Unscheduled Maintenance - February 7, 2013

No, if hackers have monopolized the market, then no one other than hacker would be able to sell their goods. This is not the case. Plenty of people are still selling their goods, albeit at depressed prices, but they are still selling and still making profit.

When most items sold are hacked/duped/obtained through hacks, that's damn near close to a full-on monopoly. Let's not kid ourselves.

And what would be the difference if a group of non-hackers monopolized the market, because in the past Ma Bells guilds and groupings did crop up. In fact, before hackers, the NX spending elite technically would have "monopolized" the market by your definition.

No difference, just that hackers did it by cheating. But then again, I've never heard of that guild before. I'm quite sure a single guild or even a grouping of 10 can't deflate or inflate certain items as long as none of their members hack or rely on hackers. Even if they could, that would be due to certain items being rare versus certain items being overabundant (hacked/duped/botted).

And you answered your first question with your last question. Why does it matter to me, because I seek understanding regarding the widely expressed notion that hackers do all those no-good, very bad things and it causes all sorts of wreckage in the Maple economy and whether or not and to what varying degrees is it "good (or bad) for the game"? Because from my observations, besides depressed equip prices (which in itself is not necessarily a bad thing), everything else seems stable. Am I talking about wreckage to personal fortunes? No. Am I talking about wait times at bosses? No. I seek a broad answer to an economic question, not a moral one.

Extremely high abundance of items which are normally high in demand devalues mesos. NX:Meso ratio only grows higher, thus harder and harder to buy NX for mesos and vice-versa. So those players which possess little mesos won't be able to afford NX. What'll they do instead of buying NX? Buy cheap hacker-created items? Cycle continues, Nexon makes less and less money. Hackers and opportunistic hacker-lovers make more and more mesos..... I guess that stimulates the economy but sure-as-heck not in a beneficial way.

Which aspect of Maple mirrors these 'property taxes and mortgages'? There is no ongoing cost to owning an equipment--you either have it or you don't.
Responsibility to offer services to these newly-acquired mansions? Higher taxes? What on earth are you talking about? How is this an analogy to Maple in any way?

I'm talking about it more in the sociology-economical sense than anything else. I guess it was a poor anology though in hindsight.

All your posts sound as if you're just butthurt because you had some good gear that got devalued due to hackers. However, have you even considered what Nexon is doing to your equips? Miracle Cube sales, free protection scrolls, additional options, new equipment/set bonuses, and hot time abusers are just some of the factors that devalue your items naturally.

Yes Nexon is partially responsible, but not more than an overabundance of items which should normally be extremely rare.

As the other poster(s) have already suggested, how hackers affect you is largely dependent on your standing in the Maple social hierarchy. Hackers are speeding up the rate at which the overall standards are increasing, but the gap between the rich and poor is only getting larger. At this point here, we're dealing with, quite simply, market supply of what was previously hard to obtain, such as Empress equips.

Agreed about gap between rich and poor, but it's important to note exactly who is getting rich and who is getting poor. My third response in this post should explain this.

I'm sure many people who invested in a decently scrolled Reverse equip, considered 'end-game' a couple of years ago, wouldn't have imagined that we'd be seeing legitimate items with 200+ attack, or the whole concept of boss damage%.

Indeed, but I bet they wouldn't imagine those same items in illegitimate form either.

...ones being negatively impacted are a small minority.

Please refer to my third replay here again. Anyone who buys NX with mesos and vice-versa is affected negatively. And that ain't a minority lol.