New World Talks Sink And Faucet Economy Post-Rise Of The Angry Earth
The Rise of the Angry Earth had just come out and they had yet to see its effects.
“The last time we did this episode, when we were looking at our data ahead of time, stuff was looking pretty decent,” says lead season designer Patrick Smedley. “By the time [the] episode aired, players weren’t feeling so good.”
Following the expansion’s launch, the economy apparently flipped from a faucet economy where there’s more money being generated than is being used, to a sink economy, which is the exact opposite. To counter the effects, the team introduced weekly craftable caches that offered a potential source of 1500 gold a week, sent a key faction vendor packing, and injected more money into the economy with seasonal events.
The team says that ensuring a healthy in-game economy is a balancing act. While player experience suffers with a sink economy, they don’t want to cause “runaway inflation” either by blasting too much currency into the game.
It’s an interesting watch as it offers great insight into how MMO developers manage in-game economies, complete with before and chapter graphs and charts.
