BALLIN': AN EXAMINATION OF MONEY IN GAMES.

Money needs to be meaningful, but in modern RPGs especially, it is pretty meaningless. This is mainly how shops are done. If shops just keep offering slightly stronger versions of the previous weapons for each character and every time you reach that new shop level you have plenty of money to buy all of them, then it's completely meaningless.

I still don't like how they did it in Tales of Xillia, because it's still just slightly better versions each time, though it's basically unlimited because you can in theory buy all the best equip in the starting region already if you had unlimited amounts of gold. Might as well just remove the equipment system completely along with the gold.

Implementations I like are more like: Shops are more individual. Instead of each new shop offering slightly better versions, each shop instead offers all kinds of quality weapons, but is more thematic. Like that lumber town has good Axes while the mage town has nice Staffs, etc.
Also the offer shouldn't really be limited by story progression. If you have the money, you should be able to buy it.

SaGa games have this fairly well implemented, because there are always items available that would improve your party but you can't afford. So money actually matters a lot.


Not really what you talked about but when we talk about gold, I want to add: I DO LIKE it when monsters drop gold directly at the cost of realism. I really hate it when they drop "Etc." items and then you have to figure out yourself which ones you can actually sell to the NPC and which you might need later.


Money in games is a lot more interesting in MMORPGs also.

Not really what you talked about but when we talk about gold, I want to add: I DO LIKE it when monsters drop gold directly at the cost of realism. I really hate it when they drop "Etc." items and then you have to figure out yourself which ones you can actually sell to the NPC and which you might need later.

I think this is fine if the flavor text is written clearly, and it can be a nice bonus on top of the usual gold drop.

In my game, I am also trying to use thematic shops like you mentioned, as well as having expensive items on sale much earlier than you are intended to purchase them with the idea being that you would return later with the right amount of cash instead of just farming for money, but farming is still an option if you so desire (However, it is kind of a peeve of mine watching people brute force their way through a game like an RPG instead of just tackling things with a different mindset and strategy upon failure. I guess it's partly how some might think grinding is the only successful option.)...

As long as the money doesn't become subject to mass inflation, it usually works. But, especially in FF, mobs tend to drop tons more gold as the game progresses which makes earlier costs trivial. There might be a few things to buy, but in the end, the day-to-day necessities won't serve as a big enough gold sink to prevent nigh-unlimited cash growth.

For the most part, that's not a huge issue, so no one bothers 'solving' it.

author=Treason89

author=RyaReisender
Not really what you talked about but when we talk about gold, I want to add: I DO LIKE it when monsters drop gold directly at the cost of realism. I really hate it when they drop "Etc." items and then you have to figure out yourself which ones you can actually sell to the NPC and which you might need later.

I just have the opposite view. It can be a good way to create real atmosphere, if as Shoobinator says, the player is informed. At the end, this may be a question of taste.

There was one game that did this really well: Story of Innocence, a brilliant 2k3 game made by Ultima187. Every monster just dropped spoils, and they were all tagged with a gold bar icon- you knew that you could sell them immediately. I always liked it, because it just fixed up a little inconsistency in worldbuilding with most RPGs. Besides, you don't need money in the field anyways.

In other money related talk, I've spent a long, LONG time struggling with the idea of giving each country its own currency. I just can't think of a way to do it without royally messing up the flow of the gameplay, or the players knowledge of their money supply.

I've also been thinking of using lower prices/gold amounts than most RPGs- in what world would a non-famous/made of ultra-priceless material sword sell for like 68k? "Yes, this magical pendant will be 553,000$ PLEASE!"

idk it just bugs me a little

I've been playing Three the Hard Way recently, and aside from a few sticky spots, I really enjoy the way the game handles money. All randomly encountered enemies in the game drop only 1 GP each. The majority of the money in the game comes from one-off events: completing jobs, killing bosses, finding treasure, or outright extorting people. The scarcity of money in the game helps the player relate to one of the core traits of the main character- his greed. He's used to a lifestyle where money is hard to come by, where you don't know what's going to be paying for next month's bread, so you're constantly on the lookout for opportunities to net some more cash. If you could make good money just wandering back and forth killing Money Spiders, his worldview would basically stop making sense. But when you spend so much of your time in the game teetering on the verge of being broke, you end up a lot more sympathetic to his attitude.

What area is that? I completed the game recently, and I don't remember ever encountering such a place, so I'm interested to know what I missed.

author=Treason89
In such case why to put money to start with?

I'm a bit late here, but, w/e q_q

Money can be used as another form of customization as the player has to make choices about who to buy stuff for, etc. After a certain point, it stops serving this purpose, but it was still worth including for the area where it worked.

That said, there are other ways to get the same benefit without the ugly bloat at the end. It's just not considered a huge deal (probably) so long as the problem occurs after the primary play period.