As I have said before in many other threads discussing the "economy" or lack thereof, the economy will fix itself once there are more players.While I don't necessarily disagree with the idea that a bigger player population would "fix" some (not all) of our economy issues - I do agree that waiting for this "fix" is somewhere in the "probably not going to happen at a significant rate to fix the economy" area. The odds of this game having the numbers to "fix" the economy I'd put at pretty slim - not because its not a good game but because due to its age, mechanic issues, grind-fest its always going to be small.As I have said before in many other threads discussing the "economy" or lack thereof, the economy will fix itself once there are more players. That would be wrong, and in all my time being part of this game, I have never seen any indication that the playerbase is going to suddenly increase. It's silly to pin your hopes on a solution that requires something that is probably never going to happen.
Therefore, whatever tweaks/addons/changes to the game always need to account for "doesn't need a large population to fix/be appropriate."
And new players find out pretty quick in this game that to get equipment they either need to level up crafting themselves, or join a guild/find friends who can help them make what they want. (which will either mean its for free or at a discount) Thereby the circle of "bad economy" continues.
And I'm with Shian, I'm not so hot on the "whatever you need/make it becomes bound" philosophy either. Either work on developing dependencies (ala the confection and scholar changes where classes offer something others need consistently) or work on self-sufficiency (bound crafted items to me are counter-dependency).
And this question goes out to the confectioners - do you honestly make money on what you create? Does it create a self-sustaining sub-economy? Or is this school such a reptitive grind-fest that what you get paid for the time you spent means its not worth it (other than you enjoy doing it and providing a service) - and its actually not helping the economy at all?
I would think such feedback would actually help determine wether the devs steps in making more schools/items like this school actually do HELP and IMPROVE the playerbase and economy - and not just put in more grind.