On Wed, 25 Oct 2017, Nic Evans wrote:
> > There's nothing wrong with an "abstract stock market" game. But we
> > shouldn't
> > mistake it for a trading system.
>
> In a way, the fact that each person's stamps are different makes
> everyone a fixed specialist. This was by design. Trading is intended to
> happen for win conditions, but I agree that it's become clear that we
> need more routine reasons to trade.
It doesn't work that way. When everyone's their own specialist, no one is.
Trading for the stamp win condition is up there with trust tokens as a
standalone and fairly useless activity, insufficient to support an economy.
> I think a middle ground can exist, but only if the trading focuses on
> the speculative aspects. I propose that we make stamps even more unique,
> in a way that makes their trading more worthwhile. My proto:
>
> * Create a Bonus Stamp Value, at 1/5th the FV, with a minimum of 1.
>
> * When a player destroys a stamp that they did not create, the receive
> Stamp Value + (BSV / # of instances of that stamp that exist).
With respect, I think this minor tweak will add very little. I respect
the work put into this to date, but we need either a major, major overhaul
with strong goals and objectives other than this stamp win condition, or
just let the whole fluctuating economy go.
To be clear, by "let it go" I mean:
- Get rid of stamps.
- Fix all prices to set levels.
- Stop worrying about total shiny level, create however many needed.
- Shinies become the "basic income augmented by officer salaries".
- Create a multi-sector economy that you can enter via multiple paths
(land or other asset-based) base buy-in to a specialty is shinies.
