A Little Thought about Game Economy (as of 1/6/2013)

saphion wrote:

a simple way to fix this is my suggestion of limiting the trade to 50TE and 50POTS a trade

E.g. a person who wants to sell paris for pure TE will have to do something like this

Sell paris for vlad+50 TE
Sell vlad for ana+50 TE
Sell Ana for Abel+50 TE
...
...
...
until the person gets his pure TE

Like this it will create a "upgrade" path for new players and uptrading 6* cards will be more within reach instead of having to pay like 330 TE in 1 shot for a paris

Limiting TE per trade puts more emphasis into trading cards instead of TE. I dont see whats wrong selling a 100TE value card for 3 30TE value cards and 10TE instead of insisting on 100TE like what people are doing now

You're talking about flipping cards. This is a common thing. If I am selling a card worth 50TE, I would want it to be in my favor and not within the other person's demand. If you give me an item worth 30TE, I would want another 30-35TE add depending on how hard or easy to sell the TE replacement is. Sometimes, even if an item is valued at 30TE, the price can still go down. This is more for an advanced trader though. Right now, even for me, the market has been changing too much since early January so I limited my card flipping activities and just started selling some cards. Someone else explained this before in this forum who's been trading way longer before I even joined the game.

I would still prefer paying in pure TE though because it would actually cost me less to earn the TE than just give away all my good items. Occasionally, I don't mind trading cards I don't need or ones I'm having trouble selling.

Also, the TE and Pot trade value are random.

lmnseason wrote:

leosiu wrote:

4. TE are consumables and it has its own supply and demand like copper or silver but not gold for value storage (not anymore now, coz US gave up the gold standard) which would have seasonal fluctuation (like arena event now). It is evident that cards worth less TE than before (I started to play 2 weeks ago but I found quite some old players overpriced in similar faction, and I assume that was the old price) which the supply of cards (which worth TE) is more than the TE supply, or the demand of TE is more than the demand of cards (which worth TE).

Not sure how new you are but back then, there was a well maintained balance in the economy with the fair way of obtaining TE. It was sometime early or near end of last year when everything changed. 5* and 6* popping here and there while tradeable TE has gone down. Before, you would spend 50-110TE for a good 5* and now, they are gone to 30-65 with the exception of WWU.

I'm just letting you know so you can add this on the equation. I joined mid November and I'm sure there are few more other things we both don't know about.

Technically, it is a very effective way to encourage the middle players to pay. The cards are not so expensive now as you said so, middle players are more willing to pay for card ie. TE and some free players might pay. Coz you don't want to start over your business (game) again (or another game?) and so, you will invest more $.

But for hard-core free players (like me), the game is not as attractive as before as you cannot find a good currency any more (stable TE supply such that you can always trading for new cards without losing your gained value too much)....and trading up is almost impossible (supply of TE cannot catch up the economy, ie supply of 5*&6*). So, there is a limited 5*&6* trading just because of the TE supply.

It is deflation, free and middle players expect the TE will be more valuable later and keep all the TE and only spend it wisely. At the same time, people wanna to sell their spare card as they know the card price will go down...Well, if you look into the history, the easiest way to due with it is increase the TE supply (ie. more TE as event prize) such that there will be inflation, but it is not something SS will do coz it is againt its own interest .

Unless there is a mass demonstration, complaint or boycott of the game or else SS is not going to anything on the TE. At the end of the date, they want YOU and ME to buy TE in USD or whatsoever real money.

I'm new... but I wonder why you guys think that TE should be the focus of the game? It doesn't look like SS ever intended that to be the case. It looks like unless people buy TE... the primary trading is through card value. As TE slowly fades away, people will be forced to barter with their cards and other items and prices adjust with that.
I think the economy will stabilize, but it will take a long time for top players to see that TE is scarce and asking 30TE for a 5* can be ridiculous Oh well we will see what happens, but it is an interesting social experiment

masta518 wrote:

I'm new... but I wonder why you guys think that TE should be the focus of the game? It doesn't look like SS ever intended that to be the case. It looks like unless people buy TE... the primary trading is through card value. As TE slowly fades away, people will be forced to barter with their cards and other items and prices adjust with that.
I think the economy will stabilize, but it will take a long time for top players to see that TE is scarce and asking 30TE for a 5* can be ridiculous Oh well we will see what happens, but it is an interesting social experiment

Because it's the primary means to win events = event cards. It's like HP in Rage of Bahamut.

