More New Items

[Numismaster]

I was just wondering if the rate of new items (and more expensive ones too) being released in RS has increased or not and if this is helping to stem inflation in the RS economy. With the massive influx of raw gp from PVP statue drops, many players have sunk their cash into rares and semi-rares (like uncut onyx, pirate hook, 3rd age, etc) thus driving up their prices immensely. However, it seems like Jagex is releasing many pricey and uncommon items (basically items with high street price potential) that can act as new things for rich players to sink their money into.

 

Will this solve inflation in RS? Can enough expensive items be released to balance the incoming cash flow? Will this make it easier to buy high cost items in the future?

 

What do you think? :-k

 

 

 

Below is a list of "new" items added to the game. Because I started in 2008, I am not familiar with all of the release dates, release prices, street prices or general ecomomy of RS before I began (but I will try to research it). Any suggestions or positive criticism is greatly appreciatied. Thanks! :^_^:

 

 

Item Name....................Date Released....................Release Price....................Current Price....................Comments

 

 

Dark Bow.........................11 June 2007............................???

Dragonfire Shield...........18 June 2007..........................???

Dragon Full Helm..............3 July 2007...............................???

Armadyl Godsword..........28 August 2007......................???

Bandos Godsword...........28 August 2007......................???

Saradomin Godsword......28 August 2007......................???

Zamorak Godsword.........28 August 2007......................???

Armadyl Helmet...............28 August 2007......................???

Armadyl Chestplate........28 August 2007......................???

Armadyl Plateskirt...........28 August 2007......................???

Bandos Boots..................28 August 2007......................???

Bandos Chestplate.........28 August 2007......................???

Bandos Tassets..............28 August 2007......................???

Dragon Boots..................28 August 2007......................???

Saradomin Sword............28 August 2007......................???

Zamorakian Spear...........28 August 2007......................???

Arcane Spirit Shield.........15 September 2008................???

Divine Spirit Shield..........15 September 2008................???

Elisian Spirit Shield.........15 September 2008................??

Spectral Spirit Shield......15 September 2008................???

~ PvP is released, prices of certain high level armors and weapons begin to decline (since they are on the drop tables) ~ 15 October 2008

Corrupt Anchient Warrior's Equipment (17 pieces), 15 October 2008, ???

Corrupt Dragon Equipment (11 pieces), 15 October 2008, ???

Dragon Claws.................26 November 2008.................???

Dragon Platebody...........26 November 2008.................???

~ Certain items removed from PvP drop tables, artifacts are introduced, mass inflation begins ~ 16 June 2009

Ranging Amulet...............28 July 2009.............................???

Dragon Pickaxe...............9 September 2009..................???

~ High level Herblore update, becomes a greater money sink as herb prices rise ~ 7 October 2009

~ Anti-76k'ing measures introduced, slows cash inflow but inflation continues ~ 26 October 2009

~ Prayer curses introduced, becomes a greater money sink as bone prices rise ~ 3 December 2009

~Inflation begins to decline? (See graph of Dragon Full Helm) ~ Mid January 2010

Focus Sight.....................8 February 2010......................1.5M gp

Hexcrest.........................8 February 2010......................1.5M gp

Staff of Light...................8 February 2010......................10M gp

Royal Amulet...................22 February 2010....................175k gp

Royal Crown...................22 February 2010....................300k gp

Royal Leggings................22 February 2010.....................300k gp

Royal Sceptre..................22 February 2010.....................200k gp

Royal Shirt.......................22 February 2010.....................300k gp

 

 

Analysis of the price of a Dragon Full Helm:

 

[HIDE][/HIDE]

[Cheefoo]

Trading isn't a money sink...

[jonni]

trading for new items doesn't remove the excessive amount of money from the game.

and in any case, most people trade high-value items for other items, not raw cash.

[Dragons_Might]

I'm actually wondering how the release of those items were linked to the PVP inflation thing...

 

Dark bow/Godswords were before the GE came out.

