Are any economists studying the Elite economy?

[Jonney Napalm]

I was just wondering, as I read in the past of economists studying in game economies to see how they evolve and change, as they have some bearing to real life economies.
People will always find a way to exploit and make cash, no matter whether it is real or virtual.
Must be a royal pain in the ar** for FD to try and manage this beast.
I also remember reading about virologists studying the outbreak of some disease in World of Warcraft, to study the mechanics of infection.
There must be some interesting reflections of real life in most games, pity we can't make a game that's about the cure for cancer, or solving world hunger, as I sure the gaming community would beat in fairly quickly.
Maybe too much Pink Floyd whilst flying me thinks

 

[malintent]

I was just wondering, as I read in the past of economists studying in game economies to see how they evolve and change, as they have some bearing to real life economies.
People will always find a way to exploit and make cash, no matter whether it is real or virtual.
Must be a royal pain in the ar** for FD to try and manage this beast.
I also remember reading about virologists studying the outbreak of some disease in World of Warcraft, to study the mechanics of infection.
There must be some interesting reflections of real life in most games, pity we can't make a game that's about the cure for cancer, or solving world hunger, as I sure the gaming community would beat in fairly quickly.
Maybe too much Pink Floyd whilst flying me thinks

This game doesn't have a real economy because real players aren't making things and therefore there is no actual supply and demand. It's all artificial. The way this game is currently setup it will never have a real functioning economy. Not to mention, the game is mostly played by people in SINGLEPLAYER MODE that can then bring money into a open server, lulz.

 

[Soda Popinski]

Economists care about how people act with limited resources. Most of the game economy is NPC driven, so I don't think it would be very interesting to an economist to learn anything. It could be an interesting model, though.

Now if players could trade credits, like in other games, that could make things interesting for an economist. Such trading tends to spill over to the real-world where you have people trading "real" money for virtual.

 

[Renso]

It would probably interest a stand up comic though. He could talk about how stations which should be producing something, are instead importing it.

 

[Panzer]

XDDDDD

Trust me, guys - Elite doesn't need economists to grasp, because it only rides on the supply and demand of figuratively material goods. There's also only ONE currency, there's no stocks derivatives, no immaterial values of ANY kind.

There's no real estate circulation, investments, economic growth or mood swings affecting all that

Now... in EVE - people could probably write degrees based on observations there, but in Elite? Sorry, but I for one, as an acolyte of the Posen uni of economics, am MIGHTY happy, that the genuine horror I had to once endure doesn't shadow me here as well.

 

[DaveB]

AS has been mentioned, it's unlikely that an economist would study the ED economy. I can see the information flow going in the other direction, with FD potentially hiring an economist to improve their modelling of NPC trading and tweak the player interactions impact.

 

[Jonney Napalm]

This game doesn't have a real economy because real players aren't making things and therefore there is no actual supply and demand. It's all artificial. The way this game is currently setup it will never have a real functioning economy. Not to mention, the game is mostly played by people in SINGLEPLAYER MODE that can then bring money into a open server, lulz.

Isn't the solo mode economy the same as the multiplayer? I'm not sure, I assumed solo play mode was the same, but you basically don't see other players?
I kinda thought the if I traded the hell out of something in solo then it would still affect the online mode economy, because they are not two totally separate servers are they?
I don't know.

 

[TUXER]

XDDDDD

Trust me, guys - Elite doesn't need economists to grasp, because it only rides on the supply and demand of figuratively material goods. There's also only ONE currency, there's no stocks derivatives, no immaterial values of ANY kind.

There's no real estate circulation, investments, economic growth or mood swings affecting all that

Now... in EVE - people could probably write degrees based on observations there, but in Elite? Sorry, but I for one, as an acolyte of the Posen uni of economics, am MIGHTY happy, that the genuine horror I had to once endure doesn't shadow me here as well.

that is true and for note I heard the dev pretty much explicitly state he doesnt want to go the 'spreadsheet' route. He also said something I dont agree with which is that its 'wrong' I dont think its wrong its just a different game play is all.

