It's the ability to log off. Seriously. People are indoctrinated to "work hard" even when the "work" isn't particularly productive. This behavior often leads to the "I farmed it for free" mindset, which is a highway to just-above-poverty.
Trading is about finding and using lucrative opportunities. They aren't there all the time and when they are not, spending time does nothing. But the "work harder" approach compels one to take less lucrative ones, which doesn't simply decrease income/hour, but can be negative if it leads to missing an opportunity because we were too busy farming. Both our time and resources are limited and we can't use them for some lowly activity and have them for profitable ones at the same time.
The work points in Archeage is a good example. Every day 2880 are created and the max is mere 5000, so you feel compelled to not let them overrun. But it's no excuse to burn a thousand for some 0.02 gold/labor activity. Sure, burn as many as would overrun in two hours but not more. Rather log off and come back two hours later, look around for opportunities then.
Archeage has a weekly cycle as paying customers mostly play in the weekends, while farming, free players are always on. Therefore farmed materials are abundant in the weekdays which allows you to stack up - if you have the capital and you didn't invest it on some low profit trade. I realized that it wasn't the best idea to get a new alt just yet, burning 1500G on 2x APEX. While her labor points created income in the weekend. I could make more if I spend that 1500G on cheap materials during the week.
Archeage has a somewhat outdated market system: there are no buy orders and you can't buy an order partially. Which means that there are often underpriced orders, especially bids that you could buy if you had the money (instead of a pretty alt). Not wasting time on farming also opens up time to seek opportunities. For example rarely Nuri Forest Lumber is missing from the marketplace. When I find such demand, I make one and bank 5-10G. It's not much. But it's as much as I'd make by doing a "few lazy daily quests".
It's easy to get lost with "I have nothing better to do, I make an NPC-trade run". One has to set up clear rules to prevent this. From now on, I won't make any such runs, period. If I have absolutely nothing better to do, I don't play, not like the real world couldn't use my time.
Sure, it's easier to lay back when you have more money than you can spend, but you should force yourself early to not end up like the morons in EVE who keep farming even after they have a supercarrier.
I understand that it looks like I'm supporting slacking. In a sense I do. But please note that "morons and slackers" are defined that way for a reason: the impoverished nobodies would indeed be better off with farming dailies and running dungeons and whatnot. But once you are not an impoverished nobody, you should work smart instead of working hard. You should work when there is opportunity instead of working when you have nothing better to do. Hard work saves everyone from poverty, but makes no one rich.
Trading is about finding and using lucrative opportunities. They aren't there all the time and when they are not, spending time does nothing. But the "work harder" approach compels one to take less lucrative ones, which doesn't simply decrease income/hour, but can be negative if it leads to missing an opportunity because we were too busy farming. Both our time and resources are limited and we can't use them for some lowly activity and have them for profitable ones at the same time.
The work points in Archeage is a good example. Every day 2880 are created and the max is mere 5000, so you feel compelled to not let them overrun. But it's no excuse to burn a thousand for some 0.02 gold/labor activity. Sure, burn as many as would overrun in two hours but not more. Rather log off and come back two hours later, look around for opportunities then.
Archeage has a weekly cycle as paying customers mostly play in the weekends, while farming, free players are always on. Therefore farmed materials are abundant in the weekdays which allows you to stack up - if you have the capital and you didn't invest it on some low profit trade. I realized that it wasn't the best idea to get a new alt just yet, burning 1500G on 2x APEX. While her labor points created income in the weekend. I could make more if I spend that 1500G on cheap materials during the week.
Archeage has a somewhat outdated market system: there are no buy orders and you can't buy an order partially. Which means that there are often underpriced orders, especially bids that you could buy if you had the money (instead of a pretty alt). Not wasting time on farming also opens up time to seek opportunities. For example rarely Nuri Forest Lumber is missing from the marketplace. When I find such demand, I make one and bank 5-10G. It's not much. But it's as much as I'd make by doing a "few lazy daily quests".
It's easy to get lost with "I have nothing better to do, I make an NPC-trade run". One has to set up clear rules to prevent this. From now on, I won't make any such runs, period. If I have absolutely nothing better to do, I don't play, not like the real world couldn't use my time.
Sure, it's easier to lay back when you have more money than you can spend, but you should force yourself early to not end up like the morons in EVE who keep farming even after they have a supercarrier.
I understand that it looks like I'm supporting slacking. In a sense I do. But please note that "morons and slackers" are defined that way for a reason: the impoverished nobodies would indeed be better off with farming dailies and running dungeons and whatnot. But once you are not an impoverished nobody, you should work smart instead of working hard. You should work when there is opportunity instead of working when you have nothing better to do. Hard work saves everyone from poverty, but makes no one rich.
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