What would be the administrators/owners motivation to cap credit prices further? The higher the credit price, the more likely people are to spend there own real money on credits then previously. Let me show a few examples:

MIA's: When credits were under 400,000, you could comfortably keep up with your MIA quota just through playing a few hours a day, a few drugs runs and a few OCs. Now, as squaishy points out, it is much harder to earn that 2 CD's a day. The only realistic option is investing real cash to top up your earnings to enable yourself to buy the credit to purchase an MIA. As Squishy points out, it takes less 'real time' to earn the $1 for an MIA then the mr$500,000. The higher the CD price, the more people likely to use real money

BG's: When the credit price is at 400k a CD, it takes more RL cash to buy BGs in comparison to CDs being high. This would make you think that more money would be spent on BGs when the CD price is low as they need more. Wrong. I would bet more people use real cash when CDs are high because it takes less real cash to buy them due to the actual amount of cash being less money. It is like a sale, the cheaper something is, the more people buy it. :

100 BGs @ thug (750k) = 75,000,000

75,000,000 / 400k = $187.5

75,000,000 / 500 = $150

I beleive more people are likely to become IWP through their own $$$ at $150 rather then $200. The higher the CD cost. The more likely people are to IWP with there own cash, the more money the game makes.

In summary, the higher a CD cost, the more money the game makes as people need to either a) invest more to keep up; b) get a larger benefit of investing then previously. The more money the game makes, the less motivation there is for a change to be implemented.

ps: If Squishy says I am wrong and the game is making less with higher credits, I will happily retract my comments, as mine are based on simple theory and no facts.

The problem with that scenario skinner is thus:

Certain players can't afford to drop $150 on a game. They struggle just to pay their internet so they can play. They can't afford the in game price because they don't play 16 hours a day. These people feel disenfranchised and start to get bored with the game, and eventually leave. The user base drops. Eventually you will get to the point where the game starts to decline because of loss of players and failure to replace these players with long term replacements. If it gets bad enough, the game could go into perpetual decline, which I've seen happen to other games, because people get bored playing a game with only 5 or 6 other players online at any one time.

Sure in the short run it looks like its win win from the admin perspective, but as with everything in this game, its long term you have to look at.

Just to echo Raoul's thoughts on this...

The game has been at tipping point for a while. Once the game goes 'over the edge' with regards to the deepest pockets being the ultimate winners, the game will end. People won't (for an extended period) keep digging into their pockets every character they have. Those of us who can't/won't buy credits with real money will find other things to do or other games to play where the balance is tipped less in the favour of those with deep pockets.

The admin team aren't daft, hence the addition of a cap on the marketplace. It needed to be done otherwise the game would've gone that way.

Personally, I think we need to move this place more towards the 'casual player' again, the more people thinking they have a shot of greatness the better.

In my eyes, the game has already "ended".

Cities being closed, user base is smaller, less amount of crews (do to user base getting smaller), some of the old timers have left, all of these have been happening for awhile now. I love the game and the community, but what Countdown, Raoul, and a few others have said in this discussion, its only a matter of time.

Then again how do you give the "casual" player the edge?

To me, countdown, that was always the magic of this place, that no matter who you where, or when you started, you could make a difference.

Amen Raoul.

You're right I might have a pretty skewed view of whats going on. But so do others... Thanks for setting myself and anyone else who might have the same view, straight. I cannot wait for the districts. What's the ETA on them?

Many people have brought up the whole issue of the imbalance of the game. This goes along with the credit issue we have at hand. Again, I cannot wait for the game to give the casual player an edge once again.

Just to back up Squishy's words with stats that EVERY user has available at their disposal (the point im making here is its not stats that only admins can see).

15/04/2011
Users active in last 24 hours: 440.

16/07/2011
Users active in last 24 hours: 435.

18/08/2011
Users active in last 24 hours: 432

21/10/2011
Users active in last 24 hours: 428.

11/11/2011
Users active in last 24 hours: 420.

24/11/2011
Users active in last 24 hours: 411.

13/12/2011
Users active in last 24 hours: 402

27/01/2012
Users active in last 24 hours: 393.

13/02/2012
Users active in last 24 hours: 389

26/03/2012
Users active in last 24 hours: 394

06/05/2012
Users active in last 24 hours: 381

02/08/2012
Users active in last 24 hours: 385

29/08/2012
Users active in last 24 hours: 379.

21/09/2012
Users active in last 24 hours: 390

07/10/2012
Users active in last 24 hours: 399

01/11/2012
Users active in last 24 hours: 404

14/11/2012
Users active in last 24 hours: 410

02/12/2012
Users active in last 24 hours: 434

19/12/2012
Users active in last 24 hours: 443

01/01/2013
Users active in last 24 hours: 458

29/01/2013
Users active in last 24 hours: 489

As you can see in the last few months the 'users active per 24' has steadily increased after a couple of stimulus' by the admins (one of those was simply to send out an email to accounts that hadnt had a character in a while).

We ARE growing, I just dont see many of the new users wanting to dip into their pockets yet. I wait with baited breath as to what the districts are going to bring and I hope the admin team get it out as fast as is possible, although it definitely needs to be pretty bug-free from the get-go as Squishy has stated they're doing.

Obviously all those dates are UK dates... day/month/year

Thanks for showing this Countdown.

I redact my comment concerning the game losing people. Sorry for the misguided lead I may have made.

any chance of the hours active in comparison ?

also is there like most things 90+ % controlled by say 10% of the people

Sorry Stephen I havent been recording the hours active stat.

Perhaps start one from today so you can compare a couple of months down the line?

i am honestly unsure if i will be here in a few months, work ramps up round april