Merchant Archive

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Xeranx wrote:

Then limits have to be put in because not everyone in the real world is a millionaire or a billionaire for that matter. The top 2000 are billionaires? That just clearly points out how destroyed the economy is. There's no following of the real world there.

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No it is not 2000 people that are billionaries, it is a very small fraction check the graph (bottom in article) in this link

http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com/content.jsp?page=Astromech%20Stats%20Economy

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Wire3k wrote:

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Ryche_Mykola wrote:

Personally, this change wouldn't hurt me acquiring goods. I formed very good relationships with Tailors, Weaponsmiths, and Master Artisans to where there is nothing I won't be able to get. Who WILL be affected is the casual player that has to go shopping for there items.

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Get back to us after this hits - let us know if those contacts still maintain a shop - or indeed stay in the game.

Those that will be left - (especially the more casual crafter) will burn out VERY quickly.

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So true..........

Sooooooooooooooooooooooo, is everyone saving up for there spaceships?

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Ryche_Mykola wrote:

Sooooooooooooooooooooooo, is everyone saving up for there spaceships?

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Bermag wrote:

1) I also sell sliced (meaning even more items on vendors). But many people prefer buying unsliced either becuase they can get it sliced cheap, is smuggler or hoping for the perfect slic.

2) Also selling in crates of 5. For some reason not that many buy in crates (or might miss them, might need to inform them better). But there would still be people who want to buy singles so you end up with stocking even more items

3) I don't want to keep stocking every day. There are other stuff you need/want to do.

4) Yes stocking more of the items that sell often (T21, PH,VK) and less of items not selling well (none at all) will be the option

But I have another option will only make me and my business partner even more powerful on the market (and we are probably the largest weapon dealers on WH) than we was before. We are two ws that work togheter and share everything. We run our own shops, he is in Coro and I am in a player city on Naboo. What we will do is to put all our vendors in one location and have specialized vendors (one rifle vendor, one for pistols etc). So we will still be able to keep fully stocked vendors while our competitors will not be able to do this.

Thank you SOE for helping us becoming a monoply (no I really don't think that will be possible but it will at last increase our sales on the cost of the msaller smiths). Just like in the real world, mononpolies only exist with government backing.

I agree 100% with the original poster, both qabout the game and economy in the real world. Long live capitalism!

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Message Edited by ElvisTheKing on 08-11-2004 08:46 AM

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Xeranx wrote:

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Ryche_Mykola wrote:

Sooooooooooooooooooooooo, is everyone saving up for there spaceships?

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You know I completely forgot about that. The developers stated that they don't want ships costing upwards of 1 mil. They'd shoot that one to hell with this won't they?

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joined42904 wrote:

Varnax,

The folks who will consider it a time consuming pain are the present oligopolists.

For those who claim there are no oligopolies,

How many top quality weaponsmiths are there on your server? Docs? Chefs?

How many of you can name more than 3-4 such folks on your servers? If you can't....how do you contest my valid claim of oligopolies?

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perhaps each of us only knows of a few craftsmen in a particular specialty. but there are more out there. we have a very poor set of game features for advertising, primarily spamming in starports. but if i wanted to increase my buisness, i would be there spamming away.

and i will consider it a pain, and i am a tiny little business. it will decrease how much fun i have playing!

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Avair wrote:

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The folks who will consider it a time consuming pain are the present oligopolists.

For those who claim there are no oligopolies,

How many top quality weaponsmiths are there on your server? Docs? Chefs?

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You are confusing successful with the ablility to control or greatly affect prices. There are successful businesses (crafter/merchants) on every server, but they don't have the power to control the prices of items. All business-creatures (men/woman/wookies) want to super successful, a few have the requiste business smarts to do it. To eliminate the top end crafter through collectivist means (ok, pal, we have decided that you are successful enough, you are cut off) is to eliminate the dream of where the other crafters want to get to.

No amount of top end controls on the economy are going to convert a poor business-creature into a succesful one. They will only drive successful ones away (to World of Warcraft, for example). I believe SWG has the created one of the bestmultiplayer economic simulations ever (whether intentional or not), and to aspire to make a controlled socialisteconomy is sadden at worst, and tragic at best.

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joined42904 wrote:

What specifically is socialistic about this?

The devs have decided to allow egalitarian factors to play a role in what crafters can do. Surely 660 items per master merchant/crafter with once-weekly restocking is adequate to serve a large number of people.

It it isn't, demand will drive prices up and more people will enter the particular market.

