This is a lengthy post for the purposes of provoking meaningful thought and discussion in regards to the economic status quo and future of MapleRoyals, with the hopes that opening such discussion may or may not yield innovative or revolutionary propositions or solutions to potential issues. WHY? I've been around many servers of similar calibers in different games. Many have died, some have survived, and few have thrived. Though there are many, varying reasons on a case-by-case basis, one of the core, fundamental issues on the death or the gradual death of a game or server is economic, which includes official decisions, metagame changes, and player/market behavior and reactions. Note, however, that I am not providing an opinion whether or not MapleRoyals will die, survive, or thrive--rather, provide potentially useful insight that may serve the function of innovative solutions that does not betray the original spirit of the game that many of us have come to know and love. DISCLAIMER: I remain anonymous with the intent to remove any potential biases one may project upon me if they knew me. However, I admit that I do have my own opinions and biases, by which I may inadvertantly portray in this post, but have done my best not to enforce. My purpose is not to criticize, but rather to highlight potential issues and encourage discussion. THE BASICS Value is not a zero-sum game. Maplestory, like many other games, have inherent, basic economic features: 1. Mesos Mesos are posed as the official currency of the game. A healthy sign of a game is if the official currency is used as it is intended--money. If a game's currency is inflated to the degree by which its inherent, practical use is now void, the market will naturally decide on a different form of alternative currency (more specifically and commonly, an item). Many games/servers have reached this point, a point of, often, no return. The supply of mesos are virtually infinite within the economy. The growth of supply is buffered by time, which is dictated by the activity of the server's players. The higher the activity, the greater the rate of supply growth. In addition, the length by which a player plays exponentially grows the supply, as casual players that do not dedicate much time produce far less than players who reach end-game and are able to produce high value services and items, and are able to make a greater amount of money. One surefire method (albeit somewhat unique) to combat inflation is the introduction of taxes via trade, where those mesos are lost into the void. They are not collected and used back into any market, but are gone forever. Another aspect, albeit minor for MapleRoyals, is that Maplestory is an MMORPG with the common feature of NPC's that affect the economy. Essentially, an NPC has an infinite budget. It is available for business 24/7. It will buy anything you have for a fixed price. It will sell you certain items with an infinite supply. I am not noting any pros or cons; just the simple effect. For example, it may be that the sale of potions by NPCs are necessary for new or lower-level players. However, we see the economic effects of elixirs--they are not sold by any NPCs, and the price is dictated by the market. Nobody will sell a red potion for more than 50 mesos because NPCs sell them for a fixed price, and have an infinite supply. 2. Items Items, like Mesos, are virtually infinite. As players continue playing the game, new items will be produced--theoretically, they will not disappear, and only more will be produced, essentially increasing the supply infinitely (theoretically is the keyword here, by which I will expound upon later). One way to combat the inflation of items is probability of success. 1. General scrolls: Scrolled items are increased or reduced in value in proportion to the value of the item and scrolls used to create the new item. Scrolls have probabilities of success, providing an interesting, dynamic economy. However, due to all items being virtually infinite, the supply of all items will inevitably grow, however rare, and especially less successful ones. The demand for less successful items can still retain utility and market value, which provide a potentially monumental market if there is an influx of new players, as new players are more willing to pay less for a less successful item to take advantage of for faster progress, with the hopes of resale and garnering more money to eventually obtain the more successful items. However, bottlenecks that prevent newer players from ease of access to these items discourage market sales and velocity of trade (expanded upon later). 2. Dark scrolls: The destruction mechanic of these items combat inflation. However, with the same reasons above, it is inevitable that supply will eventually outgrow the pace of combatting inflation as time continues. One may suggest something akin to Murphy's Law: Whatever can happen will happen. 3. White & Clean Slate scrolls: These scrolls provide less risk. One may be quick to say that these scrolls inflate the market, which is true for the specific market that these scrolls are used for, but the sale and resale of these scrolls have created an entirely new market, which can be healthy for the economy. These scrolls are rare, high in demand, and high in quality. Consumables: One may suggest that consumables keep inflation in check as they disappear after use. However, the very point of using these consumables serve the purpose of obtaining items of greater value. Due to this, consumables provide a healthy, dynamic market, but does not directly combat inflation. Service items: Items that are required to complete a quest, gain exp, required to boss, etc. are great for a healthy economy, providing value. Items that do not serve these functions are sold to an NPC that will buy as many as you have at any time for the same, fixed amount of price with an infinite budget, an inherent mechanic of MMORPG's that is classic and common, but should be a reduced option as much as possible. Services: 1. Leeching: This is a service that speeds up leveling in exchange for money and/or items. The effect of leeching in the economy is that it is not a two-way tangible exchange of goods; the velocity of money and trade is essentially one-sided. However, the leechee has sped up their progress to the point where they have the potential to produce more money and higher value items into the economy. In addition, where some may find this a legitimate and acceptable service, others may dislike this method by earning somethiing by "not playing" the game. Regardless, the service usually has a tangible cost, thus creating an entire market. 