NPC Pricing - Prices based on Collective Player Behavior

   In this part of NPC Pricing series, first I'll also make a brief analysis of some problems a game designer can have when employing this kind of algorithm. And then I'll list the two main ways to use number of players in algorithms. After that I'll list some variables and write a few examples of their application and their respective Advantages and Disadvantages.

NPC Pricing - Combining and Designing Functions

   In this part of NPC Pricing series, I'll examine how to combine price altering functions. A price function with several variables can be used to better adjust player's buying behaviors or achieve specific design purposes.

NPC Pricing - Prices not based on Player's Behavior

   In this part of NPC Pricing series, I'll list some variables not based on player behavior and write a few examples of their application and their respective Advantages and Disadvantages:

NPC Pricing - Prices based on Personal Player Behavior

   In this part of NPC Pricing series, first I'll make a brief analysis of some problems a game designer can have when employing this kind of algorithm. And then I'll list some variables that can be used to measure individual player behavior and write a few examples of their application and their respective Advantages and Disadvantages:

NPC Pricing - There are more options than you think

-

---

-----
(hypothetical conversation between a Game designer and me)

-How much gold (tokens) should a NPC charge for an item inside your MMORPG? - I ask
-Some fixed value. Well a fixed ratio is fair, right? I mean I wouldn't like to go to the grocery and find that bread has suddenly double in price while my salary is the same. - Explains the game designer.
-That's one Logic. What about FF VII, do you see that they used another logic? - I reply
-Yeah, in FF VIII prices increase as player can earn more gold from winning more difficult battles. Shops overall prices take an estimative of how many fights a regular player wins and how much gear the player needs to buy when he gets to a specific point in storyline. - Reminds him with nostalgia.
-Yeah, that's FF VIII logic. 
-So... - I speak, as I prepare to make my point
-How do you decide which price to put in your stores? - I repeat
-Ahhhh... I make an estimation of how much gold a regular player earns playing, like FF VIII did. - He assumes he just copied the FF VIII Pricing system - a system designed for a single player game.
-That's neither necessarily fair or a justified "designing decision"! You can do much better than that! - I scold him

(This dialog would make a nice cartoon)

-----

---

-