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OK, so I've been around a while, and have played the market since launch. However, I play the market with specific goals in mind. Pretty much those goals are always to IO-out one of my toons (one badge toon now!)
So I flip, I craft, I do whatever I need, to get the money I need for the IOs I want. Once I'm done, I'll play the superhero/villain game until one of my alts is ready to think about IOs. Fire up Mids, work out what I need, work out what's going to be expensive, and start to play the market.
I've never had a billion inf sitting on a character, but the toons that I've done the above with, are all sitting on 10-100M each as well as having all the IOs they want. Emp/Psi defender, Fire/Storm troller, PB, Brute, Tank & Ill/FF troller are the current 45-50 toons that are done. I'm pretty sure there are billions of inf invested in them, but I don't really worry about how much it cost. Play the market, fight the mobs, run the missions, build the character.
When I read the Market forum, I'm a bit bemused by the obsession with making huge amounts of money. I'm not complaining here, just making an observation.
So why do you do it? What is the point in having bazillions? Do you have more than you need, or are you saving for super-super-super builds? Do you think it makes a difference (super-IO'd build vs reasonable-cost IO build)? Are you playing the market because there isn't a "Market Trader" MMORPG out there? (i.e. The Market is why you play CoX, not the superness) Or is it simply just bragging rights here?
I take my hats off to the billionaires out there, but while it's off, I'm scratching my head wondering "Why all the effort?"
No offense meant folks, I'm just asking!
-H
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well, I cant speak for everyone, but my personal reasons for doing it are twofold.
One, I like being able to afford the really high end stuff for my toons, and two, and probably more importantly, I find a certain level of fun and excitement in seeing a bunch of IOs I personally put the time and money in for to pay off for a large sum more than what I put in. Its an addicting and fun experience to me.
Want comedy and lighthearted action? Between levels 1-14? Try Nuclear in 90 - The Fusionette Task Force!
Arc ID 58363!
Because I enjoy it.
There are no words for what this community, and the friends I have made here mean to me. Please know that I care for all of you, yes, even you. If you Twitter, I'm MrThan. If you're Unleashed, I'm dumps. I'll try and get registered on the Titan Forums as well. Peace, and thanks for the best nine years anyone could ever ask for.
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Are you playing the market because there isn't a "Market Trader" MMORPG out there?
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There's actually a lot of market trader games on the Internet, some you could call "MMORPG" as they come with a chat system, friend list and all, and that's pretty much everything you can do with the genre.
Habit, Reflex, Conditioned response. Just carrying RL behaviors into the game.
My experience is the following, and I'm pretty much the same type of player than you are from what I read:
During the downtimes between your toons reaching IOable status, you get influence on 2 levels:
- vendoring/selling on the market drops that has little value or that I don't keep, plus generating influence by leveling. That nets you around 40 millions if you're frugal on IOs (running with common 30s from your field crafter or frankenslotting cheap sets till you reach 47)
- selling valuable crafted stuff through generally one toon (the one that has field crafter for instance) and that nets you one billion influence/infamy overtime .
Of course you can have multiple marketeers (and quite a bit of people do) but as far as I'm concerned, if you're not playing the market very actively (flipping or AE-ing a lot), you don't really need more than one "seller" and/or "bidder". Personally, I use my WW and vault to keep at least 10 of each salvage on hand at all times, lowballing them when I'm
running dry. Of course there is the occasional buy it NAO moment but that doesn't hurt too much once you have a sufficient bankroll (unless it's a full apocalypse set 
)
Accessory to that, once you have pretty much IO'ed out all your toons, you still play the game and get rewards for it that you'll likely sell to the best offer and that often nets you enough to have a billion on hand at some point in your career.
2 billion is also the influence cap on hand and it can be attained, so you can bet some people are going to try to reach said cap for fun/sense of achievement (just like HP cap, perma hasten, perma dom, def softcap, badges etc...)
@Viper Kinji
Currently working on:
Turtle Snapper - SD/MA/Ice Tanker
Because it is there.
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When I read the Market forum, I'm a bit bemused by the obsession with making huge amounts of money. I'm not complaining here, just making an observation.
