this post was submitted on 25 Dec 2025
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I don't think you understand game design if you can't understand what's meant by "ruining the economy." It means that the player gets so much money that there's essentially no use for it anymore. They can buy anything that's available without concern. For example, in Morrowind you can craft potions with ridiculous value, then use that to pay for levels from trainers and buy the best items, then pay for enchanting to make them even better. It trivializes the game.
The only option at that point is to just limit what can be purchased. That's a much worse solution than balancing the game's economy so the player has options to spend money on, but critically they can't buy everything. Video games are about making decisions. If you don't have to decide anything than why not just watch a movie? The game needs to present you with options, and you need to choose what you will and won't do. The economy is a great place this can happen in a game that's balanced well.
Did you actually play Morrowind? I can't think of a single one of the best items in Morrowind that was available for sale. You either had to steal them or they were loot. Also most of the vendors in that game were pretty broke. To sell anything of "ridiculous value" You had to find the mudcrab merchant out in the middle of nowhere. Gold didn't trivialize that game at all. Exploiting alchemy did.
No, the best items in the game are enchanted by the player easily. It's not required, but enchanting you can create better magical items than are available to find, and with the specific enchantments that you want.
I agree selling stuff was annoying, but it wasn't that hard. You just sell as much as you can and buy back other light valuables. Then when you buy something you use the valuables first.
Okay so they're still not coming from the merchants, so having a lot of gold still isn't messing up the "economy". You have to acquire good equipment to enchant and track down the spells and powerful enough souls to make something useful. Merchant equipment stops at mid tier stuff. You have to go exploring to get the highest tier stuff. You don't need a ton of gold for any of that.
And you are arguing that is good game design? I don't want to waste time doing tedious time consuming shit. I want to do cool challenging things. I'm playing games to have fun. If the obstacles put in my way to try and force me to play the way the devs want are just taking more time they're not really obstacles, they're just annoying and un-fun.
The clothing with the best enchantability are exquisite clothes. They can be purchased from merchants. You can also pay merchants to do the enchanting instead of doing it yourself (expensive, but when money isn't an issue it doesn't matter).
When did I say that? I only said that selling items is something that's done by almost all players. Sure, the system sucks to engage with, but it doesn't mean that it isn't an option.
You're literally the one who just said they return to dungeons they already finished to clear out almost valueless items instead of going and doing actual content. Be consistent at least.
Anyway, the point is that balancing the player economy is important so they can actually challenge you and do interesting things. If you can just purchase power, and money is easily available, then there's no challenge. If you can't purchase power then money is useless; and money is usually the reward for doing content.