Forum Electrum (Economy System)

[Ajit]

I think a simple economy system should be added to the forums.

Features (all adjustable to the Forum's liking):

• The currency would be called Electrum
• Posting would increase your by a small amount (1-5?).  A threshold for words required in a post to receive electrum can be set
• You would have the ability to exchange electrum with other forum members for services or gifts
• A way to view your recent exchanges, which would be vital to keeping track of payment systems (make it public perhaps?)
• Everyone would start with a lump sum (100 perhaps?) of to supply the economy
• New accounts would receive a lump sum after a small number of posts (to deter those who are particularly impassioned about a fake economy system using fake accounts)

Benefits:

• Provides a small scale reward system for active members
• Encourages community participation in helping others (reward incentive)
• A supplemental (perhaps alternative?) way to tell how established a member is like reputation
• Opens up another way to reward members for forum and event competitions (even if unofficial)
• Be able to pay members to put an ad for something of yours in their signature (within the Element's forum and following all other advertisement rules, of course)

One of my personal favorite uses would be;
With approval by admins, a new section could be created where private boards can be created for a significant amount of .  Adding new members would be the discretion of the owner of that board.  If you enjoy talking decks with only particular players, or you can post strategies and guides that you sell other members access to.

*EDIT*
Also, you can, with a significant amount of , purchase a new board that would be public, to provide your own services, have people ask you questions/requests, all sorts of possibilities.

I personally would find it fun to earn and would participate in more competitions/games/chat quizzes/or even fulfill art requests.  You?

Cons?  Well, that's what the reply button is for.  Fire away.[/list]

[whatifidogetcaught?]

Its interesting, I just don't truly see the big  difference between it and reputation.

I mean, if people need an incentive to help others, then that's just wrong.

[Ajit]

I mean, if people need an incentive to help others, than that's just wrong.

Haha I know what you mean, morally, but look at tax breaks.  You do something good for a monetary incentive.  Win/win?  Simply put it'd encourage good things, despite the foundations of motivations to do such good things.

[whatifidogetcaught?]

Haha I know what you mean, morally, but look at tax breaks.  You do something good for a monetary incentive.  Win/win?  Simply put it'd encourage good things, despite the foundations of motivations to do such good things.

It would certainly stimulate the amount of help going around, but people would be like, "HEY! I want that to be added to the game's electrum, not some silly forum!"

Anyhow, your character minimum for the electrum would need to exclude quotes.

[AnonymousRevival]

Hmmm......this seems fun.

Exactly what gifts and services would be provided?

P.S.: Electrum is actually a mixture of platinum and gold ore, so that's quite a valuable currency.

[TheCrazyMango]

i think that if it were implemented, existing members should get a sum related to their reputation. But it sounds like a cool idea, maybe have forum awards be worth something. maybe get forums awards for certain amounts of it.

[OldTrees]

Maybe I am missing something.
However doesn't reputation already do all these things?
If someone does me a favor/does something I appreciate I give them rep.
If I do something others appreciate I get rep.
If I post I get rep.

[Drake_XIV]

Unless there's something to get out of it, I see no reason to include such a system just yet as Rep takes care of it.

[Ajit]

I think the main difference would be that you don't "spend" rep.  I think an economy forms a level of accountability.  When buying a service from someone on the forum, it makes sense to use .
Perhaps this should be thought of as an expansion on what rep already does (by adding the capabilities I explained in the original post).  I also feel like Rep is a pat on the back for being awesome, while is more a quantifiable reward for dong something.  For example, it feels wrong earning Rep as a reward for winning a fun little forum game.  In this case, you won a forum game, you didn't make a ground-breaking new deck, nor establish the standard for element card cost theory.  So here it is a flavor/thematic issue.

also, added to original post;

Also, you can, with a significant amount of , purchase a new board that would be public, to provide your own services, have people ask you questions/requests, all sorts of possibilities.

[ZephyrPhantom]

Just pitching an idea that might make this more interesting:

What if, in addition to private boards, there was some kind of 'Arena' board that involved the use of ETG cards? Players could start out with a small but viable group of 'starter' cards and then could use forum Electrum to buy more cards (aka more options for combat). Players with a lot of electrum could pay a large sum to add custom cards to their 'decks' and use them in the battlefield, on the condition that card is balanced. Alternatively, players could pay a large sum of electrum to obtain special 'abilities' or 'classes' that are also represented by a card.

If players want more than just PvP in this 'Arena' board, a mod could assign 'Quests' that any players in the board can tackle - Quests are active for an indefinite amount of time as long as they are not completed. The top 5 players who beat a quest with the most wins/victories/kills/whatever get a small bonus amount of forum electrum + card(s).

It might seem a little overwhelming, but if the battle system could be worked out (I'm currently thinking of a system that mixes MTG and ETG - pillars generate quantum, but creatures can block other creatures and deal retaliation damage, players have much lower HP to make battles go quicker) the rest is probably very simple - the Arena board would contain a subboard for Player Profiles (which they'd be responsible for maintaining themselves), and a mod could easily assign a quest every 1-2 weeks or so (indefinite quests means that players will always have something to do even when the mod is inactive, unless they somehow beat all the quests very quickly.) Given that this forum handles PvP and large events relatively well I'm sure something like this could catch on reasonably well.

....This probably deserves it's own post. I'll start a new topic, and quote this there. Done.

[Ajit]

Ah yes, see this is already a new way of using the money.  Hosted games, and an extensive one at that.  Zblader, if you wanted to, you could pay for a board to play this game in.

Also consider games/tournaments that have an entry cost, with a large reward, these types of things.

Hmmm......this seems fun.

Exactly what gifts and services would be provided?

P.S.: Electrum is actually a mixture of platinum and gold ore, so that's quite a valuable currency.

I think whatever you so choose, as long as it's not used for bribery in polls.  I believe we can rely on our community to stay away from those types of dirty tactics by reporting those that do.  Art requests, rewards in tourneys/forum games, Elements tutoring, etc.

i think that if it were implemented, existing members should get a sum related to their reputation. But it sounds like a cool idea, maybe have forum awards be worth something. maybe get forums awards for certain amounts of it.

Yes these are all good ideas, and the existing member part, it's kind of tough to call, you kind of want everyone to start on an evening playing field to reduce some serious class stratification, but also want to retroactively reward past members.

[AnonymousRevival]

We could have like pet dragons in our profile or something haha.