Author: sandertje19
Translator: Marcelbuter
As usual I started this trading period by circling the sky above the Federation. Right away I noticed a new island was formed in the shape of a 50, which immediately made me wonder why.
During those thoughts I was interrupted by a message from the chief editor of The Miniconomist (TMC). I opened the message, not knowing what to expect since the trading period hadn’t even started. It said that there would be 3 special editions of the TMC due to the 50th trading period in Miniconomy. At that moment I realized what the island was for as well. The message went on saying that they would like me to write an article for one of the special editions with my vision on Miniconomy in the past and in the future. Honored as I felt, it didn’t take me long to think about, so I decided to start writing.
Even though I haven’t even been here for half of the trading periods, I think that I have reached almost all of my goals. The only thing that I really miss is the status of SCoI. There are of course some other things that I haven’t achieved, but those to me are less important things.
But let’s start at the beginning. What many don’t know is that I was present at one of the first trading periods. Back then I really didn’t understand much of the game and can only remember few things. I was trading in Eurodam in wood. I do remember you could search for oil underwater, an option which now no longer exists. Besides that I can’t remember much of it, and shortly afterwards I didn’t do much for quite some time.
In the 28th trading period I came back on a new account based in Monapoli, where I stayed for my entire career except for a few business trips. In those days I still didn’t understand much of the game, but I was helped by players like gmstv, Peedy, tijntrix, and Jordy21. The trading period after it went a lot better and I became advanced after my first top 20 place. With this my first goal was achieved. Not that it is a goal which is hard to achieve, but that doesn’t make it less important. In those days there was a group of players who divided products very well, which allowed a lot of trading without much competition. The most annoying player back then was Bytertje, since you know that he would always sabotage these plans, but even though it drove you nuts sometimes, it brought some fun times.
After a few trading periods where I traded actively I decided that I wanted more. I finished in the top 20 a few more times after that, had gotten to know the art of shooting, and more, so I decided to go for mayor. Due to a great following this wasn’t hard to achieve. Being mayor is fun but not really challenging. Making sure exims were always offered, keeping your warehouse empty and filling the tourist investments were the basic tasks. I don’t think I did a bad job at all. Due to large budgets it was easy to do well. We got these budgets because there was a large group of players that helped keep the city active, which in the end increased the budget by a lot. I did however miss trading, so I started trading in Gold Coast with another account as well while I was mayor. I also did this since there was a gold shortage in Digitalia and Gold Coast is known for its massive amount of gold. I traded in chips and gold, delivering to the people of Virtua and Digitalia at the same time. Back then lots in Virtua were 80 I-Shell and you dug 100 gold up per lot. The costs were therefore very low and reached the top 20 right away again.
The group got smaller and other people started crossing the river. Geert and Richard were always in for a bit of fun, so we decided to spend a whole round attacking Cyberia with bombs and bullets. This was a great round, but we made a lot of enemies, especially the Federals were not happy with it. The trading period after this many things were changed. Laying bombs was a lot harder afterwards and the damage it did was lowered, for shooting the chance to get caught was a lot higher, the backpack was introduced, attack skills now were 500 I-Shell instead of 10 I-Shell and hospitals were introduced to lower the amount of damage taken. Buying players out of jail was made twice as expensive as well. All of this lead to heavy protests by Digitalian players at the address of the Federals.
Things have improved, but it will never be as much fun as back then, even though I still shoot the occasional bullet now.
After that round I decided trading actively again. I have made 2 attempts to win the round, but both times I ended in second place. This could be because I am not the best trader in Miniconomy, but it is probably because I waste a lot of money every round shooting people.
Besides that I just keep trading and occasionally achieve a Top 10 place, which finally earned me my CoI place. I lost that right afterwards however due to a criminal status, but at the moment of writing this I have it back due to a top 20 place since then.
My political career was never that spectacular. I was a member of parliament one time, but I didn’t like it one bit. I have since then been Senator and King, but none of this is really my thing.
In all trading periods that I have played in some things have changed. I have seen players come and players go. I have been part of most of the aspects in the game, but yet I still keep returning. My goal is really to become SCoI, and I will do my best to achieve it.
I don’t know íf the game will ever be the same as back then for me. Changes are part of life as well though, so you learn to deal with it, even though you still get annoyed at times. I don’t really have a vision of what the future will hold since you never know what will happen and if the people you became friends with keep playing either.