I work for a small company that does a lot of business with that large software company we all know and love. (Hint: They have a monopoly on operating systems and office suites that run on PC's.) I'll call them Company X.
Company X is absolutely paranoid that some viral (GPL'ed) code will be accidentally linked with their code. Every contract we sign has pages and pages that deal with this issue. If I went to our legal department and told them I found code that was copied off the internet and the licensing isn't clear, it would be a huge deal. They'd definitely hold up product release until the code could be replaced.
My kids were exiled from Azeroth about 3 weeks ago because their first quarter grades weren't so hot. I hope their next report card is better so we can gank Horde together. Azeroth is lonely without them.:-(
I've read two mutually contradictory arguments in these forums.
#1 Farming causes more uber items to be injected into the economy. This leads to deflation which makes it harder for honest players to make money.
#2 Farming causes more gold to be injected into the economy. This leads to inflation which makes it harder for honest players to buy items.
Suppose farming leads to deflation. Although, the honest player can't make as much money, this is balanced by the fact he doesn't have to pay as much for items that he wants to buy.
Suppose farming leads to inflation. Although, the honest player has to pay more for items, this is balanced by the fact he will make more money from the items he sells.
I will readily concede that the honest player is at a competitive disadvantage to the player who buys gold on Ebay and then spends it getting the best gear in the game. However, I have yet to hear an arguement that makes it clear to me that farming makes it more difficult for the honest player to acquire items.
Sorry about the bad formatting. Here is what I inteded to post with good paragraph breaks. Notice about half way down, I outline why I think in game interest will lead to more inflation.
Gold farming has little to do with in game currency. The person who buys currency on Ebay is doing it because it is a way to acquire in game items. It thrives because there are items people are willing to pay real money to acquire.
As long as . . .
1) items are hard to get (limited supply)
2) people want to have the items (demand)
3) the game allows players to trade (a maketplace)
then gold farmers have an opportunity to make money.
The only way to stop farming is to eliminate at least one of the three items above. Notice I didn't say anything about currency in my list. Even if there is no currency (or if the currency has no value), the gold farmers will sell "Uber Sword of Death and Destruction" directly for $12.50. Instead of selling enough gold for $12.50 to buy "Uber Sword of Death and Destruction"
Hmm, I wonder how we could inject more gold into the game in such a way that the players don't get screwed by inflation... I've got it... It's.. It's... BANK INTEREST! You increase the supply of gold by giving it to the players.
Bank interest might inject money into the economy without raising inflation (at first), if it encouraged players to invest money in the bank instead of spending it. Effectively, the money would be out of circulation because it was invested. However, I suspect interest would eventually lead to inflation.
Most real players (not gold farmers) will find an item that is more important to them, then having a large investment. (After all they're not going to retire on their in game investments, or leave the investments to their children.) So, they would use the saved money plus interest to buy "Wand of Instant Death" which would put the money into circulation.
I think that if a game added interest, at first players would start saving additional money. Bank deposits would increase. Eventually, players would spend the money. It would reach an equilibrium where withdraws and deposits+interest balanced each other out. Total bank deposits across all players in the game would fluctuate around an equilibrium point. The equilibrium point would be higher than it was before interest was added to the game. However, once the withdraw rate matches the deposit+interest rate and equilibrium was established, the interest would become another currency source into the economy.
Anytime there is more currency circulating in an economy you get inflation. You have people with more gold competing to buy the same goods. The only way a game could increase currency in circulation without increasing inflation is to also increase the rate items (goods) come into the economy.
In the US economy, raising interest rates decreases inflation. But, it is different. In the US economy, higher interest rates makes loans more expensive which produces less borrowing. Controlling the amount of borrowed money in circulation is one way the Fed controls the money supply. Real banks can and do loan money they don't have. By creating loans, banks inject money into the economy. When interest rates increase, the borrowing decreases and the money supply decreases.
Game banks don't extend loans. In game, paying interest on deposits will only increase the money supply.
Gold farming has little to do with in game currency. The person who buys currency on Ebay is doing it because it is a way to acquire in game items. It thrives because there are items people are willing to pay real money to acquire.
