Econ Students: How do we prevent Bubbles & Ponzi's in a VR economy?

This brings up an opposite story involved in economic PvP in Eve, but the story is one of being prepared as a crafter to counter those who would corner the market in a region. Tristans (small ships) were being purchased and then remarked at 1000 fold the price. We took three freighter loads of Tristans from separate regions at much lower prices and basically plastered the main trade routes in Oursuleart to Dodixie with Tristans at various price marks, but so many that it would pretty much defund the person who was buying out all the Tristans and then moving two stations away to restock there until they stopped the effort and moved out of the region.

 

With the setup I described?
Then you have created economic stratas for your players.
Basic stratas are controlled by NPC merchants, the margin is controlled by the game through supply and few players will produce for that strata.
The middle strata is the stepping stone, this is where most will be it's also here player economy grows.
The high luxury strata is controlled by a luxury resource (in the example above glass) which is limited by drops.

If there is lots of money in the game the price for the luxury strata will skyrocket. Which is ok and by design.
The middle strata will fluctuate and the lower strata will be unaffected.

Since the inflation hits the luxury strata higher you remove the possibility that everyone will be rich.
If you design it right then you increase the cost to procure the luxury ingredients removing cash from the economy.

If you get players trying to corner a specific market players will switch to items from a lower strata until prices adjust.

the monsters have gear. You sell the gear.

 

^ i like these words above. it all makes sense, logical you could say but currently my farming methods are so inefficent cause i am not finding the high value mobs to offset repair bills. im using augmented iron, havent found any epic plate yet. just some cloth that is epic. i usually spec for the most efficent based on the gear i currently have. but in theory plate should be tougher than cloth but in last release i was farming melee with cloth and still could take a beating.. i think this needs to be adjusted, imo.



i've been farming for two days and havent gotten one decent gear drop. except from the elves those swords with mods on them but then im so encumbered i cant return to town and when i go back and sell unencumbered it still doesnt cover the bills for me. currently im full plate and taking al lthe dmg mitigation talents in melee.

 

Pre-Alpha.
R14 repair costs are not balanced. Doesn't really mean a thing.

I can easily get by with a big surplus. I use only cheap replaceable gear when doing PvE.

The epic stuff drops in the dungeons about 5% of the time. So you either got to be lucky, or you got to repeat them 20+ times.

 

ah ok thanks. i know its always changing thats why you have to keep up with the details. im learning.

Can anyone else postulate what went wrong with the archeage model?

My postulation is that the guilds that organized overpowered the control mechanisms. I beleive they trued to offset this with the apex which i would equate to bitcoins in our american economy. Could you make a bitcoin type reward mechanism that devs could use to dynamically inflate or deflate the economy or is that what merchants are for?

Having a backup controm mech to prevent venture runs and monopolies by some creatively scrupulous guilds. The biggest threat to the economy from what i gather is cornering of markets. A secondary control mechanism as backup would never be a bad idea. As i learned in school. Make backups of your backups of your backups. They could also be used a incentives within certain fiefdoms for guilds to have more control of their economies within the greater economy

 

If you think for one second there will not be scam artists in this game? Then you are very new to online gaming. Unfortunately they will be here, along with gold sellers etc...

 

now that i re-read it is not a monthly subscription but a one time download, i realize, yes, probably will be hackers and botters on pirated/hacked copies and maybe overseas gold sellers. Poop. ;(

now i want a monthly paid subscription, something small, like .50 cents, and everyone who pays that .50 all multiplayer together and dont have to play with the ones that dont pay. just that small fee i think will keep out both the riff-raff and the botters/griefers/piraters.

i get the bell curve theory of gaming, where a Veteran player's skills are so advanced and time at the game are so long, a new players think he's cheating, and usually its cuz the Vet knows where the keys/scripts are at. and then apply it to the economic bell curve, where Vet also has a bazillion, and new guy has 1000. the new player is not getting rich any time soon. in a sense, the vet MUST set the base market price with the vets years of wealth, or it's not a real economy.

long story short, there is -=> in reality<=- no real REAL economy, it's a buncha faith. and dont give me gold vs. food vs. pfffffffffft! pfplplpltfffffffflffffft!!!!!!! there's no way you can just jump into an economic model like our real life one, slap it on a game, and think it'll work somehow. ours is flawed and patched to stupidity, sadly. real stuff vs. digital stuff, i dont think they will ever really follow the same economic logic. it'll need to be something startrekky like altruism or collectivism in order to work, and i dont know if we as people are quite ready to do stuff for free yet- for some dumb reason.

The Hendoman

 

I know!
What if, and listen to me here guys.
What if, seriously...what if everyone in game gave all their gold to me?
Then I would like, seriously, I would like distribute it "evenly" and "justly" to those who need it?

Economy.

Fixed.

 

Hmmm, "...from each according to their ability; to each according to their need. That works. StraightsJacket, I hereby award you the Lenin Prize for your valiant work in fixing everything.



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I just do not get it. I would say, "who cares?" but it seems there are lots of people who cannot stand it if enterprising people have fun making a profit or hoard items. Why would I care if my neighbor corners the market on blue gem shards? More power to him, I say. Personally, Ponzi schemes do not worry me either, as I am smart enough not to buy in. I don't need some kind of protection scheme set up by a bunch of do- gooders to keep me from burning my fingers. I apologize if I am stepping on some toes here, but I say "WHO CARES?"