Predictive RPG Item Economy

Inspired by Asimov's Foundation, the project aims to use historical data, akin to psychohistory, to forecast future trends in online game economies. Drawing parallels with Interstellar, the project understands time as a dimension (albeit in a more abstract, data-driven way), using past economic data from popular RPGs to predict future item values, inflation, and player resource allocation. The project involves scraping data from online marketplaces and forums related to games like World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy XIV, or Diablo, focusing on item prices, transaction volumes, and player sentiments. This data is then analyzed using time-series forecasting models (ARIMA, Exponential Smoothing) to predict future economic behavior. The 'game' component comes in two potential forms: 1) A standalone tool that developers can use to test and balance their game economies -before- launch. This allows them to avoid economic crashes or imbalances that could ruin player engagement. 2) If the forecasting is accurate enough, the tool could be integrated into a real-time RPG as an optional in-game 'analyst' tool for players, providing them with data-driven trading insights (with appropriate disclaimers about the inherent uncertainty). Low-cost aspect comes from leveraging free web scraping libraries (Beautiful Soup, Scrapy) and open-source time-series analysis tools (R, Python with libraries like statsmodels). The niche is the specific focus on -predicting- game economies, not just analyzing them in retrospect. High earning potential lies in either selling the tool to game developers, offering it as a subscription service, or potentially monetizing the in-game analyst feature via a premium subscription or integration with in-game marketplaces (with developer partnerships).