Business And Economy Archive
Thread: eBay Jedi: a College Report
Message Edited by Leezeldafuz on 02-21-2005 10:27 PM
Duragoth wrote:
Are you asking us to do your college report?
I was going to do the same thing for a Econ class, but was told that a report on E-trade stock sales.
No. I'm merely asking for opinions, and if you know offhand of any resources that might be of assistance (besides eBay, somebody already tried that one. /rolleyes
), they would be appreciated.
Second: Based on this inital recommendation, how do you propose to implement it, and what effects both positive and negative will this have on the game itself.
Third: The root question in all of this is how are third party companies (ebay, credit\item sellers) able to provide this service. Obviously there is a market for this stuff or else it would not be happening to the extent that we see it. So should SOE take the "high road" and continue to "ignore" this aspect of the game and continue to allow these third party transactions to take place or should they try to get into the market themselves by implementing an auction system inside the game.
This is just an example, but it is important to go into a situation that you will be writing about with as many question and specific concepts as possible. That way you know what to look for, and will in the long run make writing this paper much easier.
Just my 2 cents, and good luck with the paper.
Railean wrote:
Well first what is going to be your recommendation? I think that it is important to first set out a specific goal. If it changes in the end or you were wrong, then all the better, it gives you more material to write about.
Second: Based on this inital recommendation, how do you propose to implement it, and what effects both positive and negative will this have on the game itself.
Third: The root question in all of this is how are third party companies (ebay, credit\item sellers) able to provide this service. Obviously there is a market for this stuff or else it would not be happening to the extent that we see it. So should SOE take the "high road" and continue to "ignore" this aspect of the game and continue to allow these third party transactions to take place or should they try to get into the market themselves by implementing an auction system inside the game.
This is just an example, but it is important to go into a situation that you will be writing about with as many question and specific concepts as possible. That way you know what to look for, and will in the long run make writing this paper much easier.
Just my 2 cents, and good luck with the paper.
Message Edited by Cyprus301 on 02-21-2005 10:08 PM
In loving memory of TIGGS. God Bless, and Good Luck!SOE may claim (and perhaps rightly so) that it should have control over how their intellectual property is used, but that is not an IP issue. Controlling the use of our product is an altogether more nebulous issue. For a "real world" example, we can look to the publishing industry: Used book sales seriously curtail the profitability of publishing houses. It is a major factor in the obscene prices on textbooks and the frequent editioning of the very same material. Despite the damage inflicted by this parasitic (depending on your point of view) industry why is it still allowed to continue? Could not a publishing house develop a type of EULA and explicitly prohibit the resale of used books? I suspect that if it was a defensible position it would have occured a while ago.
This brings us the the crux of the E-baying issue. For some reason, consumers of computer hardware and software have accepted that the things we purchase are not our own. Just because it runs on our computer we can't exchange a faulty (or ill-conceived) product, we accept increasingly tyrannical and invasive EULAs; these are things we would never accept when buying a cup of coffee, or a stove or a car.
I don't know how I feel about this issue, but I hope that my 2 cents will encourage more discussion along these lines.
First my personal Resetgun's-communism-socialism-controlthesis 
from external markets:
a) It is not fun to play with high-level noobs, who don't know how to walk from point A to point B.
b) Because it will raise item prices in player economy - and thus I need to do more "work" to buy items from other players.
c) Those who have enough money in real life - also have enough money in virtual life... and those who don't have enough money in real life... (I don't want to be poor in virtual life - it should be escape from reality.)
d) High level and other high level itemsarestatus symbols that should be earned, not something that you can buy from nearest eBay reseller.
What shouldSOEdo to make Resetgun's party happy?
- Update EULA so that others than lawyers understand what is allowed and what is not (make it much shorter...).
- Credit and item trading
- Buy credits and items from external markets (for example IGE and eBay)
- Ban permamentally sellers accounts
- Trace banned accounts large and repeative money or item transfer(s), and permamentally ban collaborators
- Publish weekly how many accounts have banned (no names given)
- Account trading
- Monitor credit card information
- If credit card holder's name and location is changed ban player permamentally, because of account trading.
- Publish weekly how many acounts have banned (no names given)
Then second "narcissist-invidualism"thesis counter attacking against Resetgun's arguments:
a) You have that even when they aren't account buyers.
b)If alot of it is sold. Prices go down. Saturation. Way the market works.
c) Who cares?
d) Some would say the same for wealth. But lets face it. Some get lucky, some get it inherited. Money is power. And power can almost get you everything.
What shouldSOEdo to make narcissist-invidualism party happy?
- Update EULA so that credit and item trading would be allowed
- Credit and item trading - do nothing
- Account trading: Implement service that allow people transfer characters to another account with a small fee.
Andfinally greedy-corporation/customer-safetythesis:
There is customers that are willingly to pay from virtual money. However currently this market is owned by third party corporations andinviduals. It is also risky for customer to buy from theseagents, because of possibility of scamming.
1. Update EULA so that only SOE can sell these virtual goods
2. Implement marketplace where SOE can sell credits, itemsand "pre-leveled" characters for customers. There couldalso be non-tradable items that are only available for customers here.
3. Close markets from 3rd party corporations and inviduals. Use ban stick to anything suspicious.
Syntehesis: Realistic SOE viewpoint
- If youimplement Resetgun's-communis-socialism-control partysuggestions you will lose customers, because some people don't want to grind and earn their status ingame. Also it would cost money to implement suggestions (you need budget to buy items/credits/accounts and hire at least one person to enforce rules).
- If you follow narcissist-invidualism suggestions you will lose customers from Resetgun's-communism-socialism-control party (you might actually lose more people, bacause Resetgun's party members are well know fanatics). Character transfer service might bring some income, but not enough to compensate.
- If you do greedy-corporation/customer-safety suggestion, you will lose players from both parties and you would get bad publicity from both parties. You would get some income from services, but most likely you would lose more. Also montly subscription payment would come under mutiny.
Leezeldafuz wrote:
I'm doing itwith the context of me working for SOE and giving a recommendation on what they should do about the many auctions and other trading of SWG items (accounts, credits, etc.)
"People with money are often content with the status quo."
Do nothing. All choices seem to lead losing customers, money and bad publicity. Deny existency of the problem. Deny existence of possible research papers from subjects. Do not give any information to public.
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