History Main / AnEconomyIsYou

-->''"Lamp oil, rope, bombs? You want it? It's yours, my friend, as long as you have enough [[strike:rupees]] [[GannonBanned rubies]]!"''
-->--'''Morshu''', ''[[TheLegendOfZelda Link:]] [[TheLegendOfZeldaCdIGames The Faces of Evil]]''

** Don't forget the most {{egregious}} example in ''Ocatina Of Time'': the Magic Beans. The only person that buys them is you, and there's a 10-rupee difference between each you buy. And the seller talks about them as if their popularity increased ''exponentially'' with each bean sold.

* In ''[[TheElderScrolls Morrowind]]'' and ''Oblivion'' there's plenty of junk in the game's stores, most of which is entirely useless to the player.

[[AC:MMORPGs]]

See also AdamSmithHatesYourGuts and NoHeroDiscount.

Alternatively, you're in a teeny tiny town with a handful of civilians. There's half-a-dozen houses, and a couple of shops. But the only thing they will sell is the things you need for your quests, like weapons, {{Healing Potion}}s, and pokeballs. You'd think that everybody in the town would starve to death.

* In ''WorldOfWarcraft'', there is a variety of vendors selling items that have no real use for players other than maybe roleplay reasons (wedding dressings, wedding rings, seasonal clothing) or achievements (seasonal clothing again). One of the probably most {{egregious}} examples is a casket of wine that ages over the course of year. Whats the difference? None.

* A prime example is in ''{{Lufia}} II'', where a certain town contains a shop that deals only in items the ''main character'' has sold previously in the game. This despite the fact the character in question has never visited the town or even that particular continent before. Even the other NPCs are [[LampshadeHanging a little confused]] by this one.

If you want the image to be right-justifed, use:

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/capitalism_ho_5906.jpg]]

[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0122.html However, there may be a logical reason ...]

** ''Oblivion'' took the "food" part farther, featuring a large number of alchemy ingredients that are ''actual'' foods: cheese, potatoes, carrots, lettuce, tobacco, etc.

** Completely averted in the fan-made expansion "A Dance with Rogues"; as there are shops in Betancuria that buy or sell only clothing, and one merchant in the southern portion of the city sells only dyes. You even get to go into a tea shop, but that is because the proprietor is a weapons instructor in his spare time and will train you to fight in his basement, you don't actually get to buy anything.

* Played to some degree ''{{Baldur's Gate}} 2'' in Waukeen's promenade: there are several doors where clicking on them informs you that these shops contain furniture, earthenware and other sundries useless to an adventurer; however, you can only enter the shops that sell useful stuff.

** ''GrandTheftAuto 4'' averted this. Just about everything that one would expect to be open for business, actually is. Bars, bowling alleys, fast food places, clothing stores, strip clubs, etc (although only two or three of each in the whole of [[strike:New York]] Liberty City...) No grocery stores though.

* In ''DeadRising'' the mall has all of the things you would expect in a mall, including grocery stores, a slew of clothing shops, and only a few weapon shops.

See also AdamSmithHatesYourGuts.

* ''SystemShock 2'': inside the Von Braun, all replicators sell only tools of death, gameplay-related hardware and (health-boosting) food. The only exception are videogame cartridges.

* Played to some degree ''Baldur's Gate 2'' in Waukeen's promenade: there are several doors where clicking on them informs you that these shops contain furniture, earthenware and other sundries useless to an adventurer; however, you can only enter the shops that sell useful stuff.

** Platinum features two bars and a restaurant. All of which are filled with people that want to fight you, and only one of the bars will sell you liquid refreshment: Moo-Moo Milk, which is used to heal Pokemon.....

* ''TheLegendOfZelda'' games are a pretty good example - ''OcarinaOfTime'' being maybe the most {{egregious}}. How many of Hyrule's population needs magic refilling potions or Goron tunics?
** The guidebooks for Ocarina of Time {{Handwave}}s the Goron Tunic by stating that Hylians used to mine in the area, but it's a flimsy justification.
** In the original game merchants only sold three items each, and they were strictly limited to items Link might need.
** In ''TwilightPrincess'', you can actually see items for sale in a market, and you can pick them up... But Link always puts them right back, for various reasons.
*** It's later lampshaded, in the Oocca shop in City In The Sky. The text below each item boils down to "Why do we even ''have'' these?"
*** Also in ''TwilightPrincess'', Link is single-handedly responsible for financing the repairs to a BrokenBridge. The man standing on the street in Castle Town doesn't seem to be collecting money from anybody else.
** The trope is taken to the extreme when items that Link will only need to purchase once (eg. Deku shield at the start of Ocarina of Time) become 'sold out'. Not only is the stock limited to things that help Link, it seems they will sell them to no-one ''but'' Link, and as such don't replenish their stock once he's bought them.
** Trope doesn't stop there: whenever Link loses that Deku shield to a fire or Like-Like, the shopkeeper will replenish his stock.

