[MUD-Dev] Selling training

[Daniel.Harman at barclayscapital.com]

on 07 March 2001 11:22, the_logos at www.achaea.com wrote:

> I, obviously, am a big fan of selling virtual objects. I was just
> surprised to see people paying for training. I guess I really
> shouldn't have been surprised though. One of Achaea's Gods owns a
> chain of martial arts studios. People pay him for combat
> training. Not any different really from paying the uber-combatant in
> Achaea for combat training.

I actually think selling items to players is a pretty horrible thing
to do in an online world as it means that financially well off end up
with all the toys. I guess it stems from the fact that I'd never pay
money for these things, but it puts me off a game when I know that
people will have an advantage if they are *foolish* (my perspective!) 
enough to spend substantial amounts of real money on a virtual item. I
don't have a problem with the guy offering real world training in the
game if thats what they want, but to actually sell in game currency
for real money just seems wrong.

People play online games so that they can be the 'Ferrari owner' in
the game. It undermines it if the road to success is actually still
being the 'Ferrari owner' out of game.

I can relate to it from a business perspective. I just don't like the
inequity of it all and can't help but feel that it adds a slightly
nasty aspect to online gaming.

Dan
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