Price gouging?

[Kamen Rider Kuuga]

So something that's been on my mind for a while is the Cheydinhal quest Corruption and Conscience. You'll hear people complain about fines, and the most striking is somebody saying they were fined 5 gold, and they barely make that in a year.

If we assume they mean Septims, then wow, people don't make much. But then, when you go to any given merchant that sells food, you'll notice that even something like bread costs several Septims each.

So, if we're to assume that the common man doesn't make much, and places that sell food costs almost an annual salary for one item; does this mean that inns and the like jack up their prices for the PC, or any adventurer?

[Poontank]

Excellent observation! It's things like that Beth completely messed up besides the apparent, more technical shortcomings of the game.

This was bugging me for ages, too.

A valid theory that merchants and innkeepers are cranking up the prices for somebody who looks wealthy enough. A hero clad in Ebony and Daedric gear (~18500 Seppies for a full set of the latter including a warhammer) is a dead giveaway, an invitation to slightly 'adapt' the prices.

In the case of this particular quest I think it's just sloppy writing on Bethesda's part. Just like the legendary watchmen dialogue:

"I'm your relief!" - "Ugh, my feet are killing me! ("AWW!" goes the crowd) Another day, another Septim..."

They would have to save their money for a whole week or longer to be able to afford something special on the side apart from the mutton they seem to be issued by the Legion. Or 'Tamika Vintage' wines - anybody seems to enjoy them although they should cost a literal fortune to the common man. Sure, some items should be reserved for nobility/upper class, but still. Everyone seem to know all about the quality of wines which in reality should never be affordable to them in their whole life.

I never dabbled much into immersion mods, there are certainly some around that fix the whole commercial system in the game, it is very unbalanced. As unrealistic as the 21 million gold pieces I'm carrying around from selling Daedric warhammers and other expensive junk. Increasing the mercantile skill is so addictive...

"Midas Avatar, come forth! I've got a metric tonne of heavy stuff encumbering my butt! Buy my hammers for 5000 each!" (10500 barter gold)

[Symon]

Tes games have never had anything like a plausible economy, or even correct use of basic economic terms.

You have a barter skill? How come you never do any barter in Oblivion. It's always buy or sell for coin. That's not barter. At least in Morrowind you could do a part exchange, goods and coin!

Sadly I think someone just decided that 'barter is an olde worlde thing isn't it?' and use of the term was born.

With that gross inattention to detail, you can't expect anything like decent economics. (grin)

[Vorpal]

"I'm your relief!" - "Ugh' date=' my feet are killing me! ([i']"AWW!" goes the crowd) Another day, another Septim..."

They would have to save their money for a whole week or longer to be able to afford something special on the side apart from the mutton they seem to be issued by the Legion.

That particular part is not particularly troubling, though, because it's a comment on the boring and dreary routine of work rather than a report of wages. It's just a straight adaptation of "another day, another dollar," which probably did originate a long time ago when that was roughly the wage per day, but phrase is still used idiomatically even today.

But yeah, not disagreeing that Oblivion game economy is ludicrous, as game economies most often are.

[Dusk_]

They would have to save their money for a whole week or longer to be able to afford something special on the side apart from the mutton they seem to be issued by the Legion.

As an aside' date=' this part is actually realistic. The concept of "luxury funds", or having a large percentage of your earnings go towards frivolous purchases, was completely unheard of until the early 1900's.

Anyone who actually ran a business, like a shop, would be fairly wealthy compared to the common folk, and likewise, anyone who bought goods that weren't required for farming/livestock, or basic living needs, would also be fairly well off.

For the vast majority of people living in the medieval ages, you'd have some copper coins to buy some essentials, [i']maybe some silver, and if you had a single gold coin you could live extremely well for several months.

[Symon]

As an aside' date=' this part is actually realistic. The concept of "luxury funds", or having a large percentage of your earnings go towards frivolous purchases, was completely unheard of until the early 1900's.[/quote']

This would be news to say, the Ancient Egyptians who might not have had formal coinage but has such an agricultural excess that luxury goods (such as ones own tomb and grave goods. Not just for the nobility you know) were highly sort after and by no means uncommon. Literacy was much more widespread than in the medieval period as all the graffiti shows. It's likely that the Minoans had a similar excess of goods.

Of course, medieval Europe was especially backward in many areas. Thankfully, with its glass, windows, street lamps and magic, Tamriel is no such animal.

[GSBmodders]

It's not just the price as some of you have pointed out. Many of the critters even low level crap seem to be god damn rich bastards in comparison to tamriels common folk. Then there is other shit like grapes and other fruits that commoners should not have access to, these were typically reserved for nobility or at least those merchants with deep enough pockets to afford such things. Even silver and precious gems are treated like common every day items in tamriel

[Menesh]

That's because the currency system in Oblivion (and most other RPGs) only knows the gold coin. In reality, any commoner getting their hands on just one of those would be incredibly lucky. Everyday goods are priced in copper, valuables in silver. Game companies usually omit those because they have no meaning to the common hero who trades expensive armor and enchanted weapons.

[Symon]

The gold coins trope possible exists because that (provide your own expletive) E.G. Gygax absolutely refused ti implement a realistic coinage system in D&D because 'it was more heroic for an adventurer to have a large pouch of gold coins, not mere coppers'.

We have suffered from this ever since I feel.