为游戏设计了一个游戏的经济系统统,如何验证是有效的呢

经济系统-EVE Online官方网站
基本信息INFORMATION您当前所在位置:&&&&&&&经济系统
  EVE的经济系统庞大而真实,是整个世界得以正常运行的重要支柱。虽然游戏中玩家可以向各个方向发展,但究其根本,只有三大类:经济,战斗和政治。而后两者只有在经济稳健的基础上才能得以展开。在设计师的精心构架之下,经济系统的复杂以及健壮程度已经远远超过单机版的经营策略类游戏。玩家群之间可预测不可预测的行为更使这个商业社会如同真实世界般迷人。下文将从宏观的视角来剖析EVE的经济架构,为有志成为金融寡头的玩家提供思考的平台。
  任何一个网络游戏,其经济系统都可分为四个大类,生产、积累、流通和消费。生产是一切虚拟货币的起源,当这些货币以虚拟物品的形式为玩家所用、留存在游戏中时,称之为积累,虚拟物品与金钱相互转换的过程是流通,当金钱/物品被系统回收时,称为消费。从经济层面上看,任何行为都可视为这四类活动的组合。
  通俗而言,生产行为的特征就是&无中生有&,玩家通过付出自己的劳动,来换取虚拟货币或资源。EVE内包含生产要素的行为有:代理人任务,清剿海盗,保险金赔付,以及采集矿石。玩家每完成一个代理人任务,都能获得系统给出的酬金与奖励;在小行星带或是任务过程中清剿海盗,可得到统合部支付的赏金;当舰船被击毁,系统将依照舰船价格按比例支付保险金(默认30%),以弥补舰船损失;采集矿石,包括小行星带采矿和POS在行星上的采集活动,是直接获得矿石的唯一途径。
  包含积累要素的行为有:玩家对舰船/装备的升级换代。收集有名字的高级装备,然后在各种不同的船上装配试验威力,想必是不少玩家的乐趣所在。事实上,EVE的装备分为可量产与不可量产两类。可量产的包括普通型号与二级科技的型号,这些装备都有对应的蓝图原本,因此一旦损失,还能重新获取。而不可量产的包括冠名装备,势力装备,官员装备和死亡空间装备。除了冠名装备外,后三者必须经过重重考验,击倒BOSS获得,产出量极小,其质量连二级科技的装备也望尘莫及,市场上更是能卖到天价。收集一套势力装备,外加合适的舰船,在小规模战斗中几乎无坚不摧。
  包含流通要素的行为有:市场交易,联合市场交易,精炼,制造。市场交易允许玩家在星域范围内互相买卖;联合市场是一个跨星域的跳蚤市场,假货充斥,但火眼金睛的玩家总能在里面发现宝贝;精炼将矿石转变为矿物,制造将矿物转变为装备/舰船,均是虚拟货币向虚拟装备转变的中间阶段。
  包含消费要素的行为有:基础装备/舰船/技能书/POS组件/一级科技蓝图原本的购买,舰船/装备的损毁,弹药/电池的消耗,克隆体更换,保险金支付、维修费,以及各种合理费用。向NPC购买物品是多数网游常用的回笼资金的手段之一,但EVE的NPC仅提供了非常有限的物品以供购买,流通的物品90%以上都由玩家所提供。
  舰船/装备的损毁,是EVE主要的消费手段,一艘舰船被毁意味着包括舰载的多数装备将和舰船一起灰飞烟灭,而这些装备可能是船主花了数月时间慢慢收集到的,重建一艘同样的船需要耗费极大的精力、财力以及毅力,可见EVE是一款死亡惩罚非常严重的游戏,需要更细心的游戏态度。
  克隆体更换是PK行为的副产品,为了保证在死亡时技能点不丢失,经常参与PK的玩家需要频繁更新自己的高技能克隆体。保险金支付是为了将舰船损失风险降低到最小程度而预付的款项。伴随着每一场战争,都会有维修费和弹药/电池的消耗,游戏后期,2级科技的弹药/无人机战损将耗费玩家大量金钱。
  各种合理费用,包括交易中缴纳的税收,陌生人间的通讯费,创立军团的维护费,办公室租借费,联盟维持费,等等等等。如同现实社会的政府为管理市场而征收的费用一般,以统合部为首的管理机构也将对玩家的种种活动征收费用,设立准入门槛,调节市场行为。