Spirit shields were before the PVP "fix"

Forgot where Claws lay, I wanted to say before the PVP "fix" as well.

 

So all of those are from well before the inflation started, I'm just not understanding how you're relating the fact that their release is to help with the inflation at all.

 

 

Added to that, can you even consider those items new? Yea they're newer than some updates... but they're mostly years old..

 

And on a final note, as said above, trading isn't a money sink....

[Duality64]

your forgetting bandos and armadyl armour

dragonfire shield

sara sword

zammy spear

barrows armour

[average1234]

I believe that the one problem is that when all the new items came out that they were "new" and people want to know what the can do. Theses items are all high hitting or high defensive states so the richer player will want to go monster hunting longer and more effectively. Like the amulet of ranging its only like 500k now but when it came out its was selling for like easy 20m. The biggest thing is that only really high leveled players can get it. EX: Darkbow 90 slayers, Claws 276 quest points i believe. Most of the items are used in pking for the high hits. This really all started because of killing some guy caring 76k cash and receiving a loot of 1m - 5m cash or items that are worth 30m like dfs or dragon full helm. (i know people that had enough cahs to buy 95 herblore from 60 in one week after extremes came out and 95 prayer when new prayer came out) all because of 76ker. Too much cash into peoples banks to buy theses items

[Den]

Trading isn't a money sink...

 

 

trading for new items doesn't remove the excessive amount of money from the game.

and in any case, most people trade high-value items for other items, not raw cash.

 

These pretty much summed up my thoughts.

Inflation doesnt dissapear just because new items appear.

[Bladewing]

An increase in the value of items is deflationary, but only to the extent that the items are actually valuable. If there is initially 100m of coins entering the game and 100m of items, but the value of items is now 150m, the relative value of coins has increased - which is equivalent to real price levels falling, or deflation.

 

But there's no need to "fix" inflation - the PvP statues' effect has run its course, and price levels are stable once again. If anti-inflationary measures are introduced, we'll see deflation and chaos in the economy again.

[bedman]

More items ARE a money sink. Just think logicly. More items entering than cash entering => less cash per item. However, like Bladewing said, inflation has more or less reached its peak, in the sense that only the rarest items are affected only. Remember bandos plate shooting from 15m to 25m in a matter of weeks, this is gone.

[TheAncient]

More items ARE a money sink. Just think logicly.

 

:mellow:

 

You're thinking about cash per player than net cash in the economy.

 

OT:

The only major moneysink that Jagex has released recently is summoning. we're long overdue for another sink.

[Bladewing]

More items ARE a money sink. Just think logicly.

 

:mellow:

 

You're thinking about cash per player than net cash in the economy.

 

OT:

The only major moneysink that Jagex has released recently is summoning. we're long overdue for another sink.

Net cash in the economy? Net has no relevance there. And what you're thinking of is money supply. A higher money supply does not intrinsically necessitate higher price levels.

 

We do NOT need another money sink. The economy is stable - no need to [bleep] it up.

[tortilliachp]

intelligent and relevant question for the next Q&A:

 

Does Jagex have an in-house economist for assessing how the runescape economy should progress? :)

 

 

anyway, based on the real-world capitalist model, an economy has to grow for it to improve, is that neccessarily true for runescape? If not, what kind of model for an economy would you want if you could choose any, as one can in the makings of a game?

[Cheefoo]

More items ARE a money sink. Just think logicly. More items entering than cash entering => less cash per item.

 

If you were thinking logclyer...

 

Define money sink. Also define "logicly"...

 

Money sinks take money out of the game. Even if there was less cash per item, it's not a money sink. However, there's probably enough 76king scumbags that are making enough inflation to negate the "less cash per item" idea. But sadly, that's not how inflation works.

[Rageman192]

I find it somehow ironic that your avatar is a picture of 1000mil gp.

[Numismaster]

Thank you for your comments. I have updated the first post to reflect your suggestions and my research on the topic.

