General Discussion

Does anyone think a MMORPG could work if it was built around a barter economy?

The main thing it would get rid of is any form of currency.  There would be no NPC vendors and no auction house.  This would force players to interact with one another (something that is sorely lacking lately) and determine what is valuable and what is not.  It would also eliminate "vendor trash" which I always found particularly annoying.  Everything could be player crafted so there is always demand for materials.  It would also be beneficial if weapons and armor decayed over time to keep things moving.

Couple the absence of currency with item decay and it would really curb the farmer problem.  There would be nothing for them to sell except basic mats which are obtainable by anyone.

Everquest (the original) was exciting, and fun, because of the social aspects to it. 

In Everquest, e.g., you did not have an auction house and had to -gasp!- communicate, and haggle, your way to trade/sell/buy items.

I've contemplated this concept as well. I think it would work and, more importantly, I think it would achieve the goal you mentioned.

I have to ask though, how do you think people will learn that the game's economy works that way? Would it be simple enough that everyone could figure out on their own or would there need to be some sort of tutorial? It may seem somewhat silly to have a tutorial for bartering, but I can't think of a single MMO that has ever used it so maybe people would be left thinking to themselves, "Where's the vendor NPC's?"

Of course, they could simply ask another player and maybe that would also help player interaction.

Does one really need tutorals for talking to people?  I'm pretty sure after about 5 minutes someone would ask where's the Auction House and people would say "there aren't any" and they'd reply with something like "well how am I supposed to sell" and they'd tell him to go talk to people and advertise.

This whole thing would I think spawn a few other issues like constant spamming in chat channels about how someone is selling sword of ultimate power for 100 gold over and over and over or they'd pick a small item of rarity and make it currency, kind of like what it used to be in Diablo 2 where people would pay you in Stone of Jordan rings.  Youd join a game and ask the guy what he wants for the item and he'd tell you "four SoJ's".

I kind of liked the shop system that Lineage 2 had.  You could set your character up to buy or sell whatever you wanted and people could voluntaraly drop by and either buy and sell, however this would eliminate the human interaction part of it.  This is where I generally default to the whole player run economy where the crafters are the pinnacle of suppliers of all things armor, weapons, and all manner of other things.  That way when you find one you can haggle the price for the merchandise you want and bring the price down or offer to supplement some of the materials that he/she would need.

i already can't stand about 90% of the players so i have no interest in a bartering system. Auction house is fine with me. Although a deep crafting system with player housing and merchants is my ideal system.

We use money in the real world because it's superior to bartering - all that would happen in a no-money MMO is some small and rare item would end up becoming the de-facto currency.

See also: Stone of Jordan

Originally posted by Illius

Does one really need tutorals for talking to people?  I'm pretty sure after about 5 minutes someone would ask where's the Auction House and people would say "there aren't any" and they'd reply with something like "well how am I supposed to sell" and they'd tell him to go talk to people and advertise.

This whole thing would I think spawn a few other issues like constant spamming in chat channels about how someone is selling sword of ultimate power for 100 gold over and over and over or they'd pick a small item of rarity and make it currency, kind of like what it used to be in Diablo 2 where people would pay you in Stone of Jordan rings.  Youd join a game and ask the guy what he wants for the item and he'd tell you "four SoJ's".

I kind of liked the shop system that Lineage 2 had.  You could set your character up to buy or sell whatever you wanted and people could voluntaraly drop by and either buy and sell, however this would eliminate the human interaction part of it.  This is where I generally default to the whole player run economy where the crafters are the pinnacle of suppliers of all things armor, weapons, and all manner of other things.  That way when you find one you can haggle the price for the merchandise you want and bring the price down or offer to supplement some of the materials that he/she would need.

It would be a major departure from what people are used to, for better or worse. 

The spam in the chat channels is something I didn't think of and probably would get crazy.  I imagine it would be like the trading floor of the stock exchange.  As long as I can turn off the channel in question, I can deal with it.

People would find an alternative global item to use as currency and that's fine.  It probably wouldn't be a rare item since it would have to be something everybody has access to.  Yes I remember very clearly the SOJ problem in Diablo 2, it was one of my favorite games.  The only reason it had the SOJ problem was because somebody found a hack to duplicate items.  In a player run economy something so over abundant would quickly lose its value.

I guess you could have player run shops.  But the seller or buyer would have to specify what he is willing to take in trade for his goods since there is no money.  It wouldn't hurt the player interaction much because a live person would be at an advantage since they could make deals or offer substitutes.  My gripe with Lineage 2 is that you have to have the game running for your shop to stay up.

I am all for having crafters create everything, add in item decay to keep them working and get rid of the BOP / BOE mechanic.

This is probably the most inefficient form of economy you could do, ok not the most but pretty close.

Barter economies become a hugh problem because you have to have the exact items someone needs at the exact time they need it, which basically means you have take up crafting or have multiple alts that can craft anything you would need to trade, which in that case why trade to begin with.

And without some way to organize merchandise, like an auctionhouse, you are left to stand there and advertise for yourself, which is both dull and creates inbalanced, not to mention it means for convience everyone needs to be in the same place to be seen which is difficult in the first place.

Auction houses are great because you can buy items from anywhere at anytime, with very little lag time for price changes which is close to perfect competition.  And of course money is great as a medium of exchange, don't have the 5 ingots the guy wants for his bow, give him money so he can buy it latter.

People may socialize more, but I think it would be largely aggrevating and drive most away and really you could only buy from people while they are playing.

Not to mention the lore aspect of it, why exactly doesn't this world have pre-establish currency and or any form of market to sell goods?

forget it, kids can't handle the pressure.