Where Does MMO Money Go? — How Taxes, Repair Costs and Fees Save MMORPG Economies

A player kills monsters and receives currency.

Another player sells a rare item.

Someone else completes a quest.

Another receives an event reward.

A trader sells resources on the market.

Every day, MMORPGs create new Adena, Zen, Gold, Kinah and other in-game currencies.

If a server continuously creates money but almost never removes it, one result becomes inevitable: too much currency enters circulation.

An item that cost 10 million at launch begins costing 100 million. Later, one billion. Eventually, players stop using the main currency entirely and switch to Jewels, premium coins or another scarce resource for trading.

This is MMORPG inflation.

That is why some of the most important economic mechanics are systems that players usually do not love:

repair costs, market taxes, teleport fees, crafting costs, upgrade fees, auction commissions and other money sinks.

They remove currency from the world.

For Lineage 2, MU Online, World of Warcraft, AION, Perfect World, Ragnarok Online, Metin2 and other private servers, correctly designed money sinks can sometimes be more important than another boss or farming zone.

For MMOGTOP and MMOGTOP.GG, this topic is especially interesting because two nearly identical MMORPG servers can develop completely different economies after several months simply because of how they create and destroy resources.

MMORPGs constantly print money

In a real economy, the money supply is controlled by financial institutions and economic policy.

In an MMORPG, the server literally creates currency.

A monster did not take Zen from another player and give it to you.

That Zen appeared from nothing.

The same happens with:

quest rewards;
NPC rewards;
daily missions;
events;
boss drops;
voting systems;
starter bonuses;
achievements;
selling items to NPCs;
premium bonuses.

Every source that creates new currency is known as a currency faucet.

If faucets continue operating while very little money leaves the economy, the total currency supply keeps growing.

One rich player is not the real problem

Administrators sometimes look at top players and think:

“There are just a few extremely rich people.”

But the real problem begins when too much currency exists throughout the entire economy.

Imagine two servers.

On the first server, an average player has 10 million.

The richest player has 500 million.

On the second server, an average player has 10 billion.

The richest player has 500 billion.

The wealth gap may be similar.

But every item on the second server now costs enormous amounts.

A beginner receives their first 100,000 currency and immediately feels that it means nothing.

The currency loses psychological value.

What MMORPG inflation looks like

Inflation usually appears gradually.

Rare-item prices rise first.

Then crafting materials.

Then popular consumables.

Eventually, players start shortening prices:

10kk.

100kk.

1b.

10b.

100b.

Later, the numbers may become so large that the original UI or database systems were never designed to handle them comfortably.

But the most important change happens in player behavior.

Users stop treating the main currency as something worth saving.

Instead, they begin trading through:

Jewels;
rare materials;
premium currency;
valuable scrolls;
upgrade stones;
high-tier items.

The community effectively creates its own replacement currency.

MU Online — when Zen stops being money

In MU Online, Zen is a good example.

During early progression, it may be needed constantly for:

purchasing items;
using certain systems;
reset fees;
Chaos Machine combinations;
repairs;
teleportation;
NPC services.

On a properly balanced server, Zen has a clear function.

But when monsters generate too much Zen while expenses remain small, the total supply increases rapidly.

Eventually, players stop asking:

“How much Zen does this item cost?”

Instead, they ask:

“How many Bless?”

Jewels become the real trading currency.

That is not necessarily bad. Jewel-based trading is a classic part of MU Online.

The problem appears when Zen becomes almost completely useless.

At that point, one of the game’s main currencies has effectively disappeared as an economic system.

Why reset fees can actually be useful

Players rarely enjoy paying for resets.

It seems logical to make them free:

more convenience,

faster progression,

less farming.

But on a server with hundreds or thousands of resets, even a moderate fee can perform an important economic function.

Every reset removes some Zen.

For one player, the cost may feel small.

Across thousands of players over several months, the server can remove an enormous amount of currency.

This type of sink scales naturally with progression.

The more active the server is, the more Zen players generate.

At the same time, active players reset more frequently and return part of that currency back to the system.

Chaos Machine as an economic system

In MU Online, the Chaos Machine is interesting for more than success probability.

It can also destroy resources.

Players may combine:

Jewels;
Chaos;
items;
Zen;
additional materials.

When a combination fails, some of those resources disappear.

For the individual player, that feels painful.

