Neverwinter, Economics, and Cryptocurrency?

After exploring some of the ideas from my Runescape, Economics, and Cryptocurrency? post I decided to go back and check on another MMORPG, Neverwinter.

So I loaded up my Xbox, clicked on the game and.. turns out I returned to riches beyond my wildest dreams..

.. well not really, I had to go through a game update and some old screenshots from a couple of years before the game loaded up..

I had a lot of fun playing this freemium MMORPG. I enjoyed running the dungeons with friends and have always been a fan of the grind for gear type games. On my time here I even ran a small Guild with some friends.

Alright.. so.. I’m caught up on updates and am in the game..

AND YOU GET A MOUNT..

It didn’t take long until i noticed global announcements going off left and right that people were unlocking highly coveted rare mounts for the game.

Lockboxes

You have a random chance at acquiring highly valued mounts from opening Lockboxes. These lockboxes are put into the game during events and once the event is over, no additional lockboxes of that type are released and onto the next event/box. (unless they revisit older boxes for whatever reason)

Like similar freemium games that offer you boxes with prizes, you need to purchase keys in game to open them up. This either means saving up in-game currency (which can take days to weeks to afford a few keys for a “chance”), or spend real money for in game currency to buy them. Time is money afterall.. This is where the Wallet Warriors shine and the Pay2Win aspect comes in for these games, which can sometimes be game breaking to those trying to be frugal.

The In-game Currenecies

• The in-game currencies are Astrals and Zen.
• Zen is purchased with real money.
• You acquire Astrals from quests, rewards, etc.
• Astrals can be traded for Zen.

Below are compiled photos that include some quick numbers and notes I sketched on as an example for if you wanted to purchase these keys for the lockboxes and what that means.

• 2/4/16 I purchased 1,000 Zen(Roughly $10 worth) for 147,000 astrals
• Today, 1,000 Zen would cost 377,000 astrals (256% increase in value)

I decided to do some math to see roughly what my account’s in-game currency was worth. My total wealth is equivalent to their $80 Zen package. When I played this game I might have only put like $15 into it for 2,000 Zen so it’s interesting to compare.

Investment

I’ve stopped playing for a while now, but when I played I collected as many lockboxes as I could and invested in items that I believed would gain value over time. (My HODL period of these items.) The limited stock items with the ability to be worth much more down the road much less or even break even, like some of the items in the picture above.

• Bought (5) Pocket pets at 30,000 (150,000)
• Worth 171,000 each today (855,000) (+705,000) a 570% Increase
  _
• Bought (4) Tiamat’s Orbs at 150,000 (600,000)
• Worth 11,000 each today (44,000) (-556,000)
  _
• Lockbox prices - Roughly the same overall

Thinking of gaming economics like these have helped me start to understand what investing a little bit into something now, can turn into in a few years and the future. From the examples above I am showing why I think it's best to spread assets out and why I would never invest into just one thing by putting all my eggs in one basket. At the same time a small investment can shoot to the moon or a large investment can plummet. This can help make cryptocurrencies and investing more relatable. At the least it can help people be prepared to have losses and how to react instead of panic, especially that dealing with money isn’t just a game.

Playing the Markets

Above I am showing the market for this specific item basically being controlled by one person. (At the time of the screenshots he had majority of the following pages of sales) I briefly spoke about this in my Runescape post. In these types of games with markets, a person can take over items entirely and force fluctuate prices. (Pump and Dump sound familiar?)

I have (40) Alchemy Packs saved in my bank. Prior to quitting the game I bought these items close to around 8,000 astrals years ago and now they have almost doubled in value. Let’s put this into the perspective of crypto. Someone buying Bitcoin/Ethereum/etc. years ago finds more utility and popularity as time goes on - it’s value can go up.

Conculsion
I hope you guys were able to take something from this post. I figured I’d throw together a summary of keywords from the article almost as a TL;DR to also help recap some prevalent ideas to think about in-game and out.

#Neverwinter
#MMORPG
#Economy
#Crypto
#SupplyandDemand
#Investment
Markets
#Assets
#HODL
Eggs in one basket
#PumpandDump

Gamer | Designer | Architectural Draftsman | Full Time Nerd

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