Dr. McB explains the economy in Path of Exile

Excellent thread.

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In my opinion, one of the main issues, with that theory, is that is supposes that players have perfect information. That is not the case. That is how people manage to play the "market game", using their knowledge to buy low and sell high.

Where in the post did he say he assumes players have perfect information?

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In my opinion, one of the main issues, with that theory, is that is supposes that players have perfect information. That is not the case. That is how people manage to play the "market game", using their knowledge to buy low and sell high.

This is partially true. I tend to trade with what I call pawn shops. I will purposefully take less than trade value,if I can trade NOW.

@OP
What's your point? Whiners are going to whine. Whiners rarely listen to reason. I don't agree with everything you said, but I agree with the main gist of it. Just like in real life there are people who have their minds made up without even understanding it. You hear things like "the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer". No matter how clearly you explain that it's not true, no matter how much data you show them to refute their claim, they won't budge. "The rich get richer and the poor get poorer" is such a common slogan and rallying cry that people don't bother to question if it's true.

Of necessity, discussions like this use over simplified ideal models. Others mentioned temp leagues. Like in real life, a mature modern economy is very different than an emerging economy. In an emerging economy almost anything goes.

A mature economy is full of opportunists. An emerging economy is completely inundated by opportunists. In a temp league, an opportunist knows opportunity. It's not just about scarcity. It's about knowledge, desire, competition. In short, it's about the knowledge and willingness to take advantage of opportunity.

Early in a league, I'd contend that gear flows from left to right, as much or more than it flows from right to left. Top tier players know the value of the gear, and the value of currency. They know what will advance them. A lower tier player gets a drop with some moderate demand. They sell it to a higher tier player. The lower tier player trades one thing they don't know what to do with, for another thing they don't know what to do with.

The higher tier player knows exactly what the value is in terms of progression. The gap between the left and right did not close, it widened. The lower tier player continues on their merry way in ignorance, gaining very little to nothing from the trade. While the higher tier player progresses. Sure, the lower tier player has the currency from the trade, but it either sits in their stash doing nothing, or it gets wasted on crap gear with a small likelihood of advancing them in the game.

oh gosh, no tldr?

Your assumption is that wealth is the goal... because in the real world, wealth can get you quite a bit of what you want.

In this game, however, only a minority of players see wealth as the goal where you presume all of the are. Many players are looking for items that would make their game more fun... rather than items they could trade for more exalts.

Interesting post! Fun way to think about my own situation and where I fall on the bell curve.

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Shagsbeard wrote:

Your assumption is that wealth is the goal... because in the real world, wealth can get you quite a bit of what you want.

In this game, however, only a minority of players see wealth as the goal where you presume all of the are. Many players are looking for items that would make their game more fun... rather than items they could trade for more exalts.

I would go even further and say that wealth, from a certain point forward, is inversely proportional to enjoyment of the game. If you have a ridiculous amount of wealth and could buy anything you wanted, it would be like playing with cheats basically. Boring as hell. Players need challenges and obstacles to overcome for the game to stay fresh. That's why there are new temp leagues and playing in them is encouraged.