Conquest of the Horde

I know the IC currency has been tried a few times, I have even tried my self to get one going with GHI, which failed. I have been giving this a lot of thought, and with my very basic understanding of economics this is what I have come up with. There has to be two sides and each has to want something from the other. Otherwise known as supply and demand. Now we do have these two sides, one is The great and powerful Overlord Kretol and his minions and the other is us, lowly Grunts and Peons.
Now what do we have to offer each other, well the players can offer RP and the GMs can offer the very world around us.

This is what I propose, since for the most part the GMs represent the governments of the world and the players the citizens. I think that is who we should be dealing with in character. I know before the GMs were handing gold out to people with business ideas but that is not what I am thinking. I am thinking that the deal is made with guilds. A guild who is aligned with a faction, or city can make a contract with that government and when they RP to further the aims of that faction they are rewarded by getting payed by that faction ICly. They do this though some sort of event, mission, or some other RP they think up. Then it can be witnessed by a GM or they can make a report on the forms of their actions (which is probably best so everyone can know what they did). I mean as much as the Horde army do what they do for glory and honor, I am sure they still get payed.

Now gathering up wealth is cool and all but what to spend it on. I know the GMs are weary of Player/Guild housing, but can you think of something else you can offer the players of the world. I know it did not work in the past because GMs would put all this work into making a guild base and then after two weeks no one would RP there. However, with players actually having to work for it, I think would put more value on the Guild base. Also, the players won't be getting a huge sprawling base in one shot.

This how I see it working the players won't be buying but renting the land, that is their part on the contract with the government. The bigger the land the higher the rent, after that they can buy other things like buildings, furniture, and maybe even NPC guards or venders, mailbox, or guild bank. Their contract will be month to month, one month they don’t pay, meaning they have stopped RPing as a guild and earning money, “Poof” all gone.

Not all they guilds have to be armies, perhaps you could have a guild of nobles and emissaries that get payed by Stormwind to sure up the relations with Ironforge. Or perhaps a guild could set up a bank and loan money out, and break your legs when you don’t pay. Or maybe a courier service that transports goods from city to city.

Now I know not all guilds line up with the horde or alliance so they will have to get their money another way, like offering goods and services, or stealing it (Which I am sure we would have to come up with rules about). Or perhaps a cartel or neutral faction who has enough money can pay but that is up to the GMs to decide.

Earning some extra mula can be a great motivational factor for so many RP ideas, for both those that are faction aligned and those that are not. Bandits could hijack the couriers and sell the supplies on the black market. Or perhaps, the allied guild could pay mercenaries so they can do an extra big event and get more money. Street performances, or selling your own brew of grog. Bounty hunters, and assassins, getting paid under the table so the noble’s negotiations go the right way.

Also, I know not all characters end up in a guild, so there is always manual labor. There could be a few daily quests, like working in the mines, or collecting hides for the war effort, or picking berries for the relief effort. The amount for these quest would be small enough that it would not be worth trying to OCC farm it but high enough to have some pocket change to get your grog.

I realize this will be putting more work on the GMs plate, but is that not what Trial GMs are for? To do the dirty work? It would be a good way for them to learn to work in an authoritative role with the community and get to know their GM commands. (Personally, I think I really would have enjoyed building stuff for guilds when I was a GM). I also know this will take some time to set up, and having to set the value of things, how much a certain goal is worth, how much the plot of land is worth, and what not.

With a little monetary motivation behind our RP I could see it coming to a new level of creativity and Awesomeness!

TL : DR

The GMs pay us in IC currency for faction aligned RP and we pay them IC currency for guild bases.

This is a tricky subject and I've started writing a post two times before now and deleted it all. That's how tricky it is!

On the first hand, I do like the idea of in-character economics. There is already an RPG list of prices and it's all very nice and laid out, so were we to do this, it'd work on a technical/price implementation level.

On the other hand, there's a serious quagmire of issues surrounding this! Some IC, some OOC. I think the one that's sticking to my brainparts the most is the fact that players already have trouble RPing economically, and without a proper demand for supply and demand I'm not sure if it'll take off. The second, probably more important than the first, now that I think about it, is that the idea's running before it can walk. The stance on guild-things and player owned housing has changed little since we both were gone, but it hasn't become any softer! To have a server-sanctioned system for it would be something you'd have to do before a system for it, and I doubt it'd be easy!

Finally, probably a more abstract reason than anything, is that I fear the process of game-ification. CotH has done fairly well by shying from gameplay in most ways, and I think that a standardised system of currency could do more harm than good for characters, especially for business or economically-focused ones. The ways one can get money are varied, especially in such a gosh-darned messed up and silly world, and I think that there are simply far too many to account for while making it a balanced system OOCly. Thus, it'd probably be stifling a lot of potential RP while promoting lots of combat events, which we already have little trouble doing.

Could you surmount all these problems, it could work, but doing that is a big ask! This is my post about this matter, and I'd be disingenuous if I said that I didn't think about re-writing this one too.

I've been so curious how to tie the Guild Bank into anything lately...
It was easier back in the olden days before addrpitem, before you started at 60.

One could farm some RP gear and put it in the guild bank for his guildies to use as an armory.
Perhaps you could ICly sell the goods you gathered?
Lots of possibilities with that at times, but it was grueling when you couldn't just get a simple set of armor because of drop rates or not wanting to farm.

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On the subject of housing/basing/ownership
Doesnt normally turn out well, I mean players recognize when certain guilds use a place as their stomping grounds. And it becomes informally their 'base'
That happened with the Blackwolves ages back in the barrens. They could not 'claim' the spot. But since they were the guys who used it all the time, lots of people just recognized that it was theirs.
The Lambent Sovereignty didn't own the Church of Stormwind, but it sure as hell felt like it sometimes, since they camped in there by the droves of paladins.

I personally like a tiny bit of management of resources and stuff especially in smaller closed RP. But a server-wide thing can be rough for many, perhaps confusing for new members?