[MUD-Dev] BIZ: Ban selling of in-game items for real cash?

[ghovs]

Yumiko wrote, among other things:

> Ban:

>   Item sellers are getting money that might otherwise be paid to
>   the server owner. In economics terms, they are directly
>   competing with the owner's donation business.

Buying a used car doesn't quite directly compete with the business
of car makers. As pointed out by vlad cole, it simply puts more
money into the pockets of people who buy new ones.

> Ban:

>   Selling of items can make players who don't have money to spend
>   like that feel like they are treated unfairly, and stop playing
>   as a result. (Well, accepting donations for items does this too,
>   but at least in that case the server owner gets money.)

People who directly oppose the use of real life money for
advancement within the game will oppose it regardless of if you're
selling it as a game owner or as a game player.

> Don't Ban:

>   A ban on such practices may cause players to resent the
>   administration for not letting them dispose of their in-game
>   assets as they see fit.

You can't effectively ban the practice unless you are put in a
position to monitor all financial transactions by all your players
and associate those with the item transfers in-game. The most a ban
would do is make people try to hide it from you. If you're still
annoyed at the resellers, offer the same for less money. Undercut
the resellers. That's more effective than trying to snoop on your
own players to find out who buys what where.

> Also, other than banning the *selling* of in-game items, what
> about banning the *buying* of in-game items? It may not make
> business sense to punish players for trying to buy in-game items,
> because they are the ones who might pay money to the server owner
> since they have proven themselves to be the kind of person willing
> to spend real money on in-game items.

This has exactly the same practical concerns as forbidding to
sell. Also consider that if people have put a bit of money into
something, they will be less likely to give up on it. More player
retention is good.

rgds,
ghovs
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