Currency Exchange needs a Fix

[Leodore]

5 hours ago, Khaen said:

Really? I reckon I'm spending 2-3x more time in game to gather gold that'd exchange for the same amount of hmc.

Mostly observing here, but just to point out a factor in this discussion:

 

When people are at work (depending on industry of course) it's not like 1 hour of labor will produce a huge amount of currency based on RNG, but in game, this happens multiple times a day per server, and this of course influences the demand of particularly rare items, and what people are willing to spend to purchase said item from a player. Work in RL typically (for most people) generates a specific amount of currency every hour with a 1.5x increase after X amount of hours in a specific window of time, and also work RL tends to be of greater difficulty and less enjoyable than "work" in a game, as the game is ultimately a form of entertainment, not a form of labor. 

 

To compare these two things even remotely, I just don't think they are comparable. Time is money, I hear you, but in this situation, the "time" and "money" are both in very very different categories respectively. 

 

From what I can tell, those who use the market primarily for getting HM Coins are going to feel the exchange rate is bad because they want more HM Coins for their gold

Those who use the market primarily for getting gold are going to feel the exchange rate is bad because they want more gold for their HM Coins

 

That being said, my personal opinion is that the priority of pleasing is towards those who buy HM Coins with their RL money, simply because earning all the gold in the game doesn't keep the game running, staff employed, or development costs covered. The people who choose not to purchase HM Coins however, do provide a service to the HM Coin purchasers as provided an option to purchase game currency from them. The staff has to keep a rotation and interesting selection in their store front, or the revenue to the company would drop significantly, but this is not the main reason for the exchange rate changes, it's simply that it's multitudes easier to acquire gold in game now,  but the price of HM Coin with RL currency has stayed the same.  

 

Also gold is a mostly circulatory currency, most of the currency is exchanged from one player to another and so forth, and continues to increase in total quantity from farming and getting from in-game mechanics, but HM Coin is a disposable currency, as the only way to spend it literally deletes it's existence as a currency in game. 

 

All of these factors (among other factors yourself and other's have mentioned) leads primarily only to the exact condition things are now, it's just the natural course of things. 

[Khaen]

8 hours ago, RainbowDashie said:

back at 45 content you needed around 2-3h to do the dailyes to get 10g, now you need around 2,5-3,5h to do the dailyes to get 50g.  I dont see a huge difference there.

Your original comparison was flawed. Lv 45 cap isn't comparable due to the exchange rate differences. That was really the only point I wanted to make, however offhandedly.

As an experiment, I just went and ran all 9 purple dungeons, sans Naryu, Citadel, and Tomb, to even it out as achievable for the average player. I did it in PuG on xserver, mostly running 550-600 AP pre-made parties. It took around 4 hours to complete all 9, and I acquired roughly 33g including gold split from ornaments and Taikhan skin. The Taikhan skin should probably be discounted since I haven't seen any for weeks despite running Masts daily. Considerations to keep also in mind: we do also have an AP buff currently that reduces dungeon clear time as well as more active players.

Lv 45 cap came out at launch, even if we take the exchange rate last year at this time instead, it would have been roughly 1:70, settling to around 1:55 around late March right after lv 50 cap (I dug deep into my Skype backlog for the ratios).

10g at 1:70 would have gotten you 630 hm coins. (At launch 45cap)
10g at 1:55 would have gotten you 495 hm coins. (Before Spring trove start of 50 cap)

33g at 1:6 would have gotten you 178.2 hm coins. (Currently)

Just to clarify, not trying to create conflicts or anything.

7 hours ago, Leodore said:

Mostly observing here, but just to point out a factor in this discussion:

*snip Well written analysis~! I'm afraid you have missed my point though, if you really meant to respond to me by quoting me. I guess my offhand idle poke at a fallacy has flopped.

