economies
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The Daily Grind: Are you OK with auction houses?
You know, I really miss player shops in MMOs. I realize that the universal auction house is a concession to convenience that most players can no longer live without, but there's something to be said for local market economies and merchant autonomy when it comes to setting yourself apart from the crowd. Not to mention the fact that it's occasionally fun to take a break from the usual killing and looting and browse through a painstakingly furnished player storefront. What about you, Massively readers? Assuming you've ever played an MMO with player-run shops, vendors, and more realistic market systems, do you like those mechanics? Or do you prefer the auction house? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The Guild Counsel: Why broken economies hurt guilds
I have to admit, I read the recent article by Ramin Shokrizade on the pre-endgame economy of Guild Wars 2 and shrugged. He made a lot of great points, but the problems with GW2's economy are really not that unique. One of the biggest dilemmas is the fact that dropped items, like weapons and armor, really don't have any value prior to the endgame. As in many MMOs, the broker or auction house is flooded with pre-endgame armor and weapons and there's just no demand for it. There are several design flaws that play a role in why dropped items, and virtual economies in general, feel stagnant. Let's look at a few common problems in MMOs today and see why broken economies actually hurt guilds as well.
The Daily Grind: What's the absolute worst MMO economy?
I'm known around Massively as a total player economy junkie. Crafting is nice and all, but trading is really what gets me excited. Auction houses, hawking wares in global chat, buying and selling on player vendors -- however it's done in the MMO du jour, that's where I want to be, playing the market and PvPing via brains rather than bloodshed (shed tears are another story). So when an MMO's economy goes belly up, I get annoyed. Really annoyed. Guild Wars 2's economy, for example, is not the shining light of the MMO industry I'd hoped it would be. It might be better than Guild Wars 1's since at least it has player crafting and an auction hall, but the supply and demand balance is an epic trainwreck, one that more resembles the tacked-on economies of games released in 2002, not 2012. I'm not sure it's the worst one ever, but it's certainly on the list. So let's hear some others that deserve to be on the list: What's the absolute worst player-run economy an MMO's ever offered? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Cash rules everything around Pathfinder Online
The latest in the series of Pathfinder Online developer diaries has just recently gone live, and this time it's covering something near and dear to the heart of many gamers: money. Even if you don't play an MMO specifically for the size of your bankroll, everyone likes having cash to spend and money in the bank. The diary explains that the heart of the game's economic system will be a currency known simply as coin, which is meant to be the driving force behind the virtual economy in-place. Beyond the basics of the game's economic theory, however, the entry also reveals something of the game's business model, explaining that players will also be able to spend real money to purchase Skymetal Bits. These Bits work as microtransaction currency, running the gamut of the usual microtransaction services (skill training, cosmetic items, special content, and so forth). If you've been following the game along thus far, you'll probably want to see what information the latest entry is providing.
Lost Pages of Taborea: Comparing EVE's PLEX and PvP to RoM's
I was prepping for a Guild Wars 2 comparison with Runes of Magic, but in light of the current buzz in the air, I'm moving my EVE Online comparison up. A couple of interesting blocks fell into place this week that fit well with a look at how EVE and RoM allow money to circulate through the economies, and how PvP works in conjunction with it. While there's no contest as to which MMO has the more robust economy, there are still similarities that fit the pay-to-progress comment Mr. Simon Ludgate made in a recent Gamasutra article. Swarming around the above topics is the question of how much it costs to stay competitive in RoM, which I've also been working on. What does Gamasutra's article have to do with RoM, how much does it cost to be competitive and how are economies similar in these two MMOs? You can also read my memorandum to all EVE PvPers. Set your jump-point past the break to see.
Raph Koster on the legacy of Star Wars Galaxies
Amid all the internet commentary sure to be forthcoming over the next few days regarding Star Wars Galaxies and its upcoming swan-song, none of it is really as relevant as the thoughts of the man primarily responsible for designing the original game. Raph Koster offers up a bit of commentary on SWG's demise via his personal website, and despite the brevity, he manages to touch on exactly why the game mattered to so many of us and why it will be sorely missed. "It gave us features that continue to amaze people who don't realize what can be done: Real economies complete with supply chains and wholesalers and shopkeepers, that amazing pet system, the moods and chat bubbles [...], player cities, vehicles, spaceflight," Koster says. It also gave us dancing, and while many progression-focused gamers scoff at SWG's social features, Koster rightly concludes that they may well be the game's legacy since they allowed us to "stop saving the world or killing rats and realize the real scope and potential of the medium." In the end, Koster says that SWG's potential may have overshadowed the final product, but what remained was nonetheless a mold-breaking MMORPG. "I'd rather work on something with great potential than on fulfilling a promise of mediocrity. There's a reason people are passionate about it all these years later," he wrote.
Auction House manipulation: how far is too far?
Over the past few weeks, I've heard now of two different AH plots coming to fruition. A while back, Seth sent us a tip about a character named Zygar on Maelstrom who'd bought out every single item on the AH that was selling for less than 2g, and relisted it at 2g. Apparently it worked (because lots of people were willing to spend 2g on that stuff), but it didn't make lowbies happy, because they didn't have that kind of money to spend on the items they wanted.And yesterday, I heard from Cheryl, who told us about Flaggen on Kirin Tor-- he did the opposite, and started way undercutting the other jewelcrafters on the realm. Another interesting idea, and one that's also working, because he's outselling (obviously) every other jewelcrafter out there.Is this kind of AH manipulation "griefing"? Should Blizzard step in when one character, either by sending prices high or low on the AH, changes the whole economic system on a realm? I'd think not-- these economies were designed by Blizzard to be run and controlled by players, and all the players on a realm can stop this kind of thing easily-- just stop buying from Flaggen (if you disagree with him, although some players have rightfully pointed out that what he's doing drives down prices for the gem customers) or the guy on Zygar. But on the other hand, great discrepancies in the amounts of gold at level 70 vs. the lower levels (buying out all the items below 2g probably wasn't possible before Outland) could classify this as griefing, and cause Blizzard to step in-- perhaps by limiting the amount of auction purchases by one character. What do you think? How laissez-faire should Blizzard be about AH takeovers like this?[ Thanks Cheryl and Seth! ]
