Inflation over the years for gold has gotten worse and worse - its pretty insane now
But what can be done about it?
Maybe a whole new currency that slowly replaces gold? A bit like in real life when countries currencies essentially become worthless due to hyper inflation so they do a restart on the economy by replacing the currency altogether with a new one
That seems a little extreme and unlikely, but what other options can people think of? Or do you not even consider it to be an issue at present?
To me it seems that BfA kept it under control. The biggest problem were WoD and Legion with their huge gold income from table missions. And with the squish the gold income from old race was nerfed additionally.
The way to solve inflation isnât to replace a currency but to restrict the money coming into a system. Thats why they nerf things like old raids from time to time (which sends the âdont understand the big pictureâ folks into a frothing rage.
The other way is gold sinks, expensive mounts, repair costs, flight path etc etc.
the only thing their silly nerfs do is ensure the rich stay rich and the poor remain poor⌠gimping the regular players because a few select groups are making massive amounts of golds is the wrong way to fix the problem
they need to put a stop to boosting and multiboxing and be much more strict against botting
first offense and youre just gone. considering the amount of steps it takes to install a bot you cant claim its a simple âmistakeâ
Some people will always be poor though and that doesnât solve the problem on a macro scale. Fact is that targeting âregular playersâ is the way to go when making large scale changes. Reducing the ability of a million players to earn a thousand gold is more effective than stopping one player earning a million gold inflation wise.
Boosting doesnât cause inflation because it moves money round, it doesnât bring it into the economy.
Multiboxing will cause inflation but it also brings in RL $ to Blizz so good luck with that one!
I donât think anyone will argue that they could do more with botting.
All it is used for are prestigious cosmetics, such as TCG mounts, BMAH items.
It can also be spent on boosts, which the boosters then spend on prestigious cosmeticsâŚsuch as TCG mounts, BMAH items.
Enchants, gems, potions, respecs, mount training, ect - all the things that in previous expansions you would have to save up for - are now worth peanuts and can be gathered in a few minutes of casual gameplay.
Some people made tens of thousands a week by running old raids on multiple characters. A single raid gave like 4k gold, which is a bit outrageous. Good thing is was nerfed.
Hyper inflation was from MoP to WoD due to Garrisons⌠what cost 20k prior became 250+k. Legion onwards it leveled out, so no thereâs not been a hyper inflation since.
Not gonna lie, Iâve only recently returned to the game (mainly quit in MoP but popped on for a month or two every few years and saw things spiralling out of control for money )
Glad its calmed down a bit, but seeing the cost of stuff on the AH compared to how much you make from regularly playing is so daunting now and almost put me off staying around this time
I did have a bit of an idea to throw around that isnât a full currency replacement but can still calm down the effects of previous inflation while not rocking the boat too much for the existing economy
Add a new currency above gold (im gonna call it Platinum simply because thatâs what it was called on Guild Wars 1)
Platinum can be 100g or 1000g or however much they feel like, but 100g would definitely keep the familiarity
Release it one patch to give people time to climatise then next patch, you could remove copper potentially. If an enemy would drop 1c, they now drop 1s (if inflation was still an issue, you could say for every 2c or 3c previously, its now 1s to slow things back down a bit)
What this will do: not feel as much of a punishment to rich players (the rich stay rich etc)
Helps new and returning players by making the figures look less daunting (more of a placebo effect, but lower numbers on the AH will definitely help people be less likely to be scared off)
Is gold-cap still an issue for rich players? If so, this could also help them with that too for a bit
Iâm not an expert in economy but inflation is inevitable , u can farm gold forever the source is endless , the only thing they can do is make more " attractive gold sinks "
Removing gold or nerfing it would slow/hinder progress for casual players a lot .
Switching to other currency is axing your economy that will never happen .
Worked on another mmo i used to play the economy got over inflated, the devs didnât seem to be taking action so pretty much the entire player base started using a specific item to make big trades instead it also added a bit of a share-price style side to things as that items price in gold varied too as people brought or sold it and more or less was avaliable in the economy
Personally idc much they can remove gold all togheter and stop bots /multiboxers and all sorts of ah players and introduce a new currency every expansion .
thatâs the dumb solution that is used a lot in extreme capitalist societies in real-life like america, and it always causes the same issue, it makes the average person/player poorer while doing nothing to fix the problem of the very rich or goldfarmers.
If the poorest players keep losing money and not able to do basic fun stuff like transmogging or buying mounts they get reputation for, then all you are doing is making those things a chore and removing them from the âfunâ part of the game.
Meanwhile, this makes an even bigger market for gold-sellers and other such abusers of the system, instead of fixing the fact that some players have near unlimited gold(which really isnât an issue anyway)
Gold inflation will exist forever unless wow becomes free to play ; or they addââveteran accountsââ system(making regular players who played for certain amount of days becomes free to play)
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the economy got over inflated, the devs didnât seem to be taking action so pretty much the entire player base started using a specific item to make big trades instead 
it also added a bit of a share-price style side to things as that items price in gold varied too as people brought or sold it and more or less was avaliable in the economy