Amarria Black
Clan Anthraxx
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Posted - 2007.12.23 07:00:00 -
[2]
 Originally by: Apocryphai
Edited by: Apocryphai on 23/12/2007 06:40:57
Originally by: Apocryphai
Edited by: Apocryphai on 22/12/2007 08:38:03
Hang on if all that you say is correct MP, then EVE would be suffering from inflation, yes? I.e. prices of things increasing.
But they aren't. EVE's economy ISN'T inflationary. In fact as far as I can tell most items, especially manufactured items have slowly decreased in price over the 4 years I've been playing.
Tech 2 decreases are obviously due to the breaking of the T2 BPO monopoly by invention. But T1 prices also have not increased. If your scenario held true then surely we'd have had noticable inflation over 4 years? And we're not talking about a few % either, ravens would cost half a billion, kestrels would be 10 million, etc. And they're not. The profit margins on tech 1 are very, very low, prices really can't go much lower.
There is zero inflationary pressure that I can see.
So why is that the case? Personally I think that the effect of insurance is constantly overstated, particularly by market-player types.
My personal experience is that full insurance doesn't make me money. When I lose a ship, especially a large/expensive ship (think battleships, command ships, HACs, which are the ships I lose most often) it always works out as a net loss to me. The cost of replacing fittings and rigs, re-insuring the ship and lost time (if it's a mission ship) are significant. If that wasn't the case then losing a ship wouldn't bother me, but it does!
I've heard the arguments being made in this thread over and over again. I'm still waiting for the huge inflation that they always threaten. It's now 4 years since I started my first character and there's still no sign of it.
Quick edit: 90% of my insurance contracts expire. That's always been the case after about my first month of playing. And I regularly lose ships in pvp. Still, the vast majority of my contracts expire. I can't speak for anyone else, but you saying that you think very few expire is just as much wild speculation as me trying to claim that 90% of all of them expire.
Quick bump here, I'd really like to hear an answer from a "market player" about why EVE's economy isn't inflationary.
Honestly... I have no clue. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd chalk it up to a few factors:
1) NPC sales acting to minimize inflationary pressures, especially of POS structures.
2) The limited quantity of goods needed to effectively man a ship. Assuming you're not feeding them to a blob every few minutes, a ship fitting requires no more than a few dozen discrete purchases over a potentially unlimited timeline.
3) Effective unlimited life of goods. If you fly a Drake for a month, don't get it blown up, and repack and sell it, it has the same value as a brand new Drake.
4) Flooded / artificially depressed min markets. Drone region loot, macro miners, Reproc price "caps". Take your pick.
5) Oversupply. On all but a few select commodities, Supply far outstrips demand. Look at these few undersupplied goods, and you'll see the inflation. (IE ultra-rare faction mods.)
Also, the amount of cash in the game is increasing. Just because prices aren't doing the same doesn't mean that more isk isn't being introduced into the game.
The effects of insurance itself are overstated. However, it is an inflationary factor, as well as being one of the underlying mechanics that help make suicide ganking more viable, thusly why it's a common target of ire.
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