21 May 2005 at 12:51 - 15
When people stop a game they often give their money to one of the friends they made online, so this might actually make things worse.
I thought the vanity items would be enough if people were competing with each other for them.
There could also be some unique object in the game (say different paintings, etc) that only drop once that can be collected.
The thing is that one wants to be able to stop too much money from colleting in the hands of people at the end game while not crippling lower level players with impossible prices or boring repair costs.
Here are some other things that people might spend money for that will not make them too powerful.
Guilds could perhaps buy portals that link to some area of the map that they indicate. The portals would be expensive, and need to be powered by sacrificing magic items or materials for the gate to be used. The gate can only port to public areas, and would purely be a method of expanding map travel to favorite hunting areas, etc.
I really think people would pay for and collect emotes.
Perhaps certain deeds combined with certain fees could even get your character mentioned in the in game dialogue to other players until the fame for the action wears off.
Perhaps some non-battle skills could be purchased just to show off---firing off pretty "fireworks" etc.
And, though a lot of people might not like this, there could simply be a tax placed on characters or guilds that have a particular amount of money but not on people below that. The money could be calculated for all of ones characters combined.
Perhaps buying and owning certain amounts of land or having a reputation that would require money as well as deeds would ear characters title that appear before their names. So that this is really shown off, guards may salute to characters of a high eough rank. NPCs could also show some sort of respect.
Perhaps certain character effects can be purchased---such as a potion that will make a characters eyes glow for a week, or make them appear taller or shorter.
Hair dye could also be added (which would fade over time) to allow a character to have unnatural colors for hair.
Perhaps enough money given to charity (which would just disappear in game terms) could earn one a temporary halo or some new actions.
Money and deeds could buy influence points which could then be spent to declair a holiday that is announced that might have some equal game effect for everybody.
While monuments wouldn't degrade, the choice spots to place them in could be rented and vary by price (and perhaps also require a particular guild rating). Guilds could also be rated by prestige, wealth, land, etc. Ideal places to show off your guilds power would be along the roads most often traversed.
Perhaps titles could give a player access to certain rooms that regular adventurers could not enter. Nice rooms, but rooms which do nothing in game terms.
These are just some suggestions, and they would all be relatively easy to create in programming terms (I don't know about how difficult it would be to design the new required graphics).
All together this is a bit of work, but the developers need to start working on putting some sort of plan like this into action before it is too late. Your points about how fast it is going to get worse are well taken.
One thing is clear, the fact that people care about dye and chracter alteration shows that people are interested in more than just power affecting skills and levels. If they are put into the game people WILL pay for these items/perks/abilities.
There could even be an Ascalon library that one could place a book in if he or she has paid enough money and accomplished enough in the game. The books could then be looked at by other players (subject to the normal chat filters). Some might contain personal histories for role players out there, and some might contain hints, some might be humorous, and some might just be boring.
Poppinjay
P.S.
These may seem sillier, but additionally (and this has nothign to do with money) I think that people would like to compete over other things than just level and guild ranking. There would be a world-wise ranking that is related to how much of the world one has explored. There could be unique items that are collected and one could have a collectors rank. There could be a ranking for a love life in the game, or the most xp gained without a death, greatest number of consecutive victories int he arena (I was in a group that had about 40 victories in a row!), or any number of other accomplishments.
That could be further down the road, but I think many players would invest time in some of these things. I am specifically thinking of the popular game Pirates! (although it wasn't an online game) in which one strove to maximize ones own standing in rank, love, pirate rating, etc. And there are some popular online games that give ratings for things like "most different kinds of foods eaten", etc.
If a casino is added then there could be some stats and ranking for the games within the game as well.
I know a lot of people might object that these later ideas don't seem to fit in with guilds battling each other, but the more people who continue to play the game after they have maxed out their characters, and the more people who log on for different reasons at different times, the more players there will ultimately be, the more justification for expansion packs, and the more reason for game updates and additions. Further the world would feel more alive and detailed. Some people might find themselves logging on later in the game just to play hours of a GW version of pokers (elements can fill in for the suits in a normal deck of cards). And, since the house takes a cut, this would in fact be a way to export even more money out of the game.
Please ignore all typos. I am exceedingly tired and do not want to reread this right now.
