[MUD-Dev] Value in the Economy of the MOG

[Marian Griffith]

On Thu 28 Jun, Delphine T. Lynx wrote:

> I'm sure everyone's noticed it - in most cases, hard coded money
> has zero value in these games. No matter how hard to obtain, or
> how useful as far as NPCs go (healing, equipment, etc), money
> eventually undergoes such inflation as to have no value whatsoever
> for Player<->Player interaction.

> The question is, why?

Basically because there is a huge press running that is turning out
money faster than the players can spend it. There is also an equally
huge manufacturer turning out equipment faster than players can use.
Players do not need money.  It only serves as a "reward" but has no
meaning in the game. Anything you could want to have you must get by
killing monsters.

> Personally I have two theories on the matter....neither
> accompanied by a solution.

The solution would be to stop monsters from dropping money or equip-
ment, and preferably both.

> First, there's the 'supply and demand' theory. Even if each mob
> only has a 1% chance of dropping a coin, you're still left with:

> Newbie kills 1 lvl 1 monster/minute: 1 gold/100 minutes High level
> kills 20 lvl 1 monsters/minute: 20 gold/100 minutes

> In fact the scale is even more twisted than the above example. The
> result is that there will generally be a *huge* difference in the
> earning potential of the old vs the young. The result of this
> portion of the supply/demand issue is that in order to balance
> costs, things need to either cost more than a newbie can afford,
> or too little to be significant to a high level player.

The real problem is not so much the difference in earning potential,
but the fact that once past the newbie stage there is nothing that a
player needs money for.  Anything they want they can easily get from
killing monsters, or from the use of their acquired skills.

> One way around this I'm looking into now is something akin to what
> Herbert did with the Dune books....water as a currency on
> Arrakis. You *need* X amount of it, otherwise you die.

If you want an economy you should make the players pay for every-
thing in -experience points-.  Buying a good piece of equipment is
going to set a player back some levels, but will allow her to gain
them again more quickly.  Learning skills would be the same.  You
invist part of you hard won experiece, perhaps a significant part of
it, but gain new abilities instead.  If you are in need of some
skill you could part with that expensive weapon you found.  Or you
could keep it and hope it is better than that skill you were look-
ing for.  I would not recommend it in a commercial game :)

> I'm aware of the theories for a 'zero sum economy'....but none of
> them really provide the key point, the desire to *use* money.

At one time there was the concept of "rent".  Players who left the
game were required to check out at a particular room, and had to pay
a certain amount of money for all of their equipment every day they
were away. Obviously the better equipment the higher its rent and it
made certain that players did not accumulate a lot of money as it
kept being burned away. It had the additional advantage that it kept
powerful weapons out of lower level player's hands as they could not
afford its rent.  It worked remarkably well, but it also forced
players to log on regularly to earn their rent, or give up their
characters.


Marian
--
Yes - at last - You. I Choose you. Out of all the world,
out of all the seeking, I have found you, young sister of
my heart! You are mine and I am yours - and never again
will there be loneliness ...

Rolan Choosing Talia,
Arrows of the Queen, by Mercedes Lackey

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