Posted by Harpalyce from Kinz-land forum
Or, "Really, Harpalyce, you're on break from college, you don't have to be like this",
or, "How to impress your parents with how Webkinz really is educational!".
Silliness aside, this is one of my 'pet subjects'. So prepare for a crushing wall of text!
Economics in Online Games: Building an Economy from Scratch
Part of the challenge in any online game involving currency is the fact that one must essentially build an economy from scratch. In the real world, even if Texas suddenly decided to be its own country today, it would "inherit" most of its economy from the United States. Economies nowadays thanks to the internet and trading currency are deeply interconnected, so attempting to build an economy from scratch is hard.
However they are all interesting to observe from an economic point of view because it gives us an idea of what's good and what's bad to do when building an economy from scratch. We can then take this idea and apply it to economics as a whole.
The first and greatest challenge of building a virtual economy from scratch is inflation. Inflation simply means that if you have an object - a piece of bread for instance - it will cost more to buy it if the economy is suffering from inflation. Some inflation is natural - just ask your parents what a pint of milk cost when they were your age - but it is tied to how much people are making. (As a relative percentage of income, the pint of milk still 'costs' the same; its price has risen as people have been paid more on average.) Inflation becomes a problem when people's wages DON'T rise, so that slice of bread may end up being 50% of their income.
Inflation was a huge problem during the Great Depression, but is most readily seen in the economy of the Confederate States of America during the Civil war. The expression "not worth a Confederate dollar" comes from this. During the war the Confederacy decided that to pay back their debts, they would simply create more money. This meant that the value of a dollar dropped as there became many dollars in circulation, and inflation became rampant and out of control.
Free Market Gone Wrong: Neopets
In terms of a virtual economy, inflation must be kept in check in terms of "money sinks". This means that while you are creating money through payoffs on games, etc, you also must take money out of the economy somehow so that the value of your virtual dollar does not fall to the point where inflation becomes a problem.
Neopets is a great example of what happens when this goes wrong. When I started playing Neopets, a loaf of bread cost 5 neopoints, a reasonable percentage of the money you would win through daily games. Now, using those same games, I would need to save up to buy bread due to skyrocketing prices. Because they have many sponsors like McDonald's that want you to come play their game, Neopets has not implemented many money sinks, if at all; instead they just have increased payoffs from games. (If a game doesn't give you that satisfaction of having earned a lot of virtual money, it's rare that you will go pay it, and Neopets' sponsors are counting on having a lot of publicity!)
Because new money is always being created, but never taken out of the economy, Neopets' economy is analagous to that of the Confederacy - inflation is out of control. Thusly, it stops being quite such a fun game to play, because one is always trying to stay a few steps ahead of inflation to save up for an item.
Free Market Gone Right: World of Warcraft
The economy as presented in the MMO World of Warcraft is much more complex. However, it correctly implements "money sinks" so that inflation is slow and steady, enough to not be a problem overall.
In WoW, money is similarly generated "from scratch" by either quests (you retrieve Farmer John's pocketwatch from his house where zombies have invaded, he pays you for your time) or from looting monsters (you kill a zombie, it had money in its pockets). However, both of these ways to generate money involve being in combat, as WoW is a combat-based MMO. As you go out adventuring and attacking things, there is a built in money sink: repairing your armor. The more time you spend attacking and being attacked, the more damage your armor will take, and the more it will cost to repair. Similarly, some classes, such as hunters, have additional costs: hunters have to buy arrows/shells for their bow/gun, which costs money, and they have to feed their pet, which again costs money (or "potential money", as in if they feed their pet some meat they find, they do not get the chance to make any profit from selling that meat off). All players also have to pay "training costs" to get new and upgraded spells every 2 levels.
Inflation does happen, given that WoW is an entirely free market, and the money sinks are not overbearing. In other words, prices do steadily rise, but it's as people's 'incomes' rise - you get more money from a quest at a high level than at a low level. And it is still possible to save up for something really special, like a tiger you can ride around the world on.
