[GUIDE] The EMC Economy

Discussion in 'Community Discussion' started by 72Volt, Dec 9, 2012.

  1. Greetings, everyone! I'm 72Volt, the local economist, and I always notice people being confused about how the EMC economy works. Some people ask what causes an economy to go bad, and what even happens if a pretend economy fails, since it's not like bankers will be jumping out of windows or unemployment will be rife.

    Firstly, let us outline what an economy is. An economy is a collective of interacting systems within a society designed to meet people's wants and needs. An economy does not need currency like the EMC rupee, other economic systems exist, like barter economies, where people subjectively value x amount of goods they own to be worth y amount of goods someone else owns and to engage in trade with them based on this info, and gift economies, which are Marxist systems where people deposit goods to a communal storage and take what they need from the storage when they need it.

    In Empire Minecraft, we have a semi-free market capitalist economy, where people are entitled to privately own property and the means of production for profit. I say semi-free market because in a true free market economy, the value of goods and services are wholly based on supply and demand, but in EMC, the prices are influenced by the state-set Empire Shop.

    So, now we understand economies, let us continue to an analysis of EMC's economy.

    The EMC economy is based on the rupee. Rupees come into the economy via daily bonuses, votes, giveaways, new member bonuses, donations and referrals. Rupees might be passed from user to user up to 10 or more times before leaving through a vault transaction, an Empire Shop transaction, a chest lock, or eggification.

    The value of a rupee is highly disputable. I've suggested a method of quantifying precise values of goods and services based on the amount of time it takes to acquire them that is based on the Marxian labour theory of value, but this has flaws. We were, however, able to subjectively value the rupee with the Empire Shop in the early days of EMC. At the start, the economy probably conformed to Empire Shop prices, but with players finding they could both sell and buy things cheaper by trading between each other, markets arose, along with competition between shop owners, which eventually drove down costs of goods meaning we now see Empire Shop prices as ridiculously high. As of now, we can now price goods on the basis of undercutting current shop owners.

    Now, moving on to the goal of the economy. EMC's written mission statement is to provide the best possible Minecraft experience, so the economy is (or should be) a key component in doing that. The economy should be a balance between having goods and services cheap enough for players to embark on creative and profitable ventures easily with an appropriate amount of work, and having goods and services expensive enough to make the game challenging and fun.

    If the economy is bad, this can mean one of two things.
    Goods and services are too expensive, meaning it is unreasonably difficult for players to embark on profitable ventures.
    Goods and services are too cheap, making the game lose challenge. Why go out into the brisk, fierce wild when you can pop down to AlexChance and buy a stack of diamonds for 100r? Okay, yes, that's quite an extreme example.
    Due to this economy being based in a game, the ultimate goal is to maintain the fun of the game. In real life economies, the ultimate goal is to have everyone getting access to everything they want and need. This is characterized by cheap goods, a failure criterion of the EMC economy.

    So, how can the in-game economy be enriched?
    Well, in real life economies, enrichment is characterized by the introduction of new products appearing satisfying wants and needs of consumers and more accessibility to current products, usually through competitive pricing. In the EMC economy, enrichment cannot be achieved as easily through new products popping up, because there are only around 250 obtainable items in the entire game and enrichment in the primary and secondary sectors relies on updates by Mojang.

    In case you're unaware, economies are normally divided into 3-7 different sectors, with varying levels of decision making that are required. The ones that would apply on EMC would include the Primary Sector, which is made up of all industries surrounding the production of raw goods, the Secondary Sector is made up of all industries surrounding manufactured products, the Tertiary Sector is made up of all industries surrounding services, the Quaternary Sector is made up of all industries surrounding information.

    Enrichment is mostly out of the question in the Primary and Secondary sectors unless we get an update every day or something like that, but we can still enrich those sectors by creating shops to compete with current shops and lower prices. In the rest of the sectors it's a viable possibility. In the Tertiary Sector, all we need is people innovating with new different types of services. Quite_Indeed's Graphic Shop is a favourite tertiary venture of mine, but not all such ventures need to be based solely with graphics like the ones she distributes, you could have a service building houses.

    In the Quaternary Sector, it is also possible to innovate. Quaternary services include mobspawner coord locations, education like the Spanish language classes I think Chasca was running and classes on mining techniques, and library/newspaper services composed of book+quills.

    If you're mad about the economy, the procedure is to make a shop selling an expensive commodity to undercut current prices and enrich the Primary/Secondary Sectors, provide novel new services to meet an unmet demand, go out looking for mobspawners/educate people, and host/make games within the game.

    Now, let us take a closer look into each sector and how they come into play on EMC.

