impact of account-wide inf on poverty consciousness
By
all_hell,
Posted on: 2010-07-06 10:49 in The Market and Inventions
Hm. Speaking as a causal-ish (That is not having time to play a lot) altohic player, the spending power of an altoholic is diminished by the lower average range at which you play. Playing 3 20's in a row won't equal the INF income of one 50 for the same period. Not by a long shot. And since you played a whole bunch of characters, none make much xp to get to 50 anytime soon.
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So I guess you didn't hear the one about a few certain ebils turning costume tokens into PvP uniques?|
Originally Posted by Nethergoat
I'm wondering if, once all this sinks in, a new generation of 'casual gamers' will be less hostile and conspiracy minded about the market. Any thoughts?
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Seriously, I'd like to think that if nothing else, the "casual gamer" should find it much simplier to pool her/his INF, recipes and crafted IOs in order to trick-out that one special toon that s/he calls "my main".
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If you're running story arcs (and not just grinding newspapers) or task forces, you should still be making a pretty penny (from merits, in addition to the normal drops). You won't be making the same income/hour or total income as a min/maxer that knows exactly what'll make them the most profit, but you don't need to. This an extremely casual friendly game ('casual' in other MMOs is a joke of a term).
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Originally Posted by ShadowNate
;_; ?!?! What the heck is wrong with you, my god, I have never been so confused in my life!
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WOOT! I'm a casual gamer again!!!|
Originally Posted by Kitteh
So I guess you didn't hear the one about a few certain ebils turning costume tokens into PvP uniques?
Seriously, I'd like to think that if nothing else, the "casual gamer" should find it much simplier to pool her/his INF, recipes and crafted IOs in order to trick-out that one special toon that s/he calls "my main". |
Pooled my blueside inf to my main this weekend and farmed scanner missions. Sitting on 1.3 billion now. Only 700 million to go and then I can wait a few months for a +3 Def PvP unique!
Be well, people of CoH.
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Possibly. But the usual suspects will still maintain their complaints. They were immune to facts for 3 years I don't see them becoming enlightened this summer. |
Originally Posted by Nethergoat
I'm wondering if, once all this sinks in, a new generation of 'casual gamers' will be less hostile and conspiracy minded about the market. Any thoughts?
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total kick to the gut
This is like having Ra's Al Ghul show up at your birthday party.
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They're actually not complaining, they just don't speak English and happened to borrow Argot'BurWot's translator. |
Originally Posted by SwellGuy
Possibly. But the usual suspects will still maintain their complaints. They were immune to facts for 3 years I don't see them becoming enlightened this summer.
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Originally Posted by ShadowNate
;_; ?!?! What the heck is wrong with you, my god, I have never been so confused in my life!
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Indeed. We'll get complaints that pooling your inf is ebil because each character should stand on their own two feet for RP reasons. If you don't like the market, you don't like the market. That will never change.
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Originally Posted by SwellGuy
Possibly. But the usual suspects will still maintain their complaints. They were immune to facts for 3 years I don't see them becoming enlightened this summer.
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Earning power at 50 definitely overshadows everything else, yes.|
Originally Posted by Seldom
Hm. Speaking as a causal-ish (That is not having time to play a lot) altohic player, the spending power of an altoholic is diminished by the lower average range at which you play. Playing 3 20's in a row won't equal the INF income of one 50 for the same period. Not by a long shot. And since you played a whole bunch of characters, none make much xp to get to 50 anytime soon.
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But even casual, non-optimized fairly low level gameplay will generate quite a bit of inf.
If you've got 10 characters around level 30 and if you've sold all your drops on the market it'd be hard NOT to have 20-30 million each lying around. Mass that together and you've got a nice nest egg.
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Oh yeah, I know for a fact the value of the mid-range drops. Those 50's wanting to be exemp-friendly will pay good money for them. But I've been here 6 years, read all the guides, know what sets have the best bonuses and the widest uses, what they've been going for for awhile, and what things to vendor because they're not 'worth' selling.|
Originally Posted by Nethergoat
Earning power at 50 definitely overshadows everything else, yes.
But even casual, non-optimized fairly low level gameplay will generate quite a bit of inf. If you've got 10 characters around level 30 and if you've sold all your drops on the market it'd be hard NOT to have 20-30 million each lying around. Mass that together and you've got a nice nest egg. |
That's knowledge the everyday Joe/Jane doesn't have. Talking with a friend, they vendored a couple good melee set recipes because their confuse/slow/etc. recipes hadn't sold yet, so they had no room at the market. There are many ways to easily buy/sell/invent/invest, but they all require knowledge that you won't get just from the in-game help stuff. as such, the 'pool' for casuals will be smaller.
That said? I foresee complaints, as they make multiple characters go broke by pooling cash for unwise/overpriced purchases.
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/em nerdrage "I shouldn't have to farm with my 50 to buy IOs for my lowbies!!!"|
Originally Posted by peterpeter
Indeed. We'll get complaints that pooling your inf is ebil because each character should stand on their own two feet for RP reasons. If you don't like the market, you don't like the market. That will never change.
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Of course my favorite is going to be "Letting villains access Wentworths has ruined it!!!"
total kick to the gut
This is like having Ra's Al Ghul show up at your birthday party.
I actually haven't heard many complaints about poverty and such lately.
I almost always join a pick-up group on the various servers where I don't have a base. Whenever our adventures end, I always ask:
"Do any of you need any influence/infamy? I'd be glad to help out."
Generally, the response is:
"No tks, I'm good."
"Nah, I can just email stuff."
"My main has X million inf, tks tho."
The last time someone got "wow'd" by an inf donation was on Triumph in a Hollows group, some of the lowbies were very happy to get a bunch of millions. Gleemail and the Market seem to be making everyone's pockets a little heavier these days.
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Yeah, so did the super inflation in pre-WW2 germany |
Originally Posted by Neuronia
Gleemail and the Market seem to be making everyone's pockets a little heavier these days.
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(not that I'm saying this is the situation here, just warning about jumping to premature conclusions)
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Originally Posted by ShadowNate
;_; ?!?! What the heck is wrong with you, my god, I have never been so confused in my life!
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Casual players don't even know they can email stuff to themselves in many cases.
That said, I think the tool will be used more effectively by people with loads on infamy than those who play casually so like most tools it will tend to increase income disparities.
That said, it looks like the incarnate system which is coming soon might overshadow IO slotting so infamy might lose another notch of value coming up soon.
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You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. Of freaking course a tool will benefit the people that use it more than the people that don't, and that certainly doesn't mean the tool is a bad thing!|
Originally Posted by Enyalios
That said, I think the tool will be used more effectively by people with loads on infamy than those who play casually so like most tools it will tend to increase income disparities.
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Anyone with multiple accounts (if you have multiple, you're not casual) didn't need the email system. Anyone was using a third party to transfer likely wasn't casual. The email system, on the other hand, won't be as off putting, it just needs a bit more discoverability (or word of mouth) and it'll benefit the casual players FAR MORE than the prior systems (work arounds) didn't.
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Originally Posted by ShadowNate
;_; ?!?! What the heck is wrong with you, my god, I have never been so confused in my life!
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LOL I can totally see that.
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Originally Posted by SwellGuy
/em nerdrage "I shouldn't have to farm with my 50 to buy IOs for my lowbies!!!"
Of course my favorite is going to be "Letting villains access Wentworths has ruined it!!!" |
haters gonna hate...
nah i think this is a awesome move.
finally my underplayed reds can also haz nice stuffs!
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So not only are they planning on merging the Black market and Wents, we are going to be down to ONE wallet? Great Scott!|
Originally Posted by Nethergoat
So, amidst all the (justifiable) excitement about the upcoming market merger one fairly major related change has mostly skimmed along under the radar.
((snip)) For us in-the-know types, this is more a QOL change than anything as players have always found ways around silly systemic limitations on their inf. . Well, there are no more sugar daddies. Your entire account shares the same inf pool ....it's positively Socialist! I'm wondering if, once all this sinks in, a new generation of 'casual gamers' will be less hostile and conspiracy minded about the market. Any thoughts? |
I've got a TON of influence and Infamy to hide now so it isnt vaporized at the 2 billion ceiling.
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By what you highlighted, he means it's trivial to transfer inf between characters, thanks to the email system. He DOES NOT MEAN that you have ONE 'inf' display for ALL characters.
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Originally Posted by Archantos
So not only are they planning on merging the Black market and Wents, we are going to be down to ONE wallet? Great Scott!
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Originally Posted by ShadowNate
;_; ?!?! What the heck is wrong with you, my god, I have never been so confused in my life!
