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  #1  
Old 12-07-2014, 12:05 AM
Sinkler Sinkler is offline
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The Era Problem

Era's situation is a rather unique one. We have a management that is oddly successful and stable -- something I did not see in the three years I was a member of the Playerworld Administration.

The one problem Era has, and has had for a long time, is how to effectively manage the economy. Previous Era administrations (and the public) have called for a reset as it will allow for the Era administration put in controls that will allow for effective economic growth and for the players to attain an income level that will allow them to participate in an enjoyable and entertaining manager.

Note, that while I was PWA Chief, I did give approval to the current administration the right to reset its economy. This was a right extended to me by previous PWA administrations and approved from upper-level Graal administrators.

What I propose is a rather simple economic plan:

1) Reset Era - this eliminates the income gap between the extremely wealthy and the poor. Why is this gap problematic? The poor are unable to purchase guns that allow them to effectively participate in the main of the aspect of the game, which is to neutralize opponents on the GMAP. Of course the wealthy members of the society will disagree with me, but their arguments are purely self-interest and have no legitimacy.

2) Enact effective economic controls that allow for all players to gain enough disposable income to purchase weapons. This, in tandem with the reduction of weapon prices, will allow for newer players to gain access to superior guns. What will this trickle down into?

What are these effective economic controls?

a) allow for more easy accumulation of capital - mining, fishing, digging payoffs increase. More money will allow these subject to buy more goods.

b) lower prices of expensive/rare "balanced" guns as well as all guns

c) increase availability of guns that give unfair advantages (i.e. guns that have a higher probability of winning in a fight due to its advantages)

What will these changes trickle down to?

a) effective and increased gang participation - there will now be more competition since the members of the gangs will have access to guns that they normally would not have. This increases gang involvement throughout the server and will add to the overall enjoyment and further increase playercount

b) player retention will increase - in the status quo we have seen players leaving the game because they are unable to have meaningful participation in the society. Having access to better guns and less time working in menial jobs will increase player enjoyment.


I recognize that this is not a panacea for all the problems that plague Era. I would like to open this up as a dialogue and see what you all thing. Please note that I expect appropriate decorum when discussing this matter - useless and ignorant statements will be ignored and deleted.

Best,

Gabriel
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  #2  
Old 12-07-2014, 12:32 AM
swift swift is offline
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I would have completely condoned this idea a few months ago when Era was lifeless and no one logged on.

But since we've buffed jobs and money making, now i'm not too sure how this would play out.

Would hate to see a lot of people leave just as we started to improve the game.
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  #3  
Old 12-07-2014, 12:34 AM
Chorchizcool Chorchizcool is offline
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I think that option two is the ONLY viable option because of the players we will lose that has saved items for so long. Plus the players who have spent hundreds of USD on the gelats shop to sell lightweights/vitalities/workers potions. Therefore diminishing our playercount which is the complete opposite from what the staff team and the players are pushing for.

Option two is perfectly in effect right now as you can make 50k in an hour picking trash/shelling, thus allowing a new player to grab a tier 3 gun within a week of working, therefore putting them at a good advantage to progress into the REAL moneymaking which is pking.
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Old 12-07-2014, 12:34 AM
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I feel like this has already been accomplished with how easy it is to make money now. The end result of this plan will just be the same Era without as many rare items. If guns were brought back down to the system with 0.1 minimum freeze maybe things wouldn't be as "lame" as they are now. Idk I don't see how this solves anything on Era. "noobs" get rich just fine you can make 100k in one day so in 2 weeks you can get a top tier gun. Maybe bring back the missions instead of the hp level system so that people can get to the maximum competitive level faster? I'm just spitballing but I don't think your solution is going to fix anything as we will lose players due to reset (that's unavoidable) and even with the radical new changes making the game 10000000000x better we haven't gained a lot of new players as much as old players just playing more.
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Old 12-07-2014, 12:39 AM
Reddy548 Reddy548 is offline
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The game is fine as it is , no need to reset.
Now that money is easier , players can build his set of guns quickly and all the guns are balanced (even rare guns can be compared to the ones on shop).
Reseting probably will make alot of people giving up and quiting. The reset is only good for those who gamble all their money.
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  #6  
Old 12-07-2014, 12:41 AM
Zongui Zongui is offline
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yeah, i would've agreed with a reset a few months back before the update. but since the update, more people are playing. it is easy to make money and get good weapons. overall, era seems to be doing fine now. i don't think a reset is necessary.
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  #7  
Old 12-07-2014, 12:41 AM
Supaman771 Supaman771 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sinkler View Post
We have a management that is oddly successful and stable -- something I did not see in the three years I was a member of the Playerworld Administration.