 

The point that I was getting at is that for a while tons of gp was entering the game and it had nowhere to go (relatively speaking). Thus, armors and weapons and rares were getting more expensive as more and more people were earning gp. This lead to shortages and hoarding, certain items became unbuyable, and junk trading boomed.

 

However, it appeared (at least to me) that Jagex decided to combat this inflation by finding new things for these rich players to spend their money on.

 

For example:

 

High level herblore updates make that skill appealing, herb prices rise, and tons of gp is "consumed".

Prayer curses make prayer training appealing, dragon bone prices rise, and tons of gp is "consumed".

 

 

As for certain unbuyable items, Jagex first tried to manually manipulate their prices. After that failed, they released those items in mass and henceforth flooded the market (good move in my opinion :thumbup: )

 

For example:

 

Water filled vials were unbuyable after the Herblore update, manual price manipulation fails, adding box packs to stores is very successful in reducing price and increasing availability.

Mints cakes become unbuyable as merchants hoard them, Jagex disapproves and nerfs mint cake drop rate, thus reducing price and increasing availability.

 

 

Therefore, I wondered if Jagex was going (or already has begun) to release more expensive trade-able items to "soak up" some of the excess gp left in the game. These updates and items appear to serve to diffuse gp more readily across the Runescape community and linking it more tightly together. For example, pkers with cash from pvp will spend some on armors and weapons obtained by monster hunters. These monster hunters will in turn spend some of their money on herblore supplies gathered by skillers. Skillers buy their seeds from others . . . and the "web of commerce" continues.

 

So, is this an effective way to reduce inflation? Is more needed?

 

What do you think?

 

 

P.S. My avatar is a picture of the largest drop party I've ever attended (1 billion cash!). I believe that this drop party was possible in part because of pvp cash, inflation, and merchanting. Hence it is relevant to the topic.

[Duality64]

tbh i really dont think alot of new item will make the price stay the same on all the items for all the merchants and stocks that people are doing now these days would take forever to turn the g/e into a easy place to buy and keep items and a low cost

i think they where doing that for awhile when like bandos tasset was like 10m but the rich people think people that are not rich should not have those items so they starting to again the price i think the g/e should blance the prices out so merchants can not mess with the pirices alot but i sont think that will happen for awhile

[TheAncient]

More items ARE a money sink. Just think logicly.

 

:mellow:

 

You're thinking about cash per player than net cash in the economy.

 

OT:

The only major moneysink that Jagex has released recently is summoning. we're long overdue for another sink.

Net cash in the economy? Net has no relevance there. And what you're thinking of is money supply. A higher money supply does not intrinsically necessitate higher price levels.

 

We do NOT need another money sink. The economy is stable - no need to [bleep] it up.

 

higher money supply is a factor in higher PLs. the relationship is complicated, but the two are pretty directly related.

higher PL isn't intrinsically bad. but when you have certain items which have a fixed gp value (i.e. anything that can be bought in a store, or has a fixed gp value in game), purchasing power varies greatly.

the economy is not stable. merch cc's reassure this. introducing a money sink is not inherently a bad thing. this should be obvious; for example, the fed both lowers and raises interest rates to increase and decrease money supply. decreasing it is good in times of excess inflation.

 

sorry if i'm not an econ major - i' took an intro econ class years ago - but "net cash" is my layman's term for money supply. and i think it fulfills the purpose of what i'm trying to say.

 

OT: I think to clarify the OP's terminology, he's referring to "inflation" and "deflation" (loosely used here) of the gp value of high level player accounts, in which case i agree that herb and pray were "money sinks", or more accurately a method of wealth distribution.

 

So, is this an effective way to reduce inflation? Is more needed?

 

how can you judge something like that? we have no standards for comparison. but in a very general sense, yes, jagex has redistributed wealth well.

 

the major problem now is that overloads and turmoil are overpowered. summoning, imo, was better in that it didn't imbalance combat, had really useful properties, and was an actual cash sink and not just a cash redistributor.

