[MUD-Dev] [News] Virtual goods--Oh, the controversy!

[John Buehler]

Matt Mihaly writes:
> On Sat, 10 Apr 2004, John Buehler wrote:

>> Suppose I could buy a checkmate in chess.  Or extra queens.  It
>> would alter the game of chess forever.  And to the minds of many
>> people, very much for the worse.  Chess is obviously not a
>> perfect analogue for level grind games, but for those who are
>> conscientiously going throught the level grind, it's close
>> enough.

> Suppose I could buy an extra queen at chess by sitting in front of
> the chess board performing a repetitive action over and over?
> That's pretty close to the DIKU model.

> Suppose you and I were in a bike race, and I won by hitching
> myself to a car to tow me along? That describes how many people
> 'level up', at least sometimes (ie big players who are their
> friends or guildmates out of the game giving them items, helping
> them get xp, etc). Having out-of-game friends helping is not any
> different from having out-of-game money helping.

Consider my statement in terms of what I thought was the original
question: why do people gripe about people buying levels
(characters) and items.  I spoke in an attempt to illustrate a
mindset that explains why people don't like it.  I'm not trying to
justify the ethic of the level grind.

JB
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