  如果将生产视作供应,积累和消费视作需求,流通视为供求之间的桥梁,我们就得到了EVE经济体系的骨架。如下图所示:
  普通网游的弊病在于,设计师没能把握住供求之间的平衡,随着游戏的发展,玩家等级的提高(甚至外挂的横行),供应将会越来越大,此时玩家需求却没有按照同等速度增长,导致货币过多积累而产生严重通货膨胀,经济系统最终走向崩溃。RO、魔剑、奇迹&&国内有太多这样的例子。而EVE是一款产出恒定,高消费,低积累的游戏。一年以上的高级玩家和半年的中级玩家在单位时间内的ISK产出率几乎持平,且爆船的风险和单位时间内获得的收益同步增长。高消费由严重的死亡惩罚体现:就算极品舰船配上极品装备,在实际使用中依然可能由于种种原因而遭到毁灭。同样,WOW也是一款高积累,低消费的游戏。玩家有了T0就要刷T1,有了T2还想要T3,外加无数散件PK装&&虽然这些装备不会在使用中损耗,但属性的诱惑驱使着玩家一套接一套地把时间投入到游戏中。
  可以看到,运营多年的WOW和EVE,其虚拟货币购买力依然如同开服初期,完全没有任何贬值。再看流通环节,EVE的制造通常要花上数天甚至数月,而且运输上也有着例如货物体积、安全等诸多限制,这些设置就如同供需之间的缓冲地带,一旦双方中的任何一方有了大波动,也能将波动吸收减缓到最小程度,有效杜绝了各类投机行为,将市场还给真正的劳动者。
  此外,EVE内的市场以星域为界,除了联合市场外,其他物品都必须在星域内交易。这一设定不经意间完成了新伊甸的地域分工。帝国区有诸多代理人,和出售各类补给物资的NPC,但没有高级矿藏,适合新人玩家和喜欢规避风险的自由人玩家。0.0区域则危机四伏,除了各自圈地的大联盟外,还有玩家海盗和NPC海盗横行,虽然矿藏丰富,但成品资源缺乏。有心的玩家应该发现,这两种区域的需求是互补的,在0.0区域可以得到大量的高级装备和矿石,运到帝国区倒卖后,再将弹药和燃料运回到0.0区域,赚取差价。事实上,此类商路的掌握者通常和占领该区域的工会联盟达成了协议,后者非但不攻击商船,还对参与运输的工业舰沿途护送,而商人则负责该工会联盟本区域的一切补给事宜,形成了一种奇妙的共生关系。
  作为数学博士,EVE首席设计师Kjartan的思路相当缜密。他曾在自己的BLOG内把EVE比喻为一个沙盘(sandbox),通过分析,我们发现这个沙盘异常坚固,在数年之内决不会崩溃,玩家可以在其中自由发挥。&EVE本身从不事先规定玩家应该如何游戏,恰恰相反,玩家必须创造他们自己的命运。&是的,庞大的舞台,众多的玩家互动,会将游戏的乐趣性成倍提高。作为混沌学博士,Kjartan也没忘了把他的理论贯彻到游戏中来,这一点在经济系统内同样得到了明显的体现。
EVE经济学家-Kjartan
  EVE中经济系统的主人是玩家,在游戏中95%以上的交易发生在玩家与玩家之间。你永远不知道下一个交易对象是怎样的人,一个老实经商的厚道人,还是虚开高价的奸商,甚至是以次充好的骗子?坐在柜台后傻傻地以固定价格出售货物的NPC不见了,取而代之的是精明狡诈、和你我一样的活生生的人。
  既然是人,就会有情绪波动,其行为也受到波动的影响,从而产生一定的不可预知性。从比例上而言,不可预知的行为只占所有行为的很小一部分。然而,参与的人数越多,各种互动行为也越多。即使轻呵一口气,也可能在不断的交流中旋转放大,成为横扫一切的龙卷风,这就是混沌学的基础理论:&蝴蝶效应&。因此人类及其活动最具复杂性。
