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Old 06-20-2005, 02:05 AM   #12
prof1515
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I have actually debated whether or not to have several (was thinking anywhere from 2-5) currencies in the game. However, what I'm really asking about is denominations, that is the same currency in different amounts (like the U.S. system of pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, etc.) rather than different national currencies (like dollars, pounds, Euros, etc).

The question of inflation also has risen since it's a very prominent economic theme in the period I'm looking at. However, that's a topic for a different discussion (incidently, one that I was planning for next week...no sense in flooding the forums with too many different topics all at once).

Simply point out that most nations print and mint their own currency. Don't underestimate player intelligence that much to assume they don't know a bit about the world and can grasp the concept of national currencies.

All depends on what type of game you're creating and the degree of design that you put into your world. Different currencies make sense if you're dealing with different cultures. After all, how much sense does it make that a world with 108 different regions and 12 different races all sat down and decided, "we're all using the same coin" yet can't find common ground (assuming inter-cultural/racial conflict is present in your game, which is a fairly safe assumption in most MUDs) on anything else?

I'm trying to find a good middle ground between playability and realism, not an extreme. The example you provided is extreme in one direction (you mentioned regions, but didn't elaborate as to whether they're political entities or simply regions so I'm working off the premise that you meant the latter) while Jazuela's is extreme to the opposite.

I mean, look how long it took Europe to adopt a common currency (and the continuing debate that it generates). Or in the case of denominations, look at Britain, which didn't decimalize their currency until 1971 (interestingly, I always laugh when some Americans say they hate metric yet fail to realize that our currency system is metric and they don't have a problem with that).

Take care,

Jason
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