Freedom effects on the market

With 12 (?) slots per server and 15 (?) servers, we already have a lot of characters that can be created for market purposes. The biggest issue is time. I don't see free accounts changing that any, even if they had full access to the market.

Not at all, everyone knows Paragon Studios pays it's developers in shiny beads.

Default number of slots for a free account is 2.

A level 50 character can hold 20 inspirations in their tray.

Confirmed in today's UStream that it is 2 character slots total for the Freepers Account. Not total per server, total per account.

"Freepers"? What do people who'll have free accounts have to do with readers of the Republic Free Press?

Only if free accounts are permitted to PvP, which I'm doubting they will.

P.S. Free account members clearly must be called Freeemers.

backtymology of free+member

I like freemium members -- it sounds like an exotic transuranic element that empowers superheros.

There most definitely is consistency to the pricing. It's based on a number of factors, most notably how easy it is to get the item in question, how many people want it, and what its historical price has been.

Ease of obtaining: Bananas require a warm, humid environment to grow and spoil quickly. There are few places north of Mexico that they can be grown. If you live in Alaska, the price of bananas is going to be significantly higher, just because its harder to get them to you before they spoil.
In game items don't have to worry about transportation or spoilage, but WHERE things can be produced is relevant. All uncommons can be generated en masse by punching enemies or rolling Bronze tickets. Rare recipes vary though: Some come from enemies, others from mission completion, and others only from Merit or Gold rolls (or Boss kills, with a fairly low drop rate). The game is all about punching enemies and completing missions, so the first two categories drop regularly, without even trying. The third category requires you to choose to make the appropriate rolls or turn on Bosses in your difficulty settings, or join a team. In general, it requires some degree of effort to earn these, or a considerable time expenditure, or both.

Desirability: Anyone can go outside and pick up a rock. most of those rocks are going to be regular rocks, but a very small number will have metals or gemstones in them. The rocks with gold or diamonds in them are worth more than those with iron or agates, and those will be worth more than sandstone or granite.
Likewise, if I had three rare recipes, the Luck of the Gambler +recharge would be worth more than the Mako's Bite: Acc/Dam/End/Rech, and that would be worth more than the Trap of the Hunter proc, even though all three were generated by the same 20 Merit roll. Why? Because more people want the LotG, less want the Mako, and very few want the Trap. Why people want one more than others doesn't really matter, just that people DO want it more.

Historical price: Looking out my window right now, I can see that the gas station across the road is charging $1.27/liter. If the gas companies suddenly found a way to produce gas for 1/10th the current production price, using a device installed in the tanks, so that there's no transportation cost, would the cost of gas suddenly drop to $0.10/liter or less? No. Why? Because people expect gas to cost around the price it does, so they are willing to pay that much, even if they don't want to. Therefore, the people who set the prices may reduce the price to reflect their lowered costs, but not by the same amount their cost reduced.
When Merits were introduced, it became far easier to mass produce valuable recipes. Alignment Merits made it even easier. Originally, to get a Luck of the Gambler +recharge (ignoring the market for the moment), you had to run numerous Task Forces and hope to get one as a drop. Now, anyone who wants one can run 22 missions over 4 days and be guaranteed one. Or they can run a pre-determined number of story arcs or task forces and be guaranteed one. Neither of these changes instantly dropped the value of this IO - instead, it slowly trickled down, and now, years later, is about half its previous value. Why? Because people "know" it's an expensive item, so the sellers can set a high price, and people will pay it because that's what they expect to pay for it.

There is NO high-priced item on the market that doesn't have a reason for being that high. The reasons are complex, and based on a number of factors, and sometimes not obvious, but they are always there. Yes, manipulation of the market CAN be the source of high prices, but it rarely is, and even more rarely is sustained for more than a few days. More often, it's a combination of the factors of a Supply and Demand system.

Unfortunately, even if I've convinced you, or anyone else, dozens still will refuse to believe, often stating that real-world economics don't apply to a game, or that all high prices are the work of manipulators, and someone will be having this discussion again nxet week.

That was already removed a few issues ago.

I don't disagree with you, but I do believe there are inconsistencies in prices and such. Some recipes are very expensive due to the demand but...

