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| The Sims Online Stratics - 7/23/07 Official TSO Chat |
LBeff - Welcome to another great Stratics House of Commons with the developers of The Sims Online!
LBeff - We will be discussing Economy with the developers; questions submitted should be relevant to this topic. Open chat will be in our IRC channel #Sims-Online before, during, and after the House of Commons.
LBeff - Please send your questions to [QT]Legend by using /msg [QT]Legend My question here. Questions sent to myself or the developers will NOT be answered so please do not send them to us. You only need to send
your question one time and only to one QT. Sending it multiple times will not increase the likelihood of it being answered.
LBeff - We'll begin with a brief introduction from our guests and then proceed with the chat. Now would be a good time to send those questions to [QT]Legend!
Greg - Hi
Parizad - Hiya everyone! Thank you so very much for joining us!
SarahF - Hello
Parizad - Sarah and Greg are leading us in answering your economy questions. As usual, I am here as the humor aspect
Parizad - At least I'm funny to myself... :P
LBeff - *T-man* How will the team set up more drains and change the fausets? (Sorry for spelling)
Greg - For starters we will not be adding new faucets or drains -- we will first balance the game we have. Then when that is working we will start the new drains and faucets.
Greg - next
LBeff - *Gracie* 1. Most players view the biggest problem with the economy is the over production of simoleans by botters. How seriously are you taking this problem? And do you have plans to combat the use of third
party programs?
SarahF - The economy is so whacked right now that we are not yet in a position to take on botters. We need to fix so much before that. The point is that we care about everything that is throwing our economy out of
whack right now and that's just one piece!
LBeff - *T-man* How will Luc and Co. Make a system where the eccomy will stay balanced and not slowly inflate?
Greg - we are migrating to zero sum which means a constant amount of simoleans in existence
Parizad - Guys, please keep in mind that tonight's topic is Economy :)
LBeff - *Meanie* Rumors of the removal of money objects from the game keep surfacing. Can you confirm or deny that this might be a possiblity?
SarahF - Please see our blog post today about using pools and other means to not turn off money objects but change the rules under which they give out money
SarahF - We'd love to have your thoughts on this
SarahF - Clearly it is the money objects that are causing so much inflation right now
SarahF - if the money that they paid out was coming from 'you' in some sense, that would be much better
Parizad - Kicking the money objects does not help! It only makes your toes sore. Please keep the kicking to the flamingos.
SarahF - Please think about more pools that we could use (read the blog to see what I mean)
LBeff - *Anon1514* is there anyway that u guys can give people money for being on tso for a number of hours/ days
Greg - Hopefully yes will try to bonus for several things including hours of play, lenght of subscription, etc.
LBeff - *Marmalade* The economy can directly be affected by the purchase of simoleans outside the game. Is the DreamTeam willing to finally ban the sale of TSO related objects for real money?
Greg - We will be doing cash in/out ourselves. We wont do this though until the economy is safe...
LBeff - *EricStulgs* Are there still plans to remove the buy catalog from the game and if so, will we need to start over to test this in TC3?
Greg - Yes we will remove the catalog. No we will not have to start over.
Greg - We are working to open a new city however we wont open until the economy is safe...
LBeff - *T-man* How will Luc. and co make, and mantain a stable eccomy?
Parizad - Prayer and occasional chicken sacrifices.
Parizad - Maybe a shaman dance here and there :)
LBeff - *IndigoSpin* How exactly will varying object prices work? Will prices go up and down depending on how many of a certain item are bought in a day, or will it be based on how many of a certain object are
actually in existence in the city?
Greg - We will be changing this in stages. Stage 1 - lame up/down based on drain faucet
Greg - stage 2 up/down based on an equation using population and object count, i.e. supply and demand.
Greg - stage 3 - free market - auction ... in other words the community will set the price like it currently does for rares
LBeff - *Marmalade* There is concern that some players take advantage of using 3rd party software to unfairly make simoleans and corrupt the economy. How can the DreamTeam stop this practice but yet still keep
the game intact for the hobbiest that enjoy having multiple sim for roleplay.
Greg - We have the concern as well. Right now, however, the economy itself is very unbalanced because of tuning
Greg - the faucets far exceed the drains. As result we have run away inflation.
Greg - So the first step is to get the economy itself under control, it will create a different game/experience.
SarahF - You guys have suggested changing the Hide Feature and I
Greg - then we will go after bots.
SarahF - and I've blogged about wanting to hear your ideas on how we make this practice not worthwhile
Parizad - Welcome Luc! So glad you could join us. :)
LBeff - *waynie* What role do in-game microtransactions play in your vision of the future TSO economy? Do you see the players driving the economy through small frequent transactions, for example, using Farming as
a way to stock fridges?
