A prospect of gaming that I've remained fascinated by ever since I first heard the term was that of 'player controlled economy', perhaps before I came to really comprehend the fact that multiplayer online games just weren't my style of game. Because the idea of it sounds so exotic and wild. I struggle to remember if the first time I ever heard it brought up was in reference to one of the early space sims, or perhaps in a 'features' list of Star Citizen- or heck, maybe I heard someone describe the Grand Exchange from Runescape like that. Wherever I heard it first, the idea captured me from then on. One of the most important aspects of certain games left entirely in the hands of the imperfect player? Dynamically shifting markets, varying levels of import- at that time I wasn't even conceiving the potential of broken balance, but I guess that was what I was craving.
I don't think that the vision of what player led trading has ever been actually properly reached, except for what I've heard New World trading was like, but that is a second or third hand account anyway, I cannot confirm for certain. Whilst the idea of these sorts of systems seems sound: getting players to value that which seems important to them and sell that on, keeping a healthy ecosystem to buy off of; in practice these tend to be more prickly pears to handle. MMO's can have some decent enough ecosystems if the game has the right systems to support it. ESO has a crafting system and so player-crafted goods pop up on in-game storefronts (for exorbitant amounts a lot of the time.) But mostly you'll find ludicrously expensive god-tier items dominating storefronts bid on by veteran players, because that's really what trading systems exist for.
High end weapons and armours and potions and rings and basically any BIS (Best In Slot) equipment that a player needs to push through the stage of being a 'well equipped' player to an identical clone of literally every other player of that class in the world. (Because no 'free form class development system' survives the internet age, I'm afraid.) You'll see this sort of mindset infect the auction shops of MMO games and the item buying stores of ARPGs; wherever there's fictional currency to be made, there's BIS items to sling about for insane amounts of gold- because at the end of the day grind is only fun up to a certain point, eventually when you just want the item that you've been doing all of this gaming for. Which in a way I suppose suits the endgame function of marketplaces like this, I just think it tends to waste the overarching potential of what a marketplace could become.
I don't know, I really thought of a sort of magical world where all in world vendors are replaced with player-driven markets populated with all the every day needs of an adventure. Potions, ammunition, repair items- all that ilk. But then I suppose such a concept would inevitably become dependent on the regular supply of such items from players who make it their job to supply the community. Sacrificing their fun time doing anything else to keep the world turning for other players. I think that's the reason why social MMO's really died off, there's a level of turning your play time into second job time- and I think the modern gamer has just grown out of the idea of assuming a mundane position of functionality within the game world. Or at least, the idea is no longer enough in fashion for such a world to be feasible in the modern landscape of online gaming.
The other day we were witness to once such example of the vapidness of in-game trading when a Diablo 4 player managed to sell off their high quality crossbow (I've heard conflicting opinions about it's BIS status) for 30 billion gold. Roughly three times the maximum limit of in-game gold and a number so ludicrous that it ended up getting trading temporarily pulled for every player as the developers tried to rub their eyes and figure out what happened. But when you really examine the question of why any player would sink so much money into an item that it likely due to be unpowered by the next update seeing as how Diablo 4 is only a bit of the way through it's first season, a startling realisation strikes you around the upside of your head like my Grandmother's palm whenever you forgot to take off your shoes at the front door. Because gold doesn't mean anything.
The value of the actual ingame currency in these styles of games almost always ends up witling down into nothingness in the face of the actual items themselves, resulting in yet another barter-economy style online game world. And in games where such barters aren't permitted, then gold merely serves as a conduit between such trades- which one might argue is the ultimate purpose of currency from a far and objective perspective, but at the end you should really be asking what the point of in-game money even is anymore. The most expensive thing that Diablo players spend their money on is item stat re-rerolling, but the current stat poll is so pathetic that it's largely seen as a waste of money to even attempt. Maybe a better system needs to exist.
Money should be useful for stocking up on supplies, crafting ingredients, item repairs- it should be a metric of progress to chase which opens up potential as you accrue more of it. I know that sounds very simplistic and basic, but when it comes to game design these are some of the fundamental purpose questions you have to ask and if money becomes as useless as air for either it's abundance or the lack of genuine items to buy with it- then you've left a pointless concept in the final game that muddles the ultimate product. Of course, people expect there to be money; and osmosis of life worth teaches us to respect the idea of money. But that innate practicality recognises the pointlessness all the while, and whilst the very lifeblood of commerce runs thin and watery, it can't flow into the promised fountain front of player driven trading like we dream of.
It's an oxymoron. A game needs to make money purposeful in order to create the husk of an online world for players to make trade meaningful. And maybe that clash of forces is why no serious game has ever managed to successful nail it. To this day the most believable marketplace in terms of player developed value is the CS:GO Marketplace, and that's only because those knife skins go for real money because that is an actual market. Sometimes I ponder about the potential of player controlled markets actually functioning how it's intended, but those dreams are often accompanied by other fantasies such as aimable roleplay titles where players live and collaborate like a genuine functioning society would. Such flights of fancy are, of course, the stuff of Faeries and Witches, and bare no place in high-thinking heads.
No comments:
Post a Comment