Money, Money, Money... Economics and Gameplay

Hey Everybody,

Today I want to talk about something that often goes moderately overlooked in video games, economics. I know, sounds boring, but if you think about it, in game currency can be directly attributed to character power and potential growth. I feel that this is overlooked a little too often in games these days, mind you there are games that do this perfectly and get their points across. Starving a player of resources in a survival game is almost an immediate way to make the game more intense. In fact some of my favorite games do this to near perfection making me think about missed shots and cursing myself for shooting while scared but today I'd like to talk about games that I feel may have dropped the ball.

Image from wikipedia.org

My main contender is a gave from late 2008 titled  "Fable II" and the pre-order bonus game "Fable Pub Games". Don't get me wrong this idea was AWESOME, but it goes to show that one or two lines of bad code can turn a game on its ear. For those of you who don't know Fable II is the second installment in the Fable franchise, a series that revolves around you interacting with and making choices in a world that will change based on your actions. This games main pull is its unique story line and how customize-able you can make your "Hero", for instance if you are a good person who does good deeds the public treats you better, and vise versa. So for instance if you were in debt a bookie might send mercenary's to rough you up a bit and collect your money. That's where Fable Pub Games comes in, the Pub Games was a great way to allow players who pre-ordered the game to put a little effort into their character before the game even started. Players could choose from three separate games that could put them in debt or have them starting out with a nice chunk of change in their pockets. Because the games had roughly the same odds as a casino, most players would supposedly start off in debt. This was a great set of games that captured the feel of a old world pub and set a awesome tone for the game to come.

And here's where they dropped the ball. In one of the games there was a small glitch, quickly found by the gaming community that would let you bet up to 10x more than you actually spent on your bet. For instance I could bet 15 gold and as the cards were being dealt up the bet to 150 gold, unfortunately this glitch didn't take any extra gold from you when you upped the ante. Effectively making your break even point 10x lower than it should be, this made players extraordinarily rich with very minimal effort. The worst part of it was that by the time the patch was out to fix the glitch the damage was done, and if you declined the new patch you could keep using the glitch which most players (including me) did. I started that game with millions of dollars instead of lint in my pocket.

Image from gameandplayer.net

Now allot is to be said on the intricacies of honesty, morality, and letting the player play how they want. But in the end for a game that is built around consequences this glitch allowed you allot of free reign with little downside.

If you want to learn more about the Fable II Pub Games glitch check out this article at Joystiq.com.

Game on,

            Duane