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To make this list a game must have at least 1 persistant industrial function (production or service) and at least 1 designated financial instrument that players can utilize. Both the industrial and financial mechanics must be dynamic with each other in the game. Furthermore, a game will achieve additional stars based on how many bonus mechanics the game has that are also dynamic with the game economy (a game with all 6 mechanics will have 5 stars and a game with only the 2 essential mechanics will have 1 star).

ESSENTIAL MECHANICS

industry

This includes any process regarding production or service a player can partake in during the game that is not financial or social in nature, and does not involve combat or crime. Some common examples industrial sectors are manufacturing and construction, hunting and gathering, transportation, management of real estate, farming and fishing, mining and logging, dealing insurance, developing technology, and healthcare. This mechanic can also be abstract, but requires more than a random process.

finance

A game qualifies for this standard if the game features 1 or more of the 3 following: 1. Debt: Players or entities can provide a dynamic debt not based on an arbitrary function, meaning the source of the debt needs to be directly tied dynamically to the game (in other words not an infinite pool that players or entities can simply "borrow" from). Examples of debt are loans through banking, debt securities such as bonds, or socioeconomic debt from provisions in a gift economy. Debt must have defined methods of repayment. 2. Shares of stock (or type of equity security): Entities can raise investment by selling shares in a permanent enterprise or temporary endeavor. Shares of stock often have different variables, but they usually have the ability to be traded, offer dividend payments on revenue or profits, have a price based on performance or market value, or have voting rights regarding administration (these are often simulated in games by allowing the player or entitity with the most shares of stock in an entity to decide who manages that entity, therefore allowing company takeovers). 3. Currency that may dynamically fluctuate in value: Static currency defined by the game designer does not count, and items that can coincidentally be used by players as a medium of exchange do not count unless they meet the demands stated. This means currency must have distinct features from other tradable commodities. Currency can be defined either as fiat currency, commodity currency, or representative money. Games that meet these criteria will often allow players to create (mint or print) their own unique types of currency. Value (inflation and deflation) can't be a result of strictly supply and demand of other goods or services, but also as the result of the amount of or other dynamic attributes behind the currency itself.

BONUS MECHANICS

ecosystem

Game must have an ecosystem that is dynamic with the game economy. This means that industrial or other actions regarding other designated mechanics must have influence on the attributes of the ecoystem, and that the ecosystem is dynamic within itself over a passage of time (or player and entity actions). A world where a player can terraform or deplete resources is not sufficient unless the previous conditions are also met.

force

This mechanic must allow players to influence or control an essential or bonus mechanic by use of crime or combat. The mechanism that enables these features must be dynamically linked with other aspects of the game. This mechanic must also be distinct from other processes, and have some sort of spatial dimension. In other words, it can't simply be another random process added on to other mechanics.

society

Game populations or characters must have attributes or behaviors that can influence or be changed by mechanisms that interact with the game economy. This doesn't include a mechanic that simply involves a player or entity changing the attribute of an entity through some action, and then this entity statically providing a different output. But social entity must dynamically influence other entities.

sovereignty

A game is considered to have this functionality if 1. Instruments such as taxes (including tribute and tariffs), property zoning, and government regulations can be implemented that can dynamically impact the game economy or 2. There is a distinction between sovereign status and ownership over territory or property.

QUALIFICATION HELPER
note: it is not necessary to meet every point to qualify

Industry
1. What products and services do players or entities produce or provide?
2. Do players or entities make meaningful decisions about production or services, or is it just randomness?
3. Is there more than just trading of items, or is there actual provision of production or service?
4. If economy is completely automated and randomized, there must be ability to substantially witness and study developments that happen over time and space.
WARNING: If you can't clearly identity products or services that dynamically take part in the economy, the game probably does not qualify.

Debt
1. Are there competitive players and entities issuing loans or bonds as well as competitive players or entities taking loans or buying bonds?
2. Are there default or contractual repayment terms that are automatically enforced, or methods to enforce debt repayment?
3. If there are is not automatically enforced repayment of debt and no methods to enforce debt repayment, there must be at least a method to punish players or entities that break debt obligations.
WARNING: Simulated loans that simply reduces production or income without paying back another player or entity is not actually debt. Borrowing money from an infinite or static pool of money or supplies does not qualify as dynamic debt. The ability to send money or items to other players does not qualify a game unless conditions of the loan can be set through a contract system and default loan and debt repayment rules.

Shares
1. Do entities issue shares and or directly receive funds from other players or entities when they are sold to them?
2. Do entities make dividend payments to shareholders from their owne treasury that is paid into the treasury of the shareholders?
3. Do shareholders have any actual ownership or rights in the entity that issued shares?
4. Are share prices determined by market forces or a calculation?
5. If entities don't issue or start with their own shares, do they at least start off with funds that supposedly came from the selling of shares?
WARNING: If share prices are random, the game most likely does not qualify. If the selling of shares results in payment from an infinite or otherwise static pool of funds, the game most likely does not qualify. If dividend payments are paid from an infinite or otherwise static pool of funds, the game most likely does not qualify.

Currency
1. Does the actual value of game currency change, or just the value of other items?
2. Does the amount of currency, especially in relation to its demand, change the value of the currency?
3. Can players or entities issue or mint different types of currencies?
4. Does currency have distinct physical properties, such as how it is created, transported, or differences in durability, compared to other items?
5. WARNING: If all game money comes from a infinite or otherwise static pool, the game probably does not qualify. Currency must be unique and defined, if several items that have little or no difference in attributes can be used to purchase other items, these do no count for qualification purposes.

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