Economic Reports

Does anyone know why they were stopped. I think they were another way to compare your success in game compared to others.

This has been the subject of much debate! I was a huge fan of the economic reports, as it was a realistic way of knowing where you stood, who were the biggest traders etc - knowledge that would have been readily available in real life (even if the precise revenue figures were not).

I seem to recall Richard saying it took too long to compile the reports or that on balance it wasn't worth it, but I may be wrong on that - could be my faulty memory

I'd love to see them reintroduced, as they were:
a) an incredibly helpful tool, and
b) very good at provoking competition between players (helpful when, as we've discussed on another thread, armed conflict is becoming more difficult)

That said, I'd be perfectly happy to see the info on tax rates per country dropped - I found it neither interesting nor helpful to know that France taxed the Church at 7% for instance...

I also suggested to Richard that if it was too much hassle to produce a report with full trade figures, a good compromise could be a one-pager in the Herald each January showing the top 5 traders in each region - with or without figures.

Any views welcome, and I'd be happy to lobby Richard again if others feel similar...

You are right. Richard did stop them due to the time and trouble it took him to produce them.

They were great. Very detailed.Hence alot of hardwork.From a playing point of view. Ever player seemed to have liked them and wanted them back.

With so many players in game eight. I am sure it would prove a big hit.However, it must have taken ages for Richard to compile them for each game.So i can understand why Richard stopped doing them.

I've never seen one, so I don't know what I'm missing, but it sounds like something that would be neat to have.

I wonder, as you suggest, if a re-think is in order. Perhaps a stripped down version could be developed. Hard to know what about the report took so much time, so maybe there is a way to cut out the time intensive part of it.

I'm sensitive to time/money calculations, however. Richard's business is a tough one, and he needs to make sure that he's using the time he has as a GM profitably and wisely for the business.

I would happily pay if that brought back this report. Perhaps Richard could treat it as a turn in is own right and charge accordingly. I suppose it's all down to how much time it takes to compile.

As i recall, Richard did treat the economic report as a turn. He charged the same amount as a basic turn would cost. So from the cash point of view it was a turn.

Given the turnaround times. Do we really want to go nearly eight weeks with just one game month gone by ? that is what would happen if the economic report was brought back as a turn,from the time point of view.

I would imagine the report cost would have to go up a fair bit as well.So i guess these are the reasons Richard thinks would not make it viable nowadays. It would go down well in game eight, but perhaps not so well in other games,not so many players.

But, i would like to see it return.

Maybe an idea is to have a list similar to Most Respected in Society listing. A Most Weatlhy Persons List?

Possiably a sub division into trade areas with for example one month having the most successful traders in The Far East, following month the Americas etc. No need for figures a simple listing, also by splitting it into regional trade, it would give people a chance to see how they are doing in there own respective areas. I'm not sure how much work this would make for Richard but it would surely be less than a full blown report.

May be it would also give some distraction from the honour side of things as well, a subject that has also recently been highlighted on the Forum.

I enjoyed the economic reports as well. I found when they were produced I gave more emphasis to economic matters rather than military or honour issues. Perhaps the fairest thing would be for Richard to tell us how much it would cost to worthwhile for him to produce.

Basileus wrote:I enjoyed the economic reports as well. I found when they were produced I gave more emphasis to economic matters rather than military or honour issues. Perhaps the fairest thing would be for Richard to tell us how much it would cost to worthwhile for him to produce.

Well, and as others have said, I appreciate a good turn around on the game. If including this slows down all games, I'm inclined to let it go...

jamesbond007 - Richard did not use to treat the economic report as a turn. He used to offer it as an optional extra each January, charging £1 for it, if memory serves.

I'd be prepared to pay more than £1 for it, and going back to my original suggestion, it could be a stripped down version - even if it was literally just a one-pager with the top five traders in each region, it would re-introduce a very good dimension to the game and I cannot imagine for a second that that level of information would take an excessive amount of time to collate. That said, I agree with the other person's post that Richard has to be selective in how he spends his time in order to maintain smooth running across the board, so if he says there's simply no time to do it, I respect his decision