I tried to log on to Smallworlds just to see what would happen and here is the message before I got into the game:
IMPORTANT MESSAGE:
The SmallWorlds economy has gone through a major rebalancing for this release. We have done this as a final preparation for our launch in a few weeks time.
The main change has been to revalue Tokens to give us more granularity in our pricing. You will notice that you will have 10 times the tokens you had prior to the upgrade.
We have also adjusted all space and item prices to reflect their true value at launch. These prices were set intentionally low during the beta so we could test every item.
For more information (and some really great news for our beta users) please visit this thread in the forums.
This is the information that the thread refers to:
Changes to the Economy
In preparation for our upcoming launch in a few weeks time, SmallWorlds has undergone some major changes to its economy. During the beta we had intentionally made items cheaper and experience levels easier to achieve, to enable us to fully test the various aspects and features of SmallWorlds. We are now in the final stage of our beta test, and so have rebalanced aspects of the economy to the levels they will be at launch.
The changes include:
Token Revaluation: We have revalued tokens by a factor of 10 to give us more granularity in item pricing item. You may have noticed that any tokens in your account have been multiplied 10-fold.
Item Re-Pricing: Items have been re-priced to reflect their true value in SmallWorlds. Furnishings have increased in value, as have wearable items. High level wearable items are exclusive and difficult to attain, which is now reflected in their pricing. The prices also reflect the 10-to-1 Token revaluation mentioned above.
Gold: At launch, various items and spaces will be purchaseable with Gold. In preparation for this we have turned on the ability to purchase with Gold so we can test this method during this final phase. At launch, you will be able to purchase Gold via a number of methods (including Credit Card and PayPal). One Gold will be the equivalent of 10 Tokens, and some things in SmallWorlds will only be purchaseable with Gold (not Tokens).
VIP Club Membership: At launch, for a small monthly fee, players will be able to join the SmallWorlds VIP Club. Some avatar options and in-world items will be VIP only, as will various features of SmallWorlds. You will notice that some of these options are now flagged as VIP-Only. For now, you can still use these options and enter SmallWorlds. However, at launch, these options will be restricted to VIP Club Members only.
As we get closer to launch we will release more specific information about purchasing Gold and VIP Club Membership.
World Reset… Not!
In our terms of use, we reserved the right to reset the world at launch. However, after much consideration of the impact on our existing players, we will no longer completely reset the world at launch. This will mean that you will all be able to keep your spaces, items and tokens earned during the beta phase! The only thing we currently plan to reset are the player experience levels, as these were way too easy to gain during beta. These will be capped at level 20 at launch.
In addition to the above, we also plan to do the following for our beta users:
* A beta-only item (collectible/rare).
* A “Founding Citizen” tag.
* A special 50% discount on VIP Club Membership.