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Do You Need A Healthy MMO Economy To Enjoy A Game? | MMORPG.com
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Do You Need A Healthy MMO Economy To Enjoy A Game? | MMORPG.com
One of the issues that Bradford has with many MMOs, especially older ones, is the economy. Money in those games doesn't seem to matter as much as it should. It's a part of these games that drives down the quality of the experience. However, for some, it might not be a huge deal. How do you feel about MMO economies and how they relate to your enjoyment?
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But the problem not mentioned here is that a MMOs economy is used in most MMOs to drive cash shop purchases either directly or in a round about way. This distorts the nature of an economy in a MMO and how worthwhile an addition it is. It has also led to developers wanting to take control of the economy by being the gold sellers, the only market by having no player "shops" and such like. I think any benefits a MMO has from having a thriving economy have to be weighed against what can effectively become a partial P2P economy.
If the economy becomes too important you can bet cheating is following very closely alongside.
Cheating/exploiting is VERY difficult to stop/police and if done perfectly that likely means a less active economy but doesn't have to be.
To answer the question,yes it is very important,we are suppose to be in living plausible worlds,there should be an economy,trade,interaction.
So the reason why I liked and feel FFXI was such a great game is because of the sub class and slow paced longevity of the design.This meant that even he noob,low level crafts remained an important part of the economy for several years.This design even allowed brand new players to join in 5/10 years later and still earn a living via the economy.
Some of the numbers needed tweaks but overall a very nice template for other games to study and perhaps do a better job in their own game.It started to go to hell and will in EVERY game when a game tries to move too fast and create speed leveling just to make it easy for new players to join in and buy the newest expansions.
So without getting into it any further there is actually a lot to discuss with game economies and how the design of the overall game affects it.To cut it short,if levels and time passes by too quickly then all these games and their economies focus only on end game and that kind of result equals terrible gaming and terrible design.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Case in point, in a game like DDO, the economy is not that big a deal, crafting for the most part is just a means to gear out alts and the playground of the rich players with too much time and money on their hands. The most coveted items are Raid Drops that are Character Bound, so, for the most part gold functions more as a means by which you buy consumables, like healing potions and ammunition and the like, as opposed to big ticket items. As such in DDO, the market economy does not have as much impact against longer standing players, there gets a point where you are just past that opening struggle and have enough Gold to buy the things you need to buy, again, like consumables, and the game is all about earning/framing for that next piece of rare drop gear.
In a game like GW2, where crafting is pretty much the trade of everyone, so there is always a demand for materials and the like, not to mention that big ticket items like Legendary Weapons and super rare infusions can be bought and sold on the auction house, the Economy has a much larger impact to the majority of the population as a whole.
So again, it really depends on the game and how the economy is set up.
If i had my way players would age slowly over time and you remain that same level for at least a few weeks ,maybe a month.
There is no reason to do it any other way or the way we have seen it being done.There is NO reason to aim for end game,we shoudl be LIVING in these worlds,we should act and react like we are living souls within these worlds.
We should NOT be paper dolls with a level attached to them,a place to hang our loot and cycle the same end game content over and over and over to get more stuff to hang off our paper doll.
If we ever get a mmorpg designed the way i want to see it done we could have a plethora of ideas to attach to an economy,endless possibilities and results so that players do begin to feel unique.
A little hint on top of what i already mentioned which is a VERY slow paced leveling system.
Hint>>Properties on top of just stats.I can't fully explain properties without needing several paragraphs but just know that adding properties to items creates thousands of new results and needed items.Then of course those properties need to extend into the world be it housing ,mobs,world interaction,npc's,pets,mounts,farms,mining etc etc.
Yes it requires a massive database but so what.If a game like this is done right it should have millions of players and make loads of money.There is no need for greedy exec boards and over paid Morhaime's or Koticks ,earn your self a great living and put back into the game that made you rich.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
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GW2, tried to have a living world, that grew and changed, and they abandoned that idea, because, realistically, players don't really want it.
Players don't want to log into a game and enter a time where they simply missed out on some great event of something, and thus will never be able to enjoy that, they want static worlds that if they joined 2 years after launch, they can still do all the same stuff and get all the same loot that the people who played at launch got.
Ideally to make that work, you would need to find the demographic that wants a changing world to play your game, and this would need to be a very targeted demographic, so there would be no lining of pockets.
Anyway, as far as aging goes, this is an idea I have liked, and a Mud I used to play had this feature, which I thought was really cool.
As far as MMO's go however, I think the age of a character should be based on their Time Played, as opposed to date made, this way players who took a break from the game, can come back and not log into a character that is soo old they turn to a pile of dust and bones when they log into the game.
The reason was I could not afford to buy the recipes to make the items I needed as an alchemist. Come to think of it I might not have even been able to gather the herbs I needed because bots gathered them or even if they were not bots they were there before I was. I was in a good guild but you had to come prepared so I spent a better part of my gaming time getting gold so I can buy the potions or the herbs to give the guild member who could craft what I needed to raid. It became a horrible slog.
I blame the economy every time I play a game where I have to raid I am saddled with this horrible gold gathering endeavour I hate. So I stopped raiding and it took away a major part of the fun in belonging to a guild. Things always become more expensive and I can never get enough money to buy what I need. So eventually I began to eschew the parts of the game I enjoyed.