    Firstly, the Primary Sector. In EMC, the Primary Sector is made up of anyone who gathers raw resources to sell to malls. There are two main categories for modes of production here, mines, and farms. Farms are a construct for reproducing renewable resources indefinitely, and mines are organized centres dedicated to gathering non-renewable resources. Most types of farms can be operated in Town with a few exceptions, allowing for a steady supply of such resources. Mines are mostly in the Wild, Nether and End, although digging dirt out of your res and selling it at the extremely low price it sells for is technically a mining operation.

    Following it is the Secondary Sector, which is made up of anyone who processes resources, whether they gather them or not. I define processing as crafting, smelting, or stocking resources. The big malls like AlexChance's are in the Secondary Sector, and it is a sector that is mainly Town-based, with a few exceptions applying to outposts. This is of course more decision intensive than working in the Primary Sector, as one needs to decide if their pricing and such is appropriate as well as managing certain supply lines.

    Then, we have the Tertiary Sector. While it isn't as developed as the others on EMC because the focus is on shops and malls, it is still important and will most likely gain prominence in the future. It's made up of anyone who provides a service to others, either as freelance contract work to other businesses or as a standalone business building things, running wild escorts, attaining enchantments for someone or something more miscellaneous. Mainly based in towns and outposts, with wild escorts occurring in the wild.

    Finally, the Quaternary Sector. Made up of anyone who exchanges information to others with profitable intentions. The intentions for profit can be direct (you give someone coords for a mobspawner, you get lots of monies from them) or less direct (you teach someone how to branchmine, they help you branchmine and you split profits).

    In the real world, economies go through different development stages where the workforce in certain sectors shifts. More developed economies going through such stages shift more towards services. Right now, EMC has a small Primary Sector, a large Secondary Sector, and a medium sized Tertiary Sector, indicating we're going through the second stage, the Transitional Period.

    Of course, the layout of different economic periods applies mainly to the real world. EMC differs to it in the sense that not as much can be automated in vanilla Minecraft, so the workforce has to stick to the primary and secondary sectors.

    That's all I can think to write now, if I have any more ideas I'll include them.
  2. You may want to try and organize the thread better, other than that nice idea!
  3. you forgot lava walls. xD
    battmeghs likes this.
  4. Lava Walls
    - They never work!
    - Dont scam
    - Love from 72volt!
  5. Dont forget auctions. Some people will only do auctions as a form of income, like me, and make a living off of it.

    Also people (Not sure if you covered this, LARGE wall of text) that will do special orders like getting people enchants on the site when asked.
  6. Really people, that's been dead for months now, why keep bringing it up?
  7. Duh?!
  8. This is amazing, have you ever thought about being a economist when your older.
  9. Nah, I wanna run a nonprofit dedicated to furthering a radical humanist ideology through research into sustainable humanitarian aid, creating an impartial global diplomatic service with the sole interest of peace and complete cohesion between all states, and the eventual unification of the human species as a single world government.

    So yeah, just the simple life really.
    pat2011 likes this.
  10. No idea what you just said, but cool.
    AlexChance and nfell2009 like this.
  11. Never, ever, ever going to happen.
    AlexChance and Squizzel_Boy like this.
  12. The enchantment service falls under Tertiary Sector operations, I'll add it if you believe it's significant enough :)
    As for auctions, that's merely a means of trade. I could add in means of trade later :)
  13. Okay, yes, fair enough, went a bit too indepth and ambitious there :)
  14. lol, at least you admitted, unlike most of my teachers :( Oh I mean when you prove them wrong.
  15. Interesting post. On the one hand, it would be nice to automate production as much as possible (build large grinders, farms, and mines), so players can focus on building and other services. On the other hand, you have to consider that many players enjoy gathering resources as much as building (The game has the word "Mine" in it). I guess the best all-around solution is for players to be as informed as possible about what can be done (read the wiki, watch youtube), and do whatever sounds like the most fun to them. Then again, many players profit from other players' ignorance, and some players don't want to get that into the game...
    Meh. Just have fun and don't troll.
  16. If a lot of production was automated, the game would be easier and less of a challenge, making it boring. On the other hand, if it was extremely difficult to gather any resources, the game would be difficult and too much of a challenge, making it frustrating.

    I agree with you that players should be educated as much as possible, that's a given for any Minecraft player.
  17. I have a feeling that when you grow up you will either bring world peace or become the next Stalin.
  18. No worries, I have online communities for my Stalinist activities :3
    southpark347 likes this.
  19. You wrote a very well understanding text ( even me as German could understand it ) buff you can add services like parkours to the tertiary sector. It is a service and people like to donate to it.
  20. It's in his signature.
    dylan_frenette likes this.