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I can't speak for others, and shouldn't particularly because I don't put as much "effort" into my marketeering as some. I mostly act as a supplier by playing the rest of the game, and sell my spoils into the billowing winds of cash that flow through these markets.
That said, I have come to view my wealth a little like most of us do my XP bar. To some extent, I hoard money because I like seeing the number go up. Even when I spend a huge scad of money buying purples or something, I will then spend some effort building up money again, even if that character doesn't need it.
Another behavior my "shiny big number" causes is that, just as we want to see XP and levels go up on all our characters, I like the shiny big number on all of them. I tend not to pool my characters' wealth. As a result, my net wealth is very significant, because I have multiple characters with 1B+ wealth.
It's certainly not the most efficient way to manage my in-game money, but I enjoy it, and it helps keep me interested.
Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA
I play the market so I can afford builds I design for specific characters.
I only really have 3 heros and 1 villain that I have spent a significant amount of inf on, and for two of them they are not quite where I want them to be. Cat is always being tweaked when new IOs come out. Mr Falkland Islands (AR/Dev) is basically 'finished' and inf he earns is fed elsewhere. Mr England. is not yet 50, but got the bulk of his heavy lifitng in IO sets before he hit 40. He ran a lot of TFs parked at 33 to get recipes at that level.
A 2nd villain with an expensive eventual build is being levelled right now.
Outsdie of that most of my charactersuse uncommons frnakenslotted and common IOs. Heck getting level 25 IOs and leaving them alone means they are pretty wealthy by the time they hit 50.
@Catwhoorg "Rule of Three - Finale" Arc# 1984
@Mr Falkland Islands"A Nation Goes Rogue" Arc# 2369 "Toasters and Pop Tarts" Arc#116617
market efforts on my side is about 15 mins in the morning checking 2 toons (red/blue).
I know I can be spotted in the market more offten than any other place .. its not like a mission were your out of sight. Common place to sell/buy what is needed.
money is more to get what I need, having ebils was more a goal this year than in the past. the toon has the basic ok build nothing shinny as all purples and top end stuff.
comes down to more somthing that is done while looking for a team or TF to run. takes Little time, and is a way to work towards getting what I need for a final build.
Lead Squirrel at Dr. E Spider robotic site #643
Nothing saids its your spot like an ourob. Portal dropped on the ground.
I was operating along the same lines as you until about a month ago. I had one toon that I had achieved field crafter status and used him as a market mule to craft and sell IOs. I made enough to keep any of my active toons IO'd but didn't do much as far as purples.
About a month ago, mostly out of boredom after playing the game for nearly 5 years, I decided to treat the market as a 'game within a game' and set the goal to hit a billion inf both blueside and redside.
I hit it about a week ago blueside and and about halfway there redside. It's actually been a fun diversion from the normal grind and I do get a sense of satisfaction seeing the fruits of the research, bidding, and selling strategies learned from this forum.
I guess the point of my post is that this game has a number of different facets - leveling toons, badging, marketeering, PvP, role playing, etc. There's no reason to limit your game play to only one or two of them. Try something new and you may find out you like it!
We don' need no stinkin' signatures!
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No offense meant folks, I'm just asking!
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it's fun and I enjoy it.
I don't really market to 'make money', that's just a measurement of how successful my concepts are. What I enjoy is thinking stuff up and then seeing if it actually works.
I don't ever stick to any niche, as soon as something works I'm thinking of the next thing to try.
That's one reason I'm not super rich like many of the forum regs- when I find a super profitable schtick I get antsy to discover the next one.
The Nethergoat Archive: all my memories, all my characters, all my thoughts on CoH...eventually.
My City Was Gone
Good grief. My name against a post usually consigns it to death, but 10 replies in such a short time! Wow.
Thanks for all that. There does seem to be a variety of reasons as to "why", and it's interesting to note (not just from this thread but from other threads) that the "because it's there" reason is more than I would have expected.