2. Other services: To progress and gain access to other features of the game, players may charge to provide these services. The effect of this is virtually identical to leeching. In short: 1. Mesos and Items are virtually unlimited. 2. The primary bottleneck is time, dictated by player activity. 3. Inflation is inevitable, but more than manageable. PLAYER ACTIVITY & ECONOMY Overall, players produce more than they consume, by inherent design. Time is such a powerful buffer that the market is prone to more than noticeable fluctuations. Theoretically, a single player playing the game alone can obtain every single item and every iteration of the item given enough time, but "enough time" would be, obviously, unimaginably long. There are a variety of factors that affect market value and price, either indefinitely or by speed: 1. Metagame Evolutions: New strategies within the metagame may surface, affecting demand for certain items or services. For example, a better leeching strategy in a new location would skyrocket supply of drops by that particular mob up (provided the demand remains the same), effectively driving the price down. Items required to perform and provide this leech would rise in price as demand for those items rise, driving up the price. i. As time goes on, the evolution of the metagame slows down (still prone to anomalic revolutions, however). In addition, a dwindling playerbase reduces chances for new, revolutionary metas. This means that market relevancy (not particularly value) remains stable and predictable. ii. As time goes on, if a playerbase dwindles, the remaining playerbase will consist of mostly seasoned players who know the market and have already garnered great progress. Due to this, certain items that could have had a potentially great market for newer players are difficult to sell. 2. Updates and Modifications: Any changes that make an item difficult to obtain or renders it more or less useful fluctuate its value. However, according to MapleRoyals patches, drastic changes upon gameplay are exceedingly rare. 3. Increase/Decrease in Players: As more players play, both supply and demand rises in relevant markets, but in due time, considering that the retention of active players remain stable, supply will inevitably outgrow demand. The pool of money gradually increases as do items, increasing both supply of items and money. In addition, players, as they progress through the game, produce exponentially more over time. A single player, given that they are a recurring, dedicated player, produce exponentially more than casual players. However, supply reduces when players quit or get banned, effectively halting their participation in the markets, rendering all items and money effectively frozen, and the velocity of money and trade comes to a halt per nonparticipating player. Supply is also reduced when a player "finishes" their character, rendering certain items unavailable for sale. One might mistake the historical, nominal price of certain items of being stable or rising in price with its true value. If an item cost 500m 10 years ago, and costs 500m now, it has actually reduced in value--nominally, the price has remained the same, but the supply of money in the economy has increased over 10 years, proportionally along with the supply of items. The 500m you obtained for that item can buy less things than 10 years ago. Let's picture the economy in a span of 10 years in extremely simplified terms. Year 1: 10 billion mesos in circulation, 100 million items in circulation. Every year as players continue playing, +10 billion mesos and +100 million items are added into circulation. By Year 10: 100 billion mesos, 1 billion items. A single item that cost 1 million in Year 1 should cost 10 million in Year 10. Although the nominal price has increased, the value of the item has essentially remained the exact same. To reiterate the point, a game like Maplestory will inevitably inflate in supply. However, the good news is that value is dictated by other, numerous factors. Again, this is an extremely simplified example devoid of many, many variables. Voting for NX: This is not a criticism of the voting system--a mere observation. The existence of voting for NX is understandable for the situation. Inherently, voting daily is instant, requires no effort, and requires no pre-requisite items or achievements--it is only buffered by the 24-hour cooldown. Every single day, hundreds of thousands of NX is injected into the economy by voting, yet much (not claiming most; I don't have the data at hand) of it is spent on cosmetics. The remaining NX that more effectively affects the economy is spent on Gachapon tickets, APR, and other items that create infinite supply. Cosmetics: Purchasing cosmetics with NX or mesos (NX can be translated to mesos, and one could painstakingly calculate the theoretical exchange rate between NX and mesos) has advantages. Because cosmetics have no pragmatic function in gameplay, it effectively combats inflation, especially if the demand is high. In a server and game such as MapleRoyals, the demand for cosmetics is exceedingly high. If cosmetics could be bought from an NPC, combatting inflation would be monumentally efficient. As the mesos spent essentially disappear into the void, it reduces the money supply. New features: New updates, features, and events that require items or services to participate in will affect demand in the market, driving up the price. A pragmatic example are Sunshines, used during the 10th Anniversary Event. Although their supply is infinite (actually it's not, as when the event ends, they are no longer obtainable), players have opted to use them for its intended, practical use or sell them, effectively creating a new market. These sunshines' value are then transferred to obtaining new items that were not available before. However, when an item (cosmetic or practical) is limited in availability, its value begins to increase as soon as it becomes no longer available (considering that the demand remains stable). Unless the demand for these items dwindle, the price only rises, as not only is the supply limited, they can also disappear: players who hold these items may stop playing or get banned, drop them (unlikely), or destroy them via dark scrolls. This is an example of good, healthy markets--limited supply and good demand. When the supply runs too low, they can be reintroduced, but with the risk of fluctuating price and disrupting the market, rendering it dynamic. Although inflation is inevitable, several aspects effectively combat inflation in meaningful ways: 1. A single player creates more characters. Multi-clienting aside, a single player is still a single player, and can only allocate so much time and effort at once to produce more supply in the economy. A new character per single player creates demand for relative markets, which affects the market slowly (progressing is relatively slow), allowing the markets to catch up. This aspect alone slows inflation to such a degree that items retain so much value and price regardless of the inflation of the money supply. 