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

[yvesk at brutele.be]

The value, virtual and/or real, of an item is relative to the whole,
thanks to the offer and demand rule, it is relative to its rarity.
But this relation works the other way as well, the more common an
item, we are speaking about some virtual commOnity, isn't it, the
less valuable it is and therefore, when an ubersword is spawned the
usual blade-of-suckness everybody has is accordingly devalued. 
So, that is why I do recoil in horror when facing institutionalized
systems associating real cash and virtual power-items in 
MMORPG, I don't mind people who pay more to enjoy more, but 
not at the expense of others...

If you think about it, it is almost the opposite of role playing, 
instead of trying to immerse in an imaginary personality, you carry
on your real life social status, as well as its related problems, in
there, it' rather be a Massively-Multiplayer-Online-Role-PAying-
Game.

on Thu, 14 sept 2000, Matthew Mihaly wrote:
>...
>Better equipment will improve mychances some, but a truly good
>skiier is going to trash me no matter howmuch I spend on 
>equipment. Similarly, I could go out and buy the bestestgolf clubs 
>in the world and still have not a chance in hell against 
>TigerWoods, even if he was using only a putter.
>...

That is right, whatever the price of your equipment, your skill
matters much more, of course, and specially if you include the 
laymen in the comparison, but now, if you speak about a 
professional level, earning an advantage thanks to lots of money 
generally involves either corruption or doping, that is cheating, 
because people indeed expect sport to be a fair game. They may 
be disappointed at the reality of it and that is also maybe why 
some expects something more idealized, maybe utopic... well, fair, 
in a designed virtual reality with the purpose of being entertaining.

Now, business is business, I have no intent to prevent some to try
this kind of plan, and I could even wish them good luck. However,
what I allow myself to criticize is the usual lack of information
about what they are really selling, which, at some point, becomes
hypocrisy, "this game may cost you more than the monthly fee if 
you want to be competitive", have you read that on any game official
homepage, whatever their eyebrows angle on the subject of Ebay or
even if they offer that service to their players themselves? I don't.


Volstoff.





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