Economy Fix - Opinions/Criticism Welcome!

Hello everyone. I thought that I'd post a detailed plan for what I think would work towards fixing the economy of our Minecraft server. Earlier today, things were being sold on the market (Diamond Helmet for 5$, Underselling Emeralds below market sell prices, Elytra for under 1k, etc.) for crazy prices that really emphasizes the problem I'm talking about here.

When the Minecraft server opened up, there were 3 spawners available in the market that could then be used to turn around and sell back for profit, namely the enderman, villager, and creeper spawners. Some players pooled or stockpiled money to be able to purchase these early before the problem became apparent, and then used them to generate large sums very quickly. These were soon nerfed, or had the spawner removed, which did stop the rapid income of the players that went for them, but also created a gap in money between the two forming economic classes.

This isn't the problem, but it's a factor of an unhealthy system. Through cutting off access to this type of wealth generation for newer players or players who do not want to grind for money the way the server demanded, it is causing a problem in the economic system that isn't the most pleasing for the prices of items. This isn't to say that the items did not deserve their nerfs, which they did, it's to say that the issue needs a bit more addressing than that which hasn't happened yet.

I can see the perfect way to change the economy of our servers for the better in the long run, and it involves a few key steps that I will outline here. Note that if you want to talk about only wanting a player-driven economy, this is the way that I see to do it.

Step 1: Remove the sell option for all things sold in the market.
Step 2: Buff the /jobs plugin substantially so it is the only source of income for the server.
Step 3: Create permanent, desirable cash sinks for there to be an outflow of money in the market.
Step 4: Reset everyone's /balance.

If this seems kinda confusing, let me elaborate this a little bit.

By removing the sell option for the market items, market items will lose their ability to generate cash income for the servers. They will no longer dictate the price or value of the dollar, because currently the value is being dictated by whatever is the fastest means of generating money through the market. (Currently Iron)

So, the value of the dollar isn't being dictated by the market. So what? Well, that's where buffing /jobs comes in. By buffing /jobs, you get the ability to make money by doing literally anything in Minecraft. You no longer have to go mining to make money, but can make a good stream of income through breeding cows, enchanting items, fishing, mining, woodcutting, digging, you name it. The concept of /jobs is perfect for the farm-oriented Minecraft world too, in that items don't dictate value, time invested does. If this isn't convincing, let me illustrate why a farm-oriented game like Minecraft shouldn't have market sell prices dictate dollar value. Before they nerfed Ender Pearls, a friend and I were making 16k every 5 minutes with an ender pearl farm we set up. The value of them by the market was obscene, and he same issue happened with Emeralds, as well as gunpowder, and recently I've been looking at a iron golem farm design that generates 2600 iron an hour while you afk, and that's just going to crash the market further.

Making a cash sink is the last big piece of the puzzle. There are already some smaller cash sinks in the market right now, but they are non-renewable. (I'm talking about /ec and silk spawners.) Being able to purchase homes can work, but that's also non-renewable. I'm thinking about things like being able to purchase claim blocks, purchase temporary boosts, or temporary perks or things of that nature where the money can repeatedly be funneled out of the economy. A cash sink is required because online game markets that don't have them tend to face inflation that isn't matched with a subsequent rise in income. This is the type of inflation that is harmful, and makes holding onto money not worth it. Being able to buy items can help, but prices for those items are not set in stone overall, and even if they were, they would only do as much good as the item has demand. Eventually market buy prices will become obsolete anyways as the values become lower or the shop runs out of stock.

The final requirement is that we do a /balance reset. I suggest making it clear when this will happen to allow people to spend what they have. The reason behind needing one is that after the changes would be made, the people with a lot of money will be able to manipulate the prices beyond what the player-driven market would naturally set things as. There shouldn't be much debate here as a reset would be the logical choice if the above 3 things happen anyways.

So we have /jobs set the value of the dollar, we buff it to make the income from the system actually meaningful, and we can no longer sell items to the store. This sounds like a player-driven economy to me. One where no matter your play-style you can make money, and prices aren't dictated by the store. The only negatives that I can see is that the market will stagnate for while, until income starts to rise. It will appear as though nothing has changed for a little, but it will eventually get better over time, and lead to a more healthy system in the long-run than what we have right now.

