Well, Well, Well
And now I hear Three Rings is forcing players to craft more, and got rid of instantly craftable four/five star gear.
They really don't want anyone playing who isn't buying energy. Why isn't this a subscription game? (Rhetorical question, not enough content for a subscription.)
The CE market is exactly like speculation in the oil market. And the stock market operates on the same fundamental idea:
BUY LOW, SELL HIGH
In the real world, you can buy up as many stocks as there are available, and suddenly you own the company. It's called a "hostile takeover", and is completely legal.
Diamond companies manipulate their market, as well. They use South African slave labour to mine diamonds, then they hoard them and only let a trickle into the market.
So enough with the bacon market monopoly hyperbole. There are far worse market manipulators in the real world.
@Magnus
Exactly right this is the only system that would work for this game because it really has very little content, if you take away people's limits they will be done with the game in under a week, hell even with the limits you can be done with this game in a month without having to spend a cent on it and before anyone says this isn't the type of game that ends well honestly if you have full T5 and have run every boss countless times what's the point? Sit around for new content? Good luck with that.

And now I hear Three Rings is forcing players to craft more, and got rid of instantly craftable four/five star gear.
Maybe because every other 4 and 5 star item requires a bound item to craft and they didn't want there to be exceptions?
Not that the items themselves were that good anyway.
But if you're going to hold every item to a certain standard in order to make 4 and 5 star gear rarer, having gear that gets crafted unbound at 4 and 5 stars kinda ruins the point.
Maybe if you tried to be logical instead of instantly becoming conspiracy theorist at every available opportunity, people would actually respect what little opinion you have to offer.

doubtful.
like this they just take their time to get a sale out of a player till he tries to get to t3. (or the player is short on time and quits)
and the asumption a t2 player is as likely to shell out real money for 4/5* gear as a t1 player is rather wild
Oh look: "My opinion is FACT, you are idiots if you disagree with me!"
I don't care how well you can play the game - degrading others because they disagree with you is what you call "closed minded thinking". Try to understand that your opinions aren't facts, and that there is more than one way to view different things in this world. No one has to like it when you are disagreed with or what others are saying, but refusing to have a dialogue with them and just writing them off as "idiots" doesn't help anyone. No, "deal with it" and "make your own game" aren't helpful either, but what the heck is it going to accomplish if both sides just go "bah, ur stupid lolol" instead of trying to understand and actually have a conversation that might be helpful? -.-