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They aren't doing it mechanically- all characters will still have all of the 2b inf cap to play around with.|
Originally Posted by Archantos
So not only are they planning on merging the Black market and Wents, we are going to be down to ONE wallet? Great Scott!
I've got a TON of influence and Infamy to hide now so it isnt vaporized at the 2 billion ceiling. |
But in practical terms, the ability to email ourselves inf means all of our characters potentially have access to all of our inf, not just the bit they've earned for themselves.
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My City Was Gone
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Only to the extent that it will (at least initially) make it easier for casuals to pay the BUY IT NAO price, as they prefer. I don't think it will make people any more likely to learn how to "play" the market.
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Originally Posted by Nethergoat
I'm wondering if, once all this sinks in, a new generation of 'casual gamers' will be less hostile and conspiracy minded about the market. Any thoughts?
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I'm guessing that would involve magic and ponies as a solution to the market hostility Goat.
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Originally Posted by Nethergoat
I'm wondering if, once all this sinks in, a new generation of 'casual gamers' will be less hostile and conspiracy minded about the market. Any thoughts?
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-Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. - Albert Einstein.
-I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. - Galileo Galilei
-When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty. - Thomas Jefferson
Folks will still complain. There are even a few complaints Im expecting to see post merge like:
Now its even harder to buy what I want because everyone can now bid on it
or
I had to pauper my X, Y, and Z characters to purple out my warshade and now X, Y, and Z cant buy anything they need.
or
Its now even easier for marketeers to flip stuff and make tons of money. They are going to drive prices even higher since they can spend even more and the casual player will never have a chance to make that kind of money to buy the good stuff.
Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, ad nauseum.
There is nothing really new in those few imaginary examples off the top, just updated variations of the same old songs. Well maybe the first one is a touch more original, but in the end amounts to the same sort of did that really make sense to you look of bemused bafflement that I know has crossed my face when reading some of the complaints about the market and marketeers that land in this forum or in-game from time-to-time.
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It may well boost a price spike until the pre-accumulated inf runs out.
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If "casual players" don't understand that patience is key to using the market, they will quickly lose the influence they do have. Similarly, if they don't understand which drops should be posted on the market and which should be vendored, they will continue to be relative paupers. You need a basic understanding of the worth of things in order to become wealthy, in real life as in this game.|
Originally Posted by Nethergoat
I'm wondering if, once all this sinks in, a new generation of 'casual gamers' will be less hostile and conspiracy minded about the market. Any thoughts?
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The ability to pool influence will allow some "casual" players will be able to fully kit out a select character, and then they will be broke. This process will in turn drive a certain amount of market inflation.
But players who worry about IOs and set bonuses are not really casual players. They are min-maxers who don't have the time and/or inclination to farm or play the market to obtain the kind of cash needed to satisfy their ambitions. They are the Salieris of the City: they can see the top of the mountain, they just can't scale its peaks.
But the truth is that in this game, any Salieri can become a Mozart if you wait long enough. You just can't do it in a short time unless you do certain things (like farming merits, play the market heavily, etc.). I count myself as a Salieri: able to get all the things I want by not wanting the things I can't get.
Truly casual players don't really know what IOs are and don't really care. They just play to have fun and don't worry about the numbers. Anyone who's crafting IOs is by (my) definition not casual.
So, amidst all the (justifiable) excitement about the upcoming market merger one fairly major related change has mostly skimmed along under the radar.
No longer is inf bound to this or that character or faction, it is now part of an account-wide pool....or multi-account wide, for those who indulge in such things.
For us in-the-know types, this is more a QOL change than anything as players have always found ways around silly systemic limitations on their inf.
But I wonder if the impact on our old friend the "casual gamer" won't be more profound than anticipated. One popular complaint over the years has been "I like to play my alts too much, so I can't make a fortune". Now, what was once 16 individual cups of inf is one gallon.
Another popular accusation is that "sugar daddies" funding other characters is an underhanded practice. Well, there are no more sugar daddies. Your entire account shares the same inf pool....it's positively Socialist!
I'm wondering if, once all this sinks in, a new generation of 'casual gamers' will be less hostile and conspiracy minded about the market. Any thoughts?
The Nethergoat Archive: all my memories, all my characters, all my thoughts on CoH...eventually.
My City Was Gone