Inflation monitering and DDO; a suggestion

[Cam_Neely]

An economist by trade, I love some of the economic aspects of MMOs.

A question for the Devs (or maybe the more knowledgeable forum goers)

Do you track inflation in game, and across servers?

This could easily be done, by tracking the change in AH purchase price for a basket of goods. Personally I would use only stuff that is bought via bid as opposed to buy out (to eliminate outliers) but I think either would work. This is assuming that there is a way to see finalized transactions in the AH.

This brings us to my second question.

I have never seen it done in any MMO, but can't figure out why. Index NPC prices to the monthly inflation changes. This would counter act many of the larger swings in inflation that we see. If the price of a basket of goods in the AH goes up by 5% from the first of March to the first of April, then the cost off scrolls and pots would go up by 5% as well.

Of course the price you could vendor trash for would go up 5%, but since the price you can sell something at is less then 100% but the price you buy at is more then 100%, I think this would in net take some plat out of the game, on a somewhat self regulating basis.

This would not have a negative effect on new players, but actually help to create a level playing field across time for new players.

Thoughts?

[Gremmlynn]

How would it not hurt new people who are basically buying necessities when you are tracking inflation on what are, for the most part, luxury items. Frankly, I think keeping the prices on vendor items static to maintain playability of more importance than a healthy player economy. Kind of sucks when lowby casters have to beat things to death with their staff because they can't afford level 1 spell components due to an upswing in AH prices. Though I'm sure other MMOs would appreciate the business they get from such a mechanic.

[Cam_Neely]

How would it not hurt new people who are basically buying necessities when you are tracking inflation on what are, for the most part, luxury items.

Why would you suggest using luxury items only? It would be very easy to have Masterwork weapons count for a larger share of the basket then lg devil scales. By me suggesting you use a basket, it should not have this issue.

By keeping it constant over time, it levels the new player field over time. A person that logs in today will pay the same for the CLW pots relative to the loot he gets, compared to someone that starts in 2 years. A player that started 2 years ago, on the other hand, had a higher relative price of spell components compared to someone that starts today.

If this is good for the new player base or not is up to debate, but I don't think it makes it harder in any way. Personally I think that having plat be worthless is more of a negative to a new player.

[Gremmlynn]

Why would you suggest using luxury items only? It would be very easy to have Masterwork weapons count for a larger share of the basket then lg devil scales. By me suggesting you use a basket, it should not have this issue.

By keeping it constant over time, it levels the new player field over time. A person that logs in today will pay the same for the CLW pots relative to the loot he gets, compared to someone that starts in 2 years. A player that started 2 years ago, on the other hand, had a higher relative price of spell components compared to someone that starts today.

If this is good for the new player base or not is up to debate, but I don't think it makes it harder in any way. Personally I think that having plat be worthless is more of a negative to a new player.

I didn't suggest using luxury items, you did by suggesting tracking AH prices. Everything bought on the AH is a luxury item, a nice but not needed upgrade from what one finds in quests.

Spell components and things like thieving tools and arrows, even cure pots for the less careful, on the other hand are pretty much needed to play one's character which is certainly more important than any player economy at all.

Also, at the low end, getting 6 plat instead of 5 for that masterwork scepter you looted isn't going to help you unless the mobs are also filling their chests with more gold. In the harbor chest gold is the main source of loot and the odd nice item one finds is generally useful to them. Real fun having to swap to the good old -1 Khorthos mace against skeletons because you had to sell the +1 you found to buy thieves tools. IMO popping a chest hoping to find something useful is fun, while popping a chest hopping to find something that will sell for enough to allow you to play another quest would make me question why I bother logging in.

[pal_sch]

Semi-related to the topic, ever read Halting State? Sci-fi book that involves a method of controlling MMO inflation as a plot point. Worth a read either way. First few chapters posted online by the author here.

As to the actual idea...

I also think this would disproportionately hit newer players.

Very simply, newer players have to spend a higher percentage of their income than more established players. They will be spending a goodly amount of their looted plat on pots and other items while also having to buy new gear as they level up. Most of the time they will make net gains in plat but sometimes they are going to burn a lot more than they can bring in, when they need to re-gear or hit a wall difficulty wise. At such times they are going to be forced to farm for plat rather than play how they want to. More established players can put off purchases until the prices go back down and will have more ways to make money quickly. While costs do go up at higher levels income goes up far, far faster.

I'm also a little worried this would be gamed. You would have to keep the list of items secret otherwise higher level players could dump goods onto the market at either decreased or increased prices to play with the system. You could avoid people dampening things down by making it bids only (no buy-now) but then they could still artificially spike prices to grief entire servers. You'd just need one or two guilds with a couple million spare plat to get bored and break the economy for everyone. Although I guess you could design this out, things could get complicated quickly.

I think that the plat sinks in this game work fairly well. The fee's for selling via the AH mean that higher prices take out plat quickly while not hampering people who aren't taking part in inflated sales. It can hurt people looking to improve their gear during an inflated period but that will always be true.