Now I am new to the game. But I was just wondering why MindArk takes its profit out of the game. It seems to me that MindArk could take all the money that has been deposited into the game and invest it in the RW. Then treat that money like a bank does a savings account. Where as the person depositing there money gets a small percent of the banks investments except that small percent is shared though out the game not individually. They can even make it so that the game gets a percentage of there percentages that they earn investing our deposits. So that the PE economy is truly linked to the real world and would have a positive growth in PED. Instead of the way it is now where the only new PED’s coming in are from newbies and constant deposits. Here’s an example of what I mean.
10 million USD + 10% = 11 million USD in one year now put 50% of the interest back into the game. That’s .5 million USD of positive growth without new users or more deposits. The other .5 million would go to MindArk. With the game getting the 50% if the profit from the investments means that it is linked to the real world. So if they only made 8% one year the game would get only 4%.
Now I am not a financial guru or anything but a system like this make’s a lot more since. You would have positive cash flow into the game and more people would play more often there by building the game even more. I’m not looking to earn my retirement out of a game but it would just be nice to not have to pay at all for this game. Except for the cost of buying initial supplies and resources needed to level up to something decent.
The problem with those kind of investments is that you can’t accsess the money quickly and MA has stated that If everyone cahsed out at once they would be able to. I think MA could actually say hey guys sorry we’re are shuttind down next month. Everyone could cash out there PED + TT value of there equipment(as noone would buy it then)
MA only states they take money from decay. this could be put into investment accounts though. We dont know exaclty how this works and i dont think MA will ever tell anyone as it could jeoprodize things.
Yes, but it also costs alot of money to pay devs, PR reps, and every other employee, as well as server maintinence and upgrades, building costs, etc…
+rep for the idea. I imagine MA already has the money in a bank.
[QUOTE=Vex]
Now I am new to the game. But I was just wondering why MindArk takes its profit out of the game. It seems to me that MindArk could take all the money that has been deposited into the game and invest it in the RW. Then treat that money like a bank does a savings account. Where as the person depositing there money gets a small percent of the banks investments except that small percent is shared though out the game not individually. They can even make it so that the game gets a percentage of there percentages that they earn investing our deposits. So that the PE economy is truly linked to the real world and would have a positive growth in PED. Instead of the way it is now where the only new PED’s coming in are from newbies and constant deposits. Here’s an example of what I mean.
10 million USD + 10% = 11 million USD in one year now put 50% of the interest back into the game. That’s .5 million USD of positive growth without new users or more deposits. The other .5 million would go to MindArk. With the game getting the 50% if the profit from the investments means that it is linked to the real world. So if they only made 8% one year the game would get only 4%.
Now I am not a financial guru or anything but a system like this make’s a lot more since. You would have positive cash flow into the game and more people would play more often there by building the game even more. I’m not looking to earn my retirement out of a game but it would just be nice to not have to pay at all for this game. Except for the cost of buying initial supplies and resources needed to level up to something decent.
[/QUOTE]
Of course, at the moment MA just takes a large proportion of the deposited cash, and puts it in investments themselves, and reaps all the benefits. Why share it with the masses?
I’m sure MA are already doing this, only maby not returning some interest to the “loot pool”. It would not be prudent for any company to leave most of their cash assets in liquid form. Rather, they would invest a percentage in a low risk investment to make a return on it.
Just like a bank, they would get an Actuary to determine how much of the deposited money would need to remain in liquid form (for withdrawals, salaries etc), and the rest would then be invested to maximize return on assets.
[QUOTE=gurkha]
Of course, at the moment MA just takes a large proportion of the deposited cash, and puts it in investments themselves, and reaps all the benefits. Why share it with the masses?
[/QUOTE]
Cause just like banks more people will deposit more money which would in turn increase there portion of the percentage.
What i think might make more sense is to go to a sales tax model on all transactions involving cash - tt, auctions, pvp transactions that involve cash are taxed at a low rate (that the seller pays). Result will be many more non-cash exchanges that pose exchange rate risks to players (such as paying in iron).
Then there will be no reason to bleed money out of hunting, decay or any such things that make people decide to stop out of frustration. That way hunting can actually be (game wide) a financially neutral activity.
I’ve played this game a couple of years ago when it was brandnew and all in all it doesn’t have the kind of large community you would expect. If there was no attrition because of financial loss due to regular gaming a lot more people would stay. It’s the community and society that run this game, but so far the economy is more of a repellant except for people engaging in gaming the market. If the community can continue to grow at a pace the economy itself will remain in growth mode and prices will continue to inflate vs the US$ which makes staying inside the game so much more profitable.
That’s really also the problem with all those new condo’s on the market on Amethera and soon on the space station; too many of them seem to have been released at once into the game depressing the housing market significantly. That’s a real pity and considering how well the scarcity system has worked for items such as armour i’m not sure why that hasn’t been better thought out.
Well those are the two pecs of a very noob player - even though I played this years ago the intervening years have made this into a very different game (that I enjoy a lot I have to say!)
Two things to add: the advertisement money will impact the game, either
a part or the full advertisement income will be added to a secondary
loot pool, which is for mega loots we have seen already. So, if you select
“Hide advertisements” in your options, you play this game just as before,
if you keep it unchecked, you have a chance to get “non-deposited money”.
Another thing is that if this game were more ordinary MMORPG, e.g. PEDs
“cheaper” or more hours of game per USD or economy close to usual
toy-money market like in SW etc. , then the players would quickly reach
the toprank status. It happens now within 6 months – 18 months in most
games. Then you get bored and quit.
The player base is small but quite steady. And soon usual players start
to limit the playtime and budget the PE experience, which makes player
burnout less likely. So: no player burnout when just money burns!
I am not talking about the players, who have a real opportunity to play
the game of their choice 5-10 hours per day, I refer to much larger
1-2h/day audience. If one puts hours into PE, he may be self-sustaining
here. IQ over 127.4 helps too.
