F. Randall Farmer wrote:
> Comments? Any EQ guys wanna share some
thoughts? :-)
Disclaimer: The following represents my own personal opinion and in no way reflects the opinion of Verant Interactive, 989 Studios, and/or Sony Online Entertainment. Even as the OOC sale of items, characters, and/or information is frowned upon (or "illegal") on most MUDs, EQ (or any other _persistent_ online game with transferable goods) must take the same, if not a more strict, stance. The ramifications of directly, or indirectly, condoning or ignoring this issue puts the viability and longevity of the game at risk. When money is involved, the anti-social nature of people becomes more predominant. Camping, kill-stealing, fraud, harassment, and numerous other types of problematic behaviors become more acceptable, even to those with a distaste for such action, when the trade-off involves increasing their RL personal wealth. Additionally, the gross anonymity of the environment can create a perception that the potential consequences are less effective/meaningful. Such behavior is not tolerated in RL due to RL consequences that _directly_ affect the offender: fines, jail, social exile, etc etc. The only per se consequence is the banning of their account and the loss of any financial investment made up to that point. If the monetary gain via "forbidden" behavior is greater than the penalty, then the offender still comes out ahead with a net gain (positive reinforcement) for negative action. The guilt/empathy for the negatively affected party is irrelevant. Noting that this negative action (negative from the vantage of everyone _but_ the offender) provides positive reinforcement, the developers must evaluate the repercussions of this behavior on the overall game (or profitability, if a commercial venture). If the actions of one person negatively affects multiple people (potentially causing them to become frustrated and cancel their account), then it is in the best interest of the developer to REMOVE the malignant person(s) by any means necessary, including (if necessary) banning of BOTH seller and buyer, and legal action against the facilitator of the sale/transfer of goods and funds (eBay, other auction sites, or any other "convenient" means of connecting seller and buyer). Now for those still dwelling on design "flaws" that magnify the problem, let me state that they only _magnify_ the underlying issues which are a mere matter of psychology and "human nature". Although design IN-GAME can curb this type of negative behavior, or at least help alleviate some of the symptoms, the problem still exists and the only way to effectively stomp it out is to remove the facilitator/middleman. It was noted recently in the "online economics" thread that if people view a trade as potentially risky and there is no middleman with a strong reputation for "fairness", the potential trades will shrink tremendously. It is _IMPOSSIBLE_ to eradicate the root of the problem (short of removing all "trade" from a game), but it is still within the hands of the developers to minimize the overall issue. ~Ryan Palacio EQ/EQ:ROK Game Designer Verant Interactive |
- RE: [MUD-Dev] banning the sale of items, (continued)
- RE: [MUD-Dev] banning the sale of items, Schubert, Damion dschubert@origin.ea.com, Mon 17 Apr 2000, 20:17 GMT
- Re: [MUD-Dev] banning the sale of items, Paul Schwanz - Enterprise Services Paul.Schwanz@east.sun.com, Tue 18 Apr 2000, 19:48 GMT
- Re: [MUD-Dev] banning the sale of items, Kian Wilcox Kian_Wilcox@concordacademy.org, Tue 18 Apr 2000, 19:48 GMT
- Re: [MUD-Dev] banning the sale of items, Paul Schwanz - Enterprise Services Paul.Schwanz@east.sun.com, Tue 18 Apr 2000, 19:49 GMT
- Re: [MUD-Dev] Sony to ban sale of online characters from its popular gaming sites, Ryan Palacio rpalacio@verant.com, Tue 11 Apr 2000, 23:22 GMT
- Re: [MUD-Dev] Sony to ban sale of online characters from its popular gaming sites, maddog maddog@best.com, Wed 12 Apr 2000, 01:24 GMT
- Re: [MUD-Dev] Sony to ban sale of online characters from its populargaming sites, Wes Connell wconnell@skotos.net, Wed 12 Apr 2000, 04:04 GMT
- Re: [MUD-Dev] Sony to ban sale of online characters from its popular gaming sites, Frank Crowell maddog@maddog.com, Wed 12 Apr 2000, 05:50 GMT
- Re: [MUD-Dev] Sony to ban sale of online characters from its popular gaming sites, Ryan Palacio rpalacio@verant.com, Wed 12 Apr 2000, 04:05 GMT