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Trust In Virtual Worlds
The Escapist's last issue for the year touches on the currency of Trust in Massively Multiplayer Games. With virtual-world currency gaining ever more value in the real world, in-game scams and lies can be deadly serious. When you give away that Trust, business can boom. From the article: "Their business plan is an ingenious one: Rather than engage in the wars that rage through alliance space, ISS has chosen to take a neutral stance, building a huge player-operated structure known as an 'outpost' that provides repair, refitting and marketing services to all comers. In a star system known simply as KDF-GY, ISS has established a little Switzerland in space, where pilots of rival corps and alliances can dock to do business, sell loot and kit out their battlecruisers for the next engagement. And according to Martin Wiinholt and Shayne Smart, the 30-something players behind Count TaSessine and Serenity Steele, respectively, business is good."
Microsoft enjoyed more than $12 billion in total tax breaks over the past five years. In fact, Microsoft actually paid no tax at all in 1999, despite $12.3 billion in reported U.S. profits. Microsoft's tax rate for the past two years was only 1.8 percent on $21.9 billion in pretax U.S. profits.
General Electric, America's most profitable corporation, reported $50.8 billion in U.S. profits over the past five years, but paid only 11.5 percent of that in federal income taxes. That low tax rate reflected almost $12 billion in corporate tax welfare for GE.
IBM reported $5.7 billion in U.S. profits in 2000, but paid only 3.4 percent of that in federal income taxes. In 1997, IBM reported $3.1 billion in U.S. profits, and instead of paying taxes, got an outright tax rebate. Over the past five years, IBM enjoyed a total of $4.7 billion in corporate tax welfare.
In the US, corporate taxes (state + federal) are about 40%! 40%!
Maybe you meant 4%, not 40%?
even more...
If big corporations actually paid 35 percent of their U.S. profits in federal income taxes, as the tax code ostensibly requires, corporate income taxes this year would total at least $308 billion. But actual corporate-tax payments this year are expected to be only $136 billion. In other words, this year (and next), for the first time since the early 1980S, corporate-tax loopholes will actually cost the U.S. Treasury more than the amount companies pay in income taxes.
Check out for more examples.
How about this?
The more you learn!
No, I don't trust in god. He'll have to pay up front, like everybody else.
I happened to read this article while glancing at the magazine rack in a bookstore, and found it a compelling read. If anything, all this publicity about scams/events in EVE would seem to attract players interested in the commercial aspects of MMORPGs, along with your occasional bad apple.
: www.mmodig.com/%3Fp%3D155&hl=en
Someone put scans up, and the site seems to have exceeded bandwidth. Hopefully this Google cache works for you:
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:ng1TNWjULLsJ
Enjoy!