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

[gmiller at classic-games.com]

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Original message: http://www.kanga.nu/archives/MUD-Dev-L/2000Q3/msg01042.php

On Tue, 12 Sep 2000 20:55:36 -0700
"Corey Crawford" <myrddin at seventh.net> wrote:


> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Dave Rickey
> >
> >     But why (from an executive's viewpoint) settle for making $15 on the
> > player-to-player sale of a $150 UberWeapon, when you could sell the same
> > thing outright and take the whole $150 as pure profit?
> Of course, this is based on the fact that the people making that first game
have
> absolutely no morality or conscience. To me, that would be equivalent to
having a used car
> salesman selling a car that HAS to repaired in his shop... of course, he even
makes SURE
> the car is broken so you HAVE to bring it back and thus give generate even
more money for
> himself.

It's more like Sony selling a PlayStation, then making money every time someone
buys a game for it.

> In the case of a game, it's almost even worse in a moral sense - you create
something out
> of nothing in a matter of seconds (absolutely no overhead to you) aka
uberswordofdeath and
> turn around and sell it to the player who wants it the most and has the
largest credit
> line.

UO, EQ, etc. were not created instantly out of nothing. The fact that Matt
Mihaly is able to sell virtual equipment in his game is the result of a lot of
work over a number of years to create the game in the first place. Isn't that
sort of like saying it's immoral for EA to sell their single player games, since
it costs very little to manufacture a CD?

> Not to mention that the player didn't even earn it.. I honestly believe that
these virtual
> worlds should be contained and not influenced by outside forces (in this case,
real life
> money). You play in the world, with it's rules, and truly earn what you get in
that world.
> Just because your rich in the real world doesn't mean you should be rich in a
completely
> separate virtual world.

Sounds to me like they earned it the hard way, doing RL work. As people here are
fond of saying, the online community is an extension of the offline community.
You're dreaming if you think you can fully separate the two (e.g., how do you
keep people who are intelligent in RL from having an advantage? how do you stop
people from helping their RL friends? what constitutes an RL friend vs. an
in-game friend when so many people interact in both places?)




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