Which MMO has the best and worst economy?

Eshelmen

Eshelmen

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So through the years of playing MMOs, I've learned that you can never satisfy everyone when it comes to in game currency. Or can you?
It seems no matter what system is in place, be it an auction house system like WoW has, or a location based trader system like ESO has, someone, somewhere will have the shit end of the stick.

Some people play MMOs just to get rich in game, which is hilarious, but hats off to them for doing so. Other players just need enough in game currency to get by and possibly save for end game content/ materials.

But there's pros and cons for each and every system I've used in MMOs.

In WoW, undercutting is and always will be a thing. However from a buyers perspective, it's insanely easy to browse the items you want, when you want and for the prices that you want.

In ESO, there is no universal system to search items, you have to manually view each and every Guild Trader to see what prices are throughout each guild.
Additionally, guilds bid every week on locations. The more popular the area, the higher the bid wars are.
Since these higher end locations are awesome for sales, there's more areas than not that are indeed struggling with making any sales at all.

This isn't a rant thread but just curious what MMO has the best economy?
Additionally, why is it the best?
And what's the worst?

In your opinion, should the usual systems in place with MMOs be changed? Or is this the best we're going to get? And why?
 
Guild wars 2 has the best auction house ever created...it includes EVERONE who plays the game....magnificent bid/ask system...good Lord its like a stock market

Ease of use...sell or buy anything WHEREVER you are in the world...you can only pick up your stuff at the auction house though which makes sense

Dove tail into the best AH, it also has the best account wide inventory system ever created also

The only problem with the game imho, is , I cannot 'get into' the world/lore...such a shame too

I thought AION had a really great interface for the AH

Never played black desert online but heard people like that one too
 
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I have no idea which MMO has the best economy, but ESO takes the cake with its shitty way of dealing with it.
My god, I started playing when it was released and when you could join "only" 5 guilds and those guilds had a maximum amount of 500 players. So, you only had access to 2000-2500 players total and was stressed into being very active or else you'd be kicked out since no serious trading guild want inactive members.
They still haven't made it much better. I don't know how fucking stupid they can be. It's actually the main reason why I'm refusing to play that game.
 
Star Wars: The Old Republic is the only MMO I've ever played long term or even recently. The economy has probably done exactly what EA wanted it to after it went free to play. Inflation is out of control. It's to the point where you can't really earn enough credits through most of the normal game activities to buy more than basic stuff on the GTN (Galactic Trade Network). SWTOR relies heavily on the Cartel Market for actual revenue generation. For this reason, the best cosmetic items are on the Cartel Market rather than being things you can earn in game. Although there are some examples of things that can be earned in game that were removed and made into Cartel Market items.

As one can imagine, crafters largely sustained the game's economy. When the Cartel Market launched, there was an increase in wealthy players due to some people either getting suckered by micro-transactions or being willing to dump large amounts of real cache into the game. Eventually this influx tapered off as players were lost due to natural rates of attrition for various reasons. For years in-game credits remained at a pretty consistent value level. About a year or more ago, BioWare / EA allowed a rampant exploit which allowed for virtually unlimited money to persist for a very long time. The market was flooded with potentially trillions of extra credits which destabilized things. While BioWare tried to retroactively remove the credits generated through exploits its widely known they didn't succeed. BioWare didn't even really make a dent in the amount of added credits in the game.

Today, inflation is at a level in which the normal means of earning credits in the game won't allow you to cover the costs of anything besides the basics like gear repairs, stims, gear modification, health packs, and that sort of thing. You'd have to grind a long time to make enough money to buy any crafted gear or anything from the Cartel Market. Since MMO's are a time sink, BioWare / EA is probably pleased but for a player base that's starving for content it's not good.
 
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Nebell said:
I have no idea which MMO has the best economy, but ESO takes the cake with its shitty way of dealing with it.
My god, I started playing when it was released and when you could join "only" 5 guilds and those guilds had a maximum amount of 500 players. So, you only had access to 2000-2500 players total and was stressed into being very active or else you'd be kicked out since no serious trading guild want inactive members.
They still haven't made it much better. I don't know how fucking stupid they can be. It's actually the main reason why I'm refusing to play that game.
Click to expand...
Yeah that's not entirely true anymore. Guild traders are now open for public purchases. Yes the guilds only hold 500 still, but the guild trader locations are open for anyone. It definitely is better than before, but still shite in its own way.

