EDIT: What are they thinking?

Day 1,268, 18:35 • Published in Philippines USA • by Aren Perry

So, I recently heard about, as did all of us, the new economic module. I was flabergasted when I heard the general layout they have designed.

In short for you tl;dr, it will



-Erase small businesses owners from hiring any employees, or being able to compete on the open market

-Erase a sense of identity within the gaming community. Ridding us of an identity marker that we have of achievement. Namely, skill level.

-Unless health plays a part in how much you produce (which I do not think it does, though I may be wrong), make health a worthless idea save that if you have less than 20, you can't fight

-While lots of the new world already self-produces, it will force more of the new world, in fact all of it that wants to be making money save the few richest, to self-supply (due to smaller companies not being able ot make a profit compared to large companies), causing the complete collapse of any concept of an economy (supply/demand, when everyone self supplies, where is the demand?) and a strong class of elites who can afford to or are already well established business owners who own whatever is left of the free market.


Explanation



I understand the motive (I think) of the economic changes. It is to limit the excess amounts of food that exist within the game.





ok. I get it. There is way too much stuff. Hopefully with this implementation they will take away the buy-bot that has been destroying the world economy. This would be a good thing.





HOWEVER this will most likely send our economy into a very bad state, worse than the current, and here is why.


For raw materials, the companies produce successively higher and higher amounts of produce per tier, no matter if the player is a day old or two years old (I wonder, how will health play into this? If it does not, then health is meaningless now). Therefore, a person who owns a fifth level company can mega-dominate any company that produces on a lower level on the open market, especially the very low levels. What this means is that any company that wants to hire anyone will be operating at a huge loss unless they are a fourth or fifth tier company. Thus...




This new system will erase the existence of the idea of an economy, new and average business owners will be forced to operate on a "work as manager" only basis.


The tendency, while nice individually, of being able to self-produce, has caused enough harm to the existence of the need for local currenty already, thus causing in great part the great demand for gold compared to local currency (along with the bot).


While it is intended to limit production, and will do that to some degree, it completely the benefit or recognition of how long a player has been in this game because skill will become non-existent....


Player X: "YAY. I worked another day. My recognition for this fact is...?" next day) "YAY, I worked ANOTHER day...and another, with no recognition of my continued logging on to this game day after day".


I don't know about you, but beyond the fact that small business owners will be silenced on the open market via hiring unless you are a well-set player to begin with, the lack of recognition of how long I have been in this game and how often I have logged in will be a great loss to my identity within this game. It's nothing against new players, but I want something in return for having logged in so many days. I want some benefit. All players do. Even new players do.


Strength, while is in some ways a recognition of this fact, has been washed away to a great deal. With the introduction of Lana, which I can mostly understand, younger players now outgun me easily so long as they carry an unlimited plastic line. Rank doesn't do it. Experience points do, but they mean precious little when you only get 1 gold per experience level and those come by once every four months.


Leave us with an identity, admin.





Lastly, thanks to the increasing shell that people will build around themselves, the idea of a free and open market will become a full-on farce. Note, only those that can will self-produce, those that cannot will live in almost continual poverty. This will not help new players, this will hurt them. This will not help the economy, it will erase it in the long run once people get enough companies underneath their belt (in the short term due to lower production the economy may return to a level of normality compared to now thanks to "shock" from the change, but it will not last).



The Solution


It's the one I've suggested before, and will say again. Now, with the more recent change to the ability for one person to work in as many companies as they can in one day, this idea does not work quite as well, but it WILL help reduce the overproduction problems and also leave us with a sense of recognition that we all receive from increasing in skill level.


Let me say it clearly, since I've said it three times before, and obviously they haven't understood...



Make-the-skill-level-increase-formula-an-exponentially-decreasing-formula-so-that-you-increase-production-for-each-level-less-and-less-causing-a-sense-of-recognition-and-reward-but-gives-a-disproportionate-production-level-to-newer-players-making-them-still-useful-while-decreasing-overall-production.


Once again, the main problem with the current module is that it is a linearly increasing formula, meaning that no matter how much they tweak it, so long as the production value increases with skill level, the overall population will one day pass over the median that represents the supply-demand 'sweet spot'. The introduction of "work as manager" throws a wrench that is hard to swallow in this, but it the idea still helps significantly.


However, it is possible to exponentionally model this skill level (at least certainly in a better way than with a linear model!) so that, while they increase, they increase much less later on, so that overall production is retarded in those that produce the most, the oldies. Any person familiar with mathematics can agree and see this.

I have a graduate degree in mathematics, going on for my doc in Statistics. This is one of the easiest problems I would ever have to solve. Just make whatever controlling variable(s) for the equation that you are using for skill production be x^(1/2) (x to the power of one-half for you non-math people) and adjust the coefficients so that the production of a first skill level person will be the same. x^1/2 may be a little steep, probably, actually, I would start with x^3/4 for a more gradual shift in production values to see if this relieves the over-production level.


Aren Perry,
Math is Sexy


EDIT:

So it seems that my critic Croy is right on one thing. Skill does seem to still play a role. However, health does not. I am very confused as to why health matters now at all, but at least they are indeed leaving us with some level of recognition in how much we produce bsaed on how long we have been in the game. This is nice, however, I think that it could be much better if they used a function whose derivative increases slower with skill levels.

I am happy to see that skill is still around, but it still will make lower level companies practically inable to hire employees, making those that who are already established the only ones that can make a profit within the game.