What if all rares became untradable

[gtacrackhead]

What if for some reason, jagex decided to turn all the rares like phats masks santas etc. Into untradable items? What would be the future for the runescape economy?

[Role_Model]

let's make an estimate: HAX.!

 

 

 

Okay really, if there were only 5000 p-hat sets left, then those 5000 people have nothing to play or do anymore basically, they'd quit. So jagex would lose 5000 players, let's say 3000 members and 2000 f2pers? 3000 members x 5$ = 15,000$ + 15,000$ [other rares].

 

Not saying these calculations are correct, just givin' a shank at it.

 

 

 

Andrew, hold on to your buttocks and say goodbye to your Hair styling gel. YES, his hair styling gel is 30,000$. :(

[zubeedoo]

Prices of everything would skyrocket,ESPECIALLY high levelled armor, as it would be the new highest sign of wealth.

 

 

 

I myself would be a little miffed, as I worked my butt off earning me green mask. I would, however, have no problem with it were I to get the cash for it even were it the measly 9mil I spent on mine.

 

 

 

Actually I wouldn't have that much of a problem with it anyway, since I'd no longer be afraid of losing it when dying (and unlike most I keep it because I like wearing it, not because it rises in price)

[orangefire0]

Life would go on.

[skeroh]

people who owned sets of phats, would become hopelessesly gp-less. and the rs economy would crash....there goes the start of the rs depression.....

[Giordano]

Loads of people will quit, the economy will crash.

[endo]

a big row of people will start appearing in falador forming a line and spamming the cry emote.

[Barrows]

People will quit and feel as if they had worked for nothing.

 

 

 

Others will be happy because they know that they the rares have become MORE rare and will feel superior \

[d3vilbro]

I really doubt they will ever do it, they have too much to lose, as so many players would quit...

[SwreeTak]

Many things would get very much higher prices, and Jagex would lose alot of players.

[imaleber]

Well, i very much doubt this will ever happen, as many people play the game just to earn these (a bit like me). Without them, nothing would be of much value anymore, and many will quit.

[Dharockslayer]

The rare market would collapse (gee :roll: )

 

All the other prices would skyrocket... Result: barrows becomes overpopulated. Kq becomes overpopulated.

 

Smithing becomes popular again (wooooot!)

 

 

 

Conclusion: in the end, all lvl 10s will be able to buy full torags.. teh end.

[Umega]

Prices of armour and resources would go way up, because there would be nothing else to aim high for. For example people who do barrows would become extremely rich and wouldn't know what to do with there money. Then people would start to buy more resources to increase there skills, so we would also see people increase there buyable skills quickly.

[sligo]

All your predictions are dire, indeed.

 

 

 

Let me think about some of them:

 

 

 

1. Economy would crash: This is laughable. Yeah, if you can't trade those rares anymore, that portion of the economy would be gone. Other items? Well, some might see some fluctuation, but I really don't think many items would be affected. Certaily, the economy wouldn't crash. Why? If there are <5000 of these rares, but close to 200k players, that's about 2% of the population being affected. The impact is relatively small.

 

 

 

2. People would quit: There's a lot more to playing Runescape than trying to get enough money to buy one of those rares. If that's all a particular player cares about, then them quitting doesn't bother me. Perhaps players will focus more on skill development and having fun playing the game rather than scheming, scamming, and cheating to try to get the funds to buy one of these coveted items.

 

 

 

I, for one, think that these items should be made untradeable because the benefits of this move would far outweigh the negative consequences. However, if they were to do this, I think it should be announced at least a couple months before they actually did (i.e. announce now that this will happen on January 1st.)

 

 

 

- Sligo

[Dork]

 

1. Economy would crash: This is laughable. Yeah, if you can't trade those rares anymore, that portion of the economy would be gone. Other items? Well, some might see some fluctuation, but I really don't think many items would be affected. Certaily, the economy wouldn't crash. Why? If there are <5000 of these rares, but close to 200k players, that's about 2% of the population being affected. The impact is relatively small.

 

 

 

 

Ok, if there are 5,000 active (people who still play) rares left, i'd say the average price would be 100m? This would mean that there would then be 500,000,000,000gp worth of items effectively erased from the game. How can you possibly think that this would have no effect on the economy? And as stated, what happens to those people who only have riches in rares? They've saved up everything they've had, just to buy 1 item, to then have it turn untradable, there would be no way they could ever get this money back. Of course it would have negative effects.

