[MUD-Dev] banning the sale of items

[Paul Schwanz - Enterprise Services]

> Tess Lowe writes:
>  > If this were true, then I would agree with your entire point of view on 
this
>  > thread, but surely you must accept that people do *not* have the same 
amount
>  > of time to spend on a game any more than they have the same amount of money
>  > to spend on a game.
> 
Par responds:
> I'll never understand this argument. The difference is enormous. Time is
> the ultimate resource, the great equalizer, the one that humans have in
> common. When you spend an evening in a group to clean out the orc caves,
> the simple fact of the shared time is what bonds you to these people.
> 
> This is how friendship works. Writing somebody a cheque does _not_ have
> the same effect.
> 

I'm sure many differences can be found between money and time as resources.  
However, I agree with Tess that the scarce nature of both is a similarity and 
not a difference.  The issue is not time, but rather expendable time.  
Similarly, the issue is not money, but rather expendable money.  As someone else 
already pointed out, kids tend to have less money than adults, but their money 
is often more expendable.  In the same way, while everyone is given the same 
twenty-four hour day, some, because of other commitments have much less 
expendable time than others.  If this were not the case, we would not need to 
think twice about ways to get the "casual" gamer to buy our products.  Perhaps I 
am wrong in this, but it is my thought that the "casual" gamer is in most cases 
simply a gamer that has less expendable time.  It isn't that they wouldn't like 
to spend more time in the game, it is simply that they have other commitments.

However, far from advocating the sale of items or resources, I'd like to see 
time equalized in other ways (such as character persistence as discussed in 
another thread).  If some were not more equal than others (i.e. not really 
equal) in expendable time, perhaps this would have the desired effect of cutting 
down on the sale of items (especially those which require a big time investment 
to aquire).  IMHO, many are frustrated by their lack of expendable time and the 
resulting shame in a time-intesive level-quest style of game...perhaps to the 
point of feeling barred from participating in the game.  Instead of 
concentrating on taking from them their only method for reaching a semblance of 
equality with other characters, why not give them more time?

--Phinehas

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                Paul E. Schwanz, II          
                Email: paul.schwanz at east.sun.com
 
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