Double-Edged Sword (Re: Heather Emeraldflame, Part 1)

Thank you, Heather Emeraldflame, for your insightful response to a previous blog post: KingsIsle's Smart Move.  Before anyone else moves on, please check it out here, so you can be on the same page when reading this; a lot of counter-examples may have already been covered there and not considered here.  Then, check out Heather's response.



I, too, wonder why there is a No Trade restriction on low level items such as Nightshade's Choker (gives 2 Weakness cards, -30% damage from target) and Troll Ear Pendant (gives 2 Guiding Light cards, +40% to next heal spell).  I may need some more time to think on it, but for now, my guess is that it prevents newbie players with newly created characters from advancing too easily without the help of someone who has access to Marleybone.  Anyone have any other explanations?

When it comes to the question of sharing items between family accounts, however, we must consider the pros and cons; that is, KingsIsle's pros and cons, as it is the Company that is the host, while we are the (paying, yes, I know, I know) guests.  But, for the sake of all wizards and witches across the Spiral, we'll begin with the benefits and (if any) the downsides for us, the Customers, of being able to send that beautifully designed Smogger or Krokotopian robe to our alternate accounts.

As Heather explained, with a trading function for those under Master Accounts, family players would be able to help one another out when someone has an item another needs.  Conclusively, fewer people are left in the dust to worry about having the best armor of their level tier by the time they reach 20, 25, 30,...etc.  Then less time is needed to shop or farm for gold, and the questing can continue for everyone, virtually seamlessly.  Everyone is happy, the balloons still have helium in them, and Ditto Wizard gets free rent for the month.

The disadvantage for Customers, when trading equipment to other accounts...well, if someone knows any reasons other than "they won't truly know the hardships of the economy as a low level player," please do share.

Now, time to venture forth into KingsIsle's perspective.  Well, on the bright side, I can safely say that if the Company were to implement a Trade feature for family accounts, then the game's Customer Support team, Professor Greyrose (along with any other admin actively staying in touch with the community), and fan sites could be alleviated from the constant barrage of emails and posts ranting and requesting for Wizard101 to take on a type of barter system.  Also, a large core of the customer base will be jumping for joy; a great response for any business.  But, to quote a recent message that Stephen Spiritcaller from Ravenwood Radio posted on Twitter, "all it takes is one case" before the developers regret jumping on the MMO economic bandwagon. 

As with the chat filters, our innovative and sneaky (we'd have to admit it, no matter if we're proud or ashamed of this) community members will eventually find a trick around the Family Account Trading function, and take advantage of it; in other words, someone is bound to abuse the feature.

Let's say one morning, Player A wakes up to find an update made by KingsIsle.  The game news reads, "We have now given our players access to trade among family members who are under the same Master Account!  Now you can send your hand-me-downs to a cousin, or pass along the Ascendant Staff to your grandma's new character!"

Absolutely wonderful, Player A thinks.  He logs onto a forum fan site, sends a private message out to a very trusted friend he met in-game, Player B, exclaiming his excitement for change, and asks her enthusiastically if she still has the Yeva Spiderkeeper helm for his school.  Player B acknowledges that the equipment is still in her Bank, but wonders aloud how they would be able to make an exchange.  Player A sits for a bit, and replies: "I will make a fake Master Account, and I will give you the password for it so you can add your account to it!"

He rushes off to the Wizard101 site, creates a new account, and selects the "Family Plan," and sets the new account as a Master.  He adds his existing account.  Then he sends the Master password off to his friend.  She adds her account. They do not save credit card information, so both players are still independent of each other.  In-game, Player A puts an item Player B asks for in the "Family Bank", and she puts Yeva Spiderkeeper's item in exchange.

How the system would work is of two possible ways:   

There is some live display feed for both players, similar to what one sees when trading Treasure Cards, that requires both accounts to be online at the same time so that there is a real-time mutual agreement when they accept the trade simultaneously.

Or, for families with only one computer to share between all players in the household, the "Family Bank" would be accessible by only one player at a time per Master Account.  That way, while Mommy and Daddy are sleeping in on Saturday, Little Johnny can scout out the "Family Bank" to see if his parents found anything he needed for his main or his five alternates.

