<!-- MHonArc v2.4.4 --> <!--X-Subject: [MUD-Dev] (fwd) Re: MUD Economies --> <!--X-From-R13: X Q Znjerapr <pynjNxbnyn.xnatn.ah> --> <!--X-Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1999 14:31:57 -0800 --> <!--X-Message-Id: E10MSfx-0003v9-00#koala,kanga.nu --> <!--X-Content-Type: text/plain --> <!--X-Head-End--> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN"> <html> <head> <title>MUD-Dev message, [MUD-Dev] (fwd) Re: MUD Economies</title> <!-- meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow" --> <link rev="made" href="mailto:claw#koala,kanga.nu"> </head> <body background="/backgrounds/paperback.gif" bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000" link="#0000FF" alink="#FF0000" vlink="#006000"> <font size="+4" color="#804040"> <strong><em>MUD-Dev<br>mailing list archive</em></strong> </font> <br> [ <a href="../">Other Periods</a> | <a href="../../">Other mailing lists</a> | <a href="/search.php3">Search</a> ] <br clear=all><hr> <!--X-Body-Begin--> <!--X-User-Header--> <!--X-User-Header-End--> <!--X-TopPNI--> Date: [ <a href="msg00586.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00588.html">Next</a> ] Thread: [ <a href="msg00586.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00583.html">Next</a> ] Index: [ <A HREF="author.html#00587">Author</A> | <A HREF="#00587">Date</A> | <A HREF="thread.html#00587">Thread</A> ] <!--X-TopPNI-End--> <!--X-MsgBody--> <!--X-Subject-Header-Begin--> <H1>[MUD-Dev] (fwd) Re: MUD Economies</H1> <HR> <!--X-Subject-Header-End--> <!--X-Head-of-Message--> <UL> <LI><em>To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI> <LI><em>Subject</em>: [MUD-Dev] (fwd) Re: MUD Economies</LI> <LI><em>From</em>: J C Lawrence <<A HREF="mailto:claw#koala,kanga.nu">claw#koala,kanga.nu</A>></LI> <LI><em>Date</em>: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 00:24:41 -0800</LI> <LI><em>Reply-To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI> <LI><em>Sender</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev-admin#kanga,nu">mud-dev-admin#kanga,nu</A></LI> </UL> <!--X-Head-of-Message-End--> <!--X-Head-Body-Sep-Begin--> <HR> <!--X-Head-Body-Sep-End--> <!--X-Body-of-Message--> <PRE> -- forwarded message -- From: Geoff Wong <geoff#cs,eatspam.rmit.edu.au> Newsgroups: rec.games.mud.admin Subject: Re: MUD Economies Date: 10 Mar 1999 00:32:31 GMT Brandon A Downey <badowney#sprynet,com> writes: >more difficult half of the problem, which is producing something less than an >infinite supply of gold. (Typically, become sufficiently power, you can just >rake in the gold, limited only by the amount of time you want to spend). >I'm guessing reticent to make powerful things you can get with >gold, as most mud economies are so out of whack in the first place. This is pretty much the problem with virtually every mud I've seen that has an economy. The supply of gold (coins/money/whatever) is effectively uncontrolled and unlimited. The money is just *created* out of nowhere and stuck on monsters (etc). Many methods have be suggested in this thread for controlling the supply of money but they're all just artificial restrictions on the economy which don't address the actual problem of unrestrained gold creation. Or in the cash of "faucets" and "drains" requires a tricky balancing act that is easily thrown out of whack by clever players. Money exists to facilitate the transaction of goods and effort between players (NPCs/etc). If your money supply is uncontrolled then you effectively have infinite inflation. This is because there is continually more units for money for the same amount of effort/goods; money itself becomes worth less and less as there is more and more of it created. Fixed price shops (which many muds have) become more and more out of date with each passing hour. Player controlled pricing goes some way to addressing the pricing problem; but not the infinite inflation problems. At Shattered World [1] we've been effectively running a "Loans Standard Economy" [2] (or "zero-sum" economy) for many years now (6 or so years - I forget now :). A key feature of this economy is all prices and all transactions are controlled by players (ie. there are no fixed priced shops, goods, properties, whatever in the realm, players control all pricing). The "Loans Standard Economy" can be described as a zero sum economy. That is the total outstanding loans always equals the total amount of money in use in the economy. The can be simply stated as: Bank Loans = Bank Deposits + Currency This applies throughout the entire economy, in our case a mud. Hence the bank is in control of the money in the economy by controlling the amount of money it lends (to players). Originally the bank loans were controlled very strictly; but it required significant amounts of work. Now bank loans are controlled by player owned banks and the only "central" control we administer is setting the loan limits on the player owned banks. Most of this is secured by the value of the property owned by the loaning player anyway (especially the bank itself). Typically bank owners loan large amounts if it's secured against a property or potential property purchase (they can reclaimed and sold if loans are not repayed). Small loans are generally given to reliable *real* players (not 2nd chars etc). Because an actual person is assessing the risk (at their own risk); a reasonable job is done of loaning money. Effectively this means the money supply grows and shrinks according to player demand for money. It is not inflationary because more money isn't simply continually "printed" (created) as in most muds. As all prices are determined by players; money actually reflects the effort of obtaining goods (and the goods themselves) within the mud. Shop owners don't need to continually adjust their prices because there is not run-away inflation (indeed there are regular periods of deflation). This creates a give and take situation where the players circulate the money by buying houses, shops and items to sell in those shops, with the aim of making money. Other players buy items from these shops to get a flow of money around the economy such that the money