A brief overview of EVE Online's trade and industry

Apparently some folks dont get it yet. In any MMO that has INFINITE resources, EVE included, there is no economy, did everyone get that? still in denial?

the only thing EVERY MMO out there has is a player run item store, no economy, prices are driven by greed, not practicality, not loss of resource, not supply and demand.

Some folks need to go back to school and take some economic classes, maybe these folks will learn the difference between a "say so item mall" and an environment with a real economy, which again, doesnt exist in an mmo yet.

Things devs need to consider but wont be allowed to use for ideas in any way is this, make a world, land mass, whatever with FINITE resources, force the players to fight or through exploration find alternative methods to gain new resources, by finding a new land mass, world, etc. Nodes do not regen, unless say organic resources are planted, and then players have to stop poaching, stealing by other players etc, which in itself leads to alot of comical situations if one thinks about it.

imagine areas where resources need to be planted for say exotic woods or fibers, and the glee of folks wanting to steal said resources because they need them and are to lazy to farm or whatever. tons of potential mechanics to open up entirely new venues of game play, but the majority of devs are simply 2 dimensional thinkers

expansions could provide new areas with resources, again some renewable, some, once used are gone forever.

Its the lazyness of devs in thinking they have created a living economy that prevents any actual proggress in MMO's to an actual economy and new avenues of play.

But then, hey, these are only games, and golly, everything is renewable!!!!!! (grin)

Economy....pffffft.

Er...? Infinite my *beep*. You are mistaking infinte for "instantaneous" methinks.

Forgot about a little concept called "time" have we? That in itself creates an in-game "economy". In the real world as far as I am concerned most things I buy exist in an "infinte" amount based on the (flawed) logic that I can get most things where ever I am (purely out of a customers view here).

Whether the economy is real out of a resource availability perspective is almost a mute point from the customers point of view *except* for the fact that I see price differences, ie some things are expensive some less so.

So: The producer has to gain resources and turn those into products - regardless of resources being infinite or not this takes *time*. I have to somehow make money to buy those products which takes up *my* time.

Infinte or not some resources are easier to get by while some are harder to get by. Then there's the production time which also differs reatly, all of which makes a significant difference to the producers *time* investment. The "time equals money" cliché should have been mentioned in most of all those economics courses you have surely taken.

Or maybe you are an immortal 20-ish looking dude, living in a static world who does not have to care about day-to-day life out of a time perspective?

blip has it right. it may not be a real world economy (naturally), but it is still an economy.