  EVE设定的单一世界内有数万个玩家在交互,这个基数接近于现实社会中的一个社区,为各种经济行为的发生提供了丰饶的土壤。单就物价而言,我们看到的历史价格图表就是一个分形,是诺亚效应和约瑟效应同时起作用的结果。诺亚效应意味着不连续的跳跃,比如相邻的成交价格,一个极高,一个极低,相差悬殊。约瑟效应则意味着持续性,涨或跌可能持续地发生,市场经历牛市(或熊市)越久,其势头就越有可能持续。在它们的共同作用下,物价存在持续涨(或跌)的趋势,但是这种趋势的来临或消失却可能是突然的。而且,这种持续和跳跃并存的规律会在不同的时间跨度上同样地表现出来,不论是一天、一月、还是一年。例如,某一星域内挂单出售的盖伦特战列舰&多米尼克斯&的价格,将受到许多因素的影响;矿价的剧烈波动,会导致制造商造船成本波动;有新的制造商加入星域市场,在竞争下船价会下跌;联合市场上突然出现廉价的蓝图拷贝,使得玩家纷纷放弃成品船而选择自己建造;附近星域军团大战,战损严重,船价因此水涨船高;二级科技无人机蓝图原图被发明,无人机战舰广受青睐&&无数因素交织在一起,决定了一艘舰船的价格走向,操控市场变得极富挑战性。
  天马行空的设计,和玩家为主的自由经济。这就是名唤EVE的星河。当你作为这个庞大体系的一环,驾驶工业舰在空间站间穿行,或是驾驶战列舰在小行星带游荡之时,可曾想到,自己就可能是那个轻轻展翅的蝴蝶呢?苹果/安卓/wp
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没有实际数据,这种情况下怎么判断自己的模型是否能够稳定运行呢?
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其实这也是一个仿真校准(calibration)的问题,在校准的过程中,应该分为建模过程中的校准和仿真结果的校准,即事前和事后两种校准过程。对于建模过程中的校准,主要在于设计的经济系统的模型(方程)以及相关参数的设计及取值的校准,例如在使用效用函数描述个体行为时,要么使用benchmark的模型,要么可以通过实验经济学的结论来确定参数的设置等等;对于仿真结果的校准,一般就是与实际情况对比,通常是各种统计量的比较,或者通过物理学的模型发掘数据的内在特征等,这方面要依赖于研究的领域情况。如果在没有实际数据支撑的情况下,那么应该更加侧重建模过程中的各类模型及市场机制的设计,最好能用一个理论模型做benchmark,然后与之比较,如果在理想状况下能够与benchmark model符合,那么就可以再进一步放宽参数设置,用以模拟新的情景。
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论坛法律顾问:王进律师如何有效平衡游戏内部的经济系统
发布时间: 17:11:11
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作者:Soren Johnson
游戏设计和经济拥有一个劣迹斑斑的历史。设计出同时具有乐趣和功能的经济并不是件轻松的任务,很多设计在接触到玩家时往往会产生适得其反的效果。举个例子来说,《网络创世纪》在一开始便因为游戏混乱的经济而落下不好的名声。Zachary Booth Simpson在1999年写了一篇有关这款游戏的分析,并详细描述了游戏在发行时可能会经历的显著问题:
锻造系统因为在玩家每创造出产品的时候给予奖励而造成生产过剩的情况。
生产过剩导致超级通货膨胀,即非游戏玩家印刷了过多钱去购买一些无价值的产品。
玩家通过为自己的产品设定了远高于市价的价格而将供应商变成了无限安全存款箱。
玩家囤积的产品迫使团队不得不抛弃封闭式经济,从而导致游戏世界开始倒空产品。
玩家通过垄断将市场逼到一个魔法试剂中,并阻止普通用户投掷咒语。
从那时以来,MMO经济已经取得了很大的发展;《魔兽世界》的拍卖行变成了游戏经济乃至整个世界最具活力的一部分,即有许多玩家愿意花时间在这个市场中“晃悠”。《星战前夜》的开发商CCP甚至雇佣了一位经济学家去分析《星战前夜》游戏世界中的资源流程和价格波动。的确,对于游戏设计师来说,理解游戏玩法的市场力量的潜在影响真的非常重要。
市场是否能够平衡游戏?
