PlaneShift

Gameplay => General Discussion => Topic started by: zedd_owd on August 26, 2003, 03:31:51 am

Title: will the game need a an econmy
Post by: zedd_owd on August 26, 2003, 03:31:51 am
hello i am uni student studying economic i was wondering what kind of currency will be used in the game world?
and how prices  and infaltion will be controlled? i belive this is an important part of mmorpg.
thus having an a stable economy will be very helpful.
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Post by: Drilixer on August 26, 2003, 03:55:14 am
well the devs have already mentioned these things... but as an economics student you might as well apply to \'review\' their system... maybe you could help ;)

Edit: oh - I would love to see inflation and deflation officially ingame
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Post by: Moogie on August 26, 2003, 04:07:07 am
The official Economy page. (http://www.planeshift.it/setting_economy.html)
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Post by: Drilixer on August 26, 2003, 04:09:45 am
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Originally posted by Mogura
The official Economy page. (http://www.planeshift.it/setting_economy.html)


I know there is an economy page and everything - but there is more to an economy than money and I\'m sure the devs have come up with more... but having the help of an economics major (I think he\'s an economics major) wcould always be useful
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Post by: Gwynn on August 26, 2003, 04:26:46 am
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Originally posted by zedd_owd
hello i am uni student studying economic i was wondering what kind of currency will be used in the game world?
and how prices  and infaltion will be controlled? i belive this is an important part of mmorpg.
thus having an a stable economy will be very helpful.

Yes, indeed. Starting an economy with throwing gems around, for which you can buy weapons (and a mug) looks somewhat inflatory. But you are a better judge of that.
But what do you need when building a world, read environment that people find enjoyable enough to invest time in, is the target atm.
And people wanna bring things with them, from this life to the next, one way or another. Look at the faraos if you dont believe me, it seems like some posts date back that far, in a spiritual sense ;-).



\"Define Enjoyable\" is an entirely different thread, which I would follow with interest.
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Post by: Kiva on August 27, 2003, 01:33:14 pm
Trias (Triangle looking coins)
Octas (Round looking coins)
Hexas (Hexagram looking coins)

25 tria = 1 octa
i think...
and i cant remember how many octas/trias for a hexa. but look in the settings thing on the site. its described there.
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Post by: Isgrimnur on August 27, 2003, 03:14:54 pm
For the economy to work properly there will need to be plenty of both PC and NPC tradesman to keep the money in circulation otherwise it will stagnate with a handfull of people owning all the money with nothing for them to spend it all on.
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Post by: druke on August 27, 2003, 11:31:09 pm
thus is why trade type guilds/orgs are necisary, like the gnomes
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Post by: Drilixer on August 28, 2003, 02:36:09 am
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Originally posted by Isgrimnur
For the economy to work properly there will need to be plenty of both PC and NPC tradesman to keep the money in circulation otherwise it will stagnate with a handfull of people owning all the money with nothing for them to spend it all on.


actually that is only true if the devs put a limit on how much money can exist in the world at a time... and I havn\'t heard of that feature yet...
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Post by: Kiern on August 28, 2003, 03:22:05 am
I don\'t know if the devs have said anything but there was a big thread on this I think...there always is one :P
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Post by: Drilixer on August 28, 2003, 03:35:49 am
that would be interesting... but eventually gold would become too valuable (as long as there is anything to do with it hehe)... and then we would need an economist to help raise the bar of money in the game... and then comes the question where would the money come from?  loan sharks? banks?
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Post by: zedd_owd on August 28, 2003, 05:59:36 am
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Originally posted by Drilixer
that would be interesting... but eventually gold would become too valuable (as long as there is anything to do with it hehe)... and then we would need an economist to help raise the bar of money in the game... and then comes the question where would the money come from?  loan sharks? banks?


the concept of an economy in a mmorpg is not new every since ultima online started there\'s a system of batter where players trade items with each other and selling these items. this is caused by the concept of Scarcity.
the gold will not really get too valuable as there will be new currencys introduced to maked things balance. the money will be rewarded to completed quest, selling of itmes, services, killing monsters.
in order for this to happen it will need an emormous input from the developers.
i am not sure if they have the resources to do this!!
as mmorpgs are a young fields of study
chers  ;)
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Post by: Drilixer on August 28, 2003, 01:35:24 pm
yerah but... if you wanted to limit the amount of money in circulation players would have to SPEND just like in real life to keep money flowing... if no one buys anything... then they couldnt be rewarded money by the vendors or any other NPCs foir that matter
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Post by: Kiva on August 28, 2003, 01:45:01 pm
Let\'s just put it this way.

If people only sell to the vendors to make money, where do the vendors get the money to keep buying from players? Suddenly, vendors do not have any more money, and players can\'t sell their stuff, and that means some items gets useless. They will appear as dump items all over the world, unless to the people who can use these items and turn them into useful things, which can then be sold player-to-player. Then these players also buy the useless items from the vendors, thus giving the vendors money to buy more useless items. This kind of gives a flow in the money, you see? And by making sure that a vendor has useful items to sell, or putting a block on the need of useless items he can buy, that\'ll make sure he wont go dead with no money and no useful items.

I don\'t think that makes any sense, but I believe I wrote it as good as I could... Err... Right. :P
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Post by: Grakrim on August 28, 2003, 04:58:58 pm
Indeed, that\'s a very simple economy that works well in MMORPGs, Gronomist.  Personally, I think player-ran econmies are best, but that requires a large player base, which we don\'t have at the moment.

I\'ve always thought of econmies are purely social creations, I\'m not sure if hard coding an economy into the game would be the best idea...

However, here\'s an idea that expands on Gronomist\'s concept.  Suppose there were several broad types of items (eg. Consumables, Weapons, Metal...), and many narrower sub-types (eg. Fruit, Swords, Steel).  Now, assume that there is a table of demand for each Type and each Type/Subtype (probably should be implemented as a map, to allow for new types to be added easily).  NPCs would price items for buying and selling based on the demand values in the table, buying would increase demand for the particular Type and Subtype, while selling would decrease demand.  If demand for a particular item fell below a certain amount, that item would be considered worthless and most NPCs would no longer buy it.  It could be implemented by region, making for some items that are more exotic in certain areas of Yliakum, which would naturally facilitate trade.

This would create for a more dynamic economy than in most MMORPGs and MUDs.  It would require players to change and adapt to rapidly changing conditions around them, much like in the real world.
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Post by: Moogie on August 28, 2003, 09:24:52 pm
This all sounds very complicated and delicate... are you guys sure such systems would continue to work with an ever-expanding player base? You\'ve explained how a balance would be kept, but would it really last?

Serious questions, by the way; I don\'t doubt the workings of these ideas, just curious as to whether you planned them as far as knowing for sure if they would continue to work in the long run.
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Post by: Drilixer on August 28, 2003, 10:16:37 pm
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Originally posted by Mogura
This all sounds very complicated and delicate... are you guys sure such systems would continue to work with an ever-expanding player base? You\'ve explained how a balance would be kept, but would it really last?

Serious questions, by the way; I don\'t doubt the workings of these ideas, just curious as to whether you planned them as far as knowing for sure if they would continue to work in the long run.


I think it\'s too much work for \'realism\'... afterall no one thinks about this sort of thing in real life... it just happens around us and the politicicians deal with it... thre only time players would notice would be when the devs either screw up or become lazy and the market \'crashes\'... which no one wants to do