MMRPGs could be a generator of insights but it proving stuff could get tricksy.
Most of my thoughts are about edge conditions on whether somethign forms or not.
In a way a good sandbox mmprg will have “player driven economy” as one of its game mechanics. In this way having “economic authenticity” has a somewhat solid grounding. however it also has the dark sides in that if you design something in and then measure that thing out then off-course you are not going to get surprised. A lot of what makes a collection of mechanics “an economy” places burdens that it has no hope but to work boringly.
There are quite a lot of things that have been “RPG takeaways”. I started to flesh out some of them but decided just to list and let it be interactive whether further elaboration answers the question.
*Ruthlessness from Majora’s Mask: Eve lets you play a scammer. If you make a very big slight in game but do not cheat while doing it the house will back you up 100%. When people have proper anonimity and pseudonimity reputation effects can grow rampant.
*Blowing up pixels: Having a lot of wealth and having hard time to enjoy it. Buy expensive ships just to wreck them for marginal humor utility. “objective” ingame economic value being radically different from subjective evaluation
*You need money to make money: Progression curve and expectation where new player earn little and more established players have it easier. Income differences can be way bigger. making millions in a 15 min vs working 6 months to get to that point.
*Slavery for the sake of entertainment: Time sinkhole, all gains are fictional/experiential, possiblity of getting real hurt (loss of assets worth/generated by 1⁄2 a year of monotonous repetitive action). People can understand what a grind and ruthless thing it is and still undersign, instead of winching away as a violation of basic human rights.
*Uncommon sense: Security ratings and alpha vs beta. The thresholds of gain vs risk of loss are spychologically very different than what is mathematically good for game balance. One could think robbery possibility vs no-robbery posibility woudl be in the real of 1.0 vs 1.3. When is is more 1.0 vs 3.0 or 1.0 vs 10.0. How people can be financial incentivised to upkeep such sensiblity gradients. Also 3 months in high sec vs 3 weeks in low-sec for comparable gains.
*Adversial economics: Trading on the open market vs company internal market. Making ammunition cheaper for everybody means making it cheaper for your enemies. it can be important political/strategic point of keeping a price artifically ineffcient. The market price might not be the production price but what it can be allowed to be. There is a difference between company internal “market price” and open “market price”. Flooding the market as a causus belli.
*Created scarcity: Extortion like tactics to actively make more people more dependent on others
*ISK=RISK: Somebody will do it for less until to the point where it becomes unsustainable because they die too much from doing it.
MMRPGs could be a generator of insights but it proving stuff could get tricksy.
Most of my thoughts are about edge conditions on whether somethign forms or not.
In a way a good sandbox mmprg will have “player driven economy” as one of its game mechanics. In this way having “economic authenticity” has a somewhat solid grounding. however it also has the dark sides in that if you design something in and then measure that thing out then off-course you are not going to get surprised. A lot of what makes a collection of mechanics “an economy” places burdens that it has no hope but to work boringly.
There are quite a lot of things that have been “RPG takeaways”. I started to flesh out some of them but decided just to list and let it be interactive whether further elaboration answers the question.
*Ruthlessness from Majora’s Mask: Eve lets you play a scammer. If you make a very big slight in game but do not cheat while doing it the house will back you up 100%. When people have proper anonimity and pseudonimity reputation effects can grow rampant.
*Blowing up pixels: Having a lot of wealth and having hard time to enjoy it. Buy expensive ships just to wreck them for marginal humor utility. “objective” ingame economic value being radically different from subjective evaluation
*You need money to make money: Progression curve and expectation where new player earn little and more established players have it easier. Income differences can be way bigger. making millions in a 15 min vs working 6 months to get to that point.
*Slavery for the sake of entertainment: Time sinkhole, all gains are fictional/experiential, possiblity of getting real hurt (loss of assets worth/generated by 1⁄2 a year of monotonous repetitive action). People can understand what a grind and ruthless thing it is and still undersign, instead of winching away as a violation of basic human rights.
*Uncommon sense: Security ratings and alpha vs beta. The thresholds of gain vs risk of loss are spychologically very different than what is mathematically good for game balance. One could think robbery possibility vs no-robbery posibility woudl be in the real of 1.0 vs 1.3. When is is more 1.0 vs 3.0 or 1.0 vs 10.0. How people can be financial incentivised to upkeep such sensiblity gradients. Also 3 months in high sec vs 3 weeks in low-sec for comparable gains.
*Adversial economics: Trading on the open market vs company internal market. Making ammunition cheaper for everybody means making it cheaper for your enemies. it can be important political/strategic point of keeping a price artifically ineffcient. The market price might not be the production price but what it can be allowed to be. There is a difference between company internal “market price” and open “market price”. Flooding the market as a causus belli.
*Created scarcity: Extortion like tactics to actively make more people more dependent on others
*ISK=RISK: Somebody will do it for less until to the point where it becomes unsustainable because they die too much from doing it.