Dusk Wrote:I agree with the above post. Legit merchanting alone is not enough to throw the balance of the economy like some of you are describing. Otherwise it would have happened long ago. The MS economy is definitely small enough to be manipulated, but not this much. The mesos have to come from somewhere.
The only way mesos can be devalued to the point they have now is through some sort of mass meso-farminng operation or a meso-duping hack. Somehow someone has come up with a way of injecting a ton of mesos into the economy very fast.
Did you read iCollector's post? It's a hack. Did you also read the part of his post that talked about how the merchants have done this? It's not hard to get 10 bil in a week of good merchanting, if you know what you're doing. Legit merchants have had YEARS to amass all the meso they're using now, so it's no surprise some have tens to dozens to HUNDREDS of billions of meso. Even one person with 100 billion meso is capable of monopolizing the GFA market for however long they please. By the way, understand that the way they KEEP throwing the balance is by SELLING what they initially bought. Sure, you'd say that the 100 bil disappears very fast, but once the buyer is in control of the price, they can make back however much they need in order to keep up the monopoly.
And again, that's just one person. Multiply that purchasing power by every elite merchant in GMS, and you have the ability to throw the market.
As I said earlier as well, the elite merchant community is the smallest in GMS as well (and the smartest, in my opinion), and thus are capable of vast lines of communication and well-thought-out planning in order to coerce something like server-wide inflation. And I'll say it again: with all of this information in mind, you should recognize that merchanters have had the power to throw the balance of the economy for a long time now - they just haven't ever had an opportunity like this to make money off such power (or at least, this MUCH money). This is the answer to your rhetorical assumption about why they haven't thrown the balance before.
EDIT:
GummyBear Wrote:My guess is that they discovered a new way to generate meso (most likely a new hack). This forces the issue on the market. Lowering the cost, more people would buy, thus effectively targetting the quantity. The buyers will either buy more (due to cheaper rates) or getting more customers for the site.
On the other hand, merchants in game thinks that it's a good time to inflate, so they decided to. The buyers will still buy things, and the hesitants will more likely to consider buying meso. Merchants have indirectly creates demands for meso sites (or directly, if they're involved with those sites).
To think that merchants actually "help" legits is seriously sick. Hard working legits has to pay more for everything while their income remains the same. Rich kids will just consider alternatives. How could merchants even think of out-playing a source with infinite meso? You can inflate, they can inflate more. If you claimed that you're incomes are all legits, you're screwed.
Please read iCollect's post on the other page, as all of your "guesses" are confirmed, er, I should say WERE, before you posted.
I still believe that merchants have helped legits with their inflation, but I do see your point about hesitant legits shocked into buying meso by the inflation creating more chaos in the game as well. The only thing I could say to counter that negativity would be hoping that legits understand what meso buying is before they make a decision.
PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT:
To all legit players who are shocked by the recent inflation and are unsure what to do:
DO NOT BUY MESOS!
Yes, the notion of wealth is appealing to anyone with a conciseness, but don't be fooled into defiling your character by falling into the meso purchasing trap. Understand three very important aspects of meso buying: (1) the mesos sold on meso buying websites are ILLEGIT. They're currently being obtained through a hack, meaning your $45-60 are going to buy HACKED mesos that ruin the economy in the first place for all legits players, and in the end come back to hurt you once you've inflated prices but can't buy any more meso to afford what you all of a sudden need. (2) Meso buying is also viewed by the legit community as an act comparable to hacking, thus making your character illegit. Say goodbye to Horntail, Zakum, CWKPQ, etc. runs and perks of being a high leveled legit player if you're a known meso buyer, and (3) since the mesos are accumulated illegally, Nexon has the power to not only permanently ban meso farmers, but also meso BUYERS as well. That's right, your legit 4th job character that you slaved a few months over could be gone in a second simply because you chose to buy mesos when they were ridiculously cheap.
/dramatization
The point is guys, meso buying is just as bad as hacking and can set you up for account punishment if caught. It's immoral and wrong, and I would hope that legit players would not so quickly change themselves in order to keep playing the way you always have. MS is not life, but Darwin's principles of adaptation still apply: learn to adapt yourself to change (in this case, economic downturn) while staying true to yourself (remaining legit), and ride out the maelstrom to better days. Take advantage of the situation at hand to better yourself as well, because not only is adaptation necessary for survival, but so too descent with modification - or in this case, the ability to advantageously adapt to the change out of your control.