The Economy of Everquest

Gr0und_zer0 writes: " A Cal State professor is currently conducting an economic survey of Everquest players which will be used to write a paper he plans to submit to an academic journal. It will be very interesting to see how this turns out and if it actually is published. Maybe we will learn the Everquest platinum to be favorable to some of those devalued third world currencys floating around. So much for living in reality, who needs the stock market these days, I'll invest in Everquest."

Comments

virtual economic system...

[L-Train8]

Weird. Do real world economic class/social issues translate to the virtual world? I can't help but think that all he's going to find out is that the people who spend the most time playing have the richest characters, though. The Everquest market shouldn't really follow normal economic rules, because it is a constructed economic model, created to maximize game enjoyment, not reality.

Re:virtual economic system...

[Chester K]

Weird. Do real world economic class/social issues translate to the virtual world?

Not really. EverQuest's economy is rather different than Real World economies because there's only one original supplier, the game's NPCs, none of the goods decay or wear out with the exception of food (which can be freely summoned), and there are no taxes or such.

Unlike a Real World economy, over time, everyone in the EverQuest economy will gather more money, which leads to a strong, steady drop in the value of platinum, the currency. That's fine for a game, everyone can be a winner, but I don't know if a study of it will turn up any findings that are relevant in the real world.

Re:virtual economic system...

[Chester K]

The people who designed the game are obviously most familiar with the real world economy, so some of their basic assumptions are going to be framed in terms of conventional economics.

Not necessarily. Due to the massively multiplayer aspect of the game, an in-game economy would have popped up no matter what, just because people want to interact and trade with each other. There aren't any economists on the EQ development team.

Re:virtual economic system...

[Rinikusu]

Actually, not necessarily, either. Platinum is still a treasured commodity for lower levels. Why? Because it's still hard to get unless you have "uber friends" and such. Who wants to give you a loan when you're level 5 and have no way of paying it back until you're level 50? No, doesn't work that way. Not to mention that people cancel their accounts all the time, effectively destroying the platinum they may have hoarded. True enough, platinum does not play a *major* role later in the game, as it is somewhat easily obtained. Most people that I know only start "hoarding" platinum when they get a hair up their ass and want to learn a skill, like tailoring or jewelry.

Re:virtual economic system...

[swillden]

Unlike a Real World economy, over time, everyone in the EverQuest economy will gather more money, which leads to a strong, steady drop in the value of platinum, the currency.

Not as much as you might think. There are outlets for plat in the game: quests, spells, trade skills, some merchant-only items and, at higher levels, access to areas of the planes all consume plat. Also, there's the fact that over time each player tends to create multiple characters, each of which has a separate bank account and inventory, which dilutes the supply of platinum and items.

In fact, in practice, platinum doesn't seem to devalue nearly as fast as the items you buy with it. The net effect is one of near constant deflation, as opposed to one of constant inflation (drop in currency value).

Re:virtual economic system...

[gnovos]

only one original supplier, the game's NPCs, none of the goods decay or wear out with the exception of food (which can be freely summoned), and there are no taxes or such.

Funny thing, but all of these points are wrong. First off, there are three suppliers. The NPCs, like you said, but also there is a strong questing infrastructure and also trade skills that are very valuable. And that is only for physical things, many people also are willing to pay for spells cast in thier favor (Ressurection, speed boosts, long-distance teleports, etc.)

As for things degrading, there are both things that degrade over time (Potions, limited charge items, items that vanish on log-out), and also things that are obsoleted (either through new and better versions coming out, or through environmental changes that affect the items making them less potent). The world of Norrath is constantly changing, not just new zones and such, but even the rules of how the world works, and every time a change is made, players have to adapt and change tactics. These adaptions the players make change the types of weapons and items they will need to succeed. You also have, on rare occasions, Verant changing individual items themselves to make the less powerful (thus less desirable).

As for direct taxes, yes there are none, but there are MANY money-sinks in the world. Not only do you have to sink in a lot of items becuase of the high failure rate, you also have uneven buyback rates skewed highly in favor of the NPC merchants.

Yes over time everyone eventually makes some money, but they also lose it. I have some friends who are just now reaching level 60 (the highest in EQ) who are not finding themselves strapped for cash after buying hard to find items and spells.

It is actually a very reasonable go at building a model economy, I'm very interested to see the paper when it's done.

twill be interesting to see

[metalhed77]

iused to play 10six, another massively multiplayer game, the economy in that wasn't so realistic, maybe the problem is that there are people with more money than you have forcing you do things you wouldn't do normally because they are more powerfull than you.

*realizes he has windows install*

wait my mistake, they are the same

Re:EQ paid me 1200 USD.

[swb]

But if you had fun doing it, it's like someone gave you $1200 for having a good time.

My take on Eq's economy

[Lord_Pall]

Couple of notes first: IAAMMORPGD(I am a MMORPG Designer), and this is just a rough overview of my take on their economy.

On the player level, you have an influx of platinum/gold/silver/copper

These come from monsters and selling items

All of the in-game currency has a "time" associated with

I'm not sure what the time invested vs. in-game platinum breaks down to, but thats your base valuation for a real world cash value

So money gets introduced, and cycles either to other players, then through shopkeepers in the form of consumables (Food, Weapons, Spells)

Or out of the game in the form of players quitting.

Couple this with a much larger influx of cash than you have leaving, and voila.. Inflation!

You can factor in characters/items/etceter in a similiar way

Character value = time invested vs. Rarity vs. Desireability of character

Same thing for items.. But once again, since there's no mechanism to destroy items, the influx of raw materials outstrips them leaving the game.
And then you get a consistent devaluation of your equipment.

It is an economy, and it does in fact connect to the outside world.. And if you actually run some numbers on it, has a fairly interesting inflationary problem..

Re:EQ paid me 1200 USD.

[Anonymous Coward]

Ummm....

I don't think you played every single one of those (24 x 38) hours. I'm pretty sure you must have gotten 1 or 2 hours of sleep and obtaining food, although that may be pushing it, considering how the EQ players I know act.

Anyways, since this means you played fewer hours than 24/day, then your hourly wage would be a bit higher...

playing 24 hours/day - 1.31USD/hour

playing 18 hours/day - 1.75USD/hour

playing 12 hours/day - 2.63USD/hour

Since I've never actually owned an EQ acct, maybe you did play 24 hrs/day ;)