Damion Schubert, Lead Combat Designer for Bioware Austin
The question to answer, why do we keep making grindtastic class-based combat oriented men in tights gamey games?

I’m not going to answer “because it sells” because it’s a circular argument and a copout. We won’t get anywhere if we only do what was done before.

Instead, I’ll ask why do we need a grind, why do games appear to be winning, why are classes good, and so on.
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Rough notes, sorry for typos!

Sam Lewis, MMOG economies. Lead designer for Cartoon Network MMO. ex-Kesmai, SOE, MBA and BA in econ as well.

What is economics? Study of forces of supply and demand and how they allocate scarce resources in a society.

MMOs are social games, that’s why you use economics. It helps analyze current phenomena and argue with marketing. And it helps you make design decisions, worldbuilding decisions. it isn’t the only lens to look at things, but it’s a useful one.
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