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In game economy should it be regulated or free market?
Siamko
Member Posts: 13
In Game Economy
Game economies can be the defining or the destructive aspect of any title. Player run economies can be unstable and easily exploitable. The focus of this poll is should a games economy be totally player controlled or should the developers hold the power to balance the market should things start to get out of hand.
I am a big supporter of the free market system however I do believe that all things should have checks and balances, which in turn makes it not a free market. I guess my ideal in game economy would be highly diverse. I would like for the developers of said title to watch over the economy and if a certain aspect was becoming out of hand, have it reset in some passive way. I also believe that a more realistic pricing system should be in place this would certainly in my opinion help to keep the market in check.
Now that you have heard my own personal views I would like to hear yours please cast your vote for either a free market sytem (player controlled) or a regulated system (developer controlled). Also be sure to post a comment and help fine tune your vote.
Also keep in mind that this thread does not specifically pertain to only Eve Online, how ever Eve Onlines economy plays a very large roll in the gaming experience.
In game economy should it be regulated or free market?
A. Developer regulated economy.
B. Completely player ran economy
Comments
In a PvP game that respect itself, in game economy really should be free market...
In a PvE game (not EvE), it should be regulated. Free market is an indirect form of PvP, while some PvE players might enjoy it (just like some PvE players hate instancing for some reason), the main course of the PvE players are running away from market conflicts...might have some compromise, where it is regulated but the free market can improve it...but not on the wrong side of the free market.
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
Seeing that the only part of the EVE economy that is currently screwed up is the dev controlled part (tech 2) I say Free economy.
"Memories are meant to fade. They're designed that way for a reason."
When making a game with free market you have to make sure of one thing, that money in = money out. If either of those two out of wack your system will eventually crash.
Another big thing is avoiding creation of potential monopolies, like Mcgreag said. What is really screwing EVE right now is the price on T2 ships, something that costs 40m to make gets sold for 200m because the supply is extreemly limited.
For all its pluses, the biggest minus is that it is very hard to get the system to work correctly. For those of you who played since beta test, you guys remember how many times market system was scraped before they got it right. I believe it was 6 market resets while in beta and then 3 more once in release, then they tried to redistribute BPO's. Oyyyy......remembering those times is painful, but at least they got it right........eventually.
I would like to ask a question in this forum as we are talking about economy.
The eve-online main site has a database of all items, tech 2 or otherwise, and some sort of "base price". What this base price is? The components price to manufacture it with a blueprint?
Cause, for example, a covert ops cloack device has a base price of around 1 mil, but in the actual eve market, it costs around 50-70 mils (around 3 time a covert ops frigate, by the way). Why is that?
Is a covert ops cloacking device so hard to make? there is little demand for it so the price rises or what?
thanks for any answer.
"If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime"
base price is thebasic minerial price.
As for the covert ops cloak depending on what view you suscribe to
1. Cartel someone bough up most of the BPOs and is inflating prices.
2. Really strange build requirements that do not follow the standard tech 2 build tree.
3. More ships that can use the module.
4.Combo of the points above
I will agree that a free market is what I would like to see but as you have pointed out there are problems with exploitation. But the point has been made about supply and demand, I do think that if you are the only producer of said good you should set your own price. However if said good is escential to progressing in said game then that is where the devs should step in and passively in a sense make that item more readily available. It is much like in the sense of oil prices yes the oil companies get to set there own prices however once they get above what the general populace is willing to pay it is up to the rulling body to step in and help ease the market strain. I would like to see a player run economy I am fully for that but it needs to be truly player responsible as well. There have been many times where players become unhappy with the out of control pricing and inflation rate in some mmo in game markets, and then turn to the devs and say "how can you let this go on." This is normally do to someone price gouging on an essential item which causes the rest of the market to rise in order to off set that cost. Before you know it a loaf of bread doesnt cost a nickle anymore it cost three dollars and it didnt happen over a span of fifty or sixty years it happened almost overnight.
An economy in game is a very sensitive machine and is effected by an endless list of changing variables. It is easy for an economy to spin out of control if not watched over by someone either players or developers. Also the amount of actual labor to create said items to be sold needs to be relative to the cost this is also another price defining aspect in my opinion. (P.s. Crafting thread with poll posted on EQ II discussion thread)
I also want to adress another point to help define developer regulated. There are Real World companies that do operate selling in game currency. This also causes severe market shifts since the amount of currency can easily be availabel to those who wish to buy it. I dont want to get to deep into this side of the discussion however, that is another point that I think should be taken into consideration. Average wealth of a community is normally what defines base prices, then supply and demand. With a dev regulated system that is a passive approach I think you can achieve the best of both worlds with players setting there own pricing and still have someone besides the player have to bare the responsiblity of keeping the whole thing running smooth.
Remeber these are just my opinions and these threads are meant as debates to help find the best answer to these key issues. Please feel free to post your ideas as well as respect others opinions.
1. It's the ONLY t2 item that is required for a whole shipclass to work. For all other items while t2 might be preferd there are still t1 and named items that can be used as an option, on force recon and covert ops frigates there are no option.
2. It's the ONLY t2 item that requiers another t2 item to make. One of the components used in making Covert Ops Cloak is Improved Cloaking Device II, the cartel that the person above talked about are not no covert ops cloak but on improved cloaks. But there is more, all t2 items are based on a t1 item which is needed in its production. Improved cloak is the ONLY t2 item where its needed t1 item (Prototype cloak) is not readly avalible on the market, the blueprint for prototype cloaks are also given out like t2 blue prints.
So to to make a Covert Ops Cloak you need an Improved Cloak which in turn needs a Prototype Cloak. And all of these are in limited supply. Not strange that price are high is it?
"Memories are meant to fade. They're designed that way for a reason."
I also agree that it should all be player ran. Nice thing though, unless you play, you will never know and fully understand the market. There are actually 3 types of markets in each region, then there is like 20 regions, each with its own markets. NPC/Player Market, Escrow, and Black Market (of sorts) Why people us Escrow, NO CLUE, cause everything in the game can be sold on the NPC/Player market and then it will be safe. Safe from scammers. The black market is hidden of sorts, but there. You can find items on market that you would normally find on Escrow, and people tend not to look for these items on market, thinking that they can only be on escrow. Its more of a hidden market, but I have heard there is a black market out there to, just waiting to see if I can find it. Oh I got drugs too, plenty of them.
"everything in the game can be sold on the NPC/Player market and then it will be safe."
Not true Drej.
Bookmarks, blueprint copies, sets of items, officer/faction loot, and probably a good deal more that I can't think of cannot be sold over the market.
Escrow was always a borked system (the mutant spawn of the courier system). That will change, and while scamming will still be there, it will probably be made more transparent with the new contract system thats slated for Kali.