NPC Pricing - A Trivial Management Analysis

  This is just a small update based on a reasonable analysis I recently did. I considered N.P.C. stores as a Business and applied Management's concepts Mission and Vision to it. This analysis is helpful to understand how NPC shops follow a logic unlike any logic found in real life trades.

NPC Pricing - Mistakes with NPC Stores

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(hypothetical conversation between a Game designer and me)

-NPCs should sell several kinds of things right? I mean the more things they sell the more likely are Players to spend Gold. If they buy from NPCs, I have designed a good Gold Sink. - Asks a game developer concerned about Gold Sinks
-Yes, NPC shops can be a wonderful Gold Sink. But defining what the Shop should sells is a complex matter. The truth is: what they sell depends on how you want players to experience Shopping and what Reinforcements they should get - I reply
-Could you be a bit more specific? - Asks the developer a bit unsatisfied
-Well, whatever a NPC Shop sells is the Reinforcer in the end of a Token Economy Chain and Gold is the Token. So, in order to not break the token economy, shops always need to have something a player wants. Shops just make players want to earn and spend Gold.
-I think I heard about something like this before... - Ponders the game developer
-Yeah, like in real world you need some sort of degree in Planned Obsolescence to make a viable business. In other words, you need to keep the buying behavior reinforced.

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Gold - Currency x Token - Part 3 - Beyond Gold Concept

Click here to go back to part 1 part 2

In this last part, I'll analyze the idea of Currency in a more abstract way, to deal with some misconceptions most Players and Designers have about Gold and Prices based on Gold.

Gold - Currency x Token - Part 2 - Gold In MMORPGs

Click here to move to part 1 part 3

In part 2 I'll look at the recent title - Diablo III - a game that has a true functioning currency.
But before that it's important to establish a few concepts:

Gold - Currency x Token - Part 1 - What is a Token

Click here to skip to part 2 part 3

   This is a complicated theme, I'll begin with some definitions for this 3 part article. Please keep in mind that I'm Psychologist not an Economist, so there's no guarantee of the perfect use of the economic terms, but I'll try to use them as accurately as I can: