Real World economies moved away from barter trading long ago and use immaterial "money" as currency. Bartering has several disadvantages, since it need you to create or get some product you are not going to consume, nor can you produce effectively, just to pay with it. In the society where they measure wealth in goats, the smith and the tailor must also be a part-time goat-herder.
Also in this society being a goat-herder will naturally make you rich, therefore lot of people herd goats, producing much more goats that can be used by the society in its original purpose. Before you'd laugh, think of the gold-rushes, where millions of people spent a lifetime and risked their lives to get gold which provided no service to anyone and just inflated the existing gold currency.
Countries now print money that is useless as product, but very cheap to produce and serves no other purpose than being a currency. Producing money is a serious crime which deters everyone besides organized criminals from trying to create wealth without providing GDP.
MMOs seemingly use such currencies, WoW has gold and EVE has ISK. We are not paying by copper bars or tritanium, so they are fine, right?
Wrong. While the WoW gold and EVE ISK serves as a currency between players, it's actually another material. If you bring 333 veldspar to a station, you get 1000 tritanium, regardless of any other factors. If you bring 440000 ISK to a station, you get an Astrometrics book. Why shouldn't we call ISK the material of the book?
Yes, we can roleplay that they sold the book. But then we can roleplay that veldspar is a currency and they sold tritanium for it. If it would be a currency, the NPCs would have to obey the laws of economy. They would have to produce the books from materials that they would have to get from the market (including from other NPCs who also obey the laws). The books couldn't be present in infinite amount. The supply and demand would have to affect the price.
Also, just like veldspar, the players can farm ISK running missions and doing other activities. "I kill a pirate, get ISK" is no different from "I mine an asteroid, get veldspar". Pirates are the raw materials of ISK as you can convert them into it infinitely, not limited by any market forces.
The problem with this barter-based economy is exactly the goldrush: people farm ISK/WoWgold, creating nothing but inflation with no services to others. They get richer only by the amount they inflated everyone else's wealth. If everyone would spend time running missions until he doubles his current ISK, no one would be a bit richer as the prices would double, but everyone would waste his time.
How can it be fixed: everything must be player-created from materials. Of course NPCs should participate or the first player on the server is really in trouble, but the NPCs must be non-player characters, ones that are server-botted, but obey the same laws as players characters. If the books are copied like blueprints, then the NPC station must use up its own copying slot to produce books and must be unable to produce more than it can. If the NPCs sell ships for LPs, they must produce it from materials they buy on the market or mine themselves via drone Hulks (that can be equally ganked and then the station can't produce ships).
Planning a living economy isn't easy. But if you can't do it, or can't be bothered to do it, at least don't make a messup that teach the players (who are often kids) a very bad idea: that they can "farm gold" infinitely just by spending time. People who believe it then go to occupy Wall Street believing that unemployment is just made by "evil capitalists" who are too greedy to give out more daily quests to grind. We don't want punks to occupy Wall Street, right?
So if you go with bartering, do it openly and make Zydrine or something like that the currency!
Quick business tip: if you see a system bright red on the "ships destroyed last hour", check that system in eve-kill.net. Maybe it's just RvB or another war, not pirates.
Business report: 2.4B (0.4B gifts)
Remember that you can participate in our EVE conversations and soon group activities on the "goblinworks" channel.
Also in this society being a goat-herder will naturally make you rich, therefore lot of people herd goats, producing much more goats that can be used by the society in its original purpose. Before you'd laugh, think of the gold-rushes, where millions of people spent a lifetime and risked their lives to get gold which provided no service to anyone and just inflated the existing gold currency.
Countries now print money that is useless as product, but very cheap to produce and serves no other purpose than being a currency. Producing money is a serious crime which deters everyone besides organized criminals from trying to create wealth without providing GDP.
MMOs seemingly use such currencies, WoW has gold and EVE has ISK. We are not paying by copper bars or tritanium, so they are fine, right?
Wrong. While the WoW gold and EVE ISK serves as a currency between players, it's actually another material. If you bring 333 veldspar to a station, you get 1000 tritanium, regardless of any other factors. If you bring 440000 ISK to a station, you get an Astrometrics book. Why shouldn't we call ISK the material of the book?
Yes, we can roleplay that they sold the book. But then we can roleplay that veldspar is a currency and they sold tritanium for it. If it would be a currency, the NPCs would have to obey the laws of economy. They would have to produce the books from materials that they would have to get from the market (including from other NPCs who also obey the laws). The books couldn't be present in infinite amount. The supply and demand would have to affect the price.
Also, just like veldspar, the players can farm ISK running missions and doing other activities. "I kill a pirate, get ISK" is no different from "I mine an asteroid, get veldspar". Pirates are the raw materials of ISK as you can convert them into it infinitely, not limited by any market forces.
The problem with this barter-based economy is exactly the goldrush: people farm ISK/WoWgold, creating nothing but inflation with no services to others. They get richer only by the amount they inflated everyone else's wealth. If everyone would spend time running missions until he doubles his current ISK, no one would be a bit richer as the prices would double, but everyone would waste his time.
How can it be fixed: everything must be player-created from materials. Of course NPCs should participate or the first player on the server is really in trouble, but the NPCs must be non-player characters, ones that are server-botted, but obey the same laws as players characters. If the books are copied like blueprints, then the NPC station must use up its own copying slot to produce books and must be unable to produce more than it can. If the NPCs sell ships for LPs, they must produce it from materials they buy on the market or mine themselves via drone Hulks (that can be equally ganked and then the station can't produce ships).
Planning a living economy isn't easy. But if you can't do it, or can't be bothered to do it, at least don't make a messup that teach the players (who are often kids) a very bad idea: that they can "farm gold" infinitely just by spending time. People who believe it then go to occupy Wall Street believing that unemployment is just made by "evil capitalists" who are too greedy to give out more daily quests to grind. We don't want punks to occupy Wall Street, right?
So if you go with bartering, do it openly and make Zydrine or something like that the currency!
Quick business tip: if you see a system bright red on the "ships destroyed last hour", check that system in eve-kill.net. Maybe it's just RvB or another war, not pirates.
Business report: 2.4B (0.4B gifts)
Remember that you can participate in our EVE conversations and soon group activities on the "goblinworks" channel.
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