So there you have it. I would love your feedback here. I did not outline everything as much as I have in my head, but I would very much enjoy any and all constructive criticism or your suggestions or questions about any of this. I will do my best to respond to your comments when I can.

 

You can already buy claim blocks with /buyclaimblocks [qty] at $30/ea.

 

I'm aware. I was just illustrating a point with including those in the example.

 

It feels like mining is literally your only option to get money because you get the money from the job and for selling it to the market, so +1.

 

+1. Played on a server that had a purely player driven economy and eventually set prices for ores and other items were made. They pretty much had the key points outlined and the economy never really went insane.

I believe that instead of having a server market, we should have stalls that players can buy for X amount of time and set up chests that sell items. This could be accessed by other players from the market whether the seller is off/online.

P.S You made a little mistake in your steps portion switching step 3 and 4

 

/Jobs prices would be adjusted to accompany for that, as well as the fact that there would be income generated from a variety of other actions too.

 

Step 1: Market does not dictate value of dollar
Step 2: Equal pay regardless of profession
Step 3: Elimate supply and demand by removing limited supply
Step 4: Equal distribution of wealth

With your guidance Comrade Graze, we will achieve a communist utopia!

 

The model is definitely something that can be seen as a socialist model, but Minecraft isn't a game where capitalism can thrive very well, due to the abundance of everything and the ease of obtaining everything once you get to a certain level in the game. A socialist model is also really easy to obtain and works the best in the scale of a game server, since there is means to obtain more through player to player trade and smart management of what people want more than other items. Overtime the economy will still present winners and losers. The way it is now just has systems that won't change unless this is altered. Good joke though.

 

If prices are not dictated by supply and demand and everyone has an equal wage, how will there be winners and losers?

 

Prices will still be dictated by supply and demand though. The value of the dollar and prices are not the same thing, they are only influenced by one another. Supply and demand will still dictate what the prices will be. Cash Sinks are just a means to hold back unneeded inflation.

 

So the current issue is that some people have more money than others? If you use the system in place to accumulate more capital than others, how is that a bad thing?

 

It isn't.

The current issue is that there is no money to create an economy. /jobs gives actually almost nothing at all for any form of effort that is put in, and there is no longer a sustainable means to accumulate wealth in the market aside for small sums from selling mining produce. The issue is not with the existence of economic classes, and more with the system that they represent. The fact that some will have more than others will not change with the 4 steps I brought up above, as people will simply spend what they have in current dollars on capital, and have all their capital left over when the change hits. Physical wealth matters here too, and the only reason we would reset /balance is because the dollars would affect the new exchange rate.

 

Compared to those having over $100K to me having just under 2 fucking K, resetting everyone's balance would be something I'd +1 for, but having the rich complain and whatnot. But what is there to complain about? How much actually money went into making $100K+ for a MC server? The downside being the rich's time making profit, but if the MC Server is set to exist permanently, I dont' see why they can't go back to grinding like most of us do?

If jobs were to be buffed, there won't be that much worry, but how much would you buff each job is another topic.

 

The rich won't lose anything because they will just spend the money before the reset. The reset is there to avoid currency exchange problems when an effectively new currency is enabled.

 

Oh, pffft, that flew over my head xP.

 

I don't think I've bought anything from the market except a few stacks of gunpowder, /ec and silkspawner, and I'm either 1 or 2 on baltop

I got my money legitimately. I don't see why it would be okay to reset the profit I've made thus far, same as it would be unfair to have reset the entire server when everyone got their overpowered kits

 

Allow people to make there own shops, and remove market. This will warrent the pop up of many player towns. Also the supply and the demand is up to the people.

 

I can get behind this. Remove the ability to sell to the items in the current market and add a market area to spawn so players can setup shops. That way players can make their own money by selling goods to other players rather than sell to an empty market. Or at the least add in a lottery for players to take the money they are spending on the current market and make the tickets like $10 an entry or something~ The current market doesn't really support the server economy or help it develop in any way.

 

You could argue that I got my money legitimately as well, but that doesn't change the fact that you won't lose anything through resetting it. You get to spend what you have so far on whatever before it's reset. You don't actually lose anything this way, since you have the wealth in items after the change goes through.

 

If there's a place for players to have like a street market or whatever set up where players could rent it out (with a cooldown so the same people can't have the stalls 24/7

I wouldn't be totally opposed to this.