Money and Inflation

[OldMarc]

On the RSOF and on Rune Tips, I occassionally see people moaning about only having 10m in gold, or casually talking about getting 2-3m an hour training a skill.

 

I find this somewhat amazing, with little me being happy when he reached 200k. I am starting to see costs where I would need money into the millions, but I have yet to find a decent source of income at my current levels.

 

Also, it seems that there has been massive amounts of inflation over the years (I have only played RS on and off recently), and should anything be done about it? Can anything be done about it? I am sure this topic has probably been discussed ad nauseum, but I would like to see what your views are here on this subject.

[Skeptical]

On the RSOF and on Rune Tips, I occassionally see people moaning about only having 10m in gold, or casually talking about getting 2-3m an hour training a skill.

 

I find this somewhat amazing, with little me being happy when he reached 200k. I am starting to see costs where I would need money into the millions, but I have yet to find a decent source of income at my current levels.

 

Also, it seems that there has been massive amounts of inflation over the years (I have only played RS on and off recently), and should anything be done about it? Can anything be done about it? I am sure this topic has probably been discussed ad nauseum, but I would like to see what your views are here on this subject.

 

From your stats, it looks as though the only resource gathering skill you've trained is mining, which can be easily turned into a moderate source of profit. Perhaps if you raised your RC level, you could make runes? Herb farming is also a great way to make cash, and I see you've already trained slayer.

 

IMO, inflation is essentially unavoidable: unless alchemy is removed, or players stop becoming higher level and demanding more and more every year, it's just inevitable.

[OldMarc]

So I guess mining and selling coal would bring in a moderate income? Obviously mithril and higher are a bit pointless due to the time it times to mine them, and their slow respawn rates.

 

Apparently, one of the reasons for the Construction skill was for it to be a money sink, and take some dosh out of the system. Did it work much at the time?

[romu000]

Hi.

You look in items for fast skilling. By this time, people with high incomes looks at the same and they pay for it on top prices, making it even more expensive.

So, since everyone want to do the skills the same way, items are in over high demand making prices rocketing along the time.

 

For those who also can go for high rewarding activities, their incormes now are very high. I've seen 210m drops in to evenings for a trio in godwar/td.

You can imagine we could have blowed it in skills buy paying for high xp items.

Many players are now powerful enough to go for bosses in small teams. The less they are, the higher they makes money.

BTW, people in pvp also won't loose their high value items.

And, for a relatively long time, people have used 26king or 76king and made huge amount on money.

 

Add the fact, there are less and less people hunting for raw items, you have the nice equation for a bump in raw item prices.

 

Bring bots back and you'll see prices back. But is it a real good idea ?

 

Even top 3 skills (construction prayer, herblore) can be reached with dedication at boss hunting whatever the raw price.

So no those are not surch a money sink, low player think because at top level, the more you put in, the best you get from (see herblore with extremes and prayer with curses, mix of too makes you very very powerfull).

[OldMarc]

So the rich bid high, making everything more expensive, so everyone needs more money to buy stuff. And so the cycle continues...

[K4ylan]

So the rich bid high, making everything more expensive, so everyone needs more money to buy stuff. And so the cycle continues...

 

Exactly, and merchants work in a way where they buy at the bottom of the cycle, and sell at the top. In any case, I don't see it as much of an inflation. Although prices have gone up, the ways to make money have too.

[OldMarc]

True, true. I guess I just don't have the stomach for the sheer amount of grinding required as some. One of the reasons why I have had my account for years, but never got very far in any of the skills, except mining.

[Erewhon2]

So I guess mining and selling coal would bring in a moderate income? Obviously mithril and higher are a bit pointless due to the time it times to mine them, and their slow respawn rates.

 

Apparently, one of the reasons for the Construction skill was for it to be a money sink, and take some dosh out of the system. Did it work much at the time?