Greg - I'm not sure I fully understand the question. Very much would like to see "micro-transactions" -- for example, I would like services (maid, repairman, etc) become player to player... or the like.
LBeff - *ThunderbirdBF* In what ways will The Sims Online test to balance the use/purpose of anniversary gifts with the economy in TSO-E? Will there be limits on the gifts--like the mystic tree--in order to keep
the new economy clean?
MaxisLuc - I think we have to trust the free market.
MaxisLuc - Objects that are extremelly valued will become very expensive
MaxisLuc - objects that are too abondant will become cheap
Greg - We havent fully decided if or more likely what will be allowed to be moved. Certainly we will not imbalance the economy with what is decide and the community via the wiki/blog/forum will be involved in the
decision
MaxisLuc - A limited supply of mystic trees might be the way to control its impact on the economy.
Parizad - Greg's answer is to the next question by Frank.
* Parizad grins sheepishly *
LBeff - *Frank* ?If we are allowed to move existing sims into the new city with Skills,Money or Items wont this unbalance the new citys economy?
Greg - We havent fully decided if or more likely what will be allowed to be moved. Certainly we will not imbalance the economy with what is decide and the community via the wiki/blog/forum will be involved in the
decision
LBeff - *Amoreena* Is it true that you are planning on removing Buy Mode?
SarahF - we plan on removing the catalog, not the buy mode
SarahF - Buy from Catalog is what's going away
LBeff - *Issac* What is the team's point of view on job tracks? They currently do not play a significant role in the economy game at all.
MaxisLuc - The current job tracks are moving money from Maxis to the users.
* SarahF this is going so fast, Greg just said, "I'll have to read this when we are done!". We all feel the same. Hee hee *
* Parizad giggles *
MaxisLuc - all money from maxis will have to come from some pool of money earned somewhere
MaxisLuc - or the economy will run away
MaxisLuc - so we could bring back the job tracks if we find something fun to generate the earnings for those workers
MaxisLuc - Maybe real estate sales? what do you think?
LBeff - *Ball3r* you say you will drain the econemy eventually? How do you plan to do that if you are taking away honest players simoleans, who have played for awhile and worked hard. I do think they will not be
happy.
Greg - draining an economy is very hard... and likely we wont do that.
Greg - it simply means drains are higher than faucets -- tends not to be too fun
Greg - so we will get tc3 economy stable (near 0 inflation) -- then open the new city so we dont have to drain the economy
LBeff - *MissKaren* Is there a limit to how much one sim can make?
MaxisLuc - not really.
MaxisLuc - all sims earnings together might be limited
MaxisLuc - but there is no limit to how much a sim can make from other sims
LBeff - *IndigoSpin* Will the team's ideas and proposed changes to the economy have any potentially adverse effects on new players? Will new players, say, be at greater disadvantage or have a harder time achieving
what they want when changes are implemented?
Greg - a balanced economy will make the game feel different -- fun but different. this will provide new stuff to play with ...
SarahF - for everyone!
LBeff - *Frank* ?any plans to make all single sim objects pay the same ammount?
Parizad - You guys are so awesome! Thank you all for joining us. Whenever I see your shiny font faces, it makes my heart sing
Parizad - Okay, that was corny.
Parizad - But I meant it!
Parizad - Next dev chat, I might recite a sonnet for you
MaxisLuc - Greg can't type BTW!
Greg - No. first we will allow the game to seek a free market level -- that includes payouts. For now we will somewhat artificially adjust the payouts up and down. next we will connect specific payouts to specific
pools or the like
LBeff - *TrooperCooper* Sarah mentioned having a zero sum gain between pizza and food served. How will you zero the gain from the other money objects?
SarahF - It's a design in progress! We are seriously still not sure how to balance all faucets and drains. I truly meant it on the blog when I asked for your ideas on this.
LBeff - *T-man* Will Luc and Co. Ever raise Job payouts so it's a valuable sorce of income?
MaxisLuc - yes. All source of income will be valuable.
MaxisLuc - But that will be controlled by user behavior
MaxisLuc - it could be that at 4pm Pizza's the best thing to do
MaxisLuc - and at 11pm it will be jobs
LBeff - *Ray* Although reducing the amount of money is important, won't this new system of reduced payouts depending on what we spend make the game less enjoyable, since money will be harder to come by for honest
sims?
Greg - I dont believe so, if the prices are inline with amounts then it
Greg - will work.
Parizad - I was just kidding about the sonnet
Parizad - It'll be a haiku!!
