You guys that say we shouldn\'t worry about economic problems in CB because it\'s pre-alpha are too optimistic...
If the economy is ruined now, more and more people will stop playing PS. If that happens, there\'ll be less beta testers. That means it\'ll be harder for the devs to make new versions, because the bug-finding efficiancy will be very low. That means that the versions will probebly have more bugs from preior versions. That means more fuss for the devs, and the players, wich means more players dropping.
It\'s one of those loops that never end, and why? Because someone thought that pre-alpha economy doesn\'t matter.
Kyp14, this problem can be solved in the TOS. If they say in the TOS that you\'re not allowed to sell money, chars, items etc. outside of the game, and with real money. Yeah, most people don\'t read the TOS, but it provides a legal backup. Also, if it\'s put in more places besides the TOS, like in the FAQ or something, people will notice.
I doubt that sites like Ebay would like to host illegal auctions, and if the buyers will read it they wouldn\'t want to buy it either. Less sellers, less hosts, and less buyers.
And those that will sell, host, and buy, will risk legal actions taken against them
I agree with Gronomist that those that will work hard will have more success in the long run.
And even if you\'ll have thousands of trias in the beginning, and you\'ll buy the best items (by items I mean weapons, armor, misc, and everything else that goes in the inventory), it\'ll be easier for you to kill monsters and stuff, wich means you\'ll die less.
But dying is learning too (atleast in games). Just like falling off of bicycles teach you how to avoid it.
Dying in PS will get you to this death maze thing. And the more you die, the more experianced you are at passing it.
Even if the maze will randomly change every time you die, there\'s still a pattern.
So a fighter with cheap items has more chance of dying than the other guy that got the best items, but the poorer guy has more chance of surviving against stronger monsters, and going out of the death maze easier and faster.
Toadman31, this can be prevented. If the NPCs will sell stuff that aren\'t forgeable by players, people will buy these stuff from them. So the money that is given to the NPCs will be drained out of the world.
If the money NPCs get won\'t be drained, but instead be the money that the NPCs will use to buy stuff from forging chars (if such an option will be available), then yeah, there will be inflation over time.
A thing that will slow the inflation is that people come and go. People that stop playing will stop using their money, so it\'s as if the money was destroyed.
This isn\'t enough to stop inflation, especially not if there are many people fighting monsters and looting them, but it\'s still a factor.
Inflation can\'t be absolutely prevented, and it shouldn\'t either. An economy can\'t be always stable, no matter what. Things change all the time, sometimes there are inflations, sometimes there are deflations. That\'s not the problem.
The problem is when there\'s a big inflation, or a big deflation.
I think that a major anti-inflation factor will be the deteoration of items. Even if deteorated things can be repaired, it\'s money that gets \'wasted\'.
If there\'s less money wasted than money that is created, there\'s inflation. If there\'s more money wasted than money created, there\'s deflation.
I think that forged items should be diffrent than NPCs\' items. Not necessarily better, or worse, but with diffrent specs, more customizeable.
Customized items might be a bit harder to develop, but it\'s better for the market.
Let\'s say I want to be a warrior, but an agile one, that avoids the attacks of the enemies, I\'ll need a strong weapon (warrior) but I\'ll need it to be light as well. So I go to a smith, and tell him that I need a strong but light weapon.
That makes specialization alot better.
I\'m sure that everyone would agree that an assassin, a warrior, and a mage, all need diffrent types of weapons. An assassin needs it to be small, and deadly, so he can strike his enemy from behind and run away. A warrior would want a very strong weapon, without caring much about weight. A mage will want a weapon \'just in case\' that won\'t take much space in the inventory, but will be good enough to face an enemy.
At this point you might say \'but then the smith can charge alot for it\'. Well, go back and read Slabbertooth\'s post, he got a point. If someone thinks a certain item costs more than what it worth, he simply won\'t buy it, or go to that other smith that sells a smiliar item cheaper (unless the smiths form a cartel, but that\'s solveable too).
I think I had more things to say, but this post is too long anyways so I\'ll just stop
