[...] Why Have Gold Anyway?, Raph Koster suggests that transferable currency in online games is intended to foster a sense of [...]

[...] playing cards they hold in their hands? Wonder what Koster would say? Do these avatars have rights? Why have gold anyway? What about Malaby, Fairfield, Hunter and Lastowka? Should we also hear from Castronova, Consalvo [...]

[...] perspective. Raph had a good explanation on basically every issue in virtual world, including why gold exists in MMORPGs. [...]

[...] Koster’s Blog – Why Have Gold Anyway?. Raph thinks outside the box (as always), asking why these games have currency in the first [...]

[...] had an interesting article up on his site recently, and since work has been kicking my butt lately, I hadn’t really had time to [...]

…picture starting in a prehistoric sort of world, and player achievement gradually raising the level of technology.

SWG had this feel for a short while after launch, as the first few generations of crafting tools/stations came about and people learned about resource values, gained experimentation points, etc. Ultimately it blew beyond its intended scale, but I suspect that is another symptom of such an early release (and large scale lot-swap agreements).

I hate level limits on gear.

I agree with Ramsay here in not liking levels in general. I’ll also take ay I’m not fond of gear with character stat mods all over it. There should be a decent blend of character abilities and weapon abilities, each with mods affecting their own realms. Weapon mods that affect damage or speed, armor with greater protection or mobility vs. character mods that affect strength and intelligence. It seems rather limiting to tie appearance and stat balance together, the result being even less personalization and uniqueness. I’m of the opinion that your character’s strengths and weaknesses should be independent of the gear being used. I also prefer crafted goods over looted (though perhaps with looted sub-components/recipes offering slightly better end products to encourage crafter/adventurer interdependencies). After all, my definition of endgame is when you are basically done ‘progressing’ from a stat mod perspective and can now go out and make an impact on the game world as a relatively equal participant. This model of constantly introducing another mountain of levels and gear to ‘keep up with the Joneses’ is getting stale, I fight 40+ hours a week to stay afloat in real life. I don’t need to pay $15/month for the virtual equivalent of that.

Thus ends my ranting on a week-old subject :9.

(by the way, as I’m writing this, I can’t help but notice the gold selling website on the bottom banner, grrr)

[...] a nice article by Raph K on altruism and No Trade items. Worth a read:-http://www.raphkoster.com/2007/08/2…yway/#more-1334 Your browser does not support iframes. Iframes are a requirement to see a user’s [...]

In a game, though, we rely on things being a bit hard. That’s where the fun comes from: overcoming challenges.

Of course, what’s missing from this is that, in the real world, there is a perpetual source of new challenges intrinsic in the complexity of the universe. That complexity is missing from MUD/MMOs: you simply do not see technological progress, and so the world is capped whether explicitly by levels or not.

And I really do mean technological progress. That is, progress resulting from the application of scientific knowledge. That is, knowledge gained through repetition and reenactment of phenomena. Or in our language, emergent knowledge. Not emergent behavior. Emergent knowledge.

But I guess you can’t. Because it’s a game, and a game can be mastered. It’s, *twists mouth*, a semi-bounded domain of contrived contingency.

[...] Have Gold Anyway? – Raph Koster  Monday, August 20, 2007, 08:10 PM – - MMOs I miss being able to write theory stuff like this. I've been working too god damned much between one thing and the next. Maybe on my ride to and [...]