being paid out equals the money being gained. Wizards also participate in the economy as banking entities for their creations. If a wizard wants a monster to have cash (as a reward) then that wizard needs to collect cash in some manner. If the wizard doesn't have the cash then the monster doesn't get the cash either. Wizards also don't create items endlessly of out of nothing; they purchase the items from shops in the realm (if the prices are reasonable!). This allows all creation of goods (except unique magical items) to be also controlled by players too. This also allows the establishment of a resource base and ecology to support this goods creation. Anyway - there are lots of interesting areas of implementation this opens up. The first step to implementing this is to control the creation of money. All money needs to be created (and monitored) through a central bank (a simple server object in the mud will do). The standard money object needs to be disabled so wizards can't just created money, but need to use the central bank to do this. This allows you (as the administrator) to monitor the flow of money; typically you'll see lots of wizards going into debt. You can then encourage them to actually collect as well as give out money; perhaps even cap their maximum debt. The second step is to scrap all fixed price shops and replace them with shops which have buy/sell prices fixed by players. The next step is to create a system where players can loan/borrow money to actually "create" money in the economy. As players do this more and more often; their becomes less reason for wizards to loan money (if they're effective at collecting money; or rewrite their realms not to give out cash). After this their are a number of steps that you may take. Of interest is intergrating a resource/production model into your economy. Anyway - it's some work - but for us it has paid off handsomely saving us lots and lots of economic headaches. It has also allowed us to monitor what is happening in the world in a way that was not previously possible. Geoff Wong aka Dredd@Shattered World ---- References. [1] Shattered World - <A HREF="http://www.shattered.org">http://www.shattered.org</A> <A HREF="telnet://shattered.org">telnet://shattered.org</A> [2] L.M. Goldschlager and R. Baxter, (1992), "The Evolution of a Pure Credit Monetary System", Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, presented at 21st Conference of Economists, Melbourne, July 1992. -- end of forwarded message -- -- -- J C Lawrence Internet: claw#kanga,nu ----------(*) Internet: coder#kanga,nu ...Honorary Member of Clan McFud -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith... _______________________________________________ MUD-Dev maillist - MUD-Dev#kanga,nu <A HREF="http://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev">http://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev</A> </PRE> <!--X-Body-of-Message-End--> <!--X-MsgBody-End--> <!--X-Follow-Ups--> <HR> <!--X-Follow-Ups-End--> <!--X-References--> <!--X-References-End--> <!--X-BotPNI--> <UL> <LI>Prev by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00586.html">[MUD-Dev] (fwd) Re: MUD Economies</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00588.html">RE: [MUD-Dev] Elder Games</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Prev by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00586.html">[MUD-Dev] (fwd) Re: MUD Economies</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00583.html">[MUD-Dev] OT ADMIN: Web links to MUD-Dev</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Index(es): <UL> <LI><A HREF="index.html#00587"><STRONG>Date</STRONG></A></LI> <LI><A HREF="thread.html#00587"><STRONG>Thread</STRONG></A></LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> <!--X-BotPNI-End--> <!--X-User-Footer--> <!--X-User-Footer-End--> <ul><li>Thread context: <BLOCKQUOTE><UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00590" HREF="msg00590.html">[MUD-Dev] Potential New Laws</A></strong>, Benjamin D. Wiechel <a href="mailto:strycher#toast,net">strycher#toast,net</a>, Mon 15 Mar 1999, 07:59 GMT <LI><strong><A NAME="00584" HREF="msg00584.html">[MUD-Dev] (fwd) Re: MUD Economies</A></strong>, J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#koala,kanga.nu">claw#koala,kanga.nu</a>, Sun 14 Mar 1999, 22:28 GMT <UL> <li><Possible follow-up(s)><br> <LI><strong><A NAME="00585" HREF="msg00585.html">[MUD-Dev] (fwd) Re: MUD Economies</A></strong>, J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#koala,kanga.nu">claw#koala,kanga.nu</a>, Sun 14 Mar 1999, 22:30 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00586" HREF="msg00586.html">[MUD-Dev] (fwd) Re: MUD Economies</A></strong>, J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#koala,kanga.nu">claw#koala,kanga.nu</a>, Sun 14 Mar 1999, 22:30 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00587" HREF="msg00587.html">[MUD-Dev] (fwd) Re: MUD Economies</A></strong>, J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#koala,kanga.nu">claw#koala,kanga.nu</a>, Sun 14 Mar 1999, 22:31 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00583" HREF="msg00583.html">[MUD-Dev] OT ADMIN: Web links to MUD-Dev</A></strong>, J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#kanga,nu">claw#kanga,nu</a>, Sun 14 Mar 1999, 15:38 GMT <LI><strong><A NAME="00558" HREF="msg00558.html">RE: [MUD-Dev] Balancing a Mud</A></strong>, Neerenberg, AaronX <a href="mailto:aaronx.neerenberg#intel,com">aaronx.neerenberg#intel,com</a>, Fri 12 Mar 1999, 22:04 GMT <LI><strong><A NAME="00555" HREF="msg00555.html">[MUD-Dev] ADMIN: Signature length</A></strong>, J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#varesearch,com">claw#varesearch,com</a>, Fri 12 Mar 1999, 17:20 GMT <LI><strong><A NAME="00553" HREF="msg00553.html">RE: [MUD-Dev] Elder Games</A></strong>, Koster, Raph <a href="mailto:rkoster#origin,ea.com">rkoster#origin,ea.com</a>, Fri 12 Mar 1999, 15:59 GMT </LI> </UL></BLOCKQUOTE> </ul> <hr> <center> [ <a href="../">Other Periods</a> | <a href="../../">Other mailing lists</a> | <a href="/search.php3">Search</a> ] </center> <hr> </body> </html>