We are now getting reports that 1,000 plat is a typical price on some servers for less valuable armor.
Research Assistants?
Some of us hoped that when Research Assistants were announced that they would take some platinum out of the game. At the time they were announced, players were paying 20-30 plat for most of their masters, but each classe had a few spells like Illusionist pet, Conjuror pet, Shadowknight stances, etc. which were going for upwards of 1,000 platinum. If Research Assistants had been introduced with a flat cost of 25 plat per spell, then they would have been used to buy the really expensive ones, and players would continue to farm the ones not worth that much. But as we know, Research Assistants were added with no quest, no plat cost, and no effort.
Atan summarized it like this:
I have more plat than I could possibly ever need, and no desire to spend my own cash on any SC items.
There is nothing in the disclosed communication on gifting that says it is not allowed, which leads me to believe it is. My only reservation is the previous apprehention regarding these transactions in years past from SoE.
So when a thread was created on the EQ2 forums asking “If we buy StationCash Items from other players (via trade) by giving them Platinum, is that a bannable offense?” We didn’t expect SmokeJumper to touch this one with a 10 foot pole. But he did, and then provided us our moment of SmokeJumper zen for the week:
We really don’t want to put a hard value on platinum to SC conversion rates, so we would probably only step in on this if we thought it was going to cause us legal headaches in the future. So…if kept on the low-down, it’ll never cause problems. But if someone put up a website selling items officially with posted conversion rates, I have a feeling that legal might want to step in and stop it to avoid issues.
Make sense? Keep it person-to-person and I don’t think this will ever be an issue.
Peogia:
Can we get platinum on the marketplace ?
SmokeJumper:
No. Not anytime soon anyway.
What do you think? Give us your Comments
Is this going to hurt the game?
Will it bite SmokeJumper in the tookus?
Do you think the EQ2 economy is out of control?
Trackback from your site.
Comments (13)
Ondten
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The game could use some more plat sinks, but the inflation that occurred arose from the entire t9 design, not the lack of sinks.
Doing all the SF quests results in a net plat gain of over 75 plat from rewards alone. I felt rich a week after SF launched because I was ahead of the curve. Today you can still do the solo crafting/mark daily for upwards of 4-5 plat. The economy inflated significantly, but it is remarkably stable now due to skills like transmuting and adorning.
As for trading stationcash for plat? I don’t see it mattering as long as its player to player. The same magnitude increase in price when you hit t9 works against inflation from trading like this.
As long as the rate of plat entering the economy vs time played remains consistent, we should be fine. A low inflation rate over time makes sense.
What really scares me is the “Not anytime soon.” comment. Selling plat on the marketplace will break the game’s economy. Period.
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Mike
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I find it curious people think that the in-game economy is something that can be broken (further); it’s been in a broken state for years. Let’s be honest, for many of us, the amount of plat that we have is just a number. Someone who has 10,000 plat doesn’t have any practical advantage over someone who has 5,000 plat. It’s just “there”, serving little purpose beyond being an odometer of how much you’re playing the game.
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Murfalad
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I see the plat amount being a problem.
Over time the sinks for it have slowly been removed due to “cool” new items on LoN or elsewhere appearing in the game removing the need to pay for repairs, rent upkeep etc.
The game certainly could do with some serious plat sinks, because acquiring plat is another game within EQ2 that should be fun/fulfilling.
The risk though is that the more plat sinks appear the more demand for plat and the more incentive the plat sellers get. So I’d like to see any future plat sinks have a game element in them such as a status cost.
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Crlight
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It’s way too easy to earn plats now.
I’m not a big fan for earning money in games, most of the case I earn them for something, maybe a spell or a gear upgrade, but never just earn them for fun.
But soon I found out that since SF, I become rich, I mean compare with the good old days (?). Masters, even some fabled gear becomes available to me.
Nevertheless, my guild mates, their fortune are way beyond our imagine. Some of them are top 5 – 25 wealthiest player worldwide now, most of them having over 10K plats. It’s a piece of cake to buy gears for alts with plats, and even geared up quicker then most of the others.
I think SOE must think of something which is valuable for those wealthy gamers to spend their plats. Maybe some super rare and expensive mount or something? Like those carpets before the first expac.
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Lessing
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>> “I have more plat than I could possibly ever need”
Somebody should be happy but isn’t. That summarizes this entire discussion.
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Vortex
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I can keep saying I told you so, but it’s kind of getting stale now.
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Mike
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>> The game certainly could do with some serious plat sinks, because acquiring plat is another game within EQ2 that should be fun/fulfilling.
That’s just a metter of personal perspective. For me, money is a means to an end, not the end itself; the challenge in the game has always revolved around killing monsters and taking their sutff. Plat is just a byproduct.
The problem with adding real cool items that serve as large plat sinks is that they risk further ticking off casual players who believe that they should be able to get a_verycool_item001 even though they don’t have 1,000p to drop on it. And for something that spendy, the item couldn’t be just fluff, it would have to benefit the player in a meaningful and substantial way. It would become yet another division between the haves (raiders, mostly) and the have-nots (casuals); there’s already enough of a “culture war” in EQ2 between those types of players.
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Mike
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I’d also point out that something like a “super rare and expensive mount” (which they could do with the new flying mounts that are coming) is only a one-time cost. For a true plat sink, you need (a) something that the player cannot avoid paying, (b) it needs to be a recurring expense. Aside from significantly boosting the cost to repair fabled gear, there’s nothing I see in the game that could qualify as that.
I suppose whatever that super-rare, expensive item is, it could have a high recurring cost to maintain. But we’re back to my previous point that there would be outrage on the part of players who think they should be able to obtain a flying dragon mount (or whatever) just by completing a long chain of difficult quests or something. And inevitably, SOE would give into them because they want to make those players happy and that takes priority over their (already screwed up) game economy. Real subscription dollars (and/or people buying SC) are more important to them than plat.
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Tina
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They can do whatever they like with the SC stuff, it’s just annoying to see the stuff I will never be able to get. Same thing with raided loot. I don’t raid, and I don’t buy SC. I pay the monthly sub, I pay the yearly expansion cost. That’s all they will ever get from me. Period.
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xxx
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In Eq2 i make any were from 20-200 plat a “day” in profit just by crafting. Its not much compared to some i know that make close or over 1000 plat on a good raid night selling loot rights. Yea its a money maker…
What to spend my money on??? “I dont know! I agree, people are just building up there plat reserves. There needs to be some way for people to want to spend there plat legit.
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Striinger
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Elite flying dragon mounts with an upkeep cost or they can be rented via station cash (with some notable difference so people can see whether you pay or play for the dragon)?
:). Maybe it should the play fall graphic when it lands? 😀
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Striinger
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Err play a plat fall graphic. iPhone predictive text was too helpful.
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Green Armadillo
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The problem with this hands-off approach is what happens the first time someone fails to deliver on their end of the transaction and it ends up in front of customer service. If you’re going to accept cash knowing that players are trading SC items for in-game currency on the “down low”, you bear a certain degree of responsibility for safeguarding those transactions.
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