 

[Renso]

One of the, if not the hardest elements in any game to emulate or rather simulate, is a working economy. Must be because experts haven't been able to do that in real life either.

 

[Tempered]

I think most economists have better things to do with their time. ED economy is based more on game mechanics than economic principles.

 

[Jackie Silver]

Economics is a pseudoscience. At its very best you (and the more honest economists out there) could call it an art.

 

[ollobrains]

a lot of the trade engine, seem to drive the development index of a system * boom bust civil war, wartime economy, different political system ie communist prices are different to anacrhy, terraforming worlds on the fringe apparently have massive dmeand.

Based out of mikunn for that experiment, ive been doing some trading and the goods themselves change if u fill demand something else might pop up. Im guessing different goods and brought or sold or mission have an impact on the underlying factional system, political situation its a bit abstract

 

[Bora-Horza Gobuchul]

Isn't the solo mode economy the same as the multiplayer? I'm not sure, I assumed solo play mode was the same, but you basically don't see other players?
I kinda thought the if I traded the hell out of something in solo then it would still affect the online mode economy, because they are not two totally separate servers are they?
I don't know.

It is. All players are in the same galaxy. Whether you are playing Open, Private Group, or Solo only determines whether you actually see the other players in the galaxy. You actions on the markets, missions, and other affect the same market prices and system faction influences.

 

[aRtFuL]

Not to mention, the game is mostly played by people in SINGLEPLAYER MODE that can then bring money into a open server, lulz.

solo mode STILL affects the Open Mode economy. It is the same universe, regards of much as you might hate singleplayer mode.

 

[saviornt]

Economics is a pseudoscience. At its very best you (and the more honest economists out there) could call it an art.

Economics is only a pseudoscience if you don't take into account psychology. Pure economics suggests that people do "rational" things (buy/sell rationally). Show me a person who is 100% rational, 100% of the time, and I will write you a check that won't bounce for 1 million USD.

 

[etien]

First I would like to say, as soon as you put multiple peeps with goals/envy and scare ressources you have an economy, therefore Elite is an economy and could be studied as such.
Then the first obvious think that come to mind is hyperinflation, all peeps are making tons of money so value of money should decline kickly. If account were on sales for real $$$ on ebay this should be trackable.
cheers,

 

[RegisterMe]

I don't think there is an economy, in that I don't think the supply of goods affects the game state beyond faction influence in and of a particular system. Are any imported goods required for the production of another good? If the answer is no then there is no underlying economy. It's just a facsimile of one to give us a background to play against.

 

[Zog Oakley]

Economics is a pseudoscience. At its very best you (and the more honest economists out there) could call it an art.

This made me smile (and Im a professional economist!). As Galbraith once said "the only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable!"

Having played ED since launch I would say that there does seem to be something wrong with the supply/demand economics, particularly around what systems export to where. The system does seem to reach to trading volumes, though NPC trading is still skewing this heavily.

Furthermore, the black market is always hard to measure, and it does seem particularly illogically priced in ED.

However, the basics of buy where supply is high and and sell where it is low and demand is high do seem to work!

Zog

 

[Tru]

Economics is only a pseudoscience if you don't take into account psychology. Pure economics suggests that people do "rational" things (buy/sell rationally). Show me a person who is 100% rational, 100% of the time, and I will write you a check that won't bounce for 1 million USD.

Economics assumes that, IN GENERAL, people act rationally. Not every person is perfectly rational, and no individual person is rational 100% of the time. But in general, people make rational decisions when spending money. Of course there are also the issues of how well informed people are, as well as impulse control and other psychological considerations. But lets at least get the basics right before the econ bashing continues.

Econ is far from perfect; And the real world is too complex and chaotic for economists to easily predict much of anything. But video game economies are vastly simpler. Sadly, as has been said repeatedly... what this game has is not an economy at all. It's more like a pretty picture that kind of looks like an economy if you don't really know what an economy should look like.

 

[RegisterMe]

However, the basics of buy where supply is high and and sell where it is low and demand is high do seem to work!

Zog

Yes, but is there any effect beyond altering the supply, demand, and price? If we all decided to blockade a system to prevent the import of good x, would this prevent said system producing good y?