[MUD-Dev] thoughts on game economies

[Ling]

On Fri, 11 Jun 1999, Caliban Tiresias Darklock wrote:
> On 11:31 AM 6/11/99 -0500, I personally witnessed Travis S. Casey jumping
> up to say:
> >
> >Several people have pointed out the problems that player hoarding creates.
> >My thought on this is, "What prevents hoarding in the real world?"  The
> >answer is that most of the money we get goes towards necessities -- food,
> >clothing, shelter, and other living expenses.  As people get more money,
> >they buy nicer versions of these things.
> 
> Exactly. However, you hit a certain problem.
> 
> Let's say, for example, that you go to the store to buy a broom in the Real
> World. You walk into the local grocery store, and you go to the aisle that
> has brooms. There, you find about a dozen different types of brooms. The
> standard straw bristle broom will cost you about $7. But you also have all
> kinds of brooms with nylon bristles, rubber squeegees, and whatever else --
> ranging up to $30. 
> 
> All of these brooms, of course, will do the job. But you will probably buy
> a "better" broom than the standard straw bristled broom, because it's not
> that much more money. The broom will also not shed as many bristles, and
> probably last longer. It's likely that the more expensive broom will also
> do the job faster and better than a cheap one.

Isn't the other one luxury and creature comforts?  In the winter, I like a
warm cosy house so I set the thermostat to a certain temperature.  If I
was playing a mud, I wouldn't do such a thing for my character.  If I did,
my reason would be to stop the character from dying so I'd set the heating
to bare minimum.

Right now, I'm wearing combat trousers with a teflon coating.  Damnit, I
don't know why I needed combat trousers that provide extra pockets I
shalln't use.  In fact, I don't know why I needed a teflon coating on
them.  But they feel nice.

Not only do I spend money on luxuries, I also obtain several of them.  I
don't see many mud characters with a wardrobe, or a second house.  I bet
some of you people have more than one computer.

Anyway.

There are two kinds of people.  People who spend lots of time saving money
and people who spend lots of money to save time.

You don't get much of the latter in muds because time is not a scarce
resource for the more committed players and there aren't any devices to
help players save time anyway.

  |    Ling Lo
_O_O_  kllo at iee.org




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