[MUD-Dev2] [DESIGN] Crafting Systems: Supply-Driven vs. Demand-Driven

[Morris Cox]

On 4/17/07, Shannon Sullivan <sdshannons at gmail.com> wrote:
> What I'm envisioning is a system driven by demand instead of supply.For
> example, a player might be able to open a menu-style interfacewith all
> the various crafting recipes and select one to be crafted bythe first
> crafter who wants to make a profit.  They're putting in anorder,
> basically, and the first crafter willing to fill that ordergets it.
> Perhaps the buyer might even be told right up front thematerial cost of
> the product and be given an interface to adjust howmuch mark-up they're
> willing to pay (possibly with a default amount toencourage
> standardization).  The interface could even show the averageprice that
> item has sold for recently so they know whether they'remaking a
> competitive offer.  Crafters might even choose from theinterface to be
> notified when items they can produce are in demand soorders can be
> responded to with greater immediacy.
>
> An advantage of this kind of system is twofold in that the crafter
> cansee at a glance what products are most in demand in order to
> morereadily profit from the time and money devoted to crafting and
> thebuyer has a greater likelihood of having her needs met
> expediently.This strengthens the economic model of the game and reduces
> thetendency for high-end market glut.
>
> One of the problems with a crafting system that forces interdependencyis
> that it relies on other crafters to actually make the products youneed.
> Without being able to see what low-end products happen to be indemand,
> interdependency can be cumbersome to the new crafter unlessthere happens
> to be enough other new crafters who happen to be makingjust what you
> need by chance (common in the rush at launch but rarepast that stage).
> A demand-driven system alleviates that problem bygiving players an
> interface where they can fulfill crafting needs atall levels (because
> there's profit to be made) thus rewardinginterdependency and encouraging
> cooperation among diverse sets ofcrafters.
>
> An additional benefit to the economy is that this kind of system
> wouldhelp to reduce inflation by encouraging the crafting of items that
> arepriced appropriately to the buyer.  Often it seems as if the
> onlybuyers of low-end items are highly twinked alts who are just trying
> togrind up as quickly as possible.  The consequence of this is that
> theprice of newbie goods skyrockets as those twinked alts offer 5x,
> 10x,100x the cost of materials for these items.  In a
> supply-driveneconomy, the seller sets the price so naturally she's going
> to set ithigh in the expectation that she'll be able to maximize
> profits, withthe unfortunate side-effect of pricing the goods
> astronomically higherthan an actual newbie to the game would be able to
> afford.  She has noreason to sell her goods in a range of prices because
> even the twinksare going to snap up the lower priced items first and the
> seller hasthereby lost money she could have made by pricing them all
> high.  Onthe other hand, in a demand-driven economy, the buyer sets the
> price.A highly twinked buyer can set the price high in order to give
> hisoffer priority over lower-priced offers but doing so does
> notinherently drive the price up for the other buyers.  Once his offer
> ismet, crafters can continue to make a profit (albeit smaller) from
> theremaining lower-priced offers.
>
> So this is what I've been thinking.  But I'm just a dreamer whereasyou
> all are experienced MMO creators so I am hoping to gets somefeedback on
> the benefits and pitfalls of such a system.  Do you seeany ways it could
> be twisted out of proportion?  Do you see anyinherent flaws in it?
> _______________________________________________

I think it's an excellent idea. However, sellers might not be as happy
since it'll be harder for them to charge high prices. Oh well. The
best idea about your system is crafters being able to see what the
demand is. If they think the offered price is too low, they can refuse
to do it. If every crafter did that for an item, either the buyer will
have to raise the offered price or maybe a crafter might break and do
it. Note that prices can still go up high as long as all crafters work
together (aka an union).

I would like to see this in action. It would be interesting to see
what complaints there would be.
-- 
Morris Cox