[MUD-Dev] Blacksnow revisted

[Amanda Walker]

On 5/3/02 1:18 PM, Matt Mihaly <the_logos at achaea.com> wrote:

> Well, in the US at least, this would be a bit of a nightmare.

Well, in the US, facilitating (or even allowing) a cash market for
in-game resources is a bit of a nightmare as it is.  One of the
reasons that eBay can be fairly quick to block disputed sales is
that they don't want some prosecutor somewhere to decide that
they're permitting money laundering.  I'm simply suggesting "if you
can't stop it, regulate it and tax it.".  This is already done with
alchohol, tobacco, etc.

> Selling shares in a company requires spinning off your game into a
> separate company, registering with the SEC, and then abiding by
> the -numerous- rules regarding stock transactions.

Yes and no.  You can incorporate and sell stock without registering
those shares or listing them on any market.  Most of the rules apply
to what the stockholders can or can't do with the shares.  You would
have to file an annual report and other such stuff, of course.

> I'm also not sure how owning stock in the company that made the
> game would have much effect on the gameplay itself. I mean, you
> can already go buy shares of Sony, or EA, though granted, that's
> buying a whole bundle of things, not just a single game.

This is where the tie-in to game mechanics would come in.

This is not a fully-fledged scheme, mind you, just a thought
experiment ;-).

Amanda Walker

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