Key Hyperinflation, Time for a CPI?

[naknak]

http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/economics/

 

 

These are the two articles to read:

TO TRUCK, BARTER AND EXCHANGE? On the nature of our digital economies

 

ARBITRAGE AND EQUILIBRIUM IN THE TEAM FORTRESS 2 ECONOMY

 

Don't read either. 

 

The guy is insanely boring, clueless about the tf2 economy (at some point he describes the three denominations of metal as distinct currencies), and a terrible communicator (JPEG graphs that are screenshotted from Excel with untitled axes and in too low a res to read the axis labels).

 

Every morning, base64 makes two better economists than Valvey McGreek... in the toilet.

 

[Blatch]

But the thing is, I would argue that keys are inflating at an unusually high rate. Any sane person looking at the graph would see that. A 10 ref increase in the past 4 months, and a 5 ref increase in the past month, a stark contrast to the Summer 2013 Bread Box hype actually keeping keys stable. If keys continue to increase at the latter rate, they'll be at least a whopping 45 ref by the time the summer update rolls around.

 

Who'd want to pay that much for keys? Maybe we'd have no choice. I guess you could say it's because metal is going down really fast, but I feel like we need to make a change, and I'm being passive-aggressive about it as opposed to utterly negative. Key prices have been skyrocketing at rates the cooldown doesn't defend against, so why not work on that? Upping the cooldown to 0.66 ref per week, just as an experiment, would be an interesting move.

[NPhect]

But the thing is, I would argue that keys are inflating at an unusually high rate. Any sane person looking at the graph would see that. A 10 ref increase in the past 4 months, and a 5 ref increase in the past month, a stark contrast to the Summer 2013 Bread Box hype actually keeping keys stable. If keys continue to increase at the latter rate, they'll be at least a whopping 45 ref by the time the summer update rolls around.

 

Who'd want to pay that much for keys? Maybe we'd have no choice. I guess you could say it's because metal is going down really fast, but I feel like we need to make a change, and I'm being passive-aggressive about it as opposed to utterly negative. Key prices have been skyrocketing at rates the cooldown doesn't defend against, so why not work on that? Upping the cooldown to 0.66 ref per week, just as an experiment, would be an interesting move.

That just shows what influence bp.tf has over the price with their rules. Even if it's helping the price.