So, its known that we earn gold and we spend the gold to buy equipment from the merchant... And then what? That cant last too long.. Gold sinks are an important part of the economy, gold needs value for trade and for cash shop items to have value too. So gold needs some repeatable functions that dont cut into what the cash shop should be offering (name resets/skill respecs/character slots, bigger mule, etc) Since it doesnt sound like theirs crafting or enchanting, will their be repairs ? Dungeon crafting could be a great gold sink, both to build and fund a good dungeon. Something simple as a Gambler could add life to gold, buying random cards or chance to win temporary premium items. Any suggestions for other gold sinks that will fit in the universe as we know it ?
Competitive multiplayer aspect aside, this is a game about going into dungeon, beating things up and taking their stuff, right? I can see the gold-sinks from any other game that has a similar theme being perfectly reasonable. I'm assuming the typical gold sink of items selling for less than they buy for is already there, so I suggest: -A Gambler that sells unidentified items (a la Diablo/Torchlight) would be perfectly reasonable, provided the chances of getting a really awesome item were proportionately low. -An auction-house where players can sell off their excess desirable loot might be a good idea, but might discourage farming the difficult dungeons if people can just wait for somebody else to find the item they want then buy it off've them. (Not that I think farming should be encouraged, only replayability.) -Let's say we eventually get observer functionality, why not let players bet on the outcome of high level matches? (Is that even legal? I'm not to up with online gambling law. Further problem: match fixing) As an aside, the most interesting money sink I've ever seen implemented is the Money Making Game from Kingdom of Loathing. http://kol.coldfront.net/thekolwiki/index.php/Money_Making_Game The tl;dr is you basically select an amount of money to wager, somebody else agrees and you both get 50/50 odds of winning the whole lot minus the house's cut.
Yeah, the KOL way of doing things is pretty awesome. I'd have to say gambling is a good thing to give money a purpose if there isn't a concrete one in place already. Boarderlands 2 does this, and it's basically all I spend my money on. I do have to admit though, I would be quite fond if there were other things that required gold other than some gambling activity. I like the idea that you pay gold to create/maintain dungeons. Maybe you could also earn gold this way. You spend money into creating a dungeon, and for every time your dungeon defeats an intruder you gain some gold (along with them losing some). I think that having to spend gold (in-game currency mostly) to keep player made dungeons up would encourage careful construction of dungeons. This way you don't get as much of a flood of terrible dungeons. I would hope that there would also be a player grading system for player made dungeons if they ever come about, this way all of the penis maps and such can be found at the bottom of the list with 1 star ratings.
Gambling FOR money isnt really a gold sink if you're just winning more gold XD You need a reason to want the gold ! BL2 has a huge random generator for its weapons though, theirs only so many items in CH. Definitely should be an aspect of dungeon creation.
I think we might just have different ideas of what constitutes a gold sink. You think "What can I spend my hard earned loot on?" and I think "How can some money disappear so the economy doesn't spiral wildly out of control?". In my case, it's the auction/gambling houses cut of the earnings that contributes a gold sink. For the record, I'm not trying to put forward the ideas that the only way to spend money is gambling, I'm also all for Kobold/Goblin/War Pig Orphanages (nobody ever thinks about the children, it's always the littlest that suffer the most) and improving our import sector.
I should of been more clear, i mean betting money with other players is still just money exchanging hands, needs to be reasons to want the money ! Random card merchent/skill/talent respecs would be good. Gambling for more gold is more like an Hourglass than a sink
See, clearly, Blue Manchu needs to unveil it's massive cosmetic items scheme. And not just the stuff showing up in this thread over here, oh no: I mean full-on Facebook-style decorate-your-home cosmetic items. I mean taking Startington Keep and personalizing it with tapestries, statues, anachronistic electronics systems such as satellite TV (from "silly themed" expansions, which makes it okay), big floating towers, crystal glowy things, sheep and other farm animals you can shear/milk to make craftable items (oops, might infringe on certain Facebook games), and even the biggest reward: your own Facebook icon made into a portrait on the wall! And aside from all the stupid ideas in the above (read: Facebook), the general principle stands.
I prefer gold toilet seats. Well... adventurers gotta eat, right? We know that you are generally limited to 3 characters per adventure, but if you are able to run a stable of six, nine, or even twelve characters total you could attach "salaries" to each adventurer you employ. They would "cost" a weekly amount of gold to keep around. You only need three characters, but if you want more you can have them. It just costs more. And it costs proportionally more, as theoretically only three of those characters will ever be out finding loot and earning gold, so the more characters you have the faster your reserves decrease. Even just the standard 3 adventurers would still be a gold sink, but if you want the flexibility of having more characters around (for the ability to customize the parties you send out to adventure... or test out new styles in multiplayer, if that's your thing) you could have it, but it would cost you more. It's a passive gold sink so of course it's not the most fun option, but if you keep the percentage costs low enough it would be a great support behind more active options such as those listed above (that many players would never waste their time with).
I think you're still missing my point, you're only focusing on the money that you win. Do you see how the auction/gambling house takes a cut? Even if that's as small as 0.1% of the profit, it's still money that's going nowhere. The money disappears from the servers and the economy stays stable...somehow. And while I'm talking about subjects I was never appropriately equipped to understand...does anybody know how taking money out of circulation actually balances the economy? I know World of Warcraft (Auction fees, vendors, repair fees, flight points) and Maple Story (Trade fee) do it, but I don't know why.
Because, in these worlds, money is ALWAYS entering circulation. The money that you win from a fight or a treasure chest comes into being from nothingness. Then, the money from fighting that monster or opening that treasure chest magically renews for the next player in line (or for you, if the activity is repeatable). It must magically renew, else new customers wouldn't have any reason to care about monsters and treasure chests, and thus inflation never ever ends. This same principle applies to other forms of resource-gathering, too. Thus, (intelligent) game designers seek ways to combat inflation, else the concept of money itself becomes meaningless to the absurdly wealthy players.
Eh, you quoted me in the middle of my editing spree, thus rendering my revision futile, and so you have committed a terrible faux pas that has made me incapable of "liking" anything right now. I'm going to go off in a snit and think angry economy-related thoughts. There is only one way to make up for it now. Notice the punchline I just telegraphed and make a nerdy reference to it.
Oh why bother, you're incapable of liking anything and nothing i say will change that, but cant say i blame you, nothing in this universe is worth liking highly overrated all of it and trust me i've seen it. Does that work? XD
Huh, would that be Marvin the Paranoid Android or somesuch? If so, great. I was thinking of something else, though, which I'll probably slink back in here to mutter under my breath tomorrow.
Brutally off topic i ****ing love marvin... soooo much. And to answer the question why you need gold sinks one more time look at diablo 2s economy. Gold was worth so little people started just trading in enchanting stones or something like that because having 4x goldcap meant nothing.
