"The Economics of Video Games"
Pretty good interview. Balancing a virtual economy has got to be a pain in the kitten
Xiro, High Five Warriors [HFW], Jade Quarry
Nice find, thanks for sharing.
I particularly like these two parts:
Often, market fluctuation is a standard part of a variety of cycles affecting any market, but if a market is hyper-volatile, over time players will start to lose confidence in that market and slowly stop participating.
Inflation controls could create a more sound economy in the long run, but they would also go against the primary purpose of a video game — fun. To limit the amount of money obtainable in Guild Wars 2, strict inflation controls would have to diminish the volume of rewards players can seek out. Just imagine an MMORPG in which enemies rarely drop valuable items and don’t drop money or “vendor trash” — useless items that can be sold to non-playable characters (NPCs). Players would — very reasonably — get fed up and quit as the experience fails to be quantifiably worthwhile.
Let’s say I’m optimistic that they will reach a balance that either pleases or that most people can live with.
“Whose Kitten is this?” – “It’s a Charr baby.”
“Whose Charr is this?”- “Ted’s.”
“Who’s Ted?”- “Ted’s dead, baby. Ted’s dead.”
“Whose Charr is this?”- “Ted’s.”
“Who’s Ted?”- “Ted’s dead, baby. Ted’s dead.”
Nice find, thanks for sharing.
I particularly like these two parts:
Often, market fluctuation is a standard part of a variety of cycles affecting any market, but if a market is hyper-volatile, over time players will start to lose confidence in that market and slowly stop participating.
Inflation controls could create a more sound economy in the long run, but they would also go against the primary purpose of a video game — fun. To limit the amount of money obtainable in Guild Wars 2, strict inflation controls would have to diminish the volume of rewards players can seek out. Just imagine an MMORPG in which enemies rarely drop valuable items and don’t drop money or “vendor trash” — useless items that can be sold to non-playable characters (NPCs). Players would — very reasonably — get fed up and quit as the experience fails to be quantifiably worthwhile.
Let’s say I’m optimistic that they will reach a balance that either pleases or that most people can live with.
Looking at that last quote, I’d argue one of the more successful MMOs in history did pursue that path. FFXI had (technically “has” I guess) extremely limited drops and generally didn’t use a “soulbound” feature. It had some very different economic challenges. I can’t really say whether I would call it “better” or “worse,” but it was certainly different. I know there were plenty of complaints about the system. Also, the system (for whatever reasons) ended up being much more susceptible to effects from RMT operations, and crackdowns on those RMT accounts had very dramatic (and different from GW2) effects upon the economy.
@ Syeria, mind explaining in detail what these economic challenges were? I never played that game, so I’m just curious.
@ Syeria, mind explaining in detail what these economic challenges were? I never played that game, so I’m just curious.
To get into some of it, here’s some background on the basics of (non-crafting) items in the game.
In general, the “good” weapons and armor were all acquired as specific drops from “Notorious Monsters.” They were basically named mobs with long respawn timers. The sole source of acquisition combined with very long respawn timers served to limit the volume of items in the market.
The most obvious issue this caused was in relation to RMT. Since these items were rare and highly desirable, they were also highly valuable. Because of this, many of them were heavily camped by RMT. With the effort they put into things as well as hacks or exploits they used, it became extremely difficult for legitimate players to acquire these items without resorting to either purchasing them directly from RMT with cash or in game with gil (the game’s currency) via the auction house.
Even in the absence of RMT, the competition between players to “tag” a particular mob would often become rather heated, and caused rifts between individuals in the community.
To combat RMT, Square-Enix eventually made many of the items like that the equivalent of soulbound. This came with its own problems as it harmed many players financially. Because of the low, controlled supply on these items, prices were generally stable. FFXI (for a very long time at least) was less focused on end game, and mostly about mid-level play as it could easily take 20+ hours of play to advance a single level. Players would purchase mid-level items secure in the knowledge that they’d be able to resell them later for a similar amount. Making these items non-tradeable upset that balance.
Another issue faced was the fact that there were very few items in general. In GW2 we might have 4-5 different items that are pretty much identical, so fluctuations in one will be absorbed by substitution goods. FFXI didn’t have that luxury. The economy was so condensed that any shocks could have major effects. When SE cracked down on RMT and began mass bans, they destroyed large amounts of coin and items, which caused all sorts of crazy market movements. I had stopped playing by that point so I don’t know specifically how it affected things, but have heard it was tumultuous.