I was looking at Prosperous Universe, and I believe Eve: Online does similar things. The entire economy of the game is player driven. Everything is produced, bought and sold by players.
For example, metal ore needs to be mined. A spaceship needs so many parts, which need to be produced using the metal ore. You get the idea.
But how do these games start their economy? Obviously, the game had to start development at some point with just one guy. And in the games initial "release", I imagine there wasn't a lot of people interested. So how does that economy start, there's not enough players to be doing everthing, unless they have some very very dedicated early players.
Well, if there is a low population there will be a low offer, but also a low demand, everything is fine. Afaik the early players are quite engaged in the economy activity, since they know they will have as clients the others they come after them.
The real challenge here is to create a virtual economy that avoids inflation and over stocks as it ages.
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