 

One of the things I continually find interesting about attitudes in RS is this compulsive need to do everything and gain everything at top speed. I have 87 mill in the bank and a few nice items, I took forever to accumulate this amount and it doesn't worry me in the slightest. Its not a real economy so if I want something I will go and buy it and gradually make the money back (or not lol).

 

Construction is a money sink, but so worthwhile, I do not know how I coped without my portals before, and the altar room right next to them and my bank could not possibly hold all my stuff in the costume room.....sounds like my wardrobe in RL lol.

 

I think its really all about choice, most things balance out in the end, and certainly romu000 has a valid point about raw materials, sometimes they are even more expensive than the finished product, ranarr being a fine example of that.

[Earth_Poet]

You will find inflation is almost a given in any MMORPG, especially one that has been this popular for so long. All in all you'd have to admit Jagex has done pretty good to maintain the economy for this long....up until the last couple of years that is. For years, High-Alching was the number one reason for inflation. It continued to funnel more and more gp into the game out of nowhere as it was the preferred way to training Magic. Unfortunately, it was sort of a necessary evil in the game. Back then, there really wasn't anything to draw money back out of circulation. Barrows equipment began drawing a small amount out when repaired, but that wasn't nearly enough. Then something happened:

 

Apparently, one of the reasons for the Construction skill was for it to be a money sink, and take some dosh out of the system. Did it work much at the time?

 

Yes it was and yes it did at the time. Prices across the board crashed as players were racing to level the new skill. It took a few months for prices to even back out, and some never quite did. Sometimes, you'll hear people refer to it as the Construction Recession. Today, not quite as many people train Construction as quickly. Plus there are many more ways for gp to enter into the economy than before, meaning more inflation.

 

When they introduced a new PVP system, it brought along with it hyperinflation. In the old PVP system, players fought one another for the items their opponent was carrying. Jagex scrapped that concept during the trade restrictions. What ended up being introduced was a new system based on the potential of getting a good drop. Now there was simply a bar set on the value of your items in order to get an expensive statue dropped, which was traded in for cold hard cash. First, it was doing something PVP had never done before: bringing in new gp into the game out of nowhere. Second, it was bringing in this new gp at an alarming rate. Soon, people were no longer flocking to PK, but to farm gp out of the new system.

 

As I said, inflation over time is almost a given in these types of games, but the inflation we've seen over the last year or two has been dramatic. The GE doesn't help to stabalize the prices either as (despite what Jagex claims) we do not set the prices, only control if they go up or down. If it continues on this path, then Jagex will eventually have to raise the gp cap of 2 billion, or players will eventually end up in a barter system, where some will began preferring items over cash. Of course, the latter would be difficult anyways when everything is tethered to the GE prices and trade restrictions.

[AirWales]

As players (and merch clans) control prices through supply and demand, there isn't really anything you personally can do. But think about this, prices of raw materials rise too, so it's not that much of a difference with most items. Maybe if Jagex just had fixed item prices for every item the massive item prices would be stable but that I doubt that will ever happen.

 

Union of RuneScape Socialist Republics anyone?

[K4ylan]

As players (and merch clans) control prices through supply and demand, there isn't really anything you personally can do. But think about this, prices of raw materials rise too, so it's not that much of a difference with most items. Maybe if Jagex just had fixed item prices for every item the massive item prices would be stable but that I doubt that will ever happen.

 

Union of RuneScape Socialist Republics anyone?

 

Excellent Comrade.

[OldMarc]

For the Motherland!

[Pluckey]

In Soviet Runescape inflation has economy!

