[MUD-Dev] Game Economies

[Ola Fosheim Grøstad <olag@ifi.uio.no>]

Timothy O'Neill Dang wrote:
> University of Arizona. I'm looking at MUDs primarily as a possible
> platform for economic research relevant to the real world, but am also
> fascinated by the economies of the games themselves.

First we had the OS engineers, then the psychologists, and now we get the
economists!  >;-}

"Real world"???  "games"???

> archives. My feeling right now is that in-game economic behavior does
> not vary too much from real-world economic behavior *given the
> circumstances*. All of this is still tentative, of course.

How much slack does "given the circumstances" buy you?  And is there a
generic from-here-and-to-eternity in-game economy, or are you having a
particular system in mind?

As for luxury... The typical example of luxury that I can think of is
completely useless items or items with rare, but not outstanding, visual
features that cost over 1000 times more than better featured items.  What
you buy is an expensive look, or an item that have value as a gift, or an
experience as a roleplayer. One might argue that this is utilitarian, but...

> If you aren't satisfied then with the behavior of your players, it's
> likely because the reality and the fiction are a bit too distant from
> each other. Frequently this won't matter, but it is certainly a big
> cause of "broken" economies.

OH OOOHHHhhhhhhh... What do you mean by "the reality"? ;)

A big cause of broken economies is that awards are increased with "levels"
and you still have to make sure that the _clueless_ get some. Thus, the
experienced will always know how to milk the system as they are typically
constructed today. Then you have the same broken economy as the western
physical world, your income will get a lot better if you can afford better
equipment and have some good advice. The resources a newbie needs is nothing
for an experienced player, so combined with guild systems, buddies, and a
monetary economy you have a leaking economy at lower and intermediate levels
when the system reaches a mature age. The only "economy" that kinda works is
the non-transferrable one, experience points and similar constructs. Thus
you get an economy of favours and connections (help me get to the last
mananode in Meridian59 etc)... However, in most systems transferable
resources can help gaining non-transferrable resources, so they aren't
really non-transferrable, thus the whole system is eventually broken. A game
system may be completely broken, but still functional socially though.

IMHO the problem isn't fixing the economy, but keeping the world interesting
and the players happier than when they watch TV.  In the physical world, it
is sufficient that "players" aren't furious and organizing a revolution,
which frequently happens compared to how long the physical world have been
running. ;)  The physical world and it's economy can afford to be
dysfunctional and have a complete shakedown every once in a while. Ok, some
MUDs might do that too, but not in the high profile commercial sector, I
think?

If you are going to compare MUDs to the physical world, remember that MUDs
run on some heavy hysterical drugs. One year in a MUD may equal a century in
the physical world in terms of overall evolution, but different things go at
different paces and in different directions, so I don't think you can
reliably transfer knowledge from MUDs to the physical world.  The other way
is easier to "verify", because you can change the MUD system in order to
test your hypothesis. (if you have the patience).

Example:
1) I have a model of how the physical world works.
2) I have a set of random MUDs
3) I construct or modify MUDs based on the principles in 1)
4) I compare 2) and 3)
5) The was/wasn't an effect, the effect was good/bad.

But:
1) I have a model of how a virtual world works.
2) I have a physical world.
3) I am unable to compare 1 and 2 because the premises are different.

Basically, by comparing MUDs and the physical world, you are describing the
unstable and  heterogeneously perceived MUDs in relation to the more stable
physical world.

--
Ola Fosheim Groestad,Norway      http://www.stud.ifi.uio.no/~olag/




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