[MUD-Dev2] stock market mechanisms in muds

[Acius]

Johnicholas Hines wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I don't know much about what "stock market" mechanisms already exist
> in muds, so in mud-dev tradition, I will speculate and propose an
> idea. If you have experience with market simulations in muds, would
> you please reply? (to me or to the list)
>
> I say "stock market", but I mean more of a commodities market. Please
> forgive my inaccuracy.
> There are reasons to allow and to forbid stock-market-like things.

Puzzle Pirates (www.puzzlepirates.com) has a highly developed
commodities market. It has perhaps a hundred goods, and they're all used
for something -- making potions, brewing rum, building ships, dying
clothing, etc. All sales are done using a bidding system, and there are
no NPC merchants at all. All markets are "per-island" rather than common
to the whole game, which allows for merchants to buy low and sell high
-- however, they have to make it to the other island while surviving
battles with NPC and player-run pirate ships (four or five battles in a
run is pretty typical). Because of the risk of losing your cargo, the
markets tend not to balance easily, and the profit from such a venture
can be enormous.

The price of commodities appears to float with the market, but
internally it actually has a target price. If the market price is
generally higher than the target price, the spawn rate goes up, and if
it's generally lower, the spawn rate goes down. Some commodities are
extremely common and spawn rapidly, others are extremely rare (e.g. you
have to beat a high end NPC pirate ship to get it as a rare drop), but
the price-adjusting mechanism is the same. The prices do fluctuate quite
a bit, but the general trend can always be observed.

The game has two currency types; "pieces of eight" are earned by killing
NPC's, and "doubloons" are purchased with a credit card (except on
"subscription" oceans, which only have pieces of eight; I am told that
subscription oceans bring in less revenue than doubloon oceans,
however). Prices on the market are always set in pieces of eight; most
items have a doubloon 'sales tax', which is a fixed number of doubloons
that are consumed when certain items are purchased. There is also a
doubloon market, which is one of the most fascinating aspects of the
game -- you can convert doubloons to pieces of eight and vice versa
using the same bidding system as everything else. This creates an
interesting symbiosis between those who want to play for free and those
who would rather pay extra than spend too much time playing; I've been
told that on average, players will grind for a wage of 25 cents
(American) an hour!

The game is free to play, so if you're curious about it, you can check
out how they do things without investing any money into it. If you're
wondering about my sources for the statistics--I don't work for them,
but I have friends who do. My information is a little old, so take it
with a bit of salt.