Quote:
Originally Posted by Zarcath
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back in 2002 I spoke with a EQ Designer at GDC. Apparently the economy for Everquest was not designed to last longer than 2 years. They brought on an economist and were told the in-game economy would collapse within 3-4 years, the inflation would be insane and drive new players away. That was one of the reasons they introduced plat sinks in Shadows of Luclin (horses, the casino with desirable old world items). And why a lot of items in SoL had level requirements, to curb the mudflation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mudflation
I tried to broach the subject with Sirken at one time but didn't get a response from him. It doesn't surprise me that the economy on P99 is out of control. |
Thanks for this info and reminder about the evils of mudflation. The economy on P1999 is completely screwed up but the devs sit back and do nothing to address it. Devs of a virtual worlds have a responsibility to get involved and to fix things -- especially the economy. That is their role.
The P1999 devs have painted themselves into a corner with the classic EQ philosophy. This hands off policy just does not work and is detrimental to the health of the server. We need a pro-active and interventionist attitude to rectify the economy and the lack of content for raiders. The addition of custom items for sale on vendors as a money sinks is one way to solve this. This idea has been around for a long time but nothing is ever done.