IVY ZHAO

ARTIST & DESIGNER



GAME ECONOMY MOD PROPOSAL.



ANIMAL CROSSING POCKET CAMP



The purpose of this project is to investigate how a game economy functions (in this case, Animal Crossing Pocket Camp) and design a mod for it, focusing on the concepts of game economics and user behaviours in the applications of game design.





Fig. 1: Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Economy Breakdown Chart







A MOD PROPOSAL.


Giving players the option to purchase Leaf Tickets for Bells and vice versa. The real money cost of Leaf Tickets is high and the rate of acquisition from just playing the game is very low. The goal of this mod is increase the amount of time a player will spend in-game and therefore creating more opportunities for them to spend real money on currency. Allowing the purchase of hard currency with soft currency will allow players to consistently and more easily acquire limited time event items and retain the attention of players instead of having to wait for new goals to appear. Players should also be able to exchange Leaf Tickets for Bells to make it more accessible for new players to buy/craft the more expensive furniture or clothing when they don’t have many Bells to start out with. In addition to being able to exchange Leaf Tickets for Bells, the cost of Bell items will be increased drastically and there will also be more high value Bell items to incentivize players to purchase Leaf Tickets and prevent devaluation of Leaf Tickets.



Currency





Fig. 2: Goals and rewards screens in Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp



Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp has two main currencies the player can use to purchase items with, Leaf Tickets and Bells. Bells are soft currency and can be earned from helping animal NPCs and turning items to them and by selling things. They are easy to earn but cannot be used to earn Leaf Tickets. Leaf Tickets are a hard currency which can be purchased with real money or earned slowly by completing goals, which makes this game’s monetization model microtransactions. Having the two currencies effectively separates the paid content from the free content while also allowing the player to access paid content without having to spend real money. In addition, players can also earn materials used to craft items from completing requests from animal NPCs. Materials are needed to craft items that have a Bell cost, but not needed for items that cost Leaf Tickets. If a player does not have enough materials or if they don’t want to wait for a craft to finish, they can use Leaf Tickets.





Fig. 3: Virtual goods revenue model graph from Virtual Economies: Design and Analysis by Vili Lehdonvirta & Edward Castronova



Leaf Ticket items are usually event items with a high Leaf Ticket cost and have limited window of time where the player can buy them, which creates a sense of urgency for the player to buy them before they go away. This will hook the player into feeling the need to earn more Leaf Tickets in that specific time, and since the amount of Leaf Tickets you can earn is limited by time, the incentive to pay real money for them is there. At $5.49 CAD for 100 Leaf Tickets, a single event dress for your character would cost $8.78. If a player wanted to experience all the content through paying (aka own all the event items currently), it would cost well above $100. Instead, a player may choose to slowly earn the Leaf Tickets and buy one or two items, or spend the $8.78 for the one outfit they want. This demonstrates the games ability to be able to charge whatever a customer is willing to pay by providing a variety of options for the players to obtain what they want.





Fig 4: Limited time event items that can be bought with Leaf Tickets in AC:PC



Apart from buying items like furniture and clothing with Leaf Tickets, players can also use them to pay for entry to Shovelstrike Quarry. The area allows for the player to collect materials for crafting and Bells at the cost of 20 Leaf Tickets. However, there is also another way to gain access without having to pay, asking friends for help. The player can request help from 5 other friends to access the Quarry. In this case, the player will have roped in 5 of their friends to keep playing the game in order to avoid paying, which is rewarding the player for referrals/getting their friends to also play.



Earning Bells and Materials and Friendship Meters


Player can gather items such as fruits and shells to give to NPCs or sell to other players for Bells. In return the NPC will give the player Bells and un-gatherable materials such as cloth and essences and level up their friendship with the animal. Leveling up gives the player more rewards, the ability to dress them, and the option to invite the animal to your camp (however it is gated unless you craft the specific furniture the animal wants in your camp). Players can only gather items on a 3-hour timer and hand things in to an NPC 3 times, so a lot of the game is time gated unless you pay with Leaf Tickets.



Resource Sinks


When you buy items from the shop or craft or turn in anything, the resources used to make them (steel, cotton, etc.) disappear from the game which effectively decreases the amount of gold and materials players have. Most things in the game are resource sinks except when the player buys items from other players.



MOD DESIGN.


To incentivize the player base to keep playing and enable them to continue farming for items, I would make a mod where players are able to purchase Leaf Tickets with Bells and vice versa. The cost of Leaf Tickets is high and the rate at which you can earn them is slow and requires a lot of time (e.g. specifically having to pick up x number of items). Eventually, it becomes really difficult for players to earn Leaf Tickets without paying and this would likely cause some players to drop the game completely out of frustration or lose interest. If players are able to earn Leaf Tickets consistently instead of waiting for new goals to complete, it will give a reason for the player to continue playing the game. This would also give players the option to minimize the amount of real money they spend on Leaf Tickets, give more uses to Bells, and also make the exclusive event items more accessible to players that do not want to spend real money. Allowing more ways that seem fair for the player to earn hard/premium currency will keep them interested in the game and eventually more open to spending real money.