Yeah the economy in games is damn important. I wish it didn't work the way it does right now because almost every single raiding that is end game content is like this. I have given up that aspect of MMORPGs because it depresses me to fall behind.
In most games I am always a step too late because I take my own sweet time to level and by the time I get high enough everything is so expensive it makes me weep to check the auction house out.
In this respect I must take my hat off to Everquest 2 because I managed to become quite rich by simply having every crafter imaginable and making so many things people were constantly in my house to buy while admiring my gorgeous interior decoration to boot. Yeah that game gave me a lot of satisfaction in that regard. Had a lovely guild that often shook their head and admonished me using that rare gem to make a vase rather than a spell but they kept me around and I still got some guildees that would send me an ingredient or two on the sly.
Just, the way the games are set up, it's not fun to have to deal with all the BS.
In the beginning crafters producing a never ending stream of weapons and armor was very important in Star Wars Galaxies because items decayed from damage and would eventually become worthless so you had to replace them. Certain crafters became well known for what they produced and would get repeat customers.
The economy in Pirates of the Burning Seas right now is in a terrible state and is very non-friendly to new players. Ships sink and get worn out and need replaced, you level up and need a new ship etc.... In the early days, you not only had a lot of crafters producing ship deeds, but there was an NPC vendor that also sold one shot ships. No one had a problem getting a new ship.
Now, the few that still produce ship deeds have them priced at very high amounts, unreachable by new players. The only thing off setting that is there are players that will just give you a ship deed if you're new and ask. Hopefully with the rumored revamp that's coming, deed prices will return to an amount affordable by the new players they hope to attract back to the game.
For the other games I play ...... you can get everything you want in game and I rarely even use the auction house; LoTRO - maybe high level health potions if I can find them, DDO - once in awhile, same for AoC and SWG - Legends. I've never used it in Vendetta Online, SWToR, Neverwinter Online or STO.
SWG (pre-cu) - AoC (pre-f2p) - PotBS (pre-boarder) - DDO - LotRO (pre-f2p) - STO (pre-f2p) - GnH (beta tester) - SWTOR - Neverwinter
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My MMO needs are pretty basic: I want to explore, kill and loot but most of all get immersed in a great story.
The economy and crafting are just means to an end for me and I use them just enough to support what I want to do, but nothing that makes or breaks the MMOs I play.
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For one, they type of player you will get to look at your game. Fact is, gamers who play MMOs to craft and build an empire. Are often the backbones of guilds. They are what makes raids happen and often are highly supportive community building blocks. Its why games like SWG had awesome communities.
Also if you cant move your goods for a fair price, this can hamper new players much more then a gamer who has played the game for some time. Walking into a market you just cant be part of or is so inflated new players cant join in a meaningful way. Will kill the game as less new blood wont stick around when trying the game out. So longevity of the game need a working economy.
I could go on and on...
OMG, what world do you live in??? This game isnt even possible and will never be possible because no one will ever play, people will not want to play a VERY slow paced leveling game. The kids playing games in this day and age need that DOPAMINE hit yesterday, not 4 hours later after you leveled up.
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It adds real value to crafting/gathering. It gives you the ability to pool funds for advancement and opens up things like guild banks and such. It extends the life of content if the content is tied to the economy. (Aka if it is 2yrs old but still profitable to run it is still valid content)
In my opinion it is one of the reason content in games like FFXI and early Archeage lasted and worked. Because no matter what you did in those games it was progression. Even if you needed nothing from the content... someone else did and you could always sell the stuff and buy what you need from someone else. I loved it that you could spend 1 whole yr of your time in ffxi leveling say Goldsmithing, then have 3-4xs the progression of everyone else without a craft leveled for the next 8yrs just due to the income you could make having it capped.
Eve while not my cup of tea, worked because of the economy.
Now look at FFXIV which has probably one of the worst economies in any mmo period (supply is no joke about 30xs the demand with no rare items). Sure the crafting and gathering system is well done. But it is just utterly pointless. Prices fluctuate by upwards of 80% day by day. With non-consumables only being worth making for the first few weeks of a major raid patch. Someone with 1billion gill has equal progression power as someone with 100k. It is just laughably bad. This in my opinion is one of the reason FFXIV only ever has 5-6hrs a week of progression content and has had that amount of content now for 8yrs.
Now with the question do you need it to enjoy the game. NO. But without it the enjoyment is limited to the duration of getting the gear from said content. If there is no improvement left from the content or other content gives you beter gear. The content is negated and in my opinion as good as if they removed it from the game entirely. MMOs are investment of time, if there is nothing to gain no reason to do it.
Every Item has ONE listing:
IE: Iron Ore, there is ONE listing for Iron Ore. You Click it, and you see Buying/Selling and the price for each.
The Player offering the most to buy Iron Ore, will get it get it first when other players click Sell Now.
The player offering the lowest price to sell Iron Ore, will sell theirs first when other players click the Buy Now.
Now, if you want to sell something, but you are not happy with the Sell Now price, you can put down an offer to sell what you have, but keep in mind, the person with the lowest selling price will always Sell First.
Now, if you want to Buy something, but you are not happy with the Buy Now price, you can put down an offer to Buy what you are looking for, but keep in mind, the person with the highest buying price will always Buy First.
This keeps prices competitive.
But then again, in GW2 all crafted items are same, an Iron Axe made by someone with 100 ranks, is no better or worse than an Iron Axe made by someone with 500 ranks, and Iron Axe is an Iron Axe.