Financial Centers

[vorpal+5 (OP)]

Something that slightly scratches me the wrong way... Financial Centers.

I would tend to think that this wealth-providing facility was named as such many years ago and it settled comfortably with such a name afterward, by force of habit more or less (that's a theory, but perhaps Steve will disagree, being the master of all and everything in Aurora).

However, would it not be better to abandon this label, as "money" is an immaterial and interchangeable asset, and opt for a more 'generalist' term?

Would it not be better to rename Financial Centers as:
- Light Industry
- Mfg. Goods Industry
- Industrial Replicators
- Cons. Goods Facility

or anything like that?

Financial Centers also imply a decent population base. Moving a financial center to a brand new world seems a bit off. I doubt a new colony would have much use for it. Now, using one of the terms above implies we are providing to the general population...

Thoughts?

[Garfunkel]

Well, the term is obvious even if a little clunky. Light industry implies that it would produce something more tangible than wealth.

[nuclearslurpee]

It's also worth noting that a "financial center" doesn't have to be a manufacturing industry (although the conversion from conventional does imply that, admittedly). You can also envision it as something like Wall Street where it's a large collection of corporate headquarters, funds, banks, etc. which generate significant wealth and are taxed accordingly (may not be accurate for a USA roleplay setting) to generate large amounts of wealth. Basically, the normal wealth generated per TN worker is like the income taxes, and the financial centers are taxes on the corporations that actually run the factories, etc.

Given the range of roleplay possibilities, I think it is fine to use a generic name like "Financial Center" and let the players imagine as they like.

[Andrew]

I consider my Luna Financial centers as a Las Vegas Equivalant while many of the others are temples to the various Roman Gods

[Pedroig]

Financial Center is (not exclusively) a fancy term for a bank.  Banks are a place where money "grows" and it does not take long for a "frontier town" to have one.  Specifically in the US West, banks were often found in towns before rail, and were one of the factors of determining which town to route through.

A broader term is that Construction Factories make tangible goods, while Financial Centers make intangible goods, aka, services.

[serger]

It's easy to rename in the DB, unlikely to create any bugs because it's just a name (DIM_PlanetaryInstallation table, fields Name and WorkerDescription).

[vorpal+5 (OP)]

It's easy to rename in the DB, unlikely to create any bugs because it's just a name (DIM_PlanetaryInstallation table, fields Name and WorkerDescription).

I did that actually, but I was curious if others shared my thoughts about moving it from immaterial financial assets to something mundane but materials (mfg goods). It seems not! 

[Jorgen_CAB]

The name might not be the best but wealth in the game are not really material wealth but rather immaterial wealth. This could be anything from social, medical or just economic wealth that makes life better. The game already include material consumer goods as industry that population naturally are employed in. The Financial Centers are government funded wealth distribution for the population and in terms produce excess wealth that the government can use as payment for services rendered to the population in return.

To be honest I don't really know what a better name would be, but I do agree that Financial Centers seem a bit off from what it actually is as it does not really means money in its pure form.

[Ulzgoroth]

Since you have instant communications, you could put Wall Street on Pluto and it'd be fine.

Modern financial centers primarily employ a somewhat narrow slice of the population - it's odd to think of a settlement where nearly everyone is in that sector, but eh.

The way you spend Wealth seems to line up fine with it actually being money in the treasury, not a cypher for public standards of living or whatever, though obviously there's no monetary economics model going on. Financial centers serving purely to pipe money into the treasury is a bit funny though!

[Froggiest1982]

The problem is that manufacturing, services, and agriculture are already accounted for in the population.

As has been mentioned, wealth is a rather peculiar concept in Aurora and to some extent merely serves as another means to impose limitations when constructing things.

As a result, it became necessary to somehow generate wealth, especially in VB6 where bankruptcy could occur quite rapidly.

While I would appreciate wealth playing a more significant role in the game, I believe we are approaching the point where it could be considered obsolete.

Moving on to the naming issue, when placed in context, there isn't much remaining to rename these buildings. Many games utilize tax collection centres to emphasize their function in collecting revenue; others associate this with administrative roles, meaning more administration buildings lead to more efficient tax collection and reduced corruption.