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MMO Creators Follow The Virtual Money Trail
Thanks to Wired News for its article discussing the dysfunctional economies of massively multiplayer games. The piece references an economic analysis by Raph Koster regarding Star Wars Galaxies, in which he mentions the game "...uses what is called a faucet-drain economy. You can visualize a spigot of cash coming into the game, a big ol' sink where the money sloshes around, and a set of drains where the money goes out the bottom." Virtual economist Edward Castronova also comments, concerned about the proletariat and the bourgeoisie: "The wealth distribution is not just unequal, it is incredibly unequal... Raph says it is similar to the distribution of wealth in (real-life) economies, which it is, but even the worst robber-baron economies were not this bad." In the end, though, Koster argues: "You don't get to ignore the economy, but absolutely, the goal is the fun, not Berkshire Hathaway."
I refer to your latest discharge of plebeian verbiage; in which, you have proven, once again, that there is no such thing as unutterable nonsense. Dullard, do yourself and everyone else a favor: disconnect your computer from the Internet.
If your brain matter was axle grease, there wouldn't be enough in your head to grease the dynamo on a lightening bug's ass. Why is it that the people with the smallest minds always have the biggest mouths? You've got a big hole in your head, now shut it. When you are at a loss for words, your loss is our gain. As Abba Eban so aptly said: "His ignorance is encyclopedic."
What possessed you to think that you were capable of being entertaining or interesting to read? If you called the Suicide Hotline, they'd say: "Go ahead. Do it!" Maybe you wouldn't be such a Jerk-In-The-Box if you weren't so dumb that even blondes tell jokes about you; if your weren't so fat that you make sumo wrestlers look anorexic, or if you didn't have a face that makes your dentist treat you by mail-order. Nah, of course you would.
In future, wake up the dozy peglegged hamster operating that wheel-powered brain of yours before you start typing.
Puzzle Pirates had potential, but right now the vast majority of interesting-things-to-do is restricted to the few players who have been granted monopolies. One of the moderators of the Game Design forums deletes posts and locks threads in order to prevent discussion of alternative designs that would make the game more enjoyable for newcomers. Every couple of weeks you discover another undocumented bias. Stay away.