The Pongo Daily

Published in Indonesia - Financial analysis - 07 Nov 2016 01:57 - 8

TL;DR: this rant is longer that the one I posted on erev suggestion forum, and i spent 2 gold for it.

Since the last rule update, there has been some change which lead to some players confused, and even pledging to remove it. While we're aware that such change is intended to make it easier to catch booster and cheater, the changes leave honest f2p player in a difficult situation.

So, I propose a couple extra fix to make admin's day easier while still make honest players feel safe when conducting a honest business.

1. Add Benefit list to job offer
https://clbin.com/CmhFm5.png
something like this

- With extra information provided, it's easier for citizen to pick the best employment offer.
- Freely available information means employer will compete to provide best offer while maintaining profit.
- Which translate to additional goods demand, adding small stimulus to economy.
- Since the benefits is integrated with the game engine, it's easier to manage and track compared to manual donation.
- This feature will lessen the workload of admin. Since legitimate worker gift is now excluded from potential boosting, resource flow will be more transparent.

2. Improve MU's Supply System
(no pictures since I've already finish my daily hit)
This idea have been voiced by different player and the admin said they would it. I would like to propose additional automation whereby MU officer can set a specific item(s) to donate daily, and members who finish their daily ignment can claim the item(s). This have several benefit:

- Automation = less manual & menial work.
- Item(s) will only be obtained by active members, making supply more effective.
- This feature will lessen the workload of admin. Same reason as above.

3. Add "Loan" Button and Loan section on monetary market

https://clbin.com/mWmJ14.jpg
(too much html editing for one day, this meme will suffice)

Adding a loan button, with dropdown to specify loan duration (10 days, 20 days, 1 month, etc), and optionally, interest rate. Loan and interest can only be paid with the same unit (cc loan paid with cc, gold with gold). Outstanding loan that past their payment time will automatically deduct  reasonable amount (say 50% max) from user's treasury and rewards until the amount paid back to giver (with interest, optionally).  Integrated with monetary market, players can see offer for loan and propose for loan.

This have several benefit:

- Simulating banking will open up plenty of economic possibility. Government backed bank (treasury loan), private bank (capital from gold purchases), et cetera.
- Honest player who need gold can conduct business transparently, no need to be wary of banhammer.
- Far much easier for loaner and loan taker to track the debt, compared to manual donation.
- This feature will lessen the workload of admin. Same reason as above.

Consider this scenario:
"Biskvit invite his friend, Cracker, to play. Cracker ask Biskvit for 100 G loan to upgrade his TG."

With current rules, paying that amount back within 10 days is almost impossible without buying gold, which negate the need to take a loan on the first place.  With my proposed improvement, Cracker have two alternatives, either take a long term loan, or take a short term loan with reduced reward after his loan is past due date.

Some may argue that this mechanism increase the risk for loan giver. I'd argue that if that's the case, the monetary market will mostly be filled by player looking for loan. The loan giver can then pick the preferable proposal, with a bonus of getting new friends.

On the other hand, booster will no longer able to drain their feeder without using direct donation, because otherwise the cc/gold will just funneled back to the feeder. This increase their risk for them because donations can be monitored more easily, since legal transactions have their own channel.

5. Add "info" text on donation form

While some of the suggestions I mention  is non-trivial to implement, surely one extra column on a single table inside the database is not that difficult to add.

Verdict

The aim for these proposed improvements are to provide context on in-game monetary transaction. Admin can easily spot potential boosters by filtering out-of-context transactions while player can utilize the features to interact freely while still complying with the game rules. Being a coder myself, I understand that some of these features are difficult to implement, especially the supply system. But, if we compare the trade-off with the benefit and secondary effects on economy and player engagement, I'd say it will worth the effort.

Finding the balance between providing enjoyment and profiting from us is the key  to the game's future. While it's true that us freeloaders have zero financial contribution to the game, we also provide the joy of competition to our paying friends. Kindly consider our opinions and requests, please. :)

Support

Karlina Alkhatiri

Comments (8)

Just buy a lot of golds and all problems are solved. Wink
meh, MMO is a long term stuff. I have to be sure it worth spending my money on. With the general direction of these recent updates. Well.....
What if the one who got the loan quits the game or something? I would say using property as an insuance would be nice... They can put their factories as collateral and if they dont repay in time the loan giver can claim their factory or wait for them to repay(ofcourse with a time limit after which the factory will automatically be claimed) kinda like real life, and while we are at it they can add the option to rent factories, like you pay 20cc per day to rent someones food factory
LOL, Capitalism is everywhere *sigh*
g ad yg nyadar klo poin no.4 g ad XD
Proposal rejected :p
@Maousama: the general idea is to reverse a loan which currently based on personal trust to one based on financial trust and risk-reward balance, to help newcomer get familiar and boost their progress. Being quite new to this game, in my experience personal trust can be build by prolonged interaction. A loan giver can encourage newbie to be more active (invite them to irc/discord/whatsapp etc) before accepting their proposal, thus give them sense of belonging. This will help regional community to grow organically. For older player, the idea of using collateral (or setting maximum amount based on their activity) is appealing. But I m afraid the technical side is a bit difficult. @TheRedActor: TBH, this game lack economic freedom while based on capitalism principle already. No option for state enterprises, free market, no social enterprise ownership, you name it. :p @Budhe Karlin: saya juga, biarlah kek gitu. :v
g mudeng