Author | Message |
---|---|
Xario1 |
Date sent: 2016/10/04 00:37:23
Here are some ideas that I had in a different thread where Jericho and Luigi were discussing some of the problems with this server's economy. I would like other players to add to this topic, if possible."Since this has become a discussion of the server's economy, I would like to say a few things about what is going on with it. On this server, I have been paying a lot of attention to the economy, especially ever since I started my shop, the TowerShop, so I have observed a lot of what has been going on with the economy of this server. Now, all of this is coming from someone who has a lot of knowledge about business and economies, becuase I have taken both Microeconomics and Macroeconomics in college. When it come s to taxing players, it doesn't matter what kind of economy you have, players are always going to try to avoid being taxed, becuase no one likes it when you take away their money. Of course taxes are necessary in economies that have a lot of inflation, but unfortunately Mushroom Co's economy has the opposite, which is deflation. While deflation can cause money to normally have more worth, unfortunately it can also be a sign of an economy that isn't getting anywhere, in other words, money isn't circulating through the economy, and unfortunately this is the case on this server. Now there, are a few reasons for this, one of which is that most players can easily get common items on their own without buying them becuase they are resourceful enough, but the items that they do want are rare and may just be out of their price range which isn't the fault of those who set those prices, but instead the problem comes from actually making the money and getting the money. Which leads me to my next example of why money isn't being circulated enough. Currently there aren't enough ways to actually make money on the server. While the shops are a way to circulate money from player to player, it does not actually make the money out of thin air to put into the economy. It seems that /vote is the only thing at actually does that to put more money into the economy, but many players don't think that /vote is worth it, becuase it only gives you 50 money per vote, which players don't think is much. Now, I don't think the amount that /vote gives you needs to be increased, becuase I don't think that is really a problem. What there does need to be is more ways to make money. Now, I'm not entirely sure how the lottery works and if that pulls money out of nowhere or only gets it from the players, but it often seems like players that win the lottery tend to be defaults who don't even come back on the server. But when it is a player who stills plays, and they spend the money, putting it back into the economy, that can be good. Anyway, other ways that money could be put into the economy and decrease deflation are to: -Have Mods and Admins reward players for reporting a player who is breaking the rules, as long as the player who is reporting has proof of the other player breaking the rules. This would both give players an incentive to help cooperate with staff when it comes to reporting, and will help take some of the work off the staff's shoulders. -When holding events, have there be prizes that are money amounts that players can win, such as with the Olympics or with the upcoming Halloween events that we may be having. -Pay players who have shops a certain amount of money each month to have chests where players can sell their items to the shop. (I will mention more about this below) Of course there are other ways that you can put money into the economy, and I can't think of any other good ways at the moment, but these are just a few. Now, the way that money is made out of thin air, and how not enough of that is made currently, is not the only problem causing deflation and a slow economy on the server. Unfortunately, what is also a problem is under-pricing of items. Everyone knows that consumers(players who buy things from shops) would prefer to buy items for the cheapest price they can find, and that selling things for cheap is a good way for shops to undercut their competition. Unfortunately this has been happening a lot on the server, and in an economy that has a deflation problem, this can make it worse. What pricing items for as low as possible does it essentially devalue those items, which makes it harder for some shops to compete as well as makes less money circulate. Becuase of under-pricing, consumers pay less for items and sellers receive less, meaning that less money circulates with each transaction and also causes shops that actually value the items that they are selling to receive nothing since another shop is selling the same items for less, even if their prices are reasonable. So if this happens, that means that players with a lot of money already will keep their most of their money, and players that don't have much money will not get much, if any money. Unfortunately under-pricing can also occur when it comes to players selling items to shops. An example of this is CherishedGhost's chests where players sell stacks of blocks for about 5 money per stack. This also devalues items greatly and gives players very little amounts of money for doing so much work, when they could be getting more. The best solution to these problems of under-pricing would to be to set a price floor that users cannot sale items for less than a minimum price, that way under-pricing does not cause deflation to become worse, and circulates more money in the economy. Now, I know that you might think that becuase I have a shop, I might say some of these things to benefit myself, but the original purpose of my shop was to provide a general store in which players can find almost every item in one place, not to make myself money, even though it does make a small amount at the moment. But recently, I still haven't been concerned with making myself money, becuase I don't normally buy things from other shops. Instead, what I have done is turned my shop into a money circulator. Recently within the last month I have added some chests where players can sell some of their items to me for mostly reasonable amounts, becuase I plan to use those items later and shops don't currently sell those items. Anyway, those are my thoughts on how the server's economy could be improved" From: http://webbcraft.co.uk/forum/read_topic.php?id=5979 |
