Let's up the world ante a bit

I was thinking the other day about ways to expand game worlds and mechanics in a meaningful way while I was driving my car the other night. Here's a simple idea that I'm happy to let someone steal from me: finance.

I don't really mean a game about the stock market or banking per se. But maybe put some investments that work like real world investments into an RPG or something. I think it would bring some depth to a strategy RPG like Final Fantasy Tactics. A lot of RPGs like to force players to make a bunch of money by killing monsters. It'd be really cool if the game had inflation and investing in real estate or buying ownership of a store was how you could keep the money piling in to keep up and buy new equipment.

After that I was thinking of implementing finance in a slightly less literal way. Let's make a game where there are no healing spells. You have a certain amount of life at any given time. You can get life by killing monsters, but it's fairly rare. But much less rare-ly you can find a fairy who will ask you for a chunk of your life. In exchange she'll restore your life slowly overtime. The goal here is amass so many fairies that you're gains will compound and you'll be invincible.

Maybe I'll just make this game.