And I'll have to check gw2 out, never tried it. Lol
 
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STO has a rather messy economy, turning bad after going F2P and going worse after being purchased by Perfect Worlds. Too many currencies (Energy Credits, Dilithium, Lobi Crystals, Latinum, etc.) that are too specialized and only Dilithium can be used to trade for Zen (currency that is otherwise bought with real money, or as stipend bonus for lifetime subscribers) just to buy the most expensive in-game items (tiered ships, fleet ships, uniforms, master keys for lock boxes (the money sinker as there is no other way to obtain master keys), etc.).
 
I have no Idea which is the best and which is the worst? I have enjoyed every single MMO I've played
 
IamBen said:
I have no Idea which is the best and which is the worst? I have enjoyed every single MMO I've played
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I'm quite the opposite. I've hated almost every single MMO I've ever played. I've come to realize that I just don't like MMOs. I've always liked the idea of them, but the execution is an issue. With SWTOR, its the story aspect of it that got me hooked initially. The fact that a bunch of my friends still play it is what has kept me playing. It's more of an online get together with friends at this point than me playing a game. We raid a couple times a week for a couple hours and that's it.
 
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Dan_D said:
I'm quite the opposite. I've hated almost every single MMO I've ever played. I've come to realize that I just don't like MMOs. I've always liked the idea of them, but the execution is an issue. With SWTOR, its the story aspect of it that got me hooked initially. The fact that a bunch of my friends still play it is what has kept me playing. It's more of an online get together with friends at this point than me playing a game. We raid a couple times a week for a couple hours and that's it.
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You must have high expectations and high standards regarding MMO's. But I think that's what MMO game is all about socializing through games. Maybe that is why I love to play because I have to meet different kinds of gamer :D
 
IamBen said:
You must have high expectations and high standards regarding MMO's. But I think that's what MMO game is all about socializing through games. Maybe that is why I love to play because I have to meet different kinds of gamer :D
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I don't care about meeting people online or social interactions in games.
 
IamBen said:
That's where we differ :D
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No shit I have no social life besides social media I like the game but I'm long past the game I have like 200,000 posts on various message boards. I used to love the Chat in Rift levels 1/20 and the people in MMO chat have some of the more active brains of social media cause they are both intern reacting to the video game #1 and the Text Chat #2 and the feedback they receive from either the game or the Text chat alone. Alot of it if you ask me is ADD chat syndrome which is ok but mind numbing if you participate hours on End.

This one girl in a guild in Rift was a Village Idiot basically I think I updgraded to a 550TI graphcis card and I was getting some pretty good FPS in the game screen overlay.
So what she typed in she checked her FPS in game and was getting like 10 FPS in game LOL no wonder she was chatting all the time due to such low Frames per second.


Ultima Online's social interaction was some of the best stuff Mankind ever created. Like talking to former PKS that just killed your character and the grief that would come out of it. The thing that made Ultima's chat so good the text was in a bubble right above your character which made in meld inside the game rather than a Chat windows it was the prefect game basically all in Glory 2-D untill it went 3-D for a while I think you have two separate clients yet.
 
I honestly used to like the EQ2 economy and auction system. The original version of it, where if you wanted to sell something, you had to leave your toon logged in running a stand in your house or whatever. You could buy stuff from the general access auction house, but had to pay a %, but if you went to the persons store, the fee was waived.
 
EQ 2 was a Great the Grind kept me down though it was just too much after I got past the Enchanted Lands.
I hope Pantheon Rise of the Fallen is similar to both DAOC or EQ2.
 
Eshelmen said:
So through the years of playing MMOs, I've learned that you can never satisfy everyone when it comes to in game currency. Or can you?
It seems no matter what system is in place, be it an auction house system like WoW has, or a location based trader system like ESO has, someone, somewhere will have the shit end of the stick.

Some people play MMOs just to get rich in game, which is hilarious, but hats off to them for doing so. Other players just need enough in game currency to get by and possibly save for end game content/ materials.

But there's pros and cons for each and every system I've used in MMOs.

In WoW, undercutting is and always will be a thing. However from a buyers perspective, it's insanely easy to browse the items you want, when you want and for the prices that you want.

In ESO, there is no universal system to search items, you have to manually view each and every Guild Trader to see what prices are throughout each guild.
Additionally, guilds bid every week on locations. The more popular the area, the higher the bid wars are.
Since these higher end locations are awesome for sales, there's more areas than not that are indeed struggling with making any sales at all.

This isn't a rant thread but just curious what MMO has the best economy?
Additionally, why is it the best?
And what's the worst?

In your opinion, should the usual systems in place with MMOs be changed? Or is this the best we're going to get? And why?
Click to expand...


The economy in WoW is the equivalent of your parents giving you a weekly allowance when you're 7. Sure you think it's great, but there's a much bigger world out there.