For the sake of the Company's convenience, (and keep in mind, it is KingsIsle's intention for only families to use this feature), we will assume that Family Trading is based on the latter, where one person at a time will have access to the Bank, but at least Little Johnny could leave something (which his parents found) he didn't need for his older sister Melissa who is currently in her morning Chemistry 101 class hundreds of miles away.  Then when he goes off to school, and she returns to her dorm at noon, she can move that item to her inventory.

Because Player A and Player B are close friends in-game, they have a successful and righteous transaction.  Okay, but how does this hurt KingsIsle?  Well, while it doesn't violate the Terms of Use Agreement, it does change the overall difficulty, which then strays away from the experience KingsIsle intended for their Customers to have.  If the Company has to balance the game out while accommodating our needs for an item exchange feature between family members, it could possibly lead to a reduction to the probabilities for drop rates.  The easier it becomes for a player to obtain an item that was supposed to be hard to find, the higher its rarity will be in a future update.  Or, it could lead to buffer enemies, which then extend the length of farm runs.

It's obvious to see where malicious abuse could come into play:  Player C and Player D are also great friends like A and B, but Player D is actually a two-faced individual.  After many, many months of friendship, how could Player C say no to taking advantage of Family Trade?  The deal goes down, Player C ships his item into "Family Bank," and--based on the second method of trading mentioned above--waits for Player D.

Player D now has some extremely nasty paths to take:  he could go to the website, change the Master password, and forever trap Player C's account under the fake Master.  In addition, Player D could change the Parental Controls on his victim, preventing C's attempt to remove the account, use open chat, or access other subscriber features.  Or, Player D mercifully would avoid adding insult to injury by following conventional scamming methods of taking the item and disappearing, and leaving Player C's account alone.  Either way, Player C loses, and decides to complain to KingsIsle despite the fact that he tried to abuse the system.  Then the Company would have to waste Customer Support time to investigate and ban both Player C and D's accounts, and risk losing at least one branch of revenue.  

Sure, it may not be much money that they're losing from just two former players, but multiply that case by a hundred.  That's at least $2,000 ($10 subscription fee x at least 2 abusive players x 100) in sales.   While it may be a great business approach for KI to cut more away from the producer-consumer barrier AND satisfy us by tending to our wishes, Heather (and other readers), the realistic results would only cut the Company back.

Let's drag ourselves out of thinking mode, shall we?  One point has been made, but the main response has yet to be completed (hence this being just Part 1).  There is another subject that was brought to our community's recent attention, and it is a topic we must explore in depth before I can come to a solid conclusion and provide insight.  It involves a type of internal control with customers that KingsIsle is now enforcing with action, and is something I have personal experience with.  However, let us save it for another day; anyone who has reached this far deserves a large smack on the back (oops, too hard?) and the knowledge that I wholeheartedly appreciate your time.

Happy hunting! 

P.S.  In response to a few requests, I have now opened access for anyone, with or without a Google account, to post their comments here.

KingsIsle's Smart Move

In-game and out-of-game, when we're focused on short-term satisfaction, we tend to overlook the beneficial results of  the restrictions that are placed on us.  When our parents chide us for wanting and "needing" the toy the kid next door has, step back and consider the act mother and/or father are/is doing, perhaps to purchase you that video game you've always-wanted-ever-since-two-weeks-ago around the holidays.  Although that may not necessarily be the true reason they refuse to quench your material-envy, it at least opens a window in that direction; you can always play the "remember when I was good and listened to you when you didn't want to buy me anything?" card.  (cue Cassandra G's illustrated Bambi eyes)

Or, consider the rules in school or sometimes work that demand "NO FOOD OR DRINKS (OR GUM) IN THIS ROOM!"  While our initial impression may involve thinking about how uptight or strict the owners of the building are, remember to realize that because of that rule, we're not limited to sitting in the chairs that were left empty because someone happened to spill their Banana Berry Jamba Juice on the seat and--by some mysterious, silent agreement between everyone else--lack the necessary sanitation.

So, what has KingsIsle done for players that most of us fail to notice right away?  And why are we primarily against this "beneficial" action in the first place...there's got to be a catch, right?  Right.  Improved qualities of life involve that wonderful Death spell we all hope our Necromancer allies have in their decks: sacrifice.  In other words, to get something, you've got to give something, regardless of how much control we have over what's in the transaction in the case of Wizard101.  Let's look at the lack of a trade function for items between different accounts.

