Lead Designer Kevin Maginn on PoTBS’ economy design

Flying Lab Software Lead Designer for Pirates of the Burning Sea Kevin Maginn (aka Isildur) was recently interviewed largely about the MMORPG’s economy design. The designer shared that despite the long beta testing, the economy for PotBS remains essentially the same save for some additions and revisions.

The aspect of the game that received major improvements was the auction houses. Maginn said that at first, he wanted Pirates of the Burning Sea to develop a “mercantile style of play” that will prompt players to move goods from local auction houses to regional auction houses.

Logically speaking, other players would prefer to look into the regional auction houses because that means that more goods will be present there and probably at a lower price because of competition. Players, the designer shared, didn’t respond particularly well to this and that’s why they’ve implemented a global auction house system.

“It also means that you can see where to sell your goods for the greatest profit, and where a given item is oversupplied and not priced very high. It also lets us give another benefit to free traders, who have the option of seeing prices across the entire world,” explained Kevin Maginn.

When asked about the possibility of hiring a real economist that will facilitate this aspect much like what CCP Games recently did in Eve Online, the lead designer responded that the idea is tempting but it would cost them a lot of money:

I’m the closest thing we have to an economist. I don’t anticipate hiring someone to manage our economy, but I like the concept; If economists were cheap (note: they’re not) I’d hire one in a second, just to have someone around to act as a sanity check and filter on my ideas.

Lastly, Kevin Maginn discussed that they are still planning to conduct more beta testings in the future to ensure that the economy design and other features of Pirates of the Burning Sea are working fine:

We’ve got a beta expansion underway right now, as it happens; I’m hoping to do a massive beta invite in the near future, but unfortunately I don’t get to control that. We’ve also got additional stress tests planned, though those do little to exercise the economy, which is more of a long-term game.

Via Female-Gamer

Flying Lab Software Lead Designer for Pirates of the Burning Sea Kevin Maginn (aka Isildur) was recently interviewed largely about the MMORPG’s economy design. The designer shared that despite the long beta testing, the economy for PotBS remains essentially the same save for some additions and revisions.

The aspect of the game that received major improvements was the auction houses. Maginn said that at first, he wanted Pirates of the Burning Sea to develop a “mercantile style of play” that will prompt players to move goods from local auction houses to regional auction houses.

Logically speaking, other players would prefer to look into the regional auction houses because that means that more goods will be present there and probably at a lower price because of competition. Players, the designer shared, didn’t respond particularly well to this and that’s why they’ve implemented a global auction house system.

“It also means that you can see where to sell your goods for the greatest profit, and where a given item is oversupplied and not priced very high. It also lets us give another benefit to free traders, who have the option of seeing prices across the entire world,” explained Kevin Maginn.

When asked about the possibility of hiring a real economist that will facilitate this aspect much like what CCP Games recently did in Eve Online, the lead designer responded that the idea is tempting but it would cost them a lot of money:

I’m the closest thing we have to an economist. I don’t anticipate hiring someone to manage our economy, but I like the concept; If economists were cheap (note: they’re not) I’d hire one in a second, just to have someone around to act as a sanity check and filter on my ideas.

Lastly, Kevin Maginn discussed that they are still planning to conduct more beta testings in the future to ensure that the economy design and other features of Pirates of the Burning Sea are working fine:

We’ve got a beta expansion underway right now, as it happens; I’m hoping to do a massive beta invite in the near future, but unfortunately I don’t get to control that. We’ve also got additional stress tests planned, though those do little to exercise the economy, which is more of a long-term game.

Via Female-Gamer