[Mud-Dev] Money supply in game economies (formerly Brokeneconomies)

[Timothy Dang]

On Thu, 5 Apr 2001, Matt Mihaly wrote:
> On Thu, 5 Apr 2001 geoffrey at yorku.ca wrote:

>> A key part of entrepreneurialism is the spark of creativity and
>> inventiveness.  I think a predetermined selection of possible
>> entrepreneurial ventures would play directly against the very
>> nature of the stated goal.
 
> Unfortunately, I don't see any way to make this an open ended system
> on a sufficiently large scale. I'm sure someone cleverer than me
> will figure it out, but I don't think I, for one, am capable of
> doing it. It seems to me that what this requires, almost by
> definition, is the ability to invent new products (and not just the
> same product with a new look) and to develop increasingly efficient
> methods of production. That's a mighty tall order for any game
> designer. If someone manages it well enough, I certainly will be
> signing up to play.

I'd be really excited to see this, and rather frightened for the game
that implemented it. If real innovation is allowed in a broad fashion,
this can cause fantastic social upheavals which might not be good for
a game. For those who like to think in terms of property rights,
inventions can alter (i.e. take away) the property rights of those
who've bought into the pre-innovation world. The losers might
naturally be upset. Innovation could also throw off global balance. It
appears it's hard enough to balance things when all innovation comes
from the designers.

If a system for innovation was put into place in an explicitly PvP
game, I'd give it much better prospects becaue people are already
expecting truns of fate and competing innovations could keep the
overall balance somewhat in check.

------------------------------
Timothy O'Neill Dang / Cretog8
520-884-7261
One monkey don't stop no show.

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