[MUD-Dev] BIZ: Ban selling of in-game items for real cash?

[John Buehler]

Matt Mihaly writes:
> From: Yumiko

> I tell you what we do to virtually eliminate this: Stop those
> items from being transferred between characters. Then, if they
> want to transfer the items to someone else, they have to flog the
> whole character for whatever they think the character and all his
> locked-down purchased items are worth. Much less liquid market for
> that.

> I've heard some people make arguments that we should allow players
> to sell items to each other and take a percentage of the price as
> a transfer fee for providing a secure trading mechanism, but not
> only is that gameable (by using out of game method with a trivial
> in-game credit transfer) but isn't going to make you as much money
> as having players buy directly from you is.

I don't know if you keep a credit card number on file, but you could
charge players when they transfer an item that has been purchased.
The buyer is automatically charged 20% of the original price when
accepting the item from the original owner.  Independent of that,
the two players work out the price for the sale.  It'll never be
more than 80% of the original purchase price - unless you permit
improvements to those items by the players.

That only gives you a fractional sale, but it also creates
additional value to the players that buy your items.  They know that
they can salvage a portion of the price that they paid in the first
place (TCO drops).  If you get the balance right, it might produce a
situation where more people are willing to engage in item
purchasing.  And then you get the eBay effect after that.

It's a technique that you could experimentally apply to a certain
'class' of items.  They remain that way forever, so players don't
get upset about a change of rules, and existing items are
unaffected.

JB
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