It depends what battles look like - will there be a cool-down period, will it still be possible for the top dog to smash the freemium account?
If the top dog can smash all the small accounts the new money coming into the game will be 0, when that happens the whole pyramid scheme (not a ponzi, it's a pyramid scheme) will be ruined...
When a pyramid scheme is associated with a product it less likely to go down, for example, Herbalife is a typical pyramid scheme, where sellers try to get new recruits in order to get a commission, but since they are selling something they will earn money from it. Drugwars is just like that, if it is well balanced people will keep pumping the game with some STEEM and the pyramid will keep growing, the people that have more money will be at the top getting the majority of the returns and the people on the bottom of the pyramid will receive next to 0, but they will still receive
The difference between a ponzi and a pyramid scheme is vast:
While often confused for each other, pyramid schemes and Ponzi schemes are different from each other. They are related in the sense that both pyramid and Ponzi schemes are forms of financial fraud.[4] However, pyramid schemes are based on network marketing, where each part of the pyramid takes a piece of the pie / benefits, forwarding the money to the top of the pyramid. They fail simply because there are not sufficient people. Ponzi schemes, on the other hand, are based on the principle of "Robbing Peter to pay Paul"—early investors are paid their returns through the proceeds of investments by later investors. - Wikipedia
What I think will happen to drugwars is that, once the hype dies down the whole pyramid will start to deflate and the rewards will diminish, of course that if the devs are able to balance the economy, make the game more competitive, etc it will increase the time for this deflation to happen...because people will keep pumping money over and over and over, because they enjoy the game, and not because they expect a return on it, the payout might need to be decreased once the hype dies out too... (sooner or later the payout will be almost 0, it's the normal cycle of a game's life, they are launched, full of hype, they reach the ATH of hype, and start to deflate more and more and more until almost no one plays and the servers are closed, or in this case, once the payouts are almost none)
Sorry for the long reply :P To end this
!bookkeeping drugwars
I hadn't read up on the difference, but from what i see there i'm siding with Ponzi.
I see a Pyramid as:
I pay you $300 every person you sign up, you promise the people below you you will pay them $200
and so on down the line, so there are groups of pyramids
And a ponzi as a promise for ROI /profit based on people coming on board, but the end of the line gets screwed
Either way, the economics look suspect, and the 21.9 days I've been given for ROI looks generous.
lol 75.4 :D
Those 75.4 are probably less now that I'm gaining 5x more then 0.01, still... I would rather power up my STEEM tbh... you should have bought only 60-100STEEM that is where the top of the normal distribution curve is (the invest/ROI curve), at least from what I've read on @edicted posts...
I was recently working for a pyramid scheme kind of business, it was a door to door electric company contract selling thing, I earned 20 bucks for each contract I made, my teacher earned a comission from that contract like 10 bucks from it, and her boss earned from all the teacher 10 bucks too, per month he was pulling 10k, it's tied to a product so, as long as there are people that need contracts the product keeps going and the pyramid is alive, the problem is:
I don't consider pyramid schemes that bad, and imo drugwars isn't a ponzy scheme because you are getting the money people pay for the game, in most MMORPG you have micropayments that earn the company millionss of bucks, and 100% of the profit goes to those companies, in drugwars only 20% goes to the company (devs) and 80% goes to the community, if they keep the products alive and with hype people will keep pumping money into it, and the game will go on and reward 80% of the profits to the community!
If they add advertisement that actually buys STEEM from the market to pump the reward pool, paid extra skins, paid increase in resource production, etc... the reward pool will keep growing, and 80% of the profits are split between the gamers.
Look at NEXO for example (trying to shill my bags overhere xD), they basically give out loans, and 30% of the profits the company makes are split between the hodlers, do you consider this a ponzi? They are giving out 30% of the profit they get, just like drugwars is... my only problem with drugwars is that it is too pay2win, and if they don't make divisions and allow the big payers to attack the small players no new gamers will want to get in, and the game won't make profit
A pyramid scheme associated with a product is hard to fail (herbalife, tupperware), they aren't even called pyramid schemes but pyramid selling
In the end this is a new concept(maybe they should be called pyramid gaming?), and it will be hard to adopt and to not feel insecure when investing... the whole economy side of it is hard to grasp because it's revolutionary! You are receiving a portion of the profit the game is making!
After writing this whole thing I realize I should maybe do a post about this...
Hi @teutonium!
drugwars
Received:
Spent:
Total:
First transfer was before 8.91 days.
Your ROI per day is 1.19 % and you are earning approx. 0.01 STEEM per day.
Break even in approx. 75.4 days.