Quote:
Originally Posted by Orcin
The market manipulation is a far bigger problem in the game than people spending money. People spending money open lots of packs that provide supply for the AH so others can build teams without investing their hard-earned points in a game of chance. Market manipulators, many of whom are free-to-play, make their points by taking yours in a zero-sum game.
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Nailed it.
Not that I blame the flippers. That's how a free market is supposed to work. If the profit incentive is there, it's going to happen.
It's about the incentives. Risk and reward. Speculators have to make a decision and it's based primarily on the
structure of the collections. A structure where the goal is "Collect every historical card for every team" just removes all the risk from the equation. All a hoarder has to do is keep their portfolio sufficiently diversified, and their profits are guaranteed. One FOTF reward card may be bad, so the small investor could be wiped out with a bad bet on the wrong team. But it's a guarantee that SOME of them will be OP, worth hundreds of thousands of PP. Surely, the toppers will be as well, and you NEED every team for those. So the card-hoarding class
who already owns all the assets is 100% guaranteed to be the chief beneficiary under this structure.
Like in real life, it's a problem when the rules governing society are slanted too far in the direction of benefiting the rich.
Eventually it comes back to hurt the rich as well, when the poor reach a breaking point and stop playing the game entirely. Like the homeless drug addict who isn't contributing to the economy anymore. They saw the rules presented to them, deduced the game was rigged, and gave up entirely.
No one wants homeless people, and no one wants the users to quit PT. But if we don't address the
underlying structural issues then both are inevitable.
Sorry if the analogy seems a little over the top. I just couldn't think of a better one.