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I find the last tid-bit to be extremely humorous. I'm grasping at straws, when you have to compare potential time to real money? Did you know that there's a 'cap' on how much money you could ever possess too? And that that cap is equal for everyone as well? It's the worth of all the currency on the planet earth at the given time and you have the exact same chance to get it all as you do to have 24 hours of time in the day to do as you wish with.
You have to get up pretty early in the morning, no pun intended, to fool someone into thinking that this is a valid line of reasoning.
As for your 'maybe you haven't been to college' and 'exhibiting some bitterness toward college students too' quips - I happen to be a university student presently. One that has to work to support himself. According to you, it's MY best interests that you're defending.
It's the lesser way to get credits, yes. And I also don't have to pay out of my pocket. You still don't seem to think that money has any value whatsoever to a person.
Using my credit card doesn't guarantee I'll be able to get credits either. What if there's an earthquake? Chances of that are the same as the credit market going dry.
Poor wording on my part, I suppose I should be more careful lest I be accused of lying. That should probably be "...I've yet to see another fighting system this capable of allowing skill to trump stats."
No, it isn't. You're right. This is the first time I've been chastised for it though. I do hope you manifest that attitude selectively.
Personal attacks aside, 'the experience' is a something that varies from player to player. Some players happen to dislike 'gold farming' or 'eq farming' or 'level farming' or whatever. The majority of MUDs out there are based very heavily on these activities. I hope you're not trying to bring RPIs into this again.
Spending money isn't a requirement for success in IRE games. That's been said so many times that the only way you could've missed it is by purposefully ignoring it.
Not everything takes time. You can avoid spending time doing something if there are alternative ways of doing it - i.e. paying money. You're right that the time = money comparison isn't completely accurate - it doesn't have to be because we're not trying to prove them completely equivalent. The only thing that matters about time and money in this discussion is that one can be substituted for the other in this case. It's irrelevant exactly how much money time translates to and vica versa.
The paying player doesn't get 'success'. Provided of course that you mean 'success' as in, winning fights, being respected in MUD society and or getting a high level. None of these things can be achieved through credits. If you have some home-cooked version of 'success' that differs from mine, do spell it out next time. As for "money>=time", I can only say that you haven't been short on personal time before if you believe this to be true. People spend huge amounts of money to be able to make up SOME free time for themselves. Think about it if you ever buy a plane ticket instead of a boat ticket.
So the entirety of this paragraph is based on the assumption that at some point, you might not be capable of purchasing credits for gold in some remote instance? When a possibility is too small, it's irrelevant. That's the case with your argument. The credit market has been steady and the gold return of quests and ratting has been just as steady for years now. Hypothetical situations are worthless in a discussion unless there's a reasonable probability of the occuring.
I do hope you have more to add next time you post, Jason, so I don't have to sift through recycled arguments and fresh insults.
PvP is fairly optional. It's a means of solving conflict, but it's not mandatory for your play. A vast amount of players don't PvP at all actually and concentrate on RP, trade and levelling. You can enjoy the game quite fully without PvPing at all.
The point is, would that information be more important potential players than any other? Do you need a complex system of color coding if that information is already easy enough to find on the site of the MUD in question?
There also appear to be negative preconceptions of what 'pay-for-perks' is so the suggested color coding would probably be negative for the MUD owners, I'm sure everyone is acutely aware of that already and I'm getting the feeling that it's the result desired by several posters (incidently owners of competing MUDs).
PvP is a big feature of IRE games. And you can compete without paying real money. So the point is moot. Pay-for-perks aren't pay-to-play any more than MUDs that accept donations are pay-to-play. (Donations are needed from the target audience - players.) You have ways to substitute the investment of money with an investment of time.
If the point didn't come accross after Spoke's post, I doubt it ever will.
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I think we've come to the point where we're discussing hypothetical situations with low probability - a sign that real arguments are exhausted. If anyone feels like adding something to the discussion which is realistic enough to be a probability, please do so. The real things I have supporting my statements are the facts that:
1) Players can play for free. (Meaning, paying money is optional.)
2) Players can get ahead without paying real money for credits.
These are facts. They are supported by evidence - i.e. people who have done it and are still doing it. Myself included in the first group.
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