许多设计师将经济游戏机制作为平衡游戏的工具。例如在《国家的崛起》中,每当玩家购买了一个单位(如骑士或弓箭手),那么同样类型单位的价格便会上升,设计会鼓励玩家增加军队类型,以此引导他们购买更多内容。通过在游戏过程中让不同方向和选择的“价值”浮动着,设计师将呈献给玩家一个不断改变的景观,并保证不存在获得胜利的唯一方法而提高了重玩价值。
但是如果做得太过火,那么通过转变经济而实现自动平衡便有可能摧毁游戏。2006年,Valve通过《反恐精英:起源》而进行了一次有趣的经济实验,即执行了动态的武器定价运算法则。根据开发者,“武器和装备的定价将基于全球市场的需求每周进行更新。如果更多人购买了某一武器,那么该武器的价格便会上升,而其它武器则会相对降价。
desert eagle(from gamemodding.net)
不幸的是,特定武器的大受欢迎将掩盖了运算法则平衡游戏的能力。举个例子来说吧,当最有效的Desert Eagle价格上升到16000美元时,最没用的Glock为1美元,从而到导致了一些极端情况的出现。游戏经济并不是真正的经济;并不是所有内容都可以通过调整价格而达到平衡。玩家只是想在此获得乐趣,如果最有趣的选择的代价越调越高,甚至到达一个让人望而却步的境地,那么玩家不仅会因此改变策略,甚至会直接选择其它游戏。也许当前的油价让我们的真实生活变得“误区”,但只要现实世界的经济存在着,我们就别无选择。这与玩家所面临的境况是截然不同的。
最后,设计师应该记住,获取完美的平衡是个无法把握的目标。玩家们并不是在寻找石头剪刀布这样的游戏,即存在完全有效的所有选择,并鼓励随机策略。当玩家在玩游戏时,他们会受到一些超越经济的原因的推动。提升玩家喜欢的武器的价格就好像一种惩罚,这种做法只有在不平衡真的破坏了核心游戏时才能起作用。
把市场置于游戏内
也许更合适的经济动态的使用是作为游戏内部的透明机制。桌面游戏世界提供了这些自由市场机制的优秀例子。德式游戏《Puerto Rico》和《Vinci》都使用了提高价格的方法去提高不受欢迎的角色和技术的吸引力。《Puerto Rico》甚至为了让玩家选择工匠这个角色而决定赋予玩家特定的“奖励”,即给予他们1个金币。随着金币数量的逐渐增加,越来越多玩家难以抗拒这种诱惑,如此便确保了所有角色的选择能够趋于平等化。
《Puerto Rico》也仍有一些更棒和一些更糟糕的选—-它们会基于当前的选择在不同回合间发生改变。在这种情况下,自动平衡便能够确保游戏的乐趣,因为玩家会因为选择较不常见的策略而获得奖励,而不是因为坚持自己的喜好而受惩罚。也许更重要的是,因为玩家能够事先了解所有情况,所以没有人会觉得游戏对自己存在偏见。
我们可以在另外一款德式游戏《Power Grid》中看到基于真实资源和价格的纯自由市场机制。在游戏中,玩家需要为自己的植物提供各种资源(游戏邦注:油,煤,铀,和垃圾等等),他们可以从中央市场购得这些资源。资源是基于逐步上升的价格曲线。在每个回合中,市场中都会出现每个资源的X个新组件,玩家可以购买Y个组件。随着供给的浮动,资源的价格会相应地上升和下降。
自由贸易的利益
同样地,一些现代策略游戏(包括《Sins of the Solar Empire》和《帝国时代》系列)也包含了这些自由市场机制,即玩家可以购买并销售资源,并以自己的行动去影响着整体的价格。这些市场是一种有趣的“贪婪测试”,即玩家通常会在需要现金时卖掉资源,或者在缺少特定资源时花钱购买,但他们也知道,自己每次在市场上的交易都会带给其它玩家相对的优势。就像你在《帝国时代》中购买过多树木的话,对手也会因为卖掉多余的产品而赚得金币。
不幸的是,这些游戏的市场动态将不断重复,当玩家的总生成超过需求时,价格便会降到最低点。这主要是源自游戏所强调的经济平衡—-《帝国时代》保证在一开始给予玩家拥有足量的金币,石头和树木。围绕着地图随机传播资源将造就更加多元化且有趣的市场机制,但却需要牺牲整体的游戏平衡。如果你的对手攻击了骑士,那么为拥有足够的树木去换取长枪兵进行反抗的话该怎么办?
