[MUD-Dev] Re: Black Snow Revisited

[Batir]

I'm curious as what the list thinks of a couple solutions I've come
up with on this, for future games of course.

  1. Don't make uber items, or severely limit their individual
  effectiveness.  Instead, have the usefulness of an item reside in
  the character.  As Bubba levels he can not only hit more often
  with a broadsword, but can also inflict more damage through his
  personal knowledge of swordsmanship.  You could still create an
  aura of magic in the game through other means, such as instead of
  receiving an uber item for slaying a dragon the character
  automatically loots and uses an item that buffs him/her after
  killing the dragon.  Item selling (or service contracts involving
  real world money for acquiring items in game) would be very much
  useless, methinks, since it's about character advancement now, not
  item acquiring.

  2. Prohibit transfers of characters through non-transferable
  contracts, i.e.  the EULA.  If it is, at some point, decided a
  company cannot prohibit eBay sales; simply watch for changes in
  billing.  Credit card, name, address, and email all change in the
  billing info?  Looks like somebody might be trying to transfer a
  non-transferable contract.

  3. For items such as game money, houses or other things that can't
  easily be nullified via #1, simply include in the EULA that <Your
  Company> has exclusive right to sell access to such items in an
  out of game context.  Advertise in some accessible but not
  prominent area of your website those items at prices so outrageous
  the nobody will ever buy them.  You effectively would have a
  measurable loss is somebody were to try to sell those items for
  real world monies or services.

I came up with these rather quickly, and there may very well be
loopholes that you might see, but I think you'll get the idea.
Between in game solutions and enforceable contracts this whole
situation could very well have been avoided, with little or no
detriment to the game as it was intended to be played.

Batir

http://uo.stratics.com
Batir at stratics.com

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