[Guide]MC Economy

[Rainbow]

Part 1

I have been playing a few MC codes games and the economy was appauling, mind you a few where from CE so I decided I might aswell write something up while I do have the time. Ok well let me start off by giving a short introduction of what an economy is, in relation to your game. The economy in your game is the realised social system of production and pretty much generation, exchange, distribution, and consumption of different goods and services in the community. By the model I follow, the basic reason for having an economy is to raise the realistic factor in the game aswell as increase the collective strength within the game. A communities economic system is, in brief, a description of how the economy determines what will be produced and how it will be allocated, and who gets what and by what means. So in short the economy is everything numerical of value within the game, wether its items, houses, signature making services whatever, all gets taken into account and is a result in a certain economy, wether for the good or the bad, and the latter applies to most games.

The administrator has a burden in a sense that he or she has to think about the cost of job he is performing and wether it will be right considering the result of the final economy. The admin has to deal and think carefully and effectively about his what will be required and are necessary to create the economy you plan to have. Engineering economy depends upon a number of monetary and non-monetary factors, the prices are not the only things that affect your economy, i.e if you make everything of high value there are other commodities and services that you do not have a control over. Consider it like this, economics in reality is a social science and like other social sciences, it has its own principles or laws, thus wether in reality or not if you are to acquire the skill to intepret the laws correctly and manipulate them to suit you, will depend on how prepared you are. The principles just tell us how we should behave under certain circumstances, and a reverse affect of also giving us an idea about the results likely to follow certain conditions. Everyone here should know the basics of economics, for example the simple law of a fall in price does result and is accompanied by extension in demand. Economics laws of economic tendencies are those which relate to branches of conduct in which the strength of the motives chiefly concerned can be measured by a money price. As the economic phenomenon are complex and varied, a number of factors influence the formulation of the basic principles which are nothing but generalisations and are called as laws. Think of them as guides, noone will tell you what to do it is up to you to figure this out and apply it to the enviroment, however you must know the basics before attempting and probably ruining your game. So now we established the point that the fundamental assumption of economic analysis is that every individual acts in a sensible manner and it is sensible for the individual to balance marginal costs and marginal gains. Sensible conduct leads to maximum of money gains. So if you decide that $1000 is enough to earn from crimes in your game apply the principles mentioned in this post and see how it goes. Ofcourse I am sure someone didnt understand the fundementals so let me break it down for you:

So the basic principles relevant to the game will be this:

1)Prices rise when the game's players manage to gain money by the system generating too much money

2)Markets are usually a good way to utilise and organise economic activity

3)Administrators can improve market outcomes

4)People respond to inecitives

5)The cost of something is what you give up to get

This basically means inflation which means that prices rise in order to mirror all the money that is being generated by the system. The generating of new money is something that needs to be controlled because even though it might ?temporarily make the people feel wealthier? at some point prices will start going up, and inflation will come in play, and it will be very hard to take back under control. In general it happens when demand for products and services by consumers is stronger than the supply of the desired products and services so stability between goods and money is the best way to keep inflation away. In this context inflation is purely used to refer the increase in levels of prices which too much money being generating and the economy just basicaly making a RAPID increase. I will go onto talking about inflation abit later on..

Well a market is self explanatory as in markets agreements are made, and prices are settled, which then are communicated to the rest of the comnutty. Thus the public are aware of the prices and you have direct proportional control over these prices.

Most of the time administrators will step in to assist the economy and the admins get involved in developing better outcomes. Ofcourse every admin wishes the best for his own game so if the market people buy/sell at outcome is not efficient, and second if it fails to distribute the income efficiently then something needs to be done - i.e if the buyers sell and sell but never buy then it will not have the competative edge to it, they money needs to go into the economic cycle. Ofcourse these are regulated by caps etc...

