Stock Markets!

Get on Sunday night!

 

I support the idea of diversification, but as it is there are plenty of money making options on the server. The issue is that there aren't enough systems on the server which takes money out of the economy. Injecting yet another system which increases inflation might not be advisable. Let me explain.

Fundamental difference:
Lotteries are for entertainment purposes only, as a whole people WILL lose more than they win.
Stock Marks are for investing / making money, as a whole people will MAKE more than they lose.

Lotteries and gambling in general are supposed to be fun / interesting with the CHANCE at gaining money. There is an art to designing a good lottery which makes people feel like they get little rewards here and there so they keep playing even though over time they are constantly losing. Overall the purpose of a lottery is to take money out of the economy, counteract inflation, and in the real world it often acts like a voluntary tax system where those entertainment dollars go toward improving public services.

Stock Markets would inject more money into the economy and increase inflation. In the real world this happens when the Fed has to print more money to give to banks and in Shadecrest this happens when people cash out their stocks and more rupies than before enter the economy. Overall to the individual, the stock market is actually a REALLY safe investment if you work with a good broker. You're almost guaranteed 6% return and if you're aggressive can get upwards of 30%.

So like I've said before Lotteries are designed to counteract inflation particularly when implemented in a virtual economy. It is an economic strategy games with persistent worlds / economy since Diablo II's "gambler". Stock Markets on the other hand are not something that will counteract inflation. If people want to play stocks on the server it's easy. Buy things at a low price, sell at a high price. This is how some people end up controlling niches of markets in games. You don't need a plugin which is going to inject more rupies into the economy. Chest shops are in essence a commodities based market.

In fact, most persistent economies don't even like it when players play with markets in this way because it ruins the economy for regular more casual players. That is why in most persistent world economies, they implement a fee per transaction between players which again is another gold sink, taking money out of the economy so if people really want to make money by buying / selling then money comes out of the server still.

Even if we added... let's say a broker fee per stock trade, it would just mean people got a little less money, but they would still consistently make money. Overall it's just injecting even more money into an economy that's already flooded through voting. We NEED more rupie sinks, not things which inject more money into the economy.

 

For those still confused on how virtual economies work, let me break down the basics here very simply. These bullets are taken from http://blog.trialpay.com/2009/07/how-to-avoid-inflation-in-virtual-economies/ . These are basics that anyone who has managed virtual economies before or knows a thing or two about economics understands. I think this blog just does a good job of explaining it (except the part about monitization) simply so here goes.

Currently today we reward players too often for too little effort spent. We offer a reasonable many opportunities to earn currency, but few exciting or game mechanics ways to spend it. Multiple accounts and gaming voting websites can allow players to fraudulently earn more than the intended daily share of virtual currency. Monitoring average net worth is a hard thing to do particularly since it's hard to get even an estimated worth of non-liquid assets, but it is something we can try doing. I have an idea using a creative kind of multi-question polling. Tracking individual virtual good purchases can be done easily by just watching activity of chest shops. Finally, we need to balance sources vs sinks. We don't have enough sinks in our economy. With all that said, the last thing this server needs is another source of earning currency.

 

I don't own stocks, nor do I watch the market (except BAWSAQ), so all I know is buy when low, sell when high. It could be cool, but our mini-economy will change drastically. For the better or worse, I have no clue.