Tip.It Times - 20th November 2011

[Formerly_Deathknell]

Welcome to TIF, AMdbMA. :) I'm glad to see people joining to express their opinions on the Times this week. :thumbup:

 

I think the people that denounce the "grind" are the people with the most exposure to it, and that is by ratio almost certainly the people who possess reams of money, and those people are, by vast majority, people who acquired their fortune through illicit means: dice, horses, flowers, scamming, merching etc.

I have to take exception to this, or at least part of it. Merchanting is not an illicit means of acquiring wealth in-game. As a member of a clan that teaches players how to profit by buying small(ish) amounts of heavily traded items, I myself have gained over 100M gp by doing exactly that - buying items on the G.E. for a few coins below average and selling them for a few coins above. The RuneScape version of day trading if you will.

 

Now, if by "merching" you were referring to the manipulation clans that conspire to drive prices up to fill the coffers of the clan leaders, then I heartily agree. I'd like to put those people in a sack and toss the sack in a river and hurl the river into space. :angry:

 

Or Merching is more like skimming off the top. You're just taking a few coins from everyone. :thumbup:

[Kaida23]

Shh... :-$ Don't tell Tripsis I've been skimming. She'll have my knees broken. :ohnoes:

[Assume Nothing]

Shh... :-$ Don't tell Tripsis I've been skimming. She'll have my knees broken. :ohnoes:

 

She doesn't bite... unless you want her to ;D

[Formerly_Deathknell]

Shh... :-$ Don't tell Tripsis I've been skimming. She'll have my knees broken. :ohnoes:

 

She doesn't bite... unless you want her to ;D

 

You should be more worried about me. I'll sit on your head... and not in the good way. \:D/

 

And maybe Trip won't, but I bite whenever I want. 8-)

[NukeMarine]

 

I have to take exception to this, or at least part of it. Merchanting is not an illicit means of acquiring wealth in-game. As a member of a clan that teaches players how to profit by buying small(ish) amounts of heavily traded items, I myself have gained over 100M gp by doing exactly that - buying items on the G.E. for a few coins below average and selling them for a few coins above. The RuneScape version of day trading if you will.

 

Now, if by "merching" you were referring to the manipulation clans that conspire to drive prices up to fill the coffers of the clan leaders, then I heartily agree. I'd like to put those people in a sack and toss the sack in a river and hurl the river into space. :angry:

Sorry, but neither of those are merchanting. The first, as you stated, is speculation though day trading is a better term. It's not bad per se, but it's not beneficial to the consumer because your profit benefited neither the ultimate buyer nor seller of the goods. Nowhere near as bad as price manipulation which is just an elaborate scam and a grand scale.

 

Still, I'd love to see a return of real merchanting. Those guys that buy in small amounts to create bulk products they sell at larger amounts. If Jagex locked down the hourly amounts allowed for purchase to a greater degree, this could happen again. Imagine being limited to only 1000 consumable items per four hours on the GE while most other things are 100 though anything over 100k gp is 10 and over 1m gp is 1 item every four hours. Merchanters would be the ones using their time buying these items in small amounts from actual sellers in person where ever (basically paying them a little extra to buy these for him) on hopes of a big person to person sale to a buyer on world 2. So, turn the GE into a convenience item for the average player, but the big rollers will need to deal in person.

 

Remember, the GE is still just a fancy bot. It allows players to play the game offline. Such a powerful tool needs to be restricted with the return of free trade. Besides, its main purpose was when free trade was restricted.