[MUD-Dev] banning the sale of items

[Ananda Dawnsinger]

----------
>From: Matthew Mihaly <the_logos at achaea.com>
>To: mud-dev at kanga.nu
>Subject: Re: [MUD-Dev] banning the sale of items
>Date: Sun, Apr 16, 2000, 8:47 PM
>

>On Sun, 16 Apr 2000, Ryan Palacio wrote:
>
>> 
>> Matthew Mihaly wrote:
>> >
>> > They clearly are not diametrically opposed, given that Simutronics (which
>> > certainly has a more impressive long-term track record than any graphical
>> > MMORPG) flagship products charge both a flat-rate fee, AND charge for some
>> > in-game things (I don't know if they charge for items, but one of their
>> > employees at GDC claimed that a wedding there once sold for US$25,000.).
>> > Simutronics has proven beyond a doubt that some
>> > paying-for-things-beyond-service _works_.
>> 
>> Simutronics, specifically Gemstone, had "regular service" and "premium
>> service".  This was much more akin to "renting" an expansion than
>> purchasing.  People paid extra money for "premium service" which allowed
>> them access to special areas and therefore special items and such.  The
>> purchase of in-game events I have no previous knowledge of, but I have also
>> never heard of items being directly sold to players by Simutronics.  The
>> latter of which is the crux of the issue.
>
>See my example of the $25,000 custom wedding someone purchased on
>Simutronics. I fail to see how this is any different than selling, say, a
>custom house.

Just to butt in on the topic of Simutronics and their pay-for-perqs policy
-- this has actually caused a good deal of resentment, divisiveness, and
hostility among the players.

Simutronics has both a tiered payment system and a pay-for-perqs system. 
It's difficult to say which has bred more problems.

$10/month is Basic Service: a single character (extra slots cost $1/month)
and access to the basic systems of the game.

$30/month is Premium Service: ten character slots, the right to buy in-game
housing (for in-game money, as I recall, although there may be RL charges as
well), extra type-ahead lines, expedited customer service, special
consideration for quests and festivals, areas available only to "Preemies,"
and whatever other benefits can be offered.

$70/month is Platinum Service: access to a server restricted only to players
with Platinum accounts, as well as the benefits of Premium membership on the
original server.

It may be no surprise that Basic players resent the feeling that they're
second-class citizens, and Preemies feel like they're not getting their
money's worth.  As for Platinum, I gather it's been modestly successful, but
not as much so as Simu may have hoped.

As for pay-for-perqs -- this has expanded from weddings to include tickets
for special quests and events, including the opening of a new area on
DragonRealms.  The latest news I'd heard is that they were selling tickets
for access to a large festival.  Festivals are the players' opportunity to
buy customized and exotic items, which tend to be very important to a Simu
character's identity.

I don't think that the problem is that Simu charges for special events, per
se.  The problem is that everybody knows that back in the Good Old Days, all
of these things, including the weddings, were "free."  I place "free" in
quotes because these were the days of $6/hr on GEnie, and players were
spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on Gemstone III.  Still, players
don't like paying extra for things they used to get as part of the service;
they're just funny that way...

And, just for the record, though it may sound like I'm taking blows at
Simutronics, I'm not.  They've been faced with a set of circumstances that
no other game is likely to experience.  They've had to try to scale a game
designed for 50 online characters to support a load of 3000 characters at
once.  It's easy to point out all the ways that they stumbled over the
challenges presented to them, in retrospect.  It would have been
exceptionally difficult for any of us, IMO, to have navigated the challenges
any better than they have.

   -- Sharon



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