This is an awesome Friday Feature. I think many of us who have been playing for awhile find the economy and other aspects of our population behaviour very interesting.
This is a typical economic analysis: a mountain of data interpreted in a very particular way to support a conclusion that does not correspond with the daily experiences of the people purportedly studied.
As an earlier respondent mentioned: I run missions, I pay fees, at the end of the day I have a profit. This is the basic engine that runs the game's economy. Anyone who does what I do makes a profit. For all such players, the economy is inflationary. Don't you think we'd notice if we were going broke? The only time my bank balance takes real hits is when I'm buying things from other players, and that money's not leaving the system. Put simply, it does not matter to me, or to anyone who can run missions, if the economy is "running at a loss" in some big-picture sense, because we can just print what we need. If I want something that costs a million credits, I can go run missions for a million credits.
This is not a good thing.
Assuming the analysis isn't flawed (and it's entirely possible that it is), the only people for whom the economy could be deflationary are people who don't run missions but have high costs -- pure crafters maintaining structures, basically. Of course, these people are the ones with the huge bank accounts too. So we have a hard-working class of adventurers that adds value to the economy which is sucked away by bloated elites to support their decadent lifestyle...POWER TO THE PEOPLE! VIVA LA REVOLUTION!......whoops, channeled Che Guevara there for a moment.
Which brings me to my last point, the following quote in relation to the concentration of wealth in the hands of the few:
This isn't necessarily something to be discouraged by - rather, we take it as a sign that the game economy is replicating characteristics of the real world economy. Since one of our goals was to have a game economy that can provide ongoing interesting strategy gameplay, seeing real world patterns manifest is something we were looking forward to.
This quote is pure Koster. Game balance isn't important. Whether or not the system is entertaining isn't important. What matters is using the paying customers as lab rats.
As I've said before: Sim City isn't fun for the Sims.
Not all that slowly--we went in and zapped the cash out of accounts that seemed to be totally ridiculous. But a lot of the duped cash is spread out at this point, since it was used in transactions. So probably everyone has SOME counterfeit credits in their possession at this point. That's why going the route of running at a deficit is a better way to go for now. The best way to track this, much as I hate to say it, is to watch the value of SWG credits on eBay. Since we closed the duping loophole, the price has more than tripled.
Haha, I love that kind of honesty from devs And we miss you Holocron, you should come back and visit more often, hold server wide events in the name of the devs, etc.
Just a couple of quickie comments. Glad to see so many folks enjoyed the article...
Expecting a game with largely player-driven pricing to adhere to the prices cited in the movie is unrealistic. There are VERY few numbers that the devs set directly in terms of values. If a given item is developing artificially inflated prices and is becoming the tulip bulb of SWG, that's largely thanks to player speculation in that market. For that matter, a centrally planned economy that could actually achieve hitting that number would be quite the opposite of a player-driven economy--it'd have to be very tightly centrally controlled...
Secondly, DFH, the power law distribution isn't about game balance. There isn't a single economy in the entire world that is "fair" in the way you propose. I'll say upfront that I am at a total loss as to how make sure that the game economy is "fair" in the way you suggest; I'd also note that fairness in the way you seem to asking for it would also mean that skill could not result in making more money than someone unskilled. And that seems antithetical to "fun game" in a lot of ways. It's certainly true that currently some professions tend to accumulate cash and others do not--it's a worthwhile exercise to build a graph showing where money enters (via which broad profession groups) and where it exits and accumulates.
This particular article focused on only a fairly small subset of the possible metrics, since it is largely about currency creation and destruction. Yes, there's tons more that can be done with commodities prices, per capita incomes, and so on. Some of you may have read the articles by Ted Castronova calculating the GDP of EverQuest--he'd love to get detailed stats on SWG, I'm sure.
-Raph Koster Chief Creative Officer, Sony Online Entertainment
from what I am gathering here, no plans to adjust the economy are slated. That our whacked out system shld correct itself?
People charging anywhere from 20k to 100k+ for weapons and armor is the norm? Even tho been playing since day 1 and the most I accumulated is 300k? Of course if I ran missions all day or harvested resources and sold them I am sure I could gather cash, the point is, there are way far too many people with more cash than they know what to do with, so it doesnt hurt them to drop 3 mil on an item if they really want it.
