The Economist ~ We’re not there yet
Spite313
Dear friends,
I speak to you on the heels of yet another announcement from the admins. A friend of mine told me that this is the seventh major change to the economy module announced since day 970. As an economist, it is enough to make you want to throw your calculator and papers into the fire and quit the damn game.
First of all some good news. The economy is steadily picking up, since the professions were merged. More competition in previously understaffed sectors has meant a more reasonable wage/price difference, though the margins are still a little wide in some cases. Income has reached around 80% of its pre-V2 state, though that is not saying much since we were in the midst of a recession when v2 arrived.
Now the bad news. I predict these changes will be yet another bump on an already bumpy ride. Since V2 arrived, we have seen the admins make mistakes, rectify them, rectify the rectifications and then... well you get the picture. In any case they have finally admitted defeat and are going to burn practically everything new in v2, including large portions of the war module, happiness and time management.
For me, this is a cowardly move. The community was mad because they made mistakes, not because the concepts themselves were bad ones. After sacrificing something in the order of one hundred thousand players to make v2 happen, backtracking is a waste. The admins should have stuck with happiness, time management and so on, but adapted them to make it easier to understand and more demand-led. I would also say that at no point were any of the New World’s senior economic figures consulted, despite us being by definition on the rough end of things.
lol, a cat
So what we have is a series of botched patch jobs followed by a cowardly retreat into the “safe” territory of V1 economics. Let me explain to you the scale of this disaster with two examples. Firstly, imagine I have a house company, Iain’s Housing. It’s Q5 and I work on the basic principle that most people will want the maximum days of usage, ie 100. So my remaining customisation points give 5 wellness and 5 happiness per day. Now V2 finally arrives and...nobody wants my house. Turns out 5 wellness is pretty crappy. So I stop making them. Eventually, they change this...but now my houses are still uncompetitive because now people are making 50 wellness 100 day houses. Oh well. Finally, the admins scrap happiness altogether. This is example 1. The instability of this environment makes operating a company impossible. How can you possibly work out an economic advantage, or an angle on the market when the whole mechanics of the game change every week?
For my second example, I will use a food company. Iain’s Food was a Q3 company in V1, and when Rising came along like most people I customised 2:1 in favour of wellness. This is because happiness was an unknown factor in V1. Once V2 arrives we realise that nearly everyone loses 5+ happiness per day, unless they spend all their time in bed, and my company is rubbish all of a sudden. Somehow I manage to downgrade my company and upgrade to be mostly happiness based. Then what happens! Module changes again, and you can eat multiple food, meaning that the most in demand food is 9 or 6 wellness food (Q3/2) which can be used as a tanking substitute. Once again through no fault of my own the module has dumped on me.
These are two examples to illustrate my next point. It is not bad mechanics which mess up a market, though it helps: it is instability. Instability can be caused by war, region changes, population booms and declines. The worst type however is when the market changes suddenly, and the entire nature of a product changes. In a situation where remigration is not possible to meet new demand, you end up with a square peg and only circular holes. The entire economy starts grinding away, and the lubrication is the hundreds of broken and useless companies and frustrated, quitting citizens.
If the admins had admitted the new module needed some working on, consulted business owners and economists, but made no major changes, we would be well on the path to recovery. It is always tempting to use “God-Mode” to solve problems, but really it only exacerbates them and further delays the reaction of the community to the problem. These changes frustrate and damage the main part of the game: the economy. Those who said the military or political modules were more important have been given an important if unwelcome lesson. As wages droop, national incomes falter, products become worthless and gold supply collapses, our entire game dies. And each change is a kick to the corpse.
Let’s hope that this change is the final one. Admins, show some backbone.
Comments
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it's pretty funny though..
I agree with everything you said.
I bought new house few days before unannounced multiple food consumption rule. It was 10/90/100 house, great for harvesters (when I was harvester). Few days after it turned out that I "threw my money away" because that type of houses is almost unneeded now when I can eat 2/10 food to restore happiness.
Also, what will happen with houses and food companies which restore happiness if admins decide to remove it? Nobody knows so it looks like that history is repeating itself again.
vvv
Iain, you know as an economist I cannot deviate from even a single sentence you have written above.
But you know that the admininstration's attention span is measured by seconds, not minutes. So please explain this in 3 sentences written in a large font with caps lock on. Else your efforts will be wasted.
wonderfull article... totally suported.
And even in the military module.. now that we are enjoying it.. it will change ALL OVER AGAIN.
You are right editor: cowardly.
"After sacrificing something in the order of one hundred thousand players to make v2 happen, backtracking is a waste."
completely right the entire reversal strategy is a weak and cowardly move based on incompetence and panic. They are now dissembling the entire structure, removing ALL that was interesting and good in 'V2' and ending up with some 'one click' hybrid rushed through to try to save the ailing game which it won't.
Interesting how the insider is written as a big 'mea culpa' exercise and in fact all they are doing is YET AGAIN forcing thru a lot of panic changes that no one wants including removing timeline, learning and happiness which are the only interesting things left now they have killed professions. This game is becoming dumb and this cycle of throwing out desperate life lines is a joke...
As a previous Mechanic, there were absolutely no jobs on the market for me. Now, I'm fine 😁.
As a former Carpenter, I can say the same. However the economy as a whole is suffering because of this, and an unbalanced workforce is nowhere near as bad from a macroeconomic perspective as an unbalanced game module.
Yeah, I agree with Sir Humphrey Appleby - I was in the same situation since I was a mechanic too.
Btw, please fill out a survey: http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/what-euk-loves-and-hates-en--1517290/1/20
tl;dr
Can we get a medal for surviving this crap?
S7eve the admins did say they are going to give more shineys.
Relating to the article: I agree completely. And I agree with Iain's replies. You don't fix things by getting rid of it, you fix it by addressing the problems it creates and asking people what would be able to be done to fix it.
however, what problems were there with time lines and happiness? Why did they even think it was a problem?
😁 That was me I forgot to change account.
From Kemal Ergenekon:
"Iain, you know as an economist I cannot deviate from even a single sentence you have written above.
But you know that the admininstration's attention span is measured by seconds, not minutes. So please explain this in 3 sentences written in a large font with caps lock on. Else your efforts will be wasted. "
This. Seriously. Do a tl;dr version for broadcasting's sake.
I love time management T_T
Good read
"As an economist, it is enough to make you want to throw your calculator and papers into the fire and quit the damn game."
Oh don't taunt us so with such malice.
I agree that from an employers perspective, the constant shifting of the game will cause problems. However I find that one of the interesting parts to the game is finding new ways to adapt to changes. It keeps things fresh. When raw materials were added in V1 we had to adapt to this and develop new strategies. I wasn't here for when V2 came around but I can imagine that the change once again brought about new methods which helped developed the game further.
Nice agreeable rage at admins Keers but justified, considering the work you're going to have to do!