i've been thinking about this game's economy for years at this point, and i'm not the fastest guy on the uptake, so it really took me some thinking to get to this conclusion.

i don't actually think the ultra-wealthy players (people with customs) are the problem. i used to be one in another game, and the reality is that the money i hoarded stayed in my bank account. it effectively left game circulation. the problem was more that there was nothing to spend my hoards of gold on, in the game itself. the game itself generates more money than it takes away. the economy used to be pretty stable, and then we had a huge injection of potatoes from the revamped towns. but the prices of spins in NPC shops stayed the same, so everybody has a lot more money on hand with little to spend it on, and so it becomes devalued. the problem somewhat stabilizes over time, as there is a ceiling to what people are willing to pay for the items that keep money circulating - ie. monthlies, as well as a ceiling of what people are capable of earning every day.

i think what causes inflation is an accumulation of *circulating* currency in the game. town hops are a mitigation of this, because they put a cap on the total amount of potatoes you can earn in one day. now that i've thought about this, i think it would be unwise to offer ways to bypass the town hop limit, because it would increase the baseline of what you have to earn every day to keep up with inflation.

prices in the TM raise, and it forces you to spend time doing more dailies, and so more people are reaching the earning cap. raising the earning cap would make this worse in every way. it would increase the amount of grinding you have to do, and it would increase inflation as well.

however, having a high earning cap isn't a completely bad thing when potato sinks exist in-game. sinks serve the purpose of taking money out of circulation, which should cool inflation. casual players who don't have a lot of time to play the game can catch their breath on the grind by ignoring the potato sink and focusing on saving up for monthlies, and the people who do have a ton of time to waste on the game will have something to spend their money on. if the sink serves to even out how much currency you earn each day, and is completely optional, then it can safely be ignored by people trying to save up for other things, while being something interesting to burn your loads of moldering, unused cash on for people who have a ton of it.

so i really do think it comes down to time and a steady increase of money-sink stock. i think that as long as there is something in the game that is evening-out the overall amount of potatoes you can earn every day, inflation shouldn't get too bad.

people are upset about all of this because the amount of stuff you have to grind for, and the amount of grinding you have to do is overwhelming. if you REALLY want the frog pond items, you might be forced to give up on next month's monthlies. and yeah, that really sucks, but that's just kinda the nature of having a virtual economy. i'm not a "whale" by any means, i just have a lot of free time to play pet games, and even i find myself struggling to keep up with everything. grinding is boring and i don't want to do it, but i like collecting monthlies and custom pets.

but anyways, i will re-iterate that i think taxes and fees are a terrible idea. it is incredibly user-hostile, and especially so for casual and new players who have a million things they're trying to save up money to buy. i think the frog pond is probably enough on its own, as long as it keeps getting updated into the future. even having more types of shops that are similarly themed would be a great idea - like a snail shop, or a bird shop or something. i know people would really enjoy that, lol.

i hope all of this makes sense!