At around level 20, I became bored with Oblivion because money was so easy to get that I could afford anything I wanted in the game with ease. All of my enemies were wearing glass armor so suddenly I had more stuff to sell than the vendors could afford, and there just wasn't much to buy that would peak my interest. Early in the game it was just fine, but later on it got worse.

Now I'm only lv 12 in Skyrim, and so far the economy seems good...gold is relatively hard to find,and I have to be very picky about how I spend it. Does this remain true as the game progresses, or can I again expect to be so rich soon that the game becomes boring? I spoke to one friend who was in the mid 20's in level and said he never had more than 5000 gold at any given time, so that's promising. I'm hoping the inclusion of the crafting options makes it so that the economy remains leveled and there's always stuff to spend my money on between skill trainers and crafting equipment.

Money is really easy to get in Skyrim. More then in Oblivion in my opinion.

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In Oblivion after my first run through, I did a new character with strict limits on how he could earn and spend money....I only allowed myself to sell things that were stolen, not things that I looted in dungeons or off corpses. I didn't allow myself to BUY just anything I wanted, I spent most of my money on training. For instance I didn't allow myself to buy weapons, I had to find or enchant my own.

Maybe in Skyrim my rule will be that I have to craft my own weapons and armor? And still can only sell things if I've stolen them, OR if I've assassinated the homeowner to be able to loot their stuff. Dunno, I'll have to think this one over for awhile.

My money primarily goes into buying my house, and upgrading it. And to buying ingredients to increase my Smithing skill.

But by and large, Skyrim does suffer from what the other Elder Scrolls games do, the economy really gets left behind. Merchants never seem to increase the amount of money they have on hand, unless you buy up all of their stock. Their inventory does, however, seem to improve as the game goes on though. After some levels you'll see merchants begin to carry Dwemer, or Elvish gear and so on.

The first 5000 was a pain. Then I hit 10k before knowing it. Hovered around 12k for quite a while (I craft a lot and get lazy with gathering). Last I checked at level 30 I had nearly 30,000 gold and I don't know how I got it all!

Your (dis-)satisfaction with the economy tends to be inversely proportional to your dedication to Smithing and Alchemy, since if you (like I do) do a ton of that early on you will quickly amass large quantities of cash. Of course, I tend to sink a lot of it into more parts to craft with, and I also buy and fully upgrade any house for which I qualify, both of which do reduce cash on hand, however since Speech goes up significantly as a result my prices also improve, so it goes from uphill climb to slippery slope before too long.

Unfortunately, in the long run there isn't really anything you can do about it, as money sinks are finite while income is not; this is a problem endemic to RPGs in general rather than being Skyrim-specific, and can't really be solved without putting a massive crimp in the flow of loot, doing which tends to cause a massive uproar.

Well it's not a problem in ALL RPGs. I played WOW for about a year, and that's what I loved most about the game...there was ALWAYS new treasure to look forward to as you move up levels. New and more valuable weapons and armor, and so many crafting options, that you were always looking for more materials. That's why I'm glad that Skyrim added crafting. I realize that the difference is that Wow is a multiplayer game, not 1 player game, so the economy is driven by actual human choices. Materials cost more or less based on what the human driven economy supply and demand is. But I feel that in a one player game such as Skyrim, they ought to be able to do a better job making sure that more and better equipment is always available. Even if it's just minor upgrades at each couple of levels. Or a rarity scheme such as in Wow (grey, white, green, blue, purple etc colors to represent value/rarity of an item.)

High level alchemy is a goldmine. I try to sell off the ones I know I'll never use, but half the time I've bankrupted the merchant with just 2 or 3. Potions that combine effects seem to bring in the most, even if its a worthless combo (like restore magicka 150, ravage magicka 30).

How does the "economy" of a single player game matter anyway?

Because my favorite thing about RPGs, going all the way back to D&D, is to find 'treasure'. Whether it's a pile of gold, or a deck of many things, or a longsword +1, +3 vs Lycanthropes. I love finding some cool new thing I can use, or trying to hoard up enough money to buy some cool new thing, or buy the materials to get some cool new thing. BUT, if you hit level 25 and have more gold than you could possibly spend, there's nothing to look forward to. There's no new piece of treasure that's going to be exciting.

I can be High-King of Skyrim using my money if I want :hubbahubba:

How does having gold prevent you from finding new exciting items in a dungeon, or new exciting items in a shop? If it's really an issue, you don't have to collect everything from a dungeon and sell it all. If you're looking to roleplay anyway, it's not realistic for you to have the kind of carrying capacity they give you. Force yourself to only pick up a few rare treasures to sell or use and suddenly you'll have a lot less gold kicking about.

This to me is the same as people who complain about the game being too easy or a spec being too powerful because they went ahead and maxed out smithing, enchanting and the melee weapon perks and one-shot everything. The game didn't force you to do that, you chose to do it yourself.

money is pretty easy to come by in Skyrim after playing about 20 some hours I have over 20,000 gold pieces and bought proud spire in Solitude.

Its all about roleplaying your character and roleplaying how they interact with the world. I think the Skyrim economy is better than Oblivions which is good. I think there should be a few merchants with more septims than the ones around. There should be like two or three merchants that have more gold and offer rarities.

But naw, I've hovered around 5000 for a while now. I only loot gold, lockpicks (for Lydia), books and gems/jewelry from lairs. If I find a weapon/armor I like, I'll leave my old one behind, not drag it back to sell (unless I want to keep for decoration). I buy food, wine, arrows, and supplies like that before leaving town always too, and I always spend the night in a tavern, so I suppose my playstyle keeps me poor. Just like OB. If I wanted to, I could loot entire dungeons of weapons and armor and sell them all to be rich in a few days but I chose not too :shrug:

I really wish people who primarily play MMORPG's would stop comparing them to SP games. MMORPG's are designed specifically so you have to grind, so that you keep paying every month. Their entire cash-flow is based around this one mechanic. games like Skyrim FREE us from that kind of hell.

Actually I don't primarily play MMORPGs, I primarily play Elder Scrolls games. I think my best WOW toon was around level 55. I did love WOW, but I hate that you have to play daily in order to keep up with anything. The way I am with video games, I'll put it away for months and then play again, and when I did that with WOW, I'd have to re-spec all my toons and I'd be completely lost.

Anyway, I loved Morrowind and Oblivion much more than WOW overall. But the one thing I really loved about wow was the economy and the depth of all the items, item rarity...all of that stuff that represents 'treasure' as I mentioned.