In Act One of this discussion on reducing Mudflation, I discussed the concept of currency controls mixed with using "trash loot" to fund a player's activities (if you missed it, it's linked here: Mudflation Cessation Conflation (Act One: Currency Control).
In this Act, we'll discuss my thoughts on a "drive through toll" concept of playing an MMO.
As discussed previously, Mudflation occurs when the amount of buying power in the hands of the playerbase does not match an increase in the supply of goods and services in the game economy.
Unfortunately, the paradigm the industry has emphasized has been pouring cash and items onto players, but avoiding any systems that take things back from players.
So let me get this out of the way: it sucks when I have to pay for something. It sucks when I lose something. It sucks when games give me money, but also make me spend it.
That said, let's look at how we can remove cash and items, but keep the player from reacting so badly they do more than post angrily on some internet forum somewhere. We need to remove money from players (Act 3 is items...) and we need them to not cancel their accounts over it.
The player will never "enjoy" a system that drains cash or items out of the economy, but I believe that a major reason for this distaste is the obtrusiveness of such drains. Take repairs in WoW - this is a economy drain that is in-your-face, requires you to slacken your "fun" and in exchange gives you... nothing. Repairing equipment is a great example of how you can both make players hate an economy and give the players no real value for the money they spent.
WoW also possesses another economic drain that does have value to the player: the griffon system. As a time sink, it is quite effective at trading in-game cash for time spent on the griffon, but the most important part to consider is the fact that the service actually does succeed in trading cash for a valued service.
The evolution of 21st Century consumer spending has been overwhelmingly in favor of what I call the "drive through toll road" approach. Many consumers now have automatic deductions of their most common expenditures, and I would argue are less concerned about bills and less afraid to spend because of it.
MMOs that begin to match this paradigm will increase the drains on the economy, but not have as serious a backlash as developers currently fear. The vast majority of players do not want to have to do math - so let's take that pain from them with an automatic toll system.
An example:
Entering or exiting a city on foot/mount requires a toll. This toll is automatically deducted when a player enters or leaves the city. Since most "downtime" activities occur in the city, the player will need to enter this city often.
The tutorial for the game includes an explanation of the story reason why tolls are being extracted from players - the reasoning is pretty easy to sell, and really all we care about is making the game world's pay scheme seem like Disneyland - you pay to get in, then you can do what you want. After the tutorial, the game automagically extracts these tolls from the player - there is choice in the Options of the game to give a confirmation window, but this defaults to "off."
If the player has no currency, then they can trade items in their inventory for access, and if they do not possess any unequipped objects, then they have to perform a trivial task (such as "deliver this payment voucher to the Captain of the Guard").
Now, we build this up - put in plenty of these drive-thru tolls, and we develop a sinking system that hits players during ordinary gameplay, but isn't obtrusive - and more importantly - is matched to a service they are opting for.
Further examples of drive-through tolls:
- a griffon-like transit system, but you don't have to opt-in to pay, you just get on the bird, and the coin is deducted automatically.
- material components for spells
- ammunition
- zone borders
- enhancement of items
- mail (oh wait, this already happens)
- auction houses (oh wait, this also already happens...)
This sort of scheme works only if you take the curse of coin sinking off of things like "repair" and instead transfer them into a more invisible system.
Really, is there any difference between paying for repairing armor, and paying to enter a city?
In a game world where currency is in lower supply than usual, it can have two potential practical uses - one is for big purchases, and the other is for the utterly mundane. If you keep the supply of coin low, you tend to make players afraid to spend it on items, especially if you extract tiny tolls. This is not a bad thing - let tolls and drive-through costs soak up (and recycle!) the vast majority of the currency, since you're trying to soak it out of the player's coffers anyway.
What about buying items and spending money on the things you want? We'll discuss this in Act III: Recycling the Good Stuff.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Mudflation Cessation Conflation (Act Two: Death of a Thousand Fees)
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9 comments:
I agree that a hands off semi-invisible toll based approach can lessen the sting of money sinks. But charging tolls, even ones that don't require direct player interaction for things that have traditionally been free isn't going to play well with large chunks of the player base that will carry over their expectations and baggage from earlier systems.
Additionally I don't really see how this is all that different than charging for repairs. You're just removing the requirement that the player push a button. There's no reason you couldn't make repairs and the deduction from the players account automatic every time they enter a city or talk to a merchant. The idea is to make money sinks more automatic, tiny, and just plain more of them to hide the real impact they have. What it is you're actually charging for seems almost wholly irrelevant and depend only on your particular game.
On another note I think you're talking about inflation. Mudflation has traditionally been how successive content has been bigger, better, and more powerful than previous content thus inflating the power of characters as time goes on.
Makaze: I would argue that your definition of Mudflation is another facet of the buying power vs. supply problem that I use for my definition - in the end, definitions abound, which is why I tried to define it.
You have a good point about the baggage of earlier systems. In the end, I think convenience trumps control though - the concern is the player "auto-paying" for basic services will outrage players who are used to opting-in to everything they do.
