Sim Money

Throughout my time playing this wonderful game, the issue of Sim Money has popped up on the games bulletin boards several times.  The issue has to do whether the Sim Money having any value  to the game.  Arguments have gone both ways on this issue.

Value to Sim Money

If you are a new player, or if you are one who has played this game for a while, the Sim Money is an important part of starting off in the game.  When one starts the game, you are given a basic amount of money and breeding points (bps) to start with.  You also get to pick or have 5 randomly selected horses tossed your way.  Most of the time, these tend to be duds and the best way to enhance your barn is to add to it.  Remember, it will take 20 races before you can liquidate these bums into the auction bin.

Speaking of the auction bin that is one of the opportunities a new player can improve their barn.  The only way to do that is to use Sim Money, thus giving it some value.  The other way for a new player can improve their barn is through claiming a horse, which requires a mixture of Sim Money as well as bps.  

The Argument that Sim Money has lost Value

There are many players who have been participants in this game for years and many have denoted that their barns have maxed out at the $5 million limit, thus the usefulness of these funds has virtually been eliminated.

One of the challenges within our game is to breed your own horse, in hopes of creating a graded stakes winner.  A task, in itself, is not easily achieved.  In order to breed a horse, you can use either the bps your barn has amassed or through credits.  Credits can be obtained in one of two ways, either buying them directly (found under Races/Buy Credits w/CC) or writing articles for the BTB such as this one, both methods support the game.

What to do with those Sim Money?

There is probably billions of dollars in Sim Money floating throughout our game.  The question is, how can we get some of this out of the game and give the Sim Money more value?  Below are some of the suggestions proposed by players.

Convert Sim Money into BPS

It has been suggested that the Sim Money have some kind of conversion rate into bps, thus providing everyone with an opportunity to use the money to breed.  Sounds like a good idea, one that I originally liked, but it will not work.  Assume that the exchange rate is 1 bps for every $5,000 in Sim Money.  Someone with $5 million would then receive 1,000 bps, an ample amount to produce a decently bred horse.  Many players have multiple barns, and someone with 40 barns could now have 40,000 bps.  Now multiply that out by the numerous players that are in similar situations and you have a heck of a lot of bps out there to use. 

Since the game survives on the use of credits (purchased or through advertising that articles generate), this method has an adverse effect on the game and provides no incentive to the creator of the game.  Players would not have a reason to purchase credits as they’ve just hit the jackpot.

Secondly, this method puts more of the riches to those who are long time players, giving them a stronger advantage over new players.  They can breed far better horses and this works as a discouragement for “newbies” who will find it hard to compete.

As a final thought on this method, I would think the price of the horses for breeding would have to be doubled or tripled.  This is based on simple supply & demand principals.  There is a limited supply of top bred horses (A.P. Indy, Storm Cat, etc) and the amount of bps spred through players will increase demand.  This would not benefit the game as it would cost more to buy credits to breed one of these top notch horses.

Horse Expenses

This is a “Sim” game, meaning that it attempts to mimic real life, and in a lot of ways it does. But as it relates to expenses related to horses, it is lacking.  The game currently charges you a modest amount to ship a horse from one track to another with the highest expense topping out at  $10,000 to ship overseas.  The only other cost you might see is from auctioning off a horse where you could see a percentage go to the auctioneer.

I have owned a few horses in the past, granted they were standardbreds (harness racing) and through a partnership.  My experience has shown that many expenses are not incorporated within the game.

First, the jockey and trainer each receive 5% of the purse winnings.  Since we are the trainer, this is not applicable, however, the game could incorporate an incentive to the jockeys, reducing the amount paid to each barn..

Next, there is the care of the horses.  You need someone to tend to it, groom it, feed it, exercise it as well as clean out that nasty stall.

The horse needs frequent shoe changes and I’ll tell ya, there is that vet that sure knows how to run up the bill, even on a healthy horse.  Perhaps higher vet fees for those that are injured could be factored into the game. And don’t forget paddock fees.  Tracks know how to nickel and dime ya if you don’t rent a barn from them.

Heck, I even had a 7 year old horse die and there’s a cost to that.  This is a situation you don’t see in the game.  

Entry fees.   I had a two year old that was targeted for stake races and there were rounds of enrollment fees.  The horse never made it to the race and never got entered.  In any event, in real racing, there are real entry fees into certain races.

Just some thoughts, but costs to new players should be considered.  We’d hate to lose our new friends because their account has been wiped clean within a few weeks (a prorated cost based on account balance would work).

Bid on Jockeys

This would be similar to our horse auctions in theory.  Simply put, when you select the riders for your horse, you would also submit a bid on how much you would pay them to take the mount.  The highest bid gets the jockey.

Another good idea with it’s plusses and minuses.  First, it does give an advantage to those with the money, and new players would be at a disadvantage in getting the top jockeys.  Even in a $5,000 claimer with a purse of $3,000, someone with that $5 million could easily bid $250,000 on the top jockey without affecting their personal account balance and increase their chances to win.  This player may care less how much the purse is, since they already have enough Sim Money and only want the win and bps that come with it. The new player may have only $50,000 and take their risks with whatever jockey they get.

This would be a method to pull in some of the tons of Sim Money out of the game (the plus) but to what effect would it have on keeping new players (the minus).  A work around might be to offer this in certain races, such as allowance and higher.

Pay for Silks

This is a basic and good idea.  The idea with this is to use your Sim Money and have the jockey wear the silks of you barn during the race.  This would be seen in our new race viewer and the Sim Money could be used for this privilege.   It would be great to see my winning horse standing there with the jock wearing my barn’s silks in the winner’s circle.  The only question is how easy is it to program this feature?

Taxes

One proposed method to reduce the amount of Sim Money floating around is to have an annual or periodic tax.  In real life, we pay taxes, so this has a degree of sense to it.  My thought is that it should be scaled like in real life.  Higher taxes to those with more money.   But when to do it?   Should it be done once a year (which a new player starting the week before would get hammered on) or spread out to soften the blow?  

Two Final Thoughts

There have been many, many more ideas proposed and offered on how to enhance the usage of Sim Money, the above only highlight a few.   Two ideas I have, one on the boards, the other not are:

Charge an entry fee into the 3-Man contest.   This is a free contest to all players and as I write this article, it has a credit pot of over 4700.  Why not charge an entry fee to get into this contest which    Based on last week, there were nearly 300 members playing.  An entry fee of $10,000 would pull $3 million out of the game and create an additional use for the bucks.  I’d suggest that the actual amount be based on the cash holdings in a barn (perhaps 1%), again thinking about keeping new players involved.

The second idea is based on realism.  If you actually had $5 million in real life, how likely would you be to keep it in a barn?   I know I’d be spending it on nice new cars, a new home, fantastic vacations, etc.   Maybe some personal expenses could be factored in, although this would be following the footsteps of the taxation idea, but sounds nicer.

There have been many suggestions made, and reactions both positive and negative to those suggestions.  One thing does seem certain is that players would like to have more avenues available to them in usage of Sim Money.