WTS: 100M CBD for 50$! (in General)

I am wondering why the CB community has pushed to reduce the value of CBD. I agree that removing USD expenditure from the game would change the game entirely. Additionally, enforcing that would be a problem.
So, somewhat recently changes in coding as well as changes in the community have reduced a cool CB Mill down to 2$ from 7$. I remember in CB1 it was even higher at points (possibly peaking at 15$?).
Anyways, still curious as to why making CBD more affordable to players is a good step?
Are we encouraging CBD purchases (with cheap as dirt prices) and simultaneously trying to negate these USD purchases with Encumbrance and other features?
I like how new players, with paypal accounts, are able to catch up in NW to the vet players who have had an advantageous amount of time to create wealth.
I know that a low CBD:USD ratio helps a little bit to keep players from selling out. Although in the end most are going to sell out, just for less. I guess I thought the idea was to discourage the purchasing of mass CB$, which is then used to create weapons and armor that change battles. I don't think that Encumbrance has solved the latter problem, but it has helped.
Don't we want to encourage players to use strategy to overcome instead of the usual pump'n'dump. Yes, I realize there are plenty of players that purposely do not spend USD. Good for you, but abstinence goes only so far.

P.S. I'm not trying to provoke a thread of flames about USD in the game, and how he hasn't spent any USD, but she just bought 20M (blah blah, let's try to get over that together). I would just like a well thought out answer with a bit more creativity and thinking than I've seen in the past.

2M goes to the player with the best response; I am the judge.

dude this should be in contests -.-

Simply there is a recession in the US currently ( in my opinion ). However you look at it people have had less expendable income than previously as this has effected much of the world. I know of nobody who is not watching there spending currently. To give a little more depth to my statement, i am an Englishman living in the US. This statement is true for people both sides of the pond.

i see it as a wash really, people are perhaps more tempted to buy in at $2 per million, but less tempted to sell out than at $10 per million.

what has made a difference in the amount of cb currency being converted to usd is the free ba for nubs with reduced rewards. there is no where near the same amount of conversion going on than in 2006 through the end of 2007.

many games have real moneys exchanged. Every game has it's highs and lows just like a stock market. Trying to figure out a sole reason for the flux capacitor of the state of things is outright silly. This game has a USD source to it, and it is awesome. One of the best run online gaming economies I have ever seen. What has been the high point? I don't think a game should strive to push the value down... but at the same time, it promotes a different source of income for the owner too... I mean my supportership cost 11 dollars.. and special items cost 11 dollars.. that isn't no chump change, and shouldn't be discouraged from Jon in the least bit, imo.

Thank you for your great responses Ernest, dudemus and kevlar! (you too lostling, lol)
I agree a lot with you kevlar, although I am not searching for a why.
I am trying to promote strategies over NW, while polling an intellectual community. I am curious. :)

Out of curiosity, what has been the high point? The highest value for the money in this game?

we really have two aspects here in cb land to our power, the team and the gear.

in cb1 we had the same open economy that allowed currency conversion. this allowed people to catch up gear wise, but they could never catch up team wise, other than buying a team.

jon implemented the n*b in cb2 to make it so that both could be attained by someone starting at a much later date.

while both of these aspects are available to beginners as well as vets, it does not replace strategy. i think the goal is to allow people to mostly catch up, taking the top and holding it will still require strategy rather than more money thrown at it.

has jon tweaked it to the perfect spot on both of the spectrums? probably not yet, but i do believe we are closer than we have ever been.

i will just put this point forward to the people here... who amongst you are losing to teams that because of only USD wins you? personally... i don't think i see any such teams... and thus i can say that jon's implementation of enc has been effective

NW = Tanks
A mage's expenditure is going to be on AC only.

we can either gte rid of tanks and armor... or you can continue reading below!

so here is a solution that I have been thinking of for a long time. make all AC not upgradable in terms of damage reduction (rescale the base #'s and have them block that percentage). instead, make the +enchantment increase a specific skill, stat or something else. make it so cost prohibitive to get anywhere past +10 that nobody does (or even just cap it).

Introduce weapon proficiency as a skill. remove the X from weapons, and use the plus to do something similar to what armor does, but more in an offensive vein. add in the complexity of bladed weapons doing less damage in comparison to say plate armors vs hammer class weapons and I think the rock-paper-scissors aspect is back into an interesting/exciting level of play.

another interesting idea would be to have all of the same type of weapons do the same damage, but have different effects as per the enchantment. One thing that always bugs me about games such as this is there is always only one good way to equip your team, and if you dont have it, its not worth bothering to get anything else. promoting each item as having its own distinct advantages is always more appealing to me.

this idea probably does nothing to offset the USD:CBD ratio, it would definitely promote strategy over which item to use. at any rate, there's my opinion.

It's the nature of the economy; more money is coming in than going out, and there's only so much that a person can spend money on. That, and the fact that it's a game, and money is not necessary for you to life comfortably in society.

Nobody is 'making CBD more affordable'. A more accurate description would be 'lowering my cost so my stuff will actually sell'. Obviously, the demand for CBD and the supply for sale should determine the price, but that's not necessarily how it works, since people want theirs to sell, and will sell at whatever price they know it will sell at that they do not feel jipped selling at.

Part of it is that there's so much money, people are happy with getting $100 from their 40m, and another part is that people don't feel the need to raise the price, as it's easier to just follow the trend set by other people.

The problem's greed more than it is about letting people buy in for cheaper; people want more more more, and that's the way things work.