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

[Madman Across the Water]

Joe Andrieu wrote:
> 
> The "coma" is actually not really implemented in most MUDs as much as it is
> a "teleport" from nowhere, which at least Asheron's Call tried to make a
> reasonable fiction out of.

Yeah, but you're not really doing anything while teleported away, so
"coma" could still be a not-inaccurate description. But the teleport in
is also accurate. 

> > Fiction? I'm not playing a character when I play Magic the Gathering.
> > There's no fiction there for me to break.
> 
> I guess you win that point. In fact, there is a fiction. You are a wizard
> battling other wizards in a world where territory gives you power and you
> turn that power into monsters and spells in an attempt to kill the other
> wizard.  It is a simple fiction; it works independent of the economics of
> the business model.  However, it is obviously one that you didn't know
> about, so perhaps it is "broken". On the other hand, that game is not
> character-driven, and I think the fiction you are discussing is about more
> than just characters.

Actually, I am familiar with it, such as it is. (I've even, for whatever
reason, read a few of the books.) But there is no attempt at immersion
in MtG (at least, in none of the games I've ever played) and so breaking
fiction doesn't concern me. After all, I'd have to be considered a
different "wizard" each time I made a new deck... which I tended to do
frequently.

> Heh. Well, characters and monsters already appear out of nowhere in these
> worlds and everyone accepts it as workable.  In fact, in many of these
> games, skills do appear out of nowhere. At some arbitrary point in my
> experience (when I hit some level of x.p.), I suddenly get more skills. Or

This responds to Matthew's point as well- no, I don't really like
monsters and items "spawning" out of nowhere. On the other hand, I think
there is a certain amount of bending of fiction that people will accept
to overcome engine limitations. It'd be cooler if monsters would only
spawn when there are no players watching. :> And skills, well, in theory
your character worked for them. 

Perhaps my issue is this- there is a one to one correspondance between
time you spend playing and, equivilently, time that passes in the game
for your character. Maybe I find making one to other out of game factors
seems artificial? I was going to say that there is no one to one between
outside money and anything in the game, but there COULD be- you could
make $1 = 300gp flat out. 

Another random thought I had, which I will offer just for your
amusement, is this: the rich guy wants to have the same advantage in
game as the guy with all the time, right? If we're going to introduce
out of game factors into this, why not take more out of game things into
account and acknowledge that, out of game, the rich guy is probably
doing better than the guy spending his days on MUDs. 

Yeah, I know. Doesn't contribute much. 

It seems the conclusion I can draw is that there is a limit to the
amount of fiction breaking that some people are willing to accept, and
this limit varies wildly from person to person (to the point of being
non-existant for some of the "It's only a game!" people). Mine just
happens to fall on this side of RL money. The points about other pieces
of fiction breaking are good ones, and an argument could be made that
those are commonplace, and so people are used to them and accept them.
In 5 years, I'll look back and see if the spending of RL money has
entered that category.

Adam



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