Interesting also, to see how some view it as a game within a game, and others view it as a tool to help them game. As I struggled to train my first toon to 50, I remember the horrible pain of not having enough money to SO out at 25. I had to go through that again redside when that was launched. IOs not only changed my view of enhancing my character, but overnight, they removed any inf worries I ever had.
I really do fail to see sometimes how anyone can lose money at the market. Making money is easy. I guess this mini-game is all about how much and how fast.
It's good to know also, that some people do use it as a tool to simply equip & move on.
And to the poster who said "it's nice to see something sell high". I guess I didn't want to admit that I do enjoy that. It still makes me shake my head in incredulity at the things that sell for such massive, massive prices. Still - I tell myself that the money is coming from AE maniacs and wealthy folks such as your good selves in this forum.
Thanks for all the replies folks! Interesting reading to be sure.
-H
I'm kind of with Nethergoat. I like figuring out the theory on how to make money much more than I like making money. It's the same with designing builds in Mids (or coming up with ship fittings in Eve). A lot of times, the game is won before you even start "playing", as long as you planned it out well. The strategy is the important part and the rest is just leg-work.
So yeah, I figure out how to make money, make a little money doing it and then get bored and do something else. I think it's like in chess how they don't have to actually finish a game when it's clear that it's over.
Most of my marketeering involves selling what I get from farming, but farming and marketeering have the same end goal in mind. Earning huge amounts of Inf. I did the farming for the Leader badge (earning 2 billion Inf). But I do both now in order to load up my chars with the best IOs out there. I've got about a dozen chars loaded with purples, LotGs, etc. And they're very fun to play.
Goodbye and thanks for all the fish.
I've moved on to Diablo 3, TopDoc-1304
I started out doing bargain builds, making money, and making the profit I'd been hungry for, for the last couple years. ("We were poor once." ) Then I started doing things "For the health of the market"- after all, it was good to me. I kept some commons salvage in stock, I crafted common IO's at moderate markups. I have sort of branched out: I worked to get a few dozen Pool C's into the market at levels below 50 when that backbreaking shortage happened, for instance. I'm currently trying to destroy a tiny percentage of the "Excess influence" that I think is in the system.
I, like the goat, also like playing with money and ideas.
The"making money" part is easy and rewarding. I've only started playing with the high end stuff since I decided to destroy 10 billion influence. . . which involved making around 5 billion influence, it turns out.And counting.
Mini-guides: Force Field Defenders, Blasters, Market Self-Defense, Frankenslotting.
So you think you're a hero, huh.
@Boltcutter in game.
My versions of playing the market and why I do them are:
1. Lowball patient bidding on salvage, recipes and enhancements to save inf.
2. Listing sales at 70-80% the high spot in the last 5 (if I believe it) to maximize profit but not wait forever for the sale.
3. Selling garbage salvage for next to nothing to get the extra salvage storage spots.
4. Holding on to Halloween salvage until it spikes up 9 months later and selling it for decent amounts.
5. Quickly selling Candy Canes when they are at their peak values.
With the exception of #1 and #3 all are done to gain the max inf for the min time investment so I can get what I want to improve my character who will make lowball patient bids. Meanwhile I smash enemies for fun and profit.
total kick to the gut
This is like having Ra's Al Ghul show up at your birthday party.
It's fun to be rich. If only I knew how to translate my CoX money making into some money making skills RL (no not RMT) then I'd really be set
I am an ebil markeeter and will steal your moneiz ...correction stole your moneiz. I support keeping the poor down because it is impossible to make moneiz in this game.
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So why do you do it? What is the point in having bazillions? Do you have more than you need, or are you saving for super-super-super builds? Do you think it makes a difference (super-IO'd build vs reasonable-cost IO build)? Are you playing the market because there isn't a "Market Trader" MMORPG out there? (i.e. The Market is why you play CoX, not the superness) Or is it simply just bragging rights here?
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When the market came out, I deliberately avoided it. I play this game for the super hero/villain fighting aspects of it, not to engage in activity a little to close to real life work. Unfortunately, even by just listing items for 1 inf as I was doing upon market launch, trends and patterns became apparent and it was just too juicy to avoid. Eventually I started dedicating time to it then realized "uh oh, I'm spending time on the market" and quit. A half hour spent on the market is a half hour I could spend reading prospectuses or other activities to general US$, or, playing the game.
