Banking / Credit

Ludic Organisational Structure · I – Economic Order value · Tipping potential: high

Banking/Credit coordinates time preferences: whoever has surplus resources lends them; whoever needs more takes out credit. Interest is the price of time.

Design question – How can agents in your game lend or borrow resources against future repayment?

Reference example – Monopoly: properties can be mortgaged; whoever lifts the mortgage pays ten per cent interest. Brass: a loan brings money at once but lowers income for the rest of the game. Transport Tycoon: a bank loan finances the first line, and the interest keeps running.

Ordering domain

Orders time preferences through lending, borrowing and interest.

Emergent behaviour

Credit-creation cascades, crises of confidence (bank runs), debt bubbles and the tension between short-term agency through credit and long-term vulnerability through indebtedness.

Core Mechanisms

• Investment (MEC-21) – Deploy resources today for return tomorrow.
• Accumulation (MEC-02) – Deposits, savings, interest accumulation.
• Schedule (MEC-14) – Repayment dates, maturities.

Dynamic Mechanisms

• Production (MEC-01) – Interest as the “production” of value out of time.
• Scoring (MEC-09) – Scoring of creditworthiness / wealth.
• Randomization (MEC-20) – Default risks, external shocks.
• Conversion (MEC-03) – Currency exchange, debt repayment.

Feedback architecture

• positive – Credit expansion: deposits → loans → activity → returns → more deposits. (Investment)
• negative – Over-indebtedness: over-indebtedness → defaults → loss of confidence → fewer deposits. (Decay)

Design parameters

• Interest mechanic – fixed (fixed yield) ↔ dynamic (market-dependent)
• Credit risk – risk-free ↔ default rises with indebtedness
• Maturity – short-term (1 round) ↔ long-term (game end)
• Collateral – unsecured ↔ collateral required
• Centralization – one bank (run by the game) ↔ agents lend to one another

Risk profile

• Runaway leader – medium
• Kingmaking – medium
• Stagnation – high
• Complexity ceiling – medium

Compatible with

• Market (ST-01) – Compatible: credit enables larger market transactions.
• Production Chain (ST-03) – Compatible: investments finance build-up.

Tension with

• Commons (ST-04) – Tension: private credit vs. communal resource.