initial thoughts about the Rupees System.. (Important discussion imo)

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I had a very nice discussion on SMP1 last night about the ingame value of rupees and what will initially happen with the current flow of rupees into the market.

So here at my thoughts and the "problem" as i see it.

Information

• EmpireMinecraft has grown by +100% the last month, making the overall contributed daily rupees bonus - doubled!
• I've been standing in the Town Shop (/shop) on SMP1, SMP2, and SMP4 for an hour on each server when 45+ people were on the server. This was to observe how many people would use the shop. The observation gave me the shocking fact that only 13 people went to the shop - and only 2 bought something. (btw - sorry for messaging you guys )

The above information should give a clear picture of the EmpireMinecraft rupees flow.
There is a whole lot of rupees being pumped into the market each day by the daily bonus - but no way for the rupees to get out or removed from the market.

In these days you guys have probably heard "the bubble burst" a little to much - and even though in real life the current situation is a little more important it will have the same effect on EmpireMinecraft. Our rupees will loose ingame value.
Everyone will in the end have hundred-thousands of rupees - and the prices will skyrocket due to the high demand on items - and in the end, ~5% of the players (the once with high demanded items) will sit on 80% of the ingame rupees and they can pretty much dictate the prices on the servers.

What do i suggest?

The solution (as i see it) is fairly simple.
We need something that can constant drain the market rupees - without being trade-able (like the current /vault.
This can be something like:

• Making a "World Chat" that costs 5 rupees to write in (/ch w).
• Moving a full res to another server (once a week limit) at a high price.
• Custom ingame name colors (pay pr. week) at a medium price.
• Setting up a shop will cost 1-5 rupees.
• Using the teleport to North,East,West,South will cost 5 rupees.

These are just the initial thoughts on the ways to make the benefits cost a little rupees - and even out the market so we don't end up thinking rupees are useless.

So, give some thoughts to the problem - let me see if I'm the only one who's done this observation and lets get some suggestions going that can be useful.
Maybe add some high priced (20k+) epic things for the guys with a lot of rupees.

But what about the people with no rupees?

Yeppy

you gotta care about the noobies too

In my opinion people with no rupees - just doesn't mine or do anything to get rupees.

I was here for 2 days - and made 20.000 rupees. I don't see the problem to be honest.

And these benefits will just not be available to the people without rupees - that will encourage even more mining. Cause lets face it, to many people doesn't know how to get sand

Or instead of changing the benefits - just add some rupee heavy stuff, so you have something to get thoose rupees for.

Wall of Text:
theres a couple problems with what you think is a problem
for the price of the items in question to go up, the supply must decrease which causes demand to rise.
but this is a game, and the terrain will generate infinitely until the world is reset. which means there is an infinite supply to meet any and all levels of demand for the items, thus there will never be a price increase because the supplies wont ever dwindle. i mean, yeah a few people, like myself who dont spend much money will accrue moderate fortunes, but who cares really? having that many rupees is honestly more of an incentive to pay for services, this brings more rupees back into the greater population of players.

edit: the only problem i really foresee is the prices of everything dropping like a stone over time from more ppl selling them and undercutting rival sellers.

The supply of all rare items are already at a low - and the demand doesn't need to rise more then it is now - the people with the most rupees will be able to drive the prices to wherever they want them to stop.

~10 days ago diamonds went for 80 rupees on SMP1 - why would that be? cause the guy with the most rupees needed them.

I'v said the same before in a slightly different way but essentially - we need something more to spend rupees on for perks like you have listed ( I dont nesacarily agree with your suggestions but yea.. )

ok, one more thing with the price picking, the /shop is there for a reason, it puts a cieling on every items price, like sand will never sell for higher than 4r, because its 4r in the shop, and luxury items? like the discs? i have like a chest full of those things, they all drop from creepers now just like 13 and cat did. and for most players i know, if the price is too high in the stores, they will just go searching for it in the wild

I dont agree with all of the suggestions - they are there to start a list of good and bad suggestions.

