作者：Mike Birkhead

这个怪物应该给多少经验？这个物体的爆出率应该包括多少？我们如何理解这两种不同功能的物品的价值？

经济学研究是指稀有情况下的选择。经济学是讨论玩家动机的视角之一。这种角度警告我们，玩家在不断做出选择：玩游戏，玩你的游戏，练习士兵或术士，在剑法或思想中增加5点。资源有限，那么玩家如何做出另一个选择呢？因为这个选择更有益；因为这个选择使角色更强大；因为这个选择可以提高地位；因为这个选择很快乐。所有的奖励都可以用经济术语来表达。在学习经济理论的前提下，你可以回应玩家奖励系统的重要问题。

玩家期待有一种感觉，他们已经完成了伟大的事情——也就是说，他的努力必须得到确认——确定的方法之一是奖励玩家的有形资产（新工具、金钱或药液等）、角色资产(新技能或经验点)、人力资源(威望、剧情片段或创造)。当系统以奖励(红魔法球)确定你的努力(杀死这些hoplites)时，你会对自己的勤奋感觉良好；你认为你的行动有效，你想继续努力。作为设计师，玩家的体验效果甚至可以通过在奖励中添加任何原素来翻倍。

系统设计师不仅要了解成就的原因，还要回应相关系统的重要问题：对象的价值、对象的爆炸率以及玩家的投资点。这些问题的答案来自于对经济基础的深刻理解。

扎实的基础

没有坚实的路基，就没有摩天大厦。因此，我们必须奠定坚实的基础。基础扎实的基石之一是含义词典——这是我们在设计中遇到的考验，也是使用某种有效方法获得的好处。以下是一个术语和含义细节：

耗费产品：一旦使用，就会报废物品，如宝值药液。

靠谱产品：应用后物品仍有持续效果，但物品价格会越来越低。贬值的速度越快，他就越接近消费产品。

密封产品：没有消费，不能贬值的物品。注：网络游戏中的大多数物品都属于这一类。

有形资产（K）：有形游戏对玩家来说是有价值的，可以帮助玩家更有效地克服挑战。确定工具的关键(游戏邦注:这里可以延伸到它对玩家生产活动的影响)是物体带来的乐趣水平。

角色资产（A）：这是对玩家的抽象奖励，比如新技能和能力。角色资产是有意义的，但在网络游戏世界中没有实体表现。这类物品不能买卖，但类似于有形资产，对玩家的影响决定了它的关键。

人力资源（H）：玩家的知识是生产的关键因素。虽然我们不能直接与玩家交换，但我们应该始终关注玩家日益增长的知识和技术。熟练玩家的生产速度和效率必须超过菜鸟玩家。以战神为例:玩家可以从催毁石化怪中获得更多的魔法球(知道的人不多)，保持长期进攻可以获得额外的魔法球。这些额外的奖励，如果使用得当，可以极大地填补熟练玩家的生产能力(魔法球总数)。

生产量（q）：简而言之，给予营运资金、技术和一定数量的劳动力资源（人力资源），玩家可以生产的总数称为生产。对于游戏来说，这意味着玩家的玩怪速度、解疑速度、通关水平或完成任务的速度，即完成所有奖励活动的能力。

小开放经济（SOE）：它是由玩家之间的交易所形成的市场(双人对战)。这不同于玩家和NPC商人之间的交易，甚至与玩家和“外部世界”的交易（ebay）也不同。

国际市场（GM）：它是NPC商人定义的市场。NPC商人在大多数游戏中销售无尽的提供品，它们可以满足对特定物体的无限要求。无尽的提供是自我调节的，所以在这样的市场上买卖不会影响玩家市场或NPC商人。

以下研讨会为例介绍了许多MMO游戏。MMO虽然是本讨论的完美测试案例，但绝不是唯一能应用于经济学的游戏。《战神》中有经济；《神秘海域》中有经济；《真人快打》中也有经济。只要玩家必须做出决定，如果你奖励玩家，你就会在市场上做生意。你和玩家之间有交易。因此，如果我们不认为我唠叨，我会尽可能多地举例子。

生产和酬劳

我们目前讨论的所有问题都来自一个前提：你可以为游戏中的产品提供价值。剑是有意义的，就像一项技能是有意义的，你可以讨论意义，也就是说，选择一个，放弃另一个优势。但在此之前，你需要摆脱两个主要障碍：游戏中哪些系统可以赋予某物价值？这种价值的含义是什么？

