No offense, but many of you are as ignorant of SP economy as you are of RL economy. Here are a few simple lessons that everybody should know.
1. The developers do NOT control nor influence the economy.
Because all economic systems are driven by producer-consumer supply & demand. So which goods are in high and low demand on SP? Which goods are over stocked? These questions and answers are relatively simple. Very rare gears, weapons, armors, decorations, items, are always in high demand. So these will have the greatest prices. The shard is old. So reg prices, lumber, ingots, raw materials are all very, very low. Because they've been stockpiled over the years. Furthermore there is no NEED nor DEMAND to stockpile resources, since crafting professions are nearly useless.
2. Inflation/Deflation
Inflation is a natural occurrence of EVERY economic system, whether on a video game or in real life. Inflation occurs by the printing of money, or in the circumstance of SP, the hoarding of gold collected from monsters. UO gold is accumulated by killing monsters which introduce gold into the economy. Player-to-player transactions DO NOT AFFECT inflation/deflation. Why not? Because the gold is circulated, not destroyed. The only time deflation occurs in SP and UO is when a wealthy player quits the game without giving any goods away. This rarely happens because houses get looted during IDOCs. So wealth doesn't disappear. Gold sinks also cause deflation. But with a long running economy and game like ultima online, deflation is a moot point. The only players deflation would help, is new players to the shard. But this is negligible, because GIL and other wealthy players give newbies 1 mil gold frequently. So there's no actual need for deflation. A better thing to do for the game and shard, would be to make crafting or resource gathering profitable for new players. But that solution is actually very complicated, and so will probably not ever be accomplished. Therefore inflation will stay the norm. It's not a big deal.
3. Economic Stagnancy
This is the REAL PROBLEM here, not inflation, and not the developers. The real problem with SP is that trading has all but ceased. Because there simply is no reason to trade, buy, and sell. What is being bought and sold, and between whom? It's already been mentioned in this thread, but new players are averse to vet players. Vet players control the economy, and intentionally lock it and keep it stagnant. Therefore it is the veteran players' fault, only, nobody else, who is responsible for the main economic woe of SP. Veteran players are to blame.
But, how big of a problem is this really? Speaking for myself, I don't mind the stagnant economy. Because I only want to buy, sell, and trade rare house decos. Everything else is secondary to me. But a stagnant economy makes it very difficult for new players to come in and stay on SP. What should be done about this? Other than a major overhaul of game mechanics, including crafting and gathering, and pvp (VvV), new players just need to follow through and fight the uphill battle. New players should realize that longtime vets are NOT on your side. They're not here to help you, truly. You have to do it all yourself. Because the Vet players are inclusive and form little petty popularity cliques, like sitting at this or that table during high school. You don't want to play popularity games, do you? Then you have to rise up and go against the vets.
The vets will lock you out of the economy, and shard, if you don't "play their game". So just do it all yourself. That's my recommendation and suggestion. Go against the grain.
Here's my best question. How long should it take before a new player becomes viable on SP? 1 year? 2 or 3 years??? This is a serious question. How long before a new player can compete against 10 year vet players??? I believe that given a year, the average new player should be able to compete toe to toe against all vet players with a minor disadvantage. After 2 or 3 years, the medium length player should be "equal" in most terms to vet players. As it stands right now, newbies really cannot compete against vet players, even after 2 or 3 years. So yes, this does dissuade and turn a lot of new players away from SP.
I only stayed as long as I have, because I'm stubborn and like challenges. Although I have almost no time to play SP since I rejoined. I have like 10 hours per month that I can spend in game.
So until I have more time, I really can't do much at all.