ofc it's important, no one argued that. But I don't think SS ever intended it to be the main material economy; they just don't seem to care to revitalize the TE stock because it won't benefit them. I guess you can say it 'keeps people playing', but the top spenders will always keep playing until they get bored and I don't think that has anything to do with this area. Either way, this is good for them since people will be forced to buy TE (1 for $1 or something? ) sooner or later if they want to rank top in addition to buying card packs.
Like I said, we will see where this goes

masta518 wrote:

I'm new... but I wonder why you guys think that TE should be the focus of the game? It doesn't look like SS ever intended that to be the case. It looks like unless people buy TE... the primary trading is through card value. As TE slowly fades away, people will be forced to barter with their cards and other items and prices adjust with that.
I think the economy will stabilize, but it will take a long time for top players to see that TE is scarce and asking 30TE for a 5* can be ridiculous Oh well we will see what happens, but it is an interesting social experiment

coz the economy established on TE based trading and people will become more reluctant to barter (perceived value of different card are different). Why te is a good currency? Because they all function the same. But you're right, people are forced to barter now coz the supply of TE is reduced. It is a roll back of the TE (currency) based economy and card trading will reduce (or the economy will shrink).

saphion wrote:

a simple way to fix this is my suggestion of limiting the trade to 50TE and 50POTS a trade

E.g. a person who wants to sell paris for pure TE will have to do something like this

Sell paris for vlad+50 TE
Sell vlad for ana+50 TE
Sell Ana for Abel+50 TE
...
...
...
until the person gets his pure TE

Like this it will create a "upgrade" path for new players and uptrading 6* cards will be more within reach instead of having to pay like 330 TE in 1 shot for a paris

Limiting TE per trade puts more emphasis into trading cards instead of TE. I dont see whats wrong selling a 100TE value card for 3 30TE value cards and 10TE instead of insisting on 100TE like what people are doing now

It just increase the risk of trading instead of promoting card trading.

masta518 wrote:

ofc it's important, no one argued that. But I don't think SS ever intended it to be the main material economy; they just don't seem to care to revitalize the TE stock because it won't benefit them. I guess you can say it 'keeps people playing', but the top spenders will always keep playing until they get bored and I don't think that has anything to do with this area. Either way, this is good for them since people will be forced to buy TE (1 for $1 or something? ) sooner or later if they want to rank top in addition to buying card packs.
Like I said, we will see where this goes

Top players do save money buy selling cards for TE. Current policy either force them to sell it for money and purchase TE (which is still difficult if middle/free players do not change their buying habit), or force them to purchase TE directly and keep the cards (if the perceived value of cards is higher than the TE middle/free players can afford). Top players do have limited resources and they might dropout coz of the cost. I believe most of the top players are less willing to pay for TE coz there is always a higher incentive to buy card pack (probability to get good 5* or 6*, which is probably higher value) for them than to buy TE (fixed value). However, if the card price (in TE) is going down, their incentive of buying card pack will reduce.
SS might figured out the 2nd hand market is too active and just want to kill the goose for the egg...It would be more sustainable if they please the top players and keep them buying card packs by giving out more trade-able TE prize.....
Well, it would be easier to have a new game instead coz economic analysis is not their strength.

i guess its going to be interesting to see how the economy will change...

i think prices will actually go downwards. there's no free flow of TE. most of the TE awarded these days are non trade-able. only way to get TE is to buy, at about usd1 per TE, which nobody will do if the cards are still ridiculously priced at current rates... some asking like 1000+TE for some cards (speaking of 1000+TE, seriously people have that many trade-able TEs?!?).

i think we'll probably soon be moving towards a barter system -- yes, proper card trading. which may turn off those top rank paying players... i dunno...

as for me... i'm gonna hoard all the TE and wait for everything to drop even further.

myad wrote:

i guess its going to be interesting to see how the economy will change...

i think prices will actually go downwards. there's no free flow of TE. most of the TE awarded these days are non trade-able. only way to get TE is to buy, at about usd1 per TE, which nobody will do if the cards are still ridiculously priced at current rates... some asking like 1000+TE for some cards (speaking of 1000+TE, seriously people have that many trade-able TEs?!?).

i think we'll probably soon be moving towards a barter system -- yes, proper card trading. which may turn off those top rank paying players... i dunno...

as for me... i'm gonna hoard all the TE and wait for everything to drop even further.

