Digging up an ancient topic here, but it would seem like developers are starting to add gold sinks into their games again. In Skyrim the Hearthfire DLC gives you a huge gold sink in the form of building and decorating your own house, and New Vegas (in particular with the gun runners arsenal DLC) you get more incentives to spend your caps on useful stuff. And not just guns, there are other worthwhile upgrades that needs to be purchased.

Glad you bumped this topic since I missed it the first time round, and it made for interesting reading. I'm not a RPGer myself - all the the stat & stash management is a bit too dreary for me to contemplate after a day in the salt mines, but it does kindle that small fire that says one day I may actually get past the character generation menus...

As to the actual topic, In Dogday there is a diner you ladle soup at for a few coins that you need to buy things. You can go back for more work if you need it. That just may be the extent of my gameworld "ciricula vitae"...

While I've not played Dogday (it is somewhere there on my "should play list"), I take it that the game does not constantly throw money your way, but rather that you need to do a specific task in order to get that money?

In most CRPGs you get a constant influx of money. Most enemies that you kill will drop some money or at least something that you can sell to a trader, but they also lack a proper source for money to leave the system. You keep on getting money, but you rarely have to spend it on anything. 

There are some exceptions, mind you. The Witcher, Might & Magic and the above mentioned Skyrim (with DLC) and Fallout New Vegas (more with DLC) give you a reason to spend your money, and make saving money for these things an attractive prospect. 

And there are plenty of CRPGs that don't throw a lot of stat & inventory-management your way. Why not play one of those?

I was being a little coy with the Dogday reference - the kitchen job is just a small element in a particular puzzle scheme. But it was  cool at the time since you could ponder your next move while ladelling soup. I love the vibe of that game.

But to be honest I've had a bit more experience with the economics mechanic your'e discussing since I began to play STALKER not too long ago. I'm not far enough into it to really know how deep the bartering system goes, but it appears to be in line with the RPGs you're talking about, and with the trading post concept, may be based on it. You pick up all sorts of things off dead people, use them or trade them for things tou think you may need with other chracters or at trading posts, etc. etc.

I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. Barter/buying/selling is not my style of gaming for sure since the very idea of 'upgrading' your qualifications/capabilities or 'finding just the right tool for the job' is not all that irresistable a game objective for me - I prefer the fundamental situation to be set at the being and go forward from there without an expectaion of drastically changing my own personal  circumstances - see what I can do with what I got so to speak - play the cards I'm dealt. In my own daily existance I engage in a fraction of the kind of exchanges that occur in RPG type games - and perhaps that's no surprise given my preferences...

Which may also be my own poorly-informed answer to your Post about money's function in games. Seen simply as a medium of exchange, that's it's function, but not a very interesting one...