第一个问题相对简单，如果你注意到你定义的答案：生产。

生产量

简单来说，生产量是三个要素(资源、资本和劳动力)的相互影响(虽然其实并不简单)。但不要把我的话当回事。真正的经济学家会怎么说？

商品在人工虚拟世界中（q）是一些目标——杀妖怪掉落补给品，精心制作的物品，来自任务奖励。这些商品是由消耗你时间的玩家生产的。玩家获得这些产品的能力有四个要素:玩家技术(人力资源)（H））；角色技能水平或经验水平(角色资产)（A））；人物装备(有形资产)（K））；怪物总数、制作投资或网络游戏世界提供的道具(资源)（R））。

————Edward Castronova，《Synthic Worlds：The Business and Culture of Online Games》

一个函数可以通过上述定义获得：

商品（q）=(工作)(有形资产)(人力资源)(人力资源)

q=f（L，K，A，H，R）

所有元素的提高，都会导致玩家生产量和报酬的提高(即成正比关联)。假如我的装备（K）优化后，我打怪的水平也会提高。假如我的装备（K）优化后，我的战斗水平也会提高。如果我知道所有对手的真相缺点（H），然后我可以更快更容易地杀死他们。两个因素都一致的玩家(相同的劳动（L）、相当知识（H）、同样的资源（R）），如果两个玩家能得到同样的报酬，那么我可以保证他的K和A是一样的。正是这种前提使我们能够以有价值的方式比较商品的价值。

生产关键

特别是在现实世界中，某物的价值是复杂的。很多东西都有情感价值或者可以拉高物主的位置，不能用理解来解释。在游戏中，物品和技能的价值是有限的，除了提高玩家的快乐。我们玩游戏的原因是游戏能带来快乐。玩游戏的次要目标是认真完成某件事，做某件事的速度在于产量。

因此，可以说，更大的生产就是更大的游戏乐趣。

但不止于此。生产非常重要，因为它让我们进行有意义的比较和比较，非常无意义的说法是“嘿，我只是更喜欢这种武器。”“对于用户来说，除了系统设计师，这样说可能不好。你必须知道，如果你不能区分两种武器的机会成本，那么玩家就不能；此外，当玩家不能区分时，你会让玩家感到不满。

如何使用生产

现在我们有了生产量，我们可以问关于游戏的真正问题。一个好问题，一个你应该继续问自己的问题是:“玩家诈骗了怎么办？”。简单地说，想象一下，欺诈是生产中任何不公平的因素。在研究你的系统时，为什么不考虑一下，当有人拥有无限的资本(疯狂的装备)、无限资源(对象)或无限劳动力(自动脚本程序)会发生什么？

如果这种情况完全破坏了系统的平衡，那么你可能不得不重建系统。这种特殊投资的扩散力对资源生产有很大的影响。

你可以问的另一个问题是，“以下玩家更想要什么：对象A、物件B、400经验点？简短的答案是，它对玩家的幸福有很大的影响。详细回答要回头考虑生产量。假设我们相信更大的生产能力会使我们的幸福更大，那么正确的答案在于玩家目前的情况。从字面上看，物体A比物体B更优越，但最重要的是它对玩家的价值。从字面上看，物体A只是一个临界更新，而物体B是一个关键更新。因此，事实上，考虑到自己的机会成本，玩家会选择物体B，因为物体B对玩家的整体生产有更大的危害。在这些物品中，玩家可能看不到整体产量，但在经济学词典中有所体现。

我不能这样慢慢说。你可能会错过关键点：当玩家有知识比较和比较他的选择时，玩家只能做出明确的选择——有些人可能会有争议；此外，如果系统教他，玩家可以获得这些知识；最后，这也很重要。如果设计师不清楚地将这些知识融入游戏，系统就不能教玩家。

逐渐价值

我们可以比较，但我们毫无价值。所以我们从哪里逐渐？下一步是寻找游戏的基本操作。在《街头霸王》中，一切都是围绕龙与古烈的战争定制的。在《战神2》中，一切都是围绕Skeletons定制的。在《战神：奥林匹斯之链》中，一切都是围绕Hoplites定制的。所有的游戏都有它的“隆”——它是基本的。永远不要把价值赋予一切。当一切的价值都来自基本角色时，它们就成为这个基础上的称重要素，所以当基本影响时，你已经知道如何调整所有其他事情。它是一个一致的系统调整，而不是随意尝试。

了解你的生产量及其价值控制是非常有益的，但此外，一旦你整理了玩家的生产水平，你就可以计算目标的价值与他们进入（或退出）系统的比例。

测算爆出率

体验点或点卷都是登录系统的价值(比较“钱”)。为了防止通货膨胀，你的目标是确保注入全面资金与排出全面资金持平。这种价值流入市场就像有人快速打开水池的水龙头。也可以把钱注入系统的速率称为:Vf。这种价值在各种人(或玩家)的行业(池)中螺旋增加，最终排出市场，同时从经济体系中消除价值。我们可以称排出市场的速度为：Vd。这样，你就可以得到以下公式：

