Great Depression...Gaia Version

[GoneBBGone]

Remember back in the 20's when the stock market crashed in the U.S?
Before that there was so much money flowing through the economy.
Stalks were so high and people were "balling out of control"....

Does it not feel like this is what's happening on gaia?
There's so much gold and people can afford so much...but it has to come to a stop
I feel like a market crash is nigh...

[Ootori_K]

The market won't crash while Gaia keeps flooding gold into it, and while users keep paying for it. It's really just that simple.

Because it's mostly a closed system (aside from users leaving), the circumstances that would cause a crash are unlikely to exist. However, it's not unlikely that the game will eventually shift to a different currency or change the valuation of its currency.

[GoneBBGone]

Ootori_K

The market won't crash while Gaia keeps flooding gold into it, and while users keep paying for it. It's really just that simple.

Because it's mostly a closed system (aside from users leaving), the circumstances that would cause a crash are unlikely to exist. However, it's not unlikely that the game will eventually shift to a different currency or change the valuation of its currency.

I don't mean like literally crash. I mean some serious stuff is gonna happen soon with all this gold flooding. It's inevitable

[Ootori_K]

l J e l l y B e a n s l

I don't mean like literally crash. I mean some serious stuff is gonna happen soon with all this gold flooding. It's inevitable

Well, aside from the marketplace not working correctly (and it never really has, there have always been minor bugs), what else do you foresee?

Things seem to be following a fairly predictable pattern of rising and falling in price, according to supply and demand, as usual. The only difference is that the price is escalating. It's even escalating in the gold shops.

[Little Miss Shiny]

l J e l l y B e a n s l

Remember back in the 20's when the stock market crashed in the U.S?
Before that there was so much money flowing through the economy.
Stalks were so high and people were "balling out of control"....

Does it not feel like this is what's happening on gaia?
There's so much gold and people can afford so much...but it has to come to a stop
I feel like a market crash is nigh...

Not quite. The stock market crash that played a major role in causing the Great Depression happened because people were speculating with money they didn't actually have.

On Gaia you can have as much gold as you want, as long as you're willing to buy it with cash. And it's entirely "real" gold, there's no speculation going on. So as long as people have money to buy gold, the inflation will continue to rise.

[Einrick]

Little Miss Shiny

Not quite. The stock market crash that played a major role in causing the Great Depression happened because people were speculating with money they didn't actually have.

^ This

The stock market crash was due to people taking out loans with the assumption that they would be able to get their money back in the future with no uncertainty. When the market crashed, millions of people had no money and were in debt. With no money, they stopped buying stuff... which meant that industries which provided that stuff went out of business, people employed in those industries no longer had jobs or money, and then they went into debt...

Rather, we will be seeing what's happened in other online communities before. Increasing prices will drive away existing users, and new users will not stick around because the high prices on everything make it impossible for them to purchase anything. The community will get older, the population less and less. Gaia Online will be forced to cater more and more to the few people who spend money on the site, which means prices (both in Gold and Cash) will continue to go up until the spenders finally stop spending money. At that point, the site will be mostly dead - large lack of users, no more financial incentive for Gaia to maintain or update the site.

Typically, what happens in that the server gets a "reboot" in the form of everyone starting off again with no gold and no items, to eliminate the inflation. And then it runs through the same cycle again.

[lovely ghosts]

the market won't crash as long as gold generators exist and are being bought

it might however become totally unusable for people like me who aren't buying GC tho cry

[Little Miss Shiny]

Einrick

Little Miss Shiny

Not quite. The stock market crash that played a major role in causing the Great Depression happened because people were speculating with money they didn't actually have.

^ This

The stock market crash was due to people taking out loans with the assumption that they would be able to get their money back in the future with no uncertainty. When the market crashed, millions of people had no money and were in debt. With no money, they stopped buying stuff... which meant that industries which provided that stuff went out of business, people employed in those industries no longer had jobs or money, and then they went into debt...

Rather, we will be seeing what's happened in other online communities before. Increasing prices will drive away existing users, and new users will not stick around because the high prices on everything make it impossible for them to purchase anything. The community will get older, the population less and less. Gaia Online will be forced to cater more and more to the few people who spend money on the site, which means prices (both in Gold and Cash) will continue to go up until the spenders finally stop spending money. At that point, the site will be mostly dead - large lack of users, no more financial incentive for Gaia to maintain or update the site.

Typically, what happens in that the server gets a "reboot" in the form of everyone starting off again with no gold and no items, to eliminate the inflation. And then it runs through the same cycle again.

I can MUCH more easily see Gaia letting this site follow the death spiral and milking whatever money from its users as can be had before dropping it in favor of other ventures.

Which is precisely why I fervently hope that other venture crashes and burns in a fiery spectacle of failure. stare

[stampededentist]

The 20s Great Depression was caused by spending money we didn't have.

We got "credit", and thought it was free cash. It was not. We were writing checks that chicks couldn't cash.

it was like an air bubble.. there isn't actually anything inside, but it can rise to great heights.
Before popping due to lack of support.

the Gaian economy is plagued by too much money.
A single gold has been devalued to the point of being near worthless.

It's similar in a way.
But technically different. wink

Either way it sucks balls.

[Vixehn]

I left this site last year when this all was becoming a big thing.
Now that I've returned it makes me question why I had come back. Mostly everybody is in the billions now. There is no way to catch up, it's so hard.
Though gaia knows what they're doing, its just unfair. I remember back in like 07' when there wasnt much of an issue with money. Did gaia cash even exist :/

[DahliaHawthorne01]

lovely ghosts

the market won't crash as long as gold generators exist and are being bought

it might however become totally unusable for people like me who aren't buying GC tho cry

Yeah, there are a lot of us who will essentially not be able to use Gaia if it stays like this.

[Procurements]

I'd say it's more like the German Great Depression, where people were burning hundred million mark notes to keep themselves warm at night because the inflation was that out of hand.

[Caerthakatha]

Procurements

I'd say it's more like the German Great Depression, where people were burning hundred million mark notes to keep themselves warm at night because the inflation was that out of hand.

And we all know what came out of that... D:

[grape_overlord]

Hue

[Kirenisia]

eh not a big deal imo