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

[Johnicholas Hines]

Nick Koranda wrote:
> 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.
My understanding is that in order to have a successful
real-money-trade world, it must also be a successful
no-real-money-trade world. If you were starting a big-budget
commercial RMT world, you would definitely have to put "money to make
sure we can meet our payouts for the first month" or similar in your
budget. You describe it as "a lot of money", and it seems like a lot
of money to me too. However, as a line-item in a budget that includes
man-years of programmer and artist time, it might be a relatively
small expense.

> 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?
Assuming that you're a hobbyist and not a big-budget developer, my
recommendation is to open the world with the announced intention of
adding a currency that will be RMT, and don't add that currency until
you're sure that the game is and will continue to be popular. By
"popular" I mean that you have a continuous population, with little
chance of declining to zero.

The example that I suggest imitating is Batmud, where there was a
recent round of donations (to purchase "task points", which can be
exchanged in-game for "boons", bonuses to stats and such). Something
like 40 donators, and the average donation was more than $300 US
dollars.

The number of people logged in to Batmud at any one time is tiny
compared to, say, Runescape. However, if you can hold your "tiny"
population's interest, some will be willing to spend money on you.

Note, something that I should have explained earlier:
As I understand it, the actions that you take to motivate your players
to do _investments_ (i.e. you might get some money back at some future
time) in virtual items are almost indistinguishable from the actions
that you take to motivate players to perform _purchases_ (i.e.
one-way) of virtual items. If you're sucking real money out (through
the bid-ask spread, for example), they're essentially _purchasing_
something (of smaller cost), every time they _invest_ in your world.

Johnicholas