Cause of the Unavoidable Inflation In Most MMORPG’s

Cause of the Unavoidable Inflation In Most MMORPG’s

Online game players typically blame the bots or the merchants (traders) who have caused the massive inflation of money in game. People complain that they cannot afford gears and such because of the skyrocketed prices. However, although I do agree the bots speed up the process, I do not agree that they are the sole cause. I believe that the entire design is faulty and is typically doomed for inflation.

1. Unlimited Supply of Money by Design

By playing your own character, you will soon realize that you usually generate more money than what you spend on basic gears and pots. That means all the other players can generate money out of thin air. Therefore, there is an unlimited supply of money if you take trading with other players out of the equation. If there is an unlimited supply of money, that means the money in-game will eventually become worthless.

2. Gold/Money Become Less “Valuable” Due to Mass Supply

As your level in-game gets higher and your character becomes stronger, it will be even easier to obtain money and gold in-game. You can then use this leverage to pay more than the beginner players which will then make money less valuable. Meaning that more money is required to buy the same items.

3. Gears and Materials become more “Valuable” because they are constantly broken or used.

Most games have upgrading system in place that will cause gears to be broken and upgrading materials to be used. Because these valuable gears are constantly being upgraded and broken, there are less of these items in game which makes them more valuable. However, if players have used money to buy those gears, those money stay in the system because there is no money sink.

4. No Sure Way of “Money Sinks” To Take Money Away from the System

Game developers do try to create some money sinks such as potion cost, miscellaneous item cost, and maybe gear repair cost. However, in most games these designed are not well scaled so they are unable to battle the rage of in-game money inflations.