Some of the high prices IMHO are due to people looking to cash in and they can, because a lot of players simply don't have the patience to earn or achieve the results through play and just want all the cool toys immediately. I can't say I blame them because that's what circumstances are and what they have been allowed to stay as. If I had a kinetic combat or reactive armour recipe I didn't want or need, and it was going for 150 million at cheapest, then, yeah I'd put it in for 150 million myself otherwise, I'm cheating myself out.

Change can be a terrifying thing. But its often needed. I can understand some recipes being very expensive like purples because they are as rare as rocking horse pooh and getting them through alternative means is very hard and thus the market is the best viable route. But as for attaining recipes like Kinetic combats, or obliteration which are traditionally very expensive, these are so easy to get through merits, PROVIDED players are willing to invest the time in playing the game I acheived a full set of Obliteration Recipes without paying for any, it took a bit of effort, about a week and a half in total, but I got them all, and didn't have to part with an insane amount of inf to do it. Architect Entertainment random ticket cashing in, Alignment merits, reward merits. All won't cost you a single inf.

I'm not saying give them away, we know inf is needed for crafting enhancements, and other things, but once you hit level 50, and have your character all done where you want him/her in the enhancment department, IMHO its time for a little bit of philanthropy. My level 50 tanker, I've put recipes in for sale he's picked up for money comparable to what an NPC vendor would give me. A tiny bit more obviously.

I don't expect purples to go for peanuts and given the difficulty in attaining them etc, I'd say their price range as it stands now is about right. But 150 million for kinetic combat? When a single alignment merit will buy it? Crazy. All you gotta do is wait 2 days.

I think the market would benefit from some change. I like to think I do my part to pass on goods back to the community without lining my coffers to the hilts.

The SINGLE biggest factor in pricing on the Market is the buyer's level of patience. Yes, Manipulators can influence things quite a bit and all of the other factors cited up-thread apply as well. However the MAIN reason anything costs what it costs is that the buyer is willing to pay the asked price.

Posit: What if everyone in the Market stopped buying Purple recipes for the asked price and instead put in bids for around 100 million? The sellers would check, see that their recipes haven't sold for days and probably lower the prices a bit. Rinse-repeat until they decide to either sell them for what the Market offers or take them off entirely and use them themselves.

Now there is a lower limit to this of course. Nobody is going to sell a purple recipe for 50 Inf unless they're being philanthropic...or a bad typist. However by and large it's the buyers who set the prices...not the sellers.

This is why co-operatives of buyers and sellers wield such power in the real world. If all the fish markets get together and set the minimum price of fish then the consumers will HAVE to pay at least that much. For a necessity like gasoline the consumer is pretty much powerless. But for luxury items like diamonds, if all the buyers got together and said 'We're not paying more than such and such for diamonds' then the prices would fall pretty quickly.

However there is simply no way to convince all of the buyers to band together to hold the line on their purchases.

Personally I agree with the idea of a little generosity from the upper-level characters. I've had lowbies receive gifts of a million Inf while standing around in AP looking for a sewer run. But I also agree with informing new players and those unfamiliar with the Market how things work and helping them earn their own fortunes.

Teach a man to fish and all that...

Last night I ws bidding on two Damage/recharge pounding slugfest recipes. I bid 600,000 inf for each. This was in the morning. Left for work. Came back later after work at about 7pm. Checked. Still bidding, but, there was only 2 people bidding. But 65 for sale. So, I withdrew my 1.2 million inf, and bid instead on a Damage/Endurance pair. Got the two instantly, for 100,000 each.

So it pays to shop around if you are frankenslotting so to speak.


Maybe, but that would take some time, because a lot of sellers would more than likely stick to their guns and not budge on the prices.

Purples are different, you could play for months conceivably and not aquire one through any means beyond the market, the others, like Kinetic combat, Obliteration, reactive armour etc... the pricey but not unicorn like ones, can be obtained in, at best, a matter of hours to a day, at worst, a few days.

I think some purples that go for half a billion are pricey, but, given their rarity, its not unjustified. Its a hell of a lot better than the billions that PvP ones go for, so as far as purples go, got no complaints about their prices. Most purples I don't, and wouldn't want anyway as the bonuses aren't giving me what I need for the character.

Of course not, and I agree with the buyers being as much to blame as the sellers, after all I remember a time when inanimate carbon rods were going for 150,000 a piece!