Fett, the problem with that is that if everyone donated 100 or more USD, then the economy would still be the same (demand for mtc would decrease).

As to being in a recession: You might want to look the definition up. In a virtual economy, there isn't such a thing as a recession. We don't have enough variables in Minetown that could possibly lead to such. What's happening is called the Buy-Out-Principle. Everyone wants mtc, as Nick663 stated, just for spawners. Like he said, sell low priced diamonds/gold/iron/other goods. Keep selling as low as possible to gain as much mtc as possible. You then make everyone go to your store/shop for mtc, forcing your competitors to lower their price as well. This is what leads to an "un-stable economy," as many of you call it. It's not unstable at all. In fact, this is a healthy thing. As Fettuccini stated, all economy's have their ups and downs. If it was just staying perfectly at one area (say 1 diamond = 150 mtc and it never changed), then it would be unhealthy. Why am I saying this? It means the economy isn't changing. It means that no one is actively looking for resources and the economy makes a perfect loop. A perfect loop does not exist, as you do use diamonds and such for decoration or buying things for personal use. In addition, spawners give infinite source of goods, which means infinite source of income. Due to that, a perfect loop can't exist. MTC, as I said before, has no significant affect on the economy (1000 a day is nothing). Spawners, on the other hand, do have a small, but significant enough affect to note. 1 spawner, for 20 minutes, would produce roughly 20 gold worth of goods, which can then be marked down to 15 gold total, meaning 5 diamonds. If everyone has, say, 20 spawners of each type, we'd then see a drop in diamond to gold value. MTC:Diamond is meaningless. Diamond:Gold is the definition of our economy's health. The economy was founded (the economy that was recreated last year that many of you don't know about) based on 1 diamond to 3 gold. The lottery used to be in gold, not MTC. Iron used to be valuable. Now, I see iron left everywhere in caves, as well as coal, but nothing else is there.

My point: Don't bother complaining about the economy anymore. When the economy becomes unhealthy, I'll start a thread. The economy, at the 1:3 Diamond:Gold, respective, ratio is perfect and I predict it won't change for at least another year. In fact, it can't actually change randomly. The staff would need to change the economy on that part. If they were smart, they'd never change it because it would force to keep the economy within certain parameters.

Cute, and highly respectable how you both miss the argument and resort to insult.

You don't seem to understand that my post is about more than credits. I see dunsjohn did understand - it was about how donating caused an outside force to act on the economy. Credits are just one of the symptoms of this.

I hate to burst the bubble that Minetown is perfect and legitimate, but the admins do spawn items, sometimes for personal use. I know that as a fact because I used to be on staff. It wasn't just one person. And even if you believe that the amount of credits is unsubstantial, the fact that money has an effect on the game world is bad.

My argument was that it is a broken system. There should not be any effect, even a small one, on the production of materials from donators or staff. There's nothing wrong with credits being used as a currency between players; the problem is when credits and materials are injected. That causes more supply than demand, and that makes it very difficult for anything to change.

I didn't say minetown was perfect or legitimate.

As to money being inputted into a game:

World of Warcraft

Eve Online

Aeria Games

Kryptic Games

Steam mmo's

All of those are examples, yet they have stable economies. Why is that? I do not mean to insult, but MTC literally has little to do with our "down turned" economy. Blame everyone wanting MTC for spawners. That is literally the only reason. As to mtc having any effect on production... I think not. They purchase goods. Goods have to come from somewhere, yes? Somewhere along the line, someone does go mining and go for all these resources. Trust me on this. Materials are injected at such a small amount and have cool down timers no them, so I honestly don't see how they can have any affect on our economy worth notice. That's that I don't see, so if you could enlighten me as to the point you're trying to make about materials being injected, I'd appreciate it so I can fully understand what you are trying to say.

First off, I didnt make a single insult there. Why does everyone always say that when someone disagrees with them?

Anyway. What exactly is the problem this is causing? Do people have a problem getting currency? They dont? I guess thats not it then. Is it hard to get resources, either by using currency or by gathering them yourself? Nope. Hmm. Seems like the ONLY 'problem' here is that some people are upset that they cant amass huge amounts of currency quite as fast as they'd like to by selling because prices are low, although none of you will admit this of course.

And whats wrong with donators who keep the server running getting the bonus of some extra credits and a little bit of extra resources (that are only allowed to be used for themselves, mind you). Nothing. Your game experience is not diminished in ANY way because of this, no matter how much you try telling us it is. I really dont see why youre taking this whole thing so seriously to be honest. Your experience truly isnt hurt by any of this, be it the current donator perks, or the state of the economy. The economy is serving the purpose it was meant to. This isnt the real world, its just Minecraft. Please try to remember that simple fact before trying to treat it like its real.

In addition, MTC is only an incentive (as well as those materials you can spawn) for donating. If you take those incentives away, you then lose all those wonderful donators. What does that mean? The server can't keep running and up to date. We'd start seeing a deterioration of server quality.

Well, we could do it like all the major servers... Once we get the new world, wipe all the data, and start fresh... BWAHAHAHAHA NO!

Here's a real solution now that it looks like we got all the crazy out, mmkay?

The economy is inflated right now, which means we need less currency. Obviously there is not a real popular way to eliminate currency and because we have two forms of it, it's going to be even harder. Here are two realistic solutions then that I propose. Hear me out.

1) Socialization of the diamond market. Haha, stop snickering, I'm serious. Basically a plugin where in the only diamonds that can be mined or created come from the map itself AND NO WHERE ELSE. They could only be traded to the Minetown bank itself for gold, or built with. No trading to other players either. This would maintain the map integrity and the market value, essentially moving us from the fiat currency we have now to a "gold" standard.

2) A third market could be added to aid real value again and diamonds could be finally eliminated. They suck as a currency anyways, which is why MTC took over. This is my proposal and here is the advantage: it will make people read the rules and the forums more, thereby adding to site traffic and aiding popularity. Basically a third credit system based on forum "kudos" or in-game "kudos" based on comments and replies. This would also encourage players to build bonds. People would be capped to how much kudos they could get at a time for it though, to prevent mobs.

This still doesnt address what I want to know. WHY DOES IT NEED TO BE FIXED? Anyone can easily make a profit the way things are, and prices are affordable for most things for pretty much everyone. All of these ideas people are coming up with will do one thing: raise prices, making it harder to buy things, particularly for newer players. Why do we need this? We dont, thats why.

As for a currency based on forum usage, I would say this is a good idea except that this is the internet. All it will really do is cause MASSIVE useless spam on the forums by folks deperate for kudos. We have more than enough of THAT it as is, I think youll all agree.

I still havent seen a single post (ever, not just in this thread) explaining why this crusade to 'fix' the economy is anything more than all the (mostly already rich) money grubbers being butthurt that their money grubbing has been slowed down due to the fact that MTC gain is limited by voting. Until someone comes up with a legitimate, acceptable reason that would make me incorrect, all you people saying the economy needs fixing need to just cool your biscuits. (I always wanted to use that in a sentence!)

I'm sorry, but I'm locking this thread. It's going nowhere.

There are no "fixes" planned for the economy and the "free will" is taking care to regularize it.

Minetown isn't "off track" because diamonds and gold value decrease... ... Minetown will not die if nothing is done about the economy.... please do not spread such false rumors...

/locked