I''m working on an MMPORG set in another universe where two Empires are at war. The Empires and kingdoms are really corporate fiefs and one of the main ways to get on is to create your own company and build it up. Since the company role is important it would be good to have two stock exchanges - one for each Empire - where shares in both PC and NPC companies could be traded. However I don''t want it too complex. So I was thinking of limiting price movement on the exchange to only once every 24 hours and only having limited scope for price movement up and down. I''m also wondering if there is a model that I can base this on. There seem to be a lot of stock exchange games out there but they mainly link to real exchanges which aren''t much help. The "fantasy" ones - Bollywood, Hollywood and politicians - also are a bit too complex. So I''d be grateful for any comments on this and particularly if anyone knows of a system that I can base ours on. Thanks

Ok - what actually has happened is that the Galactic Overlord has demanded I create a simplified stock exchange for a game. If this is not done within the next few days the world will be destroyed and everyones'' souls will be forced to watch endless repeats of speeches by George Bush, Tony Blair and Mr Burns.

To avoid this fate any help would be most appreciated.

well, i know less about the stock exchange than i do about blackjack (although as far as i can tell they do have certain intrinsic similarities)... but i am always willing to bail someone out from the wrath of the Galatic Overlord...
i do not think you should limit the stock fluctuations to once a day. real-time might be an overkill, but you should update it enough for players to trade several times in one playing session (unless i misunderstood your post; i am under the impression that this is a big part of gameplay).
as far as a good model of this thing, i dunno. you could base it on the actual stock exchange (get numbers but change the names), but then the stocks in the game would follow trends fitting the real world, and not the game one.
i would suggest finding a website or book or something about the stock exchange, and grabbing any aspects you like from it for use in your game. once you get a model going, you can use random numbers for fluctuations (although they should be kinda related to the gameworld events; ie, Stock1 might fluctuate up or down by 5 SpaceBucks a share every day, but because of a new competitor (a conspiracy of the other empire?) it is dropping regularly).
sorry i can''t help much more; tell the Galactic Overlord i said HI.

--- krez (krezisback@aol.com)

Try looking at LavaMind''s Gazillionaire Deluxe. The demo''s about 80 MB, I think, though. However, it has a rudimentary - but fairly cool - stock-market game portion. Not a MMORPG by any means, though.

quote: Original post by simbiant
...but krez, where in NJ do you live? i too, reside in this pint sized state.

middlesex county, smack in the center of the state.
i''d give you more details, but i am as paranoid as i am silly.

--- krez (krezisback@aol.com)

Thanks for the answers guys. It''s helped a lot. I''m now thinking of two differently operated Exchanges - one conventional, another like the old Paris bourse - so that the two Empires look different.

Oh by the way Krez - the Galactic Overlord was looking at a map of Middlesex when I left - something about a poker game and 10USD owing.

quote: Original post by Crydee
Thanks for the answers guys. It''s helped a lot. I''m now thinking of two differently operated Exchanges - one conventional, another like the old Paris bourse - so that the two Empires look different.

that''d be neat... i mean, why WOULD two separate empires use the same system? hmm... what do you have planned as far as inter-empire trading? obviously they are at war, but i''m sure there would still be a black market (and they might even put aside their differences to sell something essential to their enemies at an absurd price)... also, would there be an exchange rate of some sort between their 2 different types of money? even if they are not used by the player, there would have to be to rate them against each other.

quote: Oh by the way Krez - the Galactic Overlord was looking at a map of Middlesex when I left - something about a poker game and 10USD owing.

i''m unlisted... and just in case, i sleep with a phazor under my pillow.


--- krez (krezisback@aol.com)

Why don''t you go get some books or read some tutorials on how markets work in the real world. Learn about the NASDAQ and the NYSE and how they are different. Learn about specialists and market makers. Learn about the bid & ask, futures contracts, options contracts, short selling and why it was introduced into the markets, and the commodities markets and how suppliers and industrial consumers can offload their risk onto the speculator.

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How ''bout this for a market idea... make it player-driven rather than random so that it behaves more like a real stock market. Have a set amount of each "stock" and have that amount fluctuate between players. (maybe you had this planned already, I dunno, but most games I''ve seen with a stock market just make it completely random)

I don''t know how far into your game design you are, but here''s an example... say there are 10 different kinds of resources in your game. #1 is super-common and #10 is super-rare... the rest range in between in a fairly even distribution. Resource #10 is going to be very expensive, resource #3 won''t be... unless one cagey player (or group of players) buy up all the available #3. When the supply is decreased, the stock (or resource) price goes up... this has happened many times in the real world in the gold and silver markets. In fact, it''s pretty much illegal nowadays, but it would certainly make for a fun game! And it doesn''t really add complexity to the market simulation, because the prices would be controlled by the players.

At any rate, I agree with Bishop... try picking up a book about how the markets work and you will learn a lot of interesting stuff.

Krez. Thanks for the inter-Empire idea. We are going to have smuggling and trade between the Empires. Also there will be other - independent - kingdoms so its not just going to be a straight fight. Resources available to one side might not be available to the other. Hopefully this will add lots of interest, side missions etc.. in the game.

I haven''t thought about exchange rates. I suppose I was thinking on inter-Empire trade as done more on a bartering basis. I''ll have to give that more thought. If a player from one Empire is caught by his navy with the other Empire''s currency he could be in deep trouble.

Bish & Pyabo. I have looked at some stuff and there are good websites for many of the different stock exchanges. But the point is to try and keep it reasonably simple. For example I don''t want mutual funds, pension funds etc.. who play a big part in RL exchanges. I am considering not having companies pay dividends. So what you end up with is a pretty basic exchange that has three purposes:
(1) Every company - and there will be over 200 NPC and a lot of PC companies - will be quoted. Thus the exchange acts as an information source on how people are doing
(2) Investment in a company''s shares may yield players short or long term profits. Also if a PC company is doing well on the Exchange it will trigger access to greater loan funding.
(3) Players can buy companies by obtaining 51% of their shares. Economic warfare

But do I need to go further? Dividends are a good aspect in this regard. They are an important part of a RL exchange and no doubt players would like so get dividends on the shares they hold. But they would also have to pay them from their companies - which might severely hinder their plans and make the game more drudgery than a game. I''m trying to strike a reasonable balance here.

As far as price movement if the market it to work properly it can''t be random based. A player needs to have some basis on which to make investment decisions otherwise he just wo''nt bother. Random changes would be pointless.

There will be a lot of resources in game - minerals, chemicals, plants etc.. the balancing of those is going to be difficult. At the moment I am thinking of making price movement reflect:
(1) individual company performance
(2) trading in individual company''s shares
(3) economic situation for the sector
(4) Political situation - war, rise or fall of particular faction

The real problem is how do I do this for NPC companies and how is it programmed?