When you decide what to buy wether in real life or in a game a cost and the advantages of something vary or change and upon this variable our decisions change too. Incentives will attract will to buy that thing in that certain place. For example if I asked my son to wash the car so that he can use the car tonight, in other words he benefits from saying yes, but if they weren?t any incentives, he?ll probably doubt it. People are responding to incentives, incentives that benefit them; obviously you?ll do more buying and selling if you are not going to be taxed and if there are certain other benefits involved. So for example if you plan to regulate costs buy adding certain caps then the only control over that would be to offer inecetives to use the market where you can control it - so for example set a tax on trade transactions whereas remove them from the market.

Ok now lets consider which is the main area that affects us in this community and is by far hardest to cope with, to me it seems that from the economy side of things inflation is the biggest burden. So to summarise inflation can be defined as decrease in the value of money and the loss of purchasing power in some medium of the commodity exchange. Inflation rate is defined as percentage change in the price index over a certain period of time.

'Reasons of inflation

Situation of inflation can occur at any time, and its occurrence depends upon a number of reasons. No specific cause is responsible for the occurrence of inflation. But some proposed reasons of the inflation are mentioned below-

If the production cost of various services and goods increases then naturally the prices of the final products would also increase. This leads into the situation of inflation. Inflation occurs when industries and business houses increase the total prices of their services and goods in order to amplify their profit margins. This category of inflation is called as ?administered price inflation? or ?pricing power inflation?. This type of inflation is tedious to tackle because various industries and business houses have the complete authority/power of pricing their services and goods. A situation of inflation occurs when a specific section of a mass industry increases the prices of its services and goods, because this step of a particular section of a mass industry will produce considerable effects on various other sections of industry also. For example- increase in the price of crude oil will spontaneously cause increase in the train fares and airfares. A special category of inflation known as ?Fiscal inflation? occurs, because of excessive spending of the government. Fiscal inflation was first observed in United Sates of America at the time of President Mr. Lydon Baines Johnson. One another type of inflation is known as hyperinflation. Hyperinflation occurs during or after a heavy war. This inflation is also popular with the name of galloping inflation. Another severe type of inflation is known as stagflation. It occurs in an economy which faces economic stagnation and high unemployment rate. So we can say that inflation has some serious consequences on the economy as a whole. So the government should make some strict policies to curb inflation and thus help the country to have a stable economy'

 

With that information you can see the bad affects of inflation and how it can affect your game. So my fix is simple - if starting a new game and you are serious about it then take proper care and plan for these kind of things to suit your needs, at the end of the day it will benefit you. I believe you should remove all of the money generating functions, or atleast minimise them, for example the casino, streets and crimes and most importantly DONT GIVE FINANCIAL BENEFITS TO DP HOLDERS... if you do not have any money generating features then the money will only kept within the community, i.e you cant get it from anywhere else thus the money will be within the community and be spent within the community, so if you have 10 members and everyone starts with $1,000 then there is only $10,000 in the flow of the community and therefor $400 would be a heck of alot. Inflation produces detrimental effects on the health of an economy and the uncertainty about the future behavior of?inflation rate may restrict the potential to the game and drive people away. And for all those who do already have inflations here is the best idea ever to decrease it - just shift the decimal poin a few places to the left making everyone who had a 1trill have 1mill - the proportions will still be the same amongst everyone so no complaints should be made ( remember to propally regulate this transaction ). I hope it helped, this only took me a few minutes to write up, I will be making a very indepth guide to this either for sale or just give it out for free which will have over 15,000 words whilst this being of 1759 words. Anyway hoped I helped someone.

PS: Part 2 coming soon if I have time. :roll:

[ShizzleNizzle]

Re: [Guide]MC Economy

This is a very informative post!, thanks.

I'd definitely buy the next version if for sale.

[AbsentCrisis]

Re: [Guide]MC Economy

Really good info there on how to keep a game economy stable...even though I do not run a mcc game or any other game engine - I couldn't help but notice that 80%+ of game I see have unstable economies they earn thousands from crimes even millions and items are sold for a few thousand. At this case scenario you would end up in hyperinflation, and thus the end of the game.

