[MUD-Dev] DESIGN: Active and Inactive currency

[Eric Random]

--- "Freeman, Jeff" <jfreeman at soe.sony.com> wrote:

> It seems to me that the problem there isn't the faucet at all.
> But how do you address it?  All crafters will take any cost or
> drain that you throw at them and use that to establish a base
> price, charging everyone else that plus a little more, and
> therefore accumulate cash.

This "plus a little more" is called disposable income. Both crafters
and adventurers have disposable incomes.

A crafter making an item, and selling it for x amount over cost, is
just like someone giving a crafter all he needs to make an item, and
paying him x amount to do it. An adventurer killing a mob, and
receiving x amount of loot, is just like someone asking the
adventurer to kill a mob, and paying him x amount to do it.

Spending disposable income is mainly about achieving character
goals.  An adventurer spends disposable income to improve
equipment. This is because the common goal of adventurers is to
reach some personally defined maximum level in a minimum amount of
time. Proper equipment is needed to survive to the next level. The
more equipment they rely on, the more disposable income will be
spent. Further, the adventurer makes disposable income on the very
activity he is spending it on, killing mobs.  The common goal of a
crafter is to make better and better items, and thus, get to the
next crafting level. The crafter is spending money on higher and
higher quantities or qualities of raw materials. The crafter,
though, relies upon the adventurer to buy his finished wares.  This
motivates them into a dual role - crafter and merchant.

A merchant is motivated by the goal to make the maximum profit at
the minimum cost.  An adventurer can be a merchant, selling the
spoils of their adventures in the marketplace. A merchant must have
consistent presence in an active marketplace to efficiently do
business. This time investment in the marketplace takes the
adventurer away from killing mobs. An adventurer may do this,
though, if their interest in their goal of levelling (eg. reached
some max level or bored) has been reduced. A crafter, though, can
craft in the marketplace, thus having a marketplace presence, easily
allowing for the dual role. In a merchant role, a player becomes
more acutely focused on the act of maximizing profit.

The original question though, is about the size of savings. A
character's savings of disposable income will grow for the following
reasons:

  1) Motivated to buy something expensive. The character is saving
  to buy something he currently cannot afford, such as a house. In
  an economy that has very expensive goods with no system of loans,
  savings will grow to afford such items.

  2) Motivated to buy something which is foreseeably cheaper in the
  future. If a character is able to determine that a future event
  will lower the price of his target item, he may hold on to his
  money to await the event. For example, if demand for an item
  climbs, driving up the price, a consumer may wait out for stronger
  production to lower prices.

  3) Motivated to sell savings in an external currency market. The
  character is building savings to sell in an external currency
  market, such as hoarding gold to sell for USD on E-bay.

  4) Unmotivated to buy (decrease in normal consumption
  expenditure). The income requires minimum expenditure to maintain
  and there is no desire for voluntary (discretionary) consumption.

  5) Motivated by a forecasted decline in income. The character is
  taking advantage of a temporal opportunity to acquire money, to be
  spent later. For example, an adventurer killing a number of weak
  creatures and hoarding money so that they can have more expensive,
  challenging adventures in the future without interruption for
  needed cash.

  6) Increase in income without adjustment to normal consumption
  expenditure. The character has experienced a strong increase in
  income, such as coming across a rare item drop, or finding an
  exploit, and has yet to adjust his consumption to spend his new
  earnings. Further, the income may strongly outpace the character's
  maximum possible consumption expenditure (just how many suits of
  armor does an adventurer need?).

These are just some further thoughts on the topic. I don't want this
post to grow too long, so I'll stop here.

   - Eric Random
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