[MUD-Dev] Blog about GDC implies changes to MMORPG population

[Paolo Piselli]

--- Jaycen Rigger <jaycen.rigger at sbcglobal.net> wrote:

> The resource drain doesn't have to be taxes, though.  It could
> conceivably be anything that offers a return in exchange for
> players voluntarily removing resources from the game.  I find it
> funny that this kind of system makes something most of us consider
> onerous to be desirable (from the player perspective) in the game
> setting.

> Giving "services" (an actual service or skill gain or ability to
> do something offline that isn't normally accessible without
> participation in the system) in return for THINGS is an awesome
> idea.  The player feels like he's being rewarded for his efforts
> (i.e. WORK = PROFIT) and you're getting rid of THINGS.

I'm confused as to where the original idea is.  What you are talking
about is commonly called a "money sink" and I fail to see how what
you are suggesting differs from money sinks such as buying training,
buying mounts, buying housing, buying fancy clothes, etc.  Are you
suggesting the exchange of real-world goods and services for in-game
currency?  Thats asking the world-provider to mint as much
real-world value as their players can create in-game!

As for taxes, a "tax" seems like a mere scaling of the world
economy, as it does not have the effect of redistributing capital to
an in-game faction and, at the end of the summation, taxing each
transaction would discourage tade (better to just go out and farm X
yourself, rather than acquire Y, take a tax hit on the sale, then
buy X).  Or better yet, the player-economy would shift over towards
a bartering system based on player trades to avoid taxation, and
some other item becomes the defacto currency.

-Paolo

Paolo Piselli
ppiselli at yahoo.com
www.piselli.com
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