Why is everyone selling-out? (in General)

Im quite curious why over, what? 500m+ has been sold on CB in the last month? Is this game going under or something?

If you guys do, or don't know. Why do you guys think this is happening?

Some poeple have too much, need to get rid of some of it...

Or they're taking a "break" from the game...

Or they just don't want to be here anymore and want to see how much money they get.


Those are my three reasons.

Forgot to mention, It seems like the USD for CB$ has dropped to around 6.50 $ or something. It will drop more if rich people keep selling out.

I know I've dropped a lot of stuff lately. I paid off an 8mil loan and then decided to start a NCB so I didn't need a number of things I'd accumulated.

The CBD vs. USD exchange rate is right to drop. This is because in cb2, everyone is a lot more wealthy a lot more quickly and inflation is no where nearly as bad compared to cb1. Roughly speaking, I think $5/mil is the right price. Nobody likes to sell their stuff for less but inevitably the market will adjust...

Perhaps the tournament thingy is to blame. People get their fix much too quick and at much too small a level of character. There's little incentive for developing the character to the top levels given all the hard work involved, when you can top the tournament and be happy. Ultimately, the demand for items, whether low or high NW, can grow only when players flock in number and enjoy growing their characters to the top in the regular league.

Seems to me that this sort of thing happens every year around this time. Some people just need/want the money for Christmas. Others see others selling out and see how much money they have gotten and get greedy. Others only play this game to accumulate enough stuff to justify selling and want a chunk of cash. Personally I get aggrevated by fighting USD backed chars, but then again if they want to spend thier money on this game and that makes them happy more power to them.

That's a very interesting observation Chuck. Personally, tourney does not appeal to me at all. Especially now that you cannot keep what you earn during Tourney anymore (keep in mind I rejoined the game after 2 years off so what is old news to you might be new to me).

What is problematic about tourney is the inflationary effect it has. Since you cannot keep your earning from touney, there is strong incentive to spend that money recklessly at the end of it. By buying somewhat overpriced items in auction, tourney wealth is indirectly trickling into the regular cb economy. Assuming a touney character buys an item at market price in auction, what usually happens is people try to release these items back into the market before their character is retired, usually starting their auction at $1. These auctions typically end at a lower price level than their initial purchase level. The windfall is essentially trickled into the regular cb economy.

I am not sure if the cumulative effects of these type of behaviour is strong enough to accelerate inflation, but there is definite money to be made for me.

Actually, I've been getting about $10-15 a month back from the game for the past 3 months. I'm just getting a return on my invested time, that's all.

I certainly think the game will go under if Jon keeps reintroducing items as people yell for them, though. Just thought I'd use this small space for my personal pulpit. CB3 ftw!

i just cant wait for this place to empty out like back in cb1 days when cb2 was announced, the doors to new players in cb1 were shut and only the true players remained, those were happy times. i think near the end of cb1 there was like 50 active players then we got shut down as a waste of space that was needed for cb2.

but in looking back, selling out is the way of this game. supply and demand are also big in this game, cbd can start off at 20usd per million just cause everyone is starting out and money rewards are low and everyone is fighting to get the best items form the get go. not to mention if cb3 is announced i bet some ppl will be trying to pre buy their cb3 money with cb2, that also happenned in cb1. in cb1's end the price per mil leveled out to around 3usd per million. i dont regret the money ive spent or cashed out or even lost when cb1 closed its doors. people sell out for many reasons jsut like the ones stated above. and so you all know with every new beginning there comes an end.

screw trilogies lets go straight to CB4!!!

Agreed with OOB. We need a feeling of progress and change to keep people interested. Regression is no good.

On those lines, I would advocate bimonthly changemonths instead of quarterly.

There are good points made here.

I've always found the way in which the CB economy operates as peculiar. I'm personally under the opinion that CB$ needs to be drained out of the economy somehow - inflation isn't bad, but it isn't great, either.

I'm no economist, but surely one way of stopping inflation would be to set an official exchange rate of say $5/million, then allow ingame currency to be used directly for actions such as naming items - the ultimate 'problem' is that less money would be going towards the upkeep of the game, although certain things (e.g. Supporter items) could still remain 'actual' money only. Or we could be all persuaded to buy more BA; whatever can persuade the richer players with inventories of theoretically hundreds of dollars to invest their virtual money for virtual gain would PROBABLY reduce inflation.

In the meantime, I'm happy to play for the sakes of playing. We could all just be made to make silly donations to Central Bank if disaster strikes, right? Or even better, have a new currency and scrap the old money, post-war-Germany-hyper-inflation-evasion style! although too many players with actual influence would complain. Oh well.

Nobody is going to pay attention to any 'Official exchange rate', Devenger - they'll simply CM each other and say "Pssst. I'll sell you mine at .50$ lower than the rate", and things will continue as they are now.

The problem with raising the price of BA, increasing the amount of BA to buy, making items cost more, etc. is that players then whine non-stop. "OMG, HoCs are now 5M each and we all only have $20M, reintroduce them ploxxors!" (excuse my leetspeak.) After all, we're apparently all rich when we talk about inflation, and we're all very poor when we talk about raising prices.

Sounds about right OB.

how about jon steps in...and sets a Price Ceiling...so that no one can sell for under 10USD/1M

That would make it hard for USD spenders to get so big so quick, and possibly lower the amount of buyers... ^.^

or... have an inverse effect and EVERYONE sells out cuz the money amount is great...

heh... Yeah OB. We all know how rich everyone is...

*walks over to HC* How much do I owe you again? A leg and two ribs?

Please do not try artificially altering the market. Price ceiling kills supply and price floor kills demand. Let the invisible hand do its thing. :)

i hardly think that tourney are to blame when less than a dozen players normally partake in them. it is usually the same folks as well.

The only way to enforce an "official exchange rate" is for Jon to set up a PayPal-mart, where you can buy CB$ at USD 5 per mil. As I have mentioned before, this is common in most browser-based MMORPG, since it is their only form of revenue.

but then if jon did set up a site for said transactions then ppl will whine and then there are others that will sell their money for > 5$ per mil to sell their money before they will buy jons money

sorry for double post but i meant < 5$

frankly speaking, it makes eminent sense for jon to sell CB$ for 5 usd, since this is the basic form of revenue for any such site; whether people sell CB$ for lower than that is up to them.

If Jon sold CB$ for 5$USD. I'm guaranteed the 1m/5.00 will turn into 4.50.

I think we should not have that idea and just let people buy off other people or just make the dough themselves. :)

price ceiling and price floor are no good for economy. If an official US-CB$$ is set, it will be like the real reserve banks. e.g. $5 is the official rate, then we will sell any quantity of game $$ at $5.25/million and buy any at $4.75/million. If player want to negotiate within that bound, then sure, if they want to exceed that bound, then its better off buying from "official bank". and the side effect is that if CB2 need to curb inflation, the rate can just change!!!

If Christmas wasn't coming up I would sure take advantage of the cheap CB deals. I wish more equipment was going for cheap though.

Its been great for my NCB...I have not payed more then $6/mil since I started :D