We see it all the time in MMO’s. Economies that only scale upwards with no realistic ceiling. 12 months in, things cost ridiculous amounts of gold, or whatever the local currency is. It’s called hyperinflation, and it’s more common than you think. I have personally been witness to games where level 50 gear winds up costing in the 8 figure range. Not only are these economies bad for regular players, they are exceedingly hostile to the new player. A new player in a game with hyperinflation has no chance if he cannot pay for the game, or does not know anyone. It happens way too often. I see many a new player, with no money, no resources, nothing. What is really sad is, they wind up in the game’s main thoroughfare, begging or annoying established players for money. Based on my experience, this happens quite a lot in games that call themselves “Free to Play”. Not so much in the subscription based games.

Free to play does not mean charge for anything under the sun. Free to Play, to Double Cluepon anyway…means providing things on an ala carte basis. We want people to pay to enhance their gaming experience, as opposed to wanting people to pay to enable their gaming experience. If we wanted people to pay for the experience of simply playing, we would simply charge a subscription and be done with it.  That being said, we fully intend to use a micro-transaction based system of payment. We have made a conscious choice to establish a fun baseline of play that is open to everyone. If someone really digs things, and wants to get more out of the game…they will be able to buy currency.

However, in the craze to get into micro-transactions…there are quite a few games out there that do not think out the model. They typically think of how to get the real money from the player, but they do not then think about how to get the virtual money out of their game. The basis of any good economy is understanding fountains and sinks,how they relate to each other, and most importantly…how they impact and relate to your world.

A fountain is a means whereby gold, currency, commodities etc enter a game. A sink is a means whereby gold, currency, commodities leave a game. For example:  Joe kills a monster, monster drops a log and 50 gold. The log and the gold are created by the system. That’s a fountain. Joe wants to buy a questing license to organize parties and hit high level dungeons. The license costs 500 Gold and lasts 90 days. He pays that. That is a sink. Joe also needs a new staff, so he takes his log, and some other commodities and crafts a new staff. He has now sunk the log as a commodity. In time, the staff decays, and dusts. Now that staff, which used the commodities has also sunk.

It’s very very important to understand how things enter and leave a closed system. Some of the biggest design flaws you will ever see are not in the User Interface, or the character stats…it’s in the economy. I would be willing to bet you $100 that 9 out of 10 times…it can be traced to a problem of fountain/sink balancing.

Emerald Kingdom will have two basic currencies: Sovereign Gold, and Minted Gold.  Sovereign Gold will be purchasable. Once in game, you will be able to use it outright for certain things, or exchange it at the going rate for Minted Gold..and vice versa. Some things will cost Sovereigns, some things will cost Minted. Despite all of this, we will make sure we balance the sinks relative to fountains. This will be the subject of one entire course of beta testing. We must get it right. I say must, because nothing…and I mean nothing will demoralize a new player more than seeing insurmountable numbers when trying to buy basic things they need to enjoy themselves.

Beyond that, however…we also have a plan for a sub-economy based around Gel, and Gel use. This too must be balanced appropriately. I am sure that hyperinflation in such an energy sub economy would be horrible. However I am betting that hyper-deflation would be 10,000 times worse. Especially where so much is dependent upon it. Some items like battlesuits will use batteries. Some bigger items, such as some of the field artillery we have planned…will take dual gel cores for power. These items will act as sinks, counter to the breech points people collect gel from, which are the fountains.

What does this mean for you, the player? It means a lot, to be honest. There are many opinions about what makes a good or a great game. Here at Double Cluepon, we think that the discussion of what makes or breaks a game has to start with how the learning curve works in relation to “how do I get things?”…which is nearly a pure economic question. By planning, and thinking out (but not over thinking!) the economic landscape we believe we can create a stable and fun world to play in.