Consider what is distinctly missing from Wizard101 that is annoyingly present in a lot of other MMORPGs, in terms of the game economy.  Spam bots.  Buy/Trade/Sell spamming.  "Shopkeeper" mode (being AFK for hours upon hours, congesting up servers, with rip-off prices on display).  Farm bots.  Chaotic inflation of prices of items due to the spontaneous reaction of supply and demand in a virtual world.  Most of these, if not all, would be present in Wizard101 if given the chance, especially in our era of instant gratification.  A lot of people would not take the time to learn the game thoroughly via farming, but would rather purchase their Grand armor to create a false sense of accomplishment.  As a result, because these hasty players failed to give any decent farming time, they'll have to rely on a future purchase should they create an alternate that will also don Level 50 gear. 

Alright, but I've spent countless months, literally, trying to farm for this super special awesome fizzlestickin' item...and I still can't get it...can I justify for a merchant system now??  Keep in mind how drops work.  Everyone has the same chance at a specific loot, but that doesn't mean you will have the same outcome as others.  Every time loot is dropped, it is a completely separate event from the last and the next; not getting an item in Farm #1 is not going to increase or decrease your chances for getting that item in Farm #2.  That said, players will have different results than one another, and thus rarity of an item will vary from 1:1 odds to 1:1,000,000,000 in terms of perspective.  Here's the point:  with you in desperate demand for your item, anyone else who has it could fix the prices against your favor.  And exactly how much do you think that item should be worth?  Remember, because of different witnessed and experienced drop rates, you're going to find yourself in quite a lot of disputes over the item's value.

Speaking of fixed prices, imagine what would happen to KingsIsle's Crown prices.  If trading equipment was allowed, then the pool of fully geared Grandmasters would have little incentive to make purchases.  That then will lead to a revision of stats on Crown armor to the point of obvious imbalance, which would only lead to seemingly unfair spikes in Crown values.  Then we are facing a game that has unattractively become based on who can spend the most to obtain the best gear.  We can try to make the argument that the Company, as of today, is already a money monger, but if you step back a bit, you may see the bigger picture here:

Going back to what Wizard101 isn't riddled with, due to the lack of an exchange function, let us say that those game economy cliches do become a part of the game.  To keep the integrity and reputation as a family-friendly MMO, the Company would have more expenses to cover than necessary.  Wage expense, and hand-in-hand with that: tax expense, would increase as KingsIsle tries to survive as a business AND satisfy our endless demands, by placing some employees on a scam and spam watch.  Higher operating expenses (or the costs a business faces when carrying out their mission statement) would mean raised pricing models.  Instead of the standard $10/month base subscription fee, we could be facing an average extra $60 annually.

One of the reasons why I enjoy the game is because we don't have that unnecessary distraction of worrying about biting off on the wrong end of the stick in a transaction with another player.  Moreover, it's a nice feeling knowing that almost any, if not all, avatar running around in our game is actually played by a human, as opposed to some fancy macro program.  The begging and scamming is reduced to, interestingly enough, "Wings for Treasure Cards"; when I first played, it used to be "Mount for Treasure Cards."  Heck, just seeing the way other players behave when it comes to trading items that we can obtain for free, craft, and buy with Gold or Crowns, my wish for Wizard101 parallels that of Jester's from Wizard101Central:

... When items are trade able and have a real dollar value, scams are RAMPANT. Cheating, (like I did) becomes the norm. Over powered characters (like mine) dominate(d) the game. People are out for blood. Because items have such value and are trade able, people found ways to hack the items and trade those UBER hacked items for untold amounts of money. Some people made millions.


It was/is a hostile environment for kids.


Personally, I hope Wizard101 stays the innocent game it is now. Once items become trade able, the game loses it's innocence and becomes a hostile place. I *think* the developers know this, as they are no strangers to MMOs.

Regardless if KingsIsle did consider the consequences thoroughly of allowing players to trade equipment or if they simply just left the system alone out of a fluke, it's unavoidable to say that they've done a great job thus far.

Though, this topic is truly volatile, and I welcome any arguments that support the side of why trading should be incorporated into the game.   I admit it would be nice to have another source of income and save time on revisiting Briskbreeze for the rings, but I can't rid that cliche: be careful what you wish for.

Thanks again for your time!

Happy hunting~