[zenith]

Loans in these types of games don't tend to work.

First of all, the money can't just be conjured from nowhere. There needs to be something that funds it or inflation will occur. You think stims are expensive now? Try 3 months down the road when a band-aid costs $10,000 because suddenly the economy has $1 billion in loans floating around.

Gangs give loans to members all the time. The money comes from somewhere and any interest paid is usually low.

If there was a AL Loan Bank that actually handed out loans, the money can't just be created from thin air. It has to be from somewhere or the current economy will collapse. Any interest charged would have to be substantial, since anyone could just bail on the game and now their loan is unpaid and in the economy.

I could see something where players invested in an investment bank by purchasing shares. These shares, at an original price of say $1,000, would fluctuate based on the amount of loans given out vs. the amount of interest paid back. If 100 players donated $10,000,000, that means there is $10,000,000 available to players for loans. In the perfect world, after a month say everyone who got a loan and paid it back with a 12% interest rate tacked on. After bank fees the fund is now $11,000,000. A player can sell his share for $1,100 now.

But the reality of this is players won't pay the money back. For every 100 honest players, there will be that one player who gets a loan, disperses the funds to all his buddies, then quits. That player just "stole" all the profits for the shareholders.

How do the players recoup this defaulted loan? Well, the player quit, so basically they cannot.

Unless the interest rate is high enough for loans, I can't see this as a profitable situation for players. And I can't see a loan bank that is just creating new money out of thin air.