Because so many people are concerned about gold concentration in the hands of a few players, here are some strong arguments for why I think this problem would largely regulate itself:
• Wealth concentration is not the same as market control.
Owning 20% of all gold does not mean controlling 20% of all goods. To actually control a market, you also need to control the supply side.
• Hoarded gold is economically inactive.
As long as a player sits on their gold, it is not competing with new players for goods. In fact, it reduces circulating supply and puts downward pressure on prices.
• You cannot use purchasing power without distributing it.
If a rich player or guild starts buying huge amounts of materials, that gold immediately flows to farmers, crafters and other players.
This is probably the most important point:
In a fixed-supply economy, you cannot exercise purchasing power without transferring that purchasing power to someone else.
• Market monopolies would be expensive to defend.
If someone buys up all ore, prices rise. Higher prices create stronger incentives for other players to farm ore. Supply increases, and the monopolist has to spend even more gold to maintain control.
• For new players, purchasing power matters more than nominal gold amounts.
Having 10 gold in an economy where a skill costs 1 gold can be better than having 1,000 gold where the same skill costs 500. Dynamic NPC prices are important for exactly this reason.
• Inflation does not prevent wealth concentration either.
In current WoW economies, strong traders and large guilds can already accumulate enormous fortunes. Increasing the money supply does not solve that problem.
• A hard gold cap makes the system easier to control.
If the server has a strict monetary cap, the total supply becomes an accounting invariant. Gold can move and concentrate, but it cannot endlessly expand.
The key point is:
A rich player can accumulate purchasing power, but the moment they actually use it, they begin redistributing that purchasing power back into the economy.
That makes concentration possible, but permanent domination much harder.