[MUD-Dev] Rewarding Beta Testers (There's Pricing Deal)

[Amanda Walker]

On Thursday, September 11, 2003, at 12:19  AM, Vladimir Cole wrote:

>   On the other hand, isn't this a pretty big risk? Accounts can be
>   transferred (for cash) pretty easily. Can you imagine what a
>   "lifetime" account would be worth on Everquest these days? I
>   wonder how Second Life and There are minimizing that risk.

Investing time in your There character does not materially affect
its in-game characteristics.  The only advantage to the lifetime
account is the financial one, and even that's not huge because of
the way the game works.  A lifetime character who wants to rent a
house/clubhouse, buy toys, etc. will have to get "ThereBucks"
somehow.  If the "lifetime" flag gets turned off if the billing name
changes (for example), a lifetime character wouldn't be worth
selling, only worth keeping.

I think it's a very cool gesture, with almost no downside to the
company.

Obligatory tech-related comment:

  The music feature they mention is seriously cool, and does not
  rely on them having to provide hosting for the content or
  bandwidth.  In-game objects can talk to a shoutcast receiver in
  the client.  You tell your "radio" what URL it should play, and
  the client streams directly from that URL if you come in range.
  It works very well.  I could run ICEcast on my home machine, put a
  radio in my There house, and any of my guests would hear whatever
  I'm playing at the moment, without any server bottleneck.

Consider the same idea for textures or images (again, within a
private area--billboards could be a problem, and already have been
in There for text signs).  Poof--p2p player generated content
without giving away the store.

Amanda Walker
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