Wow. In the four months I have been here I've seen the people at Gaia pull some pretty low marketing stunts (like, say, releasing Easter items in the Cash Shop without giving us an Easter event-- where were their priorities at there, I wonder) but the whole thing with the "Bag of Win" just takes the cake. It's almost like they're intentionally trying to screw up the Market Place and drive prices through the roof by releasing what is essentially an instant money generator.
"Open it, folks, and get an item worth 5k, 10k, 100k, or even 1 million gold! Buy from our Cash Shop now!! biggrin "
Inflation is already a huge problem so what in the world are they trying to do here?? Are they really that greed driven that they don't care if they release who knows how much more gold into the "Gaia Economy?" I'm really concerned about this because, now that I have my guild, I'm under a certain amount of obligation to be able to make enough gold to fund my different contests and such-- and if it becomes that hard in the future to get gold the "normal" way without botting, selling Cash Shop items, or "playing" the Market, I might as well quit Gaia. sad
EDIT: In case you don't understand why this might drive up prices, consider the following math equation I cooked up-- more gold in circulation=devalued currency (since there's more of it now it's worth less than it was before)=rise in prices due to gold being effectively worth less than it was+lack of efficient "gold sinks" to take money out of the economy=inflation=horrible economics=WHAT WERE THEY THINKING???? So, yeah. stare
Some random comments from other users about this issue (Taken from a certain thread in the Site feedback Forum):
"this makes me sad. i don't want to have to pump all my gold into items because suddenly my hard earned gold has less value...i feel like buying some katanas before they reach the 1 mil mark neutral "
"I got to agree, normaly I try to take an optomistic look with gaia's updates and all, but when I saw this, I raged. It's pointing more and more to what Craig [i.e. Gaia's current CEO] sees us as, milk cows. It's getting to the point, rapidly, where gaia pratacly [sic] wont be free."
"Inflation? More like the polarization of wealth."
"Kind of reminds me of how the economy was divided in the 1880's. You had the robber barons, then you had all the others who had to work their life never getting close to anything but meeting their basic needs. Luckly though people don't starve or go homeless when they are in the second category on gaia."
"Only in this case the Robber Baron is the CEO, since he's the one reaping real money from this. I'd say the Gaians able to profit on the Gaian economy are bourgeois, and the rest of us are just plebes."
"They should fire their economist, because he's obviously doing a poor job of helping matters."
"i dunno man but at 1 dollar you have a chance to pull out 1 mil? seems like the rarer and older items are going to go up now because people will be able to afford them too easily because of this."
"Yeah, you know, as much as I've supported Gaia in the past for dealing with the economy, this is the single most retarded thing you guys have done. Thanks for introducing what could be several hundred millions of gold into the economy all at once!"
"I haven't really had a problem with the other "grab bag" items because they seemed to give away a lot of crappy stuff in addition to the occasional good thing. But this bag... I dunno. It seems to be generating a LOT of gold. I got 40k with a single 99-cent cash shop purchase. I just don't think the ratio of crappy to good items is quite right this time..."
"It's the ethics, though. They finally exploited the incredible want of gold to profit financially by essentially selling it. They paint a pretty picture of a Gaian basking in the glow of his wealth, when in reality this probably doesn't happen that much. It all seems incredibly dishonest, not to mention how the announcement was worded that seemed to guarantee instant wealth to anyone who purchase a bag.
I'm not worried about the MP anymore. It doesn't matter. It's what Gaia's turning into that worries me."
"so you're pretty much ******** if you don't buy from cash shop then because earning gold will be obsolete unless gaia raises the gold you earn from posting, voting, comments, etc"
"Okay....anyone who knows basic macro economics knows no matter what the prices do this is bad.
We already have a system where currency is always added and very little leaves. It circulates around. Now normally this wouldn't be bad if the amount of valuable things matches the currency addition. But it doesn't thanks to how MCs are monthly, items move out of the item shop every month, and the other rare items are well...rare.
So you have an economy with little money sinks, property isn't matching the influx of money, and inflation is already at a horrible level. So you pour millions of gold into the economy? No. This is a horrible thing. Anyone who can't buy the damn bags are now going to be beggers basicly while everyone else jacks prices up to try and capitalize on the new gold. We're about to hit super-inflation people. Hope your ready to be dirt poor if you don't have a credit card or pay pal account."
r_s_boston Community Member 
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