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Thoughts on Game Economy and Balance

When it comes to the economic mode, the two most mainstream economic models are the closed economic mode and the open economy model. A closed economic model means an economic model without any transaction between players and players and it has no transaction and currency circulation. It has poor sociability and lack of pleasure in business, but also easy to adjust and control the economic system. Most of the mobile games use this economic mode, because there are not many social activities and communications in these games.

There are 3 most common ways of doing business in the open economy model. The first one is that players directly trade with goods or game currency. The second way is that players trade through the stall system. Players use gold coins to purchase goods in other players' stalls, and the system will draw a certain proportion from it. The third way is that the players trade through the auction system. They use gold coins or diamonds to bid for other players’ goods and the auction system will also draw a certain proportion.

The income and consumption of money should be the most important part of the game economic system. Whether consumption and income is reasonable decides whether the economic system is good or bad and whether the economic system works. How can we control the income and consumption of money? For example, the monetary system of the game is like a pool. The money income in the game is equivalent to flooding the pool. The ways of currency income are usually by killing enemies, finishing tasks, taking part in activities, rewards and so on. And the money consumption is equivalent to the release of water from this pool. The ways of money consumption are usually daily consumption, equipment upgrading, role growth, and some special system.

At the beginning of building the currency system, we usually set a threshold value, which is a value when the income and consumption are in a balance. When the player's currency reaches that value, almost all the basic requirement could be satisfied. So when the real value of the money player owns is higher than the threshold, designers should think about how to increase the consumption of money. Instead, when the actual value is lower than the threshold, we need to carry out water injection, that is, to increase the income of money.

One theory I also learn from the economic GDC talk is that things that are economically equivalent are not always emotionally equivalent. For example, when you gain 50 coins and lose 25 coins later, your feeling is quite different from the feeling that you get 25 coins, although the economic result is the same. So it is a wise strategy to separate gains, and integrate losses which create better game experience.

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