SWTOR: GTN Suggestion – Regulate the Market

swtor galactric trade network

When it comes to MMORPGs, there will always be complaints about this or that. You will always see players who request changes are made to PvE or PvP or questing, or storyline, or whatever the case may be. In SWTOR, a common complaint is in regard to the market. This is especially true since the game is free to play and the value and cost of resources can have a large impact on the game itself and how people enjoy it. It’s no surprise then that there has been talk from the fans of regulating the market.

Here is a suggestion from SWTOReconomics.com:

For anyone that knows me outside of Star Wars: The Old Republic, I hope that you did not injure yourself when you collapsed in shock that my topic today is advocated for regulation of a market.  I am always in favor of letting market forces drive the allocation of resources, but when some market participants are interfering with the free flow of goods and capital an intervention is warranted.  This is even more true in a game than real life, because at the end of day this is supposed to be fun!

If you continue to read, the post will tell you more like why they think regulating the GTN is a good idea, how it could work and how it could benefit players. It also goes on to explain some of what is wrong with the current market and system. “The problem I’m writing about are the sellers on the GTN that list items for exorbitant amounts.  I have become acutely aware of the magnitude of the problem as I’ve spent the past week writing algorithms to identify and remove these sellers from my GTN data to remove their skew in a less manual way in the long-term.”

The post then offers possible solutions and then invites you, the reader and fan, to suggest ideas for making it better or telling the author how they are wrong in their opinions of the solutions. So give it a read and be sure to post your comments if you have them.

Lisa Clark

Lisa has been an avid gamer since she was old enough to hold her first controller and a game writer for more than a decade. A child of the Nintendo generation, she believes they just don’t make games like they used to but sometimes, they make them even better! While consoles will always be her first love, Lisa spends most of her gaming time on the PC these days- on MMOs and first-person shooters in particular.