[MUD-Dev] Are eBay sales more than just a fad?

[John Buehler]

> Dave Rickey
> Sent: Monday, September 11, 2000 10:38 AM

>     I think it's safe to say that this is starting to look like a trend.
> Like being a little bit pregnant, once you start down this path, there's no
> stopping till you get to the end (IMHO).  Question is, where's the freaking
> end?  What's the legal consequences of selling, as the operator of a game,
> in game stuff for real money?  What if a bug eats that Sword of Buttkicking
> you just sold somebody?  What if you ban the account? How do we integrate
> what is, after all, a rather cold-blooded money-suctioning device into a
> game concept?  Do we even *want* to go this route, and if we don't can it
> possibly be prevented?  What do we do when the EverQuest Platinum Piece is
> traded in the world money markets?  We've been talking about how "Graphical
> MUD's" were going to redefine commerce and business.  Welcome to the future.
> Who do you want to kill today?

  As much as I think that buying achievements in a virtual game is ludicrous,
it's also inherent in the game.  Consider that you or I pay money in order to
play the game and enjoy the virtual experience.  We're paying in order to
Explore, Kill, Socialize and Achieve.  Others will pay to do the same thing.
So if there are items in the game that permit an explorer to enhance their
exploration, I suspect that players will be willing to pay to obtain those
items. ('item' is defined as anything transferrable between players)  I assume
that this is true because explorers were willing to pay for the game in the
first place in order to experience exploration.  The same is true of the other
Bartle types: if there are items that enhance the Killer experience, Killer
players will pay for them.

  A means of inhibiting this process might be the following:

  1. Character abilities are primarily derived from character skills, not from
objects carried or worn.

  2. Character abilities scale only by 2 or 3 times beyond 'newbie' levels
(versus 50+ times in EverQuest)

  3. Any character can pursue any endeavor (no classes).  There are many
endeavors.

  4. No game-system-internal numbers available to players (hit points, damage
ratings, etc).

  This combination should significantly inhibit the value of objects in the
game world.  While they should vary in their quality, implying value, that
quality should not produce significant alterations of character prowess.  I
also believe that the character should keep track of a large amount of in-game
knowledge, which would unfortunately increase the value of characters.  But it
is my hope that in a game world with many experiences available and without
class restrictions that marketing a character to prospective buyers becomes
rather more difficult.  Its value is certainly less clear when the numbers
aren't available.  No 35th level Bard versus 30th level Bard comparisons are
possible.

  FYI, the above four points are not trivially offered.  I'm willing to
discuss each of them in detail for anyone who contends that they are
non-viable or have excessively undesireable aspects to them.

JB





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