I did give approval to the current administration the right to reset its economy.

-----

What I propose is a rather simple economic plan:
Both of these are/were beyond our control and at the fault of those who made the decisions (at the time; you). We've been asking on these forums and in other mediums about such actions being taken for years stretching toward the better end of a decade.
-----

This "plan" has been discussed many times before and may well work; but at this point I rather doubt it.

After so long we've shunned so many players away and I doubt we'd get another shot at most of them.
We've allowed players to attain Mining levels in the hundreds, and introduced Gelat/USD currency items which are ingrained into the economy.

A reset at this point would produce a more negative effect due to such things that we cannot fairly compensate (will people get Gelat refunds? if they keep the items through a reset they would have extreme advantage resulting in the same persistent 'Gap'. Is deleting them really a fair option or even possible in Graal TOS?).

The flow of new players from my view (online daily) is slim; while the activity of the old has risen with recent updates... the addition of newer players is the same or even less than before (most of iEra's standing populace has tried Era by now).

The game is peaking at it's highest in years (let's be fair; ~100 was the best average we've ever had) with recent updates and additions; and changing our approach at this point (rather than having that goal from the beginning... like we wanted many times) could be more detrimental than ever. It would've worked when we had 40 players a day and begged for a reset and a decent manager; not today.

Overall; I like and have liked/advocated this idea in the past. But we're so far past it by now that I personally wouldn't want to be apart of doing something like that.

If we somehow magically opened the void into another dimension and our normal player-count doubled instantly (those players weren't eased into the system individually); this idea would be great. But everyone is on the same playing field in reality (online time doesn't affect monetary gain; this isn't GK) and the betterment of the one player logging on this week who may(?) join the community doesn't outweigh the hundreds of active players at this point.
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Old 12-07-2014, 12:51 AM
Zongui Zongui is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Reddy548 View Post
The reset is only good for those who gamble all their money.
this x2.
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  #9  
Old 12-07-2014, 01:08 AM
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I went from having nothing to having millions in a day of betflipping. I don't think it's hard to make enough money for any gun in a day. I do think the economy is pretty messed up right now, though. Prices are going up and down, a lot of people (me included) are just refusing to sell things anymore. I think we'll soon see the revival of people regularly buying things from the store. The street price of Navy is already starting to peak around 810k, only 90k less than the price in the store.

I would like mining to be overhauled somehow. I don't really wanna trashpick or dig shells, but mining is so obviously slower than other jobs without a worker's potion.
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  #10  
Old 12-07-2014, 01:50 AM
Lime_O_Matic Lime_O_Matic is offline
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Perfect time to reset

Hear me out people.

There's no clear plan to what kind of things the staff would do in the case of a reset. So there's no way this reset would happen suddenly.

With the recent spike of new players, it is the perfect moment to engage a "Everyone gets everything stage". Everyone can use any weapon, use any hat, try all items, etc. This experiment phase will allow ALL players to be rich and try out the items they would pursue after a reset. New players would be at a fair playing field, meaning more new players would give it a chance. For the next month, have staff work hard on balancing of the economy.

Sure people who built up their wealth will be upset at first, it likely took them years to build up the wealth. But building up wealth IS part of the game now, and I'm sure everyone will have fun doing it again.

I've noticed many posts saying, "We needed one in the past but now is not a good time". Do you know how long people have been crying for a reset? It's the best time because staff can actually do it! It's with the risk, raiding has already almost died again once 2x point week ended. This activity will not be long lived, as much as we all want it to.

The only people who are COMPLETELY against it are people who didn't achieve their wealth in a fair way. Cheaters - Afraid they won't be able to cheat it again. USDers - Paying real money for items that got reset. Things like that.

Nows the time. Do it up.
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  #11  
Old 12-07-2014, 01:57 AM
Chorchizcool Chorchizcool is offline
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If it was left up to a poll, there would be no reset. And i made 2.2 m just pking and picking trash in 2 weeks, were already at the point of anyone can get any gun.

If there is a reset you can most assuredly count me outta playing this game any longer and a majority of other players.

No one is addressing the point where people have LEGALLY SPENT HUNDREDS OF USD on this game in the gelat shop.

wheres their refund?

-era og from the beginning.

p.s. erik im completely against it and i have not usd'd nor cheated in the past 2 weeks of me playing ty. your point is invalid.
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  #12  
Old 12-07-2014, 02:44 AM
Lime_O_Matic Lime_O_Matic is offline
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Yeah my post was obviously in favor of a reset.

