Thread: MC: Currency
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arteggio
Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Within
 
2011-04-26, 09:26

Knock-knock, is the door still open?

At first thought, I would support a currency hands-down. It goes along with my obsession of recreating real world counterparts in MC where, seemingly, they could be beneficial. (Remember my desire a few months ago to organize and numerize the skyways? This idea is still scratching at the back of my mind with its claws.)

Though, some good points have been brought up against a currency. I once wondered to myself if it would turn too much into a system like Runescape, which I figured others wouldn't like since MC contrasts a lot from that game, in part because you don't need to work your way up a cast system and pay to feed yourself.

Now I don't know where I stand. I like the 'organization' that the system could bring, but bartering — and sharing! — are important in our world. If a currency comes about I can see bartering staying (You have X, I have Y. You want Y, I want X. Trade.), but I think sharing might become diminished. For example, I offered Robo my two-month collection of black wool for his lovely Lego house. I didn't expect and don't want anything in return. I had it sitting there for two months with no use in sight; on the other hand, Robo had a use for it. But would I have donated it if I could have sold it for, say, lapis or diamond?

But, whether or not I would have still donated it, I support a currency because of things like lapis and diamond. Yeah, they're rare, so what, Notch and his resource formulas aren't godsend or anything. This is a game; diamond tools help us mine more efficiently, and there's no reason at all that lapis should be more rare than red flowers. I have mined only three diamonds since Brad first gave me away a stack in January, and I have not mined any lapis since their inclusion. I'm not too fond of asking for things either, but I sucked it up and got some lapis from Brad because I knew it would be ages before I might come across any.

But I must admit, I'm a lazy-ass miner. I dislike mining. I didn't know if I would mentally survive the task of digging out my moat, which only goes about 20 blocks deep on average, and is just two wide. How the hell did spec stay sane digging his chunk error mine? How did bbsky mine the resources for the Skyranch?! Maybe it's just me.

I recognize that mining is an integral part of the game, but I dislike it. I want to build.

So, at least a part of the debate over a currency system boils down to: is our AN MC world there to mine, or to build? Mining is necessary to build in a vanilla environment; with our local godmins, we don't "need" to mine. We could just build. It is these buildings that we enjoy sharing with each other. How much bigger would our would be with structures if we didn't have to spend a proportionate time mining?

Is there any merit to mining all of your own stuff? Personally, I don't see any merit in it. I'm not into spending hundreds of virtual hours away from my real life if it isn't going to add to it. Mining does not add to the time I take away from the rest of my life. Building does.

That is my personal take on this. I see a currency system as a way to mine less than I already do, and let me tell you, that makes me damn well giddy. I want to build. (This brings up the question though if the admins will open a fully-stocked store that we can buy from, or if the markets will still be based upon our own minings, in which case I might turn out a poor, old, stubborn man.)



Now, I have a novel idea. It might be the simplicity 709's looking for after everyone's spent two pages debating the exquisite details, the pros and cons and the in-betweens.

Why don't we try it for a month.

There are too many variables, too many players, to try to figure out in words if a small virtual economy will function in game. Let's just try it. Who knows, maybe bobsky will end up loving it and 709 will be pulling his hairs out individually.

Bobsky suggested that we propose how a currency might be useful: well, I don't know. I like the idea because it might be useful, so I want to see if it is or it is not.

In my opinion, none of this thread has concretely determined whether a currency will be beneficial or harmful to our ways. So, I'm not convinced that this is (yet) a bad idea.

If we do try it, I think there is a primary detail that needs to be figured out quickly, going along the lines of Captain Drew weeping in the corner as the simple days in his playground are threatened: do we have to dig our own dungeons to attract slime to use as our own money, or will we all be granted some amount from the beginning of the trial which we must manage between buying-&-selling, and then kill slime for extra income?

I say we try it. I want to try it. If it doesn't work, then we have concrete evidence that it won't. I don't think we have any such evidence yet.
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