Re: Olympia workers and Earning Power

From: gl8f@fermi.clas.Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl)

Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1992 04:18:37 +0000

In article <1992Apr17.035704.4177@aero.org> srt@aero.org (Scott "TCB" Turner) writes:

>But I think the real problem is that there aren't enough interesting
>and diverse ways to earn money in Olympia.

Well, there is one easy way to earn lots of money in Olympia today --
kill off lots of newbies and take their money ;-) Perhaps Rich should
start off everyone with 5 armed guards or something.

But seriously: yes, it does make sense to have more of an economy
where people harvest various sorts of raw materials and then trade
with each other. But I've yet to see a commercial game which had a
satisfactory economic system, so do keep in mind that it's very hard.
Things you want to avoid:

o  letting the people with the most money earn more, so they get
     richer and richer and run away with the game

o  making the system have a lot of luck involved (gee, I found a
     gold deposit 100 times richer than normal, aren't I special?)

o  making economic activity much more profitable than exploration
     (or much less, for that matter)

Personally, I think it'd be plenty if there were GM-controlled markets
which produced goods and depended on players to buy them and take them
to the places where they were consumed. Limited production and
consumption would drive profits down if a route were over-traded,
forcing players to spread out. A wealthy player would have to work
hard to exploit many trade routes and force the competition out.

-- greg

References

Olympia workers and Earning Power
rob@ccc.govt.nz (Rob McNeur)
Thu, 16 Apr 1992 15:26:02 +0000
Re: Olympia workers and Earning Power
srt@aero.org (Scott "TCB" Turner)
Fri, 17 Apr 1992 03:57:04 +0000

Referenced By

Olympia workers and Earning Power
rob@ccc.govt.nz (Rob McNeur)
Thu, 16 Apr 1992 15:26:02 +0000
Re: Olympia workers and Earning Power
srt@aero.org (Scott "TCB" Turner)
Fri, 17 Apr 1992 03:57:04 +0000