There may be one or two that say "but I see a Hedgefund in the market quite a bit". Yes, that's because I consolidate all items into him and do still use him to sell items I produce, not just flip.
So, to answer your question of "why play the market when you're already rich", the answer for me was, it was just too easy.
Having money on my namesake and my villain main means my alts are funded. I sell recipes and crafted IOs on the Market so others can use it, profits flowing therefrom. Of course my lowbies sell their drops as well, but I'm usually too busy doing missions/AE/PvPing to do anything more than vendor common recipes or Market salvage/occasional drops.
I have flipped some stuff but it's not very enjoyable to me. I see the Market more as a store. If (outside Purples and PvP IOs of course) I don't like the price at the 'store' then I get it with tickets or Merits. If I like the price at the 'store' I use it.
In the end, it's a fun minigame and the Market lets me fill in blanks in my sets (though to be fair, this is a longer and more tedious process redside). I do have several characters sitting on bunches of inf and not doing much with it, as does my regular play partner.
Questions about the game, either side? /t @Neuronia or @Neuronium, with your queries!
168760: A Death in the Gish. 3 missions, 1-14. Easy to solo.
Infinity Villains
Champion, Pinnacle, Virtue Heroes
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It's fun to be rich. If only I knew how to translate my CoX money making into some money making skills RL (no not RMT) then I'd really be set
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I agree with this 100%
I have an on-again-off-again participation with the market. I know some people treat it as an ongoing minigame all on its own, but to me it's really not fun. Not painful, but not fun either. I think "tedious" would be an apt description.
The first time I got seriously into marketeering was just as an arbitrary challenge to see if I could get to the inf cap on my favorite hero. That done, I lost interest for quite a while. More recently I created a brute and got fixated on having a very costly build. It felt good to be able to spend over a billion on that character, including some jaw-dropping "buy it nao" purchases.
... Hmm, I just realized that my description of "very costly" is probably laughable to some reading this forum. If you went all out on a dream build that included purples, Miracle/Numina/5 LotGs and some PVP IOs, you could easily spend multiple billions if you were paying "get it nao" prices. Well, anything over a billion is still in the "holy cow" realm to me!
So I'll likely get back into it for a while to build up the reserves again. But it's not something I do continually.
Freedom: Blazing Larb, Fiery Fulcrum, Sardan Reborn, Arctic-Frenzy, Wasabi Sam, Mr Smashtastic.
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I really do fail to see sometimes how anyone can lose money at the market.
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I have a couple tried-and-true methods:
1) Have a delicious adult beverage. Become wrapped up in outfitting a character. Concentrate REALLY HARD on not typing too many numbers before hitting return. Type too many numbers and hit return. Bonus points for letting out a blood-curdling yell.
2) Watch something trend downward during an event. Decide, "Hmm, I should buy those at level X" Buy them. Watch the trend continue downward. Slap self in head everytime you log in thereafter in the desperate hope that they'll come back up in a few months.
YMMV.
As for why I market, I remember the Bad Old Days of not being able to afford SOs at level 22 and the horrid work to do so. I'm never truly rid of those memories unless a new character has a million well before level 10.
And I'll heartily second everything said about it being fun. I also enjoy getting characters frankenslotted at level 12 on up. Patient marketing does that rather well and cheaply.
And then there's the more pragmatic side of me: It would seem that it's only a matter of time until the devs cave to whining about having a store (however, perhaps they will all have more children and become de-sensitized to such things). By that time, all my characters will be even more well-off. Bring on the store.
President of the Arbiter Sands fan club. We will never forget.
An Etruscan Snood will nevermore be free
I really enjoy numbers. I love doing math, finding patterns in numbers, and analyzing where I think numbers will go. Along with these numbers, I get to analyze one of the other things I enjoy the most, other people. These numbers tell me about how other people act, so I get the best of both worlds as two of my favorite interests collide. That's why I like to play the market.
