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<H1>Re: [MUD-Dev] banning the sale of items</H1>
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<LI><em>To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI>
<LI><em>Subject</em>: Re: [MUD-Dev] banning the sale of items</LI>
<LI><em>From</em>: "J. Coleman" <<A HREF="mailto:stormknight#alltel,net">stormknight#alltel,net</A>></LI>
<LI><em>Date</em>: Mon, 17 Apr 2000 20:26:57 -0400</LI>
<LI><em>Reply-To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI>
<LI><em>Sender</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev-admin#kanga,nu">mud-dev-admin#kanga,nu</A></LI>
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<PRE>
Zak Jarvis wrote:
>
> However, I would argue that another incentive for reducing real-money sales of
> characters and some items (though I think items is a tricky issue, as it's easy
> for me to imagine systems where item sales enhance the game and world rather
> than detract) is that excessive purchasing of what your content developers have
> designed to be attained through in-game mechanics demoralizes staff. Content
> development staff is more important per-head than players. You'll always lose
> players here and there, but you need your staff around to make the stuff that
> attracts the players. It very much behooves the designer to development staff
> happy and efficient.
Well, my personal take on this is: why do there have to be *dozens* of
"the Magical X of Y" in the game at all? This seems to be one of the
prevalent
points here, that harvesting is bad. Simply make it impossible to
harvest.
(I realize that this takes a good bit of design work and may not be
practical for
any existing game system to go through...) Make all magic items unique,
except basic,
easy-to-get-anyway +1 magic swords, and then have only a handful of
items actually
be loaded on boot/reset. Have the players - and here's the important bit
- *and the
mobs* create their own items.
I realize this crosses over quite a bit with Alife, etc, but if you make
an ingame
economy which allows NPC's to *use* their skills - like, say,
blacksmithing or
whatnot, then all cool magic items can be created on the fly, by the
NPC's. Then
there's no problem (less problem perhaps) with:
a) keeping players from harvesting the same item, so only people who
pay for it
can have it - each item is custom, and for most items, the
players can make
their own anyway.
b) selling items - it could be made so that any item can only be
used by the
first person to pick it up, unless it's been sold to an NPC. If
you find it
or make it, you can use it. If your buddy finds it or makes it,
he has to
sell it in town before you can buy it yourself and use it. (I
admit this is
a bit artificial and may tick off some players, especially those
who favor
grouping over soloing.)
c) design staff only has to make the rules, not the items, in most
cases. They
put together guidelines on what can possibly be made by PC's /
NPC's and what
can't. Then they'd only have to spend time making artifact-type
items and
special purpose stuff (plot / quest items).
d) player complaints. Arguably, this would make any game world MUCH
more
believable, due to the fact that Jimmy the sorceror won't spawn
every 5
minutes with exactly the same items. You'd almost *have* to let
NPC's live
for quite some time in most cases, in order to get them to
produce any item
of significant worth. Of course, while they do that, they get
more powerful.
It's a tradeoff between what they carry and whether you can beat
them.
Any comments? :P
-Justin
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<LI><STRONG><A NAME="00344" HREF="msg00344.html">RE: [MUD-Dev] banning the sale of items</A></STRONG>
<UL><LI><EM>From:</EM> "Zak Jarvis" <zak#voidmonster,com></LI></UL></LI>
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<ul><li>Thread context:
<BLOCKQUOTE><UL>
<LI><STRONG>RE: [MUD-Dev] banning the sale of items</STRONG>, <EM>(continued)</EM>
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<LI><strong><A NAME="00429" HREF="msg00429.html">RE: [MUD-Dev] banning the sale of items</A></strong>,
Raph Koster <a href="mailto:rkoster#austin,rr.com">rkoster#austin,rr.com</a>, Tue 18 Apr 2000, 22:19 GMT
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00451" HREF="msg00451.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] banning the sale of items</A></strong>,
Timothy Dang <a href="mailto:tdang#U,Arizona.EDU">tdang#U,Arizona.EDU</a>, Wed 19 Apr 2000, 02:11 GMT
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00344" HREF="msg00344.html">RE: [MUD-Dev] banning the sale of items</A></strong>,
Zak Jarvis <a href="mailto:zak#voidmonster,com">zak#voidmonster,com</a>, Mon 17 Apr 2000, 16:21 GMT
<LI><strong><A NAME="00375" HREF="msg00375.html">RE: [MUD-Dev] banning the sale of items</A></strong>,
Matthew Mihaly <a href="mailto:the_logos#achaea,com">the_logos#achaea,com</a>, Mon 17 Apr 2000, 20:16 GMT
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00407" HREF="msg00407.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] banning the sale of items</A></strong>,
J. Coleman <a href="mailto:stormknight#alltel,net">stormknight#alltel,net</a>, Tue 18 Apr 2000, 19:48 GMT
</LI>
</LI>
</ul>
</ul>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00304" HREF="msg00304.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] banning the sale of items</A></strong>,
Ryan Palacio <a href="mailto:rpalacio#verant,com">rpalacio#verant,com</a>, Mon 17 Apr 2000, 00:28 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00315" HREF="msg00315.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] banning the sale of items</A></strong>,
Matthew Mihaly <a href="mailto:the_logos#achaea,com">the_logos#achaea,com</a>, Mon 17 Apr 2000, 04:51 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00308" HREF="msg00308.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] banning the sale of items</A></strong>,
Christopher Allen <a href="mailto:ChristopherA#skotos,net">ChristopherA#skotos,net</a>, Mon 17 Apr 2000, 02:39 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00311" HREF="msg00311.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] banning the sale of items</A></strong>,
Kristen L. Koster <a href="mailto:koster#eden,com">koster#eden,com</a>, Mon 17 Apr 2000, 03:21 GMT
</LI>
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