RuneScape - Digging The Virtual Economy

Inquisitor911 writes "One of the things that is peculiar about MMORPGs are the constantly changing virtual markets. For example, look at RuneScape's Economic Fluctuations after the release of skills allowing players to build in-game houses." From the post: "The initial frenzy started with realtors. Once the announcement about the housing update was made, members flocked to purchase houses (placed in a magical portal, so they don't clutter up the landscape) and then flocked to build. A market sprang up within minutes that catered to those too busy, too intent, or too high-level to bother gathering up resources. Planks, nails, clay, rock, tiles, and more suddenly began to command exceptional prices. Clay went from 10 gold pieces to 1000 gold pieces within minutes. Right now it is hovering between a low of 600 or 700 gold pieces for dry clay to about 1000 gold pieces for wet clay, but the price is fluctuating downwards as the initial demand levels off and more suppliers get in on the action. I expect it will peak again on the weekend as more players become aware of the new function."

Re:Virtual Economies

[Rendus]

There's actually a website dedicated to this in Everquest - www.eqecon.com

Same thing happened in UO few years back

[UnknownSoldier]

If you wanted to GM a skill, say like woodworking, or blacksmithing, you'd buy 50,000 boards, or ignots, and crank out whatever gave you the best gains in skills ups. For smithing, it was plate (breastplate). You didn't care how much you failed, you just wanted the dam "Your skill in Blacksmithing has increased to XX.X" message. Everyone I knew was unavailable their first hour of logging, trying to jam their skill during their power hour.

The thing was, the cost per ignot and board shot up dramatically as well (duh!) once more people started doing this, due to the high demand. It was kind of cool to even see when the miners unofficially banded together and demanded more for their ore, because they could. It made the game seem more real, to see how the economy fluctated, based on supply and demand. Of course I had a miner and a smith, so I didn't mind charging slightly less then the "going rate" in order to get a little more sales.

Aside, housing was always a problem, since when you placed a house, even a stupid twig would stop you from bein able to place it. Plus it didn't help that the land had to be "flat"

I didn't realize Runescape was so popular, until seeing the MMORPG charts updated just a little while ago. I suspect one of the reasons is because it has that "old-skool" UO feel to it. (Witness the slow adaption of the 3D client when it first came out. Heck, I knew people, myself included, who played it on laptops too.)

My brother pointed out that Guildwars wasn't included in the MMORPG charts, but that's because it's nigh impossible to get an accurate 'subscriber' count, when it doesn't technically have subscribers.

Ah the good 'ol days of where "Cor Por" was the standard dungeon greetz. :-)

--
Game Design is about the unholy trinity: Realism, Logicalness/Consistency, Convenience
Unfortunately, far too mamy players are argueing about the wrong thing, usually the red herring of realism.

Re:Virtual Economies

[flooey]

It'd be interesting to see economic indicators such as inflation, GDP, and CPI computed for a virtual economy like just to see what sort of things come up in this type of environment. Or to see market analysis techniques applied to the prices of in-game items:

There actually is a group dedicated to doing that in World of Warcraft, but their research isn't open to the public.

Popularity of Runescape

[jeti]

I think Runescape is mostly popular because every kid with
an internet connection can enter it. You don't have to
install additional software and you can play the free version
for an unlimited time. Even the commercial version is cheap
by comparison ($5).

The majority of Runescape players are teenagers.