Designing a Minecraft server economy: lessons from WoW and Path of Exile

Picture this: your server shop will buy unlimited iron from players. Taking advantage of this, one player builds an efficient farm and starts selling mountains of it, raking in more than the average newcomer can in a week. Before you decide to raise prices or cut rewards, ask yourself what the real problem is: the more coins circulating on the server because of these iron payouts, the less each one is worth.

For ideas on how to structure your own economy, it can help to check out other in-game currency being traded. For example, marketplace listings like those for PlayerAuctions WoW Gold are separated by region and realm, since gold can't be shared between servers, much like how your coins only work on your server. Meanwhile, listings for Path of Exile currency are divided by orb type, like Chaos Orbs or Divine Orbs, since there are quite a number of different currency types in the game rather than just one.

Keep in mind that the prices listed there are just what the seller is hoping to make, rather than the actual cost of the item. You can use these sites as references on how to organize your own server economy and not for price setting.

How should players earn their first coins?

Using WoW as an example, there are two ways players can earn gold. The first is through quests, and the other is through selling to other players on the Auction House. This difference matters: quests help create brand-new gold, while Auction House sales just move existing gold from one player to another. When thinking of your own server economy, including jobs and quests, as well as server and player shops should work the same way.

Be sure to keep brand-new players in mind, too. You want to make sure that starter items are affordable and not out of reach. If not, that could discourage newer players.

Which purchases should remove coins from circulation?

Again, we don't want endless coins circulating through a server economy. So, how do you remove coins from the economy? A currency sink: something that deletes coins from the server rather than moving them to another player. Fees are the most common example of such a sink.

Let's say a player spends 1,000 coins at an auction. The seller receives 950, and the server deletes the remaining 50 as a fee. Presto, that's 50 coins gone for good.

One catch: make sure the coins actually disappear. If that fee goes into a town bank that can be spent later, the coins are still floating around. Check to see where each coin actually goes in your setup.

So, consider modest trading fees, shop-stall rentals, or optional cosmetic services as ways to help remove coins from circulation. These fees give established players something worthwhile to spend on without forcing beginners to foot the bill.

Could useful items work alongside coins?

In Path of Exile, currency like orbs don't function as just money; they can also be used to improve gear. This gives players two choices: trade it like cash or use it to improve gear affixes.

Now, how can you translate this idea to your own Minecraft server? Maybe bring in repair tokens, where players can either trade them or use them to repair equipment.

There are some things to take into consideration, though. Be clear about how you can earn tokens and what they do. Make sure there isn't anything in the game that can render them useless. For example, if players can repair gear another way, nobody will want tokens.

Don't add in currencies just for the fun of it; make sure each has its own function. Too much of one can overly complicate things.

How do you stop one farm from dominating earnings?

Circling back to our iron shop example, before deciding on how much a store pays for things, you'll want to test it. How much can someone earn through regular farming methods vs. through efficient ones? Are there any loopholes that create an infinite money glitch for players?

Here are some possible fixes for those situations: purchase quotas, smaller buy lists, or leaving plentiful resources for player-run shops.

Be sure to keep an eye out for other money glitches too. For example, if a player can buy ingredients from the server, craft them, and sell them back for way more, that's another problem on your hands.

Which trading rules should be clear before launch?

It's a good idea to lay out some ground rules before launching your server. Things like:

• Bugs that let people duplicate items and what happens if someone exploits them
• Fake or misleading sale listings
• Refunds
• What happens to everyone's money if the world is reset

Finally, do some test runs first. Track how much money is being created, how much is removed, and what people actually buy. Fix any major issues you may run into, and keep running periodic tests. Most importantly, have fun!