Vf=Vd

在《战神》中，当我杀死一个怪物时，我得到了红色魔法球（Vf）。这种魔法球是流入市场的价值。我积累沉淀魔法球，然后打开菜单，用这些魔法球更新物品（Vd）。从根本上说，我在国际市场开始了交易，然后我间接更新了我的角色资产。这种更新(我的魔法更强大)增强了奎托斯（Kratos，战神主角的杀戮能力提高了VF率。以下是环路图：

让大家称之为“”World of Flarks这个例子进一步应用于伪MMO(2013年秋季)。劳动力是指工作总数。根据奇怪的水平，我可以猜到劳动力资产(A和K）一般等级。假设这个价值是不变的，那么我们可以随意更改其他变量来控制VF，比如物体爆炸率、怪重刷率、怪难度和怪总成本。

让我们定义一些价值和样本怪物。

《World of Flarks》：

服务器总数：20000

最高级别：20

总数不少于10级，500级

9-12级总数:100

Flarkmaster之刃：

价值：10g

虚弱的Flinkar（Flinkar the Weakling）：

部位：失败者山林（Forest of Losers）(全球刷)

区域总数：1

重刷率：5分钟

怪级别：10

难度：低

婴儿刀爆炸率：50%：

这儿，虚弱的Flinkar拥有Flarkmaster之刃。Flinkar必须在世界各地刷出来，所以杀死它没有固定的成本。在游戏中，他只有一个，每小时刷12次。由于她属于低级怪物，玩家的技术（H）这不是问题。所以我可以假设所有级别不少于10级的玩家都可以使用这个资源。因为有500个潜在玩家符合标准，我可以假设这个资源是绝对的易耗品(他一刷就被“杀”了)。简单来说，我可以明确一小时进入经济体系的价值率（Vf）。

Vf=(一小时击倒数)x（爆出率）x(宝刀价值)

60g=12×0.5x10g

每小时60g的高度非常高。即使我没有给理想的VD信息，我也可以保证我的经济目标还没有实现。在这里，我有几个选择。由于货物的价值和怪物的等级是常量，我删除了变化的爆炸率，补充了固定的成本，或者改变了怪物的刷出率。让我们试试另一个怪：

恶魔龙小小（Dinky the Diabolical Dinosaur）

部分:Flarkmaster小树林(5人地下城团本)

所在区域总数:任意BOSS(1)

召唤材料成本：1g

地下城平均长度：1小时

怪级别：10

难度：高

婴儿刀爆发率：X

通胀限制：

0.5g/钟头

这种情况比较复杂。怪物现在位于地下城，招唤这个要付出代价，另外还是一个难以储存的怪物。奇怪的是，它现在位于地下城，需要付出代价才能召唤它。此外，它仍然是一个难以储存的怪物。这一次，我们使用理想的VF(0.5g/小时)逐渐解决我们的爆发率。

第一个困难是，我必须弄清楚玩家杀死这个怪物需要多长时间。从世界统计数据来看，我知道有100名玩家处于9-12级，这是为这个地下城而奋斗的最佳级别。然而，恶魔龙是一个强大的混蛋，真的需要更强的技能和更好的装备。在100名玩家中，只有60名玩家成功平衡恶魔龙所需的资产（H、K和A）

这是一个5人的地下城，因为这60名球员被分成12组；此外，这是一个地下城，因为这12个团队可以同时进入地下城。但这种假设必须由60个人参与，并且一直相互配合。依据文章《Alone Together》据说玩家只花30-40%的时间参加团队，所以我们可以假设只有3-4个团队在任何时候同时活动。已知这是一个随意的怪物，我们可以把它降到3。

最后要考虑的是总成本。无论宝刀是否爆炸，每个团队都必须投资1g作为小成本的召唤。最终，我可以得到一个新的公式：

Vf = ((击倒率) x (爆出率) x (宝刀价值) – ((击倒率) x (总成本)

0.5g = (3 x 爆出率 x 10g) – 3g

3.5g = 30g x 爆出率

0.117 = 爆出率

根据当前的怪物，当前的劳动力和理想的价值，理想的宝刀爆炸率约为12%。一个简单的例子，但你会看到像经济学家一样思考的能量。一个简单的例子，但你会看到像经济学家一样思考的能量。到目前为止，我已经注意到注入全面资金，但是排出全面资金的情况是什么呢？

