by Reuben Waters on Nov 19, 2009
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One of the frequently overlooked though integral aspects of
character advancement in MMOGs ties directly into whatever shape the
in-game economy ultimately takes. Players obsess over seeing the hordes
of currency theyve amassed throughout the course of gameplay
constantly increasing nearly as much as the almighty XP bar. While most
developers carefully plot out multiple means of keeping in-game
currency gains in check, more often than not MMOGs fall prey to the
ugly beast otherwise known as mudflation. We take a look at this aspect
of MMOG gameplay and its effects on new players today in Loading
Market Mudflation Overload.
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StarIve seen it time and time again. A new MMOG launches and the
in-game
market sees an initial flood of low level items, each priced somewhat
competitively based on a slight profit over what an NPC vendor is
offering for a direct sale. This is the typically the golden age for
the in-game economy the singular point in the overall lifespan of a
given title when new players can most easily afford to purchase items
from other players. But once the critical mass of players begins
reaching the level cap a dramatic shift occurs where items are no
longer priced based on what a new player can afford, but on what a max
level character is willing to pay to obtain items for their alts.
The end result is that new players are essentially forced to play
the
market in order to gain currency at a high enough rate to afford to
purchase items that once sold for a fraction of their current cost.
Meanwhile, the amount of coin gained from base gameplay remains a
constant which in most cases falls far short of anything even remotely
resembling a competitive rate of advancement when compared to the base
prices established by max level characters. Logic might dictate that
lower demand would result in lower prices, but Ive yet to witness this
in a single MMOG.
Over the years developers have tried any number of methods for
keeping
mudflation in check, but in spite of their best efforts this same cycle
keeps repeating itself with each and every new release provided a
sizable enough player base renews their subscriptions after the initial
free month. Artificial coin sinks are one of the most abused tools in
developers arsenal of tricks, especially when it comes to taking mass
quantities of coin generated by max level characters out of virtual
circulation. Be it some form of durability loss for items or linking
successful gameplay to a constant need to replenish things like
regents, ammo or consumables, each of these methods falls far short of
ever achieving their goal.
Even when taken to extremes, coin sinks typically fail miserably at
keeping the lower end market in check. For example in
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow">World of Warcraft
you might think that the 6k gold required to fly epic mounts in
Northrend or the 1k cost of dual specs would serve to ease mudflation
but that hasnt been the case at all. Stacks of wool cloth which sell
for less than a gold to vendors are priced at over 50 gold on my
servers auction house. This may sound like a pittance to a jaded level
80 thats been playing for the past 5 years, but I shudder to think how
a brand new player could ever manage to afford those prices without
being forced to play the market themselves. Dont even get me started
on how nutty it is that dual specs open up at level 40 yet have the 1k
cost attached to them. Back when I was taking my first character
through the game no one in my guild could even afford the 80 gold for
the base riding skill at level 40 let alone 1k. All I know is that if
Cataclysm has any hopes of attracting new players to the game then the
base coin gain at lower levels is in need of a major facelift.
Thats not to say that over the years developers havent placed a
lot
of emphasis on establishing a solid baseline for currency gains up
front. Anyone who was playing Champions
Online at launch will recall
that the first few major patches swung the economic pendulum to polar
extremes where one day your character could barely afford to retcon a
single power and the next you had enough excess resources that you
could purchase a completely new costume at the tailor every hour if you
wanted to. But as Bill Roper pointed out in an
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/73612">interview just prior
to
COs launch, you need to hit those extremes with a large concurrency of
players before you can feasibly establish norms that fall somewhere in
the middle.
Meanwhile Aion
is standing directly at that crossroads where enough
players are hitting the higher levels that its beginning to have an
effect on low level market values, though in general most items still
remain affordable for new players. A common complaint in the game ever
since launch is that its hard to earn any sizable amount of kinah
during the base leveling experience, but that is no doubt a very
deliberate design decision intended to keep that golden age of the
economy alive for as long as possible. If history is any indication
though, right around the 6 month mark well begin seeing mudflation
begin sinking its teeth into the market values of low end items
forcing yet another new generation of characters to play the market if
they want to afford playing at all.
It will be interesting to see how some of the new titles just over
the
horizon such as Star
Trek Online or Star
Wars: The Old Republic
tackle the issue of mudflation. Will we simply see another exciting
round of artificial coin sinks with a side dish of consumables, or do
the developers of two of the most hotly anticipated sci-fi MMOGs have
some new tricks up their sleeves? Only time will tell, but in the
meantime be sure to share your thoughts on how mudflation effects
character advancement for new players right here in the Loading
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- Reuben "Sardu" Waters and the Ten Ton Hammer team