Business And Economy Archive
Thread: PLAYER run banks: this is an MMO right
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C-Bone_RE
Sun Jun 05, 2005 4:27 pm
#1
I haven't heard of a better economy than SWG in any MMO. Congrads crafting is actually economically pretty good, and adding player's vendor items to bazzar makes it much more efficient. However, let's get serious and really allow players to loan and deposit money. If you set it up with a server bank, it will be near impossible to design it sothat smart people can't take huge advantages of it. Now I could sit here a type a macro economics and accounting textbook, but that is a waste of time. I'm not asking for player run IB's (maybe later; that would be really cool). Just a simple bank that allows the following:
1)Loans
Player owners of a banks list the loans they are willing to give in the bank's (new building or terminal) terminal
The bank sets this criteria for each loan that aplayer must have to take out the loan:
1) how much money he is already loaning
2)A credit rating: formula applicable to this economy (making this correct will make or break the idea if it is implemented) However, the construction of the formula does not need discussion from the community. Rather it needs someone that understands economics to construct it.
The bank also has the option automactically give out the loan if criteria is met, OR the request is entered into the banks terminal in which a bank owner can look at the request and also access the player's total financial record
2) Deposits (virtually same as above but CD's instead of loans)
Now a big question is: players will get very pissed if banks go bankrupt. Well a banks record should be public and accessible from the bank's terminal to anyone. So there is a big risk indepositing in banks until the bank is well known. This makes banks start out small and will make interest rates high. I think interest rates can be very high because players that are willing to buy Uber items would rather take out a high interest loan rather than sell everything they have or not have enough money to buy it.
This may be boring for some of you, but here's the fun part.If creditors default BH's can have there funwith them. This is a seperate idea entirely, but at least BH's will be killing people for actually doing something wrong.
Vastar
Sun Jun 05, 2005 5:14 pm
#2
That does sound like fun, yes. I just wonder if anyone would really even be interested in taking out a loan.
C-Bone_RE
Sun Jun 05, 2005 5:34 pm
#3
i think a lot of people would:
For example a lot of players that are great fighters only hold about a mil of credits on them. If they come across a 10mil uber weapon they want to buy, they can take out a loan.
CharPrime
Sun Jun 05, 2005 6:34 pm
#4
there is no way to make a player pay back their loan. BH's don't hunt for free. you end up playing a bh to grief them until they pay. it don't add up.
C-Bone_RE wrote:
This may be boring for some of you, but here's the fun part.If creditors default BH's can have there funwith them. This is a seperate idea entirely, but at least BH's will be killing people for actually doing something wrong.
Vastar
Sun Jun 05, 2005 7:07 pm
#5
CharPrime wrote:
you end up playing a bh to grief them until they pay.
When you put it like that, I find myself now on-board, 100%.
Rather than late fees, we could tack on "collection charges".
CharPrime
Sun Jun 05, 2005 7:09 pm
#6
Vastar wrote:
CharPrime wrote:
you end up playing a bh to grief them until they pay.
When you put it like that, I find myself now on-board, 100%.
still that person still don't have to pay. you will be out more money for the BH's service. you can grief them to ruin their gaming experiences but CSR may have a problem with that.
Vastar
Sun Jun 05, 2005 7:49 pm
#7
CharPrime wrote:
Vastar wrote:
CharPrime wrote:
you end up playing a bh to grief them until they pay.
When you put it like that, I find myself now on-board, 100%.
still that person still don't have to pay. you will be out more money for the BH's service. you can grief them to ruin their gaming experiences but CSR may have a problem with that.
Yes, I realize SWG along with the whole MMORPG genre have strayed too far from it's roots for such a system to work. That doesn't stop me from feeling warm and fuzzy from the thought running through my mind.
oscabegra
Sun Jun 05, 2005 8:09 pm
#8
What happens when I use an alt to take out a loan and then tip that money to my main character, delete the alt and do it all over again?
Eerif
Sun Jun 05, 2005 10:35 pm
#9
Perhaps regarding to the Bounty Hunter argument, if the player feels that the other player has taken too long in paying, in other words, has late fees, instead of waiting longer for it, the player could take out a mission in which if the player is successfully killed, the amount loaned goes back to the banker, and the bounty hunter gets the overdue fees.
oscabegra wrote:
What happens when I use an alt to take out a loan and then tip that money to my main character, delete the alt and do it all over again?
With this respect, a player must be at least 3 months old on a server in order to take out a loan, and the loan amount depends on how long the player has been with the specific bank.
I like the idea, just tryin to help out 
AliesterCr
Mon Jun 06, 2005 12:53 pm
#11
Ok I really, really, really like this idea. I would love to be a bank owner with financial partners and such.
As far as the alt exploit possibilities handle it like a real bank would. If you have little to no financial history you either don't get a loan or get a really controlled loan (secured loan backed by some piece of property that gets repossessed if you default.). With this in mind a player could put up a really good piece of loot, property, etc.. that would be not be able to be deeded to moved or in the case of the loot would be held in a saftey deposit box until the loan is paid in full (with all applicable interest and late fees that may apply).
Now about enforcement. The BH idea is really cool but in addition to this why not garnish wages? If you buy a travel ticket in a city some of that money goes to the city right? Why not tack on extra travel charges, vehicle repair charges, vendor garnishments, maintanence garnishments, etc. Basically whenever the server gets paid money to upkeep structures, go some where, do something the bank could get a cut of the money if the customer is in default of said loan. Since the server is collecting money as a money sink would not be too hard to add in a % surcharge to their transaction to pay for fees (their bounty) and interest.
Just an idea. Oh and a way for newer players to raise their credit rating might be to award customers for depositing money into the banks CD's and keeping it there. Basically the bank takes in money and gives you interest for keeping it there since they in turn loan out that money to other people for a much higher interest rate. So if a customer has had a player run bank account for an extended period of time and has kept a decent minimum balance then their credit rating should reflect this as the likely hood of them running off with your money is low.
Also a detailed financial statement of the prospective customer should be available to the bank owners as players would be more likely to spot fraudulent records.
Kinshi
Mon Jun 06, 2005 1:10 pm
#12
Nice in concept but would fail in reality...
Why?
Too much of SWGs population is young and have no clue about banking concepts.
Too many people would rip you off, and not pay their loans
Too many people would engage in predatory lending, trying to rip people off
Money is too easy to obtain (either via mission or ebay)..no need to take out loans.
Its not necessary to have a 'in game' banking system when it can already be done. Heres how:
You have lots of credits to loan, you only loan to people you trust (and you make a process for new people to establish trust), you require some form of collateral (like /transfer of vehicles or houses to you or one of your accounts). It must be a/transfer, not simply admin rights. You then grant the creditor admin rights to their house. If they fail to pay, you take them off the admin list, locking them out.
Loans dont get issued until the transfer is complete (but even a Large house isnt worth much in terms of collateral (100-120k at most). Hell if some dude is walking around w/ 10 large house deeds, he doesnt need a loan, he needs to sell those.
Valuable loot could be put up as collateral (like krayt pearls, high end armor attachments, etc, etc, just depends on the value of the loan. (tho honestly I dont see loans less than 1,000,000 cr to be worth doing.
And you keep books, charge interest on the loan accordingly. Player can /tip you their monthly payment, if they fail to pay, you keep the collateral.
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