PLEASE take the time to read this through carefully. Here are my personal thoughts about why DMU sales are common, why the rates are how they are (without mentioning the ascension argument), and more importantly what affects DMU trades will have long term.
Okay, before I begin I should stess that I think if people want to sell DMU, they should be allowed to do it. If people want to buy it, thats cool, why not.
As long as everyone knows and understands the risks, its all cool. So what if i wanna get a few more fleets in ascended.. it'd take me weeks and weeks there if i didnt have a way to help.
The problem is that the rates ARE ridiculous. We all know how unbalanced the ascended server is, and moan about it all you want, but its a fact.
Here is the essense of the problem. Two players, player A is a weak player in ascended, but has a resonable army in main. Player B is strong in ascended, and also has a resonable army in main.
Just for arguments sake, here are rough stats for the players in both servers..
Player A
Main: 20 mil army, UP of 50k - rough income 1.5 bil/turn.
Ascended: 100k planets, UP of 3k/day - rough income 5 mil/turn.
Player B
Main: 30 mil army, UP of 30k - rough income 2 bil/turn.
Ascended: 100 million planets, UP of 2 MILLION/day - rough income 50 BIL/turn.
Player A wants 50 billion DMU to boost his fleet count, and raise his ascended UP. For player A to naturally generate that much would take 10,000 turns, which is about 8 months.
Player B is not much more powerful in main, but a lot more so in ascended. So what takes 8 months for Player A to get, Player B gets every 30 minutes. He agrees to sell one turns income for main resources to help out player A, but they need to decide a price.
For Player A the resources are more valuable in ascended than they are in main, for Player B they are much less so. If the price was for example 1naq:1dmu, then player A is really really really happy. It takes him 34 game turns in main to make 50 billion, and he has got 8 months of work in ascended from it. For player B, it would have taken him 25 game turns in main to get the 50 bil. He makes it from one turn in ascended. Good deal for all???
Well no actually. Why not? because player B could gain an even bigger advantage. As I said the resources are more valuable to Player A, and player B knows this. Player B knows that he can get a much better price for his goods, and in doing so it'll also stop Player A from being able to afford enough DMU to build an ascended account that rivals his own. So he charges 5naq:1dmu. Instead of it taking player A most of a day to get the naq he needs to trade, it takes him six days, still better than 8 months though. This price is better for Player B, because for his one turns income in ascended, he gets five days worth of main income.
In either case, both players still gain what they want out of the trade, but what is the true cost of the trades to the other players in the game? If all the prices were 1:1, then the smaller players grow stronger on ascended, and the bigger players dont end up being the biggest people ever on main... But at 5:1, its completely different. The smaller players can't afford to get the ascended resources in any quantity, ensuring the bigger players are never challenged. Whereas the bigger ascended players get bigger and bigger in main, until they are unchallenged there too...
So this goes out to those "bigger fish" in ascended. The ones who have the opportunity to allow the servers to balance out. Do you really want to dominate and never be challenged? Or would you like to have a bit of fun once in a while, have a war in which you could lose if you hesitate, or if you make a wrong move.
If you choose to dominate, then we really should all just give up the game and go work on our real lives. Cause there is no fun for the future. Not for the rest of us, and I doubt there will be much fun for you either.
~Norbe.
P.S. I think this is my longest ever post...