In the real world, the importance of the economic system is self-evident. The same is true for games, a good economy system can ensure that the game runs smoothly for quite a long time.
For the economic system in the game, there are 4 important links: production, accumulation, transaction and consumption.
Production
The production referred to here is essentially the interaction between the player and the game system. There are two main elements in the production process:
- real resource input
The real resources are time and money. Strictly speaking, every game system requires an investment of time, but we can think of systems that produce immediate results as having no time consumption. For example, to strengthen the system, the main resources are sufficient, and the strengthening behavior is generally completed instantly, and the time consumption of this kind of time consumption is almost negligible.
- game system conversion
The role of game systems in production is transformation, that is, converting one resource into another.
The game system can convert real resources into game resources, or convert game resources into other game resources.
For example, in the task system, players invest time and produce resources such as experience and props.
accumulation
Accumulation is further divided into tradable accumulation and non-tradable accumulation, which are determined by the game design.
Tradable accumulation includes free currency, equipment, babies, props, etc.
Non-tradable accumulation includes bound currency, character attributes, levels, skills, etc., which are all bound to the player character and cannot be traded unless the game account is traded.
trade
The impact of the trading system on the game's economic system is huge. Generally speaking, players will only have trading needs after they have gained a certain amount of accumulation. There are two common design methods for trading systems: stall setting, auction house and player-to-player trading.
- set up a stall
Stall trading has also given birth to the emergence of game merchants. Their understanding of the game and sufficient online time give them more opportunities to obtain high-quality resources in the game.
- auction
The auction house is a trading system in which players place items on the auction house for escrow transactions. Auction houses can be divided into open auctions and dark auctions .
The open auction means that the seller's information can be seen during the transaction. Its essence is a disguised stall transaction. Players do not need to set up a physical booth, just hang the product on the auction house. Because the seller's information can be seen in open auctions, it is impossible to prevent black-box transactions between players.
Dark shooting is the current mainstream design. Since the seller's information cannot be seen, black-box transactions are eliminated.
The biggest secret of the dark auction auction house is the item distribution mechanism controlled by AI. To put it simply, it is to let the program analyze the player data on the current server, and then judge the player's demand for items in the future, and release the items based on these speculations.
- trade between players
The essence of the transaction between players is that big R players exchange RMB for the game time output of non-R players, and the resources are continuously passed up, thus giving birth to the emergence of game merchants and Dajin studios.
consume
The consumption system can be divided into daily consumption and exchange consumption.
Daily consumption means that the player does not obtain other resources after consuming resources. For example, in the game's equipment durability and pet loyalty systems, players must consume a certain amount of game currency to maintain equipment durability and maintain pet loyalty, but in fact they do not get any resources after consuming resources. This kind of experience is very unfriendly, and judging from the development of games in recent years, this kind of design is becoming less and less.
Exchange consumption means that players obtain other resources while consuming resources, which is essentially a conversion of resources. For example, strengthening equipment consumes materials to improve equipment attributes.