[hihihi727]

I hate inflation i sold all my items because i was quitting membership a week after the pvp statuettes update and now everything costs 3x as much. Plus the blue halloween mask that i was only a few 100k away from is now 50mil too expensive for me @@. But there is a really good way of earning money; Its called MTK and Farming. Yes i know most people know about it already but i didn't and now i don't even have to go out of my way to earn money because MTK earns me 400k a day at 5 minutes a week, and one ranarr run earns me over 100k in 10 minutes and i spend the rest of my time on Runescape mucking around

[K4ylan]

I hate inflation i sold all my items because i was quitting membership a week after the pvp statuettes update and now everything costs 3x as much. Plus the blue halloween mask that i was only a few 100k away from is now 50mil too expensive for me @@. But there is a really good way of earning money; Its called MTK and Farming. Yes i know most people know about it already but i didn't and now i don't even have to go out of my way to earn money because MTK earns me 400k a day at 5 minutes a week, and one ranarr run earns me over 100k in 10 minutes and i spend the rest of my time on Runescape mucking around

 

This. This is the reason why I don't really see why the economy has such an effect on us, when we can make millions of gp an hour(of effort, not actual time).

[Aiel]

I hate inflation i sold all my items because i was quitting membership a week after the pvp statuettes update and now everything costs 3x as much. Plus the blue halloween mask that i was only a few 100k away from is now 50mil too expensive for me @@. But there is a really good way of earning money; Its called MTK and Farming. Yes i know most people know about it already but i didn't and now i don't even have to go out of my way to earn money because MTK earns me 400k a day at 5 minutes a week, and one ranarr run earns me over 100k in 10 minutes and i spend the rest of my time on Runescape mucking around

 

This. This is the reason why I don't really see why the economy has such an effect on us, when we can make millions of gp an hour(of effort, not actual time).

I'm sure some serious merchants make BILLIONS per hour of effort.

 

example:

take the recent rise on santa hats:

thats the 180 day graph, chessy018 has 1000 santa hats. If she had chosen to sell them near the tip of the spike, she would have made 30 BILL profit from what theoretically could have been a 15 day merch.

[K4ylan]

I hate inflation i sold all my items because i was quitting membership a week after the pvp statuettes update and now everything costs 3x as much. Plus the blue halloween mask that i was only a few 100k away from is now 50mil too expensive for me @@. But there is a really good way of earning money; Its called MTK and Farming. Yes i know most people know about it already but i didn't and now i don't even have to go out of my way to earn money because MTK earns me 400k a day at 5 minutes a week, and one ranarr run earns me over 100k in 10 minutes and i spend the rest of my time on Runescape mucking around

 

This. This is the reason why I don't really see why the economy has such an effect on us, when we can make millions of gp an hour(of effort, not actual time).

I'm sure some serious merchants make BILLIONS per hour of effort.

 

example:

take the recent rise on santa hats:

thats the 180 day graph, chessy018 has 1000 santa hats. If she had chosen to sell them near the tip of the spike, she would have made 30 BILL profit from what theoretically could have been a 15 day merch.

 

2 minutes of work for 30 Bil....

merchanting seems to be really the best way to make cash, hands down. Even without having trillions of gp in items, you can still make fair profit with any amount of cash.

[Raum]

I hate inflation but it happens when people get new skills, it also follows the trend of the average level. Back in the day lv 70 was really good and now if your under 100 you a nub...

[Wachiru]

I could be wrong, but it appears that Jagex has readjusted some prices, and has a thread up to work on finding slightly more "Balanced" pricing...

Now, I'm no accountant, but I'd say that while Jagex is slow, they aren't ignorant, they know there is a problem with the way the market is...they just haven't found a solution...

I hate inflation as much as the next guy. (Well except when Iron went up to obscene prices and I had 100k worth of it before hand) But I don't see anything we can do about it except roll with the system until a solution is found....

[Bladewing]

People who suffer from inflation: people who like to keep large gp piles.

People who suffer from deflation: people who use any items or own discontinueds.

 

Inflation is obviously the lesser evil of the two, but stable price levels are what you really want in Runescape since there is no such thing as economic growth.

 

--

 

On a side note:

People who gain from inflation: flippers, owners of discontinueds.

People who gain from deflation: people who are not playing Runescape and sold all their items when they quit.