[MUD-Dev] Selling training

[John Buehler]

Daniel.Harman at barclayscapital.com writes:

>> Clearly, I am of the people and for the people. I am a populist. I
>> believe in equal rights for all. I believe that no man has the
>> right to tell me I can't buy a virtual item if I darn well please! 
>> Virtual items are soothing to the soul. They are islands of sanity
>> in times that lack it. In today's hurly burly world, can we really
>> afford to deny people the simple pleasure of purchasing a magical
>> flowerpot and tending to your tiger lilies, or Scorpion's Tail and
>> stinging the living hell out of your enemies?

>> I don't think so, and those who deny the Rightness of selling
>> virtual items will suffer the same eternal fate that awaits mimes,
>> communists, and that banal idiot who writes Family Circus.

> I feel like I've just been ranted at by a TV evangelist. I didn't
> tell you that you couldn't sell them. Merely that its something I
> find distasteful /shrug.

> I was more interested in a response explaining how the game is
> balanced when people can buy success. Can you be as effective as a
> warrior if you don't buy equipment? If not, how do you think this
> would impact a game with more users/wider recognition - does it only
> work because you are small?

You're assuming that the game should be balanced.  Matt is approaching
the game experience from a purely business standpoint: a player can
alter the game experience by dropping more quarters into the game.  If
that feature is something that other players will find sufficiently
alienating, then they won't hop into Matt's world.

I am reminded of the Wendy's commercial of the guy sitting at a trade
show advertising his services as a fast food taster.  He charges
$25,000 per nugget.  "Any takers?"  "Not yet, but I only need one."
Matt is making money, and if he's providing a consistent,
clearly-labelled product that isn't doing any harm to anyone, no big
deal.

> What happens if you introduce an item into the game, sell it for
> 500USD, then realise its unbalanced and nerf it? What happens if
> your database crashes and you lose player data how do you cover
> that? What happens if you decide you want to stop running the game?

What happens when Verant nerfs your class?  What happens when your
character falls into lava and cannot be recovered?  Charging more
money just means that there is a greater possibility of retribution by
players who believe that the terms of service were not fulfilled.  For
example, paying $500 for a sword on Monday and having the game shut
down on Tuesday without even so much as a partial refund will probably
yield a lawsuit.

Would Verant get hit with lawsuits?  I doubt it.  They charge a fairly
small, incremental fee to use their service, so the amount of
entertainment obtained is generally commensurate with the amount of
money paid.

JB

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