[MUD-Dev2] [DESIGN] *Starting* Real Currency Based Worlds

[Lachek Butalek]

On 9/16/06, Nick Koranda <nkk at eml.cc> wrote:
> Real world currency based MMOG's have always been interesting to me.  I
> can understand the concept of adding real currency to the game...i.e. a
> person pays $10 and gets 1000 gold in the game.  The user could also
> exchange the gold he/she has made in game for real money.
>
> The idea that I have not fully grasped is the specific concept of
> *starting* a world like this.  Take a very simple example world, one
> with 100 trees.  A user enters the game with an axe in hand.  The user
> takes some time and chops down 10 trees and sells them for 1 gold each
> at a market.  He now has 10 gold.  Given my previous exchange rate
> above, that would give him $0.10 real currency.  Now at this point, with
> one user in the game and no user contributed money, there is no real
> currency in the game to give the user if he choses to exchange it.
>
> This is where I am puzzled.  Does the creator of the world have to
> "populate" the world with enough real-world currency to pay out any
> resources or gold that can be gathered or produced?  So the example
> would require that the user add $1 of real world money for the trees to
> be backed by real world currency?  If true, then starting a world would
> require that the creator add a lot of money for a large world.  The
> other alternative is to have users pay to play some amount...and given
> that amount, release an equivalent amount resources into the world.  I
> dont think that would work based on what I have read on a closed loop
> resource system.  The resources would quickly run dry with hording.
>
> So what are the ideas for starting a real world currency world so that
> the economy would sustain itself and even make the creators money as
> well as give the opportunity for users to make money too?

All games with resources and production have economy problems similar
to this, RMT-based or not. An RMT-based game only differ from one
where RMT is forbidden in how money can be funneled in and out of the
system - other than that, every object in the database has a real
dollar value, since there is a supply and demand in the $ marketplace.
You can look at any MMO and draw inspiration and conclusions from
them.

Any game that wants a truly sustainable economy has to have a
functional market economy and a chain of supply and demand for every
resource or item in the game. The price of goods has to change
dynamically depending on PC and NPC supply and demand. If the NPC
price is fixed - $0.01 for a log, as mentioned above - and supply is
not finite, then you will have big problems. The easiest way of
dealing with the algorithm for what an item should be worth is to not
write one - let the PCs set the price themselves using Buy and Sell
orders (Eve Online does this beautifully).

Your total fiscal liability will always be (total currency given
out)+(NPC demand for goods)*(price of goods)-(money paid in
subscriptions)-(money sink for producing goods). This last bit is
worth mentioning - perhaps you'd want to charge 1000 gold for an axe?
It's an investment, after all. The axe might wear out, and would need
repairs by an NPC on a regular basis. This becomes a way by which you
can funnel money out of the system to reduce your liability.

If your world will include trading NPCs (I can't think of any that
doesn't), then build a functional economy based on NPC-to-NPC
production and trading first and then let the players in. If they want
to prosper financially, they have to "beat" the performance of the
NPCs. This way you can modify the players' ability to milk the game of
real cash by adjusting your NPCs abilities to produce.

If the NPCs in your world does not partake in trade or production in
any way, that makes it easier for you. When a player subscribes, set
them up with an amount of starting currency equal to some fixed
fraction of the sign-on fee, for example half. Populate the world with
resources and goods worth equal to the other half. Then let them
gather, produce and trade with each other to their heart's content. If
they want to "cash out" they will never receive more than what they
paid to get in, unless they were successful in reducing some other
player's net worth. Either way, you're not suffering any losses.

Spontaneous generation of content is a problem, such as loot drops or
repopping of resources. You'd have to ensure that such content is not
worth more than what you can handle. My guess is that most games have
oversold themselves multiple times over - it all depends on how likely
you believe it to be that 100% of your subscribers suddenly cash in
and jump ship.

My gut feeling is that if you want a functional game economy, you
shouldn't start milking it for cash until it is well established, and
at that point the milking should be in the form of in-game
micro-transactions - taxes, duties, levies and fines, production
equipment purchases and maintenance, in-game loans with interest
charges (if you're brave), you name it. If you want more examples,
just look at the real world - there's few money-making schemes you
would not be able to implement an analogy of in an MMO.

Lachek