通货膨胀VS通货紧缩

绝大多数玩家所做的活动都属于一种通货膨胀行为。玩家不断把钱投放市场，比如杀死《战神》中怪得的红魔法球，或者《魔兽世界》中的Nefarion掉落补给品。怪物不会创造这些物品和资源，因为只有玩家才能创造价值。现在你的任务是找到退出系统的方法。虽然你可能会想到这些物品中的通货紧缩，但大多数像“更新树”这样的设计都是为了让玩家制造通货紧缩。

有三种有效的方法可以从流动系统中清除资金，每种方法都是不同的，可以用来提高或降低效率。第一种方法是把交易送到国际市场，第二种是税收，第三种是根据经营风险创造社会流动。

国际市场

从游戏中清除资金最有效的方法是为国际市场提供独特的、高利用率和消费品。这些产品对玩家的生产能力危害不大——听起来很复杂，但理解起来并不难。玩家在任何时候从GM中购买东西，都是将钱从SOE中移除的机会。从玩家经济体系中流出的玩家与GM的交易越大(和产品越贵)。由于GM的供应是无风险的，要求是无限的，价格是由设计师控制的，所以无论玩家花多少钱，价格都不会改变，玩家可以随意出售或购买总数。让我们回忆一下这种必需品：为什么它是独一无二的，为什么它可以消费，它对生产意味着什么？

独一无二的物体：所谓独一无二，就是它不会存在于SOE中。这使得交易必须转化为GM，产品的价格只能根据GM(游戏设计师)的需要进行调整。

费用：玩家必须继续回到GM来流出钱财。假如商品供应可靠(甚至封闭)，那么无论物品的成本有多收紧，玩家的渐近通胀行为都会摆脱购买物品的必要性。非常昂贵可靠的产品是快速从行业中流出大量资金的最佳方式（考虑魔兽现象），但这不是长期避免市场通货膨胀的有效方法。

生产：GM是绝大多数玩家生产能力的产品。正如我们已经讨论过的，我打怪的效率越高，我生产的就越多。因此，如果GM提供的通货紧缩商品让我成为更有效率的运营商，那么我实际上提高了通货膨胀率（不收紧它的勤奋！）。

好吧，听起来很棒，但不是所有的东西都可以消耗。可靠的产品呢？渗入商品怎么样？我们完全被骗了吗？谢天谢地，事实并非如此。在当今社会，我们的知识来自一个非常卑鄙的社会。第二种方式自然来自生活:税收。

税款

从市场上排出资金的第二个最好方法（虽然有时不流行）是提供我们想要的服务，然后收取更多的费用，富人收取更多的费用，穷人收取更少的费用——也被称为“累进税”。本案规定您的妖兽盔甲参与。随时被怪物攻击，你的盔甲耐用性就会降低。假如你死了，你也会失去很多盔甲的耐用性。如果耐久性降低到零，你可能不会再改变了。修理的唯一方法就是花钱找NPC商人。你穿的盔甲越耐用，修复它的成本就越高。有趣的是，当你第一次看到这个项目时，你会认为它是“可靠的”，并且会降价。这是错误的。它们是100%高效的，直到它们崩溃；一旦修复，它们将恢复100%的效果。事实上，这些物品不能掉价。从你买(或者做)的那天起，他们就一直这么好。他们实际上是封闭的，但有一个周期性的使有税(你甚至没有意识到！）

风险

另一种清除钱财的方法是让玩家的费用有风险。游戏中常见的问题，尤其是在MMO中，一旦富人理解了财富的实权，他们就会一直相当强大。他们没有地方放纵，所以他们的财富被抛在一边，或者他们买了整个拍卖场来囤积居奇。想象一下，有这样一个系统，我可以在中世纪的世界各地购买各种商品的股票。例如，我坚信卡利姆多小麦的价值是一只风险股，但我认为这是一个改善市场的市场。但第二天，一群来自北方的龙族在农村夷平生产麦子。下面有三件事：第一，由于卡利姆多小麦的销售暴跌，钱（可能是很多钱）从市场上排出；第二，杀手涌入交易。我可以聚集我的朋友，然后在这群龙造成更大的破坏之前把它全部抓住。三、鼓励玩家关注游戏的内外情况。比如，游戏通过网络方式告诉我要关注游戏内市场产品的市场。更重要的是，如果这个龙族周期“关心”我的小麦地，我该怎么办？这样，卡利姆多麦子就是一种高风险、高收益的生意。

一旦你理解了经济学讨论的本质，你就可以提出新的问题。在游戏中加入一个精致的系统怎么样？该系统的服务目的是什么？物体的质量从爆炸开始就这么好吗？经济学可以帮助你回答这些问题！这种自我也值得公开讨论，也许我要让我酸痛的手腕休息一下，才能有办法解决它们。

假如你觉得这篇文章的主题很有趣，为什么不读一读我刚才引文来源的那本书呢？《Synthetic Worlds: the business and culture of online games》。这本书更经典、更清晰地表达了游戏中的经济学，真的值得大家阅读。（本文为游戏邦//gamerboom.com编译，如需转载，请联系:游戏邦）

Every System Designer Must Study Economics

by Mike Birkhead

How much experience should this monster give? What drop rate should we set on this item? What drop rate should we set on this item? How do we know two functionally distinct items are worth the same amount?

