The Economics of Online Gaming

CHAPTER 6

Market War I

Outside of the huge manufacturing project that was still in progress, RICH was still a small operation. But whenever RICH entered the market and announced better prices, anyone trying to sell at the “real” market price would lose out on a deal. For some players, this “undercutting” strategy was even more offensive than what RICH had done to Ember. Market competition was unacceptable in the eyes of the RICH competitors. No one played the game this way. The point of a merchant guild in Eternal Lands (EL) was to make stuff and sell stuff. There was enough room for everyone to make money, and anyone disrupting the equilibrium, even temporarily, was automatically labeled as a dangerous outsider. If someone offered lower prices, ...