I haven't seen people staring at a disc, diamond or whatever they want and then decide to go mine/farm for it.
Just check out enchanted items prices - they are at a record high price atm. and supports the idea of the rupees flow.

They used to be higher until everyone jumped on the wagon

the enchantment prices are high because it takes almost a full day just to get one lvl50 enchantment done. thats a full day you could mine diamonds, or a full day to farm sand, it takes alot of work, so its worth alot. why do you think the price of a car is so high when the relative cost of materials is so low comparatively?

As a diamond supporter, rupees are already pretty worthless to me, I only use them when I'm feeling extra lazy, or really want to finish something off before I go to bed. For me, the value I get from creating something is the effort I spent building it (part of which is collecting materials). That's just the way I play, others enjoy the game in different ways.

Purchasing rupees won't mean an infinite number of rupees entering the system. People are still limited by their budget (or Mum's credit card limit). This won't be much different to people who have lots and lots of time to farm massive amounts of materials and sell them. I'd say it even things out a bit in that respect.

I'd say there is already money sinks in the game, and that is rich players. People who play the game just to get the most amount of rupees. They're not spending it, because there is nothing they want to buy, so it's effectively taken out of the system. People also leave, and get banned.

But instead of relieing on people getting banned - we could add values to the game for rupees.

You mean the car prices that has been halfed over the past 5 years?

I think you can't really apply real world economics to minecraft, because real world economics (as importerer said) rely on scarcity. Minecraft is a (practically infinite) world, that every one has the skills needed to harvest what they need or want.

The only thing rupees achieve, is to add another metric to measure your success with, and who cares if 10 rupees is a lot or 10,000,000 rupees is a lot.

If you're worried about the divide between rich, and poor (newbies), as importerer said, there is a cap on prices set by the empire store. Newbies will make shops to sell things, beg, work or do whatever they always have to get more rupees, just as they do now. There is a continual influx of new players, just as there is a continual stream of people who leave the game, whether by being banned or just needing a break.

The question I have to ask, is why do rupees need value? It will just create a divide between old players and new players, and the more value they have the bigger the gap.

I see rupees as a tool to help you speed up your building, or to avoid going into the wilderness if you like creative mode. More rupees, with less value, mean more people will be able to be creative and build than before. This is after all a building/mining game isn't it?

This is what I do. Some of us like being able to say were rich and smugly superior. Also though real world economics deals with how we are to distribute scarce (Not enough to satisfy at a free price) among unlimited wants. Since there is no such thing as a scarce good in MC as more can always be found, real world economics cannot really be applied. While the total amount of rupees may be sky rocketing, it would more likely lead to increased prices as sellers realize that there customers would be willing to pay more for the same thing.

Source Mr. Simons AP Macroeconomics class lol

*Pictures mugatu1994 sitting atop his MC skyscraper lighting a cigar with a 10,000 rupee note and watching the world scurry around like the ants they are*

boycott mugatu1994!! fight the man!!

That is something I would totally do, except lighting it with a 10,000R note, thats just wasting money haha

The fact that the empire shop exists means this can never happen. No one can ever set a price above what the empire shop is charging, or they would never get business. The empire shop has infinite supply and a firm fixed price. It is the ceiling for prices. As long as the empire shop exists people will have to compete with it, which means their prices will have to be lower.

Also you noticed that there are twice as many rupees flowing into the market, but you forgot to notice that there are also twice as many consumers in the market. The fact that the inflation of rupees in the market is tied directly to the number of consumers in the market creates balance that isn't seen in real world economics. Also the ability for the wealthy to just get more wealthy is limited. There are no banks that charge interest on loans taxes, or fees.

I don't know if you know this, but locked chests and certain items at the empire shop drain more money than you would think.

In EMC, Rupees only exist for the exact split second that they change hands over a purchase.

Because players get free money every day, there is no finite supply to run out.

Because some players spend their money there is always a flow and ebb of currency, less than you'd imagine but enough to sustain.

Because the rich players don't spend their money as there's nothing to buy, Rupees don't devalue.

Because supply will always, always outweigh demand as long as someone is willing to go and look for it, prices will never inflate.

So really, there is no Rupees problem.