The economy of weapons

[eTaylor]

I’ve recently interacted with the weapon licensing system for the first time, and realized that a brand new Glock is just over ten grand. This has made me question the current structure and economy of firearms and weapons. I was wondering if anyone else thought it’s weird that a switchblade in a pawnshop is worth nearly two store bought Glocks.

[Cartoonhead]

Comes down to supply and demand. People pay that much so they can sell them that much. 

[Mahitto]

I think there should be a much larger supply of (common) weapons (firearms, knives etc). This way, everyone could have access to the as easily as they could in real life, which would in turn make the prices more realistic as they'd drop considerably and the market to not be similar to the black market for luxury diamonds and stolen antiques. In turn, there should be harsher rules and repercussions to limit the (mis)use of weapons. Harsh punishments for more people for unjustified shootings or misusing weapons.

 

It would create a realistic market while also keeping crime involving weapons and firearms under control. It's quite easy to get your hands on a knife or a pistol in real life, but there are way less cases of people actually shooting someone, or pulling a weapon out for literally anything.

[Koko]

4 hours ago, eTaylor said:

I was wondering if anyone else thought it’s weird that a switchblade in a pawnshop is worth nearly two store bought Glocks.

To be honest I just think it's weirder that one of Los Santos' biggest manufacturing businesses is turning like half a dozen cars into one switchblade.

[sCrax]

We should make melee weapons more accessible. Encourage people beating each other with dusters and using blades instead of shooting when any conflict emerges. It makes no sense that some pawn shops sell blades for 13-15k and a Glock costs only 10. 

[Macarroncito]

For some reason it's rare to see melee weapons in Los Santos even though they should be more accessible, that's why they are so expensive. It's something they should definitely look into and in my opinion it has a really easy solution, just make them more accessible to the point that someone doesn't need to chop multiple cars to craft a weapon, they should just be sold at stores, literally everyone has access to a knife I don't get why it's so restricted.

[knppel]

16 hours ago, Cartoonhead said:

Comes down to supply and demand. People pay that much so they can sell them that much. 

You couldn't be wronger.

 

If demand&supply was applied, we'd see a constant influx of more (and cheaper) weapons to satisfy the ever growing demand.

 

Now while to a degree this happens with new factions aiming to supply weapons to the market, for simple obvious reasons they cannot adapt to the market demand as flexible as it would be needed (or realistic, just for that part).

 

On the other hand the prices are set by certain hard coded values- a legal gun at ammunation costs over 10,000, so an illegal one, granting certain advantages like not being tracable to my character, is worth more by game design- even if my dealer just robbed the gun of someone and paid nothing.

 

Now in a dynamic economy , prices would adapt once the market demand is met.

However, besides hardcoded prices, we also have a steady influx of new characters with plenty of funds, and unlike characters who maintain themselves over their income from whatever they do, when spending starter money you get free you'll not care if you spend 10 or 20 or 40 grand too much for the gun.

 

Needless to point out: Where to get into gun production on my own, I have to put in some effort, get into the scene ic, or at least successfully apply, show my faction has it etc., nothing of this counts for those wanting guns- anyone can make a new character (if they haven't yet this month), gain some starter money and invest this in a firearm once opportunity arises (legal or illegal, irrelevant).

 

Last but not least, where drugs are fairly low in economic value, guns are the cashcow for those illegal factions dealing with them, and thus naturally there is a strong (ooc) lobby to keep these prices high (and then censor the money value from your screenshots as it's unrealistically high, lol).

 

These simple details are why we do NOT follow laws of supply and demand.

 

P.S.

I forgot to mention:

In regards of melee weapons, the reason for their even lower accessability (and thus an easier time for dealers to bargain with their rare stuff) is the effectively lower demand.

All cries for more rp around weapons fair and nice but let's be straight here.

In the end of the day you might end up bringing a knife to a gunfight.

So , you'll generally want a gun ic, if, unless the specific mission is to stab someone.

Gun demand is unfulfilled generally (on the wide market) and prices high, so people aim towards that more.

 

 

Edited November 3, 2021 by knppel

[Mahitto]

33 minutes ago, knppel said:

...

 

That's exactly what the law of supply and demand says, though. Of course items have characteristics, just as they do in real life, and the way in which they were acquired is often irrelevant to the price they're sold for. On GTA World, we have a huge demand (from people losing weapons + new players) and a very low supply compared to real life (few factions who supply them to everyone). Everyone wants one and very few people sell them, which allows them to set the rules and prices - if there were many more weapons, we would also have many more people selling for many different prices, so someone would just say no to someone selling for too much and they'd find one of the many others who sell these weapons for less. In time, the people selling the same thing for more will either adapt or be weeded out. The situation is even worse due to the only illegal weapon suppliers being a few centralized sources (illegal factions), who choose who to sell to and for how much.

 

If we were to have many, many more weapons (both firearms and melee weapons), the prices would significantly drop. In real life, if you want to get your hands on a knife, you go to the kitchen or any hardware or outdoors store. If you need a pistol, you can get one legally from almost anywhere, or illegally from one of the many people selling them - in person, online etc. You obviously can't go to a gang and demand a gun to buy, but you don't have to do this dance that you do on RP servers, of meeting someone and making connections, proving mutual trust and all that for one single weapon. 

 

[Alyssa McCarthy]

44 minutes ago, knppel said:

You couldn't be wronger.

 

If demand&supply was applied, we'd see a constant influx of more (and cheaper) weapons to satisfy the ever growing demand.

 

 

All supply and demand simply means is that given a demand for item X, the price will increase if demand outpaces supply and the opposite is true if supply exceeds demand.

 

i,e. If there is a shortage of knives on the market, prices will be high but should there be a huge influx of knives tomorrow then prices will fall.

 

That said, surely the problem here is that knives are extremely easy and cheap to obtain RL & you can buy one at many stores vs our current model which requires car theft & has a game loop in place to obtain them?

 

Making knives commonplace & more like real life may disincentivise car thieves who currently use this as a source of income?