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

[Travis Casey]

Tuesday, September 12, 2000, 1:28:20 PM, Corey Crawford <myrddin at seventh.net> wrote:
>> 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?
>>
>>     That's why I say it's like being a "little bit pregnant".  The game that
>> takes the first step makes higher profits than the one that doesn't.  The
>> game that takes the second makes yet higher profits.  Higher profit margins,
>> more money you can get the execs to kick loose on marketing, more marketing
>> means higher player numbers.

> 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.

I don't see the analogy here.

> 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.

Others have pointed out that there's certainly not "no overhead"
involved.  I'd like to point out that there are plenty of other
businesses that do this sort of thing.  For example:

 - Collectible items.  Consider things like the small countries that
   issue stamps with pictures of John Lennon, Marilyn Monroe, and other
   celebrities.  Or the ones that sell "limited edition" commemorative
   coins or plates, and advertise that they may increase greatly in
   value.

 - Autographed items.  There are "celebrities" these days who charge
   to autograph things.  (Actually, this one is an interesting
   parallel.  Many of these people say that they're doing this because
   other people were making money by selling items they'd
   autographed... which is the same reason that some people want to
   start selling unique items and such on their muds.)

I can't see anything morally wrong with selling people something they
want which won't harm them in any way, as long as you are not
committing fraud (i.e., not lying to them to get them to buy it).

I consider the "collectible items" businesses that advertise that
their items might someday be worth a lot to be on the edge of fraud,
since they know full well how unlikely that is... but I don't see
anyone here talking about using such tactics to sell items.

> 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.

Of course, one could equally argue that just because you're smart and
articulate in reality, that shouldn't mean that you can be smart and
articulate in the game.  Do you propose a system to prevent people
from using their own brains to help their characters?

There are limits to how much you can prevent reality from spilling
over to the game world.  You can choose to try to prevent people from
using real-world money to gain an advantage in the mud, or you
can decide not to try to prevent that, and instead to use the fact
that they want to use their money that way to help fund your mud.
IMHO, neither is inherently a "better" choice, from either a moral or
a practical standpoint.  They're simply *different* choices.

--
       |\      _,,,---,,_    Travis S. Casey  <efindel at earthlink.net>
 ZZzz  /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_   No one agrees with me.  Not even me.
      |,4-  ) )-,_..;\ (  `'-'
     '---''(_/--'  `-'\_)   





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