What does the future hold?

On October 29th, 1929, Wall Street was shocked by a complete collapse of prices on the stock market. The plunge continued for a full month, and thus began the world-wide Great Depression.

This directly led to the rise of extremism throughout Europe, with fascist groups taking over in Spain, Germany, and Italy. It also was responsible for the military coup that took control of Japan.

The rise of extremism in various countries eventually resulted in World War II.

Now we have the so-called "Great Recession". It certainly has created a great deal of unrest, some of which is dangerously reminiscent of the past. Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, gave a very stark warning about the potential for the democracies of Greece, Spain, and Portugal to collapse under the current economic strain.

Revolution can occur when people lose faith in their government. Kinda like what happened in Okaloosa County, Florida. The county commissioners voted to take action without regard to the red-tape filled chain of command that exists through state and federal governments. They're saying that the government isn't working; it is neither efficient nor effective for their needs. And they're willing to go to jail, if that's what it takes.

I wonder if this isn't an isolated case. It certainly seems like a lot of people, all around the world, are fed up with what they see as government that just doesn't work.

May we live in interesting times, indeed.

Corporate Currencies

Well, my unannounced New Year's hiatus is over. I've relocated to my old college town to finish up a degree, and am feeling pretty glad to finally be getting this over with.

A while back, I saw an article on Kotaku about yet another corporate currency, this time Sony's Crysta. Many companies have switched to this model of artificial currencies that you first buy with your real money, and then later spend on games. I believe that by removing real currency one step from your actual purchases, they hope that you are distanced from what you're paying and they can sell you more stuff at a more expensive price.

In my opinion, this is never a good thing for the consumer, and never done with the consumer's interest in mind. I would choose to not buy a game rather than be forced to go through the process of dealing with one of these bullshit corporate currencies.

My great grandfather was a coal miner in the Appalachian Mountains. He grew up working in the coal camps, with his family living in company housing. His pay came in company script, which was not real currency, and could only be spent in the company store. Naturally, the company store was making a profit by price gouging, and this whole twisted system was designed to keep the workers basically as slaves.

An extreme example, yes, but this to me is a cautionary tale of how anytime we willingly embrace the idea of a corporate currency, or the idea that a corporation has the regular peoples' interests at heart, we are toying with fire.

What can we as consumers do, though? I'm not a huge console gamer, as I've said before. As a result, I don't know how much of a stranglehold Microsoft has on you with the 360. I do know that if I have to buy Microsoft Points in order to fully enjoy the 360, I never will purchase one.

What do you think? Do you use corporate currencies regularly? What is your experience with the whole situation?

Free Market Capitalist or Artificial Inflation Bandito?

Many times, you can find moral grey areas and controversial topics within the relatively open worlds of MMORPGs. Kill or spawn stealing, corpse camping, and ganking come readily to mind. Once upon a time, I was in a tightly-knit Everquest guild, and one of our members started a rant on the guild forums about price gougers.

It was interesting to read his point of view on the subject, since I had actually quit playing the level grinding aspect of EQ in favor of a minigame I had invented for myself. My goal was wealth, albeit the kind represented by pixels on a computer screen rather than something that could be exchanged for real-life items.

It was simple, really: I did my best to buy low and sell high. If I saw an item that I knew to be under-priced, I would scoop it up! To me, it only made sense to make the most of the opportunities that I blundered upon, and if I was willing to risk the currency to purchase an item in the first place then I deserved the profit I could potentially make if I later sold it for more.

Yes. What I'm trying to say is that I was one of the dirtiest, most a-moral creatures to ever dwell in the MMORPG genre. I was a reseller.

Honestly, though I can understand where the average player comes from when they rant against my ilk, I still see nothing fundamentally wrong with the practice. EQ had a free market economy, and I was just following the basic idea of supply and demand. The rarer an item is, the more someone is willing to pay for it, and therefore the higher its perceived worth.

If I am familiar with the current market value of an item, then it is my prerogative to purchase and resell it.

...right?

Am I just rationalizing my actions? Am I deluding myself into thinking my dark economagic is legitimate? What is your opinion on the practice of reselling in MMORPGs?