而带有核心经济机制的游戏并不会遭遇这种限制。在大多数以商业为主的游戏中,专攻于特殊资源是游戏玩法的基本组成部分。因此,自由市场经济可以变成一看竞争游戏吸引人的一部分内容。关于这类游戏的最后一个例子便是80年代经典的《M.U.L.E》。在游戏中,4名玩家将为了成为新兴世界的经济统治者而竞争。尽管游戏中只存在4种资源(游戏邦注:食物,能量,铁,和能源水晶),规模经济将鼓励玩家专攻某一资源。更重要的是,玩家很难凭借自己的力量创造所有资源,这便要求他们从其他玩家手上购得所需资源。
这款游戏拥有一个很棒的界面能够促进玩家间的这种交易。买家被设定在屏幕底部,而卖家则占据屏幕上方。当买家上升时,他们的要价也会相对地上升。而当卖家下降时,他们的定价也会下降。当双方在中间碰头时,交易便会出现。再一次,游戏机制是明确且透明的—-所有人都能看到玩家的库存和市场定价。玩家清楚,自己可以通过挑战价格去促成交易,或者期盼着对手降价。如果你知道其他玩家需要购买能量去巩固自己的建筑或购买食物去养活劳动力的话,你便能够通过引诱从他身上赚取更多利益。在这种情况下,只有玩家害怕别人获取利益才有可能拉低价格。我们可以看到《M.U.L.E》带有深入且丰富的游戏机制。消耗敌人的资源与直接摧毁他们一样有趣。
(本文为游戏邦/编译,拒绝任何不保留版权的转载,如需转载请联系:游戏邦)
The trials and tribulations of balancing your in-game economy
By Soren Johnson
Game design and economics have a spotty history. Designing a simultaneously fun and functional economy is no easy task, as many design assumptions tend to backfire when they come in contact with the player. For example, the early days of Ultima Online were infamous for the game’s wild and chaotic economy. Zachary Booth Simpson wrote a classic analysis of UO in 1999, detailing some of the more notable problems experienced at launch:
The crafting system encouraged massive over-production by rewarding players for each item produced.
Over-production led to hyper-inflation as NPC shopkeepers printed money on demand to buy the worthless items.
Players used vendors as unlimited safety deposit boxes by setting the prices for their own goods far above market value.
Item hoarding by players forced the team to abandon the closed-loop economy as the world began to empty out of goods.
Player cartels (including one from a rival game company!) cornered the market on magical Reagents, preventing average users from casting spells.
MMO economies have come a World of Warcraft’s auction house is now a vibrant part of the game’s economy and overall world, with many players spending much of their time “playing the market” to good effect. CCP, developer of EVE Online, even hired an academic economist to analyze the flow of resources and the fluctuation of prices within Eve’s game world. Indeed, understanding the potential effect of market forces on gameplay is an important ability for designers to develop.
Can the market balance the game?
Many designers have used economic game mechanics as a tool for balancing their games. For example, in Rise of Nations, every time a unit — such as a Knight or Archer — is purchased, the cost of future units of the same type goes up, simulating the pressure of demand upon price. This design encouraged players to diversify their armed forces, in order to maximize their civilization’s buying power. By allowing the “values” of different paths and options to float during a game, designers present players with a constantly shifting landscape, extending replayability by guaranteeing no perfect path to victory.
However, if taken too far, efforts to auto-balance by tweaking the economy can destroy a game. In 2006, Valve conducted an interesting economic experiment within Counter-Strike: Source, implementing a dynamic weapon pricing algorithm. According to the developers, “the prices of weapons and equipment will be updated each week based on the global market demand for each item. As more people purchase a certain weapon, the price for that weapon will rise and other weapons will become less expensive.”
Unfortunately, the overwhelming popularity of certain weapons trumped the ability of the algorithm to balance the game. For example, while the very effective Desert Eagle skyrocketed to $16,000, the less useful Glock flatlined at $1, leading to some extreme edge cases (such as the pictured “Glock bomb”). A game economy i not everything can be balanced simply by altering its price. Gamers just want to have fun, and if the cost of the option considered the most fun is constantly tuned higher and higher until the price becomes prohibitive, players may not just alter their strategy—they may simply go play another game. The current price of gas may be making our real lives “unfun,” but only one real-world economy exists, leaving us no choice. Gamers are not in the same situation.
