Scenery's SUBURBIA

[DestroyerOfBlocks]

Would Suburbia be considered ANCAP?

nominally the government is supposed to enforce the law but mileage may vary

[Ad Bot]

[PhantOS]

I feel like the global market is flawed in concept. If people are contributing goods to the shop, they will usually choose whoever is on the top of the list first or whoever has the most of the good they are looking for. It makes sense that people can supply to meet demand, but having the vendor's name on the list causes a level of bias. An example would be if Charles was selling 10 burritos, while XX_vccoolgammarSCP360_XX is also selling 10 burritos. Almost everyone is going to buy from charles, considering the fact that he's well known, he's an admin & he's also got a better name.

Potential solutions: anonymous vendors. Vendors would be completely anonymous, removing the bias of names or personal relationship. The items in global market would just show up as items, and you can select what you want.

pooled inventory. if 10 different people sell a bunch of burritos, possibly the entire inventory of burritos should pool into one giant mass of goods. It'll show up as "83 burritos available" instead of "vendor 1 is selling 10 burrits, vendor 2 is selling 5 burritos." this will eliminate people buying vendor 1's burrits over vendor 2 since they have more of that burrito. The problem with this is that individual vendors may not make any money, and the 'highest bidder' per se will sell the most.

Maybe with a pooled inventory, you would buy a burrito and it would come from a random vendor, they will earn profit. Or maybe, when you buy a burrito, each vendor earns the percentage of the burrito market that they are currently sharing, which means that if 10 vendors put up a total of 1000 burritos, each vendor will earn like 1% of the sale, while if 2 vendors are selling 4 burritos, each vendor will earn 50% of the sale.

Another example: Phanto is selling 10 burritos, charles is selling 1. When a burrito is purchased, Phanto will earn 90% of the profit, while charles will earn 10% of the profit. Phanto will stay in the market because it's good, but Charles might see that he's turning too little of a profit, will recall his burritos and instead move over to the salad market, where he will dominate and earn most of the sales.

[DestroyerOfBlocks]

while i believe reputation will play a part in how buyers choose from some sellers, i doubt that a person being admin will heavily influence who they buy burritos from. the name thing is intentional and it is assumed people will be biased against each other for reasons like "this guy killed me a lot" and to allow things like "this guy is selling what i'm selling better kill him". a person's fame and status as admin would be rather mundane when compared to actual mechanical ways people forget each other over.

[Nonnel]

I mean it's the same in real life. You buy Cheerios over Honeyed Wheat Rounds because one is a trusted worldwide seller.

[RedGajin]

yeah, shouldnt marketing be a big part of the economy? advertising and reliability of a business should play a big part in whose the most successful in the market. seems like it would just make trying to advance in a specialized area would be way too difficult, and everyone would just end up having to try to produce a lot of everything

[Metario]

are hot pockets in the game

[Man Of Greenish]

any idea when testing is starting today? i don't want to stay up late because im sick (af)

[PhantOS]

I mean it's the same in real life. You buy Cheerios over Honeyed Wheat Rounds because one is a trusted worldwide seller.

There is no difference in product in suburbia. It'd be less of your example and more of "Should I buy a burrito from bob or a burrito from carl?" it's stupid and in the end you'll probably end up picking the first one just out of subconscious preference.

while i believe reputation will play a part in how buyers choose from some sellers, i doubt that a person being admin will heavily influence who they buy burritos from. the name thing is intentional and it is assumed people will be biased against each other for reasons like "this guy killed me a lot" and to allow things like "this guy is selling what i'm selling better kill him". a person's fame and status as admin would be rather mundane when compared to actual mechanical ways people forget each other over.

The fatal flaw of this system is that competition will be decided on the sole factor of "i like this guy more than the other"

In the traditional shop system, there were multiple factors that shop owners would have to take note of if they wanted to get business. This would include the distance between buyer and seller, the aesthetic pleasance of the shop, the prices & the inventory size and variety. Now that traditional shops are being scrapped for a global market, all four of those factors are gone. The sellers do not have to try to sell anything, they just click one button and pray to whatever god controls human emotion that someone decides to pick their product over Ampersand's or Charles'. There's no competition in the market, just randomness, and as a result the global market becomes effectively useless.

A share-based market would go so much better, as players can actually decide for themselves how much they want to make simply by contributing more to that market. If you aren't earning enough selling burritos, you can sell a whole variety of different goods, earning a bit from all of them. Or, if your burrito earnings aren't high enough, you can try to sell more and increase your share in that market. This way competition is purely based on how much you decide to sell rather than your name or position on the global market list.

[CharlesSpeaking]

Charles might see that he's turning too little of a profit, will recall his burritos

why have you pluralized this? i am selling but one burrito phanto!

[kongo]

i don't like the idea of anonymous sellers because if some prick shoots my ass i don't want to buy my ass medicine from him

additionally i don't like the idea of pooled products because then there's a chance i buy my ass medicine from the ass-shooting prick

[PhantOS]

I'm going to try to put this visually:

Name:                 Selling:                Quantity:
Charles                Burrito 1               20
Phanto                 Burrito 1               19
Somebody            Burrito 1               24

This is what the global market would look like. The average buyer, who's probably either actively starving or in a fight and needs a boost of health from an Omelet, wouldn't take their time to see who's the cool seller and who's the starfish they hate. They'll choose wherever their mouse takes them first, which would probably be somewhere in the middle, or maybe the top of the list. They just chose a product based on sheer chance.

They decide to buy from Charles because everybody on the server knows charles has great taste in music and is also Super Admin, so they subconsciously want to suck up to him. As a result, Phanto and Somebody earn nothing. They spent time and money producing goods that are continuously going to waste. New players will follow this same trend too, and as a result Phanto and Somebody will stop selling things because they realize that nobody will buy it. Now charles has complete dominance over the market through unfair means.

The pool system will ensure that people buy the product because they want the product, not because they love charles more or are in a rush and need to pick the fastest option available. That way, Phanto and Somebody and Charles will all earn about 30% of the burrito sale for that person, instead of charles earning 100% of it and the other two earning nothing. If one person feels that 30% isn't enougn, they'll leave that market, letting Charles and Phanto share 50% of the profit of burritos. That person that leaves can go on to sell salads, a potentially untapped market, and earn 100% of the sales from it.

The pool system gives Vendors a little bit of decision over how their product sells, and will be benefit all vendors at once. The global shop system with names will benefit a few people only, and will kill competition almost immediately.

[CharlesSpeaking]

They decide to buy from Charles because everybody on the server knows charles has great taste in music

[Kidalex90]

any idea when testing is starting today?

[NotBomberguy]

so when will test start

[DestroyerOfBlocks]

the stock system would forget everyone over by making highly competitive markets a complete waste of money also how would you even set prices. you are assuming too much that players will actively select some guy they don't know because he is admin and stuff. just shoot charles and take his burritos