[gurpreet]

Re: [Guide]MC Economy

This is a nice guide but it's a bit too late for me >.<

death-wars.com

Here are the stats, after around 600 days:

 

Amount of cash in circulation: $12,168,766,476.
The average player has: $7,871,129.
Amount of cash in banks: $16,804,417,391.
Amount of players with bank accounts: 399
The average player has in their bank accnt: $42,116,334.
Amount of crystals in circulation: 1,485,487.
The average player has: 960 crystals.

 

Not sure how to decrease this...Also in the donator banks and cyber banks there is like 5 billion or so.

[Miniman]

Re: [Guide]MC Economy

It's a great guide. I've worked with quite a few games, and I've seen 1 with a low econemy and that's what I like in a game.

However, I do find that people play/prefer a game that has a huge econemy. I always put it down to people like logging in and seeing loads of money in hand and they just feel......powerful?

Well done Rainbow, Hopefully this will help alot of people. Very informative!

[AbsentCrisis]

Re: [Guide]MC Economy

Gurpreet an idea for to help you would be to add high taxes on things since the money is available to users. Not much more you can do except for reset which wouldnt be wise.

[D T K]

Re: [Guide]MC Economy

Thanks Rainbow ive been planning a game for some months now and am releasing it very soon. Its a complete re-write of MC Codes to look and perform better and you just saved me future headaches and LOTS of Advil lol. Great guide and again thanks

[Miniman]

Re: [Guide]MC Economy

 

Gurpreet an idea for to help you would be to add high taxes on things since the money is available to users. Not much more you can do except for reset which wouldnt be wise.

That wouldn't make the users un-happy.[/sarcasm]

Gurpreet, the only thing I could think of to lower the econemy for you would be to make new houses or items that are expensive. You need alot of content :)

[ShizzleNizzle]

Re: [Guide]MC Economy

Yep I agree, as long as the everything in the game is expensive it's still a challenge to the player.

Either way there both enjoyable

[Danny696]

Re: [Guide]MC Economy

i like it i know an owner who gave every1 a million $s once i cant wait till part 2

[gurpreet]

Re: [Guide]MC Economy

Yeh I've taken the rewards down, put prices up...Helping a bit and it's been an hour. I thought of this but I'll give you guys +1 for reminding me to get off facebook and do it!

[grimreaper6996]

Re: [Guide]MC Economy

i had a game where people had millions after a few days and billions after a month or 2....Raiseing the prices is a waste of time and just makes it harder for new people when they see the high prices..Most wont even stick around...i fixed the problems that caused all the cash, raised prices, and even had people give back billions and that still didnt fix the problem...In my opinion the only way is to reset the game, fix what ever problem caused all the cash to be in the game, dont give intreast on non donator bank, and lower the intreast on the donator bank, and make it so no intreast is paid if a player doesnt log in everyday....i did all this and my economy is a hell of a lot better..There might be a lot of pissed off people but it was the best thing to do in the long run

[AbsentCrisis]

Re: [Guide]MC Economy

Well it depends on how bad you let your economy suffer and for how long, reseting is never the best choice its the last choice. Im sure if the game was only running for a few months you coul easily fix with taxes and prices increases.

[Rainbow]

Re: [Guide]MC Economy

Some more guides will be released soon aswell as part two to this one. I appreciate the good feedback I recieved and it will inspire me to do more of these, its good to know I helped someone out. Once again, thank you. :)

Also if you need assistance with the economics on your game then please do mail me and I will give you step by step advice after checking your game out - advice that will not require a reset. :lol:

[BlueDevil23]

Re: [Guide]MC Economy

 

Some more guides will be released soon aswell as part two to this one. I appreciate the good feedback I recieved and it will inspire me to do more of these, its good to know I helped someone out. Once again, thank you. :)

Also if you need assistance with the economics on your game then please do mail me and I will give you step by step advice after checking your game out - advice that will not require a reset. :lol:

 

Could this be the shortest reply by Rainbow yet?! :P

[wolfe]

Re: [Guide]MC Economy

Lmao! Beat me to the post BD.

