RE: [MLUG] Re: linux game information...

[Mike Miller <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On Wed, 10 Oct 2007, Rick wrote:

> On Wed, 2007-10-10 at 12:25 -0500, Mike Miller wrote:
>
> > This is a really fascinating thing.  The game seems very attractive and 
> > interesting, but this means that it is an even greater danger to a 
> > person's real life.  Accomplishments in the virtual world are not real. 
> > The "career" you have there is not making you any money and it is 
> > probably not even developing you in a useful way for real life.
>
> I don't entirely agree with this statement. While discussing it with my
> wife, I explained that it is very much like any other hobby.
> 1. it takes time to "accomplish" goals (skills, conquering the universe,
> etc..)

But your skills might not have real-world uses and you haven't really 
conquered the universe, just the imaginary "virtual" universe.  Compare 
thiw with the hobby of making furniture or playing a musical instrument.


> 2. it costs money, which I'm willing to pay because I acquire some
> happiness from it

Happiness is good!


> 3. you "build" or "acquire" things that can be lost

But they don't exist.  Compare with the hobby of making wooden furniture.


> 4. there will be occasion that I'm right in the middle of something that
> walking away from will cause me to be very unhappy

Of coures this is a reason not to play the game -- it interferes with 
other things.  So you need to be getting something out of the game to 
compensate for this loss.  Happiness is gained in playing but happiness 
also is lost because the game takes you away from other things.


> Like anything else, the in-game items have precisely as much value as 
> any other non-sentient thing, which is precisely what someone else will 
> pay for it. A battleship in Eve costs somewhere between 60-110 million 
> ISK. Making that much requires X amount of your time (2 or 3 hours for 
> me) and losing that battleship costs X amount more time to get another. 
> There's even a conversion rate from ISK to $ =)
>
> CCP, the makers of Eve, have actually hired a full-time economist to
> help support game economy.
> http://myeve.eve-online.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=481
>
> I don't know if he's worth his salt as an economist, but he certainly
> does put out some nifty graphs:
> http://myeve.eve-online.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=498

So players might learn some economic principles by playing Eve.

Mike

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