Trading and the Society System01:27 Jan 16 2008
Times Read: 779
I've seen this subject brought up quite a few times in the past few months in conversations and journal entries, and thought I'd add my two cents, since my House is one of the Societies that some of the journal entries apply to.
I, and anyone else in my House given the power to conduct trades, use 300 favor * member level as the base formula for trading, rather than the 100 favor * member level that many of the other Societies on VR use. There is good reason for this, and it has nothing to do with greed. However, it has everything to do with common sense.
The Society system is intended to be competitive. Why else would we have rankings? And, in essence, it is an economy. Taking these two points into consideration, it is absurd to accept a trade where that which I receive is worth less than what I am giving.
A few months back, I did a few experiments with the help of a coven and discovered that trading members at 100 favor * member level resulted in the score of my House going down. Even at 200 favor * member level, I was still getting the short end of the stick.
I'm really not even sure that at 300 favor * member level that the House comes out even. I just haven't had the time to sit down and work it out again. Regardless, in the future, my base trading formula will have to be raised again.
It is simple to understand why. Basically, it is inflation. The total amount of favor among Societies is constantly growing. And with each point of favor earned, each other favor point is worth slightly less. For anyone that has been around since the inception of the Society system, this is easy to see. Early on, making a trade for 5000 favor would have nearly wiped out a House or Coven. Now, with several of the top houses and covens having over 300,000 favor each, a 5000 favor trade has a much smaller impact on that Society's finances.
One of the viewpoints I've seen expressed in dissent to having higher base formulas for trades is not wanting to waste member's hard-earned favor in such a fashion. The way I see it, by refusing to accept higher amounts in trades as the favor pool grows, it would place lower and lower value on the Society's members.
So, I will continue to use at least 300 favor * member level for trades in my House. My members are worth it to me. And when I have to trade one of them, I think it would be insulting to both my House and the members being traded to receive less than what they are worth. And actually, most of my members are worth far beyond 300 favor per level to me, and without them requesting to be traded elsewhere, wouldn't consider even 3000 favor per level to equal their value to me and my House.
I can't force anyone to agree with me, and I can't force anyone to accept my trading practices. That doesn't bother me in the slightest. Each House and Coven Master is free to run their House or Coven as they choose. However, I know the points I made here are sound, and should alleviate any accusations of greed or tyranny. I don't ask everyone to agree, but only to understand why I do things as I do, and to respect that. My trading formula isn't entirely set in stone, and I do occasionally make exceptions when trading with Societies that don't see things as I do, but it is rare.
This site is here for our enjoyment. However, the Society system WAS designed with competition in mind. I, for one, enjoy the competition. I'm not taking things too seriously, I'm just taking advantage of the opportunities offered. It's rather fun to play politics on here.
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