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Tylen
Alpha Antifemale
Joined: 29 Jul 2003
Posts: 1192
Location: Not Colorado
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 Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2003 5:02 pm Post subject: Commodity market, part 1 |
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With my limited experience so far, here are some problems as I see them.
1. The supplies of commodities are essentially infinite. A million monkeys foraging for a million years could never strip all the sirolei ivy from the land. The only limiting factor is time spent foraging.
With an infinite supply, price eventually reaches zero. If it remains like this, it would only really make sense to get paid a wage for foraging, and nothing for what you forage.
2. However, demand for commodities is also infinite. The above mentioned million monkeys could sell all their ivy at once and the market would never stop buying. This causes a separate problem of having an endless source of cash flowing into the game (of course this also happens in other places, but I'm not going into them here).
3. Currently, a commodity left untouched will gravitate toward its maximum price. Ideally it should move toward some intermediate price, but this largely depends on how the supply and demand work (problems 1 and 2).
Those are my initial thoughts. I'll post more soon, but I'd like to hear comments on these first. |
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HR-Trevor
Boss Type Guy
Joined: 04 Oct 2002
Posts: 6683
Location: Louisville, KY
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| Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2003 7:35 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
1. The supplies of commodities are essentially infinite. A million monkeys foraging for a million years could never strip all the sirolei ivy from the land. The only limiting factor is time spent foraging.
With an infinite supply, price eventually reaches zero. If it remains like this, it would only really make sense to get paid a wage for foraging, and nothing for what you forage. |
Yes, they are. If they weren't, eventually potions and poisons would cease to exist, jewelry could no longer be made from those metals and gems, and so on. I understand that in the "real" world there is a limited supply of things, though this is instread just seen as a decreasing supply, which leads to higher and higher prices. Since none of us can imagine the world being without new gold or diamonds, we never view it as an endless supply.
But some items are notably harder to find that others. Take stasis flower, for example. Why should it be devalued by using a wage? It may have an infinite supply, but the places to locate it and the skill needed to find it are both hindrances.
| Quote: |
| 2. However, demand for commodities is also infinite. The above mentioned million monkeys could sell all their ivy at once and the market would never stop buying. This causes a separate problem of having an endless source of cash flowing into the game (of course this also happens in other places, but I'm not going into them here). |
Don't all money making systems put an endless source of cash into the game? Combat, craft systems, etc? I mean, we could apply this resource depletion aspect to every system and wear them all out. Run out of critters, out of fish, out of craft materials, but then what's left for one to do? And if you don't have ever present means to make money, how does the economy work?
| Quote: |
| 3. Currently, a commodity left untouched will gravitate toward its maximum price. Ideally it should move toward some intermediate price, but this largely depends on how the supply and demand work (problems 1 and 2). |
This would probably negate most of the point of the commodities. The point right now is that some items are worth more than others and so you go after the valuable stuff. If things gravitated toward a middle, I don't know what difference it would make. People would buy stuff they needed for potions, people who needed money would sell commods, and so you'd keep that middle ground. Items that theoretically have use but have no player-use, like eorit stone, would never have any reason to go over that average.
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"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something." -- Plato
-- Trevor Rage / Rich Mondy |
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mellie
Artistic Bitch
Joined: 05 Jul 2003
Posts: 160
Location: Hell if I know.
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| Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2003 10:19 pm Post subject: Re: Commodity market, part 1 |
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| Tylen wrote: |
| A million monkeys foraging |
 I needed that laugh |
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Tylen
Alpha Antifemale
Joined: 29 Jul 2003
Posts: 1192
Location: Not Colorado
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| Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2003 12:38 am Post subject: |
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| Well I'm still writing up my response, but I would like to see some player comments on this. Considering how screwed up economies are in games like GS and DR, I'm surprised that people aren't more concerned about it here. |
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HR-Trevor
Boss Type Guy
Joined: 04 Oct 2002
Posts: 6683
Location: Louisville, KY
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| Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2003 2:02 am Post subject: |
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In my experience people are generally more concerned about being able to make money to buy things than they are about balance. Most changes to balance the economy are met with a lot of criticism. Now that hasn't been the case here really, we've probably had more good feedback than bad, but as a generalization, this is the case. You don't hear "cool the economy is getting more balanced", you hear "oh man, now there's not crap in these boxes".
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"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something." -- Plato
-- Trevor Rage / Rich Mondy |
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Trathyn
Joined: 25 Jun 2003
Posts: 46
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| Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2003 6:17 pm Post subject: |
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I have a question for ya Trevor on our future economy.
When we move to LIVE I'm sure we will have a great deal more land to wander. With possibly even different Regions.
Will the Prices/Availability of commodities be Regional ?
In other words, could Gold be more plentiful in Region 1
and in more demand in Region 2, therefor going for a better price in Region 2 ?
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Traythyn Darkwater
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HR-Trevor
Boss Type Guy
Joined: 04 Oct 2002
Posts: 6683
Location: Louisville, KY
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| Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2003 6:54 pm Post subject: |
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I can't say for certain what commodities will be like in live, because we are completely and totally re-evaluating them as a system.
BUT, I support regional economies, because it gives you incentive to move around.
And yeah, we have a few thousand rooms no one has seen and will add more before live.
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"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something." -- Plato
-- Trevor Rage / Rich Mondy |
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