Today is the last installment in a four-part series highlighting how the endgame of Monster Hunter World (MHW), when examined in terms of the context of its virtual economy has its own version of shortage. Parts 1, 2, and 3 provided background on the game, its economy, and its problem. And today in Part 4,... Continue Reading →
Economic Shortages and Black Markets in Monster Hunter World Part Three: Endgame Economic Scarcity
So far in this series, I looked at Monster Hunter World (MHW) from an economic perspective to see how real-world economics manifests itself in video games. In Part 1 and Part 2 of the series, I detailed background of the game and the relatively normal pre-endgame, respectively. Today, in Part 3, I will be diving... Continue Reading →
Economic Shortages and Black Markets in Monster Hunter World Part Two: Pre-Endgame
On Thursday, I gave a brief overview of Monster Hunter World, which can be found here. Today, I will be detailing the pre-endgame of Monster Hunter World in order to establish a counterpoint to the economic inconsistencies of the actual endgame. Many video games contain an element of "grind", where players repeat certain sections or... Continue Reading →
Economic Shortages and Black Markets in Monster Hunter World: Part One-Intro
Enjoying and mastering Monster Hunter World (MHW) relies heavily on player persistence and repetition. Obviously, this is not a novel concept in gaming as the vast majority of video games follow a progression where the player learns the controls, levels up, gains new skills, and generally becomes more proficient at the game by simply playing... Continue Reading →