Post by SongRune on 2022-09-05 17:06:01
The problem with a futures market is that players don't have to deliver on their contracts. You'd need to establish a penalty that can make buyers whole without creating materials that don't exist in the economy. The only real option would be forced purchase at market rates if the future seller didn't have the items in the warehouse when the contract expired, and leaving the player in debt.
This doesn't address low liquidity in the market at certain times of year, however. It doesn't turn out well for either buyers who may not get their contracts honored, nor sellers who get backed into corners and pay millions for 100 iron.
These are problems in the real life markets as well, but a lot more players will get into this in a game without realizing what they're doing than in the real life financial markets, and there will be less institutional capacity to massively outweigh the effects of those entities, nor a broker training and licensing system to ensure that someone who knows what they're doing is responsible for all transactions (theirs and their clients).
Unqualified players may learn about this the hard (or easy) way and leave the market, but the important point is that players inhibitions and caution will be far lower on initial attempts and entering into the market in the first place, resulting in a lot more disruption which could threaten either the system or the general gameplay experience for both sides.
I'm against unlimited exposure financial instruments in a general population MMO.
That said, while a system like this cannot be effectively implemented as an in game mechanic, it is the sort of thing that is likely to function reasonably well between well established guilds, operating on a natural reputation system when it comes to unfulfilled contracts, and I wouldn't be surprised to see some websites pop up to support this player driven market.
This doesn't address low liquidity in the market at certain times of year, however. It doesn't turn out well for either buyers who may not get their contracts honored, nor sellers who get backed into corners and pay millions for 100 iron.
These are problems in the real life markets as well, but a lot more players will get into this in a game without realizing what they're doing than in the real life financial markets, and there will be less institutional capacity to massively outweigh the effects of those entities, nor a broker training and licensing system to ensure that someone who knows what they're doing is responsible for all transactions (theirs and their clients).
Unqualified players may learn about this the hard (or easy) way and leave the market, but the important point is that players inhibitions and caution will be far lower on initial attempts and entering into the market in the first place, resulting in a lot more disruption which could threaten either the system or the general gameplay experience for both sides.
I'm against unlimited exposure financial instruments in a general population MMO.
That said, while a system like this cannot be effectively implemented as an in game mechanic, it is the sort of thing that is likely to function reasonably well between well established guilds, operating on a natural reputation system when it comes to unfulfilled contracts, and I wouldn't be surprised to see some websites pop up to support this player driven market.