If you’ve ever wanted to sneak a glance at the Carbine team’s thoughts and hopes for WildStar‘s in-game economy, a new developer blog was released today that gives us a detailed rundown of what the team’s economic goals are and why those goals are in place. As most MMO veterans know, a healthy, robust, and balanced economy is something that really does make a difference in how much we enjoy a game– especially in a long-term environment. Here’s a tidbit from the blog post:
“Basically, we as designers already know that earning resources is a fun experience. However, because we need to tame inflation, we must also find a way to make using resources fun. Our goal is to turn the use and reacquisition of resources (especially currency) into a way fun and interesting way to learn about economics. We want the players to learn about resource management by making meaningful choices about things they have earned in the game.
And we really do want you to make meaningful choices. We want to give you enough currency that you can have some of things that you want, but not everything. You will need to make choices about how you spend your money according to what is important to you. You will need to plan to purchase things by saving or through the magic of capitalism and the markets. When you master saving your money, or master using the markets to fulfill other people’s desires, you will have had fun in the process because you’ve learned.
We also want to make sure that when you have to make a choice, it is based on what you, the player, feels is most important. Therefore, the choices cannot be too obvious or too enmeshed in critical needs.”
This, to us, is an excellent sign that Carbine has the right idea when it comes to an in-game economy. As I’ve mentioned before in other editorials, players need somewhat-lofty goals that are still possible to achieve with a little time and effort. An economy that keeps this in mind is one that’s headed in the right direction.
Check out the full economy blog here.
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