Economics is the study of choice under scarcity, and one of many ways to discuss player motivation is to view it through the lens of economics. This lens shows us that the player is constantly making choices: to play a game, to play YOUR game, to be a fighter instead of a wizard, or to take that 5 to slaying instead of that 4 to thinking. Her resources are limited, so how does she choose one over the other? Because one is more rewarding; because it makes her avatar stronger; because it enhances her status; because it makes her happy. All rewards can be expressed within economic terms, and by understanding the basics of economic theory you can answer important questions about your player’s reward system.

Players want to feel they have accomplished great things — i.e. her work product must be validated — and one way we do this is by rewarding her with Physical Capital (new gear, money, or potions), with Avatar Capital (new abilities and experience points), and with Human Goods (Fame, Story moments, or Achievements). When a system validates your work product (killing those hoplites) with rewards (red orbs) you feel good about your work; you feel your actions had purpose, and you want to keep going. You can even double the effect by adding arandomized element to the reward.

It is the system designer’s job to not only understand what drives accomplishment, but also to answer very important questions about their system: what are items worth, what drop rate should an item have, and what do the players spend their money on? The answers to all these questions comes from a good, strong understanding of the basics of Economics.

A Strong Foundation

You cannot build without a strong base, so before we yze we must lay the foundation. One of the cornerstones of a sturdy foundation is a meaningful lexicon — something we struggle with in design, and is one of the benefits of borrowing from one that does (for now). The following is a short list of terms and their definitions.

Consumable Product — products that are destroyed after being used for the first time. Such as a health potion.

Dependable Product — products that persist after being used, but they depreciate in value over time. The quicker something depreciates in value the more it begins to act like a consumable.

Permeable Product — products that are never consumed, and also never depreciate in value over time. Hint: most items in a video game.

Physical Capital (K) — physical games objects of value to the player, which help the character overcome challenges in a more efficient manner. Deciding the importance of gear (and by extension it’s affect on the player’s production function) is going to drive the amount of enjoyment they get from receiving it.

Avatar Capital (A) — these are the abstract rewards we give the player. New skills and abilities. They have value, but they have no physical manifestation in the world. These are things that cannot be traded, but like Physical Capital, the impact on the player’s production function will drive their importance.

Human Capital (H) — the knowledge of our player is also a factor in the production function, and while we do not directly trade this to the player, we should always try and take into account the player’s growing knowledge and skills. A master player is going to produce at a much faster and more efficient rate than a novice. Take the example of God of War: you receive more orbs for destroying a stone’d monster (not something widely known), and you receive bonus orbs for maintaining long hit counts. These two bonuses could, if not handled well, drastically offset the production (number of orbs) of a master player.

Production Function (q) — in short, this is a function that expresses how much someone can produce given their current assets, skills, and resources with a certain amount of labor. For a game, this means how quickly they kill monsters, how quickly they solve puzzles, how easily they access new areas of the game, or how quickly they finish quests — all actions that grant them rewards.
Small Open Economy (SOE) — this is the market defined by trade among players of the game, if your game is multiplayer. This is in contrast to trade between players and NPC merchants, or even players and the “outside world” (ebay).

Global Market (GM) — the market defined by NPC Merchants. In most games NPC Merchants provide an infinite supply, they consume an infinite demand for any given item, and they are self contained so that trading within that market has no impact on either the player market or the NPC merchants.

A lot of the following discussion will use MMO’s as the example. Though they make perfect test cases for dissection, they are by no means the sole domain where this can be applied. God of War has an economy; Uncharted has an economy; Mortal Kombat has an economy. As long as the player is making choices with their time, and as long as you are giving them rewards, then you are dealing in the market of their time. You are trading with them. So I will attempt, while mindful of verbosity, to relate with as many examples as possible.

Production And Wages

Everything we now discuss derives from the basic premise that you can assign value to a commodity in the game. A sword has a value much like a skill has a value, and you can have meaningful discussions about the merits of choosing one over the other. For this to occur, however, you must overcome two major hurdles: what mechanics in the game assign value to something, and what do those values mean.

The former is simple, and if you have been paying attention we have already defined the answer: the Production Function.

