To sell out is divine

Perhaps it is time to retreat to first principles. The core assumption in the game is that it will effectively simulate a market, and that the competitively profitable manipulation and control of that market efficiently describes the player’s activities and interests in the game.

So, what is a market?

Markets have value gradients. Usually only positive value gradients are interesting. A value gradient is defined as any situation in which X is worth more in state X` than the cost to move it to state X’. negative value gradients are usually only interesting when their negative sum effects on other players are larger than the negative sum effects on the current player.

Aside: ‘Systems with value gradients whose state transforms include various time durations are more interesting (X->Xover time T1 for profit P1 vs Y->Y over time T2 for profit P2)Systems which contain multiple competing and interacting value gradients are even more interesting. Especially interesting are less time-profitable transforms which are actually more net valuable due to knock on effects on the dependency graphs. This breeds tactical versus strategic interest in decisions as well as the beginnings of arc for the market. (see: “Special roles and powers: what are they good for?” ) “Roles” and “special actions” are commonly used as shorthand nouns for market state transforms. Common examples enclude the actions in Age of Steam, roles in Puerto Rico, actions KaiVai? etc.’

Interesting markets support arbitrage (almost by definition) and leverage. From Dict.org:

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 gcide:

Arbitrage \Ar”bi*trage\, n. [F., fr. arbiter to give judgment, L. arbitrari.] … 3. (Finance) the simultaneous or near simultaneous purchase and sale of the same or closely linked securities or commodities in different markets to make a profit on the (often small) differences in price. [PJC]

From WordNet? (r) 2.0 (August 2003) [wn]:

arbitrage n : a kind of hedged investment meant to capture slight differences in price; when there is a difference in the price of something on two different markets the arbitrageur simultaneously buys at the lower price and sells at the higher price v : practice arbitrage, as in the stock market

From WordNet? (r) 2.0 (August 2003) [wn]:

leverage n … 3: investing with borrowed money as a way to amplify potential gains (at the risk of greater losses) [syn: {leveraging}] v 1: supplement with leverage; “leverage the money that is already available” 2: provide with leverage; “We need to leverage this company”

Summary:

0. investment appreciation
1. dividends/profits/income
2. value gradients nee profit opportunities
3. dependency graphs across value gradients
4. time-relative transforms and gradients
5. arbitrage
6. leverage

The current game system fails this definition set, most especially for investment and time-relative transforms. I’ll need to rectify that.