Author: marcelbuter
Last week we discussed the situation that Ibisha was in, a flourishing city due to the amount of active traders and at that point the healthiest of cities Federation wide. This week we saw the pitfall of the trade in Miniconomy at the moment. The amount of active traders has gone down from 20 to around 5, which means that trade has almost come to a complete halt now. All the more reason to make sure that cities have enough active traders, because only making 10 sales per day is almost not worth coming online for.
This week, I want to discuss the benefits and losses that this plan brings, next week will be about the implementation of such a plan and the risks that go along with it.
So what are the benefits of more traders combined in a single city? The economy in Miniconomy is based on the amount of traders putting money into your system. Like in real life the government lives on taxes in the process from raw materials to consumption, financially fed by people trying to maximize the productivity of this system. In plain English, every person who takes an active part in the economy makes it stronger. When 50 people all invest in bigger shops and warehouses, more chances arise for traders, then when 5 people do so.
When more than the minimum 15 active traders take part in an economy, it leads to competition since all products are covered. The fact of the matter however is that all products being covered is a healthy situation since the balance of the products is based on them all being traded. If most cities for example never sell computers or chips, then there won’t be a market for certain products and people won’t trade those. This leads to for example 6 of the 10 traders in Zwollar starting up in the wood trade. A better balance between trade will lead to more variance in trade, and since the game was designed for variance in trade, that is a good thing.
After all products are taken though, competition will occur. Competition is currently perceived as a bad thing in Miniconomy, and it leads to name calling, buying all the surrounding lots, buying all the lots in a city, digging their shop’s lot state to zero so they can’t expand, blocking the lots around it, insults, slander. All these things add to the negative atmosphere surrounded with trading at the moment. As soon as someone starts trading in the same product as someone else their gaming fun is gone. Seems childish, but it is true that if someone starts trading in the same product, your chances for top 20 have just halved, especially in the smaller economies. Instead of the things mentioned above, what are the tactics to deal with competition?
Miniconomy has certain systems in place for traders to deal with competition, one is marketing. Marketing is investing in phones, cameras, and computers in order to be visible more at the front of the street. This phenomenon was last seen around the winter of 2007 because afterwards it just never was necessary anymore. Not only marketing, but also shop banners have almost disappeared. If you’re the only iron trader in the city, then why do you need to make your shop stand out? The fact that these two things have disappeared means that there are less investments by traders in products which usually accounted for a lot of trade at the end of the first and beginning of the second trading week. At the moment it is that part of the week and we see a large fall in investments, together with the fall in overall trade.
Besides this, other investments have almost come to a halt as well. Shops used to be bigger because you needed to put enough in to last you when you were at school, work or went for dinner. Now people will wait hours for your return instead of having six alternatives for the products. If people no longer invest in the sizes of shops or warehouses, then trade will decline as well since investments in these two products is the primary form of trade in Miniconomy.
Last benefit I would like to discuss is personal contact. At the moment you have a very limited contact group because you only need two or three traders for your products. Since you are the only seller of a product your relationship with customers is not important. If competition returns, you will need to make personal contact with your customers, you will need to negotiate about big orders, bulk discounts, contracts, etc. This is what once made Miniconomy such a tightly knit game, because you came into positive personal contact with a lot of players, not just the competitive banter on the chat of today. And everyone will agree that a bit more positive atmosphere in Miniconomy at the moment would not be misplaced.
So what might we lose? I have received one e-mail where it is stated that national politics will become less popular. I think that with the changes in financial rewards for politics, combined with the fact that per city state you still need a judicial system, a financial system, and an educational system, you will still need politics. The challenges and fights that occur between cities is the only thing removed, but that only leads to a certain element of fun for a small group of players. Mayor on the other hand will be more interesting since a Mayor would have to take care of a larger city and would have more to do on a daily basis. Besides this I have received a few comments where people state that it is not really a risk of losses, but more an element of change which will be a challenge.
Next week part three, and as last time, please send me your comments.