[MUD-Dev] Sony to ban sale of online characters from its popular gamingsites

[Zak Jarvis]

> From: mud-dev-admin at kanga.nu [mailto:mud-dev-admin at kanga.nu]On Behalf Of
> F. Randall Farmer
> Sent: Tuesday, April 11, 2000 11:27 AM

> "Sony to ban sale of online characters from its popular gaming sites

> Below I quote from an internal Communities.com discussion about
> this news item. I just HAD to share. (Since I share the opinion.)
>
> "There are three positions you can take on inevitability.
>
>  1. Passive ignorance.
>  2. Futile resistance.
>  3. Exploitation.
>
>  Sony is moving from Position 1 to Position 2. eBay is in Position 3."
>
>  --- Douglas Crockford, CTO Communities.com
>
> Comments? Any EQ guys wanna share some thoughts? :-)

I have played EQ, but it wasn't really my cup of tea. AC is my game of choice in
the little time I spend playing anymore.

Due to lack of possible snippage, I'll make my comments brief.

Actually, if you read the linked article, eBay's position completely obviates
the idea of inevitability. They are quite likely to happily stop posting
character and item sales.

As for my feelings about this: Yes, it *is* inevitable, but it's also desirable
to keep the phenomenon at a low, manageable level. Sure the sales will still
happen, but they will happen on a MUCH smaller scale and won't be as public. A
large part of the issue here is image-management. EQ's reputation is actively
tarnished when it becomes known as a place you can make real money by harvesting
goods and characters. I say this, yet I don't particularly like the world design
or game design of EQ, but I think it's very much imperative to them to manage
this issue to the extent they can. Banning sale on auction sites is perfectly
reasonable and QUITE achievable.

-Zak Jarvis
 http://www.voidmonster.com






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