DDO Economics 101

By Lyle Vertigo

Economy is a very big issue in massively-multiplayer online games (MMOGs), mainly because it is part of society. MMOGs like EverQuest, Final Fantasy XI, and Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach (DDO) have their own societies that consist of both players and merchants--usually non-player characters (NPCs). The interactions between players and merchants create the economy, and keeping it stable preserves a level playing field for all players.

Now there are a few key aspects about the world's economy and where it stands:  

• Monetary Standard
• Currency Circulation
• Method of Distribution
• How Goods are Sold
• Real Money Trade (RMT)

Let's talk about these one at a time.

Monetary Standard

There are 4 types of coins in DDO:  Copper (cp), Silver (sp), Gold (gp), and Platinum (pp).  
10 cp makes 1 sp.  10 sp makes 1 gp and 10 gp makes 1 pp.
On the description box (Z key by default) for an item and in shops, the item's value is listed in gp.  So if you have on hand 376 pp 2473 gp 466 sp 89 cp, you would have effective 9 cp 4 sp 6280 sp.  This would be how you would look at your money when buying/selling.

Currency Circulation

Currency Circulation is how much game money is floating around all players on that server whether online or offline.  If the game were to have an auction house or personal shops to price their own goods, currency circulation would have the greatest influence.  As in real life economy, the more money in circulation the lower in value it becomes.  This is called inflation.  When too much currency floats around and the value drops, then the prices go up to compensate.  No matter what a company does, the amount of currency in circulation will always increase. However, the amount of gain is determined by the players who sell off items to NPCs for currency and buy from another player.  In cases where RMT were present in other MMOGs, the circulation in currency would increase so dramatically that prices would double or triple in a matter of weeks or even days around the holidays.  In DDO, direct trade of currency is possible between player to player but the vast majority of currency is recycled back into the game's NPCs.  Since there is only one way to do business with another player (trade) and the value of the item is displayed, inflation will be extremely hard to accomplish.

Method of Distribution

Distribution of currency between players and NPCs is very simplified in DDO.  DDO has no delivery boxes, no auction houses, and no player shops.  NPCs will always buy low and sell a lot higher.  This helps to reduce currency circulation.  Sometimes NPCs will give you currency directly as a quest reward instead of giving you an item.

How Goods are Sold

Items sold by NPCs work by taking the base value of the item and subtracting your total Haggle skill from it and you will see the selling price you will be asked to pay.  Likewise, if you are selling an item to an NPC, it will adjust the base value, reducing or increasing the buying price by factoring in your total haggle skill.  The actual formula for buying and selling is unavailable at this time.

RMT (Real Money Trade)

Real money trade is the “farming,” or gathering through repeated completion of quests and monster kills, of items and currency in game by a group of unofficial workers who sell the game currency cheap for real currency to a small online business that then sells it for more real currency to buying players.  RMT has become a major problem for just about every single MMOG--more often then not ruining the potential fun factor the game origionally had (especially those with player-controlled economies).  The value of the game items are determined by the overall amount of game currency is in circulation.  As explained above, the more currency in circulation the less value it has and the more items cost.  

Now for an example:
You wanted to buy that super-duper sword, but it is too expensive for you. This will either encourage you to farm like mad to rake up enough to buy it before someone else buys, or give up on it entirely.  It will take awhile for you to accumulate enough wealth through farming, especially if you have a busy schedule outside gaming.  So, when you finally grab enough game currency, your mood does a 180 because that coveted item just jumped up in price.  You think that's not bad and go back to farming.  When you come back with enough this time you see that it rose once again. Your frustration will either curse you to resent everyone who has the item or quickly buy the difference you need for a small bit of coinage from your real bank account.

High rate inflation is caused by players buying up vast amounts of currency from RMT suppliers and buying a desired item without any concern about its current value--people often willing to pay more than the last one who bought it just so they can have it.  In my experience with Final Fantasy XI, it got to the point that I was sick every time I looked into the Auction House, not able to buy my farvorite food to use!  Thanks to Turbine's ingenuity, the populace of DDO servers will have little to worry from bad experiences with RMT concerning competition and currency circulation.  This is why:

1. Party only instances: Party only instances means that only 1 party or raid is allowed in an instance. Which means no location or chest hoarding by RMTs.
2. Random Item Generation: Due to the random nature of item drops from chests and NPCs, there is no way to find a guaranteed item drop of desire. The only known factor is the harder the quest, the better the item drop. Even this isn't always the case.
3. Drop Reduction: You may not notice this the first few times you do the same quest back to back: the drops from the chests in that instance will become increasingly less beneficial. Doing a few quests and waiting a few hours before doing a previous quest allows the drops to get better.
4. Base Value: Each item has a base value. Why? This will prevent inflation between player to player trades. You can see for yourself if the item you want is a steal or a scam--very helpful for fair trades.
5. Pawn Shops: There is no Auction House. This again, is to prevent inflation in the economy. If a player has a rare and expensive item he wants to sell for a better price than at the local tavern or weapon shop, he can go to a corresponding pawnshop and sell for a better price than general NPCs. Also, any player looking for that special item later can see it at that pawnshop.
6. Bound Items: There are a few quests that, in the end, would give a list of extraodinary named items every time. Good news is they are bound to the player who choses it, preventing selling or trading of that particular item.
7. Currency Sellers: It will be inevitable that RMT will try to invade DDO; they are everywhere. DDO relies more on your playing skill and team tactics than what equipment you are wearing and what classes you are--two things that will cripple RMT considerably.
   
8. Currency Buyers: Any damage done at all to DDO will be from heavy RMT currency buyers. They will use whatever pp or gp they buy  toclean out the pawnshops (which never are stocked with the good stuff for long anyway). Of course, from the randomness of chest drops there is no way to tell if someone is a buyer, since you can become fairly decked out in just 2 runs of Redwillow for example. Also, there is no point in buying currency for this reason. You can easily become rich in a matter of days with a little luck.
   

In conclusion, the economy in DDO may be different than the general MMOG, but for the long run it will keep the fun factor optimal and the economy stable.

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