UO had a completely player driven economy and it was fascinating just to mess with. We even tried creating a derivative markets in the game, but many players were too dumb to understand what we were selling.
 
Nothing will ever compare to ECbay, or Faymart. I miss EQ 1, GW2 was probably the best, with Rift falling in behind as far as modern MMO's go. WoW is just an abomination.
 
ob1 said:
I honestly used to like the EQ2 economy and auction system. The original version of it, where if you wanted to sell something, you had to leave your toon logged in running a stand in your house or whatever. You could buy stuff from the general access auction house, but had to pay a %, but if you went to the persons store, the fee was waived.
Click to expand...


I was the top ranked Dirge on Grobb in Malice, at the highest level even for raids, you didn't need to hit up the marketplace for consumables, it was pretty weak.
 
Pirates of the Burning Sea had a great economy. Tons af various mats that were needed to build pretty much everything.
 
Bangorang said:
Guild wars 2 has the best auction house ever created...it includes EVERONE who plays the game....magnificent bid/ask system...good Lord its like a stock market

Ease of use...sell or buy anything WHEREVER you are in the world...you can only pick up your stuff at the auction house though which makes sense

Dove tail into the best AH, it also has the best account wide inventory system ever created also

The only problem with the game imho, is , I cannot 'get into' the world/lore...such a shame too...
Click to expand...

FWIW, Guild Wars is the only MMO I've ever played and I guess it must say something about the game in that I've never thought to even question the economy. It's just there, part of the game.

Money in these games is simply time played anyway, so not sure how a given economy could be a problem, per se, unless somehow prices fluctuate wildly.
 
I remember Diablo 3's Auction House went completely off the rails in the first month or so.
 
Dan_D said:
Star Wars: The Old Republic is the only MMO I've ever played long term or even recently. The economy has probably done exactly what EA wanted it to after it went free to play. Inflation is out of control. It's to the point where you can't really earn enough credits through most of the normal game activities to buy more than basic stuff on the GTN (Galactic Trade Network). SWTOR relies heavily on the Cartel Market for actual revenue generation. For this reason, the best cosmetic items are on the Cartel Market rather than being things you can earn in game. Although there are some examples of things that can be earned in game that were removed and made into Cartel Market items.

As one can imagine, crafters largely sustained the game's economy. When the Cartel Market launched, there was an increase in wealthy players due to some people either getting suckered by micro-transactions or being willing to dump large amounts of real cache into the game. Eventually this influx tapered off as players were lost due to natural rates of attrition for various reasons. For years in-game credits remained at a pretty consistent value level. About a year or more ago, BioWare / EA allowed a rampant exploit which allowed for virtually unlimited money to persist for a very long time. The market was flooded with potentially trillions of extra credits which destabilized things. While BioWare tried to retroactively remove the credits generated through exploits its widely known they didn't succeed. BioWare didn't even really make a dent in the amount of added credits in the game.

Today, inflation is at a level in which the normal means of earning credits in the game won't allow you to cover the costs of anything besides the basics like gear repairs, stims, gear modification, health packs, and that sort of thing. You'd have to grind a long time to make enough money to buy any crafted gear or anything from the Cartel Market. Since MMO's are a time sink, BioWare / EA is probably pleased but for a player base that's starving for content it's not good.
Click to expand...


Interesting, as SWTOR is really the only MMO I've spent much time on.

I always thought the economy was great, and almost enjoyed crafting and selling and buying/selling more than the game itself.
Havent played in a long time, but its interesting to hear how the economy has changed.
 
Not an MMO but Path of Exile has the absolute best economy of any ARPG I've ever played hands down.
 
KarsusTG said:
No game economy could ever match that of EvE.
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I'm yet to see one as complex and 'close' as EvE. Cool AF game lost a year or two in it but damn I just don't have the time or internet connection for it these days.
That said some of the best game memories I've ever had in that title. Good camaraderie in nullsec.
 
craigdt said:
Interesting, as SWTOR is really the only MMO I've spent much time on.

I always thought the economy was great, and almost enjoyed crafting and selling and buying/selling more than the game itself.
Havent played in a long time, but its interesting to hear how the economy has changed.
Click to expand...

I've never understood the appeal of crafting. Just sitting there and building shit to sell never appealed to me as a game mechanic. People still do it in SWTOR and make credits doing it, but BioWare made changes to the system, some of which haven't been well received. Some of those changes have resulted in crafted gear (which isn't BiS) being prohibitively expensive for anyone who plays just casually. The biggest problem is that you can no longer reverse engineer artifact or legendary quality items in order to get the higher grade materials out of them. A lot of the gear can't be reverse engineered for their patterns either. They've also tied certain crafting materials to the bullshit Conquest system. There are devout players who do Conquest pretty hard core, but it's a huge time sink. Casual players really don't have time for that. Therefore, the cost of buying these materials can be insanely high, worse yet, higher than the cost of the item you are trying to craft.

