Philanthropy...or apparent lack thereof?

how does one make the EMC market fair without disenfranchising the active, veteran EMC players or the noobs? not sure how new players are currently struggling to obtain materials for reasonable prices. there are new shops popping up daily, and we all know you and I run our own stores. There is no shortage of supply and as far as in game wealth goes, that's simply something that anyone can truthfully build and gain overtime. No one joins this server rich.

200r shop expansion materials per day
1000r spent on auctions daily
5000r shop income
10000r auctions income
500000r spent on minecart rollercoasters daily
0r philanthropy

Can someone good at the economy help me budget this? My family is dying

Im not trying to argue the emc market. What i was saying is lets all get along were no better 'Joe123' and lets help grow emc as a whole. Not talking rich, poor, new or old. I'm not knocking your hustle you do you my guy. no hard feelings

As i was talking about newcomers not 2000+days old and active players that have played in less than 810 days ago my guy But im sure someone could help you out if you play. My condolences to you and your family.

thes dam librals and their free handounts

Who's on their high horse? I've never seen anything I could call that kind of behaviour. There can be a little bit of cliquiness between some older players but that's understandable when people have known each other for a while and community chat is always friendly and including of everyone. Whenever a new player asks for help they get it. The only time I have ever seen anyone called a noob is if they're calling themself that as a joke.

Also:

There is a rule about not exploiting new players, so if this happens it is reportable. The handful of times I've seen it happen was a newish player exploiting a brand new player and then older players standing up for the person getting ripped off.

I wasn't attacking anyone as have previously stated. And yes chat/old/new players are friendly your right on that and very helpful of new players. Yes I agree /report would be helpful for those that know their getting ripped off or manipulated. Its not old, new or anything its "were all human so treat each other with respect". And if anyone wants to argue that my pm's are open for discussion. And as liberals' and their free hand outs goes I get it...lol I don't think their looking for free handouts as much as a little respect from some when given. All and all it's a game that some people use escape from real world crap so lets leave the politics and everything out and enjoy minecraft and our friends presence.

@Krysyy I'd argue that having children learn the basics of economics/business at a young age, even the very basics in a game, will lead them to have a headstart for being a successful generation(with better politics) with leaders and business owners. //That's all I'm going to talk about politics.

I did a quick google search for the word philanthropy because I've heard it before but didn't know the exact definition:

1. goodwill to fellow members of the human race

2. especially active effort to promote human welfare

I've only taken a few economics classes, so I'm by no means an expert, but I have a basic/advanced understanding of it. Also, many people think that economics is the study of money, which is not true. It is the study of decision-making in societies.

So let's go from the basics of why a player might play in EMC?

Assumption: Players will only use their time in activities where they have the most fun; (the only resource in a virtual game that has a real cost is time).

Assumption 1: I will assume that humans are behind their own computer screen with spare time, and they are looking to have "fun." (A very broad term). They could choose between many different games/entertainment options, but they prefer Minecraft, and stumbled upon EMC. If this situation happened a long time ago, and they value their time here more than doing something else, they probably stayed.

Assumption 2: I will also assume people get bored easily without goals/objectives in repeated tasks. I will assume that no player has been here for more than 5 years and gets fun out of mining DCs and DCs of stone every day. (They might exist, but probably a very rare situation). People generally like diversity within their daily activities over extended periods of time.

Economic terms to keep in mind
Here is where the economic term Opportunity Cost.
This explains that there is a cost to every decision you make, which is the "next best thing" you could have done.

Let's say you had two options: play soccer or play basketball.
When a person chooses to play soccer, the cost was not being able to play basketball.

There is also the general assumption in economics, the study of decision making, that people, when performing a transaction or taking a decision, behave rationally. So in the previous example, soccer had a higher "Fun" reward than basketball, thus was chosen.

This rational behavior assumption explains why people do not buy the highest-priced item in a market. They want more purchasing power, and wasting money on the same thing you could have purchased at a lower price is irrational. Yes, I strongly disagree that the solution is to go to new player shops (and buy overpriced items) to satisfy an imaginary price when it is an irrational action.