The Production Function

To put it simply (though, in practice it is not) the production function is the interaction of three factors (resources, capital, and labor). But don’t take my word for it, what does a real economist have to say?

In synthetic worlds, output (q) is going to be some object—pieces of loot from a hunted monster, items that have been crafted, rewards from quests. This good isproduced by the player, who expends her own time (L) to get it. Her ability to get the good depends on four other factors: her skills as a player, or human capital, H; her avatar’s skill levels or experience levels, or avatar capital, A; her avatar’s gear, or physical capital, K; and the number of monsters, crafting inputs, or quests provided by the world, or resources, R

-Edward Castronova, Synthic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games

This definition gives us a function.

Product (q) = (Labor)(PhysicalCapital)(AvatarCapital)(HumanCapital)(Resources)

q = f(L,K,A,H,R)

Now, items that are produced have some value and can be sold for a price (p). The player’s wages (w) are now expressed in a new function.

w = p x f(L,K,A,H,R)

As any factor increases, so does the player’s ability to produce, and by extension her earned wages. If my gear (K) improves , my ability to kill monsters increases. If I know the secret weakness to every enemy (H), then I kill them quicker and easier. All things being equal between two players (same labor, L; same knowledge, H; same resources, R), if two players are able to earn the same wages, then it is safe to say that their K and A are equivalent, and it is this basic premise that allows us to compare value of items in a meaningful way.

Production Matters

The value of something –especially in the real world– is complicated. Something can have sentimental value or confer status, which overrides any kind of rational ysis. In a game, however, items and skills have limited value, besides serving the ultimate goal of increasing someone’s fun. We play games because they are fun. Progression to the secondary goal of beating a game is accomplished by working, and the speed of that is controlled by the production function.

So one could say that to maximize your production function is to maximize your fun.

But it is more than that. Production matters, because it lets us compare and contrast choice in a meaningful way — quite the opposite of saying, “gee, I just like this weapon more.” That’s not good enough. To a user, maybe, but not to a System Designer. You must know, because if you can’t judge the opportunity cost of two weapons, than neither can the player; moreover, if the player cannot judge, then you will leave them dissatisfied.

How To Use Production

Once we have the function we can begin to ask real questions about the game. A good question, and one that you should constantly be asking yourself: “What happens if the player cheats?”. Simple, think of cheating as unfairly maximizing any of the factors of production. When studying your system try and consider what happens when someone has infinite capital (insane gear), infinite resources (duplicating items), or infinite labor (automated scripts). If any of these situations throws the entire system out of balance, then you should probably restructure the system. That particular input steam might have too much influence on resources and production.

Another question you can ask, “what would players want more: Item A, Item B, or 400 experience points.” The short answer is the item that has the greatest impact on the player’s fun. The long answer returns us back to the Production Function. If we assume that maximizing the Production Function maximizes our fun, then the answer depends on the player’s current context. Item A, on paper, is superior to Item B, but it is the value to the player that matters. Contextually Item A is only a marginal upgrade, while item B is a major upgrade, so the player, judging his opportunity costs effectively, chooses item B, as it will have the greater impact on the player’s overall production capabilities. He might not see it those terms, but that is how it is expressed in the lexicon of economics.

Without the ability to break it down this way, you might miss the crucial point: He can only make that choice accurately–some might argue happily–if he is given the knowledge to compare and contrast his choices, and he can only gain this knowledge if the system teaches him, and lastly, but most importantly, the system cannot teach him if it is not expressly designed into the game by you — by the designer.

Starting Values

We can compare, but we have no value. So where do we start? The next step is to find your Ryu, your grunt. In Street Fighter everything was designed around Ryu fighting Guile. In God of War 2 everything was designed around the Skeletons. In Chains of Olympus it was the Hoplites. Every game has its Ryu – its base. Do not go randomly assigning values to everything. You see, when everything’s value is derived from the base character, then they are scalable factors of the base, so when the base changes you already know how to adjust everything else. It is a system adjusting in concert, as opposed to wild stabbing.

Understanding your production function and its control over value is good, but what’s more, once you have a strong understanding of the production level of your player(s), you can begin to calculate not only the value of objects, but also the rate they should enter (or exit) the system.

Calculating Drop Rates

Dropped items, experience points, and even gold pieces are Value (think “money”) entering the system. Your goal is to keep the money entering the system equal to the money leaving a system. Otherwise known as preventing inflation. This Value entering the market is like someone quickly turning on a faucet in a sink. Let’s call the rate of money coming into the system: Vf. This Value spirals around inside the market (sink) to various people (or just stays with the player), and eventually drains out of the market removing Value from the economy. Let’s call the total rate of Value coming out of the market as: Vd. Thus, you want the following equation to hold true:

Vf = Vd

In God of War, when I kill a monster it gives me Red Orbs (Vf). These orbs are Value entering the system. I accumulate Orbs over time, and then I open the menu and I spend these orbs to upgrade something (Vd). I have essentially traded on the Global Market, and in return I get to upgrade my Avatar Capital. This upgrade (my magic is more powerful) increases Kratos’s ability to kill, and in turn increases the rate of Vf. See how it’s all connected?

