[MUD-Dev] banning the sale of items

[adam at treyarch.com]

On Mon, 17 Apr 2000, Matthew Mihaly wrote:
> Something just popped into my mind. Arcades. How many arcade games do you
> know where the way to win is simply to keep pumping more quarters in,
> because you want to beat the high score? Lots of 'em. There is one of
> those stupid video machines down at the local bar, with lots of various
> games on it, and I was talking to a guy playing it one night, as he just
> kept feeding in dollar after dollar after dollar, playing the same game.
> Upon querying what he was doing, he said that he had to have the high
> score, and that all he had to do to get it was keep putting in money. And
> before you say something about community, let me point out that he's a
> regular, and the person whose score he was trying to beat was standing
> about 10 feet away playing pool.

Slight tangent, but I think it is relevant: as an arcade game developer,
I (and most of those in my line of work) consider it to be a travesty of
game design when arcade games don't reset the score when you continue (put
in more money).

As long as games follow this pattern, only skilled players will ever get
high scores.  You can put in money forever but if you don't get any better,
you'll never have a high score.  Of course, having more money to burn *is*
an advantage, as most people do get better at something the more that they
do it, but it's not the direct correlation that you describe above.

Many games (especially in the last few years) break this rule, and it's
quite disturbing.

Adam





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