Context/Background:

Goals/ Fun in EMC

Like any other game you want to replay, you want to skip the intro, but you usually can't. That's how the creator meant it to be. Here in EMC is the "same." (You have the same vanilla intro experience, with some extra tools to move faster).
However, that is not where the extent of the "welfare" ends. If a player asks around and does minimal resource gathering on their own, they can get to "end-game" tier gear within the first day with some effort. With minimal effort, within the first week. With many public farms and assets, it's extremely easy to do so (of course, they would have to know it's an option in the first place to ask around). If they don't want to "save-time," maybe the beginning of the game is where they get happiness, the grind per se. This would take them to /waste or /wild and start there and be happy while at EMC.

There are many different ways where EMC players can get fun out of there time they spend in EMC.

EMC is a play-your-way server.

The point I want to say, which I'm still not sure is fully concrete when writing this, is the following:
There is too much variety of where players can get sources of happiness. Giving "welfare" or rupees is either meaningless to the person giving away stuff (thus they do not do it), or even to the person receiving the "donation."

A player interested in chasing a particular mechanic in the game won't bother to switch activities most of the time because the Opportunity cost (definition under Assumptions section) is too great a difference. However, There ARE outside factors that contribute to the opportunity cost.

Example: When a player is doing their favorite activity in EMC, and there is a mining event or mob arena held by staff, they might consider switching activities. Even though the "Fun" reward of activities such as mining and mob killing is not at their top of the list, the events' social aspect adds value.

If a player finds it of no value to "aid" new players the way you are describing, they won't do it, and probably, there is no need to do so.

Don't get me wrong; there is plenty of welfare going around, most notably in smp6 public works and smp8 public wild/town utilities. And with the 1.13 updates and the abundance of very easy farms, players can acquire most basic materials at no cost. You can even ask in chat for a stack of wood, and there will be someone who can mail it to you for free.

As you said, there is no reason to acquire millions of rupees with no end. Money is a means to an end.

• Most of the time, rupees, if used, go towards building materials for new projects (The beauty of Minecraft is that the limit is your imagination; There is definitely a benefit to having a free and open Market in EMC so that players can acquire them at very low prices).
• End game goals ( also exist and should exist), in the form of buying collectibles (promo, head, etc.)
• That end may be to be the wealthiest person in EMC for the "prestige." So go for it, it is what makes you happy, and your means becomes your literal end. But yeah, very few people go for this, if any at all.

Personal experience
Personally, I found my time spent in EMC much more valuable building public utilities rather than going to new player shops. I don't care helping someone who might not be playing the next week, but I was very interested in leaving some type of legacy so that new players can reach their goals faster.

Give a man a fish, and you'll feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you've fed him for a lifetime. -Confucius

PS: Side note related to my first paragraph, if a young kid learns that business can fail if you are satisfying a part of the market where it is overcrowded, I prefer it to be done here than irl. Thats why I support allowing gambling in EMC. Learn that you can loose everything if you do not control yourself in gambling. and learn to have some type of plan when going into business because whether or not you get food to your table depends on having good decisions throughout your whole life, specially in this increasingly competitive world.

Same here. I'd rather spend my time doing stuff that supports the community as a whole, new players included. There were times years back when I'd run around doing a lot for a new player and then they'd just quit and not come back and it felt like such a waste of my time. I remember one time donating someone a heap of resources for a build and then they just reset their res as soon as they finished it!

Like others, I'm still more than happy to help new players by answering questions and getting them oriented. I still remember how much people helped me get used to EMC.

Retention is always a problem and gift giving of items, rupees, purchasing overpriced stuff and even tons of help from many members will not fix that. It's not just an EMC problem as I've hopped around a bit since my first stint here. It's part of MC, you'll find a server you like and stick with it. Otherwise, there is no cost in checking out all of them to find what you like best. I personally have always liked the setup here but many others do not. I like that I do not have to run any special software, like forge, here and others will want more mods.

I do and did in my past times here, very much reach out to help players as much as I can. It's something I do but you can't let whether that player stays or not be part of your process or you'll not help new players often. Even those who love EMC have left, with some returning from time to time and others that may never come back. It's not EMCs fault at all, it's just our own desire for change, a new challenge by starting over and even the desire to get involved in a new community.