I just wanna buy a nina card then start working on my defense. lol! I hope prices go down soon. There are plenty of people out there still spending money. I had a new player before who bought TE just to buy my ignat.

myad wrote:

i guess its going to be interesting to see how the economy will change...

i think prices will actually go downwards. there's no free flow of TE. most of the TE awarded these days are non trade-able. only way to get TE is to buy, at about usd1 per TE, which nobody will do if the cards are still ridiculously priced at current rates... some asking like 1000+TE for some cards (speaking of 1000+TE, seriously people have that many trade-able TEs?!?).

i think we'll probably soon be moving towards a barter system -- yes, proper card trading. which may turn off those top rank paying players... i dunno...

as for me... i'm gonna hoard all the TE and wait for everything to drop even further.

Just a quick question, I assume most of the spare 5*&6* were in top player's pocket. Why would they trade it down to you if they do not benefited from the trading?

Trading, by itself, benefit both party, top players sell you spare 5* 6* for TE/pots/SS/LD which give them advantage to complete with other top players with similar cards in events. You get a better card such that you can beat the others who just have 4* (like me) and go higher rank in events and get better cards and rewards. The same rationale applies if you got the same 4*, say lvl 10 Avirl, will you trade with another guy who has lvl 5 Avirl? No, never, coz you will not be benefited from the trading!

There is always a limited cards you can play or use in an event and that's why everyone want a 5* or 6* instead of 1000x 4*. If you're not spending $, the only way you obtain 4* or above is to get the ticket or prize in event or login. The number and chance of getting the card you want is so low and you are not going to get the good card (there is still a chance, but too low to create an army for various events). That's why you can never complete with top players coz they have more resource than you and the game designed in a way such that you need more resource than skill to play well. (in FIFA, a soccer game, you can use crystal palace to win over Man. Utd. if you have the skill....but if you have a team of maxed 4* you can never ever beat a team with maxed 5* in arena, unless you're super lucky)

You want their cards, they want your TE, Luna or other consumables.....Like recently, people buying pots. If you're new to the game and you need pot, probably you will pay for the pot by moba coins, but it is stupid. Instead of buying pots, you buy TE and trade it to pot in the market, then if you bought 100 TE, you can get 150 pots (TE:pot 2:3, a good rate), which, 50% more pot than you buy directly. The same applies for cards.

If there is no more trade-able TE, the more likely way you can get those 5* and 6* is to buy card packs or TE which is what SS want. I'm not sure about the business model in their field, but I assume a good online game is an online game with a lot of players such it is like a festival such that everyone has to get in and take a look, at least. Some of my friends said I should play world of warcraft coz there are so many people playing.

The current TE policy will lead to a change of the game, which is not what it was previously. Either there will be mostly paid players (with the free and middle players converted to paid players) or free and middle players are going quit the game and the game will die out eventually (or maybe the paid players will quit earlier coz of the spending). SS wants the 1st one but given that there are numerous other free games on the market, the later one is more likely.

We will see until the end, whether SS is going to change the policy or if I'm wrong.

Some people think it is better for people to trade the card instead of using TE as currency. Probably we should trade an iphone for samsung or we all bring some laptops, TV, radio, etc to stores which sell electronics and ask for the trade. Barter is not a bad thing in trading card games, but always, no matter fair or not, people will and can put a price on the cards. This is a universal thing and we should accept the potency of converting the value of card into something called TE (money).

What I believe is, people will become more willing to trade cards or maxed 4*+TE or mixed trading instead of pure TE.

In the last event btw, I made a great success in trading out my lifedrop. By not pricing on TE but getting cards, you actually get more lifedrop sold instead of TE or even POTs, given that you don't want just Luna...I got a maxed 4*, 3 random 4*, 2TE, 1pot and some Luna from 5LDS and ~60-80LDS. It is a lot to me. The cards are indeed like stocks which you can sell more after leveling them.

But I would agree with your, now, TE (cash) is king. Although I have the historical high amount of TE and a 5* now but still, I'm running low on TE if I want to buy fDiane pure.

There's a major fire sale going on because of Diana.

Ally was selling a fresh Charles at 80TE, just saw a Max Rein going for 100TE.

Funnily enough, while a lot of people in this thread are complaining that 5-6*s are getting really cheap, I'd argue it's getting harder for newer/free players to really progress.

I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong, or just advertising at the wrong time, but I'm finding it almost impossible to sell lvl 40 4*s at 3 TE, and believe it or not, I can't even move fully maxed out 4*s at a mere 6 TE.

Sure - you can get your first 5* for a fairly low price, but actually acquiring the TE to purchase a 6* is getting tougher, imo.



