There's a couple factors specifically that destroy the siege economy.
The concentration of wealth deters new players from committing to the shard. The second thing is the low population. The economy on siege actually reflects the overall economy in the u.s. The top 1% have all the wealth, the siege veterans. Everybody else has little or nothing. This is good and bad. It's good in the sense that vets should have that wealth, and deserve it. If you play on siege for 10 years, then of course you deserve massive wealth. I'm not complaining about that at all.
What can be done about new players? As you mentioned, anything a new player has, with any value to a vet, it will be bought quickly at millions of gold. This is reflected by the first year vet rewards going for 1 million to 5 million. That means veterans run the siege economy. Furthermore, the veterans are in factions, and split against each other. So the vets don't really buy much from each other, due to faction fighting, pvp, and general competition. This stagnates the economy into the ground.
The vets sit on billions, and the money does not move. That is a stagnant economy, like in the united states today, a perfect reflection of reality.
Why should new players join siege? Let's use an example, 10 new players sign up to siege per month. And of those 10 players, maybe 3 will later go on to play for longer than 6 months, maybe 1 or 2 play longer than 1 year. So the dropout rate is huge. Why do new players drop out? Yes, siege is a hardcore shard, so the droupout is expected.
But can't we raise the rate of players who remain? Yes, it's hard with the ruleset, and it's harder on top of that, with the community. The shard community essentially decides if a new player stays or goes. Some new players are asshats, who don't belong, especially the players who flirt with, and make sexual advances toward children. These types of players need to go. And the community does this by shunning them, kill them on site, take their stuff, refuse to trade with them, abuse them verbally in general chat.
So the community ultimately decides. This is good and bad, but mostly bad. Why? Because new players can't acquire independence. How could they?
On siege you need a few things to start out. You need to raise your skills, which takes time. You need money for some gear. You need a means to make money. There really is a lack on that last one. There is no dependable way for newbies to make money. Some can beg, or appeal to the billionaires, but that is being a b##ch freeloader, and who respects freeloaders? Nobody.
How can new players make money? Crafting is broken, we've agreed on this. So that means gathering resources is also broken. This system needs a revamp, crafting and gathering. Player crafted weapons and armors should be higher quality than the NPC environment. Give control of shard items back to players, not NPCs and drops.
The top tier items of the game should be 66% player controlled, crafted, and 34% environment controlled, through random drops and farming routines. Plus you will need to make access to mid tier items equal to vets and newcomers. How do you balance the playing field? New players can't compete in the acquisition of top tier items, and so should have easier access to low and mid tier gear.
Make player run events, community events, special events, level the playing field, make mid tier items, which most people can use, or everybody can use, where poor and rich alike can compete directly.
Return to a skill based game, not a gear based game. However, the contradiction here is that people are competing for gear. So there should be other rewards to compete for: house deco, more game options, customization, unique rewards.
So here are the changes I propose,
Move all the item base to 66% crafted, player controlled, and 34% environment controlled, NPC random drops and farming routines.
Make mid tier gear, which most people can use, accessible to be competed for, by both vets and newbies. We need to level the playing field, to include new players, and give them a reason to hope.
Why should a new player have to wait 6 months to 1 year, to begin competing directly against the vets??? And then the vets complain about stupid crap, and dropout rates?
The vets are first to blame, in my opinion. It's YOUR FAULT that the community is, as it is. And so if you're dissatisfied, then look in the mirror. I know, for a fact, the vets are exclusive to new players, and not inclusive.
However, this problem gets solved naturally. Vets leave, abandon their accounts, quit logging in, and this creates a surge of new players, as it has recently since summer. Without the vets around, nobody "blocks" the progress of new players.
I've seen this, and experienced it, firsthand. I've personally gotten very little help from vets, nor did I ask for help, and I like doing things myself.
King Edward helped me out a lot. I owe nothing to anybody else.
