I am just terribly confused with its existence given how unrealistic ‘managed economy’ it is in some sense. It is not attempting to simulate a market of willing buyers and sellers contending with price discovery on resources with alternative uses, it is more so just ‘racing’ to equilibrium for its own sake to prevent ‘too much’ ISK being made from what I am seeing. This approach seems to be resulting in a small, stagnant, pie that some market participants get the lion share of via some odd attempt to simulate trading arbitrage (But it isn’t doing that even really), and others are just front run out of participation (This isn’t even what happens in a Pareto Distribution scenario, what I am seeing is just a cyclical, repeating, market with no price phenomena at all in response to supply and demand). This isn’t even how algo CoLo works in the real world either, they wish they could front run like a cyclical in a ‘canned’ market that more or less just replays with market session roll over.
Because some things have to be seeded (skillbooks and T1 BPOs).
Plus NPCs buy some things from players (blue/red datasheets, overseer effects) that are just substitution for bounties that can be stolen if you happen to get ganked while transporting them.
The NPC marketplace is quite small Basically skillbooks and loyalty point stores both of which provide a useful ISK sink and a lot of the stuff purchased from NPC’s is resold profitably on the player markets. NPC’s buy blue loot and some trade goods which are a hold over from the dark ages (or the good old days depending on your point of view).
The player market is large, dynamic and competitive. It is basically a cyclical commodity market. If you understand the cycle for the commodity you’re trading, it isn’t hard to make money. I like to set aside a bit of capital for speculation based on the news - it’s a lot of fun when it works and manageable when it doesn’t.
For the same reason vast majority of goods is sold at Jita 4-4 with tax penalty etc. instead of 1 jump over in any direction. Cause there simply aren’t any players or player entities in the game that can be trusted.
Even the legit ones can have their markets explode hence still not trust worthy to do business with.
I don’t consider the market a simulation. It’s just a market with rules and a currency.
Like space ttravelling: The simulation is just bollocks, but if you get used to the “special” laws of physics, you still have fun. Same with the market - some laws of economy apply, some don’t, and some are somewhat perverted
Get used to it and have fun, scamming people is still possible, like in real life.
Actually most of the Trade Items in-game are bought and sold by NPC’s. I believe that aspect of the NPC Market is meant to be a starting point for players looking to get into Trading without investing a lot of ISK.
Basically you check the market for Trade Items. There will be both high buy orders and low sell orders made by NPC’s for that specific Trade Item. You buy the Trade Items at low sell price and move them to the appropriate station where you sell them for the high buy price.
As you continue doing that, the NPC market prices will change due to supply and demand. Meaning the sell price will rise and the buy price will drop, thus to continue making ISK you’ll have to stop moving that specific Trade Item and start moving other ones. Eventually over time due to inactivity, that specific Trade Item will return to it’s original NPC market price of low sell orders and high buy orders made by NPC’s.
