| Pathetic Sheep (White Giant) | Thursday, March 5, 2009 - 05:25 am 
A lot of complaints have been posted in the forums in the last few weeks. However, I did not see any complaint about using finance charges to implement the cash reductions. In most cases players resented a limit on accumulated wealth.
It is probable that most people playing this game think real world millionaires are wealthy. Certainly billionaires. However, the resentment against a cap of 20T is normal and understandable. Sociologists have interviewed real Americans about how much they need in order to be well off. In most cases people want to make twice what they earn now. A man earning minimum wage living in a trailer park wants a union job that allows him to buy his own house. Bankers in Manhattan making $250,000 want to make 500k so they have enough capital to do serious investing. Our understanding of what it means to be well off is determined by our peers.
In a financial game well off means having a much larger wad than the competition. Capping the total allowed cash will ruin the financial aspect of the game. It does not matter how many zeros, if total cash has a limited players will be stuck at the same level as their peers. No one will get ahead.
So, here is my suggestion. All cash should pay financial services. Regardless of the countries size, networth, or debt. Cash in corporations should count toward country cash. Financial services would have an effect analogous to inflation. In the real world cash becomes less valuable over time. In Simcountry prices are fixed but cash slowly disappears. The financial services charge could be a flat rate. Or it could be a formula like this:
a(C/20T)^b
"C" is country cash + corporate cash + citizen cash.
"20T" is $20 trillion, or some other amount.
"a" is a variable effected by the total cash on a planet.
"b" is a variable effected by the number of countries with a president. Around 1.2 on LU 1.05 on WG might make sense.
This type of financial services would allow players good at the game and a few visa warriors to accumulate greater concentrations of wealth with no limit on the amount. It would also reduce the amount of cash in circulation. The effect of financial services would be balanced for each planet. |
