Could GP Become Obsolete?

Well, the new article on the Grand Exchange got me excited. I thought it might outline the transformation of the market on RS, where Animal Masks and Third Age are now being used as currency to buy all items whose real values are above/below the prices set by Jagex. For those of you who don't know, the only way to sell a Party Hat in this day and age is to include a Third Age item, or a variety of Animal Masks. This is because these items are valued at much higher prices than their market values.

The Grand Exchange changes are still very recent. Things have begun to change, but there is likely much more change ahead. With the trade limits on GP, one must ask, could players eventually abandon GP as the main currency on Runescape? Initially, it sounds absurd. GP is widely accepted across the board, and has been since the beginning of Runescape. However, when you take a step back and realize that GP is really the only item that is completely restricted by the trade limitations, you must wonder whether players are moving towards an item-currency market. Already you can see on many Rares / junk items / undervalued items that players are beginning to use Animal Masks and other items as the main currency.

This would not be unheard of in online play, for the Gold pieces (AKA the main currency) to be abandoned by the game's population. In Diablo2, people abandoned the gold, and instead began using Stone of Jordans (SOJ's) as currency. This item was just a random ring in the game, it was never intended to be used as the main currency, but players adopted it and it became the norm very quickly. Any item whose REAL value (player decided value) is worth much more than the trade restriction could offer a much more flexible currency.

With these trade restrictions, it's really no surprise that players have created a new sub-economy, with completely different prices than those on the GE. It's a shame Jagex didn't realize that trying to go against the grain of economic forces is like trying to dam the Mississippi with a few bricks. Sure, it might work for a bit, but even if you maintain your composure and stay firm, the water will just find a new route around you. This is what's happening on the marketplace, players are finding a new path to use in order to trade items for the prices they want. Personally, I really preferred the days when you could sell a Purple Party Hat for whatever cash price you wanted, as opposed to having to add 10 Animal Masks or Third Age items. But maybe that's just me.

All they have to do is take a look at the player prices, fix the GE, and everything will work again...

I think they dont want to give in to the players, but, if things get out of hand one server hotfix will halt this new market.

I think we should make GP obsolete by forcing everyone to buy X needles. No more gp, just needles.

On a more serious not, it's not just you, I agree. I like the old trade system a million times more then the GE. While it may be more covnenaint buying, it's just too different. [bleep] RWTers, Jagex should of found a way to get rid of them without turning Runescape into Runescape 2.0, because the game is compeltely different now.

No, the gp will not become obsolete.

Because not every player can afford to trade with expensive junk.

And there is no incentive for lower levels (as there is for higher levels) to trade with items, because they can get everything they need with gp.

Besides, you can't trade items for items on the G.E, and posting on forums is a pain.

-Recksash

As you said, it does sound absurd.

Party hats are not the only item traded in Runescape, most items are valued correctly and in time, items such as third age, and rares will even out. GP is the foundation for all of Rs, I see no reason why it should become obsolete really... :roll:

The ceilings and floors would need to be much looser along with a quick 'hotfix' by Jagex to fix the prices... the ceilings and floors still need to exist in some sense so that some items don't become ludicrously expensive (normal rune armour set: 800k, how would most newish players cope with that?) but at the same time will perfectly adjust to the supply and demand of said items, so things like rares will actually be sold by themselves on the G.E.

There's what, under 50 items not valued correctly? And thousands that are? I'm not that worried; anyway, most of the incorrectly valued are very expensive, and only because they are rare.

The ceilings and floors would need to be much looser along with a quick 'hotfix' by Jagex to fix the prices... the ceilings and floors still need to exist in some sense so that some items don't become ludicrously expensive (normal rune armour set: 800k, how would most newish players cope with that?) but at the same time will perfectly adjust to the supply and demand of said items, so things like rares will actually be sold by themselves on the G.E.

lol

in 2001-2002 prices where like that. rune market is gone, we now need to have new ores to mine and more smithing options, maybe make higer lv then 99's

I think we should make GP obsolete by forcing everyone to buy X needles. No more gp, just needles.

It would be very funny to see needles as a currency. :D

OT: I don't think Gps will become of the same idea Recksash said. Not all players can afford those high priced items.

The ceilings and floors would need to be much looser along with a quick 'hotfix' by Jagex to fix the prices... the ceilings and floors still need to exist in some sense so that some items don't become ludicrously expensive (normal rune armour set: 800k, how would most newish players cope with that?) but at the same time will perfectly adjust to the supply and demand of said items, so things like rares will actually be sold by themselves on the G.E.

 

lol

 

 

 

in 2001-2002 prices where like that. rune market is gone, we now need to have new ores to mine and more smithing options, maybe make higer lv then 99's

I'd like to see levels exceed 99, especially with people now getting 200m in so many skills :shock:

Maybe Dragon smithing, so we can kill the dragon market once and for all :lol:

I just takes time. Seeing as Santa suits are coming, for example, Santa Hats will see a gradual increase. We just need to pay attention to market trends.

Raw materials will stay around the same, unfortunately for some people, as long as the autoers stay away. However, it's a good thing for the most part, since the prices won't go wacky.

Weapons and armor will ALWAYS go down, as long as more are brought into the market than lost.

The rares market is, currently, messed up. This is the one area, in my opinion, that Jagex REALLY needs to look into. Fix the prices first. Instead of the 15% leeway, maybe 30% or even 50%. That would jump-start the market.