In addition to being able to exchange Leaf Tickets for Bells and Bells for Leaf Tickets, there would be more high value Bell items. Currently the most expensive items are around 10,000 Bells, which is easily affordable. Having more expensive items would also incentivize players to utilize the Leaf Ticket to Bell conversion as well as being a bigger resource sink.





Fig. 5: Chart breaking down the cost of Leaf Tickets from the cash shop in AC:PC



A reissued outfit like the Brewster’s Uniform costs 160,000 Bells to craft, similarly an event outfit (a dress) would cost 160 Leaf Tickets (or $8.00). If we use this ratio of 1 LF:1000 Bells, event outfits that cost 160 LF would translate to 160,000 Bells and a Fortune Cookie at 50 LF would cost 50,000 Bells ($2.50 per cookie). From crafting/selling items and fishing optimally, you can earn approximately 2000 Bells per 3 mins (666 Bells per minute). This tells us how long the player will spend approximately in the game for obtaining one item.





Fig. 6: Chart breaking down how long it would take to farm the Bells needed to purchase Leaf Ticket items, assuming 666 Bells per minute according to a Bell Farming guide.



On average, the player would be able to spend an hour farming $2.00 worth of Leaf Tickets and it would take approximately 4 hours to have enough to buy an outfit or spend 1.13 hours to speed up an 8-hour craft. The current event items total up to 600 Leaf Tickets (if a player wants to craft all of them), it would take them about 15 hours to obtain every item. In addition to being able to exchange currencies, there should also be the addition of significantly higher value Bell items. Currently, the most expensive event furniture that are re-issued is 300,000 Bells. The normal furniture tops out at around 10,000 Bells, which can be obtained in around 15 minutes of farming. New furniture additions should match re-issued or current event furniture prices at 150-300 Leaf Tickets or 150,000 – 300,000 Bells.


Impact


With the addition of new high cost furniture and clothing with Bell costs giving Bells more use, players will also be incentivized to spend more money on Leaf Tickets in order to convert them into Bells. Since the time and effort needed to earn Bells without purchasing is high, the value of Leaf Tickets and Bells will not drop drastically. Since Leaf Tickets are more accessible and earning them is not time-gated anymore, players will spend more time in game.



*new* GAME ECONOMY DESIGN.



animal crossing becomes an MMO based off warframe's economy







What if Animal Crossing became an MMO? Players would be able to trade their Gold (soft currency like Bells) to other players for premium currency, Stars (new currency for the purpose of this project), and vice versa.


Based on the economies of Warframe and Guild Wars 2’s currency exchange system, where players are able to purchase premium currency from other players that have bought it, the system allows players who do not want to spend real money on the game to be able to obtain premium items and use features locked behind the premium currency. Players collect materials through gathering and use them to craft furniture and outfits to decorate their own avatar and house. Crafted items can be listed and sold for Gold to other players through a market board and players are also able to list their Gold or Stars for sale. Since players are buying premium currency from other players that have already spent real money on it, the value of Stars will not decrease over time as players have more and more Gold. In addition, if players choose to, they can also sell their items (premium, crafted, materials, etc.) to the void and receive a minimum amount of Gold. Below is a breakdown of the economy.





Based off Warframe's Economy Breakdown Chart





Currency Sources of Value and Attributes


Gold is a fiat currency; the player cannot use them for any other function apart from making transactions. Stars are a token currency. Players exchange real money for Stars and use them to exchange for digital goods. Gold and Stars as a currency is fungible, because every “piece” of Gold or Star you have is of the same value in a virtual economy. They are also easily divisible (you cannot split one gold or star into a fraction), verifiable countable due to it being just a number in your inventory, and recognizable from their icons. As virtual currencies, Gold and Stars will be durable, have low demurrage, and will retain its exchange value so long as the player market is stable.


Economic Agents and Decision Model


The developer acts as a producer in the economy as well as an influencer. The players are both producers and consumers, they are able to craft their own items and sell to other players. NPC vendors are also producers and consumers as they can sell and buy things from players.





The rational choice model is the idea that people will prefer some things over others and will pick those things over others. Players can exercise rational choice when deciding what items are worth buying with Stars for and what would be purchased by trading Gold. Players benefit from making rational choices and making irrational decisions will not negatively affect other players. If someone wants to purchase an item at an absurd price, it doesn’t negatively affect anyone else but them.



Market Structure


Most MMOs have a free market structure with a price floor and a high price ceiling. Prices of items are largely determined by the players and their willingness to buy. To prevent items from becoming too worthless to even sell, we have a price floor in the manner of players selling their items to NPCs or the void to receive a small amount of Gold in return. A high price floor would create an excess supply of Gold and inflate the value of “worthless” items. Equilibrium price depends on the players and the rational choice model.





