Merchant Archive

I was in a conversation with one of my suppliers the other day when we broached a subject that currently has no easily definable game mechanic, but is obviously a role the Merchant plays (or can play) in the economy - both here and in RL. That role is the banker. Theseller of money.

Our conversation started me thinking about the role of the Merchant in SWG. That role is selling. Crafters make, merchants sell. There are some fine lines between the two but those lines are really just perceived as overlap. The real situation is crafters who take a small amount of selling (Business 3) and then have the ability to compete directly with the Merchant. I myself am a pure Merchant in the sense that I have no crafting skills other than the Business line and make no products. I resell for the crafters in multiple shops in multiple locations. I am theSuperstore/Department Storeof SWG.

Now this brings me to my original discussion, the lending - or selling - of money. Right now the only way that money gets into the game is through missions. After that it gets passed around, but only in one direction. The mission runner get paid. That money in turn is used (among other things) to buy items from the seller. The seller is either the maker of the goods or the reseller. In the reseller arrangement, the money then is passed on to the crafter (after taking their cut). Now what if there was a mechanism to pass money in the other direction as well? From the seller back to the buyer. Now the mission runner has another possible means of gaining money for items besides missions. The cash-flow loop becomes closed instead of open, in essence reducing the need for artificial cash sinks. This is the foundation ofan economy - closed loop cash-flow.

Now, in RL some of the first money lenders were the merchants because they were the ones (besides the royalty) that had money. They began to loan out money to various people. They made more money in return through either interest or reposession of collateral. Also in RL the richest corporations in the world are those in the financial services industries - insurance and banking. They own the land and big buildings, they control the economy. Everyone else just makes things so there is a need for spending money. In SWG we already have aninsurance system in place, but we do not have a banking industry.

The bottom line to my ramblings is the idea of giving Merchants the ability to sell money. Right now we have reduced fees to make selling cheaper, we have limited advertising, we have snazzy looking vendors that we can dress up, and we have multiple vendors we can support. I think that giving Merchants the ability to sell money - a Banking line - is a way to help sustain long term economic health as well as closing the money funnel down by creating a real closed loop instead of an artificial sink.

I admit that I have a bit of a philosophical bent, but I would like to hear what others think of this idea. What do you the merchants and devs think of it?

Thanks for reading.

The problem with money lending it that just about any mechanics you put in to the game to ensure that the loan is paid back, there's not much you can do about the player that takes the money and transfers it to another character before deleting the borrower, or about those who just stop playing or otherwise lose their account. The devs don't want to have to field CSR tickets about deadbeats.

For those of us trying to play pure merchants we just have to try to provide market access, though one can look at buying items at a wholesale price as a sort of loan to be paid by theeventual buyer and the interest earned in profit margin.

I do agree that Business III provides too much merchant ability to artisans, particularly since the last patch put all vendors at about the same maintenance cost. I'd rather see tools added to our profession than the nerfing of artisans however.