Basic question

[Bestatte]

Fine. For a starving rinth rat, anything over 50 sids is rich.

For a slave, "rich" isn't measured in sids at all, because they wouldn't be allowed to spend it anyway.

For a common commoner who isn't starving but doesn't own their own home, being able to *maintain* in excess of 5000 sids in the bank would be rich.

For a commoner who is fortunate enough to have moved out of the commoner's quarter and into the merchant's district, but still isn't a member of any fancy "official" house, *maintaining* in excess of 10,000 sids would be considered rich.

For an "official" household commoner, maybe 20,000 and up, depending on their "rank" in their house.

For a noble - maybe 50,000 in personal coins (since most of their "official duty" expenses are paid for by the house) would be rich.

Note that I specified "maintaining" this amount of coin. Getting a windfall one day and blowing the whole thing in a month doesn't mean you're rich. It means you got lucky that month. A salary of that much doesn't mean you can maintain it in the bank, because you are spending part of your salary on personal expenses. It's being able to go to the bank at any given moment on any given day and have the clerk tell you that your balance is "that much" - that's what would make you financially wealthy.

I still don't think "rich" can be measured in sids exclusively, because not all characters in the world value sids and in fact MANY do not.

[Anonymous]

Though i agree with Bestatte, that things are subjective to perception, i think we can still define a IC stardard of 'rich'.


                      In Zalanthas life is harsh, everyone (with the exception of nobles) has to struggle in one way or another to survive.  This means everyone has to work, whether you are sergent of the guards, thief or whore everyone must do something in order to eat &drink.  If DON'T  have to do anything inorder to eat or drink (for the rest of your life) then you must be 'rich'.  The level of rich is debatable but rich none the less.

                 Now for numbers:

              First off i need to mention that I believe the cost of food and water we currently pay in the game represents what a Zalanthian is paying from the time we log off to the time we log on.  Through this way of thinking we could come up with an idea of what the minimum amount of Sid, it would take to survive a lifetime.  The three things need to live are food, water and shelter.

                    For two to three hours of playing (I know some people play more some less but a rough average taken from a poll) some one is looking at:

* 30 Sid for food (A little high, I know, but you can't eat travel cakes forever   )
*22 sid for water

When you add this up your looking at 52 Sid every time you play for 2-3 hours which is once a day for most.

    Now the life expectancy of the average Zalanthian is around 35-45 years, IMO.  Since you somehow survive til 15, we will calculate for 32 years (So we get more whole numbers), which is 4 RL years or 1460 day .  

                  So far we are looking at 75920 sid                

Selter
100 sid per Ic year*30 years of life

3000 sid
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So around 78920, however clothing, misc. things, robberies and other factors would probably push this upwards to the 100k mark.

Here is the thing though  this sum would probably need to be multiplied by the number of dependents of that person.   This is just a rough estimate i know there are many factors missing so don't begin flaming.
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So for those look for a number there ya go.  If you have 100k in the bank your PC can sit on his ass for the rest of his life.  It should be mentioned that this is only for FREE city people and not those who know nothing of Sid or unable to do anything with it.

[Dresan]

I hate when the GDb logs me out...above post is mine...i'm going to start posting my name at the bottom like everyone else

-Dresan

[Angela Christine]

Relative to the majority, my interpretation of the gaming world is that if you don't have to worry about eating, you are rich.

I don't think so.  That is comfortable, but not rich.  Unless by not have to worry you mean that you have so many assets that you will NEVER have to worry about it ever again.  Not having to worry for a year gives you some breathing space, but it doesn't make you rich.

To me rich means you own property, you own something of real value.  You own a house, a shop or a wagon *plus* you don't have to worry about food and water.  100k is a nice round figure, at that level of wealth you have the opportunity to try to buy real estate even if you haven't yet.


A silk outfit and 2k in the bank doesn't make you rich.  If you act rich at that level, you are just a poser.  


Angela Christine

[Mr.Camel]

If players don't agree on their interpretation of 'rich', then I would think characters would have more diverse thoughts.

[JollyGreenGiant]

If players don't agree on their interpretation of 'rich', then I would think characters would have more diverse thoughts.

And I think that was likely marko's point exactly.

My interpretation?  Rich is having so much money that you can't possibly spend it.  Rich is Bill Gates, who, assuming he never earned another penny, could spend the sum of the GNP of a few small countries every year for hundreds of years and still not spend it all.  That's how I see the comparative wealth of Zalanthan nobles and merchants.  To me, a million dollars a year sounds like a lot of money, but as far as the founder of Ikea is concerned, I couldn't make his kind of money at that rate in a thousand years.

100k in the bank?  To a commoner, that sounds pretty rich, sure.  You're probably set for life if you use it carefully, just like if I had a couple million in the bank.  But a noble can blow that just constructing a few rooms of a mansion, and Bill Gates' house cost more than I'll ever have in this lifetime.