LBeff - *Frank* when you say "you will be doing cash in out yourselves" do you mean like "another" online game dose it
Greg - We will allow players to buy simoleans and players to sell simoleans
LBeff - *Issac* Are the team concerned that with a player-driven zero-sum economy, it might make the game "too hard" for some?
Greg - yes -- that is why we are experinementing with this in tc3
SarahF - and looking for your ideas on the wiki
LBeff - *Meanie* Durring Beta it was incredibly difficult to pull in large sums of money. Have you considered at all the notion of linking the simolean to the real currency markets, as seen with the linden in
Second Life? And thereafter removing in game cash generation?
MaxisLuc - Yes, users on the TSO-E blog have already suggested linking real money to game money
MaxisLuc - and we are planning to set that up as soon as we can.
MaxisLuc - I am not planning to remove game generation of money, if we can redistribute it properly.
MaxisLuc - If we can get a nice influx of new players, making money should be easy for all veteran players
MaxisLuc - custom content will also enable the creative users not interested too much in the economy aspect of the game to earn a good living
LBeff - *IndigoSpin* What exactly constitutes a "safe" economy?
Greg - one where the value of simoleans stays relatively constant, that is, inflation is under control. "Printing money" devalues the currency.
SarahF - Unfortunately the current economy is broken in exactly that regard right now.
LBeff - *Issac* Anything you can tell us about custom contents and what their projected interactions/impact to the economy would be?
* SarahF fun question *
MaxisLuc - for users, custom content ought to be like printing money.
* SarahF Luc is slowly typing his answer (standing up for Greg here!) *
MaxisLuc - Users will be able to upload custom content, and sell it at the price they want.
MaxisLuc - the upload cost will be minimal so it should be the blood of the user to user economy
LBeff - *Crash* Part of the fun of TSO is success, as in real life, getting ahead. Why take out the money objects instead of fixing the botters, simoleans sellers, and cheater. It doesn't make sense to punish
us instead of them?
Greg - We agree that success should be rewarded. We do not plan on taking money objects out of the game -- we plan on tuning the game. We will continually address botters and cheaters.
LBeff - *BigOz* Why did you get the idea to increase the cost of lots in TC3?
SarahF - With the new ability to trade house deeds (fixed by Larry today!)
Parizad - Yay Larry!
SarahF - we want to move people away from buying from 'Maxis' to buying from eachother
Parizad - Sorry he couldn't make this dev chat. Hopefully next time!
SarahF - we want to add value to it
Greg - hehe good point -- actually, I think we need to figure out a way make it so stores populate the catalog on the stores lot. EA will have a store lot in game.
Parizad - Damn! We did it again
LBeff - *MissKaren* Without a buy catalog will you set up a store when you launch the new city?
Greg - hehe good point -- actually, I think we need to figure out a way make it so stores populate the catalog on the stores lot. EA will have a store lot in game.
* SarahF Oops Greg did again *
Parizad - Greg's answer is to Miss Karen
Parizad - Its Luc's fault!! He was making fun of Greg's typing speed
* SarahF too fast with the enter key, but not much else *
MaxisLuc - This is rigged!
Parizad - Let's blame Larry
MaxisLuc - or better: Randy
Parizad - Yeah, that'll teach Randy to go on vacation :)
LBeff - *names* does this 'pool' mean that the only money we can earn is from hours,length of play etc and not from any other source ie pizza,jams,casino.. etc and surely that only encourages players to go afk
for longer periods
Parizad - Okay, this one will be the last question
Greg - by "pools" we are trying to say a faucet will chase a drain -- with your help we will experiment with several combinatiosn
SarahF - so, if you have ideas and/or concerns, please discuss these on the wiki and flesh out your ideas there so we can all benefit
Parizad - Okay, one more after this.
LBeff - *EricStulgs* You mentioned in Stage 3 that the community would set the prices, like rares; where will the objects to be priced originate?
MaxisLuc - Stores will always be able to buy objects, but the more objects the more expensive they will be.
SarahF - They will come from ALL OF US!
MaxisLuc - Hopefully custom content will come along at the same time and take over from the catalog anyway
Parizad - Thank you all so very much for joining us! This was great fun. None of this would be possible without you. We appreciate you so very, very much! See you in the game!
Greg - Thanks! cya in game.
LBeff - That's it for this one folks! Thanks for joining us here on Stratics IRC, the logs will be up on http://sims.stratics.com/ shortly. Feel free to join #Sims-Online for open discussion. Be sure to come by next time!
SarahF - Goodbye all, lots of questions tonight - you have us worn out!
MaxisLuc - great job everyone!
MaxisLuc - thank you for helping us so much!
MaxisLuc - next dev chat soon!
MaxisLuc - Parizad will post the next date
MaxisLuc - bye
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