How to fix the game's broken economy

The Problem and Its Causes

Lack of Market Control
In POE, there is no mechanism to limit the actions of resellers or prevent market monopolization.
Trade is completely free, which allows players with large resources to manipulate prices.
This is exactly what we are witnessing now! The market is completely overtaken (bots, Chinese groups, RMT).

RMT (Real Money Trading)
Groups of resellers often use such manipulations to earn real money.
This destroys the in-game economy by creating artificial scarcity.

Difficulty in Accessing Items for New Players
High prices make in-game progression unaffordable for most players, especially at the start of a league.
This leads to frustration and player attrition.

Lack of Automated Trading
Due to the need for manual trading, players who don’t want to spend time on trading are often forced to accept inflated prices.
90% of players simply don’t understand or don’t want to deal with this outdated trading system!

How to Fix the Current System?
1. Introduce an Auction House or Automated Trading
Description: Create an in-game auction system where players can list items and currency for sale at fixed prices or through bidding.
How it helps:
Reduces the influence of resellers, making it easier for players to find fair deals.
Increases market transparency and makes trading accessible to everyone.
Reduces the need for third-party trading websites.
Potential downsides:
May reduce the social aspect of trading.
Without limits on the number of listed items, resellers could still manipulate the market.
2. Limit the Number of Trades
Description: Introduce limits on the number of trades a player can perform within a certain time period.
Limit trades using “premium” stash tabs (e.g., one tab allows listing up to 5 items on the auction). This won’t completely eliminate bots but will reduce their numbers since they would need to pay real money for each account.
Alternatively, limit the number of trades per account.
How it helps:
Reduces reseller activity, as they won’t be able to mass-buy and resell items.
Creates a more stable market.
Potential downsides:
Could be inconvenient for players who trade honestly and actively.
3. Combat RMT
Description: Tighten penalties for real-money trading. For example:
Introduce automated systems to monitor suspicious transactions.
Ban accounts involved in RMT.
This is simple to implement! Just search Google for RMT websites, make a transaction, and issue a ban!
It feels like the developers are either complicit in this or benefit from having RMT in their game. This is outrageous!
How it helps:
Reduces the number of resellers who hold the market hostage to sell currency for real money.
Makes the economy fairer for all players.
Potential downsides:
Resellers could continue their activities using new accounts.
Completely eradicating RMT is nearly impossible.
4. Introduce Alternative Ways to Obtain Items
Description: The current crafting system is designed to encourage trading! Finding gear for yourself from drops is nearly impossible! The game forces everyone to engage in trading.
Crafting needs to be fixed. It should be made more transparent but with limits based on the item’s level.
For example:
Level 20 items can have only 4 properties, up to Tier 4.
Level 80+ items can have 6 properties, from Tier 6 to Tier 10.
Naturally, these should drop on high-level maps and in lower quantities than now, so even white items would have market value.
This would allow new players to worry less about loot during the campaign and freely spend currency on crafting. With each character level, this would ensure item circulation, while only top-tier items with the best stats would remain on the market as rare and hard-to-obtain.
Uniques should also be made truly “unique” and rare again.
How it helps:
Encourages more self-sufficiency for players.
Reduces reliance on trading for progression.
Creates a healthier item economy.


Conclusion
These are just rough ideas that could already fix the broken economy of the project!

If someone were to sit down, calculate, and prototype these changes, they would be far better!

As an economist, I don’t understand how it’s possible to create such a HORRIBLE trade system in the game (both POE 1 and 2), where the market suffers from constant inflation, forcing new or weaker players to leave the game every league. They can’t buy anything because they play poorly or too little, and they play poorly or too little because they can’t upgrade their gear, and so on.

GGG needs to hire proper specialists and stop this comedy!