As long as . . .
1) items are hard to get (limited supply)
2) people want to have the items (demand)
3) the game allows players to trade (a maketplace)
then gold farmers have an opportunity to make money.
The only way to stop farming is to eliminate at least one of the three items above.
Notice I didn't say anything about currency in my list. Even if there is no currency (or if the currency has no value), the gold farmers will sell "Uber Sword of Death and Destruction" directly for $12.50. Instead of selling enough gold for $12.50 to buy "Uber Sword of Death and Destruction"
Hmm, I wonder how we could inject more gold into the game in such a way that the players don't get screwed by inflation... I've got it... It's.. It's... BANK INTEREST! You increase the supply of gold by giving it to the players.
Bank interest might inject money into the economy without raising inflation (at first), if it encouraged players to invest money in the bank instead of spending it. Effectively, the money would be out of circulation because it was invested.
However, I suspect interest would eventually lead to inflation. Most real players (not gold farmers) will find an item that is more important to them, then having a large investment. (After all they're not going to retire on their in game investments, or leave the investments to their children.) So, they would use the saved money plus interest to buy "Wand of Instant Death" which would put the money into circulation.
I think that if a game added interest, at first players would start saving additional money. Bank deposits would increase. Eventually, players would spend the money. It would reach an equilibrium where withdraws and deposits+interest balanced each other out. Total bank deposits across all players in the game would fluctuate around an equilibrium point. The equilibrium point would be higher than it was before interest was added to the game. However, once the withdraw rate matches the deposit+interest rate, the interest would become another currency source into the economy.
Anytime you have more currency circulating in an economy you get inflation. You have people with more gold competing to buy the same goods.
The only way a game could increase currency in circulation without increasing inflation is to also increase the rate items come into the economy.
In the US economy, raising interest rates decreases inflation. But, it is different. In the US economy, higher interest rates makes loans more expensive which produces less borrowing. Controlling the amount of borrowed money in circulation is one way the Fed controls the money supply. Real banks can and do loan money they don't have. By creating loans, banks inject money into the economy. When interest rates increase, the borrowing decreases and the money supply decreases.
Game banks don't extend loans. In game, paying interest on deposits will only increase the money supply.
When the real world price of Game Gold starts going up, the "Fed" should pump more gold into the game, somehow, in order to deflate its value relative to the dollar
Increasing the money supply in game will drive down the Ebay price of gold pieces, but will cause in game inflation. Stuff will cost more gold pieces to buy in game. In game inflation will piss off the gamers more than the gold farmers do.
Furthermore, injecting more money into the game makes it easier to acquire game currency. Although the gold farmers will get fewer real world dollars for the in game gold, the gold pieces become easier to acquire. So, the gold farmers get more gold in the same amount of "play time." These two effects will tend to cancel each other.
Taken to an extreme, even if the game designers injected so much in game money into the economy that gold pieces became worthless, the gold farmers would start to sell hard to acquire items (uber loot) on Ebay, instead of gold. And, the in game economy would be reduced to a barter economy.
Every MMO I've ever played indirectly regulates the money supply. Money is injected into the economy by sources. These can be rewards for quests and loot from kills. Money is removed from the economy by sinks. These can be fees for transportation, selling things on an auction house, and training skills. Then there's a pool of money that is in circulation for player to player transactions.
When all works well, an equilibrium is reached where money flow into and out of the game at roughly the same rate. When the money supply gets low, players find that activities that source money into the economy become more profitable than other activities that do not source money into the economy. Therefore, more players start to do money sourcing activities. This increases money circulating in the game.
When the money supply gets too high, the price of game items becomes inflated. Then, activities that do not source money into the economy become more profitable. For instance, obtaining or crafting certain items and selling them may be more propitiable than engaging in money sourcing activities. This causes players to spend more time on activities that do not source money into the economy.
