Heksus
VIRTUAL LIFE VANGUARD
Te-Ka
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Posted - 2007.09.17 12:39:00 -
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I think that game developers need to come to grips with the fact that virtual assets have RL value and that the invisible hand of the free market will come up with ways to transfer that value according to supply and demand.
Regarding Second Life: It's more a platform or environment than a game. There are FPS and role-playing areas within SL, but they are created by residents rather than by Linden Lab. There are incredible money "sinks" within SL, notably in the form of "tier," a sort of property tax on owning virtual space. There are many ways to earn money in SL. From December '06 - February '07 I earned over $1,000 flipping land; other people use their design skills to create such things as clothing, avatars, landscaping, buildings, or vehicles; some use their programming skills to to create custom avatar animations (e.g. different ways of walking, dancing, praying, having sex, serving drinks, whatever), make vehicles work, make doors open or shut, or manage rentals or vending machines. Some people make money in exchange for cybers*x. Gambling was big before LL banned it. There are (unregulated) banks, stock exchanges, and alternative currency exchanges available if you want them. Some people write scripts to automate avatar actions (imagine being able to program your pod pilot to fly around and check prices in various systems, buying and selling and transporting unattended).
There are games that allow (and try to control) the buying and selling of currency, items, characters, etc. Of course CCP facilitates the transfer of characters and GTC's; but check out EverQuest II's Station Exchange at http://eq2.stationexchange.com/.
To make these conversations productive, I think we have to identify exactly what we are objecting to. For example, I see the Monopoly model used: letting people buy ISK is like letting Monopoly players buy Monopoly money to win the game. One problem with this is that one doesn't win EVE by having the most ISK at some nonexistent end-point. But by the same token, letting players twink an alt with ISK is like letting one Monopoly player give another player money--something that would also ruin the game for many. And what are corporate taxes, or corp mates helping one another out financially in Monopoly terms?
Right now, ISTM that the real problem boils down to macro mining. If the supposed Chinese sweatshops were actually run by people actually playing the game, there's not much to object to in good faith.
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