If we were to implement a price ceiling that is too low, it would lead to a shortage of items or a secondary market where sellers sell their items for higher prices outside of the game or through direct trade which makes it difficult to find an average fair price for the item. A high price ceiling will be implemented in the form of a maximum trade limit.



Market Power & Pricing


Virtual assets will be a source of market power for the player. The more Gold/Stars you have, the more power over the market you can control (e.g. if you wanted to increase the price of an item, you can afford to buy up all the items under a certain price and resell them at a higher price). As for market power over the player base, the switching costs for the players would be every asset they have in the game. The longer a player plays the game, the more expensive it is to switch because they have more to lose. While buying Stars with real money from the developer, the price will be static. Market supply and demand for Stars will determine the price of them when exchanged in game between players, making the price elastic. For example, when new premium items are released, the demand for Stars will rise (from players that want to trade for it), and so the price will rise. If the percentage demand for Stars increases more than the percentage of price decrease, demand is elastic.



Methods of Exchange





There will be a universal Marketboard where players can see all the items listed for sale by other players and buy from it. In addition, players can trade with each other directly by going to their home. This allows for players to negotiate if they choose to. Players can always choose to sell their items to NPCs directly if they don’t want to go through the Marketboard or other players.



Costs





Opportunity costs can be seen when players are crafting items with the purpose of selling them. If a player chooses to use materials to craft one item, the opportunity cost of crafting that item will be the potential profit earned if you had made a different item. If an item doesn’t sell or the value of it decreases, the resources the player spent making that item is a sunk cost. There will also be a tax in the form of a listing fee that is non-refundable, making it a sunk cost. This will lead to a change to the equilibrium price of a good. A listing fee is essentially a tax on the seller however, implementing a tax on buyers lead to the same outcome as implementing one on the sellers because sellers will adjust the prices of items accordingly and so buyers will almost always end up paying the tax. With a tax, the supply curve will shift up to meet the new equilibrium as PB (price that buyers pay) becomes the new equilibrium price and Qtax becomes the new quantity



Secondary Markets


In most MMOs, there are third party sellers that sell items (Gold, premium items, materials) for real money outside of the game. For premium items, they will undercut the publisher’s set prices, resulting in a loss of revenue for the publisher. In response to this, there will be a ban for these sellers’ characters and a warning for players that purchase from these sellers that can escalate to a ban.





Pipe of Wealth Model





The game economy will follow the Pipe of Wealth model where the developer will be the faucet and have monopoly over premium items and new content additions to the game, as well as Stars. There will be user-to-user interactions in the form of trading and the player driven free market. Their potential market power relies on their ownership of items and how much money they have. Lastly, there are sinks in the form of trade taxes, materials being used up in the process of crafting, and selling things to NPCs. These items are “taken out” of the game.



Balance





In terms of balancing, the game will get progressively easier as time goes on. The more resources (crafting materials, currency, etc.) a player has, the easier it is to make items and obtain more resources.


Virtual Goods





Most of the items in the game such as premium items and crafted items do not serve a functional purpose as they are mainly hedonic and social goods. Players often buy premium items either because they like them, or to show off to other players. Crafted items can be treated the same depending on how hard or rare it is to obtain. The only functional good in my game would be the materials gathered or crafted, as they are used to create items.



REFLECTION.


Market Structure/Supply and Demand


Price ceilings and floors are generally aimed to maintain equity in a market, and when set at the correct prices, are good for an economy. Price ceilings are effective in preventing suppliers from overcharging on a product, however if the price ceiling falls below equilibrium price, it will lead to a shortage, which is bad for the market, its suppliers because their product could be underpriced, and consumers because there is not enough to buy. Price floors are very effective in maintaining the value of a product because it ensures that the price of an item won’t be too low (legally), however, it is bad for the economy when the price floor is too high (above equilibrium price). A high price floor will lead to an excess of supply because the demand for it will be low.


Costs


Taxes are a way to help control the supply of money in an economy, however, the result of a tax is the decline of economic efficiency which is bad for the economy. When a tax is introduced, less of that item will be produced and demand of the item would fall. The price of items will rise. Taxes are effective in reducing the demand of a good or service, however it is only efficient if the excess burden it imposes is small relative to its benefits.


Behavior and Rational Choice


Consumers are expected to spend their money so that their last dollar spent provides them still provides them with utility/satisfaction. The rational choice model is effective in allowing economists to predict consumer behavior and see what kind of goods they will buy given their budget. However, not all consumers will behave rationally all the time. Most consumers cannot predict their future behavior accurately and do not realize that their decisions are sometimes inconsistent with their goal. This can be due to not taking into account nonmonetary opportunity costs and/or failing to ignore sunk costs