[konidias]

Originally Posted by Googi

Yeah, but you base estimations of market value on how much effective demand you think there will be for an item, not by trying to make a real-world currency conversion.

Obviously. But it's better to start somewhere than nowhere. At least basing your currency on something more concrete than "well a gralat/plat/gold coin/dollar is worth less now because players have thousands of them each". Since this is killing new players who have a grand total of 0.

It doesn't make sense because scaling is an arbitrary way of setting prices. There's no reason to believe that the market value of an item will correspond with the scaled, real-world-based value.

So what do you suggest? Coming up with something off the top of one's head?

And my criticism only applies to items that are sold in shops. The system you're suggesting heavily discourages players from buying items from other players if they are sold in shops.

It does no such thing. In fact, with limited releases and days between restocks, it is encouraging people who really want a particular item to seek it out from players, instead of having to wait/possibly miss getting the item from the restock if they cannot be online when it happens. Time = money and most people do not like having to wait for the item to restock in the store so they will get it from players if possible.

It's true that it has little to do with attracting players, but it has a lot to do with keeping players.

Only when the economy crumbles to the point where it needs reset. Then people get annoyed and leave. People aren't usually going to notice in the first few weeks that an economy is going to fall apart. I doubt many people log on a server for the first time and are thinking "hmm pretty nice, but how will the economy hold up?" Most don't even realize until the staff announce a reset. Then they are scratching their heads wondering why the third, fourth, fifth etc reset is happening.

Yes, a balanced economy is best, but that doesn't necessarily mean "fighting inflation no matter what."

It does if you want to give new players a fair chance. Six months in with inflation and new players are royally boned.

Explain why 2K2's economy is not successful (certainly it's not perfect but I would still describe it as successful).

I haven't really been actively playing 2k2 but it's safe to assume that it's anything but successful. You have events team who were giving out high value items to a select few. Where'd those come from? The sky? You have items that are completely worthless. Far too many to even name. (not like I'd remember the names anyway) The shop was a disaster... People would intentionally buy stuff they didn't even want just so the shop would instantly replace it with another item that they do want.

I think after hearing you state that 2k2's economy is successful and your other various points that you've made... I think it seems more like you're just trying to find ways to pick apart my guide. You might as well throw in "Well what if your playerworld is in some alternate dimension where you swim in outerspace and eat toad sandwiches??? How are you supposed to balance that economy using your guide!?" It's kind of obvious then, that the guide is not for your playerworld... Which is probably why I didn't mention magical/fantasy items and playerworlds with no shops. Because I think people can figure out that they need to set their own prices for those items and if they don't have shops then they shouldn't be reading about how shops should be run.

Which is why (like you said), it's important to keep an eye on the money supply and have ways to remove money from the economy, but things like keeping items fixed at shop prices by discouraging the trade in "shop items" (which would be the consequence of what you're suggesting) sacrifice gameplay for the purpose of fighting inflation.

Items aren't fixed at shop prices. The item price will rise in value the more in demand that it is. If you buy a "flaming sword" for 300 coins or something and the shop runs out, the stock is gone... and anyone wanting a flaming sword would have to either wait for the item to be restocked, or buy the item from another player. Even when it restocks, the flaming sword will have gone up in price. After a few price raises, your initial flaming sword purchase of 300 coins will be cheap compared to the 350 coins it costs in the store. Then you could sell YOUR flaming sword to a player for 340 coins and they will gladly take yours and save 10 coins.

I really don't see how you think this is discouraging player to player commerce. You're either reading this wrong or you're just looking for a reason to debate something.