We can no longer buy low and sell high like before. Making 10mil per hour is no longer possible through trades. The game is focusing more on skills and team fights now more than ever.

Finally, the market depends on updates. Skills will mess up the market, while quests requiring obscure items (ME2) will cause people to rush to the markets and buy them at the highest price.

IL;DR: Wait a while. The exchange has only been around a few months. The months ahead will be hard, but there is hope. The complainers have left, and Jagex is finally catering the newbies so they may understand how the game should be played by the time they wisen up. A new generation is joining, and hopefully the changes will become commonplace. GP IS NOT DEAD.

GP really fuels everything, I don't ever see it being abandoned. But I do see junk trading becoming more and more popular and Jagex will halt it somehow. Hopefully they will fix the GE someday. :roll:

 

IL;DR: Wait a while. The exchange has only been around a few months. The months ahead will be hard, but there is hope. The complainers have left, and Jagex is finally catering the newbies so they may understand how the game should be played by the time they wisen up. A new generation is joining, and hopefully the changes will become commonplace. GP IS NOT DEAD.

Even if Junk Trading continues to grow, GP will NEVER become obsolete, because quite simply, almost everyone still and will use the Grand Exchange and just normal GP.

 

IL;DR: Wait a while. The exchange has only been around a few months. The months ahead will be hard, but there is hope. The complainers have left, and Jagex is finally catering the newbies so they may understand how the game should be played by the time they wisen up. A new generation is joining, and hopefully the changes will become commonplace. GP IS NOT DEAD.

Um... The GE has been around for... 10 months. Almost a full year. Yet we still await the leeway needed for a true free market.

I mean a few months compared to the entire lifespan of Runescape. There have been worse times in the past, but we have learned to deal with them. This is a bad time, but we will move on.

Doubt it.

personally, having never played diablo, i would not know that game's economy but i believe its userbase was more player controlled than runescape is these days, Jagex controls our economy via trade limits and the G.E. , I doubt that jagex will let gp become obsolete. But good argument :P

Pricea re kinda messed up now.

But with the pking update maybe they will stable.......or not :ohnoes:

 

IL;DR: Wait a while. The exchange has only been around a few months. The months ahead will be hard, but there is hope. The complainers have left, and Jagex is finally catering the newbies so they may understand how the game should be played by the time they wisen up. A new generation is joining, and hopefully the changes will become commonplace. GP IS NOT DEAD.

Um... The GE has been around for... 10 months. Almost a full year. Yet we still await the leeway needed for a true free market.

 

 

 

I mean a few months compared to the entire lifespan of Runescape. There have been worse times in the past, but we have learned to deal with them. This is a bad time, but we will move on.

EXACTLY. We just have to wait until jagex screws somthing else up so eevryone will forget how much the grand exchange sucks.

I can see 25% of trades done by GP, and the rest done by items. But that's still an extreme. GP will always be in use, or it'll take a long time for it to be abandoned.

It's weird that no one recalls the first Whip ever being sold. Most of that trade wasn't done in GP, it was done with high class rares, valuable resources, and the like (not to mention a blue partyhat). What that says is that "junk trades" has always existed since trade began, it's just taken center stage all of a sudden as the antithesis to conventional trades.

Even though it's been done for ages, I still highly doubt that GP will become obsolete. It would be really nice if Jagex introduced some form of 1K-10K-100K-1M bank certificates to expedite that process, but I believe that we won't stray from the 'gold standard'. At least, not in this decade.

Should GP really become obsolete, its going to be a step backwards for all of us. I believe something similar to this was used years ago called "Barter/Butter (Can't remember) Trading" where one offers an item to a person in exchange for a desired item the person possesses.

Sure, Jagex controlling the price of every single item is bad but should we resort to Barter/Butter trading, it will IMO be even worse as we'll be taking a step back towards our primitive times. I personally feel that GP is the current and future of trade in Runescape and that trend shouldn't be broken.

Nonono. The reason GP became obsolete in Diablo 2: there was nothing to use it for except potions, which I hope isn't seen as something damn expensive, and gambling, which gave crap 99% of the time and the remaining 1% of the time it wasn't even that good still. Also, SoJs are long since not the currency, except on NL. Therefore you'd need to pay a lot of gold for one decent item in essence - which made it a pretty bad thing. Here, GP is not only not overinflated, but is also directly used for things like repairing Barrows armor. And should this happen Jagex will give an incentive to use it again, so in the whole this is a pretty useless assumption.

The short answer is no.

The long answer is no, no #$%!ing way. ;)

Don't think gp would become absolete - only way I'd see this would be Jagex allowing an item for item exchange at the ge. And still, I think it's easier to get the necessary amount of gp to buy a certain item (maybe not rares) then hoping for 3rd age drop.

The reason the Stones of Jordan in Diablo II became some popular was, as far as I remember, that a Diablo-Char could store only a limited amount of gold, depending on their level. The highest possible amount was 990k in the bank chest, if I remember correctly (been a long time since I played), though you could carry more with you. But carrying around large amounts of cash is too dangerous there, 'cause you loose part of it on death. So, if you wanted to pay more, you had to use items, i.e. Stones of Jordan here. We don't have such restrictions in RS, only maybe through the coding of the game, but what I've heard of that, you may have 2 bill gp safe in your bank and this not depending on your char-level.