Okay, after two attempts to post a reply, I'm about to go crazy (both time I forgot to open a link in a new window, thus deleting everything I said before :rant: )
First, I would want people to read a post I made while ago about the state of the DII economy:
http://www.rpgforums.net/showthread.php?t=137673
This post, in summary, argues that DII has a barter economy, one based entirely on trading (with exception for eBay shoppers, who use American currency to buy items--I have nothing to say to those people, since their incapacity for reason is manifest). The basis for trading is use value and not market value. There is no market value because there is no reliable currency, no absolute value against which one can measure the value of an individual item. Without a reliable currency, one trades on the basis of one's need and needs of the others. The former is usually prior to the latter because the satisfaction of the needs of others does little to help one's own needs (thus, leading to exploition of noobs). Use value dominantes because the only way to have fun in this game is to win, and one cannot win with useless items. Scan the guides, and you will see that items are ranked by their use value.
Without a market economy, statements like "p/b charms are 3x the value of summoning" and "HoZ is worth 5x the value of Items A and B" are meaningless. They are based on personal experiences in trading for others or for oneself. One may have encountered how others needs to use a specific item more often then others, and its scarcity leads to better trades for other items. However, the scarcity is based on a high use value (and, thus, an unwillingness to trade), and offers to acquire a desired and scarce item usually contain other useful items. This is the sign of a mature and health barter economy.
Therefore, the only kind of bad trade is one where an individual trades a MORE useful item for a LESS useful item. Had Cerebron traded a Homunc and Leo for a summoning charm, then he clearly would have made a bad trade, since the sole use of a summoning charm is to increase skills, which both Homunc and Leo do, along with a host of other benefits. However, he traded items that were personally useless to him for items that were personally useful for him. It doesn't matter what someone else could have gotten for them; it doesn't even matter if he could have gotten a better trade had he waited a week. Cerebron's needs was as immediate as his capacity to satisfy it. Since he satisfied it, he made a good trade.
Mistaking the DII for a market economy leads to a specific kinds of player: the rich noob. We have seen some posts from suspected rich noobs, recently, both of which earned deserved criticism.
There was this
guy, who obviously read some PvP and MF builds and thought that he could combine the most 1337 and make the ultimate character. What he actually got was what one poster said was a waste of the time (or money, in my opinion), since the use the guy would get out of those items all one character would never match the expense (time or money) to acquire them.
The vice most despised in rich noobs is ignorance to the value of humbler exceptional and normal uniques (even set items! or, <gasp> rares!!!). We have just seen such a demonstration in this
post. The "No one" here is really just this guy, since I am pretty sure anyone having read this forum for three days will have seen someone praise Blackbog's or communicate their excitement in finding one.
I want to OT this topic into a new thread because all of this is obvious to me but not to others. I want to know why that is.
:scratch:
