[MUD-Dev] Buying benefits

[Ian Collyer]

> Matt Mihaly wrote:
> On Tue, 12 Jun 2001, Phillip Lenhardt wrote:
>> On Thu, Jun 07, 2001 at 08:12:59PM +0000, Matt Mihaly wrote:
  
>>> There are people who skip the buying credits part and make money
>>> by speculating on the gold/credit exchange rate.

>> Could you expand on this? Do you mean that these speculators
>> trade gold for credits some days and credits for gold others
>> repeatedly, amassing a larger aggregate value as time goes by? 
>> Are these deals done one-on-one or is there an actual open market
>> where speculators compete for deals?

> Yeah, they trade gold for credits some days and credits for gold
> others. They may or may not amass a larger aggregate value. I
> mean, it requires some level of sophistication to pull off, as
> well as some luck on your side (sometimes the market is going to
> move against you no matter what you do).

> Currently the deals are done one-on-one. I actually wasn't aware
> that anyone was doing the above (as opposed to just buying credits
> from us in mass and profiting by selling them retail) until a
> couple weeks ago. It's enough to prompt me to consider setting up
> a credit/gold exchange.

> One interesting thing I notice is that one of the larger barriers
> to players doing this is that many players are fixated on 'round'
> numbers. Like, 2000 gold/credit or 2500 gold/credit, and often
> don't even really think about numbers in between.

My experience of credit trading in Achaea has been more like this...

Bubba wants to start a clan, but can't be bothered to spend the
in-game time and effort required to raise the 500k gold required.
So he takes the easy route by buying credits for RL cash and selling
them for gold.  He has no real interest in trading credits, they are
merely a means to an end (the clan), so he sells in bulk at below
market price to Biffo who happens to have large piles of gold in the
bank.

Problem solved, Bubba has his clan with minimal in-game effort and a
little RL cash.

Now Biffo is a genuine credit trader, it's not by chance that he has
lots of gold as he has done this several times before.  Biffo now
sells his credits in small amounts at or above market price to
players who only dream of having the wealth of the likes of Biffo.

And thus the credit economy thrives, Bubba advances by spending some
RL cash, Biffo by his entrepreneurial spirit, and countless
penniless students by spending hour after hour bashing rats when
they should have been studying ;)

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