[Guest TrixStar]

Wonder why Jagex doesn't release new items with a super high starting point to buy. Staff of light should have started at 100 mil. At least then maybe it would stop the street pricing of item.s

[3hitm4g3u]

Wonder why Jagex doesn't release new items with a super high starting point to buy. Staff of light should have started at 100 mil. At least then maybe it would stop the street pricing of item.s

 

It wasn't worth 100M. If you could spec then change weapons I would agree.

[Guest TrixStar]

Wonder why Jagex doesn't release new items with a super high starting point to buy. Staff of light should have started at 100 mil. At least then maybe it would stop the street pricing of item.s

 

It wasn't worth 100M. If you could spec then change weapons I would agree.

The street was 150M when it came out. Nothing is worth what people are willing to pay for something the first day it's released.

[zotto]

I guess there are personal money sinks and actual money sinks.

 

Actual money sinks are things such as:

 

1. barrows armour repair. The gp disappears forever.

2. summoning. Shards and pouches have to be bought (initially and partially, since there they are tradable and can be exchanged; but the ones bought from NPCs are definitely a money sink, of course if the high alch price of the pouch is less than the purchase price of pouch, shards and ingredients).

3. construction: you can't argue with this one.

 

Personal money sinks:

Herblore: see your gp stack disappear before your eyes leveling this.

Prayer: same thing.

 

However, the money is just exchanged hands.

 

Is there a solution?

 

You can think about money sinks, but why not do the opposite? Think about how gp comes into the game!

 

How does gp enter the game?

1. coin drops.

2. low/high alch.

3. Pvp drops which can be exchanged for gp at NPCs.

 

That's about it.

It would be easier to influence these processes than to actually create more money sinks.

 

Nobody wants to touch PVP any more after the more recent changes. And they seem reasonably succesful. The inflation has definitely slowed down or even stopped (check the prices of godswords).

 

So let's adjust high alching. That would create an uproar you might say? Not at all. Leave high alching as it is and just create a form of training magic that doesn't create gp out of nothing, and is more rewarding to do as an activity.

 

What would make something rewarding? Either it should be incredible fun with equal or better experience, such as a brilliant minigame. (scratch that option)

 

Or it is not so fun (like high alching isn't fun) but it is definitely more rewarding than high alching.

 

The rewards could come in a much higher experience/hour rate, while still having a low entry threshold. High alching is done mostly because it is accessible to any n00b (like me). Lunars needs a reasonably high level quest. Ancients is fun but expensive.

 

So something that would be reasonably cheap, accessible, and having a good experience/hour rate could subsitute for high alching (that is the high alching that is done for leveling magic, and not alching of drops on slayer tasks as such).

 

In conclusion:

High alching would still have its purpose, but the activity would be done less. Less alching means less gp entering the economy. Less gp could mean less inflation.

 

 

Ps.

Of course people would moan of such an update is released because of course it means that the new generation can get their 99 magic easier. But this happens with all updates.

[Bladewing]

higher money supply is a factor in higher PLs. the relationship is complicated, but the two are pretty directly related.

higher PL isn't intrinsically bad. but when you have certain items which have a fixed gp value (i.e. anything that can be bought in a store, or has a fixed gp value in game), purchasing power varies greatly.

Say you have $10 trillion USD in total money in your economy (about what it currently is sitting at, this is M3 for reference) and $15 trillion GDP, 2010 dollars. 10 years later, you have a $20 trillion money supply and $30 trillion GDP, 2010 dollars. Money supply went up? Did price levels rise? NO.

 

Price levels don't matter. It's all about real income (also known as real purchasing power). As for fixed value goods from shops, the higher price levels only benefit EVERY player. Runes from a store are relatively cheaper now -> higher real purchasing power -> higher utility.

 

the economy is not stable. merch cc's reassure this. introducing a money sink is not inherently a bad thing. this should be obvious; for example, the fed both lowers and raises interest rates to increase and decrease money supply. decreasing it is good in times of excess inflation.

