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MMO Creators Follow The Virtual Money Trail
Thanks to Wired News for its article discussing the dysfunctional economies of massively multiplayer games. The piece references an economic analysis by Raph Koster regarding Star Wars Galaxies, in which he mentions the game "...uses what is called a faucet-drain economy. You can visualize a spigot of cash coming into the game, a big ol' sink where the money sloshes around, and a set of drains where the money goes out the bottom." Virtual economist Edward Castronova also comments, concerned about the proletariat and the bourgeoisie: "The wealth distribution is not just unequal, it is incredibly unequal... Raph says it is similar to the distribution of wealth in (real-life) economies, which it is, but even the worst robber-baron economies were not this bad." In the end, though, Koster argues: "You don't get to ignore the economy, but absolutely, the goal is the fun, not Berkshire Hathaway."
Hmmm... I disagree entirely with the FFXI-related content of this post. To call crystals a "semi-rare" drop item is, to be blunt, completely wrong.
For those who haven't played the game, the crystal works as follows. Players can ask NPC guards in their home cities (or their embassies in other cities) to cast a spell called Signet on them. This is free of charge and any player can do it. The effect of the spell lasts for a few hours and it causes enemies killed by the player to drop crystals (there are also other effects, but these aren't significant by now.) So long as a player is under the effect of Signet, any enemy they kill that is strong enough to grant them experience points when killed (ie. Not more than about 5 or 6 levels lower than the player) has a chance (roughly 50/50) to drop a crystal, with an elemental property determined by the type of enemy killed (eg. wasps drop air crystals, worms drop earth crystals). In a party, if more than one player has Signet, you may well get more than 1 crystal per kill. In other words, these are extremely common items indeed.
In terms of cost, a stack of 12 of the cheapest crystals (usually Earth and Water) will sell for about 400 gil in the auction houses in the start-cities, while the more expensive ones (such as fire), will sell for 1800 a stack of 12. 400 gil is a pitance in game terms. There are many obstacles to a successful crafting career, but I'm not aware that crystals are really one of them. The biggest problem is that people try to get started in it before they know the game mechanics well and before they have the funds to cover the startup costs.
Here is some data about the real world.
It probably sucks to start in SWG as a crafter, but I have been doing combat professions for about 5 weeks and have a decent amount of money. Most weapons on my server are less than 25k, and I can earn that much in one mission on dantooine.
The tricks:
1) get buffed by a master doctor
2) get a set of good composite armor
3) buy vasarian brandy and spice to boost your mind
4) get a decent gun
5) learn novice medic, and work your way up ONLY the third skill tree (buy stim packs off the bazaar)
6) group with people more powerful than you are to run missions
7) read the trade forums for your server, so you can understand the economy better and know who the best weapon and armorsmiths are
This will take about 120k credits (on my server), but once you get there you're in pretty good shape.
Alot of experienced players will pay you upwards of 1k to train you in skills (they need apprenticeship points to master their professions).
My favorite starting combo is scout/marksman. You have to kill stuff to get marksman xp, and you have to 'harvest resources' from dead things to get scout xp. The two are pretty complimentary. Get a bundle of about 600 good quality hide (overall quality better than 500), and sell it on the bazaar for 6k.
If you do those two things (and don't waste money on a speeder bike and clothes and stuff), you can get your composite armor and weapon in just a week or two.
Try to master the scout and marksman professions, then you can be a bounty hunter. (I'm almost there!)
"If you think you have things under control, you're not going fast enough." --Mario Andretti
This is really a mischaracterization of the game, and I don't see how you could reach this point of view.
I've never played any game that's so open and inviting to new players. For new pirates just starting out it's a fun game environment centered around playing puzzles. As you advance through the game you can get more involved in the social/political aspects (as well as perfect your puzzle skills) and try to achieve higher rank and status in a crew or flag. I suppose if you're completely incapable of social interaction you might not get far beyond the basic game, but that's not the same as others more adept at it being "granted monopolies."
As far as the Game Design forum, I have to wonder if you heard this second-hand. There is a pretty free flow of ideas and debate from people in all levels of the game, and the developers openly discuss and interact with anybody who has a good, original idea or insight, both in the forums and actually in-game. I remember standing on the docks on one of my first days playing the game, and carrying on a conversation with one of the lead designers regarding ideas for new clothing options. For a team of six developers to spend so much time interacting with players of all levels is really amazing.
The only restriction of speech that occurs (thankfully) on the forums is when frequently discussed issues are brought up again and again. Those posts are often locked and moved to the archive ("Davy Jones' Locker"). This is done in an effort to keep the forums clean and readable for newer players. If you think heated debate over game design issues doesn't take place, you have obviously never read those forums.
As far as free economy aspects of the game, just in the last couple of weeks a major update to the game was released that introduced 1) bazarres, where anyone who owns a ship can get involved directly in the economy by selling goods at a stall, and 2) the ability to blockade and claim entire islands. One flag just conquered a major island in the last couple of days (or "liberated" it from the developers) and declared it a free market where they will try to institute a democratic system of government with the involvement of the citizens and shop-owners.
If you haven't played this game, ignore the parent and check it out:
Puzzle Pirates