Matodir |
Date sent: 2016/10/04 15:58:34
Some neat ideas, but it's too much for luigi to possibly do. |
Xario1 |
Date sent: 2016/10/04 17:41:49
Ah, you have a good point. When it comes to giving out money rewards/prizes, the other staff could help. And if any of the other staff besides Luigi have access to the plugins, they could probably change them for Luigi, to set price floors |
Chip_Bruh |
Date sent: 2016/10/04 18:02:21
Money is put into the economy by Voting, Vote Tokens, and Lottery.Players can vote regularly to overall benefit the server and also gain in the process, those that vote often may receive £50 in-game money and on occasions, a Vote Token. If given into staff members, the vote token may be traded for £4k or various other rewards. Using this money gained by voting and/or handing in Vote Tokens, players can buy lottery tickets with '/lottery buy <amount>', there is a limit to help protect the economy, 100 lottery tickets is the max that anyone can buy. This is so that no one can spam the lottery system and severely boost their chances unfairly. The Lottery is not a prize of just player money, an Operator of the server regulates (or they should...) the lottery, boosting the jackpot by the thousands, when the jackpot gets to a certain amount, the lottery will be drawn by an Operator. Your claim that Defaults that dont return to the server are winning the jackpot, doesn't sound correct. A default that joined and left the server would have no money to buy tickets, and therefore not be in the lotto. I strongly believe that players which have intent on staying with the server would bother to gain money and gamble it in a lottery, it'd be a waste of time for someone not interested. |
Matodir |
Date sent: 2016/10/04 19:19:27
Chip, one of the only ways to get money is voting? That's crap, it's like forcing people to vote, since it's the only "fast" way to get money. The concept of voting if you like the server it's valid anymore, you HAVE to vote if you want money. |
Xario1 |
Date sent: 2016/10/04 21:54:43
Chip, defaults can still vote, can't they? I have seen it happen before. Not to mention some players that get citizen don't stay with the server. Unfortunately deflation is the biggest problem with the economy. It's worse than not having enough money in the economy. Also, how does one get a vote token? Is there any way to check to see if a player has a vote token already? |
luigiofthebakery Moderator |
Date sent: 2016/10/04 22:09:41
Voting also gives free lottery tickets, which increases the lottery jackpot as the server essentially subsidises the payment of those tickets.I think that the money supply in the economy is probably fine and the main cause of deflation is a severe lack of willingness for consumers to spend compounded with the possible abuse of market power by some large consumers in order to force down prices, or large producers (usually the same people) selling products at unreasonably low prices to completely run competition out of business. I agree that a price floor would probably be most effective in combating this. Essentially there is a high level of income and wealth inequality on the server, with a few people holding practically all the money, who can then easily sell items for ridiculously low prices to make sure no one else is able to compete with them, and also not buy from anyone else to make sure there is limited demand. The solution currently in place is a progressive taxation system that redistributes money away from richer players, and also functions as a type of negative interest rate on consumer savings to incentivise spending. Currently the taxation system only redistributes wealth by removing money from the economy, and I agree that it would probably be good to add other ways this money can be given back to poorer players, through competitions or rewards. Another idea that I've seen other servers use is a small monetary reward for killing monsters on the server, except if I implemented it here the amount would be inversely proportional to the player's balance in order to prevent abuse. This would act as a kind of progressive welfare system. |
ckvoss |
Date sent: 2016/10/05 00:08:54
Ahem Blue |
Xario1 |
Date sent: 2016/10/05 00:44:01
Ah yeah, that is true Luigi, there probably is a lot of wealth inequality. I will admit I don't actually know just how much money there is on the server, so the wealth inequaltiy was not as obvious to me, only becuase most people's balances that I see are low. I hardly seen any high balances besides those who win the lottery and Chip. Yeah, I think a reward system for killing monsters would probably be a bad idea, becuase it would make money too easy to access. And when it comes to the taxes, the current system seems to be pretty good. Ckvoss, last time I knew Blue had 3000+ balance, but that isn't very much, in my opinion. I almost had that much once. Blue is just mostly rich with diamonds and emeralds, if anything. |
Buddy702 |
Date sent: 2016/10/09 19:18:45
I think the system is good but when it comes to shops players do want the lowest price which can hard as us shop owners work hard to get the items and we get next to nothing out of them once we cash.also a good plugin I don't know it's name buts /Baltop which show the players with the most cash in game. |
Simpson15 |
Date sent: 2016/10/11 03:20:44
+1 |
Peppi |
Date sent: 2021/02/19 17:26:22
^ our* |
Trikeesha |
Date sent: 2021/02/22 18:06:35
Black Market when? |