Edit - I actually sold the maxed 4*s, but still, the economy has gotten to a point where 7TE 4*s don't get sold.

The current event is a good move to accelerate the dry out of TE, nice SS!

Why the price of cards drop? Because the supply of TE is lower and as I said, the supply of new 5*&6* card is always there. (deflation, you can use same amount of TE to buy more stuff)

Until our TE is going to dry out and the top players spend all of them in the event...and if SS is not going to give out TE (I have the 3 already), our TE is never going to be replenished (unless the population change the buying behavior).

Why there is a sale? Coz TE is more important than cards! They need to buy the card packs and kill the dragon. Now, I started to understand their business model. They are indeed, not selling the card nor the game. SS is running an auction house on the cards! AND every time when you placed a bid, you cannot take back your money! I heard of this business model and you will make a great fortune on it!!!!

Anyway, I believe we will have to barter and use "TE equivalent" instead of TE now.

VitaeMortifer wrote:

Funnily enough, while a lot of people in this thread are complaining that 5-6*s are getting really cheap, I'd argue it's getting harder for newer/free players to really progress.

I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong, or just advertising at the wrong time, but I'm finding it almost impossible to sell lvl 40 4*s at 3 TE, and believe it or not, I can't even move fully maxed out 4*s at a mere 6 TE.

Sure - you can get your first 5* for a fairly low price, but actually acquiring the TE to purchase a 6* is getting tougher, imo.



Edit - I actually sold the maxed 4*s, but still, the economy has gotten to a point where 7TE 4*s don't get sold.

well, if 6* and 5* is going down... it will naturally affect the rest.

i recall people used to buy maxed 4* at 20TE. then 15TE. then... 10TE... again, its slowly but steadily dropping.

with TE in the game getting lesser... only way for people to progress would be to:
* grind your way... example: it is mathematically possible to get 6* matahari that is being rewarded in current event
* buy TE to shorted your grinding -- or pay for trades
* buy pack/ box -- if you're the type that walks away from casino with loads of cash, this might be a good option. if you get 6*, you can keep it, or sell it for TE, which you can then use for other purposes

developer the company (Silicon Studio) have to make money to pay the artists, programmers and even mobage (very sure mobage takes a big cut). probably they also want to be good employer and not lay off anyone or ask people to take a pay cut. they need to pay employees monthly or even weekly. so, they need constant stream. having weekly events and slowly pushing people spend is the only way...

how much one spends is another thing. i like this game and have played since last year... so recently decided to make my first purchase and i did. just to show a bit of support.

Long rant, personal opinion.

It is VERY safe to say that the supply of TE which keeps this card economy running somewhat smoothly has gone to absolute s**t. Also, partly attributable to the last few events.

1. All segments of the market are unwilling to part with TE (or simply do not have it):

- New players can't sell their levelled 4s because the high end guys value TE over feeds atm (see pt 2). Most nooblets will trade with the small handful of TE they have plus a mix of 4s and pots for their first 5. Once that's spent, it's game over till the next event where hopefully they don't get only TE(P). They can't sell anything.

- Mid range players can't sell their feeds to the highs for TE either, and can't sell 4s to the lows since the events are giving those guys a TON of free 4s. Mid range is essentially stuck at 5s since 6s generally will not downtrade unless half is in TE. Which they need 60-100 of at least. They can't sell anything except the occasional 5 for 10-20TE plus a mix of... stuff.

- High end players continue to consume and/or stock tons of TE for events. They value TE over everything else now except maybe other 6s. No money for joo, guys in lower rungs!

2. This event makes it worse for low and mid end since the high end guys get 7.2k exp a pop for each dragon run and have no need for feeds.

3. Recent events are awarding less TE than what this economy is used to. The market has long been reacting to that with prices either sliding or entirely collapsing. Thrain for 10? Max Sheryl for 25? When I joined 2 months ago these were 20 and 40 with ready buyers. 6s are affected too if you're watching closely enough.

4. Case in point, I bought a 6 for pure TE at 60% the price of what it would have cost if I'd done a card/TE mix. Just a week ago this would have been impossible. I am still scratching my head wondering whether I did the right thing. If I held out a week I might have gotten it at 40%.

TLDR, if anyone working at Mobage or SS is reading this, up the supply of TE in future events, please. The economy is grinding to a halt.