Controlled Market: Webkinz
The economy in Webkinz is similar to that in World of Warcraft, only much simpler and streamlined for one simple reason: because prices are fixed (the W-Shop never runs out of an item due to everyone buying it, sales apply to everyone, even the Curio shop sells the same items over and over), and one can't sell to other players (i.e. set your own price), or trade money, most of the economy is static. You can collect money but all the money you have collected does not mean the economy is suffering inflation - the prices in the W-Shop never change.
Because of this Webkinz can hand out money via games and random daily events with a bit more abandon than World of Warcraft. They don't give you tons of money, but enough to save up for a big item after feeding your pet, even if you don't wish to go play the games. The one big money sink that they have is the W-Shop, and this works rather well because there is no way to avoid it. Even if you are transferring your wealth to another player, you must buy them something to send, therefore locking up that money in an object.
Mostly though inflation will never be a problem in Webkinz because the prices in the W-Shop never change. Supply is always there, and they do not respond to demand the way items on the auction house in World of Warcraft do. While a less realistic model of a virtual economy, this makes Webkinz enjoyable to play because you can know if you're saving up for soemthing, by the time you've gotten there, the price will still be the same as when you started. It also provides a good learning tool for small children, as the daily opportunities to get money are always there, much like an allowance, that they have to spend a little to keep their Webkinz healthy and happy and 'save up' for buying bigger items.
Thank you Harpalyce for your usefull Information
You can find more at our Store Webkinz or Webkins
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Economics of Webkinz, in comparison to other MMOs
Guide to getting Kinzcash fast
I found this guides on Kinz-land forum Posted by MissyMossie
Wonder how we have so much money to buy all Arte's rare stuff in the Curio Shop?
Here's the inside scoop.
I discovered that if you fill a whole room up with just strawberries you get the best payout of kinzcash when you sell it back to the W-Shop. Better than any other fruit or veggie. If you are going to use this method, make a separate account so you don't have issues, buy your curio shop rares and mail them to your regular account. You never need to water the plants. You just need to rake everyday. This saves a lot of time. I guess it rains every night in WW.
Here's how many strawberries you can get from that one harvest:
You can sell those stawberries at the W-Shop and earn 7 Kinzcash per bunch.
Let's do the math, 309 stawberries at 7 Kinzcash that's
309 x 7 = 2,163
Kinzcash within 10 days!
The average per harvest is 3 strawberries per square, and there are 100 squares in each yard. That comes out to average 300 Strawberries per harvest time. Every 10 days you will earn 2,163 Kinzcash.
The strawberries cost 50 Kinzcash per packet and there are 100 squares in each yard. So, 50 x 100 is 5,000 Kinzcash.
50 x 100 = 5000 + 1000 for the yard
6000 kinzcash, if you don't have the yard already.
After three harvests or 30 days, you have paid for your seeds and the rest is profits!!!
If you don't have the 5000 kinzcash up front, start out small. Buy 10 strawberry seeds each day until you fill up the whole yard. Then you can work on making more yards as your profits roll in.
I hope you guys get alot of kinzcash and good luck farming,
Missy
Thank Missy
Webkinz Shop | Webkins World
Friday, November 23, 2007
New Webkinz Collie
Latest Webkinz release date
Latest release dates for webkinsz and lil’kinz including the delayed charcoal cat, pinto horse and penguin amongst others below
WEBKINZ
CHARCOAL CAT (Approximate ship date: late November)
COLLIE (Approximate ship date: late November)
PINTO HORSE (Approximate ship date: late November)
TURTLE (Approximate ship date: December)
PENGUIN (Approximate ship date: December)
LOVE FROG (Approximate ship date: January 2008)
WHITE EASTER DUCK (Approximate ship date: March 2008)
LIL’KINZ
KOALA (Approximate ship date: late November)
PERSIAN CAT (Approximate ship date: late November)
LEOPARD (Approximate ship date: January 2008)
BULL DOG (Approximate ship date: January 2008)
PENGUIN (Approximate ship date: February 2008)
Find more Webkinz at Webkinz Store or Webkins World
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Friday, November 9, 2007
Webkinz Seal
Webkinz Seal
Where is the seal happiest? Swimming around in a pool, of course! But there's much more to the seal than simply swimming - this fantastic friend also loves to visit Quizzy's, hang out in the Clubhouse and visit the Tournament Arena for a game or two. It's a done deal - time to adopt a seal!Read more Read More......