Rainbow, there is some good advice there for sure. Eventually when we have a new engine put together, we'll be using some of those tactics. Now we rely on housing costs, fees, and capped interest to keep the economy growth at a relatively steady pace.

[shedh]

Re: [Guide]MC Economy

Finally i got the chance to read this topic....

Well let me just say this is not only a problem in MC games, its a problem in most games, keeping an eye on things is hard looking at what item is bought at what price and what that item actually does has an effect on the games economy and life span.

I found a really good game which has a very intresting economy,(Cronus if ya reading and want me to remove it please just say so :wink:)

Cash in circulation: $3,878,764

Average player money: $266

Amount of cash in banks: $3,624,239

Average bank savings: $248

Amount of crystals in circulation: 19,160

Average player crystals: 1

Total Members: 14560

Criminal Impulse Stats

Now if you understand that, then your following me....

I don't exactly know when Criminal Impulse went online but those stats are amazing most other games with this many users would have much more added. Keeping the game economy low is vital, let it get out of hand then it may not last long.

 

shedh

[gurpreet]

Re: [Guide]MC Economy

 

Finally i got the chance to read this topic....

Well let me just say this is not only a problem in MC games, its a problem in most games, keeping an eye on things is hard looking at what item is bought at what price and what that item actually does has an effect on the games economy and life span.

I found a really good game which has a very intresting economy,(Cronus if ya reading and want me to remove it please just say so :wink:)

Cash in circulation: $3,878,764

Average player money: $266

Amount of cash in banks: $3,624,239

Average bank savings: $248

Amount of crystals in circulation: 19,160

Average player crystals: 1

Total Members: 14560

Criminal Impulse Stats

Now if you understand that, then your following me....

I don't exactly know when Criminal Impulse went online but those stats are amazing most other games with this many users would have much more added. Keeping the game economy low is vital, let it get out of hand then it may not last long.

 

shedh

Cronus IMO is a genius at MCcodes and overall text-based games (Along with ZA, Lithium, HD, and a few others). They can keep the games going fine, and sort out problems easily :) Nice one Cronus.

[MrGi]

Re: [Guide]MC Economy

Very nice Post! +1 For you.

Although, I do not own a game, I have ran one for a limited of time.

In which, I dont have the stats anymore, But I for one, Settled the Econ. Problem.

Users at 45 days old, Did not have no more than 100,000.

Which, Is pretty good to my concern.

Its all in the calulation you figure when starting the game up.

Per say,

Job Payouts: Take that, Add It By one Week.

Crimes: Take and sort which ones you think that level (1-5)(5-10) Etc etc, Can pass, Add ALL of them up, divide by 3 I belive i did.

Item Market: Take All Items, Figure out what would be a decent Max. Sell price, and set that to the item market. Then take that, Add That x3.

Same as above for crystal market.

Then, At the end of the day, See what users HAVE to pay for daily.

In which, Im not sure what mods, etc you have on your game.

But, Add the total amount a user MUST spend per day.

Subtract that from your Total Amount Above.

Whats left over, Is what the user has to spend on.

Still ALOT of money?

Well, Now, Taxes come in, I have my tax mod set to where the user hands in money daily. And they get it back to a certain time period.

After Taxes, You kinda can figure out the given amount the user has left On Hand.

For me, That was problem solved.

Stats, Well, Ill go into that another time! Haha

[Ragnar]

Re: [Guide]MC Economy

The guide doesn't even cover the mother of all inflation generators, the biggest thing that effects the economy...bank interest!!!! One game I play was reset about four months ago. I started playing it 85 days ago. Siting in my bank is $78,632,145,127,625,711. Oh, the bank interest is set at 15% for us supporters, so I'll make about 10 quad tonight!!!!!!

Then in a few other games, I'm siting on the max... $9,223,372,036,854,775,807!!!!!

Keeping the game interesting can be a challenge when you got very little cash coming in the game.

[gurpreet]

Re: [Guide]MC Economy

 

The guide doesn't even cover the mother of all inflation generators, the biggest thing that effects the economy...bank interest!!!! One game I play was reset about four months ago. I started playing it 85 days ago. Siting in my bank is $78,632,145,127,625,711. Oh, the bank interest is set at 15% for us supporters, so I'll make about 10 quad tonight!!!!!!

