Money Sinks

The Truth of the In Game Bling

By: Savanja

Money Sinks are a huge part of in game economy, without them, most of us would just have obscene amounts of coin piling up in our banks, with really, nowhere to go. And while being fabulously wealthy is the goal for a lot of ardent gamers, there are some basic laws of economics that kind of get tossed into the mix.

The Circle of Life

Let’s take a look at the real world for a moment. We have money sinks here too. They can be as large as a big fancy house that goes beyond basic needs, or can be as small as that café latte that you pick up every morning on your way to work. The basic principal is, you have money that you can spend, and others can benefit from that surplus, by giving people jobs, and businesses a market. It’s good for the economy! We want the excess money to cycle back into the financial system for the greater good of all.

The same basic idea applies in game. Most characters will end up having a surplus of coin. To get that coin filtered back into the world, and allow it to benefit others, we have money sinks. You want a bigger house? Great! You go on out to the most prestigious neighborhood in Qeynos and buy yourself the biggest house you can find. Now the house needs to be furnished. If you were wise, you’d contract a local tradesman in the hefty project of making furniture, giving that tradesman a job, and paying them for their contribution, allowing that person to buy food for their halfling brood, or perhaps just upgrade to a faster horse. Whichever.  That will benefit others.  Now on a more mechanical level, coin needs to completely leave the game, and I will explain why.

Money DOES Grow on Trees!

The idea is to take excess coin that comes in from the unlimited resources of looting, and give it a place to go. And unlike real life where money doesn’t drop off of random gnolls in fields, incoming coin IS unlimited, so having a place for it to go is all that much more important. If we had no typical money sinks in game, unlimited coinage would drop into the game continually. And while it doesn’t seem like a much of an issue now, you’ll see that if you try to start a noob character in about 2 years, that things will look vastly different for you financially, assuming you don’t twink, ya cheaters!  Everyone would have large sums of coin, and prices for everything would skyrocket!
Anyone that has played EverQuest 1 has seen, that if you start up a new toon, it’s almost impossible to equip your char with items purchased off of the bazaar. Why? Because most of the people there have been there for a while, taking advantage of the unlimited loot. They have tons of coin to spend, and typically sell to other players who also have tons of coin. So selling a piece of noob armor for several hundred plat is no big thing. All a veteran players has to do is transfer some coin to the alt and you are set! Problem is that mucks it up for new players coming into the game who have nothing. I mean, have you seen how much the loot from trash mobs in Qeynos Hills sells for?  It's not 100p, that's for sure!

Inflation my friends. Fear it!

So What is a Money Sink?

So you have a few coins jingling in your pocket, and you are dieing to unload it. I tend to buy from trades folk. After all, without us, they would be out of work and who would pay for all those halfling babies??  But that coin is just changing hands, it’s not being reabsorbed into the world.  And really, removing the coin completely is the goal.

There are so many money sinks in EverQuest 2. A few obvious ones are armor repair, which gets more costly the higher level you are. Travel; when you purchase tickets for the boat ride to Thundering Steppes or Nektulos Forest, or buy the fastest horse that you can afford. The lotto, which was just ingenious, a lot of us get sucked into playing that thing for hours. And you know that all that coin is going to land on someone, and there is no way that they will be able to spend it all.  Housing is a big one. It might be one of the larger costs we have. It’s the money sink that keeps on taking with weekly costs, plus furnishing it and such. And the more coin you have, the nicer digs you are going to want, so one can count on people upgrading that expense as they grow. Attuned armor, this is one that made a lot of people unhappy, but we cannot have armor that lasts forever!  Being able to removed items from the game is just as important to removing coin.  We can't have tradeskill people competing against items that were made years ago and are still floating around in the marketplace, it would render them obsolete.

Coin, and items, need to be removed from the world regularly, and in a predictable fashion. And the amount of money sinks need to increase with tiers. The higher level you are, the more coin you are garnering from the game, the more you need to give back.

For the Future of the Game

Honestly, I don’t believe there are enough money sinks in game. Just watching the progression, from when I started out on the day of launch, to rolling a noob toon now and starting again, I can see that inflation has already taken hold. The excess in game, has affected the sales prices, and it makes it difficult for new people coming in game to keep up.

I’m sure that new ways to filter more coin out of the world will be invented, and hopefully they will be things that we can get some enjoyment out of. There are always going to be the necessary evils, like armor repair costs, but a lot of others bring us some benefit. I happen to love my shared apartment in Maj’Dul, with all the nifty stuff, the pets, and the furniture. I’d pour loads of coin into that place just for the fun of having it. It is my most loved money sink!

So rejoice the goodness that money sinks bring! Because coin spent today, makes for a better world tomorrow.

Or something like that.

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