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

[Daniel.Harman at barclayscapital.com]

From: Tess Lowe [mailto:tess at soulsong.org.uk]

> I would therefore like to know if there's been any research into a
> comparison between the positive impact of liquidity versus the
> negative impact of price undercutting, on developer profits. Would
> car manufacturers make more money if there was no second-hand
> market, or do the optimal rules for one market not transfer to
> another? I am not an economist, maybe someone can tell me what the
> current thinking is.

I think Matt is very wise not to allow the transfer of in game items
that he's sold. Unless Achaea has some other factor that decreases
supply or utility over time the market will eventually be flooded
with identical items. The obvious ways to counter this are item
decay and built in obsolesence but they raise their own
hurdles. Cars are different for these very reasons i.e. they decay
and become obsolete.

I'm of the opinion that designed-in inflation is good for online
games as it keeps things fresh and evolving, but I'm not convinced
anyone has seriously attempted it yet. Everquest is implicitly
inflationary, but they only rebalance the new content leaving
swathes of old content that becomes increasingly trivial. Its
probably easier in a technology based genre as you can release new
technologies that counter or enhance older ones. i.e. for 6 months a
certain type of laser is particularly effective, but then a new type
of armor is developed that pretty much destroy the lasers
utility. That way you don't actually have to inflate the damage of
weapons, merely make them obsolete. Unfortunately it's a bit harder
to make a sword obsolete and maintain the world fiction...

Dan
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