Let’s take this example further with a fake MMO we are going to call: “World of Flarks” (COMING FALL 2013). The labor force is the number of people on a server, and due to the level of the mob I can guess the general level of Capital (A and K) of the labor force. Assuming those values are fixed, then we are free to play with other variables in an effect to control our Vf. Things like the drop rate of the item, the spawn rate of the mob, the difficulty of the mob, and the Fixed Cost of the mob.

Let’s define some values, and a sample mob.

World of Flarks

Server Population: 2,000

Max Level: 20

Population at or above level 10: 500

Population between levels 9-12: 100

Sword of the Flarkmaster

Value: 10g

Flinkar the Weakling

Location: Forest of Losers (World Spawn)

Quantity in Zone: 1

Spawn Rate: 5 Minutes

Mob Level: 10

Difficulty: Low

Sword Drop Rate: 50%

Here we have Flinkar the Weakling, who has managed to acquire the Flarkmaster’s Sword. Oh Flinkar, you crafty little scamp you. He spawns in the world, so there are no fixed costs associated with killing him. He’s the only one of his kind in the game, and he spawns 12 times an hour. Since he is a low difficulty mob, player skill (H) is less of an issue. Therefore, I will assume that all players at (or above) level 10 can use this resource. Since there are 500 potential users that match this criteria I can assume that this resource is being Perfectly Consumed (he is killed and looted as soon as he spawns). Given this simple set up, I can determine the rate of value (Vf) entering the economy every hour.

Vf = (Kills Per Hours) x (Drop Rate) x (Sword Value)

60g = 12 x 0.5 x 10g

60g an hour is pretty high. Even given no information about our desired Vd, I think it’s safe to say that my economic goals are not being met. I have several options here. Since the value of the item and level of the mob are constant, I am left with changing the drop rate, adding fixed costs, or altering the mob spawn rate. Let’s try a different mob:

Dinky the Diabolical Dinosaur

Location: Flarkmaster’s Grove (Instanced, 5 Man Dungeon)

Quantity in Zone: Optional Boss (1)

Summoning Materials Cost: 1g

Average Dungeon Length: 1 hour

Mob Level: 10

Difficulty: High

Sword Drop Rate: X

Inflation Ceiling

0.5g / hour

This is a more complicated scenario. The mob is now located in a dungeon, he has a cost for summoning him that must be paid, and he’s a difficult mob to boot. Also, this time we are going to start with a desired Vf (0.5g / hour), and solve for our drop rate.

The first new wrinkle is that I need to determine how quickly people are going to be killing this mob. From looking at the world statistics I see that the there are 100 players between the levels of 9 and 12, which feels like a good range for people that would be running this dungeon. However, Dinky is a pretty tough –it does say diabolical– Dino who requires more skill and better gear. Only 60 of those 100 players have the required Capital (H, K, and A) to effectively take down Dinky.

This is a 5 man dungeon, so those 60 players are grouped into 12 groups; additionally, it is an Instanced dungeon, which means that those 12 groups can all be running this dungeon at the same time. This assumes, however, that all 60 of those people are playing all the time, and they are always perfectly grouped with each other. From the article “Alone Together” (http://is.gd/gcqWT) it was shown that players only spend about 30-40% of their time in groups, so for the sake of this we can assume that only 3 to 4 groups are running concurrently at any given moment. Given that this is an optional boss we can reduce it to 3.

The last consideration is the Fixed Cost. Regardless of whether Dinky drops that sweet sword, every group must pay a fee of 1g in order to summon him. With this final bit I can finally draw up the new equation:

Vf = ((Kill Rate) x (Drop Rate) x (Sword Value)) – ((Kill Rate) x (Fixed Cost))

0.5g = (3 x DropRate x 10g) – 3g

3.5g = 30g x DropRate

0.117 = Drop Rate

Given this current mob, this current labor force, and this desired faucet value, the desired drop rate for this item is around 12%. A simple case, but you can see the power of thinking like an economist. So far we have focused on money coming INTO a system, but what about money LEAVING a system?

