Chapter 24 — Quiz

Fifteen questions testing your grasp of game economy concepts, specific case studies, and design principles. Answer before checking the answer key at the bottom.

Questions

1. Ernest Adams and Joris Dormans identify four fundamental economic functions. Which of the following is NOT one of them?

a) Sources b) Sinks c) Pumps d) Converters

2. A game where enemies drop gold but nothing removes gold from the economy will, over time, exhibit:

a) Deflation b) Inflation c) Stable equilibrium d) Resource diversification

3. Which of these is the best example of a pure sink?

a) An NPC vendor who sells health potions. b) An armor repair station that charges gold for service. c) A crafting table that combines materials into equipment. d) A chest that contains loot.

4. Why do most NPC shops act as both trader AND source/sink?

a) Because NPCs are programmed to generate gold randomly. b) Because NPCs typically have infinite stock and infinite gold, so their transactions with the player effectively create or destroy resources rather than moving them between pools. c) Because NPCs have a time cost for buying and selling. d) Because NPCs charge sales tax that goes to the government.

5. Which game is cited in the chapter as using a dual-purpose currency that serves as both buying currency and leveling/XP, forcing meaningful economic choices?

a) Skyrim b) Dragon Age: Origins c) Dark Souls d) World of Warcraft

6. The chapter identifies Diablo III's Real Money Auction House (RMAH) as a disaster primarily because:

a) It was technically unstable. b) It warped the drop-rate economy — items had to be scarce enough to hold real-money value, which made the core play loop unrewarding. c) Blizzard charged too high a transaction fee. d) Players couldn't use it on console versions.

7. According to the chapter, what is the typical structure of a free-to-play currency hierarchy?

a) Premium currency only b) Soft currency (grindable), hard currency (skill-gated), and premium currency (real-money) c) Gold, silver, and copper tiers d) XP, level, and prestige

8. Which game's turnip market (the "stalk market") is cited as an example of a single well-designed trader creating outsized engagement?

a) Stardew Valley b) Harvest Moon c) Animal Crossing: New Horizons d) Farming Simulator

9. The chapter argues Skyrim's single-player economy fails at what point?

a) Level 1 — new players are starved of gold. b) Mid-game — repair costs become unaffordable. c) Level 30 and beyond — players have vastly more gold than anything worth spending it on. d) Post-credits — the economy stops working entirely.

10. In the chapter's GDScript ShopNPC.gd example, why is the buy price always higher than the sell price?

a) To simulate real-world taxation. b) To create a friction cost that prevents trivial arbitrage and serves as an implicit sink when players sell looted items. c) Because NPCs are greedy. d) To simplify the code.

11. The chapter describes RuneScape's 2007 Wilderness removal as a cautionary tale about:

a) PvP balance issues. b) Removing a mechanic without mapping its economic function — the Wilderness was a major gold sink, and removing it triggered years of inflation. c) Community backlash against safer content. d) Poor communication with real-money traders.

12. Which of the following is the chapter's recommended process for designing an economy? (Select the best summary.)

a) Tune prices by intuition until things feel right. b) Copy the economy of a successful comparable game. c) List resources → map flows → identify pressure points → estimate rates → simulate with spreadsheet → prototype → iterate at the flow level, not the price level → plan for post-launch. d) Skip theoretical design; let the economy emerge from playtesting.

13. The Minecraft crafting grid exemplifies a converter that:

a) Multiplies resources (input < output in value and quantity). b) Transforms input materials into qualitatively more-valuable outputs, usually with fewer total items — a mild sink that generates perceived wealth through recombination. c) Loses so much material that players stop using it. d) Has no economic function; it's purely mechanical.

14. According to the chapter, EVE Online's PLEX system is notable because:

a) It gives free players premium currency. b) It bridges the real-money economy and the in-game economy, effectively making CCP the central bank of EVE's ISK currency. c) It removes inflation entirely. d) It replaces subscription fees with ads.

