Diamonds

Diamonds.

New players and especially younger players (which is a fair portion of the server population) seem to fixate on how 'valuable' diamonds are.

(My perception of what is happening)

This in turn saturates the diamond market a fair bit. There is some movement in the market as some players try to 'fix' diamond prices by slowing driving the price down, buying them all and reselling them higher, but in general, the market is fairly stagnant.

I feel this harms the server.

Because new players, go for the diamonds.

It is a very intuitive way to play the game. When they work (fairly hard) to acquire their diamonds, and go to sell them ("Where can I sell my diamonds? - said virtually every new player that recently joined) and discover there isn't much of a market for diamonds, they will either: a) persevere, and search for other ways to make money. b) quit the server.
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I do not offer a direct solution to this, but rather suggest that several custom diamond sinks should be added to alleviate the saturation of the market. Make diamonds as valuable as possible, so that mining diamonds is (if not the most rewarding) close to the most rewarding financial activity.

I don't particularly like mining diamonds. I suggest this not out of self interest, but rather what I consider to be the best interest of the server.
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Edit: I am not suggesting an admin sell shop for diamonds. A lot of people seem to be assuming i mean an admin sell shop for diamonds. This is not the case. What I suggesting is something along the lines of a custom item recipe or some sort of mini game that uses diamonds for tokens. Some other use for diamonds in game, that's all. It could be anything, I was hoping someone might have some good ideas.

 

1. yeah there should be a place in the admin shop to sell diamonds or something. the philosophy that you shouldn't be able to sell to the adminshop to fight inflation is kinda silly given that we have jobs pumping a nutton of meebles into the economy.
2. Help my dad is listening to emo music

 

Yes I agree there is an oversaturated diamond market. But however diamonds are like an indirect stock market in meep, at least that's what I'v noticed. Controlling the price of diamonds is crucial it be left to the player because it influences the cost of weapons tools etc. Plus I'v seen people trade with diamonds. I guess what I am trying to say is it's and consumer controlled market that helps with how much money tons of other things cost. Things like gold which was controlled by the server is good, because gold isn't used commonly in populer crafting recipes there for making a good base price and piece of currency.

 

I personally don't really know much about this or even noticed it, but if Vex agrees, I agree.

 

No more nerfing, please.
No more sell shops, please. It introduces too much meebles into the economy.
No more diamond price controls, or temp sell shops, it's not fair for all.

Diamond price fluctuations are in fact exciting and we should keep it. We've nerfed Mending and /fix already, now what.

Low prices of diamonds allow for more players to obtain good tools which make boring jobs easier and allow for more projects.

Just make a good tutorial for God's sake.
-1

 

In all honesty, I am a large part of this "problem." I have actually been raising the price of diamonds. Starting a week or two ago, I realized that diamonds were ridiculously low in price (being worth 110 in pwarp stores compared to 160 immediately before) and I decided this would be an opportunity to raise large amounts of meebles. It is much like a stock market, the price went down so I bought and sold at higher prices. People buy the v-shop diamonds, up to the point of about 200 meebles. In truth, the market exists and inexperienced players can still sell diamonds to pwarp shops. Due to the sudden increase of buying and selling, the value of diamonds has increased to be past 150 a piece, which is markable improvement for newer players wanting to sell diamonds.

Also, I'm sorry that diamonds cost more, but it's a free market and does little harm.

 

What i am definitely not suggesting is an admin shop to sell diamonds.

Rather i am suggesting something be added to use extra diamonds.. perhaps a custom crafting recipe which uses several diamonds. Maybe a way to convert diamonds into experience. Or admin slots that run off diamonds and gives out random enchanted books. idk, just something would help to boost the diamond economy which would directly benefit new players.

@SuperDyl: From my point of view, what you are doing directly benefits younger players trying to sell their diamonds, because you temporarily boost the price.. you are part of the solution, not part of the problem... the problem is when one person sells 2 or 3 thousand for 100 or less. Until those diamonds are removed, noone can sell for more than 100. During that time, new players will arrive, decide they can not compete in our current economy, and leave in frustration. That is the scenario I see playing out as more and more players stockpile more and more diamonds.

The price of diamonds isn't awful. But it's not great either, and newer/younger players could use a boost (as they are the ones that seem to fixate on a diamond-centric economy), and a boost to that group of players would (in my estimation) directly boost the population and popularity of the server by improving ease of use.

 

That just makes the server even more confusing for new players, especially the younger ones...

 

I think that in comparison to other items such as iron and emeralds, diamonds are actually at a fine price. I think that sell shops would just increase inflation, and if diamond prices rise, there's a possibility for other prices to rise, which could cancel out the changes.

 

I really don't understand the resistance to this idea? One or two custom uses for diamonds would enhance the server. New players are baffled by /sethome and /back, but these player tools really enhance the experience and therefore make the server a more appealing option. Just because something is new or different doesn't necessarily make it confusing.

I don't mean sell shops, i mean a custom use for diamonds to reduce stockpiles before they reach critical mass. I mention it in a follow up post, but didn't put it into the original, so I've edited into the original now as well. Custom use here meaning: custom item recipe which uses diamonds, some sort of mini game which uses diamonds for tokens, maybe a 10 minute fly note in exchange for a diamond block, etc. (I am very open to others ideas for the etc!)

The custom use should definitely be a one time use/disposable, that way it will constantly take diamonds out of the economy.

 

You could kindly donate to your cause by buying diamonds and throwing them in lava.

 

lolol xD

 

No matter the choice made, the decision should not be reached in haste. Regardless of the current price of diamonds new players will continue to find making money difficult. As of now I am the 10th richest on the server. This does not however mean that I find making money easy. As a matter of fact I still find it difficult. I do not have a larger amount of cash due to my pwarp either. The pwarp in all honesty is barely profitable but profitable non the less. I wanted to shoot that argument down before anyone brought it up in order to save time.

Sure diamonds aren't an overly expensive commodity. This does not however mean that they do not present the noobs a fair start. Noobs will need to learn to either grind or sell really valuable items and services such as enchanted items or prebuilt houses. Diamonds are often the first step but they are not and never will become the primary source of income.

In short, the value of the diamond is not causing people to disconnect. I feel this diverts from the main issue. That issue being the lack of a solid tutorial and a willingness to help new players. It could have a bad effect to try to force diamond prices to where we would like them to be. Not only this but it could prove a difficult venture that would not be worth our time. Instead focus should be turned to a decent tutorial as far as changes to the server goes.

 

In general i found your post to be insightful with many great points! I just want to stress, i'm not talking about trying to 'force' diamond prices up, just anything we could do to help give them a little boost/nudge upward would be helpful for the uninitiated.

 

how about trading for xp. I'd do that.

 

This was a problem I thought of when I first joined MeepCraft years ago. Because Diamond was the strongest and most valuable material to find in the wild. So I think this should be a think along with gold.

 

In truth, Meepcraft's diamond market is similar to real life: everyone thinks they should cost more than they do, but there is too large of a supply, so the value is lower than anticipated.

 

This is exactly what my perception is as well.

The situation is created because we play in a multiplayer environment. Perhaps it is inevitable, but I still feel like it would benefit the server to enhance the experience of beginning players by boosting the value of diamonds as much as possible by available means, and that in doing so you would increase retention of said new players. #TeamMeepcraft

 

We currently have plans to add some custom items that will use diamonds, but these have already been suggested. Denied!