Inflation Versus Deflation

Almost every action the player makes is some kind of inflationary act. They are constantly bringing money into the market, such as red orbs from killing monsters in God of War, or sweet loots dropping off Nefarion in WoW. Monsters do not work to create these items and resources, therefore it is some Value that is being created solely for the player, which is fine. Your job, now, is to find ways for money to exit the system. Though you may not think of it in these terms, things like “upgrade trees” are essentially designed to be deflationary actions for the player to take.

There are three effective means of removing money from an economy, and each of these has various degrees with which it can be applied to increase or decrease its effectiveness. The first method is by pushing trade onto the Global Market, the second is by using Taxes and the last is by creating social mobility through market Risk.

Global Markets

The most effective means of removing money from a game is to provide unique, high-use, consumable products on the global market, which will have minimal impact on the player’s production function — sounds a mouthful, but it’s simple to understand. Any time a player purchases something from the GM it is an opportunity to remove money from the SOE. The more often they do this (or the more expensive the product) the more money will be drained from the player economy. Since the GM has infinite supply, infinite demand, and the price is controlled by the designers, the price will not change regardless of how much the players consume, and the players can sell or buy as much as they want. Let’s return to our requirements. Why is it unique, why make it consumable, and what’s this about the production function?

Unique – By making the product unique it means that it is a product that is unavailable in the SOE. This drives trade onto the GM, and the price of the object can be adjusted as the GM (the game designer) sees fit.

Consumable — By making it a consumable product the players will have to keep returning to this market to drain money out. If the product provided is a dependable (or even worse a permeable), then no matter how deflationary the cost of the item, the gradual inflationary acts of the player will overcome the buying of this one item. Very expensive dependables are a great means to dump LARGE amounts of money out of the market very quickly (think mounts in WoW), but they are not effective means of keeping the market from inflating over the long term.

Production – The product provided on the GM must be something that does not impact the production function of the player in a major way. As we have discussed, the more effective I am at killing the more I produce. Therefore if the deflationary product provided on the GM makes me a more effective producer, then I am essentially increasing the inflation rate (and undoing the work of trying to deflate it!)

Well, this all sounds great, but not every item can be a consumable. What about dependables?)

Well, this all sounds great, but not every item can be a consumable. What about dependables? What about permeables? Are we totally ed? Thankfully, no. Our savoir comes from a pretty dirty word in modern society. The second half of all that is certain in life: taxes.

Taxes

The second most effective (though sometimes unpopular) means of removing money from the market is to provide a desired service that charges the rich more than the poor. This is also known as “progressive taxation.” The classic example of this is repairing your armor in WoW. Whenever a monster hits you, your armor’s durability is reduced. If you die you also lose a large chunk of your armor durability. If the durability is reduced to zero you may no longer use this item. The only way to repair this gear is to go to an NPC merchant and pay them to repair it. The better quality the armor that you wear, the more expensive it is to repair. An interesting point is that at first glance this may have the appearance that these items are “dependable” and simply depreciating in value. This is incorrect. Since they are 100% effective up until the moment they break and when they are repaired they return to 100% effectiveness, these products have actually not depreciated. They are just as good as the day you bought them (or made them). These are actually permeable, but have a periodic usage tax (and you didn’t even realize it!)

Risk

Another method of removing money from the system is by providing Risk based ventures for people to spend their money on. A common problem in games, particularly in MMOs, is that once the rich acquire massive wealth they stay wealthy. They have nothing to spend their large amounts of money on, so their wealth gets dumped onto mules, or they buy out the entire auction house to corner the market. Imagine a system where I could buy stock in various commodities in a medieval world. I believe in the worth of the Kalimdor wheat, a risky bet, but I think it’s a growth market. The following day, however, a horde of dragons swoop in from the north and raze the countryside. Three things have happened here. One, money (possibly lots of money) has been taken from the market, as the trade in Kalimdor wheat plummets. Two, the killers have been brought into the market trade. I can gather some friends together, and we can try to kill the dragons before they do too much damage – possibly salvaging the price. Three, users are encouraged to pay attention to the state of the game on both the inside and the outside. Say the game provided a web-based means for me to check the current prices on the in-game commodities market. Even better, what if these dragons make it a regular thing to come swooping down and screwing with my wheat? This turns the Kalimdor wheat into a high risk, but high yield commodity.

I can keep going.

But I won’t, even though there is so much to say. Once you understand the importance of economic discussions, you can move onto new questions. How about adding a crafting system to your game. What purpose does it serve? Should the items be as good as drops? Should the items be as good as drops? Economics got you back! These are posts in their own right, and maybe once I give my wrists a break I can tackle them.

If you have found this at all interesting, you owe it to yourself to read the following book: Synthetic Worlds: the business and culture of online games. It explains this better and clearer than I ever could, and it should be read by everyone.（source:flarkminator）