Preface
Inflation is often a problem for MMOs and sites like this, and there's a reason for that. Even new MMOs like Wilstar have wrote long, rambly blogs about how to deal with this, without coming to any conclusions, but the conclusion is obvious, simple, and logical.
I'm bringing this up because I think that our fearless leaders are freaking out a bit over economy booms and inflation, so I've been giving the topic some thought. So let's start this off as a thought exercise, with a very important question:
Why is real world inflation less a problem?
It's finite. Every real world currency is minted in finite amounts and backed by precious materials. The important part here though is that it's finite. If you receive a wage, that wage isn't pulled from the ether, it's all minted money. Even in this digital age of banks and existential money, it's all still finite to a huge degree. The magic of anti-inflation is something being finite.
What's the solution?
The problem is caused by introducing an element which is potentially infinite, therefore if new things are introduced, the person already has enough resources/currency available to them in order to acquire everything new the very moment it shows up on the scene. This creates boredom as there's nothing to work for, nothing to obtain. So the way this is usually combated is to try and create artificial scarcity, but this is often done from the wrong end.
Essentially, the attempt to create scarcity is created by dropping the value of items, making valuable drops more rare, decreasing the amount of resources available to the player, and so on. Yet this is also only going to create frustration, because people are smart creatures and they can see numbers going down, they're aware of it. And this has been a problem since time immemorial, with just about every MMO and online game thing.
The solution is introducing a cap to the player's earnings which is just above the most expensive item in the game, and then introducing other capped currencies which certain items can only be obtained for. You could have things pay out in different currencies, you could even have a currency exchange where a fee is charged to move one currency to another.
So, what I'm getting at is, say... the Pearlcatcher gene, that's 320k, right? So you cap the player's wallet at 350k, thus completely controlling inflation. After that, you provide them with a few other wallets with different kinds of currencies, which can buy products. When selling on an auction, the player could choose to ask for a payout in multiple currencies rather than just one.
But here's the thing: Once they buy an expensive item, they're then broke. They can't continue to accumulate potentially infinite funds. Yes, some will balk at this, but I think the ones that would perhaps don't understand how an economy works. I think that the vast majority would be fine with this. And it would allow people to concentrate on other areas (like the Coliseum) rather than focusing on making treasure.
But what about rewards?
Well, once you hit your max wallet cap, the rest of it could go to your patron deity. And perhaps every 1k of gold could give you a small per centage of reduced energy use as a boon. So sometimes you'll want to have well over a full wallet, because you'll be able to use the Coliseum more often.
But yes, solutions like this are really the best way to handle inflation. I'm just throwing stuff out there because I get the feeling from my own observations that you guys are panicking about inflation.
And if you're unsure about such a drastic step, run a poll! Explain the situation and see what people want as a solution.
Inflation is often a problem for MMOs and sites like this, and there's a reason for that. Even new MMOs like Wilstar have wrote long, rambly blogs about how to deal with this, without coming to any conclusions, but the conclusion is obvious, simple, and logical.
I'm bringing this up because I think that our fearless leaders are freaking out a bit over economy booms and inflation, so I've been giving the topic some thought. So let's start this off as a thought exercise, with a very important question:
Why is real world inflation less a problem?
It's finite. Every real world currency is minted in finite amounts and backed by precious materials. The important part here though is that it's finite. If you receive a wage, that wage isn't pulled from the ether, it's all minted money. Even in this digital age of banks and existential money, it's all still finite to a huge degree. The magic of anti-inflation is something being finite.
What's the solution?
The problem is caused by introducing an element which is potentially infinite, therefore if new things are introduced, the person already has enough resources/currency available to them in order to acquire everything new the very moment it shows up on the scene. This creates boredom as there's nothing to work for, nothing to obtain. So the way this is usually combated is to try and create artificial scarcity, but this is often done from the wrong end.
Essentially, the attempt to create scarcity is created by dropping the value of items, making valuable drops more rare, decreasing the amount of resources available to the player, and so on. Yet this is also only going to create frustration, because people are smart creatures and they can see numbers going down, they're aware of it. And this has been a problem since time immemorial, with just about every MMO and online game thing.
The solution is introducing a cap to the player's earnings which is just above the most expensive item in the game, and then introducing other capped currencies which certain items can only be obtained for. You could have things pay out in different currencies, you could even have a currency exchange where a fee is charged to move one currency to another.
So, what I'm getting at is, say... the Pearlcatcher gene, that's 320k, right? So you cap the player's wallet at 350k, thus completely controlling inflation. After that, you provide them with a few other wallets with different kinds of currencies, which can buy products. When selling on an auction, the player could choose to ask for a payout in multiple currencies rather than just one.
But here's the thing: Once they buy an expensive item, they're then broke. They can't continue to accumulate potentially infinite funds. Yes, some will balk at this, but I think the ones that would perhaps don't understand how an economy works. I think that the vast majority would be fine with this. And it would allow people to concentrate on other areas (like the Coliseum) rather than focusing on making treasure.
But what about rewards?
Well, once you hit your max wallet cap, the rest of it could go to your patron deity. And perhaps every 1k of gold could give you a small per centage of reduced energy use as a boon. So sometimes you'll want to have well over a full wallet, because you'll be able to use the Coliseum more often.
But yes, solutions like this are really the best way to handle inflation. I'm just throwing stuff out there because I get the feeling from my own observations that you guys are panicking about inflation.
And if you're unsure about such a drastic step, run a poll! Explain the situation and see what people want as a solution.
"The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible." -- Arthur C. Clarke