2. New items and features are, effectively, innovation. Innovation creates brand new items, expanding the item supply in meaningful ways and combatting the infinitely growing supply of money. 3. Positive changes in metagame: Although metagame changes effectively increase efficiency in production (otherwise, why change the meta at all?), the new meta will, in the shorter run, create new markets with the potential of destroying older markets. Several aspects effectively combat inflation in cheaper ways: 1. Taxes in trade. Taxing money during trades effectively reduces inflation, which was the sole purpose of its implementation. That taxed money is thrown into the void and forever lost, reducing the supply of money. The rate itself taxes more money the higher the value of the trade. This is a cheap way to combat inflation, as it reduces the quality of gameplay. 2. Search. Currently, the most efficient way to search for items is to use the Owl of Minerva (3m Mesos or around 1k NX). This method has a few, potentially seemingly minor effects on the economy: As the item costs 3m per use, the incentive to use it to find cheaper items high in demand is severely discouraged. The cost is essentially a tax. The alternative is to spend a potentially lengthy amount of time searching for it manually. If something costs 10m, would one be willing to pay an extra 30%? What if something costs 3m or 300k? Would one be willing to pay a mark-up of 200% or 1000%? What effectively happens is that these cheap items that have potential to have a higher velocity of trade is effectively slowed, resulting in much less and slower sales. If a search function is much cheaper or even free, it will speed up velocity of smaller trades and sales that actually have extremely high market caps. These items are much more numerous than items that are rarer and higher in price, and tend to have close or even greater market caps that are hindered by the bottleneck. The name of the game is liquidity--higher the liquidity, the faster the velocity of money and trade, driving up economic engagement. Notes about HP-washing: HP-washing has garnered monumental criticisms, in addition to its proponents. Since its discovery, HP-washing's existence has created new markets and bolstered existing ones in leeching, APRs, equipment, and scrolls. Some commonly argue that, essentially, the value that this mechanic has provided is unmeaningful, and detrimental to the game. Again, I am not here to provide my opinion on HP-washing, as it's beating a dead horse. I am here only to make observations. However, it's clear that any drastic changes to this mechanic may destroy entire markets and severely reduce value to items players already hold and have invested in. Whether or not certain drastic changes are beneficial for the longevity and quality of the game in the long run is up to each and every individual to decide. Final comments: The economy is primarily dictated by player behavior, influenced by the specific features of the game that players gravitate toward. These features are modifiable or new, which create incentive, which create potentially new markets. I hope that this information was somewhat valuable. Thanks for reading.
You are either a new player. If that's the case then I have to wonder why you have so much to talk about already. Or, you have been here for quite some time, but as you said, wish to remain anonymous. If that's the case, are you aware you're not allowed to have more than one forum account? Or option number 3, could be a ban evading person having a laugh while trying to make us read this gigantic wall of text, I suppose
You wrote a short story with the end conclusion that players alongside supply and demand dictate the economy? And if you think dark scrolls help regulate our economy by booming stuff while White scrolls and clean slate scrolls rare, high in demand, and the backbone of our economy, is when I stopped taking this post seriously.
You are more than welcome to give feedback or discuss with others. But we don’t allow multiple forum account, or so-called anonymous
I feel like this post makes a ton of claims and predictions but fails to back any of it up with data. The central thesis of this essay seems to be that "inflation is inevitable". Okay, so where is the inflation in the economy? I've been here since 2020. - CS/WS fell from 525m to 380m. - Zak helm service fell from 100m reg to 40m vip. - APRs went from 18m to 8m. - HTP went from 300m to like 80m. - Other things like apples and stoppers remained relatively constant at about 10m and 400k respectively. Where is the inflation if everything is either cheaper or the same price? I'm not a pro player though so if someone else raise examples of game items that have appreciated in value, that would be nice cos right now I can't think of any. Also, despite the poster's claims to have played many games, this isn't reflected in the content. He makes lots of sweeping statements about other games which are provably untrue. For example he calls a trade tax a somewhat unique mechanic to combat inflation, but how is this unique when every single MMO I have played ALSO has a trade tax? (That would be FFXIV, ESO, Dragon Nest) Overall I get the sense that the poster attended maybe three classes of Economics 101 and tried to extrapolate that sliver of knowledge to the entire Maple economy. It is my opinion that they should wait for more classes to be released in order for their comments to be more accurate.
Everything worthless now, where is the inflation come from… we have more place to get meso (RG) but item price keep decrease
just like stocks, equities and securities, just allow us to short or long mesos. I guess than we have a zero sum game afterall as there will always be a loser and a winner