Ultimately, designers should remember that achieving perfect balance is a dubious goal. Players are not looking for another game like rock/paper/scissors, in which every choice is guaranteed to be valid, essentially encouraging random strategies. Players are motivated by reasons beyond purely economic ones when playing games. Raising the cost of a player’s favorite weapon is simply going to feel like a penalty and should only be done if the imbalance is actually ruining the core game.
Putting the Market Inside the Game
Perhaps a more appropriate use of economic dynamics is as a transparent mechanic within the game itself. The board game world provides some great examples of such free market mechanics at work. German-style games Puerto Rico and Vinci both use increasing subsidies to improve the appeal of unpopular roles and technologies, respectively. In the case of the former, every turn no player decides to be the Craftsman, one gold piece is added as a “reward” for choosing that role. As the gold increases slowly, few players will be able to resist such a bounty, which nicely solves the problem of making sure all roles are eventually chosen.
Puerto Rico still has some clearly better and clearly worse options—they just change from turn to turn based on the current reward. In this case, autobalancing actually keeps the game fun because players are rewarded for choosing less common strategies, instead of being penalized for sticking to their favorites. Perhaps more importantly, the effects of the market are spelled out clearly for the players ahead of time, so that no one feels the game is biased against them.
Perhaps the most elegant example of a pure free market mechanic based around actual resources and prices can be found in Power Grid, another German-style board game. In this case, players supply their power plants with a variety of resources (oil, coal, uranium, and garbage), all of which are purchased from a central market. Resource pieces are arranged on a linear track of escalating prices. Every turn, X new pieces of each resource are added to the market, and players take Y pieces away as purchases. As the supply goes up and down, the price correspondingly goes up and down, depending on where the next available piece is on the market track.
By making the supply-demand mechanic so explicit and transparent to the players, the market becomes its own battlefield, as much as the hex grid of a wargame might be. By buying up as much coal as possible, one player might drive the price out of the range of the player in the next seat, causing her to be unable to supply all her plants at the end of the turn, a disastrous event in Power Grid. Thus, with a true open market, price can be used as a weapon just as much as an arrow or a sword might be in a military game.
The Benefits of Free Trade
Similarly, a number of modern strategy games, including Sins of the Solar Empire and the Age of Empires series, have included free markets in which players could buy and sell resources, influencing global prices with their actions. These markets served as interesting “greed tests” in that players are often tempted to sell when they need cash or to buy when they are short on a specific resource, but they know in the back of their minds that each time they use the market, they are potentially giving an advantage to another player. Buy too much wood in Age of Kings, and your opponents can make all the gold they need selling off their excess supply.
Unfortunately, the market dynamics of these games tend to repeat themselves, with prices usually bottoming out once the players’ total production overwhelms their needs. This effect stems from the fact that the game maps emphasize economic fairness — in AoK, each player is guaranteed a decent supply of gold, stone, and wood within a short distance of their starting location. Spreading resources randomly around the map could lead to a much more dynamic and interesting market mechanic but at the cost of overall play balance for a game with a core military mechanic. If your opponents attack with horsemen, what if there is no wood with which to build spearmen, the appropriate counter unit?
However, a game with a core economic mechanic does not suffer from such limitations. In most business-based games, specializing in a specific resource is a basic part of the gameplay. Thus, a free market mechanic can become a compelling part of a competitive game. The ultimate example of such a game is the ’80s classic M.U.L.E., in which four players vie for economic dominance on a newly-settled world. Although only four resources exist (food, energy, smithore, and crystite), economies of scale encourage players to specialize. More importantly, players can rarely produce all the resources they need on their own, requiring them to buy directly from other players.
The game has a brilliant interface for facilitating this trade between players. Buyers are arranged along the bottom edge of the screen, with sellers on the top. As buyers move up, their asking price goes up accordingly. As sellers descend, their offer price decreases as well. When the two meet in the middle, a transaction occurs. Once again, the mechanic is explicit and transparent — player inventories and market prices are all clearly visible to everyone. Players understand that they either have to adjust their own prices to make a deal happen or hope that their rivals cave. Knowing how desperate another player might be to acquire the energy needed to power his buildings or the food needed to feed his labor, the temptation to pull every last penny from him is strong. In such a case, prices tend to fall only if the player is afraid someone else might sweep in to reap the profits. The game mechanic mined here by M.U.L.E. is deep and rich. Impoverishing one’s enemies can be just as much fun as destroying them.()
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