Like many features (like paying for in-game mail), what seems like an outrageous inconvenience is readily accepted in the name of unobtrusiveness.
I appreciate the comment - the three acts of this proposed economic system are intended to show how a specific sacred cow can be slain - it would not be without extensive iteration in practice. :)
Buying power vs. supply is an artifact of the economy. You can have Mudflation without an economy, in fact without trading at all. It's more that the new big boss at the end of an expansion has a more powerful drop than the end boss of the last expansion.
If you look up mudflation on Wikipedia the same issue we have here shows up. Parts of the article talk about a content arms race and parts talk about virtual inflation, but they're really two separate problems. You can have either without the other just fine.
But then that's the problem with recently made up words :) Everyone ascribes their own meaning as there is no authoritative source.
As to the pain of transition to micro money sinks I think the important thing would be to have an option to prompt for payment to keep the vets happy. However, make sure as you said that it's off by default. We've seen over and over again how default settings shape majority expectation of future systems.
Taxes are universally hated, although they are a necessary part of any thriving economy.
My idea might sound silly, but if you're interested in saving face with your players, then you could introduce an outside regulatory committee that adjusts tax rates on various items and services. Yes, it's known commonly as "shifting the blame", but it might keep old players from leaving if they direct their hatred towards someone other than the developers.
The problem, of course, that would often come up is corruption within the committee. However, this is another quirky "saving face" feature in that you could come in and save the day by stemming corruption whenever the players complain enough. Fire a few of the committee members, and now you're the heroes. Veterans will start flooding back in.
However, all of this will be for naught if your game is in too bad of a shape to keep player's interest. They will become smart to this tactic and revolt. The blame will shift towards "anyone who made this damn game" instead.
Yes, this tactic of "shifting the blame" using scapegoats and stemming corruption to make yourself look like the good guy is common in most first-world countries. It's one of the reasons why democracy was created - to vote in someone that would make us look good again.
In case you're wondering, yes, other MMORPGs are starting to catch onto doing this. Eve Online, for example, is trying this tactic. I do not know if it'll work though, since they are still in the process of picking committee members from the player base.
Random thoughts :
- trying to accumulate money has become "content" in a way
- tradeskills wise I wonder if it's not best to have all materials sold by Npc like in Daoc
Two important factors in this drive-through tolling concept is to a) make sure every time you spend money it is for a concrete purpose that is directly related to gameplay, and b) this tolling occurs in a currency-poor environment (as discussed in the previous article).
Shan: I agree, as I like to play with the markets in various MMOs. One thing to consider, however, is the reality of such an economic system as I am discussing here will require players to use alternate means of trade - and currency - which is good emergent fun, in my opinion.
Interesting article.
But I was wondering, if you kept the amount of money in a game static, and then created an alternate currency, like boar bacon, wouldn't the same mudflation then occur with boar bacon? It seems to me that the original "gold" currency would just become a middle man who's value is now decided by the inflation of boar bacon. For example, 1 gold = 1 boar bacon, but a few years down the line, 1 gold = 10 boar bacon. The main person this would affect is newer players who need more boar bacon to get the same amount of gold (if gold is needed for certain items/rewards).
Also, mudflation of in-game currency itself should not be that large of a problem. For instance, when the game begins, 1 gold = one potion on the open market (auction house), but later when everyone has money, 1 gold has inflated to be equivalent to 100, and 100 gold = one potion. And as long as most items are player traded instead of bought from NPCs, the gold should keep relatively the same value. Once again, this would mainly affect new players, but if they are taken care of by systems like quest rewards and drops it should not be a problem.
The best solution I see to keeping an economy stable are massive money sinks like WoW flying mounts. This is a positive reward, instead of repairs which are mandatory and not very fun, and affect different players disproportionately.
Tolls themselves penalize explorers/traveler players more than any other type.
I was hoping to see part 3 by now, but no time like the present :D. Pulling over the conversation I started on the Stargate Worlds forums (my post at here)...
IMHO the root problem with MMORPG economies is having a single form of currency for all items. So long as you use the same currency for everyday "operational" expenses (e.g. repairs, food, ammo, etc) and end-game uber "wealth" items (e.g. fancy house, cool mount, uber gear, etc) you will have a balance issue. If you limit cash to control the "wealth" items, you make "normal operations" too expensive for the casual player. Conversely, if you make cash available to the casual player, you make "wealth" items too easy to acquire.
I think this is part of what your system is going for: by putting tight controls on cash acquisition and limiting the uber items to cash, you can control the "wealth" items without impacting bartering for "operational" expenses.
The problem with the system as you described it is the bag space required to hold the "alternate cash barter items". In every MMORPG I've ever played, my bags are always full with sets of gear, crafting resources/tools, food, and ammo. I barely have room for trash loot to make cash so holding barter items is just way too much. IMHO it'd be much simpler to forgo bartering and simply use two forms of currency. [I'll save my rant about how the UI/game mechanisms used for loot in all MMORPGs suck for another time. ;)]
-Foam
Hi!,
Great series, but. . . I'm still waiting for the 3rd and final act. I suppose you are busy, so just a remind!
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