[Issue 42] Why a 40% Off Sale is Better than 50% Off

[viratno2 146]

 

Here's a simple lesson for you: in the world you have two items: tangible and intangible.

 

Tangible means you can touch it, hold it, buy it, use it, and resell it. Things like food, clothes, cars, houses, computers, iPhones, etc. Objects that require physical manufacturing and physical costs associated with producing them and selling them (such as a car - from the time the iron is mined from the ground to the oil being pumped from the ground, raw materials being transported and refined, finally arriving somewhere where you trade real currency for that item). With many things the more you produce the cheaper they become (production lines greatly improved manufacturing and lowered costs). Witness how cheap electronics become over time after they reach the market. There is always a fixed cost for making something under which you lose money if you sell it for less than it cost you to produce it.

 

If it costs me $500 to produce something and I sell it for $400 then I'm going to lose money. If I sell it for $600 I will turn a profit and I will have X number of customers. If I try to sell it for $750 I will earn more per item sold, but, I might actually lose customers so my overall profit might be less despite earning more per item sold.

 

Intangible means something you pay for but can't really hold it, touch it, or technically own it. Things such as software, music, movies, online games, etc. Once it is produced making more copies cost mere pennies. Things such as CDs, DVDs, BluRay, etc. Online distribution eliminates the physical costs so the only cost of distribution becomes server costs and bandwidth.

 

The major difference between tangible items and intangible items is that intangible items almost NEVER drop in price no matter how many copies exist - whether or not Microsoft sells 10,000,000 licenses of Windows or 100,000,000 licenses the price never drops - it never goes down if more are sold.

 

In the real world an "economy" is largely defined as individuals who have the capability of trading and selling items to each other using currency. It's an interaction between companies and customers - even between companies and between customers, or, between nations. Even currencies can be traded -  something called FOREX - I could sell my USD and buy euros, hold them for some time, then resell them for dollars hoping to turn a profit.

 

This talk about "economy" in Tanki is FALSE. There is no relationship between players - we cannot sell or transfer money (crystals) between one another. We cannot sell our items in the garage back to Tanki. Once you buy it you are stuck with it. This is because the items you buy don't really exist, and, crystals cannot be sold or traded using other online games, so, crystals themselves have no real value either. We cannot obtain crystals in any other way aside from interaction with Tanki - whether it is "earning" them in each round or buying them with real money. So, in essence, Tanki maintains a monopoly over crystals.

 

The difference between a real economy and the false one in Tanki is that in the real world if too much currency exists in the market then the value of that currency drops. If it is easy to produce money it loses value (this is why governments take such extreme measures to try to prevent counterfeiting). If a government decides to print more money to ease economic conditions then the increase in money supply leads to inflation (because if money is easier to obtain then more people will spend it - the more people spent money the higher prices will go).

 

Inflation cannot really happen in Tanki because crystals cannot be traded between players. I can't sell you the M2 I no longer need, and, I can't use crystals in my account to buy that Mammoth you don't like. Whether or not 1 billion or 100 billion crystals exists in the "game economy" means nothing. If I have a million crystals it has no impact on the price you pay for your items in your garage.

 

What does exist in the Tanki economy is something similar to counterfeiting - this is what happens when druggers appear and start slaughtering tanks. It increases the battle funds - this is how more crystals are produced. What also happens in Tanki is increases in crystal supplies by Tanki "printing" more crystals - this is what happens when gold boxes drop more often or with larger values, or, when you have days when battle funds are multiplied.

 

We hear that sales are bad. Well, is a sale any good if you aren't at the rank yet to unlock the things you want? If I want M3 Mammoth and I'm not a Gismo yet when a sale comes around then it's as if the sale doesn't exist for me at that point. A 50% sale two months ago would have done no good at all if the items I wanted weren't unlocked yet. So, despite there being 60-70,000 players it is highly improbable many of them would be able to buy what they want during a sale. A sale doesn't mean everyone will buy something or will be able to buy something. That's why they come several times per year. Players need time to rank.

 

How is a sale bad, but, allowing druggers to mine crystals, promoting inflated battle funds, or dropping larger gold boxes is not?

 

As I mentioned a sale is not a sale if a player isn't at a suitable rank in order to use it, but, anyone can take part in those events when crystals are being handed out like candy.

 

Now, there's a lot of focus on the difference between 40% and 50%. 10% at lower ranks is fairly small - it might make at most a 10,000 crystal difference in getting a complete tank. 10% at higher ranks is substantial - as high as 60,000 crystals if someone is getting a complete upgrade (hull and turret) - and for most people it tanks months to make the ranks needed to unlock those - hence it is more typical for players at high ranks to completely miss sales than those at lower ranks.

 

Why are supplies permanently 75% off, but, selling me a turret at 50% off versus 40% will "wreck the economy?"

 

Don't buy into the nonsense about game economy and how sales will destroy it when other actions clearly demonstrate the hypocrisy of that statement. There is simply no logical comparison between "selling" tanks that only exist in the online world to other hypothetical real world situations mentioned here such as supermarkets, etc.

 

 

I like reading but this is too much.

[BlueDragon_tamki 3,204]

All this is just silly! I mean, as I said, HOW CAN A AWESOME 50% BE WORSE THAN A STUPID 40%?!

[viratno2 146]

I somehow dont mind the article but it is the title that doesn't make sense. Make something like " why a 40% sale doesnt make a difference ", not something like the current title.

[Truthteller 4,204]

You did not explain how a 40% is better than a 50%.

Creeperskelly said the right thing, Tanki does not have an economy.

Edited May 1, 2017 by Truthteller

[Pyre 3,485]

...Im afraid he has a point...

[Musa 5,352]

Nice article. I am agree with your all points.

[eSport 486]

Not a bad article..

I don't mind 30-50% off but anything below isn't worth it to me