[MUD-Dev2] stock market mechanisms in muds

[Johnicholas Hines]

To try to sum up, here are several commonly implemented
mud-market-patterns (I know I'm oversimplifying a little, sorry).

1. The Auction Channel
Players can buy (give a "normal currency" to get goods), they can sell
(give goods to get a "normal currency") and exchange one currency for
another. They can trade services and/or promises. It is not possible
to make money without being logged in, and consequently there may be a
lack of liquidity. There may be a possibility of "non-atomic
exchanges", where you give somone something and they run away.
 --- occurs spontaneously in most muds :)

2. Player-owned NPC vendors
Players, using an NPC vendor, can sell goods without being logged in.
Buying, changing currency are generally not possible. Buyers
experience medium liquidity - if you have the money, you can probably
find a NPC with that item in inventory, though it might be a chore to
find it. Sellers experience low liquidity - if you are a crafter, you
probably can't get money immediately for your goods. Instead you have
to put them on display and wait a long time. Exchanges of one good for
another without an intermediate "normal currency" step are probably
still relegated to the Auction channel.
 -- I didn't hear a specific mud mentioned, but probably exists several places

3. Player-owned NPC vendors with a dev-sponsored search mechanism.
The search mechanism makes a pool of NPC vendors seem more like a
centralized market, with a single "standard price" that a good sells
at. Buyers experience high liquidity - if you have the standard price,
you can quickly buy it. Sellers experience medium liquidity - if your
price is lower than the standard price, the next person who wants that
item will probably buy from you, but it is still not possible to turn
goods into money at the usual price instantaneously.
 -- DAoC and EQ

4. A Dev-sponsored central market.
The (automated) market is always willing to buy and sell any good and
adjusts its prices up and down. Both buyers and sellers experience
high liquidity. Might be a lot of work to implement?
 --- SWG commodities, WoW auction house, PP commodities

To explain myself a little,
One of my goals was to support emergent currencies. To give a
contrived example, if NPC shopkeepers consider one coin to be equal in
value to 1000 of another coin, but the two coins weigh the same, PCs
may prefer the lighter currency enough that the practical exchange
rate drifts to 1::1010.

With a little support from the devs, (perhaps adding the ability to
sign a piece of paper, and to test whether two signatures are
identical), you could have a guild reify their dragon kill points as
in-game objects. Not sure if that's useful or valuable, but it might
be original.

Johnicholas

BTW, I love Puzzle Pirates, and distilling especially. Go Daniel James!