The Economy of WoW

[Lissa]

I like the name of this site - it's kinda like this one here.  :)

Anyhow, link to the article:
http://www.overanalyzed.com/portal.php?topic_id=19

He's very accurate - the economy works very well up until levels 40-50, after which the monies really start piling up for characters who make good use of the auction house.

This impacts everyone, because once the servers start filling up with level 60 players, the economy will fall badly to inflation.  Too many characters will be walking around with hundreds of gold, devaluing everything that isn't a level 55-60 item heavily.

What would you do to fix this?  One-time costs do not solve the problem, and never will.  Only recurring costs can stem the tide.  What recurring cost could you implement that wouldn't drive everyone crazy?

One idea of mine is housing - that there would be a recurring cost to this that would keep draining you if you wanted to keep one up.  Make there some kind of point in having one, and players will line up to get it anyway.

-Bolty
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Actually, the best solution for taking money out of the game is to put in fun money sinks, things that people will want to do and won't mind using the money. One of the that Turbine did back in the day with Asheron's Call was to make casinos where you spent money buying chips and then going to the tables and playing. This is one of the better money sinks that everyone actually enjoyed in the game. So what Blizzard really needs to do is institute fun money sinks that people will enjoy and it will easily take the money out of the system keeping the inflation in check.