Then in a few other games, I'm siting on the max... $9,223,372,036,854,775,807!!!!!

Keeping the game interesting can be a challenge when you got very little cash coming in the game.

I have that on another game too...

Here's what i have done:

Bank: 4% to 1.2%

CyberBank: 7% to 1.5%

DonatorBank: 15% to 2%

I'm going to make special items for 8000 crystals or so, not sure about money because people have a lot of money and seeing items for 500 billion or so will put users off...Any more ideas, NO RESETS!

[Voice4Vision]

Re: [Guide]MC Economy

The economy merely comes down to balance. When considering all the things within a game, that one can purchase or trade for, categorizing these helps decipher the economic imbalances.

Needed Items - Items that refill players brave, health, energy, etc.

Desired Items - Weapons and all other items.

The needed items, needs to cost a substantial amount.

When viewing a real world economy, 95% of income of low income earners pour their money into the necessities. And barely have anything left over for the things they would like to enjoy.

With MC's job mod and school mod, there is the opportunity of creating a more realistic economical sense, however the game still lacks alot of other beneficial attributes, that can add some interesting developments.

It mainly comes down to creating a game absolutely complete, with a large list of jobs, and enormous list of schooling, and keep the prices of your needed items at a high cost for low income earners. A tax mod, could help, however it has its limits. It just comes down to what you are pricing everything versus what you allow the players to earn. If the earning window is open, then you will never have economical control.

Just my thoughts,

Voice4Vision

[mj12]

Re: [Guide]MC Economy

One good way i feel, which i'm using to limit the economy in my non mc game is to look at how stuff happens in the real world.

For example the number one cause of a bloated economy is bank interest, real banks do not give interest on a daily basis, its more monthly or quarterly and its not much either, what ive done is something similar to the reak banking system, everyone starts off with a basic kind of account which earns <2% interest every week.

They can upgrade it but not by very much.

To limit people from buying stats limit refills, or limit training e.g. Training requires no energy buy you can only train once per hour.

Controlling bank interest is the main thing though

[mj12]

Re: [Guide]MC Economy

 

The economy merely comes down to balance. When considering all the things within a game, that one can purchase or trade for, categorizing these helps decipher the economic imbalances.

Needed Items - Items that refill players brave, health, energy, etc.

Desired Items - Weapons and all other items.

The needed items, needs to cost a substantial amount.

When viewing a real world economy, 95% of income of low income earners pour their money into the necessities. And barely have anything left over for the things they would like to enjoy.

With MC's job mod and school mod, there is the opportunity of creating a more realistic economical sense, however the game still lacks alot of other beneficial attributes, that can add some interesting developments.

It mainly comes down to creating a game absolutely complete, with a large list of jobs, and enormous list of schooling, and keep the prices of your needed items at a high cost for low income earners. A tax mod, could help, however it has its limits. It just comes down to what you are pricing everything versus what you allow the players to earn. If the earning window is open, then you will never have economical control.

Just my thoughts,

Voice4Vision

The thing i've come to realize is that items that refill health, really arent needed users can just come online whenever they have these things and do *crimes or whatever

If brave fills every 100 minutes and a crime can give a player 5000, in a month he can make 2.1mil and he doesnt have to use that for anything.

I believe all of us game developers/owners need to come up with real necessities. I was thinking something along the lines of food, something users HAVE to buy/pay for regardless.

Any ideas?

[Voice4Vision]

Re: [Guide]MC Economy

mj12 creating a stat that causes hunger may in fact help balance the economy, however the economy is not messed up due to the lack of necessities. Sure no one needs to buy the health, will, brave etc. But by doing that, they get no where in the game, and in essence becomes a non-factor player. Besides all one needs to do is remove the stat from cron to force the need of buying a potion.

As for adding the hunger factor, I would love that, it would certainly make room for new mods such as hunting, and groceries stores.