Happiemealz wrote:

TLDR, if anyone working at Mobage or SS is reading this, up the supply of TE in future events, please. The economy is grinding to a halt.

u do realise they could not careless (at the moment anyway) since secondary market does not affect them. they dun earn money from resales.

as long as they can keep churning out interesting cards (prizes or in boxes), there will be:
* people buying the boxes
* buying TE to gain advantage (i believe some are now going to buy TE instead of spending on packs)
* buying packs for the tickets

yes, just to say what i have said earlier... i have also stopped buying/ trading units with TE. i expect the market to go down even lower and perhaps to the point we really start trading with other cards rather than with just TE.

earlier, i had paid like 25TE for a maxed Lies (regular one). that's just about end of last year. now... she's like probably less than 10TE.

i've also paid about 40TE for a fresh ignat and fresh bernhard. now... at 40TE or less... you can get them maxed!

at this rate, you seriously think anyone will still wanna spend TE on non-event units?

i guess it should be soon that SS will introduce the 'recycle' thingy. this will be their solution to those who dun wanna trade for other cards. this way, you can probably get something 'useful' from the excess cards.

I don't know about that myad, trading is a very attractive & fun part of the game for me. Without it, fantasica just feels like a giant grind fest. Not to mention people like me who "only" have put a few hundred $ into the game so far would probably just quit due to the impossibilities of getting some of our dream cards. If I wasn't able to trade my way up to Monica, all the money I've spent on the game so far would of only netted me Elizabeth... That doesn't sound fun/right at all

I was looking towards trading my way to a Paris as well, but with RL obligations & the ingame economy; yea I don't see that happening anytime soon.

"... Maybe I should just go back to playing console/pc games...." <- This thought's been appearing a bit too much lately lol...

Edit:

Forgot to put down my main point lol, secondary trading does affect Mobage, indirectly. With a inactive economy, chances are a large number of players would just quit due to the lack of activities.

aszutai wrote:

I don't know about that myad, trading is a very attractive & fun part of the game for me. Without it, fantasica just feels like a giant grind fest. Not to mention people like me who "only" have put a few hundred $ into the game so far would probably just quit due to the impossibilities of getting some of our dream cards. If I wasn't able to trade my way up to Monica, all the money I've spent on the game so far would of only netted me Elizabeth... That doesn't sound fun/right at all

I was looking towards trading my way to a Paris as well, but with RL obligations & the ingame economy; yea I don't see that happening anytime soon.

"... Maybe I should just go back to playing console/pc games...." <- This thought's been appearing a bit too much lately lol...

Edit:

Forgot to put down my main point lol, secondary trading does affect Mobage, indirectly. With a inactive economy, chances are a large number of players would just quit due to the lack of activities.

well, i mean trading card with card is fine with me. but personally for me... no way am i going to give my TE for cards at the moment... seeing how the prices continue to fall.

yea... trading card with card is otherwise still fine with me and that is what i do right now. just need to go around looking for the right people and the right offer.

I think Fanta will die in a few months if not before this summer.

TE has dried up, but paying players refuse to downtrade. It is now impossible to sell max or l40 4* feeders; I spend about 2hr a day posting on walls and advertising my thread on these forums, but no buyers at all. I can't even sell Dermond. It looks like people only will give TE for LE 5* or 6* nowadays. For free player like me, this means that as soon as we buy our first 5*, it's game over and impossible to go on since we can't get more TE.

There's no incentive to buy card packs either, as $50 with a high chance of getting all 3* or 4*, with low chance of getting 5*, with 0.000001% chance of getting 6*? I'm student, so I can't spend that money and even if I was making $80,000/yr, that's a stupid investment anyways; might as well go to a casino and win $100 or something. So that means that free players are stuck basically. Top paying players don't want to down trade either, so they horde their good 5* and 6* while lower players just grind. People tell me to grind for Mata! Yeah, but that's impossible if I have a school life and that will only get me so far anyways.

Honestly, I might just quit this game in a few weeks if the economy isn't injected with TE anymore. SS probably doesn't care if Fanta dies, I'm sure they've made a lot of money already anyways xD I guess this is how poorly made freemium games go: they make big money for the first few months after launch, then just die off. Then the developer goes and makes another similar game with pretty girls and people move to that

masta518 wrote:

I think Fanta will die in a few months if not before this summer.

TE has dried up, but paying players refuse to downtrade. It is now impossible to sell max or l40 4* feeders; I spend about 2hr a day posting on walls and advertising my thread on these forums, but no buyers at all. I can't even sell Dermond. It looks like people only will give TE for LE 5* or 6* nowadays. For free player like me, this means that as soon as we buy our first 5*, it's game over and impossible to go on since we can't get more TE.