[sligo]

 

1. Economy would crash: This is laughable. Yeah, if you can't trade those rares anymore, that portion of the economy would be gone. Other items? Well, some might see some fluctuation, but I really don't think many items would be affected. Certaily, the economy wouldn't crash. Why? If there are <5000 of these rares, but close to 200k players, that's about 2% of the population being affected. The impact is relatively small.

 

 

 

 

Ok, if there are 5,000 active (people who still play) rares left, i'd say the average price would be 100m? This would mean that there would then be 500,000,000,000gp worth of items effectively erased from the game. How can you possibly think that this would have no effect on the economy? And as stated, what happens to those people who only have riches in rares? They've saved up everything they've had, just to buy 1 item, to then have it turn untradable, there would be no way they could ever get this money back. Of course it would have negative effects.

 

 

 

That doesn't mean the economy would crash. The RS economy CANNOT crash because of High and Low Alch, and the fact that stores will buy stuff without regard to marketability and profitability. There is an endless supply of money in the economy and frankly, not enough methods to reduce the amount. As long as a player, in a matter of an hour or so, can generate anywhere from 50k to 500k coins simply by collecting materials, crafting (or whatever), then high-alching, the economy will never crash and there will always be inflation. The only thing that could cause the economy to crash is for the High and Low alch spells be removed, and stores be re-designed so that they won't buy items that will never sell.

 

 

 

I agree, the people who spent zillions on something that is inherently worthless (from the standpoint of game benefit) will certainly be upset, but they were able to raise the money once, there's no reason they couldn't do it again.

 

 

 

I think this is actually a good lesson for real life - if you spend all your effort to buy something that's only purpose is to impress others, then you will quickly realize that the item possesses you because once you have that item, the other people don't really care. I once heard the definition of "Status" as "Buying things you don't want, with money you don't have, to impress people you don't like." What's the reward in that?

 

 

 

Some people think that buying these items is an investment. I ask, an investment in what? I see it as an investment in inflation. An investment in an economy that can only become more and more inflated as time goes on. If the inflation rate is the same (or about the same) as the increasing value of these rares, then you really aren't earning money on the investment. Rather, you are tying up funds into an item that you could be using to help with your skill development. Furthermore, since there's no insurance policy, you are investing in something that if you lost it, it can't be replaced.

 

 

 

As I said previously, I think that Jagex should render the rares untradeable, but only do it after an appropriate period of warning. This way those people who bought these items as an investment have the opportunity to unload them rather than get stuck with them. Only the people who want these items because they want these items will end up them.

 

 

 

- Sligo

[Barihawk]

The economy would not crash! In fact, it would flourish! The economy crashing would be if they just dropped party hats again!

 

 

 

By removing the billions from the game, they will eliminate inflation and raise the value of the GP.

 

 

 

As someone else said, smithing would be extremely profitable as Barrows and Dragon prices would rise (good for those of us who only hold back selling thier barrows armor because of the awful prices). Rune would once again be the mainstay of the armor market, and a rush of new 85 smithers would form. Items found in shops would not rise, for obvious reasons.

 

 

 

I can foresee prices of goods such as Essence, ores (especially coal) and other raw goods rising, in turn stimulating the economy.

 

 

 

It would not be a radical pain to the economy, and if all the idiots spending billions on a 3 GP paper hat quit I for one would not cry. (No offense to the hat owners, but I have worn every rare...it is not really that impressive and party hats look dumb. Their only value comes from the pocketbook.)

 

 

 

Of course, within 3 years the economy would be jacked again due to over-alchemy.

[opu]

many runescapers would quit i think :roll:

[nicrune007]

Loads of people will quit, the economy will crash.

 

 

 

The sun will still rise from the east and the sky will still be blue....

[sligo]

By removing the billions from the game, they will eliminate inflation and raise the value of the GP.

 

 

 

 

I agree with pretty much everything you said, except this statement. Since rares are traded player to player, the money is not removed from the game, rather it is redistributed to other players.

 

 

 

Right now, there are only 3 significant methods in place that remove money from the game:

 

 

 

1. Banned players

 

2. Construction

 

3. Miscellania

 

 

 

We've already seen that these three methods do not stem the inflation tide.

 

 

 

- Sligo

[Dork]

By removing the billions from the game, they will eliminate inflation and raise the value of the GP.