For the server economy, it can be extremely useful.

The resources are not transferred to another player.

They are completely removed from circulation.

If crafting always has 100% success and consumes very little, the number of high-tier items constantly increases.

Eventually, the market becomes saturated.

Why destroying items can be healthy

Players naturally want to keep everything they earn.

But an economy cannot create unlimited items without removing some of them.

Items enter the world through:

monsters;
bosses;
crafting;
events;
quests;
donation systems;
seasonal rewards.

What removes them?

On some servers, almost nothing.

A player sells an old set to someone else.

That person later sells it again.

The same item may remain in circulation for years.

As more copies appear, rarity disappears.

That is why MMORPGs use item sinks such as:

failed upgrades;
dismantling;
crafting consumption;
item binding;
durability;
fusion;
collection systems;
exchange NPCs;
temporary items.

These systems help control supply.

Lineage 2 — Adena and the cost of convenience

In Lineage 2, Adena is used almost everywhere.

Players spend it on:

teleportation;
consumables;
crafting;
Soulshots and Spiritshots;
equipment;
NPC services;
trading.

On low rate servers, these daily costs can remain noticeable.

Players may genuinely decide whether a teleport is worth the price or whether they should travel part of the route manually.

On high rate servers, Adena often becomes so easy to obtain that most NPC costs stop mattering.

At that point, administrators can accidentally create an economy where billions of Adena exist only as numbers.

Free teleportation — a small change with a large economic effect

Free teleports appear to be a harmless convenience feature.

A single teleport does not cost much anyway.

Why does it matter?

Now multiply that fee by thousands of players using teleportation dozens of times every day.

A small standard cost may remove huge amounts of Adena over a month.

By making teleportation free, the server removes one of its most consistent currency sinks.

This does not mean teleportation must be expensive.

It means administrators should consider the combined economic effect of all “free” services.

NPC Buffers affect the economy too

A free NPC Buffer appears to be purely a gameplay feature.

But buffs can also influence the economy.

If players previously purchased consumables, scrolls or services from support classes and the NPC now provides everything for free, demand for related resources disappears.

This can affect:

crafting;
farming;
consumable markets;
the value of support classes;
currency spent through NPCs.

One convenient feature can change several markets at once.

World of Warcraft — Auction House fees and commissions

In World of Warcraft, the trading system shows another type of money sink.

When players sell items through a marketplace, part of the transaction can disappear through listing costs, commissions and other trading fees.

For one transaction, the amount may seem small.

But an active economy processes enormous numbers of trades.

As a result, the system continuously removes currency from circulation.

This matters because player-to-player trading by itself does not destroy money.

If one player buys a sword for 10,000 Gold, those 10,000 Gold still exist.

They simply moved to another account.

Only the fee actually removes part of that currency from the world.

Why player-to-player trading is not a money sink

This distinction is important.

Player A has 100 million.

They buy an item from Player B for 20 million.

After the trade:

Player A has 80 million.

Player B has 20 million.

The economy still contains the same 100 million.

Nothing disappeared.

Now imagine the server charges a 5% fee.

The seller receives 19 million.

One million disappears.

That is a true currency sink.

Marketplace taxes can therefore have a major influence on long-term economic stability.

Why taxes cannot be too high

If commissions become too expensive, players start bypassing the marketplace.

Instead, they use:

direct trades;
Discord;
private messages;
clan chat;
external marketplaces.

Marketplace liquidity decreases.

Players stop listing items.

So the tax must be high enough to remove currency but low enough that the market remains convenient.

This is a classic MMO economy problem:

A weak sink does nothing.

An excessive sink gets avoided.

AION — Kinah needs to remain meaningful

In AION, Kinah is used across progression and player trading.

On a long-running server, it matters not only how much Kinah players earn, but how much returns to the system.

If income consistently grows faster than expenses:

market prices rise,

new players struggle,

veterans accumulate enormous fortunes,

RMT becomes more attractive.

When currency is too easy to generate, fighting bots also becomes harder.

Automated farmers can produce money around the clock and accelerate inflation.

Bots are an economic problem, not only a fairness problem

From an economic perspective, bots are especially dangerous because they can operate much longer than humans.

A normal player farms for three hours.

A bot can farm for twenty-four.

If monsters directly create currency, every automated character becomes a money-printing machine.

