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A bank, of sorts
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Post by
Firallon
I was cruising the internet this fine evening, and I ran across
this article
over at cracked.com. Theres some interesting pieces about
Wow
over there, but the piece I will be referring to, is the last one, regarding EVE Online. Essentially it made me wonder if it could be profitable to open up a player run bank guild, offering interest on deposits, and charging it on loans. Would the community make use of such a feature were it an option? If not, what kind of insurance could a potential banker provide to make it useful to you? I'd also like to note, that the whole scamming thing, that just pissed me off, as I've had this idea for awhile now, and I was hoping the gaming public would be open to it.
Post by
Adamsm
Way too easy to abuse.
Post by
Jubilee
I don't think there's anyway to enforce the contract though. It's not like you can send them to wow-jail!
Post by
Nipah
I don't think there's anyway to enforce the contract though. It's not like you can send them to wow-jail!
... maybe they can add that to patch 4.3.
Toss all the gold selling accounts into there and let them bang their heads against a 3x3 room until the account is recovered.
Post by
Squishalot
Check out any articles about the Ponzi scam in Second Life.
e.g.
http://www.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/news/2007/08/virtual_bank
WoW gold may not have the same transferrability into real world money, but the principles are the same - it will eventually collapse without sufficient regulations.
Post by
Firallon
That's an interesting article Squish, and it happens to be a topic I'd like to hear about from Blizzard. Maybe I just spend too much time in game, or I take making in game currency entirely too seriously, but I'd love to see Warcraft contracts making things like the bank idea not only feasible, but insured and contracted (if the proprietor breaks the contract, they get banned, and the investors get their principle back, minus any interest they may have accrued.) I dunno, maybe I'm the only one who thinks running a running a business is what I want to do in my spare time.
Post by
Pwntiff
Without it being strictly regulated, it will be abused far more than it would be used well. It sounds like a good idea, but I don't expect the pros to outweigh the cons.
Post by
Squishalot
Insured and contracted isn't really going to help that much.
Consider the following:
1. I create an account and set up a WoW Bank.
2. I start taking deposits from people - I amass 1,000,000 gold in my WoW Bank in deposits.
3. I lend out money from my WoW Bank another account, who then goes off and buys mounts, gear, vials, etc. etc. The gold spent on these items and materials is then spent on more items and materials, and so forth.
4. People ask me to repay their deposits. I don't have any cash, so my bank goes bankrupt. This account is then banned. People receive their deposits because it's been insured. Alternatively, my bank makes a claim on the other account, receives the insurance gold and the other account is banned.
You now have a situation where the original person has their gold back, but the same amount of gold has been laundered through the WoW landscape and items created from vendor purchases (or inflation in the value of existing items). How are you going to undo the impact of the dodgy loans? Essentially, for the price of a banned account (i.e. account costs + subscription for the month), you get to generate as much gold as you can launder through your Ponzi scheme before people want their money back.(##RESPBREAK##)8##DELIM##Squishalot##DELIM##
Post by
Firallon
People seem a lot less interested in the idea then I had hoped. Blame Bernie Madoff and such for making new financial institutions such dodgy business. Perhaps there are workarounds for the laundering problems, you need to be on the server a set period of time, etc. so a new account just become a bank, and launder money like Squishalot pointed out, but I'm sure for every potential problem, I could come up with a solution. The idea is a decent one, but it definitely needs polishing.
Post by
kemppy
instead why not implement like what they have with guild gold(x% is generated and goes into the guild bank) but make it out of your pocket so when you take a loan each time you get any gold of any kind, be it via mail, or randoms or what ever, x amount is taken from that and sent to the WoW bank, of course this means either blizz would run it, or like a set amount of people could regester it as a bank of the realm
Post by
Squishalot
People seem a lot less interested in the idea then I had hoped. Blame Bernie Madoff and such for making new financial institutions such dodgy business. Perhaps there are workarounds for the laundering problems, you need to be on the server a set period of time, etc. so a new account just become a bank, and launder money like Squishalot pointed out, but I'm sure for every potential problem, I could come up with a solution. The idea is a decent one, but it definitely needs polishing.
The problem is, just like in real life, for every potential solution, the bad guys will come up with a new loophole to get around it. That's why tax laws are so complicated - because it's in peoples' interest to push the envelope.
It's not Bernie Madoff's fault, this sort of problem has been around for centuries. Even as far back as the 1700s, there were companies being set up that wouldn't even tell you what they did, but still had people buying and trading shares in them. (Raising funds for a company to " on an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is" - how dodgy is that?)
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