Slashdot Mirror
while perusing Kenneth Sodomsky's hard drive for pr0n
Slide rules:
- do not blue screen
- do not require electrical power
- are immune from nuclear EMP
- quickly converts between polar and rectangular coordinates
- visually teaches logorithmic identities
- do not provide results to 15 sig. figures
- there's nothing more sexy then bamboo sliding against bamboo
I work for a small company that does a lot of business with that large software company we all know and love. (Hint: They have a monopoly on operating systems and office suites that run on PC's.) I'll call them Company X. Company X is absolutely paranoid that some viral (GPL'ed) code will be accidentally linked with their code. Every contract we sign has pages and pages that deal with this issue. If I went to our legal department and told them I found code that was copied off the internet and the licensing isn't clear, it would be a huge deal. They'd definitely hold up product release until the code could be replaced.
Lee Harvey Oswald was never convicted. He died before the case could go to trial.
My kids were exiled from Azeroth about 3 weeks ago because their first quarter grades weren't so hot. I hope their next report card is better so we can gank Horde together. Azeroth is lonely without them. :-(
#1 Farming causes more uber items to be injected into the economy. This leads to deflation which makes it harder for honest players to make money.
#2 Farming causes more gold to be injected into the economy. This leads to inflation which makes it harder for honest players to buy items.
Suppose farming leads to deflation. Although, the honest player can't make as much money, this is balanced by the fact he doesn't have to pay as much for items that he wants to buy.
Suppose farming leads to inflation. Although, the honest player has to pay more for items, this is balanced by the fact he will make more money from the items he sells.
I will readily concede that the honest player is at a competitive disadvantage to the player who buys gold on Ebay and then spends it getting the best gear in the game. However, I have yet to hear an arguement that makes it clear to me that farming makes it more difficult for the honest player to acquire items.
Sorry about the bad formatting. Here is what I inteded to post with good paragraph breaks. Notice about half way down, I outline why I think in game interest will lead to more inflation.
Gold farming has little to do with in game currency. The person who buys currency on Ebay is doing it because it is a way to acquire in game items. It thrives because there are items people are willing to pay real money to acquire.
As long as . . .
1) items are hard to get (limited supply)
2) people want to have the items (demand)
3) the game allows players to trade (a maketplace)
then gold farmers have an opportunity to make money.
The only way to stop farming is to eliminate at least one of the three items above. Notice I didn't say anything about currency in my list. Even if there is no currency (or if the currency has no value), the gold farmers will sell "Uber Sword of Death and Destruction" directly for $12.50. Instead of selling enough gold for $12.50 to buy "Uber Sword of Death and Destruction"
Hmm, I wonder how we could inject more gold into the game in such a way that the players don't get screwed by inflation... I've got it... It's.. It's... BANK INTEREST! You increase the supply of gold by giving it to the players.
Bank interest might inject money into the economy without raising inflation (at first), if it encouraged players to invest money in the bank instead of spending it. Effectively, the money would be out of circulation because it was invested. However, I suspect interest would eventually lead to inflation.
Most real players (not gold farmers) will find an item that is more important to them, then having a large investment. (After all they're not going to retire on their in game investments, or leave the investments to their children.) So, they would use the saved money plus interest to buy "Wand of Instant Death" which would put the money into circulation.
I think that if a game added interest, at first players would start saving additional money. Bank deposits would increase. Eventually, players would spend the money. It would reach an equilibrium where withdraws and deposits+interest balanced each other out. Total bank deposits across all players in the game would fluctuate around an equilibrium point. The equilibrium point would be higher than it was before interest was added to the game. However, once the withdraw rate matches the deposit+interest rate and equilibrium was established, the interest would become another currency source into the economy.
Anytime there is more currency circulating in an economy you get inflation. You have people with more gold competing to buy the same goods. The only way a game could increase currency in circulation without increasing inflation is to also increase the rate items (goods) come into the economy.
In the US economy, raising interest rates decreases inflation. But, it is different. In the US economy, higher interest rates makes loans more expensive which produces less borrowing. Controlling the amount of borrowed money in circulation is one way the Fed controls the money supply. Real banks can and do loan money they don't have. By creating loans, banks inject money into the economy. When interest rates increase, the borrowing decreases and the money supply decreases.