 

 

 

But it's not removing any money from the game at all. It's removing the items that are worth the money. Making them untradable would hurt rare owners much more than it would help those who don't own rares. People have the right to choose if they want to save for a rare, making them untradable basically makes all the hard work they've done for them useless.

[zubeedoo]

This is probably gonna take a while, but now I REALLY feel the need to throw my 2 cents in here:

 

 

 

 

 

Dealing with sligo's first post:

 

 

 

1. Economy would crash: This is laughable. Yeah, if you can't trade those rares anymore, that portion of the economy would be gone. Other items? Well, some might see some fluctuation, but I really don't think many items would be affected. Certaily, the economy wouldn't crash. Why? If there are <5000 of these rares, but close to 200k players, that's about 2% of the population being affected. The impact is relatively small

 

I half agree on this, the market would not crash. However, prices of pretty much everything would skyrocket.

 

Go back and read duke-freedom's article on rares (the most recent one).

 

You'll notice that the value of rares exeeds 50% of the total gp in runescape.

 

Let's say that there's 500bil gp in the game.

 

And that there's 250bil worth of rares (numbers being made up to make a point)

 

That would mean the remaining items have a total worth of 250bil.

 

That means, the prices of items can only go so high, because the total worth of items on the market cannot exeed the total amount of cash (which is how the value of a gp can change).

 

If you (at least) double the amount of money that all the non rares in rs are worth, they will, for the most part, shoot up in price. All the items in the game put together=all thegp in the game. You simply can't change this.

 

 

 

2. People would quit: There's a lot more to playing Runescape than trying to get enough money to buy one of those rares. If that's all a particular player cares about, then them quitting doesn't bother me. Perhaps players will focus more on skill development and having fun playing the game rather than scheming, scamming, and cheating to try to get the funds to buy one of these coveted items.

 

Oo here's one of my favorite things to argue.

 

Rs is essentially centered around 3 things:people,skills and gp. Take away any one of these three things and the game would suck. We'll ignore the people side of this, as you can't really compare it to the other 2.

 

Skills and money are virtually inter-changeable. Skills make you money, money gets you skills. The fact that the 2 exist, and are equally important, is what allows people to play the game they enjoy without having to work on their less-then-favorite skills. A phat is just as hard(if not harder ) to get then 99 in a skill. WHY THE HELL WOULD JAGEX TAKE THAT AWAY FROM PEOPLE? Forcing rares to become untradeable would be like erasing the skills from the people with the top 1000 total lvls in the game. And for what? Rares hurt you no more then zezima's total lvl hurts me. (which is not at all)

 

These people (for the most part) earned their rares. They deserve what they have, much like you deserve your skills.

 

 

 

I, for one, think that these items should be made untradeable because the benefits of this move would far outweigh the negative consequences. However, if they were to do this, I think it should be announced at least a couple months before they actually did (i.e. announce now that this will happen on January 1st.)

Now THIS is laughable. Tell me something, what exactly ARE the "benifits" of removing rares? Let's look shall we?

 

Bad:people who've put as much time and effort into their banks as the best people in rs have put into their accounts have everything taken from them. (ignoring other things, I'm only dealing with what people would lose)

 

Good:er...you'd be happy?

 

 

 

I fail to see how rares affect you. At no point is your fun lessened by someone having a rare. I've yet to see even one argument made where someone actually says WHY rares are a bad thing.

 

"Oh well people get money for doing nothing"

 

And that hurts you how? If you're not in the rares market, then removing it isn't going to get you anything. You'll still NOT be making money without doing anything. Jealousy is not a pretty thing. "He has something I don't so it should be taken away from him"

 

He's not hurting you with it, so get over it.

 

 

 

I agree, the people who spent zillions on something that is inherently worthless (from the standpoint of game benefit) will certainly be upset, but they were able to raise the money once, there's no reason they couldn't do it again.

 

 

 

I think this is actually a good lesson for real life - if you spend all your effort to buy something that's only purpose is to impress others, then you will quickly realize that the item possesses you because once you have that item, the other people don't really care. I once heard the definition of "Status" as "Buying things you don't want, with money you don't have, to impress people you don't like." What's the reward in that?

 

Here's what I don't get; why are rares worthless? See, if rares are worthless, then so is everything else in the game. People who are anti-rare are usually pro-skills, so correct me if you also think that skills and other items in rs are useless (in which case you shouldn't even be here).