A hundred such characters can inject enormous amounts of currency every day.

Even when the accounts are later banned, some of the money may already have moved to:

the market;
other accounts;
RMT customers;
guild storage.

Anti-bot protection is therefore also an economic system.

Perfect World and upgrade costs

In MMORPGs with deep enhancement systems, equipment upgrades can become major resource sinks.

A player wants to improve one item.

They may need:

currency;
materials;
stones;
consumables;
previous equipment.

Some resources disappear during the process.

This creates demand even after many players reach endgame.

A strong upgrade system can support the economy for months or years.

A poorly designed one either destroys too much and frustrates players, or consumes almost nothing and floods the world with finished items.

Why repair exists at all

Repair systems are often considered boring.

The player visits an NPC and pays a small amount.

It may feel like gameplay gains nothing from it.

Yet repair can serve several purposes:

creating a permanent money sink;
connecting combat to the economy;
giving activity and death a cost;
encouraging players to return to towns.

When repair costs are balanced, individual players barely notice them.

Across an entire server, however, massive amounts of currency disappear over time.

It is a perfect example of a good sink: small for one person, meaningful for the economy.

Death penalties as an economic tool

Some MMORPGs make death consume resources.

Players may lose:

durability;
currency;
experience;
consumables;
teleport costs;
resurrection items.

Death gains real economic weight.

That can make risk more meaningful.

But excessive penalties can make players avoid difficult content.

This is especially dangerous on PvP servers where a character may die many times during one evening.

A good system gives death consequences without making PvP financially punishing.

Consumables are perfect item sinks

Consumable items are one of the foundations of stable MMO economies.

Why?

Because they disappear after use.

Examples include:

potions;
arrows;
Soulshots;
scrolls;
buffs;
food;
elixirs;
repair kits;
event tickets.

The player uses the item.

It no longer exists.

To obtain another one, someone needs to farm, craft or purchase it again.

Demand therefore continues even years after launch.

A weapon may be purchased several times during a character’s life.

Potions may be purchased thousands of times.

Why crafting economies need consumables

If crafting produces only permanent equipment, the profession eventually loses customers.

Most players already own the necessary sets.

New buyers appear slowly.

If crafters also produce consumables, demand continues.

That supports:

gathering;
farming;
material markets;
crafting professions;
trading.

The strongest economies create loops where one player gathers resources, another converts them into products, and a third consumes those products.

Then the cycle begins again.

What happens when nothing leaves the economy

Imagine a server without meaningful sinks.

Every day it creates:

Gold;
weapons;
armor;
materials;
consumables.

Almost nothing disappears.

After several months:

the market is overloaded;

old items are useless;

currency is devalued;

boss drops become cheap;

normal farming becomes unprofitable;

new players can buy endgame gear almost immediately.

At first glance, this may sound convenient.

But much of the progression loses its purpose.

Inflation can remain invisible to administrators

A server owner may look only at online activity and believe everything is fine.

Players are still logging in.

Events still work.

Yet the economy is gradually becoming worse.

Useful metrics include:

total currency supply;
average currency per active account;
median wealth;
prices of key items;
number of high-tier items;
daily currency creation;
daily currency destruction;
trade volume;
NPC purchases;
upgrade attempts.

If the server creates 100 billion currency every day but destroys only 5 billion, the direction of the economy is obvious.

Faucet and sink balance

A healthy MMORPG economy is based on one simple principle.

Faucets create resources.

Sinks destroy resources.

Common faucets include:

monster drops;
quest rewards;
NPC sales;
events;
daily rewards.

Common sinks include:

taxes;
repair;
teleport fees;
upgrade costs;
crafting;
consumables;
failed combinations.

A server does not need to destroy exactly as much as it creates.

Some inflation can be acceptable.

The real problem is a large imbalance that continues indefinitely.

A fresh server needs different economics

At launch, players have almost no money.

If sinks are too aggressive, they constantly run out of currency.

Imagine a beginner who earns 100,000.

Teleport costs 30,000.

Repair costs 20,000.

Skills cost 40,000.

Almost nothing remains.

The economy feels restrictive.

Six months later, those exact fees may feel completely irrelevant.

Some costs therefore need to scale with progression or server age.

Dynamic fees

One possible solution is dynamic pricing.

For example:

market tax depends on transaction value;

reset fees increase with reset count;

endgame crafting costs more;

high-level teleports require additional currency.

