MUDflation - How to counter it

[PrestoAdam]

A buddy of mine and I were talking about Vanguard. Now that I have a system to run it on again, I decided to load it up and see how it has progressed. Still sucks imho. Anyway, my buddy was also a Vanguard tester, and in our conversation about Vanguard, we started talking about WoW and MUDflation.

He suggested that instead of having enchanters, alchemists, weapon makers etc, that we should be able to buy anything from vendors. His argument was that in this way, there would be no MUDflation.

I agreed that NPCs should be able to sell most enchantments (wyr), potions or weapons (etc), but that us as players should as well. This would set a price cap on items or enhancements dictated by the cost the NPC is selling it for. The NPCs could also sell harvestable items, at relatively high rates, making those who wish to sell those same items, able to at a lesser rate. In this way, those who wish to deal with others to buy items can, and those who are shy or new to MMOs would not have to. Or if one was simply wealthy, would not have to deal with PCs. Or if an item was not available on the auction house (if there is one), one could buy from a vendor at a high rate.

In some situations, like if items or enchantments are needed when far away from vendors, crafters could increase their rates, but buyers would always know the base value an NPC would sell the same service for.

What do you all think? And what other ideas might help with this problem?

 

[Luciro]

I dunno, I never really had a problem buying or not buying something a player had found that's rare. If the vendors capped the prices then they should just do away with drops altogether and just let you farm cash and buy whatever eventually rather than find it.
Lots of easter egg players out there. So I don't think it'd roll well.

 

[Sylvado]

The reason prices inflate is because the system keeps dumping money into the system through drops far quicker than any drains they provide. You could decrease the drops or increase the drains but both will annoy the customer base.

 

[PrestoAdam]

Hmmm, Sylvado you have a point. Maybe I named the thread incorrectly.

My buddy and I were talking about the problems of the WoW auction house. As we played the game longer and longer, prices began to skyrocket.

We were thinking of ways to combat that.

 

[Gate]

The really odd thing is that on different servers, the economies operate in very different ways. In WoW, on my server there were really only a few items that were blown all out of proportion and I didn't really feel that controls such as you are talking about were necessary. Even if someone with access to a very rare recipie or set of plans was charging a fortune for the resulting product, thats really ok because of nature of rare/highly valuable plans. The person has gone through hell to get their plans and so anyone who wants the results either needs to be in good with him or pay a small fortune.

As for the other items for sale out there, the prices never really went up, they fluxuated and you could often just find the right time/day/week to shop for that item and make out very well.

However, as I said it appears to be a server by server issue, so perhaps some sort of GM controlled market correction could take place as needed?

 

[Sylvado]

WOW is different because it is capped. When characters continue to advance you need to provide greater challenges and those greater challenges require greater rewards.

 

[Chrisidon]

Hmmm, Sylvado you have a point. Maybe I named the thread incorrectly.

My buddy and I were talking about the problems of the WoW auction house. As we played the game longer and longer, prices began to skyrocket.

We were thinking of ways to combat that.

Actually, that's exactly it - as more money enters the economy, long-term players have money to blow (since at their high levels they don't need it anymore, but keep earning it) on alternate characters or friends. This makes items scarce, and drives prices up. Higher prices for good/superior items leads to fair/inferior items going up as people try to raise the money for something decent.

Simple simple solution - don't make the game item-centric. That seems to be the general direction HJ is going in, where instead of trading up items every 5-10 levels you'll keep the same thing for a VERY long time and only reluctantly part with it, unless the new gear has some special property.

 

[Gate]

Simple simple solution - don't make the game item-centric. That seems to be the general direction HJ is going in, where instead of trading up items every 5-10 levels you'll keep the same thing for a VERY long time and only reluctantly part with it, unless the new gear has some special property.

Bingo! And that is one of the big reasons I'm here.

 

[Zink]

Yup, that means this probably won;'t be an "Uber 1337" game with twinks runn9ing around crazy...

 

[Luciro]

I think there will be twinking going on, but not in the same aspect as we know it. Just mostly saying, I hope wyr isn't really level restricted.

 

[cordy_CinVin]

Ya know the people over at the treasury dept. have been trying to get this right for years now. Economists around the world try to figure out how to stop inflation and such on a daily basis and sad to say they are well mediocre at best.

But if a game designer can figure it and and make it still be "fun" I'll vote them to become president lol.

Your always gonna have it. Unless you get rid of loot, and whats the point of drops if an npc sells it anyways. But its just something I guess ya learn to live with in games, sucks though.

 

[Nnem]

Ya know the people over at the treasury dept. have been trying to get this right for years now. Economists around the world try to figure out how to stop inflation and such on a daily basis and sad to say they are well mediocre at best.

But if a game designer can figure it and and make it still be "fun" I'll vote them to become president lol.

Your always gonna have it. Unless you get rid of loot, and whats the point of drops if an npc sells it anyways. But its just something I guess ya learn to live with in games, sucks though.

I think what he is trying to say is, no more items. None. No gold, no weapons, no armor, no potions. You can still have a hat though.


But I agree Cordy

 

[cordy_CinVin]

Ya I was just stating in general is all. But imo anyways I think some people would be turned off by that idea in the sense some people play mmo's for achievement purposes. Meaning they want to gain those ultra rare items and be the richest person kinda like how some people are in RL.

You get rid of those things granted your economy problem is fixed but then what am I trying to get besides a higher level and advancing the story line?

just a thought.

 

[Chrisidon]

By removing item-centricity, you get a completely different market than the typical MMO out there. If you want to be the uberest via going out and killing things, you have WoW, EQ2, EQ1, and a slew of others. I see HJ going in the direction of being the best through roleplay and finding unique combinations of basic gear and wyr. Sure, some wyr drop off monsters, including some powerful ones, but based on Simu's track record you'll also get some powerful ones from special events and NPC merchants. Is it a smaller market? Yes. Has Simu shown they can survive in an environment with said smaller market? Absolutely.

 

[Karetyr]

The thing to think about is that items and Wyr in HJ are more like pets and pet abilities in WoW than items. Think about it. Pets level up as you do, and you become very attached to them - whether because they've been with you so long or just because it's annoying to retrain a pet. And pet abilities are learned one by one by purchasing them, not simply automatically gaining them.

 

[krazp]

The economy will be helped out the most by the GM events, I think it will be a great money sink because those services or items you purchase from a GM, that money will dissapear. These other games always claim and advertise that they will have these events, But never deliver. Simutronics will deliver this and that one thing will allow HJ to have a stable economy IMO.

 

[PrestoAdam]

I hope so Krazp. I am really looking forward to the GMs participating in the world. The only times I have experienced it in MMOs was during the last parts of betas. Those were fun events, and I craved seeing it in the released worlds.

With too many shards, and too few GMs, the in-game events seem to be lacking in the games I have played post beta.

 

[Shaduu]

The thoughts in this thread are great. I've just started a new thread that is peripheral but related to this one, I think. Called "Game Design vs. Player Culture." I'd love to see some of your ideas there.

 

[blur]

Ok then.

 

[Daax]

ok den.