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Original post by Zouflain It's novel for about five minutes, and then you get 4 chickens for 10 flowers. Armor for 60 flowers. Sword of Masterful Pwnage for 10,000 flowers. A singular currency will almost certainly evolve because people demand a medium for exchange.

YES!

Anyone plays Diablo 2 online? The main currency, "Gold", became worthless for trade and the player based switched to trading in Stones of Jordan (SOJs) pretty efficiently. I would say Diablo 2 is probably the only game to have demonstrated this aspect of the real life economy...pretty amazing!

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Original post by Apoca Also, if possible, set up a "Reputation" and barter system. If you're a regular seller, and sell for decent prices, the NPC is more likely to buy from you than the random noob selling for the first time for really low prices.

What is a 'decent' price?

What if the dev declares a decent price to be one torch is worth one arrow? Then later on we discover that players use a heck of a lot more arrows than they do torches. So for the players, the arrows are more needed, and therefore more valuable than torches, no matter what the devs have proposed/declared.

Moral of the story: Worth rests in the hands of the players. Devs can indirectly influence it with buffs/nerfs, drop rates, opportunity to use, etc., but not directly by arbitrary declaration of value.

[Edited by - AngleWyrm on September 19, 2008 5:29:26 AM]

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Original post by AngleWyrm Moral of the story: Worth rests in the hands of the players. Devs can indirectly influence it with buffs/nerfs, drop rates, opportunity to use, etc., but not directly by arbitrary declaration of value.

I'd be particularly careful with this bit of logic. It does not always hold true, and it can cause serious friction between Devs and players anytime there is a player economy.

Think of price caps. Excepting for cases where it is difficult/time consuming/not worth purchasing from an NPC, any time an NPC sells an item for cost X, the maximum amount a player can expect to receive for selling that that item is X. If the price X is either unprofitable, or even less than the cost to make it, then players cannot or will not sell that item (ex: potions cost 9 gold to make, but you can buy them from the NPC for 10. Players make 0 profit at 9 gold, and negligible profits at 10. Players wont make/sell potions if there is anything else worth selling).

Because NPC's are directly controlled by the Devs (in most cases), the Devs effectively establish the maximum value of an item quite directly.

The same is true for price floors. The minimum amount a player can/will charge for an item is the cost to produce it. Thus, if those same potions require 9 "red berries" and the price of each of those berries is 1, the players can't/wont charge less than 9.

Every action has a consequence in a game economy. No part of it should be disregarded.

1. Have lots of opportunities for gaining money
2. Cash sink the hell out of the players; make them pay heavy taxes and entice them with protection money and lottery
3. Allow the player to earn back money easier than he initially gets it. If you've spent a tonne on lottery, there'll be a tonne waiting for you at the bank for you taking.

The interesting part: Money that you earn back takes a lot more skill than tapping money fountains. To rob a bank to get a portion of the money you've spent on lotto back, you'll need skills, friends, knowledge, planning and experience.

Example:
Pay protection money of $100
-Loot gives you <insert multiplier here> more until <insert percentage range here> of protection money paid is given back to player.

If a large amount is slowly being paid back to the player via these multipliers, then the bonuses follow suit i.e. finding a golden crown in the loot. It doesn't encourage discontinuation of lottery or paying taxes while the game catches up with the debt it owes you.

Basically, it's a luck system whereas it promotes doing certain things. It gives the player more reason to participate in certain activities via a more dynamic currency system.

This idea is still very raw though and has not been play-tested that I know of.

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Original post by Girsanov Anyone come across any interesting ways to get money into a MMORPG economy? (MMO is an overstatement because I only expect 50-100 players total and 5-10 online during offpeak hours) The traditional way is through drops and chests, which would probably work if done well. But I was hoping if there are any better or "fun-er" ways out there.

Quest rewards is another way.

Crafting/harvesting and selling is another.

Being given a stipend on a time basis could be done (ie- the char has a 'job' that pays for doin his adventuring stuff)

Some games have 'conquest' of assets that then pay tribute to players.

Some games allow you to rob other players (and NPCs)