Wednesday 29 January 2014

A lesson in economics

So I have this friend who's big time into race rewards trading, and we were just talking. Apparently the racing population has gone way, way up in S5 and S6. I mean, I don't blame them. Release, right? With all the population increase that entails? But that's not the only reason. 

Firstly, you might have noticed a pattern in the race rewards. Yes, I know, a sample size of 2 is statistically insignificant...but it's not just statistics at work here, is it? Besides the obvious - craft white at 50 - it appears that 80 is a legacy and 135 is a (relatively) high value unique. There are also higher value rewards at 600 and 1000 than there were previously. For the most part.

We think it stands to reason that the 135 reward is an incentive for racing. Legacy, well you know my thoughts on the matter already. I'm glad they're doing it. Supply and demand: the supply just got cheaper/better. Infinite supply at the given price of 135 points. Demand goes up and some new equilibrium is reached.

There's another factor at work here, too. Alt art became much bigger business once the appearance microtransaction showed up. Basic supply and demand again, obviously: said mtx creates a demand, mostly in SC, for pretty alt-art items. Thus, more people are tempted into providing the supply.

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