Skyblock economic study

GAMER1232012 · Feb 1, 2018

KingDG said: ↑

So that’s how most people might describe the economy. I, though, believe in a similar but different model.

Socials & Staff

- Most staff (there are exceptions) dedicate the majority of their time to helping the server and its members. As a consequence, they become deeply involved in the community and social side of Skyblock

- Most socials aren’t too involved in the trading business. They may come across rares/diamonds but (generally) will either save them for an upgrade or give them away as gifts.

- The server isn’t as bipolar as I’m making it out to be; just note that there are these two general types of players. A player can be both or neither (e.g. the aforementioned build-an-island-then-leave player).

- Some socials can get really rich. If a player vested in the economy leaves/quits the server, he or she either keeps his or her items or, more typically, gives them all away. Some players give away their items via drop party; others throw everything into the void; most give their items away to a friend. Sometimes this “friend” is a social player. I know of a few players that became “insanely rich” just from gifts.

- Socials who have become insanely rich don’t usually get that interested in the economy (but this is a possibility and has happened before). Often socials will use their riches for their friends, giving gifts or buying upgrades, and they care less about the value of their items and the profitability of their trades. Experienced traders often take advantage of this fact.

Producers

- By producers, I mean players who produce cobble, stone, food, banners, etc., and sell them.

- These are generally nondonors or lower donors.

- There was a surge in the number of producers with the introduction of the tradeshop plugin because demand increased. With richer players wanting to start tradeshops, they needed to buy products to sell in their shops, and so they turned to producers.

- Some producers sell their items in their own tradeshops, but the shops of richer players get the most attention, so selling to a middleman is often more profitable (for both players involved).

- Some middlemen donors with the most popular shops (e.g. skyshop) see lots of profit and gain lots of capital from the process and become high donors, but this is a rarity; usually selling small, produced items does not get a player very far.

Unexperienced Traders

- Can be a nondonor, can be a donor400. These players haven’t realized the importance of information in the skyblock economy.

- Are interested in the economy and can be very rich

- Typically buy and sell, although their efforts are not always successful

- Susceptible to being taken advantage of by experienced traders

- Usually less active. A positive correlation usually exists between activity and the profitability/frequency of trades

- Sometimes are hoarders who are looking only to buy a specific item, such as, naming a random example, unplaced 2014 pumpkin heads. They’d be willing to make a “bad trade” (e.g. overpay) for the specific item.

- Can be players who are only seeking to expand their wealth to later buy an upgrade

- If they stay on the server long enough—and remain interested in the economy—by definition unexperienced traders become experienced traders. It’s hard ignore the (subtle) importance of information if you trade for long enough.

Experienced Traders

- Usually higher donors.

- Make trades, but also deal in information. That is, they often:

Keep track of which specific players want a certain item and what they’d be willing to pay for it

Keep track of what specific players are selling and what they’d sell it for

Keep track of who owns certain items

Keep track of upgraders and players who are looking to get upgraded

- Love making middleman trades (the most successful may even make a middleman upgrade, which is harder to do)

- Often keep track of who gets certain items in drop parties and is, when drop parties occur, well-stocked on items that would be attractive to lower donors/nondonors (e.g. raw diamonds, spawners, beacons, and grass)

- Maintain good relations with other traders and always like to stay informed about what deals they’ve made

- Keep track of how rich other players are (as a consequence of tracking what items they have)

- Keep track of fluctuations in prices; can use knowledge of these fluctuations to become a much better negotiator

- Typically older

- Don’t usually give away information freely

- Before island protection, they usually never let other players onto their islands (with the exception of a few close friends)

- Rarely get scammed

- Generally aren’t afraid to deal in illegal items

Sometimes make substantial profit from dealing with illegals

The most lucrative illegal trade is buying/selling items for IRL money (e.g. with paypal)

Paypal trades used to be legal long ago. This used to be a huge part of the economy.

- Generally are friends with at least a couple mods

- People who used to deal mostly in illegals (often IRL money) have a higher chance of becoming experienced traders

Upgraders

- Quickest way to get rich

- Two kinds

Upgrades players here and there over his/her time playing on Skyblock

Upgrades lots of player and burns lots of money to get very rich, then almost always quits after growing bored of the server

- If an upgrader quits, he/she has a higher chance of saving his/her items rather than giving them away (but exceptions exist)

- Some of the richest players on the server are upgraders

- Typically prefer raw diamonds when accepting upgrades

- These days, most upgraders only buy low ranks (50 -> 100 or less)

- Are almost always high donors

- With increased capital, they’ll see more trades (if they aren’t hoarding), so they’re likely to become experienced traders

- There’s another hidden economy relating to upgraders; if you want to know more about it, PM me.

The effect of the 'illegal items' rules

There are mainly two kinds of players. One type doesn’t even need mods to enforce this rule, because they’d abide by it anyways. The other type will ask “what rules?” (The rules are either completely ignored or closely followed. Something to note: in the past, the majority of rich players had engaged in illegal trades.)

The 'rares' driven side of the economy

Heads

- Most popular item, mostly because they’re brought to front of every trader’s attention every DP. Also, each DP introduces more heads into the economy, making them a popular item with an always-increasing supply

- Placed are always worth less than unplaced heads; unplaced heads have a colored name and lore that disappears once they are placed

- Unplaced heads are generally rarer, which is why they are worth more.