* The Thorntail Hollow shop in ''StarFox Adventures'' does sell things that the locals would consider food (Dumbledang Pods and Grubtub Fungus), though both are available for free from the trees and standing around on the ground. It's just as well, then, that the entrance seems designed to keep out Thorntails and Earthwalkers. No wonder he's considering moving...
* The only shops open for business in ''GrandTheftAuto 3'' were gun shops.
** Somewhat averted in Vice City, where more types of shops were open for robbery, and averted again in Vice City Stories, where some shops were open for protection racket.
** ''GrandTheftAuto 4'' averted this. Just about everything that one would expect to be open for business, actually is. Bars, bowling alleys, fast food places, clothing stores, strip clubs, etc (although only two or three of each in the whole of [[strike:New York]] Liberty City...) No grocery stores though.

* Most FinalFantasy and similar games follow this trope to a T; however, in an interesting addition, FinalFantasyVII let you spend the insane amount of cash you get while grinding to beat the [[BonusBoss Weapon bonus bosses]] by buying a ''villa''. It's totally useless except for [[BraggingRightsReward Bragging Rights]] (and a place to store a particular useless item you can collect several times).
** Not quite completely useless - it's a free inn. Which means that after just a few hundred thousand uses, it will have paid for itself...

* In ''Nobunaga's Ambition 2: Lord of Darkness'' for the SNES, the only things you can buy ACROSS THE WHOLE OF JAPAN are guns, rice, teacups and (in battle situations) horses. Sure, the platform has its programming limitations, but what about sushi? Fish? Bows? Arrows? Sake? Do they all walk around naked? All that gold and huge castles, with no place for the average Japanese to live.
* ''Persona 4'' features a modern day, rural Japanese village as the setting, yet the item shop sells things like Vanish Balls, which serve as a guaranteed escape from combat, and [[IncrediblyLamePun GoHoMs,]] which teleport you out of the dungeons ''nobody else in the world knows about.'' Who in the village would ever need these?
** Justified in ''Persona 3'', where some of the shopkeepers [[spoiler: are actually involved in the incident that created the dungeon our heroes explore]].

* In ''[[TheElderScrolls Morrowind]]'' and ''Oblivion'' there's plenty of junk in the game's stores, most of which is entirely useless to the player.
**Additionally, a lot of Morrowind's alchemy ingredients/potions tend to double as what might pass as food in Vvardefell: Kwama eggs, scrib jelly, saltrice, raw glass...
**Oblivion took the "food" part farther, featuring a large number of alchemy ingredients that are ''actual'' foods: cheese, potatoes, carrots, lettuce, tobacco, etc.
*** Stores sell things ranging from food (the effect of which is fairly useless unless one has multiple ranks of alchemy) non-magical clothes and jewelry, and books (most of which are not skill books) to the standard weapons, armor, and magical items.
** ''Daggerfall'' requires Pawn Shops to get rid of some of its more peculiar items, some which [[VendorTrash aren't useful for anything except selling.]] A Furniture Store shop was planned and some furniture sprites were created, but the idea was never implemented either due to problems or time restraints.
* In ''{{Tibia}}'' all the major cities have furniture stores, and some have shops for musical instruments, flowers, party goods and a bar. The best equipment isn't available nor sellable in shops. Of course, the mass amount of player houses gives use for the furniture stores, but most of the other stores are there just for the show.

** Indeed, in Quest for Glory I, when you try to buy something available at the Dry Goods store that your character doesn't need, the clerk will say:

** Quest for Glory 2 actually has a number of merchant stalls that sell things the player cannot buy, specifically because the game does not allow you to, stating that you wouldn't really need or want it, or have anywhere to put it. By the end of your time in Shapeir, the character keeps getting obscene amounts of cash with nothing to spend it on except for tons of recovery pills (which are a lot more expensive in Quest for Glory 3); all of the money is lost at one point in Raseir. The fan remake actually ''does'' allow the player to buy useless things to decorate their inn room, purely as a money sink.