Sellers of certain items often rely on the "crit" system to make a profit on gear crafting. If you craft a mod, there is a small chance that you'll crit and get two mods for the price of one set of mats. Some things like implants and earpieces only gain augment slots when you crit, therefore the cost of those pieces exceeds the cost of the materials to make them. In the case of mods, hilts and enhancements, that's not so. The way shit has worked out, you can drop 50 million on gearing a character and still not be all that close to BiS. (Best in slot, for those who don't know what that meant.)

Any patterns you learn are also two gear levels off the top tier of gear. The gearing system changed dramatically when 5.0 dropped. Those changes basically meant that you couldn't get gear from raids anymore. These changes went over like a turd in a punch bowl, and have since been changed again. The short version is this: Gear isn't too hard to obtain given that story mode drops 236's and you don't even need gear to do story mode raiding. The bolster system has you covered. You only need gear for veteran and master modes which replaced hard and nightmare modes respectively. Few people participate in this content as you can get gear easily other ways. As a result, there isn't as much volume selling and less competition in the crafting arena. To make crafting worse, you now have to craft at least one of the materials that's needed to craft the object you actually want to make. It's fucking annoying.

Since BioWare dropped the Aim, Cunning, Strength, and Willpower primary stats, the crafting professions are all fucked up. They reorganized them so what used to make enhancements doesn't, and makes something else. On the plus side, your crafted items can now be used for every class but that's one of the few actual improvements to the system. People asked for a deeper crafting system and what we got was a more convoluted one.
 
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I hate most MMOs, but I liked how the auction house was set up in Neverwinter. I was able to get everything I wanted (including a full set of the best gear available at the time) with minimal trouble and time commitment.
 
The worst economy is probably D3, but maybe there is a game I do not know. Blizzard forbade any trade or exchanges - in my opinion a foot shot - there is no such thing as a currency. The best economy is the Path of Exile, in PoE is a developed trading system, is based on barter. The currency is orbs, but it is not gold - which after a while becomes worthless like in other games. Each orbs can be used for anything and are objects (not like gold). The main currency of the PoE are Exalted Orbs (something like $ 1) and Chaos Orbs (something like cents). GGG not only allows trade between players, but it is one of the pillars of the game. In my opinion, the creation of PoE currency was brilliant. And what more can I say about Economy? All exalted Orbs and other PoE Currency you can show at this truster and great site. I'm Path of Exile gamer and I recomennd this for you https://odealo.com/games/path-of-exile/harbinger-softcore
 
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Has nobody tried replicating the basic ideas in POE? Seems foolish not use their principles if you want to make an MMO with a well thought out economy.
 
I miss pre-CU Star Wars Galaxies

That game probably had the most intricate economy of any MMO since 99% of goods were player made and sold in player shops. Auction house was really only used for small stuff.

Nothing quite as fun as just randomly stumbling on a shop that sells the armor you like for 25% off market rates.
 
The best economy and the most intense crafting, but god damn the actual combat and gameplay was shit. Get Dr buffs and solo the entire game yourself...
 
entropism said:
The best economy and the most intense crafting, but god damn the actual combat and gameplay was shit. Get Dr buffs and solo the entire game yourself...
Click to expand...

My main was a Master Doc and I approve of this message.

I made millions doing nothing but buffing people.

That being said the SWG economy was awesome and pretty deep. You had to mine resources, but those resources dried up and were not always the same quality. So you would have to constantly monitor move your mining equipment.

Plus they had had full on player housing and cities, so you could pop up an actual store front and have a merchant selling your junk.
 
Yep. Doctor/Sniper here for the longest time. Made so much money there was nothing left to buy.
 
cthulhuiscool said:
I miss pre-CU Star Wars Galaxies

That game probably had the most intricate economy of any MMO since 99% of goods were player made and sold in player shops. Auction house was really only used for small stuff.

Nothing quite as fun as just randomly stumbling on a shop that sells the armor you like for 25% off market rates.
Click to expand...

Economy and crafting were highlights of an otherwise dreary gaming experience. I hated having to get buffed by other players to do jack shit. I hated the fact that somehow they managed to take the Star Wars license and make it not feel anything like Star Wars.
 
Which? POE without a doubt has the best, just take a look at this:

0pReq3u.jpg
 

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