I am going to assume you meant people purchasing NCoins with their IRL money? @_@
In a way however, Hm coin purchases with gold IMO should be counted towards business sales just the same as NCoin sales; as in the end some form of monetary exchange was made IRL and NCsoft was paid. I suppose the concern here is that.. when the exchange rate plummets to such lows without chance at recovery, well, people tend to get exhausted and move on. NCsoft does have a direct influence on how poor the exchange rate is doing, and while its their main priority to succeed as a business, it feels like they are becoming oblivious at how hard they are pushing the players and the ingame market.

[Katu Kat]

Lel. I remember spending just 30 gold for the cobalt captain outfit set last year when it came out. Now, you'd have to spend between 300 to 350 gold as of right now to get an outfit. Right now, this very second.

Look at this shit, look at it: 


From back then when cobalt came out till now...in less than one year there was an 850 - 900 percent increase in gold to hm coin equivalent. Thats some Robert Mugabe, zimbabwe shit right there folks. Hyperinflation ftw, courtesy of the kind, mature, reasonable bns community, pat yourselves on the back...you special snowflakes you ^_^

[Leodore]

12 hours ago, Khaen said:

I am going to assume you meant people purchasing NCoins with their IRL money? @_@
In a way however, Hm coin purchases with gold IMO should be counted towards business sales just the same as NCoin sales; as in the end some form of monetary exchange was made IRL and NCsoft was paid. I suppose the concern here is that.. when the exchange rate plummets to such lows without chance at recovery, well, people tend to get exhausted and move on. NCsoft does have a direct influence on how poor the exchange rate is doing, and while its their main priority to succeed as a business, it feels like they are becoming oblivious at how hard they are pushing the players and the ingame market.

Yes, your assumption is correct.

 

Monetarily speaking, if a player buys the HM Coin with gold or not, this does not change the state of the IRL currency exchange already taking place, so the profit as a company has already been gained. The primary purpose of a gold selling mechanic built into the game is to deter illegal gold selling, or at least provide a legal option to players to use, simply because when players buy gold illegally, the company gains absolutely zero money from that transaction. Many games still do not have an in-game currency exchange system, and it's becoming more and more standard in the industry because it does deter the illegal buying of gold very much and minimizes profit loss. 

 

As for "plummets to such lows", I suppose you're speaking asif the situation is already this? I have to disagree, if for any reason, simply because I've not seen any definitive analysis or evidence to make a claim like this accurately. If this was the case, it would be evident in the inactivity of that mechanic, as people who were looking to buy HM coin with gold would simply stop doing it. Both sides of this transaction want to get more bang for their buck. The HM coin seller wants the most gold they can get for their HM Coin, and people who are selling the gold want the most HM Coin they can get. Unfortunately for the gold sellers, this is instinctively and unavoidably biased in the favor of the HM Coin sellers, as the HM Coin has more value inherently and it's a destructive currency rather than a circular one. When the gold sellers accept to buy their HM Coin at a price, that is their decision to accept that they are the weaker party in this negotiation. There is good news though, it is a self correcting system as it is simply based on per capita availability of the circular currency (gold) and it's buying power compared to the desire of the items that can buy purchased with HM Coin. The more gold in circulation and the easier it is to acquire, then it will drop accordingly, the less gold and harder to get, then it will rise. That being said it is unlikely to rise as game's very rarely make getting the in-game currency more difficult as the game ages. HM Coin is also very unlikely to change it's IRL value (which is the real constant non-negotiable variable here).  

 

Since the HM Coin = $$$, then either the price of buying HM Coin with IRL currency would have to drop (which it won't), or the IRL currency would have to become extremely easy to acquire (which it won't), or the HM Store and it's items would have to become unattractive to the player base or be decided that they are far too expensive (which I don't see this happening either to be honest). Given this constant variable, and these unwavering conditions, it is only natural that the exchange rate of gold and HM coin will gradually become different with the gold becoming less and less valuable due to inflation within the game and availability of the resource and it being circular. It can't get out of control because it would require a huge population of people to acquire huge amounts of gold easily on a regular basis (and I don't see that happening either). 

Though, the other enemy here also is the illegal  gold buyers and sellers as well, and they steadily devalue the gold with each and every purchase.