It seems that economies based on money tend to go in certain ways. This can be seen in online games where players need to have money to buy stuff. Due to scarcity, some of the rarer and more desirable items will cost more. Of course, players would like to have that item. Often, those prices are so steep that no regular player would typically have that much money on them. What do they do? They wind up killing monsters to get money, or items that can be sold for money.
Strangely enough, that is precisely what many people are doing. Most people have real goods they wish to purchase, and go out there to earn money so they can purchase it. It's like farming for money, except in a non-game context.
Then some would ask why this is so, since playing games is fun and slaying monsters is not really work. Well...perhaps that is so for them. It would be like people getting paid for their hobbies. For most people, however? They do not work to gain skills (or "level up")...they're just repeatedly farming gold so they can buy the next best item...
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2 comments:
in-game advancements in equipment mirror real-life advancements in property i think. everybody loves to acquire more of them.
but i play ultima online basically so that i can play together with my friends in a fantasy setting. otherwise, hey, real money is easier, faster, and more valuable to make.
i actually inteprete "slaying monsters" as "slaying internal monesters"? so in the process people grow stronger.
hmm. but people are not stupid either. As they go up the money ladder, they'd increasingly realise the limitations of money. (like how you realise it sometime in the past most prob). ^__^
I used to play NEOPETS for 6 hours straight, just to earn money for the sake of earning money! then when I hit 30k in a day, there's no more kick, so I gave the account away!:)
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