I feel as though I had a revelation earlier today, and I figured I’d do best to share it with Gameful because my thought is on a subject of some interest to improving the Gameful Game itself: Economics. I’m really only trained in the basics of economics, so I’m 100% sure I’m rehashing a major discussion in economic theory here. If you know your stuff, feel free to inform everyone, correct me or add to the discussion in whatever way you like.
Anyway.
What gives a currency its value? I’ve been seeing discussions popping up in a number of forum groups about the donation of treats, what treats are worth, what they are good for, and the like. _theprofssr has started some games to get treat donations going and to establish some flow of currency in the economy as well, but right now it seems like we have no reference point for what a treat is worth. He has also started a group called _http://gameful.org/groups/the-game-is-giving/forum/topic/ideas-for-a-treat-economy/ on this subject.
The most fundamental types of trade that exist seem to be either goods or services. Goods have value because people need or want goods for something, whether that be survival, construction, or just because we think something is pretty. This value is then modified by market supply and demand factors.
Services (in a digital marketplace) probably boil down mainly to factors such as any special knowledge and skills required to provide the service and supply and demand factors.
And this is easy to think of when we’re all used to using money and it was always a part of our environment, but how did currency take on value when currency was a brand new technology? How did goods and services take on value so abstractly represented before anyone knew how much anything was worth, and had never trusted someone to pay them a metal chip for their goat, rather than grain that might feed a family for a month? And how do we get this concept of value to emerge in the treat system here on Gameful?
See, we’re in a similar situation. Everyone on Gameful has treats. We can trade treats with one-another, but we don’t have a use for them yet. We’re in a state of total confusion with regards to what being generous in treat donations means or what “a lot” of treats is. As of right now, there is little incentive for someone to become a merchant offering goods or services in trade for treats, because without other merchants dealing in the same, the treats he/she gets paid will not be able to be spent on anything of value to him/her and thus, the treats have no real value, and the merchant monster goes hungry.
So what strategies might we use to bring about this communal sense of value? This trust that when you do something for me, that the amount I have offered in trade is a good deal and is fair? My first thought was for Gameful to offer monster items, superpowers, titles, etc. that are purchased for fixed numbers of points. This gives everyone on Gameful a frame of reference to refer to for price, and then a user can participate in trades of goods or services, thinking something like “I’ll make that wiki article for you, because you’re giving me enough treats to buy a guitar for my monster. This is a good deal for both of us.” Treats become favour points.
If you have any other ideas for giving market value to treats other than this top-down expression of value, please contribute! We should get as many ideas circulating on this subject as possible.
But we don’t want people hoarding treats and refusing to donate treats to people for thoughtful, useful or otherwise interesting posts. How do we accomplish the establishment of an economy by giving value to treats while encouraging the donation of treats as their most fundamental use?
