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In another , I attempted to price "sweat equity" in MUDs, and never got a straight answer from IRE. The number I was looking for was the conversion rate from money to time.
In other words, Hajamin toes the IRE party line and mentions that you can always write areas, essays, helpfiles, and such for credits. In some of those areas, you're essentially working for the company-- you put in X hours of work, and they pay you. The question is, is it worth it?
I was able to grab some numbers from another game that's much more open about how they reimburse. In that game, if I wanted 3 in-game currency units, I could either do work that would take about an hour, or I could pay around $2.
Now, the heart of the pay-for-perks model is forcing people into that decision. IRE has described their game as a place where "3/4 of our sales are driven by PvP". So, let's say I want to compete with Daedroth's character, the dirty fiend. (Could be a fight, but really could be anything credits can effect.) He knows I'm coming, so he drops $20 on enhancing a key skill. That's a pretty modest amount of money as an isolated incident.
Now, I have the following options:
1) Compete at a disadvantage.
2) Drop $20 just like Daedroth did.
3) Spend 10 full hours cranking out essays, area work, etc.
4) Decline to compete and find poorer targets.
10 hours? That might be my gaming time for a week. The real choices are #1, #2, and #4. And if Daedroth spends more than $20, #1 becomes increasingly impossible. (If all that money didn't buy him victory, why would he spend it?)
It's an arms race. I can't beat Daedroth unless I spend like he does, or invest an unreasonable quantity of time. The system is designed to create this result. Pay, or be a second-class citizen.
And that's the difference between pay-for-perks and the other models (flat fee, or free). It's a tilted playing field and always will be. Some people like that sort of thing, and all we're asking for is some honest labeling of it.
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