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thesisus

A Stronger Economy

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There is a serious problem plaguing the economy and near perfect world of Wurm.  Transparency.  It has been long assumed that people use alts in auctions to drive up prices.  And new players have no clue what the value of an object.  There is an in game currency but lacks the stability of it's RL counterpart.  And partly because there is no credibility in the transactions.  Transparently and some simple record keeping could eliminate much of the problem.


 


So I propose the following:


 


1. Every financial transaction needs to be recorded.  X item sold for Y on this date. 


2. This information needs to be available in near real time either via a web service for public consumption or at least on the Wurm website.


 


That's it nothing fancy.  Yes there are ways to sabotage this system but at least so currency really did move between alts.  People abusing the system would be more obvious.


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something like that will never happen for the same reason the ingame auction will never happen,the people that profit from the current system doesnt want it to change.


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this isn't a problem you're just wording it to sound like an apocalypse, this game has one of the best economy based parts ever


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Fixing wind speeds would help too.. hmm 


(sorry for de-rail.. or was it?)

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I don't mean to sound like it is crisis but I have real money to invest and don't because I have no idea half the time what something is worth.  A price check seems to vary with who is on, time of day, etc. 


 


How did Xan affect prices? 


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So what you're saying is, you don't know how an open market works, and are thus struggling to make money, so want to hobble others for your own benefit?

-1, be less of a jerk, let people do what they want to do and, y'know, play a sandbox game

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Price checks will vary with who is online, because prices themselves will always vary. This is actually good and means its a fluid dynamic economy.


 


Static prices tend to benefit veteran players. If  "everyone knows" that item ABC is worth 123 copper, this benefits the older player who has established a longtime reputation with the community. Everyone who needs an ABC will go to PlayerJoe because everyone happens to know their name. The only real way for a younger player to break into that market, is to undercut and offer to do it a little cheaper. This will alarm the older players who see this as "ruining the economy" and start lamenting how the economy is now "broken".  But this is how free market capitalism is expected to work, unless you get people trying to "stabilize" it and keep prices what they were last year, and the year before. 


 


If a lot of people want an item, and only a few people have the skill and inclination to provide it (or it is a naturally rarely occurring item), then the price will go UP. Everyone wants a rare longsword but the supply is quite limited so price goes up up up. But normal longswords tend to drop on price because over the years, people acquired what they needed, repaired it, gave them out to newer players.  If a lot of people start making any item, then the price will go DOWN. Eventually people will say "hell the economy is busted, its not even worth my time anymore" and they will abandon the market to the people who were willing to do it cheaper. 


 


Regardless of what people say there is no set value for ANY item. People who think things ought to be CHEAP will quote you a LOW price when you ask in chat, because that is what they feel it "should" go for.  People who think a stable economy is a good economy, will quote you a higher price, sometimes even one that  was common a few years ago, because they feel that is its "natural" price.  There is no "natural" price for items.


 


Often we quite "1s per 1k" for base resources because it is easy to remember, but that does not mean resources "should" be that. People stopped making planks and nails for that price long ago.  Same with bricks and mortar. It was too just much work to do that cheap, even for newer players needing work. But other things -- like farm produce -- stayed at about that price or even dropped some (mostly for large bulk) because there are people who enjoy farming and enjoy the process.  Many of them just keep farming regardless of what happens in the economy -- they like doing it. 


 


New servers (like Xanadu) will usually bring prices up on a SHORT TERM because of new deeds and new players and "new money". Eventually prices will start to drop again -- some new players leave the game, others acquire all they need, still  others develop skills and now are producers instead of consumers.   Then you get something like boats and horses. Those have a strong tendency to drop over time because being a shipbuilder or a horse breeder sounds a lot more "fun" than mixing mortar. Horses cannot cross server lines so on a new server like Xanadu, horses are expensive. Often boats are too. On an older server like Independence, they are very very cheap (practically free).  So if you ask what the price is for a team of horses with gear, or for a cedarwood Corbita, the prices you get will be all over the map (quite literally).


 


You could have a data base that tracks prices, but I think this is NOT something for developers to do. And players who track prices might have ulterior motives. And it really has no effect on making the economy "stronger," whatever you happen to decide that means. So your best bet is to use forum search or even google search, try to get a number of transactions, maybe throw out the highest and the lowest and look for patterns. Ask people whose opinion you trust but rake all answers with a grain of salt. Those patterns will move and shift and you will almost never see a static price. It doesn't matter if you are talking about drake armor sets or corbitas or rare unfinished forges.  If you are a bargain hunter, take the time and shop careful. If you are too busy to do that, expect to not get the lowest possible price possible.  Someone wants it more and will PAY more. Someone else will sell it cheaper. Every day, this changes. 


 


There is no "right" price, for anything.


 


Deciding there is somehow some "correct" price and that you only have to pin it down and put it on paper and make it stay still, does nothing to make an economy "stronger". 


Edited by Brash_Endeavors

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There would be no way at all to actually track the data you desire. Further...there is no actual definitive value for anything in the game as everything fluctuates from supply, demand and expectations.


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There are no financial transactions. People trade physical goods, including coins.


 


This is the most ridiculous suggestion i've seen....today, I guess, because yesterday someone wanted breakdancing.


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