[ShellVent] 2 Player suggestions which are already a thing (somewhat)

Discussion in 'Marketplace Discussion' started by ShelLuser, Jan 19, 2018.

  1. Hi gang!

    It is the start of the weekend (or the end of the week, just how you look at it) and while sorting out some of my stuff and preparing for an evening of "Empireing" (?) I was thinking back about my IRL activities in the past week and suddenly it hit me... Time for a rant (or vent)!

    The EMC stock exchange

    Last year a player came up with a pretty sophisticated plan: setting up a 'real' stock exchange where players could buy and sell stocks. It was pretty well thought out but unfortunately (but also understandably) turned down by staff because of all the extra (possible) complications. After all: if you have a financial dispute / argument with another player then who do you turn to?

    My bet is on staff. So setting up a whole complex financial system where players can buy and sell stocks... what if players run into problems or into an argument over the value of such a stock? My bet is that they'll get staff involved which would basically boil down to more work for staff, even though they weren't even involved with the project in the first place!

    "Solidifying" your rupees

    We all know about the existence of rupees I hope? If not then I suggest you go to this page, or use the /r command in-game to see more about them.

    Several players have suggested this in the past: a way in which you can turn your rupees into real in-game materials. Preferably with a 1 on 1 exchange rate (so, for example, there would be a buy/sell sign in /shopworld which would both buy and sell a certain (custom) item for a specific amount of rupees).

    This suggestion has never really been turned down nor officially put in place.

    But what if I told you that both of these suggestions are already somewhat of a thing? Don't believe me?

    What is a stock exchange?

    (you can safely skip to the next header if you already know all this, you won't miss out on my story)

    First a small detour. I'm pretty certain that some of you out there may have heard the term "stock exchange" somewhere but maybe without knowing what it actually is. Now, I'm not going to explain the whole thing in every tiny detail because that could get really long and boring, but let's just focus on the general concept.

    When a company needs/wants money they have a few options. One would be to loan that money from a bank. The only problem though is that banks expect something in return for providing you that money. This is called interest. Officially speaking interest is basically put in place to compensate for the devaluation of a currency ('money'), but to keep my example simple we'll just say that interest is the price people expect to get paid in return for loaning money. So the longer you loan money from someone the more you'll have to pay them back.

    So people came up with a better idea... A company by itself has value. Just like a house, a car, your computer and the game of Minecraft. All they'd have to do is find a way to somehow use that value and exchange that for money. And that's where the stock exchange comes into play..

    When a company sells stocks they're basically cutting up their company in several virtual pieces and then selling those pieces in the form of stocks. If you buy a stock then you're basically buying a small part of that company. The value of the stock, at least the initial value, is generally determined by the overall value of the company.

    However... a company usually sells a limited amount of stocks. And one of the fundamental rules in economics is that when the supply is low and the demand is high then the price will automatically go up.

    This is one of the basic principles of the stock exchange: if you bought stocks from a company and that company is doing really well then there is a good chance that more people will be interested in buying those stocks, which can increase their value. Maybe you should consider selling? Then you'd actually make a bit of a profit.

    And that brings us to another principle: if you sell your stocks and make a profit there is a chance that more people will do the same. With the possible result that the price will go down. Another fundamental rule of economics: when the supply goes up but the demand stays the same (or goes down as well) then the price will go down.

    So now back to the Empire....

    EMC support vouchers: the way to speculate and solidify your rupees!

    Sounds crazy eh? Well, hear me out!

    See: the thing which defines a stock isn't necessarily the (small) ownership of a company, but it's dynamic value. The ownership part is nothing more but a guarantee for a minimum value. That's why bonds are also a thing. What defines a stock (or a bond) is its dynamic value; the price can go up and down depending on the market (supply and demand).

    So: wouldn't you agree that with the recent changes in support status the price and/or demand of the Iron support vouchers went down a bit? Because now everyone can chat outside town, supporter status or not.

    But within that same reasoning wouldn't you also agree that support vouchers have been pretty stable with their general value? Sure, prices went down a bit over time (also before the change in chat mechanics) but there have also been some changes here and there. And what about auctions for example.

