As Plazek says, we would need a money sink in Strat, perhaps something that could always be bought for money from "chadz" or the equivalent of a central bank.
I've got my own theories of how the economy will unfold, but it always relies on two assumptions:
The amount of items and gold will be ever-increasing.
This would allow to give the players the feeling they are prospering and building up and getting stronger. I doubt that warfare will be able to consume all the growth, as warfare should also be profitable to encourage some good old action and blood for the players.
That there is a central bank where players can buy useful items for gold directly
If this is the case which i hope and think it will be, one have to ask what what will grow faster:
The amount of gold and demand for it?
The amount of items and demand for it?
This decides if there will be inflation, or deflation. In an inflating economy, much more gold than items are produced, and so items increase in price. This would benefit player hoarding items, and sitting with as little gold as possible, as it's value is disappearing from day to day. On the other hand, a deflating economy would reward players for hoarding gold, as they can get more and more items for every day passing.
Of course, the balance between these two things will never be perfect.. and things will swing either one or the other way. Huge wars could influence the balance etc.. Of course, chadz could set up a common Bank of chadz, and giving players money for putting money there, influencing the value of money by interest rate.
Im no economist by any means, but in my mind it would work to set up an inflation economy, then controlling it with interest.
What you think?
