[Mud-Dev] Broken currencies

[Lars Duening]

Matt Mihaly wrote on Thursday, April 05 2001, 11:07:36:
>On Thu, 5 Apr 2001, Lars Duening wrote:
>> Jim S wrote on Tuesday, April 03 2001, 22:06:13:
 
>>> This last part brought a question to my mind.  Has anyone tried
>>> limiting the total amount of currency in their MMOG?
 
>> IIRC, the German mud MorgenGrauen used an approach like this. The
>> total amount of money available to the shops is limited; so if
>> people want continue to sell their loot, they have to buy things
>> every now and then.
 
>> Last time I was there (it's been more than a while), it worked
>> quite well. The players weren't too excited, obviously, but it
>> seemed to keep the inflation in check.

> Is it a success then, in your opinion? In other words (from my POV
> at least), would the players be MORE unhappy (even if they don't
> know it) if inflation wasn't kept in check?

Well, I'm not a player anymore so I'm not really qualified to answer
this; but yes, I think that it is a success. Not only it keeps the
prices for equipment in reasonable limits (good for newbies), it also
enriches the gameplay as it makes spending money as important as
earning it - and this means more interaction of the players with each
other and with the infrastructure elements of the game (equiment
shops, casinos, tour guides, ...).

But of course the game has to have an infrastructure for this to
work. If the game doesn't have any opportunity for the players to buy
useful and/or lasting things (I remember a shop in a different mud
where players could design their own amulets for 1000 coins each -
only they lost the amulets when they logged out), a limited money
circulation won't work.

--
Lars Duening; lars at bearnip.com
PGP Key: http://www.bearnip.com/lars/pgp-lars.asc

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