Economies of Fun

Lecturer: Kevin Maginn, Flying Lab Software

'A working economy' or 'a realistic economy' or even 'a player-driven economy' is often proposed in MMO design as valuable for its own sake. But what assumptions are we making about player desires and our design goals when we attempt to include an economy or model real-world economic behavior in our games?

In Pirates of the Burning Sea, we implemented a dynamic player-driven economy as a core game component, and tied much of our overall game design to the economic system. This was both wildly successful and a frustrating failure; this contradiction is implicit in any attempt to create a 'realistic' economy in an MMO.

Using the successes and failures of the economy in Pirates of the Burning Sea as a jumping-off point, we'll take a more pragmatic look at game economies, their purpose, and the player experience of them. We'll discuss how a game economy must necessarily differ from the real world's economy, and why that's a good thing; we'll also challenge some assumptions about what players value and how that influences their economic behavior.

We'll examine scarcity as a driving force in real economies, and the ways we attempt to duplicate scarcity in a game environment. I'll propose that 'scarcity' as a design concept has led us astray, and I'll offer specific examples of how economies can (and must) work in a post-scarcity game world. We'll look at how a very successful MMO has nearly eliminated the concept of economic scarcity, and what implications that has for the industry as a whole.

Finally, we'll expand our scope beyond game economies and talk more generally about how we're including artificial scarcities throughout our games. I'll specifically challenge the idea of the 'grind' -- the belief that tolerance of boredom is a valuable trait that should be rewarded by a game's mechanics. I'll propose some alternate value systems that can inform a new kind of game design in a post-scarcity environment.

Intended Audience: Designers interested in game economies

Prerequisites: None

Format: Lecture

Track: Design

Date/Time: Wednesday, May 13, 9:00 AM

Room: Salon EF