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The importance of an economy
Drezeks
Member Posts: 51
I think what has been missing from games recently is a strong player based economy. Vanilla WoW had a strong economy for a raid focused "bind on pickup" economy, but its economy is gone. However, new games with theme-park focuses have had terrible economies in comparison. I think a lot of the structure of these games need to be focused on the economy. Runescape did a great job, but that was a sandbox game. Recently I've played Darkfall and Fallen Earth which are both arguably sandbox games, but both without strong economy.
What I'm making this thread for is discussion about how important a strong player influenced economy is. Only in runescape have I found a game where you can be a trader, not a crafter but a trader. And I think this adds a lot to the game.
Comments
well i would say Darkfall but it is too dangerous to be a trader (since you can get ganked everywhere) but the economy would easily support a trader.
EVE is the obvious one for traders, you can both trade in goods while sitting in a station, travel around hawking off items or hauling to and fro. They all generate a profit.
Runescape did allow one to be a trader but it really wasn't all that needed, i think Runescape shined in the fact that you could just craft if you really wanted to and so far is the only freaken game where a mine is actually filled with ore and you don't end up running around a whole zone to find 5 or 6 nodes scattered in illogical areas.
Still i think it's something all games should strive for instead of the stock standard AH (easily inflated)
MMO wish list:
-Changeable worlds
-Solid non level based game
-Sharks with lasers attached to their heads
EVE has a robust economy and people dedicated solely to manipulating or supplying that economy. And, yeah, it's a sandbox.
Sorry I was in a rush posting it, I meant to compliment EVE for doing a good job-and ask how important that is to the games success.
Any game benefits from giving players the ability to trade. Some people use it as a source of fun and most use it as a means to get items and money. The only thing that really kills economies in a game is hyber inflation or when players can provide everything they need for themselves and trade is moot.
However how you structure it depends on who your target audience is.
If you are aiming for the hardcore crafter, then a system where all items have to be made by crafters, where crafting takes a large time investment, where you have to choose between crafting and combat skills, and where you have localized markets rather than an auction house would be ideal. This is better for the crafter because it puts them in an obvious seat of power. Here trading is about transporting goods from point A to point B to make a profit.
But it isn't good for the casual crafter, non crafters and consumers.
If you were doing a system for these type of players then you would still want to have dropped items, for the non crafting adventurers to find. Crafting would also be a side activity anybody could learn that does not take a massive time investment. And you would want an auction house, because auction houses are great for the consumer. Trading in here is more like a commodities market, buy low sell high.
Either way the economy is important, it is important for different reasons however. The first group probably enjoys the concepts for running a business, the second mostly as a way to get items and make some money.
Don't you worry little buddy. You're dealing with a man of honor. However, honor requires a higher percentage of profit
An actual economy, one that's designed to be player driven, gives people who don't like to raid/pvp things to do, its endgame content for crafters if you will. A great crafting system will keep builders entertained, but marry it with with an economy and it becomes a crafters nirvanna, plus it will also appeal to the marketpvpers. The only drawback i can see in having an economy is designing it and policing it (to remove duping/bots) for MMO makers, they always want to appeal to a larger playerbase.
F2P/P2P excellent thread.
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/282517/F2P-An-Engineers-perspective.html
Economy is just one part of the game. I would say for a hack-n-slash focus game, good combat mechanics, and good combat content (boss fight, quests, ..) are more important.
A good economy does add flavors though. I don't think the wow economy is gone. There is still a vibrant economy for a) current raid level craft items (there are always almost BIS craft items for some slots) and BoE items, b) lower tier items to gear up newly L80 (lots of items), consumables, and pets.
love how diffrent the economy in each region is, really like that part of EvE economy....even if Id find out spended way too much on an item later on...live and LEARN, makes it fun.
I really do not see where you get this idea. WoW's economy is pretty much just as active now as it was in Vanilla WoW. The focus on which items get trade shifted but the economy system itself has not changed much.