This protects new players from expenses designed for wealthy veterans.

At the same time, strong players continue removing money from circulation.

Progressive taxes in MMORPGs

A softer model can make expensive trades remove more currency in absolute terms.

For example:

basic items have a very small commission;

high-value items worth billions create a more noticeable fee.

The system should still remain easy to understand.

Players should know the exact fee before confirming a transaction.

Hidden charges create more frustration than the actual amount.

Why administrators should not simply remove money

When an economy is already overheated, there is a temptation to introduce an extreme sink.

For example:

increase every NPC price tenfold.

The problem is that rich players survive easily.

New players do not.

Someone with 100 billion barely notices a one-million teleport fee.

Someone with two million notices immediately.

Poorly designed sinks often hurt the poorest players the most.

Luxury sinks

A better solution is allowing wealthy players to spend enormous amounts voluntarily.

Examples include:

expensive mounts;
cosmetic titles;
housing decorations;
visual effects;
statues;
guild banners;
special colors;
vanity pets.

Rich players voluntarily remove large amounts of currency.

Newcomers do not need to participate.

The sink targets players who actually have excess money.

Auctions for prestige

Servers can also hold prestige auctions.

Possible rewards include:

a temporary unique title;
a statue in the main city;
a cosmetic mount;
guild decorations;
character auras.

Players compete through bids.

The winning amount is completely removed from the economy.

As long as the reward does not provide combat power, the system can become a very effective voluntary sink.

The rich player gains prestige.

The economy loses excess currency.

Guild systems can remove huge amounts of money

Guilds are useful targets for large-scale expenses.

Clans can pay for:

creation;
level upgrades;
territory registration;
Castle Siege registration;
guild buffs;
emblem customization;
guild halls;
clan skills;
events.

An individual fee may need to remain small.

A guild fee can be much larger because dozens of players contribute.

This allows the server to remove significant amounts without placing the entire burden on one beginner.

Castle Siege and the economy

Castle ownership can affect more than PvP.

It may be connected to:

taxes;
NPC income;
territory bonuses;
clan expenses;
registration fees.

This turns political competition into economic competition.

A guild wants the castle for more than a title.

Territorial control affects the economy.

However, the system must be balanced so that the strongest clan does not receive a permanently compounding financial advantage.

Why taxes paid to a Castle owner are not a sink

If the entire marketplace tax goes to the Castle owner, no currency disappears.

The money simply moves from traders to the clan.

That is redistribution.

For the tax to function as a sink, part of it needs to leave the economy.

For example:

5% marketplace fee.

2% goes to the Castle owner.

3% disappears.

Now the system supports territory gameplay while also fighting inflation.

Premium currency creates a separate economy

Private servers often use several currencies.

For example:

normal Gold;
event currency;
voting points;
donation credits;
PvP coins.

This can help separate different types of progression.

But too many currencies create confusion.

The player opens the inventory and sees ten different tokens.

They do not know:

where each one comes from;

where it can be spent;

which currency is important;

which one is outdated.

Every new currency should have a clear purpose and its own sinks.

Why old event currencies become garbage

A server runs a temporary event.

Players earn special coins.

The event ends.

The NPC disappears.

Hundreds of tokens remain in inventories.

This is poor design.

Better options include:

allowing an exchange period;
automatically converting the currency;
keeping a permanent exchange NPC;
allowing the coins in the next event;
deleting them with compensation.

Otherwise, the economy accumulates useless resources.

Item sinks through collection systems

A collection system can solve the problem of outdated equipment.

A player receives an item they no longer need.

Instead of selling it to an NPC, they add it to a collection.

The item disappears.

The player receives:

an achievement;
cosmetic reward;
small bonus;
collection progress.

Old loot becomes valuable again.

Players begin purchasing items that were previously considered worthless.

This creates both content and an item sink.

Salvage and dismantling

Another option is dismantling old equipment.

The player destroys the item and receives some materials back.

This is healthier than unlimited accumulation of outdated sets.

However, material recovery should not be 100%.

If a sword requires 100 resources and dismantling returns all 100, no sink exists.

If the player receives 20 or 30 back, part of the original value disappears.

The system creates recycling while preserving scarcity.

Item binding controls market supply

Bind on Pickup and Bind on Equip gradually remove equipment from circulation.

