⚖️Keeping Supply and Demand in Balance

In a player-owned economy, lasting stability depends on clearly defined resource sinks—mechanisms designed to remove resources from circulation. These sinks continuously remove assets from circulation, ensuring resources maintain their value over time. As long as people want to play and they need to spend resources to play, there will be demand for these resources.

Sinks

• Item Durability and Maintenance: Items degrade with use and require ongoing investment from players to maintain their effectiveness, preventing oversupply.

• Consumable Goods: Resources consumed through regular gameplay, such as food or temporary boosters, continuously remove assets from circulation.

• Wars and Conflicts: Competitive gameplay naturally consumes resources, such as weapons or equipment, which are permanently lost or destroyed in the process.

• Environmental Factors & Catastrophes: Occasional catastrophic events—like storms or virtual disasters—destroy resources or infrastructure, creating demand through necessary rebuilding. Players can strategically invest resources to reduce the risk of these events, adding depth to gameplay decisions.

An economy that spins

For a player-owned economy to thrive, player activities must involve multiple sinks, requiring constant spending, and trading of assets. A good economy is not a growing economy where numbers go up. A good economy, for us, is one that spins fast, where lots of creation and destruction and trading happen, even if the price of the underlying asset stays stable. The movement of resources indicates player activity, which is a great proxy for fun.