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

[Tess Lowe]

Phinehas wrote:
> Buying gold medals in the Olympics might be a fact of life.  I'm not quite
as
> cynical as others on the list, but I'll concede that money can tend to
bring
> more medals to a country.  However, I don't think that this is in keeping
with
> the 'spirit' of the Olympic Games.  I dislike it.  Similarly, I dislike
buying
> success in a MMORPG.  It doesn't seem very 'sporting' to me.

If the game is designed well, then it's not so much a case of "buying
success" as buying the right to compete on a level playing field.

In Achaea (to belabor the example) this point is reached when a character
has maxed out their critical skillsets. After this point there is little one
can do to gain much further advantage, no matter how much money one spends -
and any further gain in character power is dwarfed by the effect of player
skill anyway.

If this seems unsporting to you then a shift of perception is all that is
required. Instead of the purchase of skills ruining a previously level
playing field, design the game so that the level playing field occurs
*after* the skills have been bought. We can then generously allow other
players to play for free, or cheaply, but they will always be underpowered
(which socialisers tend not to mind). They are getting something for nothing
after all! What could be more sporting than that? *g*

Tess
achaean goddess





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