Why do the devs still insist on using this convoluted currency system?

I think it seems like it has pretty much ALL of the same negatives as a normal currency (e.g Gold, Credits, etc) while at the same time adding quite a few of its own.

They did a Dev Diary quite early about this here apparently:
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/55102/

Some of the points regarding negatives of a more traditional e.g "gold" currency in the devpost that PoE still has with current system:

"Gold" sellers - CONFIRMED. As long as something is farmable this will always happen, doesn't matter in what form the farmable currency is.

Inflation - CONFIRMED. always need some way of draining the economy no matter what kind of currency is used.

Wealth Determinism - CONFIRMED. A grind is a grind no matter if the number you need to reach is 1000000 gold or if its 10 orbs, 10 chaos spheres and 40 Shards.

So why do they still insist on sticking with this system? Trading is a pain in PoE for several reasons, it's annoying to have 20 different components + "component parts" filling up your inventory. NPC buying and selling is a chore due to component parts. Different values on different item types changes constantly it's chaotic and hard or boring to keep track of, etc.

So why do they still insist sticking with this system i wonder? And am I the only one really disliking it? Tried to do some forum searches but found almost no entries regarding this subject. Maybe it's a taboo subject? I Dunno.

Also I really miss the traditional "currency looting sound effect" that most games tend to have for when you pick up currency. (e.g something similar to this: https://www.audioblocks.com/stock-audio/change-dump-in-bucket-handful.html)

If currency is the same system as classic gold I don't see any problem here. Just use the currency as gold when you trade, problem solved.

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IceDeal wrote:

If currency is the same system as classic gold I don't see any problem here. Just use the currency as gold when you trade, problem solved.

Spoiler

If you have any economical knowledge you'd understand why they stick to this. In the real world, central bank and gouvernement control the amount of money created so the value stay "stable". In a video game, money is created constantly, without a sink more and more money would be created over time meaning that at some point it would be absolutely worthless.

That's what happened in Diablo 2. Gold was completely worthless. Most players wouldn't even pick it up.

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Because it is a decent system with a bit of creativity without using a gold coin standard that gets inflated a whole lot faster.

I'm pretty sure you're in the minority on this one. You're right about the other two points to an extent but not on inflation. This currency system does an excellent job at controlling inflation. The ratios between exalts and lesser currencies over the course of a league generally go up about 3x which isn't too bad considering how much faster the lower currencies are farmed. Item prices are generally stable with respect to low currency or go down over the course of the league.

If you played the game you might understand.

I have nothing good to say about the currency system Path of Exile uses.

The extent to which I've used it is to trade for as much passive refund points as is possible before swinging an Axe at the entire game's currency minefield while going back and forth between the points that never point to anything good I might have had the chance to say.

Considering how badly things are going at Blizzard's staple game, this is like GGG ignoring the parting of the red sea because they forgot to wear their wellingtons.

Not really what would be a better system

A gold/credit based economy would have runaway inflation, as there is nothing for it other than buying items. It woulds be like removing the uses of "currency" alterations would just be "coins" with no use, they would lose value quickly over time.

With it in it's current form, there are constant sinks, they keep inflation in check. Rerolling rares/maps, crafting, uptrading of currency through masters, these are all sinks that keep the economy from being inflated.

A gold/credit economy would be more problematic than the current PoE economy.

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Rafein wrote:

Not really what would be a better system

A gold/credit based economy would have runaway inflation, as there is nothing for it other than buying items. It woulds be like removing the uses of "currency" alterations would just be "coins" with no use, they would lose value quickly over time.

With it in it's current form, there are constant sinks, they keep inflation in check. Rerolling rares/maps, crafting, uptrading of currency through masters, these are all sinks that keep the economy from being inflated.

A gold/credit economy would be more problematic than the current PoE economy.

To be fair, it isn't enough. It is good enough for temp leagues sure but as somebody who cares about standard as well, standard specifically needs some massive item and currency sinks on top of what is already present. However, if PoE followed the gold standard to this point in its lifespan, standard prices would be an absolute nightmare.