[MUD-Dev] [News] Virtual goods--Oh, the controversy!

[Marian Griffith]

In <URL:/archives/meow?group+local.muddev> on Sat 10 Apr, John Buehler wrote:
> Paul Schwanz writes:

>> But how is that a level playing field?  The time-wealthy have an
>> incredible advantage over the time-poor.  Or do you simply tell
>> the time-poor that this isn't the game for them, since "the very
>> structure of the game" is based on time-wealth?  It seems to me
>> that developers are reticent moreso because the time-wealthy
>> complain over losing their advantage and threaten to leave, and
>> not because giving the time-poor an opportunity to aquire equal
>> footing leads to a playing field that isn't level.

> I don't have time to train for a marathon.  So on race day, I just
> pay for the ability to ride a bike through the race.  Then my time
> goes up on the same scoreboard, without footnote, as the people
> who actually trained and ran the grueling race.

> Actually running the race by foot is an implicit ethic.  The
> people who play the level grinds believe that their way of playing
> the game IS the implicit ethic of the game.  It sure was the ethic
> established by the game when it was released.

This ethic is indeed a large part of the reason why there is so much
controversy about buying levels and elements or simply just money in
a game. To those who do not it is cheating.

However there is an even more insidious and potentially more serious
problem: inflation.

In fact there are three kinds of inflation involved, though they are
largely caused by flaws in the game design of many games.

First of all there is the inflation of character power. This happens
when low level characters get equipment that is meant for higher le-
vels. This will normally occur in a game (unless it is actively res-
tricted somehow), but the ability to buy items will increase it. The
resulting problems are that low level players are racing through the
game and both make balancing impossible and likely take away content
(monsters to kill) from other players who do not have twinked equip-
ment.  The other problem is that such players remove themselves from
the intended areas for their 'age'. This means that those who do not
buy/get gifted high level gear are left behind in mostly empty zones
that they can see others race through. It diminishes their experien-
ce and likely fosters resentment

The second inflation is the straightforward monetary inflation. Most
games realise that players hate to lose their hard earned equipment.
Instead they leave all items in the game indefinitely.  They are, in
other words, running with the money press running full out. The pre-
dictable result is a rampant inflation.  In a real economy you would
see prices go through the roof, and starting players starve to death
but in a game there is a fixed price for which vendors will sell and
buy for, and the game economy will get increasingly skewed. The end
result is either tradeskills getting useless,  or players needing an
ever increasing amount of game money to obtain worthwile items. They
likely will have to turn to game item and money sellers like IGE  to
obtain  the hundreds of thousands,  then millions,  then billions of
gold pieces to buy ordinary pieces of equipment.  There is of course
a limit on this,  namely the influx of 'free' items through looting,
and this brings us directly to the third form of inflation.

As the second form of inflation puts a downward pressure on the val-
ue of items  this causes an equal inflation in the real dollar value
of things.  Both the companies selling things and the players provi-
ding them must sell ever more items for less money, or they must be-
gin to control the production. Players whose income depends on their
ability to come up with a rare piece of armour,  or hundred thousand
gold pieces,  will need to bring in more and more resources  just to
earn the same income. Or they will start pushing out the competition
This means that the less dedicated (desperate) players will get for-
ced off the content that is profitable for the professional players.
Game mechanics generally make that easy to do,  and hard to prevent.
While  there is no indication  that this is happening systematically
there is the risk  that the professionals  will start to control the
market,  both the influx of valuable items  and the real world value
of the game money that is needed.  And if you can control both  then
you can first  make the player pay for the money,  and then give the
money right back to you for the rare item the production of which
you also control.  If, as the article claimed, 100000 players a year
are spending $100 on average  then the 10 million income a year will
tempt any company and player to fix the market  so the profit is not
going to diminish. This will lead to situations where players who do
not pay for equipment are locked out of it, and are forced away from
the content where they could find those items for free.

So again while there is no indication that this is already happening
on a large scale and systemetically there is a reason for concern at
this selling items/gold for real money.  Even if the other two forms
of inflation  are not also causing their own problems on a game
economy.


Marian
--
Yes - at last - You. I Choose you. Out of all the world,
out of all the seeking, I have found you, young sister of
my heart! You are mine and I am yours - and never again
will there be loneliness ...

Rolan Choosing Talia,
Arrows of the Queen, by Mercedes Lackey
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