- An unusual lore in general makes something far more rare (e.g. the Noobcrew “Super Duper” rare head vs. the standard Noobcrew “Super rare” head).

Admin heads

- Used to be insanely valuable (2,000 – 4,000 diamonds for some of them)

- Cyp began allowing donor400s to get them as creative items, causing a giant surge in the amount of both donor400s and admin heads

- The value of admin heads has since dropped; many DP heads are more valuable than all of them.

- Jeffciv heads were the last of the admin heads to be an acceptable donor400 item; I believe they are accordingly the most valuable.

- Before Jeffciv heads were obtainable as donor400 items, there were only three or four on the server that were introduced in an old (2012?) drop party. An old ex-staff-member (RobloxianRoblox) used to have them but he sold a couple and then, within the last year, quit. I’m not sure what happened to his stuff; he probably has it stored away somewhere.

- The “original Jeffciv heads” aren’t super significant because many people just don’t know about them. Only the most experienced of traders probably know about them and possibly where they are. To those traders, they’re probably worth a little more than the average Jeff head.

Beacons

- I stopped trading in beacons a while ago, so my opinion may not be as valid as others.

- Beacons used to be pretty cheap (maybe 50ish diamonds)

- With the introduction of islandprotect, the chance of getting a beacon griefed (used to be the item most frequently stolen/griefed) dropped dramatically, so there was an giant surge in demand

- Beacon prices have been rising ever since (with slight downward fluctuations)

- Beacons were recently added to one of the voter crates, but I do not think this has had a significant impact on the economy because not very many people get beacons from the crates

- Lots of people hoard beacons, which has probably led to their continued price inflation

Silked Spawners

- Introduced in an old 2012 plugin that got removed (disallowing any more silked spawners to come into existence)

- Used to be popular; nowadays only a few people know what they are and even fewer active players own them

- Some of them were very valuable because of their rarity, such as the silked horse and giant spawners

- Currently all silked spawners could probably be considered very rare, but because so few people know about them, there’s little demand, so they’re not worth much

Spawn eggs

- Used to be a giant economy based around this that spawned out of a few major illegal events (looting a famous old mod, I believe, letting tons of spawn eggs enter the economy)

- Used to be very much

- When they were in the economy, there was a monopoly; a few players had nearly all (if not all) of the eggs

- Cyp (maybe a year ago?) removed spawn eggs from the server

- New ones (like horse spawn eggs) are still present on the server, but not many others exist

Dragon eggs/End portal frames

- Used to be the most popular rares on the sever (in 2015 and before)

- They got hoarded and duped and their values have fluctuated insanely from 800 to 200 diamonds a piece to whatever they’re worth now.

- Mostly, they’ve been hoarded by a few select players

Netherstars

- Used to be sold for a few grass in an old Halloween warp

- Since then, they haven’t been sold, so they became a rare

- Can be used to craft a beacon, but are rarer and generally worth more than beacons, so this is typically not done

- Also were hoarded – a few player used to have nearly all of the netherstars in circulation until some of those players sold theirs, reintroducing them into the economy

- At the moment, there isn’t much demand for them, so they aren’t worth an incredibly amount

Old illegals

- Sponges, bedrock, and gravel used to be illegal to trade on the server

- Before they became legal, they used to go for 800+ diamonds each

- Nowadays their value has gone down

Notch heads

- Introduced recently via donor400 creative items

- Very few of them; decent value

There are other tons of rares, but I’m getting lazy and I’m sure there’s a trading thread somewhere/you can ask around.

Updates

- These often only have significant impact on the richer players of the server.

- Nearly all of the items I lost (that I mentioned in question three) were due to updates.

- Two significant waves occurred; the 1.8 update stripped the server of fire, water, and lava blocks, which used to be a significant part of the economy. Then, more recently, Cyp removed spawn eggs from the server, which used to be another part of the economy (although not as significant, because only a select few people had them due to immense hoarding).

- Other than removing items, updates also introduce new items to the economy, some of which—if dropped by Cyp/bought as a creative item upon purchasing the donor400 rank and are otherwise unobtainable—become rares.

Little disclaimer:

By saying “socials,” I’m not implying all other players aren’t social. I also don’t mean any harm by my using the terms “lower-ranked” or “lower donors.” Everyone’s equal; by lower, I referred to their numbers, not the players themselves. Take all such terms at face value and don’t read deeper.
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Thank you for your essay. It's probably longer than everyone else's responses combined. Due to the lack of actual literature on this topic, would it be all right if I quoted you as an expert source?

KingDG · Feb 2, 2018

Jbnorman said: ↑

Do you fit it completely?
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No way. My desire to stay as far away from illegals as possible has annoyed many people . Also, quite a few rich players have gotten their items confiscated for various reasons over the years. #AlwaysPlayItSafe

PessimismDaily said: ↑

Thank you for your essay. It's probably longer than everyone else's responses combined. Due to the lack of actual literature on this topic, would it be all right if I quoted you as an expert source?
Click to expand...

Go for it

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