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Old 10-03-2007, 02:31 AM   #583
Threshold
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Join Date: Apr 2002
Home MUD: Threshold RPG
Posts: 1,260
Threshold will become famous soon enough
Re: The Non-Cold Non-Hard Non-Facts

As soon as money changes hands between two people, their relationship is forever altered. It is impossible for the exchange of money to have NO EFFECT on the relationship, and therefore on the game. This has nothing to do with admins being unscrupulous. This is about basic reality and the fact that money changing hands forever alters a relationship between people.

Well, I can't disagree with that. Admins on commercial games do indeed have a much larger and more powerful motivation to keep their players happy. That is one reason the overwhelming majority of gamers prefer commercial games.

Well, you can imagine insults where there are none if you want, but I am just being realistic. Furthermore, this is not a moral issue in any way, shape, or form.

To claim that Person A giving money to Person B does not change their relationship AT ALL is an unsupportable claim. To say that this will have NO EFFECT on their relationship is just naive to the extreme. As soon as money changes hands, the relationship changes and the way people treat each other changes. To argue otherwise is to be completely oblivious to reality and the world around us.

For that matter, things SHOULD change. We are talking about people who give you money (either as a gift, a purchase, or whatever) to keep your MUD running. Are you honestly going to tell me that has no effect on you at all? There is no gratitude for this whatsoever?

But circling around to the original point of the whole thread, a MUD that sells merchandise is no more or less free than a mud that sells swords. In both cases, the operator of the mud is receiving money as a direct consequence of running the mud. They are simply different business models and different ways to monetize their game.
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