I've recently had two ideas for economic mechanics in my mMO. The ideas are unrelated, the game could implement one, both or neither. I just didn't want to spam the board with two posts. Game context: A 2d game of space exploration and combat where each player captains the flagship of their home world. Idea 1 There is no direct player to player transfer of goods/resources. All transfers are done through an in-game auction like ebay, but a much faster schedule. There might also be an ai market maker that would provide a minimum demand and supply for resources. Two advantages of this system: 1. Auctions can be fun because they provide a sense of anticipation, gambling and reward. 2. (the major advantage) It puts a barrier to "gold farming" if a farmer can't decide who their gold goes to. The major disadvantage is that players can't directly help out their friends by giving them stuff. [On edit: It seems that this is very much like what EVE does? Is that true? If so, why were they having problems with farming?] Idea 2 Most resources have half-lives high enough to compensate for the natural game inflation. Maybe Chiralite has a half-life of 60 days so players will be losing 1% of their Chiralite each day they don't use it. The advantage of this system is as a natural counter to inflation. The big disadvantage: Players enjoy stock piling and (would presumably) hate to see those stock piles dwindle automatically. What do you think?

Dunno about the second one. But I like the first one, with the exception of zero player to player transaction. While it might maximize gain for your player, you can't have preferred business. Preferred business can be friends giving friends stuff, like you mentioned or it can be someone giving you an item for a better item later or you want to help out this one person because he's cool/your friend/nice/etc and not the others.

Of course, I'm speaking in another context, ones like a more traditional MMO. Like Ultima Online... A preferred seller or what not, might still need to build up his skills, and having him make your items would help him and maybe you if he gives you a discount.

The first one was done by Runescape several years ago. It seems to have turned out ok for them, although a bunch of players quit at the time.

It depends on how you define 'auction'.

If it is placing an item up on a central auction house for people to bid against each other for it, then I think that is setting up to be annoying for buyers and sellers both. Also if they are not at least regional/local markets, then it kills real trade options.

A better system is open markets. That is, you can place items/lots in buy or sell orders.

"X of Y selling at Z". If someone wants to pay Z for it, then it is sold.

"X of Y, buying at Z". If someone has Y and wants to let some of it go at Z price, then he can sell, and the person buys.

Of course you need to be able to buy/sell part orders, as not everyone will have the same amounts line up, so if someone has 10 units to sell, and guy A wants 2, and guy B wants 8, then things work out.

Quote:

Original post by Talroth It depends on how you define 'auction'. If it is placing an item up on a central auction house for people to bid against each other for it, then I think that is setting up to be annoying for buyers and sellers both. Also if they are not at least regional/local markets, then it kills real trade options. A better system is open markets. That is, you can place items/lots in buy or sell orders. "X of Y selling at Z". If someone wants to pay Z for it, then it is sold. "X of Y, buying at Z". If someone has Y and wants to let some of it go at Z price, then he can sell, and the person buys. Of course you need to be able to buy/sell part orders, as not everyone will have the same amounts line up, so if someone has 10 units to sell, and guy A wants 2, and guy B wants 8, then things work out.

The only other thing to note commodities market trading like this is that it allows people who are even a bit market savvy to make vast amounts of money with very little effort and initial capital. Whether that is a good thing or not depends on your point of view I suppose. I remember playing evony not too long ago and turned 400,000 gold into 20,000,000 in 3 days by trading on the commodities market.

The problem I see with the second one is if someone is saving up for something they'll be dismayed at the loss if saving up takes longer than a day. If the item is really really expensive, this makes it that much harder for lower levels to save up.

first idea seems good, though I don't see why you can't have player to player trades, maybe you could limit the number of those trades per day or something.

Quote:

Original post by rethan The problem I see with the second one is if someone is saving up for something they'll be dismayed at the loss if saving up takes longer than a day. If the item is really really expensive, this makes it that much harder for lower levels to save up. first idea seems good, though I don't see why you can't have player to player trades, maybe you could limit the number of those trades per day or something.

The game will be free to play with perks (expanded universe, more playing flexibility, etc) for paying players. If there's any way to convert free play into real money by farming, it will cause farmers to consume real world resources (cpu and bandwidth) increasing costs for real players.

Quote:

Original post by justkevin [On edit: It seems that this is very much like what EVE does? Is that true? If so, why were they having problems with farming?]

Eve allowed players to create "contracts" (aka player quests) and in the contract they could specify what the reward was for completing the contract...