The player uses the item.

It becomes personal.

When they later upgrade, the old equipment can no longer be sold to another player.

This reduces the number of circulating items.

Economically, it is extremely effective.

But private server audiences often prefer free trading.

A compromise is to bind only specific high-value rewards.

Why marketplace history helps players

A player wants to know:

What is this item actually worth?

When the marketplace provides transaction history, manipulation becomes harder.

Useful data can include:

recent sales;
average price;
minimum price;
trade volume.

This makes the market more efficient.

However, some private servers prefer an old-school economy where players discover prices through communication.

Both approaches work, but they create very different experiences.

An overly convenient market can eliminate the trader role

Imagine a market that automatically:

finds the lowest price;

compares listings;

shows full history;

buys instantly;

sells automatically.

The role of an experienced merchant becomes smaller.

Historically, traders could profit because they understood the market better than other players.

Modern interfaces give that information to everyone.

This is more convenient.

But it removes an entire playstyle.

Private servers need to decide whether they want a true player-driven economy or simply an efficient item exchange.

Economy is gameplay

A player who never participates in PvP can still become one of the most important members of the server.

They buy cheaply.

Sell at higher prices.

Follow patches.

Predict which items will increase in value.

Stockpile materials before updates.

Control a specific market.

For this type of player, the Auction House or Giran market is the real endgame.

Destroying the economy through excessive drops can remove gameplay for an entire category of users.

Market manipulation

Player-driven economies naturally allow manipulation.

A wealthy player can:

Buy most of one important resource.
Create artificial scarcity.
Relist the items at much higher prices.
Convince the market that a new price has been established.

This is especially easy on smaller servers.

The strategy itself can be part of a free economy.

The problem begins when exploits, bots or private administrator information are involved.

Insider trading on private servers

Imagine a player knows in advance that the next patch will greatly increase the value of a certain item.

They buy everything before the announcement.

After the update, prices rise.

The player makes enormous profit.

If the information came from the administration, community trust can collapse.

Sensitive economic and balance changes should not be revealed privately to selected players or guilds.

Economic fairness matters just as much as PvP balance.

Donations and the server economy

A webshop can change the market very quickly.

If the server directly sells:

currency;
upgrade materials;
top equipment;
Jewels;
rare crafting resources,

new resources enter the world without normal gameplay.

This becomes another faucet.

One purchase may seem insignificant, but total donations across the server can have a major inflationary effect.

Administrators need to include webshop supply when balancing the economy.

Cosmetic monetization creates less inflation

This is one reason cosmetics are usually safer.

The player spends real money.

They receive a costume.

The server does not generate billions of Gold or enormous amounts of upgrade materials.

If the cosmetic cannot be sold for huge amounts of in-game currency, the impact on the economy remains limited.

That is one reason cosmetic monetization often fits long-term worlds better.

Tradeable premium items

Some servers allow premium items to be sold to other players for normal currency.

This creates an interesting connection.

The donor receives Gold.

A free player receives a premium item without paying real money.

The Gold itself is not created.

It simply moves between accounts.

This can be less inflationary than directly selling Gold through the webshop.

However, it can still widen the gap between wealthy traders and average users.

New players need understandable prices

An old, heavily inflated economy can scare newcomers.

They enter and see:

Sword — 50 billion.

Armor — 120 billion.

Rare item — 2 trillion.

Their first quest gives 10,000.

Even if starter systems allow them to catch up quickly, the first impression is poor.

Readable numbers matter psychologically.

The player should feel that their first earned currency has some value.

Currency redenomination

If numbers become too large, a server can perform a denomination.

For example:

1,000 old coins = 1 new coin.

The wealth ratio remains the same.

Prices become readable again.

But the operation is technically dangerous.

Administrators need to handle:

market listings;
warehouses;
guild banks;
scripts;
webshops;
offline shops;
logs.

A mistake can cause duplication or lost currency.

Preventing extreme inflation is much better than fixing it later.

Fresh starts automatically fix inflation — temporarily

A wipe removes:

accumulated currency;
items;
the old market.

The economy becomes clean again.

That is one reason the first days of a fresh server feel so exciting.

But if faucets and sinks remain unchanged, inflation returns.

A wipe does not fix the economic model.

It only resets the consequences.

Seasonal servers can use more aggressive economies

If a season lasts three months, long-term inflation is less dangerous than on a server designed to run for five years.

