“Cash Rules Everything Around Me” a phrase coined by noted philosophers the Wu-Tang Clan is one of the most applicable phrases to survival in video games. I'm not talking about getting the money to buy games. I'm talking about how, in most games, even when it's your job to save the world that the shopkeepers are still charging you the recommended retail price for potions. You'd think that given the gravity of your mission that they'd be happy to comp you some supplies and you'd be wrong. At least one game whose title I forget made light of the situation with a shopkeeper who, when questioned on this, said that he had faith that you'd succeed and that he'd need the money after the world was saved. So then what's an adventurer to do? Well if you're like me the answer to that question is that you break the game. Which is to say you find a way to generate more money than you could possibly ever need. To this end join me in a trip down memory lane for a few examples of how to break game economies.
The oldest game where I actually remember the economy breaking tactic is 'Final Fantasy VII'
for the Playstation. In this game you spent a lot of time gathering up various spells in the form of materia. In order to use the materia you had to equip them to your armor and weapons and like the actual character these materia leveled up after battles (very slowly). When they maxed their level the materia created a new copy of itself. Ok, so far so whatever. Well one of the materia that you got very early was a support materia called 'All' and what it did was allow for your spells to target multiple enemies (offensive spells) or multiple allies (healing or defensive spells). It was also a fairly commonly found materia as the game progressed but that's not why we're here. No, we're here because when “raised” to its max level the All materia was (for some reason) the most valuable item in the game (if I remember correctly). If you took the time (a not insignificant task) to raise 2-3 of these to the max level and sold them you had all the money you would ever need.
for the Playstation. In this game you spent a lot of time gathering up various spells in the form of materia. In order to use the materia you had to equip them to your armor and weapons and like the actual character these materia leveled up after battles (very slowly). When they maxed their level the materia created a new copy of itself. Ok, so far so whatever. Well one of the materia that you got very early was a support materia called 'All' and what it did was allow for your spells to target multiple enemies (offensive spells) or multiple allies (healing or defensive spells). It was also a fairly commonly found materia as the game progressed but that's not why we're here. No, we're here because when “raised” to its max level the All materia was (for some reason) the most valuable item in the game (if I remember correctly). If you took the time (a not insignificant task) to raise 2-3 of these to the max level and sold them you had all the money you would ever need.Well what about if you wanted infinite money? Glad you asked as that would bring us to 'Dragon Age Origins'. In this game you could (unless they've patched in since I last played it) get infinite money by raising one of your mages 'Herbalism' skill to the max level and then crafting and selling 'Potent Lyrium Potions', an item whose crafting components cost less than it sold for resulting in a small profit with every repetition. Now it's worth noting that this infinite money system is extraordinarily tedious and has the potential to crash your game (you'll be crafting literally thousands of items and eventually the game gives up if you sell too many to the same merchant) but it does highlight the issue that developers have in balancing crafting systems. You've got to make it a worthwhile alternate way to obtain items without oh I don't know something like this happening. 'Dragon Age Origins'
fails in this regards as the only reason to put points into this ability is to generate infinite money as there's nothing you can craft that can't be had for easier elsewhere.
fails in this regards as the only reason to put points into this ability is to generate infinite money as there's nothing you can craft that can't be had for easier elsewhere.How about if you don't want to crash your game (at least not due to overloaded merchant inventories)? Well in that case we've come full circle to the game we've been looking at for the last several weeks in 'Fallout: New Vegas'
. In 'New Vegas' you've got two, non-exclusive, choices on how to go about doing this. The first is via the 'Jury Rigging' perk. This perk is first available to the player at level 14 but requires that they've put 90 points into the 'Repair' skill. This perk allows for the player to repair (almost) any item with a similar item instead of a copy of that item. Sometimes and for our purposes it gets kind of ridiculous, like using the common (and cheap) shovel to repair the rare(ish) and valuable Super-Sledge. Basically use cheap common items to repair rare expensive items and then sell them. This method can run into the problem of merchants and traders actually running out of money and for characters with a low strength can be a bit more tedious (strength determines how much stuff you can carry) but slowly and steadily you can make crazy money with this method. The other method of breaking the bank in 'New Vegas' is via gambling with a really high 'Luck' stat. If you can get your 'Luck' via perk and/or implant (don't ask) and/or equipment to 10 (maximum) you will win at the various casino games at a highly disproportionate rate and while you'll eventually find yourself banned from casinos the fact is that there are 6 out there (including the 'Dead Money' DLC) to take for a ride. The 'Sierra Madre Casino' found in the 'Dead Money' DLC is especially profitable as its payout is 10 times the next highest casinos. In short between the 'Jury Rigging' perk and being a compulsive gambler its very possible to never have to worry about money in 'New Vegas'.
. In 'New Vegas' you've got two, non-exclusive, choices on how to go about doing this. The first is via the 'Jury Rigging' perk. This perk is first available to the player at level 14 but requires that they've put 90 points into the 'Repair' skill. This perk allows for the player to repair (almost) any item with a similar item instead of a copy of that item. Sometimes and for our purposes it gets kind of ridiculous, like using the common (and cheap) shovel to repair the rare(ish) and valuable Super-Sledge. Basically use cheap common items to repair rare expensive items and then sell them. This method can run into the problem of merchants and traders actually running out of money and for characters with a low strength can be a bit more tedious (strength determines how much stuff you can carry) but slowly and steadily you can make crazy money with this method. The other method of breaking the bank in 'New Vegas' is via gambling with a really high 'Luck' stat. If you can get your 'Luck' via perk and/or implant (don't ask) and/or equipment to 10 (maximum) you will win at the various casino games at a highly disproportionate rate and while you'll eventually find yourself banned from casinos the fact is that there are 6 out there (including the 'Dead Money' DLC) to take for a ride. The 'Sierra Madre Casino' found in the 'Dead Money' DLC is especially profitable as its payout is 10 times the next highest casinos. In short between the 'Jury Rigging' perk and being a compulsive gambler its very possible to never have to worry about money in 'New Vegas'.The examples given above are far from comprehensive and it is also unclear how intentional they where. Are exploits like this game breaking? In 'Final Fantasy VII' and 'New Vegas' I would lean towards 'no' as the best gear in those games is stuff you find and the copious amounts of money just lets you never have to worry about support equipment or healing supplies. In 'Dragon Age Origins' I would say that the infinite money trick is game breaking in more than one way. Even ignoring the fact that it can crash (though it won't if you're careful) your game much of the best gear is stuff you can buy and is (otherwise) prohibitively expensive so getting access to all of it can definitely present some balance issues. The next question is whether or not we as players should take advantage of such exploits? I dunno. I if I feel that it enhances the overall experience (usually at the cost of game balance) then I'll go ahead and do it. Am I a bad person for doing this? It's a video game. See you all next week.
and 'New Vegas' I would lean towards 'no' as the best gear in those games is stuff you find and the copious amounts of money just lets you never have to worry about support equipment or healing supplies. In 'Dragon Age Origins' I would say that the infinite money trick is game breaking in more than one way. Even ignoring the fact that it can crash (though it won't if you're careful) your game much of the best gear is stuff you can buy and is (otherwise) prohibitively expensive so getting access to all of it can definitely present some balance issues. The next question is whether or not we as players should take advantage of such exploits? I dunno. I if I feel that it enhances the overall experience (usually at the cost of game balance) then I'll go ahead and do it. Am I a bad person for doing this? It's a video game. See you all next week.
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