15. The chapter warns about "currency sprawl" — the tendency to add new currencies whenever new features are added. Why is this a problem?

a) It increases database storage costs. b) Each new currency that doesn't enable a distinct decision just adds confusion and fragments player attention without adding design value. c) Players will exploit currency conversion to break the game. d) Localization becomes harder with more currencies.

Answer Key

1. c) Pumps. (The four functions are Sources, Sinks, Converters, and Traders.)

2. b) Inflation. (Resources accumulating without removal mechanisms always inflate the money supply and erode purchasing power.)

3. b) An armor repair station. (Gold paid for repair vanishes from the economy; it doesn't go to another player or accumulate in an NPC. The others are traders, converters, or sources.)

4. b) Because NPCs typically have infinite stock and infinite gold, so their transactions with the player effectively create or destroy resources rather than moving them between pools. (NPCs act as both source and sink through their interface, even though structurally they're modeled as traders.)

5. c) Dark Souls. (Souls function both as buying currency for items/gear and as experience points for leveling up, creating a unified economic decision.)

6. b) It warped the drop-rate economy — items had to be scarce enough to hold real-money value, which made the core play loop unrewarding. (The chapter's central claim about RMAH: the economic layer corrupted the reward loop.)

7. b) Soft currency (grindable), hard currency (skill-gated), and premium currency (real-money). (This is the near-universal F2P structure.)

8. c) Animal Crossing: New Horizons. (The turnip market is explicitly cited; see the Traders section.)

9. c) Level 30 and beyond — players have vastly more gold than anything worth spending it on. (The classic "endgame wealth trap" failure mode.)

10. b) To create a friction cost that prevents trivial arbitrage and serves as an implicit sink when players sell looted items. (The buy-sell spread is universal in games with vendors for these reasons.)

11. b) Removing a mechanic without mapping its economic function — the Wilderness was a major gold sink, and removing it triggered years of inflation. (The Wilderness PvP death mechanic destroyed wealth; removing PvP removed the sink.)

12. c) List resources → map flows → identify pressure points → estimate rates → simulate with spreadsheet → prototype → iterate at the flow level, not the price level → plan for post-launch. (The chapter's "practitioner's process" section.)

13. b) Transforms input materials into qualitatively more-valuable outputs, usually with fewer total items — a mild sink that generates perceived wealth through recombination. (Minecraft's key insight: the value is in the recombination, not the multiplication.)

14. b) It bridges the real-money economy and the in-game economy, effectively making CCP the central bank of EVE's ISK currency. (PLEX is convertible both ways; it bounds inflation relative to real-money prices.)

15. b) Each new currency that doesn't enable a distinct decision just adds confusion and fragments player attention without adding design value. (The chapter's resource-minimization principle.)

Scoring

• 14-15 correct: You've internalized the core frameworks. Move on to the case studies with confidence.
• 11-13 correct: Solid grasp; review the questions you missed and the related sections.
• 7-10 correct: You have the main framework but missed some case-study specifics. Re-read the Sinks, Inflation, and Pitfalls sections before continuing.
• Under 7: The chapter deserves another pass. The four-function framework is the spine of this chapter — if you didn't nail question 1, start there.

A Note on These Questions

Several questions test the Adams and Dormans four-function framework (Q1, Q3, Q4). If you can't name sources, sinks, converters, and traders in your sleep, re-read that section. This framework is the most portable piece of economy theory you'll take from this chapter; it will serve you across every genre and scope.

The case-study questions (Diablo III, Wilderness, EVE PLEX, stalk market) test whether you remembered the specifics. If you missed these, it's not catastrophic — but the specifics are what will come up in design interviews and team conversations. Specifics are how practitioners communicate.

The most important question on this quiz is Q12 — the design process. When you sit down to design an economy for your own project, you will not remember the exact ISK-to-PLEX rates or the 2011 Wilderness return date. You will carry the process. Make sure it's in your head.