Administrators can allow:

higher drops;
faster progression;
generous rewards.

But the economy still needs to survive the entire season.

If the market becomes meaningless after two weeks, players will lose interest long before the finale.

Long-term servers require more caution

The longer a project is designed to survive, the more important the following become:

currency sinks;
item sinks;
controlled drop rates;
stable crafting;
fair marketplaces;
anti-bot protection;
careful donation systems;
continuous economic monitoring.

A small mistake repeated for two years can become a massive problem.

Long-term economies must be designed for the first year, not just the first week.

Can inflation be eliminated completely?

Perfectly stable currency supply is not always necessary.

The economy can grow gradually as population and progression increase.

The important goals are:

prices should not rise uncontrollably;
basic currency should remain useful;
newcomers should be able to participate;
farming should remain profitable;
rare items should preserve value;
wealthy players should have meaningful ways to spend money.

Moderate inflation is far less dangerous than an economy where currency has no purpose.

What private server owners should analyze every week

An economy cannot be configured once and forgotten.

Useful weekly metrics include:

total currency created;
total currency destroyed;
prices of key resources;
supply of rare items;
average player wealth;
marketplace activity;
NPC trade volume;
number of upgrade attempts;
number of successful crafts;
wealth of the top 1%;
newcomer purchasing power.

A simple online graph cannot show the health of a server.

The market can reveal serious problems before players begin leaving.

Which money sinks players accept most easily

The best sinks feel like natural parts of the game:

crafting;
upgrades;
repairs;
trading taxes;
guild progression;
cosmetics;
optional prestige;
teleportation;
events.

The worst sinks feel arbitrary:

random currency removal;
enormous mandatory fees;
unclear commissions;
sudden price increases;
artificial penalties without gameplay justification.

Players accept spending more easily when they understand what they are paying for.

A good sink can become interesting content

A money sink does not need to feel like a tax.

It could be:

an expensive guild castle decoration,

an auction for a statue of the top trader,

an NPC selling random cosmetic rewards for large amounts of Gold.

The player wants to spend the currency.

That is the ideal situation.

The economy gets a sink.

The player gets a goal.

MMOGTOP.GG and server economies

On MMOGTOP.GG, players usually compare:

game;
version;
rates;
opening date;
features.

Economy can become another useful part of server listings.

For example:

Economy Type: Player-Driven / NPC-Based

Marketplace: Auction / Private Shops

Trade Tax: Yes / No

Item Binding: Yes / No

Offline Trade: Yes / No

Crafting: Classic / Custom

Currency: Standard / Multiple

Wipe: Seasonal / Permanent

These details help players understand more than leveling speed. They show how the project may feel months after launch.

Why an economy can retain players longer than new content

A dungeon can be completed.

A boss can be learned.

A quest can be finished.

But the market is never exactly the same.

Prices change.

New items enter circulation.

Guilds purchase resources.

Shortages appear.

Someone makes a great trade.

Someone sells too cheaply.

That unpredictability makes player-driven economies a form of endless content.

Developers do not need to script every situation.

Players create the situations themselves.

Why a boring fee can save an exciting server

Players almost never say:

“I love this server because the marketplace tax is perfectly balanced.”

But one year later, they may say:

“The economy here is still healthy.”

Those two things are directly connected.

Good economic systems are often invisible.

Players notice them only when they stop working.

As long as currency remains valuable, trading is active, loot has meaning and newcomers can enter the market, the system is doing its job.

Final Thoughts

An MMORPG economy is not defined only by how much money and equipment players receive.

It is equally important to consider how much permanently disappears.

Monsters, quests and events constantly create new currency.

Repairs, crafting, taxes, upgrades, consumables and other sinks remove it.

The balance between those two sides determines whether an ordinary item costs one million or one trillion after a year.

For MU Online, important systems include Zen sinks, Jewels and the Chaos Machine.

For Lineage 2, Adena, crafting, consumables and trading play major roles.

For World of Warcraft, AION, Perfect World and other MMORPGs, different systems perform the same fundamental function.

A private server can have excellent PvP, dozens of events and a beautiful website.

But if its economy collapses after one month, long-term progression begins losing meaning.

Sometimes the most important system in an MMORPG is not a new boss.

It is a small fee quietly removing money from the world every time a player makes a trade.