Leaving a trap for people to not be against it, because according to my post they would be a cheater or USDer. Whatever.
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Old 12-07-2014, 02:48 AM
Venom_Fish Venom_Fish is offline
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A reset is unnecessary as of this moment, since the players are more engaged in the game than ever. However, this engagement only arose from the collapse of the old economic regime to one where attaining an adequate or beyond weapon is a seamless process.

As has always been the case, see Jenn/Snk era, whenever players are able to easily attain items and incentives (gang points, event coins, guns, etc), they will have a blast and then there will be a steady decline in pleasure, eventually leading to absolute boredom. As such, I do not think it necessary, but prudent, that the staff team begin constructing a plan in case such boredom develops.

In the past, the crux of the plan has been to reset and return to the old economic (burdensome) regime. Once players hate it, flood the economy with the same incentives that led to its breakdown, then do it all over again. Right now, we're in the early stages of flood the economy. If we want to get out of this cycle, I think now is a good time to start devising a strategy.

However, I, myself, am not sure we want to (lol). It seems to work just fine, and has kept us entertained for quite awhile, why ruin the fun? Meh, let's just keep rolling and when the time comes where everyone is bored because there's nothing to gain in the game, let's then address the question of a reset or other alternatives. For now, let's not worry where there's fun. It's not like this is a real economy and real lives are at stake.
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Old 12-07-2014, 02:54 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lime_O_Matic View Post
The only people who are COMPLETELY against it are people who didn't achieve their wealth in a fair way. Cheaters - Afraid they won't be able to cheat it again. USDers - Paying real money for items that got reset. Things like that.
Sorry, I'm against a reset, I didn't USD or cheat so yeah.

A reset is not going to solve anything, you don't even have a decent development team to make a balanced/ improved content for the game. It's just going to end up with a mishmash of changes and it's going to result in the same thing.

As long as there's an economy there will always be a gap between the rich and the poor. New players will always be at a disadvantage against older players, that's just how it works. Older players/ Nolifers (me) will always have an advantage over people who don't play much or are new.
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Old 12-07-2014, 04:15 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sinkler View Post
1) Reset Era - this eliminates the income gap between the extremely wealthy and the poor. Why is this gap problematic? The poor are unable to purchase guns that allow them to effectively participate in the main of the aspect of the game, which is to neutralize opponents on the GMAP. Of course the wealthy members of the society will disagree with me, but their arguments are purely self-interest and have no legitimacy.

2) Enact effective economic controls that allow for all players to gain enough disposable income to purchase weapons. This, in tandem with the reduction of weapon prices, will allow for newer players to gain access to superior guns. What will this trickle down into?
I'm neither coming out publicly for or against a reset. I just want to essentially copy/paste what I sent a few players regarding how I see the current state of our economy.

Our current economy and gun-layout allows any player to get a competitive gun in a reasonable amount of time (perhaps 1 week of play). Will they be able to afford the $1.2M Photon Rifle? Probably not. But the Sten is still a great gun for 400k street.
What's more, it's still relatively easy to get up to $1.2M by PKing and other money making means.
This means that, in theory, everyone can get a "God-tier" gun without too much difficulty. We can crunch the numbers here, but I think you could easily make 500k a month just PKing. So, on the surface, if you can get your "God-tier" gun quickly, why is that bad?

To answer, we'll have to ask: what are the pros and cons of everybody getting exactly what they want (cf. Erik's extreme example). The folks who play this game just to PK, well, they're pretty happy. They can compete and ruffle up their feathers about who's best etc. etc. But for the large percentage of the population who sit at OSL and more-or-less merch all day, getting what they want will be a bad thing. They'll be aimless.
This is where items like the Ares, ARG, Odachi come in. They are rare and give people something to collect or work towards. In fact, because of their limited releases, they will always be something to be coveted, worked toward, and, generally, a reason to keep playing.

Quick note: I see this rarity as the main function of these guns. I've made this implicit before, but, I'll make it implicit here. I do not, nor have I ever, balanced based on rarity. The Ares and ARG are in the God-tier. They are balanced as God-tier. They are not supposed to be better than that (argue away if you want that they are). Why anyone would pay 5-10M for that when, in theory, you can get other god-tier guns for 1.2M is, well, for rarity.

So, I really do think our current model is sustainable if and only if we keep releasing rare/unique items (check out recent M4A3 release for an example of a neat little feature) that are not OP and are in line with easily obtainable guns. That way everyone can compete, but there's still an active economy.
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