Game banks don't extend loans. In game, paying interest on deposits will only increase the money supply.
Gold farming has little to do with in game currency. The person who buys currency on Ebay is doing it because it is a way to acquire in game items. It thrives because there are items people are willing to pay real money to acquire. As long as . . . 1) items are hard to get (limited supply) 2) people want to have the items (demand) 3) the game allows players to trade (a maketplace) then gold farmers have an opportunity to make money. The only way to stop farming is to eliminate at least one of the three items above. Notice I didn't say anything about currency in my list. Even if there is no currency (or if the currency has no value), the gold farmers will sell "Uber Sword of Death and Destruction" directly for $12.50. Instead of selling enough gold for $12.50 to buy "Uber Sword of Death and Destruction" Hmm, I wonder how we could inject more gold into the game in such a way that the players don't get screwed by inflation... I've got it... It's.. It's... BANK INTEREST! You increase the supply of gold by giving it to the players. Bank interest might inject money into the economy without raising inflation (at first), if it encouraged players to invest money in the bank instead of spending it. Effectively, the money would be out of circulation because it was invested. However, I suspect interest would eventually lead to inflation. Most real players (not gold farmers) will find an item that is more important to them, then having a large investment. (After all they're not going to retire on their in game investments, or leave the investments to their children.) So, they would use the saved money plus interest to buy "Wand of Instant Death" which would put the money into circulation. I think that if a game added interest, at first players would start saving additional money. Bank deposits would increase. Eventually, players would spend the money. It would reach an equilibrium where withdraws and deposits+interest balanced each other out. Total bank deposits across all players in the game would fluctuate around an equilibrium point. The equilibrium point would be higher than it was before interest was added to the game. However, once the withdraw rate matches the deposit+interest rate, the interest would become another currency source into the economy. Anytime you have more currency circulating in an economy you get inflation. You have people with more gold competing to buy the same goods. The only way a game could increase currency in circulation without increasing inflation is to also increase the rate items come into the economy. In the US economy, raising interest rates decreases inflation. But, it is different. In the US economy, higher interest rates makes loans more expensive which produces less borrowing. Controlling the amount of borrowed money in circulation is one way the Fed controls the money supply. Real banks can and do loan money they don't have. By creating loans, banks inject money into the economy. When interest rates increase, the borrowing decreases and the money supply decreases. Game banks don't extend loans. In game, paying interest on deposits will only increase the money supply.
When the real world price of Game Gold starts going up, the "Fed" should pump more gold into the game, somehow, in order to deflate its value relative to the dollar Increasing the money supply in game will drive down the Ebay price of gold pieces, but will cause in game inflation. Stuff will cost more gold pieces to buy in game. In game inflation will piss off the gamers more than the gold farmers do. Furthermore, injecting more money into the game makes it easier to acquire game currency. Although the gold farmers will get fewer real world dollars for the in game gold, the gold pieces become easier to acquire. So, the gold farmers get more gold in the same amount of "play time." These two effects will tend to cancel each other. Taken to an extreme, even if the game designers injected so much in game money into the economy that gold pieces became worthless, the gold farmers would start to sell hard to acquire items (uber loot) on Ebay, instead of gold. And, the in game economy would be reduced to a barter economy. Every MMO I've ever played indirectly regulates the money supply. Money is injected into the economy by sources. These can be rewards for quests and loot from kills. Money is removed from the economy by sinks. These can be fees for transportation, selling things on an auction house, and training skills. Then there's a pool of money that is in circulation for player to player transactions. When all works well, an equilibrium is reached where money flow into and out of the game at roughly the same rate. When the money supply gets low, players find that activities that source money into the economy become more profitable than other activities that do not source money into the economy. Therefore, more players start to do money sourcing activities. This increases money circulating in the game. When the money supply gets too high, the price of game items becomes inflated. Then, activities that do not source money into the economy become more profitable. For instance, obtaining or crafting certain items and selling them may be more propitiable than engaging in money sourcing activities. This causes players to spend more time on activities that do not source money into the economy.