    And there's more: the amount of support vouchers in-game is limited. You can't buy them in-game from staff, you can only do that using real money (note: I'm talking about buying from staff, so the official source). So what if the supply for support vouchers would suddenly go down (because not many players are selling) or what if the demand goes down (because less players might want them; you can already chat in the wild)?

    See what I mean? Here you have yourself the general concept of a real stock exchange, all within Empire Minecraft.

    It's a pretty stable investment!

    What's that you say? Prices will only go down but not up because there's no demand? Now, how did you come up with that weird idea? Only because of the change in chat mechanics perhaps? Sorry, but you're wrong.

    Sure, general value can go down. But don't forget that there's more at work here. Did you know about this cool thing (I'm a huge fan) called sub-zones? You do realize that supporters get more (so also better) access to subzones than regular players do?

    But let's use a simpler example: you have a cool "mob shop", you sell dogs, cats, horses and even llama's (be sure to tell Aya about that :) ). But things change, mobs get boring and you even have feed them all the time! So you decide that you're not going to be selling mobs anymore but instead you're getting into the wood business. After all, you've always wanted to be a lumberjack someday!


    :D


    There is of course one problem: the entry / depart messages on your residence all mention your previous mob-shop. Now what? Maybe spend some rupees on a support voucher perhaps? After all: not only can you change your messages when you have yourself a gold voucher (or up): you also get access to Utopia which could be a really good source for some wood (it's always light on Utopia so there's less risk for hostile mobs).

    Also: you do realize that 2 iron vouchers make up for 1 gold voucher?

    And about that investment: the developers are constantly at work. Although there are no guarantees you got to admit that the features on the Empire have only expanded over time. So... you could speculate on that and invest some rupees into support vouchers, and then try to sell them whenever a new cool supporter feature comes out.

    And what about that "solidifying"?

    Simple: a support voucher is an in-game item isn't it? Although the value definitely changes over time it's also safe to say that it's decently stable in its overall value (also keep the price differences per server in mind). So... why not turn your virtual rupees into in-game vouchers?

    And there you have it!

    Thanks for reading my weekend ramble. Food for thought perhaps?
    Laae, TomvanWijnen and Tuqueque like this.
  2. I have always invested in vouchers because they are very liquid assets, and they can gain value over time(also loose value during holiday sales, when supply rises)

    Well thought out!
    Laae and TomvanWijnen like this.
  3. *cough* buy vouchers at 15400 *cough*

    Haha jokes aside, I really love the way you explained this such great detail Shel. Many players have wanted a stock market and we really hadn't noticed that we actually have on right under our noses. Times like now where vouchers are on sale would be examples of an era of recession where prices for vouchers are down. We could make up a system to where we can see for how much vouchers are being purchased from by having players inputting the amounts on the forum area that shows a running board of the sales. Just an idea but hey cool way to look at the vouchers either way.
    Tuqueque likes this.
  4. Though I still think "rupees in item" would be awesome, I do argee that supporter vouchers are a good "alternative". Neat writeup! :)
    Tuqueque and Laae like this.
  5. too complicated. i could explain more but im tired so maybe ill edit this later if anyone wants
    Tuqueque likes this.
  6. Solidifying rupees already exists. Buy promos.
  7. Wow! That is true! I never thought of it like that! Also, promos are just stocks that will keep slowly increasing as years to bye!

  8. That is very much appreciated within this context, thanks for sharing!

    Thanks Tuq!

    Yeah, thing is most people that I know off think about promos when it comes to investing money. but the thing is.. I think the obvious is more or less hitting us in the face (figure of speech) and as such: this post :)

    Thanks for your confirmation, appreciate it!

    Oh, don't get me wrong: fully agreed. But I do like to think that this makes for a decent alternative.

    We'll see where this leads us.

    But seriously guys.. this is honestly one of so many reasons why I keep playing here. There is so much to discover and do and even when you think you know it all (that would be me as well: I have a few iron vouchers stored myself) you suddenly discover stuff like this.

    Seriously: I always favored the support vouchers as one of EMC's best custom items. Everyone can get them (just make enough money which everyone can do (patience! They won't run away!)), You can store them and well... that, and best of all: your friends can use them too!

    Thanks for all the input!
    Tuqueque likes this.