Day 309: Economics

Elder Scrolls 4 has seen a surge in popularity here in the S-6 shop. Most people have stopped their internet service and need some kind of pass time to kill the last month in country. Everyone has a gaming capable laptop, but the selection at the PX is severely lacking. Often in the case of Bioshock, and Dawn of War 2, most games have some form of DRM (Digital Rights Management) that prevent the buyer from playing the game without an internet connection. Most boxes don’t advertise this requirement and a soldier loses out on $60.

Oblivion on the other hand is $20 and does not require the user to go online to verify the purchase.

The versatile play style allows for a different story every time the player rolls up a new character. SGT McGraw accidently contracted Porphyria and is having a good time Vampire. He was offered to be cured of the dieses but thinks it makes the game much more fun. It’s a testament that great games allow the player to achieve their “Ideal Win.” That customized victory the player wishes to experience.

Personally I was to win through economic conquest. In the MMO Final Fantast XI my favorite part of the game was playing the various Action Houses (the in game Ebay) and using the market fluctuations to make mass amounts of money. In that particular game’s economy, real money trade had put a choke hold on character progress, diving the game in to extreme upped and lower classes. It took two months of research combined with another two months of careful investments, but I was able fight and class my way across the mile wide economic trench and make the leap to the higher economic class.

The idea that I had to put forth four months of effort just have the funds to play the game as the developers intended was bullshit. I handed off all my investments, contacts, and finance logs to a friend and logged out of the game for the last time. Still, to this day I had more fun playing the economy in FFXI than any other game since. No other game can play it quite right for that experience. Wow has only one centralized Auction House, and EVE requires the massive time sink of transporting goods from point A to point B. For most MMOs playing the market just isn’t fun.

Oblivion provides a good base line for an Economic Conquest game. For those who don’t know, imagine a stereotypical middle ages setting with magic. Keep an open mind as I’m hitting the dues ex machina button to write off all the software limitations the following ideas would bring. And Disregard the PC stamp on my character’s forehead. Life is more fun with competition, and I want the NPCs to have all the potential abilities of the PC and vice versa.

For one I want the ability to take over guilds and perform all the tasks an NPC can. Why should I pay an NPC to make and repair my armor when I can do it on my own? I should be able to learn and perform all the tasks an NPC can so long as I can persuade them to teach me. I should be able to teach NPCs the skills I have acquired, and restructure organizations as I see fit. Instead of a fictional fighter’s guild that exists solely as flavor for the PC, I want an efficient and effective for profit organization centered on the common interest of martial skill.

But that is only one example from the overall big picture. The end goal is to restructure the entire economy of the Oblivion game, not just one small business. I would start from the bottom up. Agriculture, water, ore, construction material, the basic goods from which every civilization requires. These would be the markets I would first corner before expanding to services. Often times in adventuring games I end up with a surplus of funds from careful investments, and very little to spend it on. The idea is to have my hands in every cookie jar when it comes to logistics of keeping settlements alive. A person selling a luxury item is more likely to be outs for barons looking to make a quick buck, than the slow and effective mass yield over time investments. Overall in the event that disputes or rivalry break out, the faction that can effectively feed its population is more likely to prevail.

From there I can utilize the wealth and contacts I’ve assembled in basic needs fields to gain influence and ownership with service based. The idea is to take all these basic needs goods and sell a better quality of product faster and cheaper than all other competition. By the basis of free market, my business will be the one to prevail. If competition wants to escalate the affair past civilized marketing, well, that’s why I became a crack shot with a crossbow long before I took up economics. Let’s face it, dead people make no money in Oblivion.

Think about it, target influential people within the mages guild, provide them with the means to succeed and the logistics to better support their organization, and ensure that they change policy and standards to best shape the area into a lucrative economy.

Think of it like anti-socialism. Instead of enforcing policy from the top down with fines and incarceration I would offer people better employment and education. A choice they can make of their own free will. I like to appeal to people’s senses of greed, ego, and idealism. Heavy handed socialism negates the fact that there will always be resistance by individualism who prefer to make their fortune rather than have it forced to them. I’d like to offer people a better standard of living, and more importantly, the choice to take or refuse it.

The monkey wrench in the whole scheme is dealing with the heretical nobility ruling most of the Oblivion game. In my humble opinion, it breeds weak leadership that is ultimately attached and unaware of the plight to their subjects. As I’m a fan of the Discworld novels, I find that “Assassination as a legitimate form of accession.” works wonders here. Remember I mentioned the adventuring part of the game? I would start off with working for the Dark Brotherhood , a fraternal organization of assassination. Good old boy networks and special interests groups are inevitable in any form of government so I’d take measures to implant my personal network. The Dark Brotherhood would up their training regiment to cultivate leadership and political prowess as well as martial ability. A dead politician cannot create any progress, so a trained assassin would be more likely to stay alive. Change makes many enemies when working against a long established system, and it helps to have a leaders who know how to keep themselves alive.

Graduates of this system, by merit of not dying, would have the option of choosing what branch they wish to progress. Whether they wish to continue the route of killer for hire, or retire their cloaks for official would be up to them. Regardless, you have leaders that can cooperate, communicate, and trust each other due to a shared past and ideology. When a tyrant noble refuses to play ball despite the fact that the food, water, and goods all come thru my trade guild, it would be time to replace him with one of my brethren from the dark brotherhood. The old guard would be replaced in short order, and the decision making for local affairs will be set at the lowest level. Most Mayors (the lowest level of local policy, I call them Mayor’s for lack of a better term) will be highly encouraged to be approachable by the public they effect. I want to make it so that if a commoner wishes to express their opinion to the Mayor, they may speak with him face to face, as well as the Mayor can express his opinion right back. I cannot tolerate policy makers sitting in their ivory towers, policy makers should know the people they influence on a personal level.

A completely armed populace is the most civilized. There are no fist fights or shouting matches in my unit in Iraq because everyone is armed with assault rifles with the willingness and ability to use them to lethal effect. To emphasis this point, the sigil of a Mayor, the symbol of his office, is a Sword of Damocles. Each of them should remember that they achieved office because their predecessor was weak and corrupt enough to allow his murder. And that should they oppress rather than Sheppard their subjects, they will find themselves in a small pine box as well.

Admittedly setting up an regency/monarchy would just put me back where I started. Sure I would have all the wealth and power of the previous system but no overall progress would be made. The trick would be to share power among the economic bodies of the each region to a decentralized oligarchy, or regional council. The idea would be to have a decentralized system that would transfer decision making power to the groups with the greatest influence over the economy. While still possible, political corruption is harder to gain full control in a system with ample checks and balances. While my brethren of the Dark Brotherhood would still hold a influence as the ruling body, individual choice must be respected and maintained.