This is a tough one.
I am myself a mid-level player, and I don't see myself ever using a prestige system in RuneScape. However, that doesn't mean I can't see the possible attractiveness in having such a system available.
The question therefore is "how will this affect me", and that is primarily - if not exclusively - going to be reflected in the economy.
There's no doubt that a prestige system, assuming anyone uses it, will have
an
effect on prices. If more players are playing low and mid-level content, it stands to reason that demand for those items will go up, meaning the price will go up. However, since at least some of those items are also
generated
by the same content, supply of those items should increase correspondingly, which makes the price go down.
Higher prices are not necessarily a bad thing. Yes, buying stuff is going to be more expensive, but you also get more when selling stuff. This would incentivize people to engage more in production, which in turn would increase supply, bringing prices down again. It would take some time to stabilize, but the overall effect on the market should be beneficial to everyone.
It would be much worse if supply picks up, but demand doesn't. This causes prices to go down, and that is likely to hurt the economy far more than a temporary rise in prices. This does not seem particularly likely for low- and mid-level items, but it might happen for
high-level
items, if too many people reset their skills - but that doesn't seem too likely either.
I've tried to imagine a scenario where the long-term economy ends up worse from Prestige, but the only thing that comes to mind would be if too many people quit before allowing the effects to show themselves.
For that reason, I'm going to vote YES to the idea. The system might need some reworking before high-level players find it interesting, but if they don't, then that just means they won't use it - and the economy will remain unaffected.
17-Oct-2013 13:33:03
