I'm fairly certain that this is the appropriate thread, but if it isn't, please move it.  I searched for similar threads in the past year but didn't find any specific discussions of the economy of Planeshift, but a rather lot of dicussions of the economy as pertains to this thing or that technique.

I've been a student of in-game economies since I discovered MUDs waaaay back in the 80's, and while I'm certainly not an expert, I like to think that I have some small insight into game economies that may not be obvious to the more casual student.  I also like to write essays, so be prepared for a long-ish post.

What is an ideal in game economy?  Simply put, an ideal economy requires no 'adjustment' by outside sources and all items have a relatively steady value based on their rarity and usefulness.  This, is a pipe-dream... can't happen, won't happen and will never happen as long as players are actors within an economy that allows trade between those actors.  Players and their reasons for things are simply too dynamic and chaotic (in the mathematical sense) to predict.  However, if players CAN'T trade items, then there is no effective economy, just players purchasing the 'needed' items from vendors while steadily accumulating more and more tria that has no real use.  Now, if this is the road that Planeshift wishes to take, then the rest of this post will be relatively useless.  So feel free to stop reading here.

Still with me?  Good.  Let's figure out what exactly a player's attributes are in an ideal economy:

1. A player will have, over the lifetime of the character, an average of 0 tria.  That's right.  Ideally, over time, players have NO money.  They earn money and then spend it on various goods (soulbound items, reagents, single or limited use items) and services (repairs, guild memberships, Auction House taxes, citizenship rights &ct).  Pretty amazing isn't it?  All money generated in game should, ideally, pass through player's hands and then be taken OUT of the economy, giving a player yet another reason to keep playing the game (aside from the primary purpose of any MMO, which is to interact with people who share your love of the fantastic)!

2. A player will provide economic lubrication for other players by generating cash and other tradeable resources.  While a player will, over time, have 0 tria, each player is going to infuse the economy with a certain amount of cash.  Tria influx ideally should equal tria outflux, but each additional player increases the size of the FLOW of that cash.  30 players interacting generate a small stream of resources, 3,000 generate a veritable flood.

Ok, so what's the problem?

The principle problem of game economies is MUD-flation, a term that comes from the observation that player-to-player prices rise (sometimes drastically and quickly) as the game becomes more 'mature'.  There are many, many processes that contribute to the inflationary pressures on a game economy that have no real world equivalent.  This wouldn't seem to be a problem, except that inflation does two nasty things to a game:

1. Inflation reduces the purchasing power of people.  There is a theoretical maximum amount of in-game cash that can be generated per hour, and most people will not even approach that maximum.  However, inflation is based primarily on the amount of money in a system and NOT on how 'efficient' people are at generating that money - efficient generation of cash just excaberates the situation.  If outflux doesn't match influx, prices rise without regard to how easy things are to aquire.

2. Inflation reduces the influx of new people.  THIS is the real problem.  With astronomical prices, the effort required by NEW players to make headway is proportionately astronomically higher.  Established actors on the economic stage got to experience the time BEFORE inflation and have had the time and opportunity to make adjustments.  New players don't have this benefit.

So, now that I've set the stage, here's my wishlist, it's fairly general and intended to generate thought and discussion, I'm no wizard and I don't have all the answers, nor am I a snake-oil salesman selling tonics and cure-alls.  Some of these ideas have been discussed before (and to death) but it is instructive to consider what the OVERALL interaction will generate for the play environment.

1. Force players to specialize.  Players that are good at absolutely everything have very little incentive to participate in an economy.

2. Assume that an average player will spend about three hours per week 'working' to earn the funds for things he wishes to aquire.  Decide what amount of tria/week we want the average person to be earning.  When people discover ways to earn more, work to bring those methods in line with the average.  This should NOT extend to player-player interactions, this is merely moving money around the economy and doesn't directly affect it.

2. Keep item upkeep costs OUT of the hands of players.  We WANT tria moving out of the economy and the item trade already does a good job of keeping money moving within it.  Repairs should make money disappear forever.

3. Initiate some form of Auction House (yes, I'm sure this has been dicussed before, but it's germaine to the post ), which takes a cut of each sale.  Players will naturally gravitate to using an AH because it means that they can 'make' money while not having to be physically there, and it gives developers an opportunity to take yet more tria out of the economy by charging a 'convienence fee'.  Players trading in and amongst themselves do not contribute to inflation, they're just moving money around that already exists.

4. Activities that cost money should be introduced into the game. Some examples:
  a. Quests that require farmed items are a great way to accomplish this within a heavy RP environment.  For example: create a 'City Guard' faction and a 'Thieve's Guild' faction that are always in need of supplies, with turn-in NPCs in various parts of the city and world.  They take donations of smelted ore and other items (common stuff is worth appreciably less than the rarer stuff, of course), to make and repair their stuff and for 'potions' and other various and sundry things.  In return, after a certain amount of 'effort' on the part of the player, new items can be gained, or prices can be reduced, or other benefits can be reaped, limited only by our imaginations.  The two factions can occasionally change their 'requirements', based on what's currently in abundance in the economy.  Which-ever faction gets the most turn-ins in a given section of the city affects how that zone looks.  If the 'Thieve's Guild' is 'winning', then that part of town steadily becomes darker, dingier and dirtyer, the opposite happens if the 'City Guard' is winning.
  b. Items that can only be aquired through quests that require the player to engage in both activities that don't directly generate income and to spend what money they have: go here, talk to this person, learn some history, come back, go kill this one special mob and loot this piece of it, bring that piece back, learn some more history, go to that expert over there, talk to him, learn some more history, aquire 10 of item X, 15 of item Y and 30 of item Z, go to this manufacturer, give them the mats, learn yet more history, get the prize.  This is the equivalent of the Heroic Quest that everyone is playing the game to find.  We all want to be heroes.

5. Activities that don't generate money should be introduced into the game.  This is a bit of a catch-all, but there should be things players can do to improve their characters that don't earn them cash or drops.  Earning points towards rewards that cannot be purchased with cash will reduce the influx of cash. 
  a.  A PvP arena where killing other players earns you points towards the title of 'Arena Master' - who gets some benefits that other players don't - is a good example of this.  Players may even have to choose between turning in those points to multiple different factions, each of whom gives different types of rewards.
 b.  Drops from mobs that can be used to turn in for quest rewards, once a certain level of reputation has been reached with the faction giving out those rewards.


The whole idea is to have MORE things to spend money on/spend time doing than ways to earn it.  As long as players generate money, there will never be a DEflation issue.

My two bits.