You dont have any money sinks that help the casual player and start to bring down the rich. Try adding expensive pieces into the game for decorations or possibly transport. The majority of a server should not be the millionaires, they should be the elite class, but anyone with time on their hands can make cash runs and be solvent within a day or 2.
Read some of the trade forums Holo and see what kind of money is circulated. I have never seen a society where the elite outnumber the poor or middle class, yet that is what I see on SWG daily. The ones that are financially strapped are the 'casual' gamers who this game was supposedly to cater to, yet they seem to be the minority and now hurt by this system most of all.
Can you tell us the reason why a loot item like Giant Dune Kimo Scales are so limited from entering the economy. Y'all have artificially inflated the price of RIS armor by limiting the creation of this armor by having only 1 Scale drop per month. Where is the Fun in that? As a Master Armorsmith I have to stockpile dozens of rare resources to make an armor I have lil hope of making ( we wont get into the fact that RIS is substandard...lower stats than Comp , even if it is lighter, buffs negate that...ok, I did get into it a bit). The 1 piece I have made sold for 5.5 million creds, who can afford to use that to fight in???
Just my opinion on 1 thing I dont find fun about the game
Not all that slowly--we went in and zapped the cash out of accounts that seemed to be totally ridiculous. But a lot of the duped cash is spread out at this point, since it was used in transactions. So probably everyone has SOME counterfeit credits in their possession at this point. That's why going the route of running at a deficit is a better way to go for now. The best way to track this, much as I hate to say it, is to watch the value of SWG credits on eBay. Since we closed the duping loophole, the price has more than tripled.
I never did understand the developers, of any product, having a problem with ebay sales.
Before I go into the question, Mr. Koster, I just want to say that this is the most interesting feature I have seen to date. Thanks a ton for letting us see some of the insider goodies!
The question I have is --- why do you hate ebay sales?
I understand there are legal ramifications? However, all I have ever heard is that this is the sale of intellectual property of SOE. Still, if people are allowed some freedom with accounts and others sales there, wouldn't this promote some increased revenues for SOE in both the short and long terms?
For example: a player sells his Jedi slot account for $2500. I'm sure it doesn't matter to you if this person makes-out on a deal. But doesn't it make more sense for the account to sell, therefore the account remains open and payed for, rather than closing the account outright and getting nothing in return?
This is something I've never understood, or seen you speak about. I sure would like to learn the reasoning behind the attitude with ebay
The Journey Continues
Yo-Jimbo ---- TKA/Medic ---- Ahazi
Yo-Jimbo Panzer ---- TKM/CH/MEDIC ---- Bloodfin
Secondly, DFH, the power law distribution isn't about game balance. There isn't a single economy in the entire world that is "fair" in the way you propose. I'll say upfront that I am at a total loss as to how make sure that the game economy is "fair" in the way you suggest; I'd also note that fairness in the way you seem to asking for it would also mean that skill could not result in making more money than someone unskilled. And that seems antithetical to "fun game" in a lot of ways. It's certainly true that currently some professions tend to accumulate cash and others do not--it's a worthwhile exercise to build a graph showing where money enters (via which broad profession groups) and where it exits and accumulates.
That sounds pretty short sighted Holo.
Think about the addition of speeder repair costs. Those costs hit almost everyone and certainly hurts the lower-end players far more than the uber rich. This would be the real-world equivalent to a Food Tax. You kind of brushed off the posibility of a "fair" economy in the sense that the economy is either absolutly free market corruption or entirely artificial to maintain "fairness." That ignores the huge possibility of taxing the incredibly wealthy in a way that doesn't hurt the low-end players. If a system of graduated property tax were instituted instead, even on liquid assets alone, you would have pulled more money out of the economy and it would have been a burden shouldered by those who are actually capable of bearing it.
I know they won't do this, but at least don't pretend its impossible. That insults our intelligence.
"It has resolved personal worth into exchange value, and in place of the numberless indefeasible chartered freedoms, has set up that single, unconscionable freedom — Free Trade." - Communist Manifesto
Happy May Day Everybody! Hug your favorite communist!
Ceej - Eclipse
Creature Handler - Rifleman Getter of Hides - Shop Location -330 -5500, just south of Coronet
The No-Main-Jedi Petition is currently up to 64 pages without a dev response.
And we miss you Holocron, you should come back and visit more often, hold server wide events in the name of the devs, etc.
dang gimme an edit button, they even managed to implement them in the planetside forums 