What I meant by stable was the prices of goods have leveled out. NOT that manipulations on individual items don't temporarily cause instability in that particular item's market. The long term trend of the economy overall is now stability.

 

Here's a bad real life example, remember those beanie baby toys? For a while they were "bought out" - it was hard to purchase them because collectors/crazy people were buying them all for seemingly absurd prices. I believe the going price for a Princess Diana? doll was easily $100. The prices were sky high! But was the US economy experiencing inflation (above the typical inflation accompanying growth)? No.

 

Changing money supply is not intrinsically bad. As you said, you should be tight during inflation and loose during deflation. However, since Runescape's economy is currently stable, NEITHER should be applied.

 

OT: I think to clarify the OP's terminology, he's referring to "inflation" and "deflation" (loosely used here) of the gp value of high level player accounts, in which case i agree that herb and pray were "money sinks", or more accurately a method of wealth distribution.

 

...

 

the major problem now is that overloads and turmoil are overpowered. summoning, imo, was better in that it didn't imbalance combat, had really useful properties, and was an actual cash sink and not just a cash redistributor.

Having larger numbers in your bank is not a problem. Remember: real purchasing power is what is of concern.

 

What is problematic about someone buying herbs for high prices? The buyer obviously is willing to pay the price, otherwise he/she would not pay for it. The seller obviously is willing to accept the price, otherwise he/she would not sell it. The high price is just what it is worth.

[Numismaster]

Thanks for all the interesting perspectives!

 

I have one more twist to this topic to throw out there. In the past, rich merchants would hoard "desirable" items (rares and high level stuff) in an attempt to corner the market and rise their prices. With more of these "desireable" items being released into the game, I believe that it is getting harder for any group of players to effectively control the circulation of all of these "desireable" items.

 

How does this affect the circulation of existing rares? Will it become easier to purchase rares (with merchants trading them for newly released items) or will they just disappear faster?

 

What do you think?

 

 

 

P.S. This will probably be my last question to the Tip.it community on this topic since I don't want to beat it to death :unsure:

[sees_all1]

Take a macro, super broad based view of Runescape.

There are two sets of things: items and currency.

 

When the amount of items increases against currency, there is deflation.

When the amount of currency increases against items, there is inflation.

 

 

 

When someone buries bones, there is inflation (less items, so currency increases against items).

When someone cuts logs, there is deflation (more items, so items increase against currency).

When someone gets a money drop, there is inflation (more currency, so items decrease against currency).

When someone buys from an NPC, there is deflation (less currency, so currency decreases against items).

 

Taking a macro view, it doesn't matter the variety of items (i.e. jagex introduces a new sword as a drop, makes no difference to the whole), or the variety of currency (statues vs. gp).

 

 

 

The tricky part about this is that its impossible for anyone except Jagex to know the total count of each, items and currency. Let me repeat - it's nearly impossible to measure true inflation without ALL data.

However, people have put together "baskets" of items to keep track of the price level. These basket's price level will be indirectly related to the current inflation level (current preferences and demands are more directly related), but are used anyway.

 

 

When jagex introduces a new item, the "basket" changes, but inflation doesn't.

[TheAncient]

Thanks for all the interesting perspectives!

 

I have one more twist to this topic to throw out there. In the past, rich merchants would hoard "desirable" items (rares and high level stuff) in an attempt to corner the market and rise their prices. With more of these "desireable" items being released into the game, I believe that it is getting harder for any group of players to effectively control the circulation of all of these "desireable" items.

 

How does this affect the circulation of existing rares? Will it become easier to purchase rares (with merchants trading them for newly released items) or will they just disappear faster?

 

What do you think?

 

 

 

P.S. This will probably be my last question to the Tip.it community on this topic since I don't want to beat it to death :unsure:

 

Merch cc's capital (refering to money here, not infrastructure) is only limited by the amount of players they can have.. which really isn't a limit at all.