The price of all tier 6 crafting materials and of ectoplasm spiked on january 17th:
And etc. This wasn’t due to an update that reduced the drop rate of those items, or added new recipes requiring them. It was a reply for ArenaNet’s statement about the updates the game would receive through the semester, as market manipulators thought said updates would increase the demand for fine crafting materials, and began artificially increasing prices.
ArenaNet should ban market manipulators. Not only they are effectively exploiting the game (by making it worse to everyone else), but they are a hole in the system designed by DR. While DR prevents grinders from quickly making a fortune and thus inflating prices, the TP manipulation not only allows people to quckly make a fortune (and thus inflate prices), but it also relies on artificially inflating prices in order to make profits. In some ways, it’s even worse than grind.
