First off, thanks Gitsmo for being clear and un-jerklike in your rebuttal. It is much appreciated. Now.. onto business
Gitsmo said:
Comparing Casinos to vendors is not the same thing. Although some peopel do msg in auciton they are looking to buy or trying to sell certain item, Wiz has instituted NPC vendors to do that and the spam really is quite mediocre at worst.
First off, I am not comparing casinos to vendors, but rather casino
spam to that the other types of player /auc
spam. Yes, NPC vendors do reduce the spam from selling, but as you acknowledged there still exists spam from selling stuff (ie. /auc WTS [item_link_1], [item_link_2], ...). By labeling this spam "mediocre at worst", I dont see how the addition of one casino (namely, Shurley's) contributes enough to drive the spam past the "mediocre" threshhold. In my opinion, a few lines in /auc of "Shurley's Casino blah blah blah roll 300, 170+ wins double!" is in every way equivalent to "WTS [item1] [item2] ....", if your view is that there is indeed a difference, please show how they are different, because I feel that they are not. And for those of you who are saying that casinos are going to pop up all over the place and create crazy spam, this is all speculation, and nonetheless could be related to many people "spamming" the same "WTS [item1] [item2] ..."
Gitsmo said:
In the case of buying or selling goods, two persons come to a mutually beneficial transaction arangement and the deal is done. Running /OOC casinos is a 1 way street. soeone wins and someone loses. The odds are on the house, always have been. Hell why would anyone run a casino at 50/50 odds right =) they dont. So what you have is a person leeching on the community and using OOC to do it. Casinos are a win/lose. Someone goes away happy someone goes away screwed. Sale of items is a win win in that both parties go away with something and it makes hte community a better place. 1 person gets cash and the other person gets an item they have bene after. Or better yet one person trades an item he/she can't use for an item they dearly want...Casinos are not a public service, they are a drain on the community. You have 1 winner and one loser. Is that what we are all trying to accomplish with this server? A community where we screw the next guy for as much as we can and call it "business"?
The bulk of my argument was in regards to the /auc spam, but this seems worthwhile to address. I agree that, in general, trading leaves everyone a winner, and casinos by nature have one winner (per roll). However, you cannot say for certain who that winner is. Of course, statistics show that the "house" will
always win in the short run - who would run a casino if this wasnt the case? On the other hand, people can, and do, win. Regardless of statistics, if you are lucky, you can win a large amount of cash almost instantaneously (assuming you bet big one one roll and win). Last night myself and a few others won over 500pp (some even 5k?) one one roll. Shurley congratulated us and paid up, then we stopped for the night
while we were ahead. Gambling is gambling, people win, people lose, and people have the
choice of participating or not. If you try to take the view of "it gives one winner/one loser" view, and try to discredit casinos as a result: what about PVP? Does it not also leave one winner and one loser? One person kills another, gets satisfaction and pride. The other dies and loses any buffs/permas he/she had, as well as probably feeling bad. Why would Wiz allow this? Because people have the
choice of going PVP or not - similar to how people have the choice of gambling or not.
Gitsmo said:
Here is the real evil of Casinos in my mind... Anyone can pretend to start casino.. You hand your cash to the guy before you roll.. BAM instantly logs and buh bye. Now if people are allowed to do OOC casinos, concidering accounts are free whats to stop the server from being inundated with scammers?
As previously stated, no one (who has half a brain) is going to gamble with a non-established player/casino. It doesnt take much to do a simple /ooc to check the reputation of a player. Given the relatively low population of the server, it isnt hard for someone to quickly gain a reputation as a legit (or non-legit) host. And also, its easier than ever for GM's (which are so immersed in the game) to catch any scammers and ban. If you stick to high level characters (or VERY well established ones) I can almost guarantee you wont get scammed, and if you do - I'm sure a GM will right the wrongs.
Regards,
Aeran