The money I make funds a couple of my super-builds, but the vast majority of it goes to pay for my annual SG anniversary party. My folks hold a mass of contests over the course of 3-4 hours, and we give away all our money. This past May, we gave away just north of 12 billion inf. Next year's our 5th year, so I'm thinking I'm going to shoot for 50 billion. I'll know better once the time gets closer. I'm already at about 1.5 billion again.
- Ping (@iltat, @Pinghole)
Don't take it personally if you think I was mean to you. I'm an ******* to everyone.
It's a penguin thing. Pingu FTW.
1. The easy answer is: I enjoy it.
But why do I enjoy it? Well, I enjoy the mini-game aspect of it, for one. I'm also fascinated by the sociological dynamics involved, the window it gives me to the community as a whole. I can make predictions on behavior patterns and, if I'm right, I end up with a huge chunk o' change to show for it. 'Course, also fun are the things I didn't see coming.
And, yah, it's not just about making the Inf, but also sometimes about how fast I can make it. I go into turbo-market-mode when I want Prestige. The goal is to make it so fast, the horrible exchange rate becomes tolerable. Which brings me to...
2. Convenience. I want the option to be able to get whatever I want, whenever I want it.
When costume piece recipes first hit the scene, their drop rate was messed up. Consequently, they routinely sold for hundreds of millions of Inf. This went on for weeks.
Now, I didn't buy any at the time... didn't want one that bad. But if I had wanted one that bad, I could've bought it with my main ('cuz, yes, even before the market's introduction, I saved up Inf. People often boggled at how "rich" I was).
I just like having that option.
Since the market's introduction, we've seen Purples arrive, and their price has steadily inflated since then. PVP recipes have also come online, are super expensive, and, even though I only dabble in PVP these days, some of those PvE bonuses are nice.
Having huge bankrolls on hand means I have the option to buy these things whenever I want, if I decide I want them. And if the next big-ticket item that hits the scene really appeals to me, I can just snap that up as well.
3. Roleplay.
Yah, might seem strange, but there it is. My main has always been played as having a way with money, a trait she shares with her uncle, father, and alternate reality analogue (an alt). The market provided me a means to actually represent that in game.
I also have a few characters that are inventors/designers/engineers. The market (and IOs) have given me the means to represent that as well.
4. I'm Omnivorous
I've been with this game since August of '04, without breaks. Part of what's kept me interested for 5 years straight is that I've engaged in everything the game has offered. Badges, PVP, base building, CoV, IOs, the market, MA... the whole shebang. I play the whole game, and, right now, for me, the market is a big part of that.
The Cape Radio: You're not super until you put on the Cape!
DJ Enigma's Puzzle Factory: Co* Parody Commercials
OK, so I've been around a while, and have played the market since launch. However, I play the market with specific goals in mind. Pretty much those goals are always to IO-out one of my toons (one badge toon now!)
So I flip, I craft, I do whatever I need, to get the money I need for the IOs I want. Once I'm done, I'll play the superhero/villain game until one of my alts is ready to think about IOs. Fire up Mids, work out what I need, work out what's going to be expensive, and start to play the market.
I've never had a billion inf sitting on a character, but the toons that I've done the above with, are all sitting on 10-100M each as well as having all the IOs they want. Emp/Psi defender, Fire/Storm troller, PB, Brute, Tank & Ill/FF troller are the current 45-50 toons that are done. I'm pretty sure there are billions of inf invested in them, but I don't really worry about how much it cost. Play the market, fight the mobs, run the missions, build the character.
When I read the Market forum, I'm a bit bemused by the obsession with making huge amounts of money. I'm not complaining here, just making an observation.
So why do you do it? What is the point in having bazillions? Do you have more than you need, or are you saving for super-super-super builds? Do you think it makes a difference (super-IO'd build vs reasonable-cost IO build)? Are you playing the market because there isn't a "Market Trader" MMORPG out there? (i.e. The Market is why you play CoX, not the superness) Or is it simply just bragging rights here?
I take my hats off to the billionaires out there, but while it's off, I'm scratching my head wondering "Why all the effort?"
No offense meant folks, I'm just asking!
-H