There's no incentive to buy card packs either, as $50 with a high chance of getting all 3* or 4*, with low chance of getting 5*, with 0.000001% chance of getting 6*? I'm student, so I can't spend that money and even if I was making $80,000/yr, that's a stupid investment anyways; might as well go to a casino and win $100 or something. So that means that free players are stuck basically. Top paying players don't want to down trade either, so they horde their good 5* and 6* while lower players just grind. People tell me to grind for Mata! Yeah, but that's impossible if I have a school life and that will only get me so far anyways.

Honestly, I might just quit this game in a few weeks if the economy isn't injected with TE anymore. SS probably doesn't care if Fanta dies, I'm sure they've made a lot of money already anyways xD I guess this is how poorly made freemium games go: they make big money for the first few months after launch, then just die off. Then the developer goes and makes another similar game with pretty girls and people move to that

I honestly thought that the same way as you are; however, apparently there's always someone dumping quite a few grand to win events and keeping the app as a top grosser. How long will this last... who knows. It's at least survived for 9 months and is still in good shape.

They're obviously not catering to free players nor are they actually making the effort to actually making the game fun. They keep throwing the same events, 40 character chat is still existent, device registration, etc. It's really surprising to me that people are spending the way they are considering the game (IMO) is worse than what it was a couple of months or is at least gotten really stale.

Blargod wrote:

I honestly thought that the same way as you are; however, apparently there's always someone dumping quite a few grand to win events and keeping the app as a top grosser.

I only started playing this year, so I can't really say how much has changed >_>
But I don't see people keep dumping money if there is no one to compete against. I heard that before it was easier to get rarer cards and TE was given out more freely, so more players tried to compete and that gave an incentive for people to spend more. To me, it looks like if free players die off, there won't be a reason to circlejerk with other paying players. I might be wrong though, since I only have experience in facebook apps like Mafia Wars and Farmville xDD

masta518 wrote:

Blargod wrote:

I honestly thought that the same way as you are; however, apparently there's always someone dumping quite a few grand to win events and keeping the app as a top grosser.

I heard that before it was easier to get rarer cards and TE was given out more freely, so more players tried to compete and that gave an incentive for people to spend more. To me, it looks like if free players die off, there won't be a reason to circlejerk with other paying players. I might be wrong though, since I only have experience in facebook apps like Mafia Wars and Farmville xDD

It was easier to get TE in the past although TE was overinflated due to exploits during the beginning of the game (we're at least talking 2k te for a decent generic 6*).

At roughly November-December, prices were dropping although really slowly and people still obtained TE via arena events. After the Christmas event, prices dropped like crazy.

Thing is, this pattern is also seen in Rage of Bahamut; however, it's really much worse here. Rank prizes here are much more crappy, unless you hit the top ranks. What's surprising though is that Fantasica is still the 5th top grossing app on Google Play (higher than RoB). Maybe if Fantasica falls off from the top grossing app list will the devs relent (much like how RoB was #1, then fell to 7th due to a lot of players leaving).

Currently, there's no indication that they'll change anything since they're still making money. Point I'm trying to get at here is that as long as people continue to spend, the more they'll keep doing on what they're doing. Free players never really generated profit for them so I wouldn't expect this game to die anytime soon.

masta518 wrote:

I'm student, so I can't spend that money and even if I was making $80,000/yr, that's a stupid investment anyways; might as well go to a casino and win $100 or something.

i would never consider anything spend in this game to be 'investment'. you cannot get back your money legally. remember, real money trading is NOT allowed according to T&C. so, i'd think anyone playing this game must approach it with the mentality that this is a luxury. spend only if you have excess cash. investment is something where you can get back the same amount or even more. well, if you get back less or none, it's a failed investment.

Blargod wrote:

It was easier to get TE in the past although TE was overinflated due to exploits during the beginning of the game (we're at least talking 2k te for a decent generic 6*).

i'm wondering if gtmeteor did that much damage to the game economy...

but ya... at that time, its like TE is everywhere...

myad wrote:

Blargod wrote:

It was easier to get TE in the past although TE was overinflated due to exploits during the beginning of the game (we're at least talking 2k te for a decent generic 6*).

i'm wondering if gtmeteor did that much damage to the game economy...

but ya... at that time, its like TE is everywhere...

There was also TE farming by creating dummy accounts and finishing the tutorial for 3 tradable te