A crash course in changing the world.
The First Bank of Evoke
As any economist will insist, economic behavior is about allocating limited resources - limited resources including giving your fellow Agents a hand with this or that aspect of preparing their Evokation or some other aspect of their involvement on Evoke. To that end and to promote the exchange of goods and services among Evoke Agents (strictly within the Terms of Service), I'd like to invite interested parties to step forward and bank some Evokians to make this market possible.
How can you spend an Evokian? It will be an in game currency that can be used to negotiate services that promote the accomplishment of Missions, Quests, and Evokations. They can not be used to pay for votes. When spending Evokian, you must notify this post with the number of Evokians spent and what they paid for. For example, I don't speak Hindi so I asked Agent Y to translate a doc**ent and I paid him 4 EVs for his time. Or I needed some expert advise from an engineering Agent on what it would take to manufacture this product for my Evokation - since it took her three hours to research it for me, I paid her 6 EVs.
What is the exchange rate of EVs to services? That will be decided by the marketplace, but paying someone a billion EVs will lead to runaway inflation (and now you owe the bank and thereby your fellow Agents a billion EVs).
Can I run a debt? Sure, but I would encourage other Agents who want to engage in the marketplace to check on someone's debt burden before accepting payment.
How long will this economic experiment go on? Provided it is promoting exchange and not inhibiting it and the moderators don't object, I will run it (with help if anyone wants to help) through May 12th.
How will the accounts be reconciled? Once a day, I will go through the days posts, tally up who gave what to whom, and a list of participating Agents with their EV balances will be posted.
How many EVs do I start with? None. The first time you exchange a EVs for a service, you will owe the bank that much.
What other rules apply? Beats me. This is an experiment. I invite others to help me refine the idea.
Cheers,
Mark
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Comment by PJE on April 1, 2010 at 4:41pm -
I am going to pay you one EV, hope that's enough, for continuing to be serious and funny at the same time in at least some of your blogs. I know I was probably going to get that for free, I have never been any good at bargaining.
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Comment by Sarah Shaw Tatoun on April 1, 2010 at 5:47pm -
Ah, a grand experiment- and one that draws on previous experiments with local currencies and 'work-credits' too! I'll follow PJE's lead and pay you one EV for setting up and keeping the accounts.
I'll also offer my own services at the following prices:
Czech translations (1000 words or less): 2 EV
Editing: 1 EV for up to 1 hour
Computer/gameplay help (help with Evoke-related web work): 1 EV for up to 1 hour
Anything else: just ask. I have a lot of skills
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Comment by Wintermute on April 1, 2010 at 6:14pm -
It will be interesting to see if the community likes the idea of having a currency.
As a rough guideline I think 1 EV should be a low amount, that way we don't have to deal with decimal EVs
My skills:
Graphic design(typesetting, logos, presentations, animated movies) 23EV/hour
Basic Computer Tech Help: 5EV/hour
On a side note, do you think adding a currency could have negative effects, causing people to work only for EV credits, much like how some people were posting only for power votes?
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Comment by Robert Hawkins on April 1, 2010 at 6:53pm -
+1 spark. Love the idea! Will follow along with great interest.
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Comment by Ursula Kochanowsky on April 1, 2010 at 10:38pm -
Oh great! I'm not even marketable in real life..now I have to be marketable in a game to hire people to get some work done?!
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Comment by Sarah Shaw Tatoun on April 1, 2010 at 11:15pm
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Well, I think the 'marketing yourself' and 'branding yourself' framework is what is part of what is wrong with the way the economy works currently. Selling and branding is for cattle. On the other hand, every human society has some - usually pretty sophisticated- form of exchange. You may not be 'marketable' the way the economy now works, but you would have no trouble at all getting whatever you want and need in a more sensible economic system.
In fact... Mark, please note I want to contribute 2 EV to Ursula to help her develop her gardening database.
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Comment by Robert Hawkins on April 2, 2010 at 12:34am
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@ethan -- Pan? I thought this was a thread on a virtual currency. From what I understand, he had some good ideas but overall was a negative influence on the community. We really don’t have time and energy to spend on negativity. For me, the positive ideas for change from the other 15,000 agents is what matters in the grand scheme of what we are trying to accomplish with EVOKE. I wish him well and I hope he is channeling his positive energy somewhere – who knows maybe a more constructive version of him is lurking somewhere on EVOKE and is making a positive difference in someone’s life.
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Comment by Mark Mulkerin on April 2, 2010 at 12:50am -
@Ursula - I sincerely expect and hope that the gift economy will be alive and well in Evoke, but I hope that EVs will empower agents to access people and services outside their gift network to add value to their missions, etc.
@Sarah - Donating EVs - good idea.
@Saraj & PJE - Thank you for the EVs and vote of confidence. I'm rich now, RICH, RICH!!!! Okay, I'm feeling rich in spirit. Again, thanks.
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Comment by Mark Mulkerin on April 2, 2010 at 12:57am
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Latest Market News:
Services offered:
Wintermute -
Graphic design(typesetting, logos, presentations, animated movies) 23EV/hour
Basic Computer Tech Help: 5EV/hour
Sarah Shaw Tatoun -
Czech translations (1000 words or less): 2 EV
Editing: 1 EV for up to 1 hour
Computer/gameplay help (help with Evoke-related web work): 1 EV for up to 1 hour
Anything else: just ask. I have a lot of skills
Mark Mulkerin -
Poem - 1 EV
Joke - 1 EV
Services requested (and compensation amount)
None at this time.
Accounts -
Mark Mulkerin +2
Ursula Kochanowsky +2
Sarah Shaw Tatoun -3
PJE -1
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Comment by Alchemy on April 2, 2010 at 1:17am -
Very impressive work here. I am inspired by your efforts and look forward to watching them develop.
© 2012 Created by Alchemy.
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