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

[vlad cole]

"Matt Mihaly" <matt at ironrealms.com> wrote:

> It's about setting expectations. We rarely get complaints from
> people about not being able to transfer their real-money items
> because that was the expectation when they bought them. If players
> ask why, I'm happy to be honest and tell them it's because I
> believe if we allowed that practice to proliferate there'd
> eventually be a floating supply of real-money items in the game
> (due to player turnover, and players selling their items before
> leaving the game permanently) and the way we pay for the operation
> of the business would be too damaged to continue.

So the assumption here is that the growth of a strong secondary
market for items will reduce demand for primary-market offerings.

Is that a valid assumption?

I don't know the game at all, but might a thriving secondary market
be an asset or feature of the game? Might a liquid secondary market
increase demand for primary-market offerings? If the financial
markets are any model, then liquid markets increase investor demand
for both primary and secondary offerings.

I don't buy the argument that secondary trading between players (for
in-game or out-of-game cash) will harm your item purchase
revenues. A liquid secondary market may actually increase your
player base's willingness to invest in one of your items in the
first place in much the same way that my donation to charity isn't
completely altruistic: I expect a partial refund of my taxes in
exchange for my gifts to charitable organizations. To put it another
way, player demand for your items may increase if they know that
they can sell these items when they tire of using them (or of
playing the game).

By restricting trade on your items you decrease the total utility of
those items and therefore the demand for them.
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