 

Rares are often labelled as "useless" because they give no stats. Tell me, what purpose do stats serve? You level up because you enjoy doing so. Many keep their rares because they like them. Some are in it for gp, but what exactly is wrong with that? Who the hell are you to tell someone else how to have fun?

 

 

 

Billy, Bobby and Timmy all play runescape.

 

Billy plays for skills, Bobby likes to merchant, and Timmy collects rares.

 

Billy now decides that what Timmy is doing is "useless", so he decides to tell jagex to remove Timmy's fun from the game. Not because it's affecting Billy in any negative way, but because he just doesn't agree with what Timmy thinks is fun.

 

Billy is a self-centered jerk.

 

 

 

As for a warning prior to making rares untradeable:

 

You'd still be taking millions, if not billions of gp from the rares owners, and would be removing their way of having fun from the game.Do you really not see anything wrong with this? What are rare merchants doing to hurt you? You're looking to ruin the game for a bunch of people, with no real reason...

 

 

 

It would not be a radical pain to the economy, and if all the idiots spending billions on a 3 GP paper hat quit I for one would not cry. (No offense to the hat owners, but I have worn every rare...it is not really that impressive and party hats look dumb. Their only value comes from the pocketbook.)

*places dunce cap on barihawk's head* (havn't done that in quite a while :P)

 

You claim not to be offending rare owners, only to call them idiots moments later...

 

Also, since when are phats worth 3gp? From the general store?

 

If rare owners are idiots then so is everyone else in rs because really, how many people do YOU know who were smart enough to only pay 60k for their whips? I'd be more then happy to buy all of your valuable items for the general store price, and we'll see who the real idiot is...

 

 

 

Also, you say that you didn't really like rares. Well, that's YOUR oppinion. I like rares, but I don't like combat. Let's remove combat from the game! (using this as an example since you have high combat stats)

 

Again, who the hell are you to tell me how to have fun?

 

Just because you don't find an aspect of the game fun doesn't mean that others don't, and it's not hurting you, so why remove it?

 

 

 

That's all I got for now, though there's a good chance I'll be back some time in the future :P

[sligo]

I will have to admit that I don't understand the desire of people to own rares. Perhaps some explanation of this would help. If it is to impress others, then rares is a pretty lame way to do it. I'm more impressed by someone who helps another player because they want to be help, not because they were asked. But that's me.

 

 

 

Perhaps its because these rares look cool. With a couple of them, I can agree. Who wouldn't want to wear a Santa hat at Christmas time? However, the general consensus is the party hats look pretty lame. (I'm not impressed, anyway). But there are enough other options for "looking cool" or even unique in the game (so far, I've met no one who wears the same floppy purple hat I wear, yet there's nothing special about it)

 

 

 

But then, I'm the same guy who doesn't see much value in collecting un-postmarked stamps, because all you're doing there is paying the Post Office for services you never actually receive. I guess I'm not much of a collecter, so the mentality excapes me.

 

 

 

Here's what I see good about removing the tradeability of rares from the game: You significantly reduce the motivation for scamming and auto-ing. Of course, it doesn't eliminate it completely, but if there is no "prize" for collecting 100 million coins to spend on something, then there's no motivation to find cheats in order to get there. I'm not saying that people who have or want these items are cheaters, but how many stories have we heard about people getting banned for this type of activity, and being banned while owning complete sets of rares?

 

 

 

When I say a rare is worthless, from the standpoint of how it affects your stats, it is worthless. At least my purple hat gives me a +4 ranging bonus. What does a party hat give? It doesn't boost skills or enhance your magic or anything. And, my purple hat high-alchs for more than the party hats (though by not much, I'm sure!)

 

 

 

As for my opinion, I thought this forum was the place to share opinions. Just because me or someone else's opinion may seem stupid to you, it doesn't mean we aren't entitled to them, just as you are entitled to yours.

 

 

 

- Sligo

[icecube]

Dragon armour, treasure trail item prices would sky rocket. Anything that looks good would become insanely expensive compared to prices right now. There would be many protests and rants made by the many rare holders, and probablly lots of people would quit.

 

 

 

But since it's never gonna happen, it's all good.

[Fadfdfd]

I would commit suicide. But I don't have any rares :-s

 

 

 

Seriously, it wouldn't be good for the economy. I'd have nothing to aim for when merchanting! =[