I think that the top 4 docs on our server *could* control prices if they wanted to price fix. Probably not the top armorsmiths because the younger crafters compete with them by undercutting them anyway, though they could fix the prices of top-end items if they got together.

Could the top 4 weaponsmiths fix the price of weapons on our server? I think they could have an impact on prices. Chefs? I think so, too.

That is what oligopoly is about. Keep in mind that the present resource situation is such that only a very small number of crafters have the absolute best resources ever to spawn. Maybe it's 5 instead of 3 in some professions. But you get the idea. There may be a reservoir of guild crafters who presently don't make things for sale but who would if the price got high enough. Of course, that can't be ascertained without enduring these economic conditions for a period of time imposed by the oligopolists.

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i cannot see how that could happen. the only way they could fix prices and have it stick would be to undercut everyone else. that is bacause there is presently no constraint on who enters a profession. anyone can compete against you tat chooses to do so.

but there is only so much efficency you can achieve due to the game algorithm. to go lower (in pricing) only causes net losses. and your competitors can always wait that out running missions to subsidise their smaller product flow. ultimately, the small guy wins in an swg price war.

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VarnaxDespin wrote:

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joined42904 wrote:

Varnax,

The folks who will consider it a time consuming pain are the present oligopolists.

For those who claim there are no oligopolies,

How many top quality weaponsmiths are there on your server? Docs? Chefs?

How many of you can name more than 3-4 such folks on your servers? If you can't....how do you contest my valid claim of oligopolies?

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ok well lets see, now you will have to remember I am only one person and I havnt bought food, meds or armor in a long time, and Iknow thereare a ton of crafters I dont know of or have never met ....remember just because you dont know someone, doesnt mean they arnt succesful

Valcyn big, successful crafters by field that I know of:

Armorsmiths: Rasta, Rilos, Makkir, Skinnymado, Franchize, Dstryka, Darvell, Nocta, Nighthawk, Guzzer, Voro, Gorby, johnny-cash.

Docs: Docbill, Ledao, Psy, Ges, Prodimesterio, Hurri, Lium

Chefs: Carg, Chairman, Miso, Johnney-jones, Lok

Weaponsmiths: Tuckiee,Arox, Ravage, Azeal-Zed, Guzzer, Wilju, Xea, Jar

There, I named more then your 4 to make a point. I know there are many many more successful crafters out there....period.

Ask yourself this, How many "1" big top crafters in proffessions have we gone through since launch? good lord the mind boggles... just because "x" might be the name on everyones lips today doesnt mean tmw they will contiunue to be so.... I cant think of many crafters from launch that still play the same crafting role.. people get burnt out and quit... people change proffesions and new people take their place.. this is nota RL jobwhere we work to pay our bills... here we play to have fun.

Message Edited by VarnaxDespin on 08-10-2004 12:04 PM

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Artiman wrote:

Yay!!! Yeah screw the newbs. Then one year from now you'll wonder why the hell they canceled the game.

Ask yourself this. When you started, were there HUGE operations that had fully stocked vendors out there that you had to compete with? Were people rich to the point that they didn't comparison shop on the basis of price, or even quality?

Us "newbs" don't need a vendor item cap. All we need is a place to sell our wares, where a customer doesn't have to invest a huge amount of extra time to buy from us rather than you.

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Artiman wrote:

Sure there's other architects that still likely sell furniture and structures for less than me, but that doesn't hurt me, because I found my niche in the market and am doing well.
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Actually, reading posts like this, I'm beginning to like the idea of vendor caps (I'd much rather compete on price or quality in an open market btw).

You are basically admitting that the current system is broken beyond repair. I can't compete with you on price, quality,.. anything. By being earlier to the game you have a nice industry heavily protected to new entries by the govt. (SWG). Congrats!

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Avair wrote:

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You are basically admitting that the current system is broken beyond repair. I can't compete with you on price, quality,.. anything. By being earlier to the game you have a nice industry heavily protected to new entries by the govt. (SWG). Congrats!

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There are no game based sanctioned protections,the barrier to entry for a market isextremely low (and could be lowered further with improved interfaces).What asuccessfulcrafter has on his side is time/money invested, and most importantly a loyal customer base. That is what takes real time to build, and why fly by nighters don't last to long. The market, like a real one, is imperfect, which provides oppurtunities for new crafters to make a living, and build their own customer base. The best way to do that is a well stocked vendor and responsive goodcustomer service. Artificial production caps (vendor limits) isn't going to help you break into the market, but it will limit what you can eventually achieve.

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