Profile: Vindvalya
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• • How to stop farming and gold selling?

  • Make the faucets competitive. That way the farmers have to compete with the regular players. May not stop farming but it makes farmers part of the game.

  • Posted: 7/02/08 6:17 PM
    Developers Corner
• • The MMORPG economy

  • I got to Sam's work from this post on another board.

    http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=455304&whichpage=1&#3011910

    The formula itself is something I learned in school but Sam does a great job explaining it so I didn't have to. Velocity is a really interesting concept in real world economics and MMO economics. Definitely one worth reading up on and understanding.

    When I started my blog I thought about trying to do what you are doing in terms of drawing flow charts and talking in detail about the types of faucets there are, etc. I wimped out though so it is good to know someone did all that work. Mind if I reference it?

    Here is a good description of UO's economy that is helpful and deals with a lot of the same things you are talking about.

    http://www.mine-control.com/zack/uoecon/uoecon.html

    Good luck with the project and keep us updated.

  • Posted: 7/02/08 1:19 PM
    Developers Corner
• • The MMORPG economy

  • I am trying to do a similar thing and took a different approach. I would check out this article about inflation. It was written by Sam Lewis and is pretty good.  

    http://www.raphkoster.com/2006/09/07/agc-mmo-economies/

    My blog is here.

    http://mmorpgdesigntalk.blogspot.com/

    As you can see I also talk about the P = MV/Q formula which is key to understanding inflation. I think this formula is a good place to start because it helps you categorize things in a way that should help you later on.  It also helps establish the relationship between these variables.

    For example, hoarding is a concept that is more easily understood with this formula. Hoarding essentially decreases V, but a hoarding player may also be increasing M at a high rate. The overall impact on prices depends on the combination of both of these factors. 

    My blog is almost all about the macro economics of an MMO economy so far. I will eventually get into the micro economics more. This is where your stuff shines IMO. Your diagrams are great and should really help anyone trying to understand the economics of an MMO. I do think that you should talk more about things like transactions taxes(drains) and the micro economics of drains and faucets. 

    SWG is an example of a game that had issues with crafters being rich and adventurers being poor. 

    Overall I think you did a really good job. I think if you are going to talk about inflation you have to use that formula though.  

  • Posted: 7/02/08 10:04 AM
    Developers Corner