Pantzike
Scout
What you're saying is something that can be done, right now. There is a player that sells tea in our chapter. If I rolled in and just started giving away tea I would undercut this person, and this person's character... in the system that exists now. The only difference in what I propose is that the tea salesman would still have tea tags that he could Merchant back at cost or sell after dealing with the business interloper.
I'm going to quote Bryan here as to why this is an issue, he summed it up pretty nicely. I understand that you don't see it as such, but some people do. Can you at least see where we're coming from?
First... it's not only something that can be done, it sadly is being done. I realized as I typed it my PC does it. I'd been freely giving away tea for quite some time, but a new tavern keeper is in my town who also sells tea. They possibly sell a different sort of tea then the free tea that I give away, but the fact remains I'm undercutting their business... I'm not doing it maliciously, I've been giving away free tea longer (many years) than I believe that Tavern keep pc has existed.
I've read those points before, but will answer them here...
1) If you see $1 for a sword tag is the same as a brownie for 2 silver, then we're going to have to agree to disagree on the whole thing. I see it as turning OOG money into a non game item, brining it to game and adding to the game experience by exchanging it for other non game items OR game items, depending on the agreement I make with another player. If you don't see it that way too... oh well, to each their own.
2) If chapters gave out gobbies and rewards at the same rate that other players handed over coin for the same items then more would be going to the chapters, fact is they don't. Also, you're removing the fun some players get being the merchant IG as opposed to dropping off a case of water and getting a sword tag behind the scenes.
3) Stealabiltiy. I've covered this one to death already, but the cliff notes is: please keep your hands to my Game items only. I agree that having non-game-items creates an currency of sorts of non game items... it's part of the compromise I discussed here.
4) Sounds like we both agree people trading service for IG items is A-OK. Good times.
As he said our IG economy is far from perfect... as long as I can turn OOG money into gobbies of any form, and turn those gobbies into IG advantage, there will be this problem... punishing people who add to the IG environment by providing sales of food and baubles is not in MY idea of the game I want to play and support.
I TOTALLY see where you're coming from. In fact there have been times that I agreed with you. Until I realized that cash for gobbies keeps games afloat. Once I saw that, and saw the benefits our kind benefactors were getting for supporting our game, I stopped caring as much about that side of it. I've been attending games for over 12 years. I think the ones with merchants going around selling wares for coin have a better IG atmosphere then those that don't. I don't always buy, in fact I can be pretty stingy with my IG coin (far more stingy then I am with my OOG dollars) but I like the fact that people are there adding to my game experience. Also, most games don't provide "lunch" just breakfast and dinner, if that's even provided at all, so those players providing my lunch for IG coin, save me the trouble of coming up with a way to get my own food. It also helped me out when I was a less rich college student and person just out of college. It was more of a hardship to buy real food then use fake money to get the same food from others. Incidental bonus, but still one.
To summarize, I do see your side, I also happen to disagree with it (explained here and also above). The game system we use is a compromise. I'd rather no theft, some people like ALL THEFT OF ALL THINGS, and we land somewhere in between. Call it a compromise and its been working great for the decade+ I've been playing.