orb tax

in the real world, money is created by the government and their central banks, distributed over private banks and direkt government spending in to private sector and recollected by the government by taxing people and companies.
gouvernments can control the amount of money floating in the economy only by increasing/decreasing taxes and issuing bonds which draw money from the private sector.

(edit: to avoid discussions among the users interested in econonomics: here are some debriefing articles about government restraints and conditions when using a fiat currency.)


orbs in poe work the same way except there is no method to force people consume the currency. that's why the ingame market is prone to inflation as the only scew the devs have is to adjust the orb drop rate.

as the ggg devs are so careful about inflational ingame markets caused by players hoarding too many orbs the only solution is a tax on orbs.

it must scale with the time played and the user needs to get something out of it.

i could imagine to somehow force the player to use orbs per hour played. this would allow the devs to increase the orb drop rate a bit and make start and midgame play more rewarding.

one possible solution i suggested here which is to remove item quantity and quality from gear and gems and increase it account based for a certain time if you spend orbs on gear.

there must be a limit to the stacking it of course as rewarding players to play for a overly long time isn't good.

but it:
o encourages crafting
o provides a stable orb sink
o it doesn't really force players to use it
o reduces qq-threads as people are less disappointed when they unsuccessfully burn 10 fusings for 100 days than 1k fusings on one day


other suggestions?

This is a game, just let it be fun :) Not everything has to be serious. Who cares if there's inflation in a game? Just sell your stuff for more so you can afford what other players are charging. Not to mention there is already an in game orb sink, it's built right in to each orb :)

I see where you're coming from, but I think players should be allowed to collect and hoard orbs if they want.

But when players hoard orbs then flood the market with them, And cause mass inflation, It is a game killer for new players like me. I also think these hoarders are part of the RMT crowd.
Since i have been playing which has not been very long, I have seen the prices of items steadily rise.

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Tuftronic wrote:

This is a game, just let it be fun :) Not everything has to be serious.

item inflation is a problem if the currency supply doesn't keep up with the increasing item prices as new players who fail the gear check in mid game can't pay the market prices and quit. the game's success depends on a stable market, so it's a serious topic. as all balancing is.

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Tuftronic wrote:

Who cares if there's inflation in a game? Just sell your stuff for more so you can afford what other players are charging.

tell that to the devs. and i don't think the majority of players is trading at all. ggg could provide some statistics about that. would be interesting.

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Tuftronic wrote:

Not to mention there is already an in game orb sink, it's built right in to each orb :)

the only really effective currency sink at the moment is end game (maps) and players trying to link their items. the random outcome of applying orbs doesn't encourage users to spend them. it's the opposite, there currently is more success and progress if you trade with your currency rather than trying to craft something.

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Tuftronic wrote:

I see where you're coming from, but I think players should be allowed to collect and hoard orbs if they want.

they can but not unlimited. "being rich" should be more difficult. of course some will say that this tax would drive people even more int rmt shops but i doubt that.

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Tarxan wrote:

I also think these hoarders are part of the RMT crowd.

i can see no reason for that. some hoarders want to "be rich" to show it around, some collect for bying gear on the market and some collect for crafting. sure people sell to rmt sites but that is a minority (f.e. quitters looking for a last fast buck). people bying from rmt are the problem but they don't hoard, they bought the currency to have a unfair ingame avantage in the first place and use it up fast.

if the game is able to provide more orbs they get cheaper even on rmt sites, making it less worth to trade them. and that's how it should work, gear should be traded mainly against gear (my opinion). and gear is far better traceable than currency i think.

Even new players can find items of value to sell. Perhaps they are not aware of what has value or have not yet had a lucky drop. These problems can be solved by simply studying the market or spending more time farming. The problem isn't necessarily inflation, but that new players may hit a wall and not do any extra farming or trading to get the items they need to progress.

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geradon wrote:

the only really effective currency sink at the moment is end game (maps) and players trying to link their items. the random outcome of applying orbs doesn't encourage users to spend them. it's the opposite, there currently is more success and progress if you trade with your currency rather than trying to craft something.

I happen to disagree with this statement. I am almost always out of any number of different orbs as I use them for crafting maps AND items. Granted it is difficult to craft an upgrade for your specific build, but it is not at all uncommon to craft items that can be traded to other players for a lot of orbs.

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Tuftronic wrote:

Even new players can find items of value to sell.

i don't think new players start by trading. they're probably more keen to build up a stable gear repository.

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Tuftronic wrote:

The problem isn't necessarily inflation, but that new players may hit a wall and not do any extra farming or trading to get the items they need to progress.

you mean they hit the gear check wall and run out of orbs to feed my idea of a temporary account rarity and quantity boost.

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geradon wrote:

I happen to disagree with this statement. I am almost always out of any number of different orbs as I use them for crafting maps AND items.

i'm with you in that statement as i do it the same way but the impression of linking and crafting maps to be the biggest currency sinks comes when reading the forum.

so you all mean the orb drop rate is ok and shouldn't be increased? there should be no additional currency tax for a more stable economy and encouraging more crafting?

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geradon wrote:

...orbs in poe work the same way except there is no method to force people to consume the currency.

geradon, I would argue that RNG and drop rates work as methods to force or incentivize people to consume currency. In real life, one can work for a fixed amount of money, something predictable (usually subject to taxation). With a fixed amount of revenue/income, people can forecast when they will be able to obtain something that they want. In PoE, one is subject to lots of randomness and uncertainties. The uncertainties of RNG and drop rates lead many players to either trade their currency for items or gamble their currencies on items to try to obtain upgrades.

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geradon wrote:

so you all mean the orb drop rate is ok and shouldn't be increased? there should be no additional currency tax for a more stable economy and encouraging more crafting?

Actually, I am a big fan of crafting. I think the drop rate of orbs is extremely low for those that wish to craft upgrades. Especially considering how random the RNG is. However, I believe the drop rates are fine in leagues where trading is possible.

Instead of increasing orb drop rates in standard and hardcore, there should really be a new permanent self found (non-ladder) league with greatly increased drop quality and quantity of orbs. It would also include much better chances to link and socket items as there would be no way to trade for orbs. This would be a great place for those that simply wish to find their own gear or attempt to craft it.

the last thing i want is some damn orb tax