How to fix a games economy ?

[Hendrickson]

I have a game that the economy is starting to go out of balance big time. People are just becoming too rich in the game. I have tried to fix the economy. Has any one had a screwed up economy and how did you go abotu fixing?

My economy is like this now:

Too few crystals in the game

Too many with billions of game dollars.

No fixes seem to work to get people to spend more ingame cash.

All I see is a full reset that would fix everything. But I can't since players have paid cash etc and would not be happy at all with a move like that.

[newttster]

Find ways to increase the number of crystals in your game either through streets, mining, games etc. If you have a housing mod ... implement taxes. Hold lotteries. Provide a gaming center where they would want to spend their money. Try adding a questing system where they would have to purchase items in order to complete them and reward them with stats or special items that can't be sold. How about a gifting center where they can buy gifts for friends or enemies that can only be sent but not sold. Put a cap both minimum and maximum on how much certain items can be sold for. That's just a few ideas that I can think of. Good luck.

[Nickson]

When you are in a situation like this, and your game has not been running for a couple of years, there are other problems. It means your game generates too much cash. And while you can try to increase a players spendings, it won't always help since the money is still being generated. Thus you'd want to try to reduce that money generation. I'll leave it up to you how you can do this since I don't know enough about your game. Example of a bank:

* You can put a maximum cap on a deposit,

* You can allow only one deposit

* You can reduce the interest rate

* Adding a tax on larger deposits

All of these options reduce money generation of NEW FRESH money, but they do NOT TAKE away any money that's already in game. This would mean that a player will generate less additional money, and that his monetary value won't grow as fast. But he will still have his monetary base to work with. Once you have taken this step, you can create additional ideas that will TAKE from a players monetary base. But as long as you do not stop fresh money being created, you'll just run after the facts and your games monetary base will continue to grow.

A good tip: Make sure a player has many options to spend his money on, but make sure they are expensive enough for the player to notice. That way they'll have to make choices, unless they want to spend all of their money.. both will be good for you as either money will disappear, or players get more competitive with each other.

Resolve problems by taking on the issue, not the after effects ;)

[gurpreet]

One good way I have found is to only give interest to active players. Maybe a query to check if the user has been on in the last 30 days, and if they have then give the interest to them. If not, simply don't, so users can't leave for a while and come back to a crap load of money.

[lucky3809]

heres what you can do...

make modifications where the user can use their cash up, such as events or something permanent..

make weapons not sellable back to the system, make a modification for them to use them for upgrading something in game, like their housing, ect...

lower interest rate for banks and set a cap on how much can be deposited.

make money hard to get, set caps on points sold and added...

you can also add housing tax too.

and if you want to reset a few weapons prices do that also, players will complain but they will understand faster then they complain lol.

higher your house prices, make new weapons and items for larger prices....

[sniko]

How about;

- TAX introduced on;

- Depositing

- Sending money to one another

- Housing

- Depending on the persons wealth, in-game items cost more

[Hendrickson]

Thanks guys, this is a good list of things to do. I'm sure it will help alot of other players too.

Edited October 24, 2011 by Hendrickson

[Curt]

I would suggest capping your bank interest as well, ive seen a game spiral out of control because of bank interest...

[Hendrickson]

Its the bank interest that has really done it to my game. Thanks. I'm taking action now.