User7032 said it right. The problem with EVERY SINGLE MMORPG -- is the INFLUX or INPUT of items/currency. I will collectively refer to this as "value."

Value, in most MMORPG's (referred to hereafter as "games") is ALWAYS available. Take old Everquest, you kill a bat, you get some items. These items are the bat's harvestables + some common currency. This can be done endlessly as the bats will continually respawn. Value enters the game in this fashion so long as people are still online to gather it.

Therefore, the answer to dealing with inflation/deflation -- should NOT be Value sinks. While Value sinks are important for ensuring a level of realism to your game, they should not be viewed as the sole means of removing excess Value. Games such as Fallensword.com tried to do this. It fails.

Instead, build the game in such a manner that players WANT to spend their Value.

1. Instead of allowing for an infinite amount of Value to enter the game, randomize the amounts that enter; and the location to where it enters. Subsequently require certain skills and levels of that skill in order for each player to even access the given resource.

2. Completely remove influxes of "currency" from Farmable sources. For example -- do not allow players to gain currency Value from killing monsters, instead only allow them to gain currency from selling the harvest to either A) players or B) NPCs though at a much lower value.

3. Introduce enough types of skills that even more advanced players will have need of other, possibly less-experienced players, to harvest all the necessary Value for whatever it is they want to have. If it takes three harvesting skills to gather the necessary Value to produce a powerful item -- the more experienced player will likely pay a newer, poorer player for one of those harvests instead of trying to do all three himself/herself.

User7032 said it right. The problem with EVERY SINGLE MMORPG -- is the INFLUX or INPUT of items/currency. I will collectively refer to this as "value."

Value, in most MMORPG's (referred to hereafter as "games") is ALWAYS available. Take old Everquest, you kill a bat, you get some items. These items are the bat's harvestables + some common currency. This can be done endlessly as the bats will continually respawn. Value enters the game in this fashion so long as people are still online to gather it.

Therefore, the answer to dealing with inflation/deflation -- should NOT be Value sinks. While Value sinks are important for ensuring a level of realism to your game, they should not be viewed as the sole means of removing excess Value. Games such as Fallensword.com tried to do this. It fails.

Instead, build the game in such a manner that players WANT to spend their Value.

1. Instead of allowing for an infinite amount of Value to enter the game, randomize the amounts that enter; and the location to where it enters. Subsequently require certain skills and levels of that skill in order for each player to even access the given resource.

2. Completely remove influxes of "currency" from Farmable sources. For example -- do not allow players to gain currency Value from killing monsters, instead only allow them to gain currency from selling the harvest to either A) players or B) NPCs though at a much lower value.

3. Introduce enough types of skills that even more advanced players will have need of other, possibly less-experienced players, to harvest all the necessary Value for whatever it is they want to have. If it takes three harvesting skills to gather the necessary Value to produce a powerful item -- the more experienced player will likely pay a newer, poorer player for one of those harvests instead of trying to do all three himself/herself.