[MUD-Dev] Re:(fwd) Re: Multiple currencies

[Michael.Willey at abnamro.com]

     ____________________Reply Separator____________________
     Subject:  [MUD-Dev] Re:(fwd) Re: Multiple currencies
     Author:   mud-dev at kanga.nu (J C Lawrence <claw at under.engr.sgi.com>)
     Date:          6/16/98 1:41 AM

>On Fri, 05 Jun 1998 20:10:18 -0700
>Mike Sellers<mike at bignetwork.com> wrote:
>> FWIW, in worlds where the PCs are assumed to be a small part of a
>> larger civilization, I don't see anything wrong with the
>> "faucet-drain" simulation of an economy, so long as the drain and
>> the faucet are affectable and/or tied together in some way.  That
>> is, the faucet should not have infinite original capacity, and the
>> amount of money drained out of the PC economy (presumably soaked up
>> by the thousands of NPCs we don't bother showing) should affect how
>> much money comes back into circulation.  Hoarding or loss of
>> materials should reduce currency, as should hoarding or loss of the
>> currency itself (consider the havoc a tribe of orcs could wreak by
>> capturing the only mine that supplies gold for coinage).
>
>Inflation economics.
>
In our system we get the same effect through a different mechanic - instead
of reducing the number of coins in circulation we're reducing the *value*
of that coin.  So hoarding by players or NPCs can easily lower the value of
coinage.  Using your 'faucet-drain' analogy, we have several faucet-drain
systems running at once, and the relative value of a particular measure of
fluid is based on the relative amount of fluid still in the basin, as
compared against the amount of different fluids in other basins.

I think this is a more familiar mechanic than limiting the actual coinage
re-entering the system - More money can always be minted, especially if
you're dealing with non-metal coins.  Sir Bubba, Knight of the Realm, earns
the same salary each month, as does Joe the Orc Guard.  It's the subtle,
behind-the-scenes mechanics of an economy that this is trying to simulate,
so that Joe always has the same fifty bucks in his pocket on payday, but
when he goes to the store, he finds that one week a loaf of bread costs 99
cents, and the next it costs $1.25...