July 2007
- [JOB] Linden Lab Brighton Party 26th July Jim Purbrick
- [JOB] Linden Lab Brighton Party 26th July Christopher Lloyd
- [BIZ] Forum software? Mike Rozak
- [BIZ] Forum software? Caliban Darklock
- [BIZ] Forum software? Adam Martin
- [BIZ] Forum software? Chan Yong Wei
- [BIZ] Forum software? Michael Chui
- [BIZ] Forum software? David Johansson
- [BIZ] Forum software? Dana V. Baldwin
- [BIZ] Forum software? David Johansson
- [BIZ] Forum software? Morgan Ramsay
- [DESIGN] Will players pay for public services? Nicholas Koranda
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Nicholas Koranda
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Tom Hudson
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Vincent Archer
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Travis Casey
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Tom Hudson
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Travis Casey
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Caliban Darklock
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... cruise
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Caliban Darklock
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... cruise
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Caliban Darklock
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... cruise
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Caliban Darklock
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Vincent Archer
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Vincent Archer
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Caliban Darklock
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Aurel Mihai
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Vincent Archer
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Caliban Darklock
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Vincent Archer
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Caliban Darklock
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Vincent Archer
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Caliban Darklock
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... cruise
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Vincent Archer
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Caliban Darklock
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Vincent Archer
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Vincent Archer
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Caliban Darklock
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Vincent Archer
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Caliban Darklock
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Michael Chui
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Vincent Archer
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... cruise
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Vincent Archer
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... John Arras
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Caliban Darklock
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Damion Schubert
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... John Buehler
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... cruise
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Damion Schubert
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... John Buehler
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Damion Schubert
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... John Buehler
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... cruise
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Vincent Archer
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Caliban Darklock
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Acius
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... cruise
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Tom Hudson
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Tom Hudson
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Caliban Darklock
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Jarod Reid
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Vincent Archer
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... cruise
- [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Travis Casey
- [DESIGN] Believable NPCs (was Natural Language Generation) Nicholas Koranda
- [DESIGN] Active and Inactive Currency Nicholas Koranda
- [DESIGN] Active and Inactive Currency Travis Casey
On Jul 26, 2007, at 1:10 PM, Nicholas Koranda wrote:
> * Original Poster: Freeman, Jeff
> * Mon Apr 19, 2004 6:29 pm
> There are some key differences in an online game's economy that I
> think tend to be overlooked (either by everyone, or maybe just me).
>
> For example, we have a standard faucet, sink, drain model. Money
> enters the system, swirls around a bit, and then leaves the system.
>
> But I thought about the tracking we're doing and how we're
> overlooking some drains (banned, cancelled and inactive accounts
> chief among them), along with 'sponges' which don't have a
> real-world parallel, I don't think.
>
> As I understand it, when a person put money in the bank in the real
> world, the bank then lends that money to other people, so it never
> really 'leaves the system.' But in an online economy money put in
> the bank is removed from circulation: It could re-enter the system
> later, but it might not do that for a very long time.
Something that occurs to me reading this essay is that a major
difference between real-world and virtual currency systems, and one
that I think causes many of the important differences, is the
portability of currency.
In the real world, currency takes up space and has weight. Some
currencies have ways to mitigate this with larger denominations, but
if you carry too large a denomination, you may run into problems
actually spending it ("Can you break a five hundred?"). Further,
carrying currency on your person has risks -- you can get mugged, it
can get lost, etc.
Every online game I've played on, though, has removed almost all of
those problems. How much money you have is just a number. You can
carry all your money on you, without it being heavy or ungainly.
Making change is never a problem in any transaction. In many games,
there's also no risk of losing money to a mugging or the like.
For us in the real world, banks provide a solution to many of these
problems -- if your money is in a bank, you don't have to carry it
around. You can issue drafts against the bank (either through a
check or a debit card) in any arbitrary amount, up to the limit of
what you have access to.
If currency in an RPG were tracked in terms of actual coins, taking
space in inventories and having the inconveniences of not necessarily
having it in a form that can be used for a particular transaction,
this would encourage the use of banks.
--
Travis Casey
efindel@gmail.com - [DESIGN] Active and Inactive Currency Jon Leonard
- [DESIGN] Active and Inactive Currency Peter Keeler
- [DESIGN] Active and Inactive Currency Caliban Darklock
- [DESIGN] Active and Inactive Currency Peter Keeler
- [DESIGN] Active and Inactive Currency Michael Chui
- [DESIGN] Active and Inactive Currency Caliban Darklock
- [DESIGN] Active and Inactive Currency John Buehler
- [DESIGN] Active and Inactive Currency Johnicholas Hines
- [DESIGN] Active and Inactive Currency Travis Casey
- [DESIGN] Expected value and standard deviation Nicholas Koranda
- [DESIGN] Expected value and standard deviation Travis Casey
- [DESIGN] Expected value and standard deviation cruise
- [DESIGN] Expected value and standard deviation Darryl Woodford