Topic

Is it legal to sell an imbued script?

This is something I've been wondering about. Since a token is purchased with real money, the sale of an imbued script turns really money into currants, which I understand is counter to TS's goals for the fame. I am sure no one really cares about one imbued script sale here and there, but what if one individual started selling many imbued scripts, either at auction or through an informal Marketplace business?

I am not trying to get anyone in trouble here, I don't know of any cases of this happening. I am just wondering.

Posted 11 months ago by jello's landscaping Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • Interesting thought, there is a theoretical possibility for mixing RL cash with the game economy.

    But probably there is not a big market for imbued scripts so I doubt you could sell enough to get rich.
    (Even for a high level player it is not that costly to buy food corresponding to the energy cost of a tp. I guess the current value of a token is slightly lower than an awesome stew?)
    Posted 11 months ago by Vic Fontaine Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I would assume it's fine because it's really a money sink. You may earn lots of currants from selling inbued scripts but you're also losing a lot of real life money. And since the future owner of the script won't be able to turn it back into real life money, no one benefits in real life.

    ETA: Which really doesn't address the whole real money = currants thing, but I always assumed (perhaps wrongly) that it was getting money OUT of the game (a la Second Life) that was frowned on.
    Posted 11 months ago by Nyx Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I agree with Nyx, and you can add the fact that an imbued tp script is not equivalent to a normal token: you can only teleport to a special place, and not anywhere...

    I don't think there will be problems about that (well, I hope not).
    Posted 11 months ago by Sekhmet Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Nyx,

    It is also bringing real life money into the game that is a problem.

    TS has said over and over again that RL money will not ever buy you any game advantage.  
    Posted 11 months ago by WindBorn Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Thanks for the correction, Windborn. :)

    I suppose the only way to stop it would be to only allow TP scripts to be imbued with something like energy or the upcoming imagination instead.

    But then that would drive the prices up (as the creator would need food/whatever else to raise their energy/imagination levels), and since it's pretty easy to learn the TP skills it seems doubtful that there would be enough sales to justify trying to make serious currants out of TP scripts, tokens or no tokens.

    Maybe TP scripts should be restricted for use by those without TP skills or made into a special item (like when you gain one after helping with a project)?
    Posted 11 months ago by Nyx Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Is there much of a market for TP scripts right now, or is this more of a conversation about theoreticals and technicalities?
    Posted 11 months ago by Knitomaton Subscriber! | Permalink
  • It's possible to sell imbued scripts in the auction house afaik, so, I'd say yes!
    Posted 11 months ago by Shiromisa Kaya Subscriber! | Permalink
  • "Is there much of a market for TP scripts right now,"

    I sometimes clear out ones sitting in my inventory by selling them (for not very much),  they nearly always go. 

    Not imbued ones, but I imagine they'd go sharpish
    Posted 11 months ago by shhexy corin Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Especially if lots of people take up the "no eating" diet
    Posted 11 months ago by shhexy corin Subscriber! | Permalink
  • During street projects, I got two free imbued scripts for helping with the streets I worked on. So there are other ways to get imbued scripts other than using a token.
    Posted 11 months ago by Saiai Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'd say this is very theoretical. But if someone actually found a way to exploit this for converting between decent amounts of dollars and currants, I'm sure it would be nerfed.
    Posted 11 months ago by Vic Fontaine Subscriber! | Permalink
  • OK, real-world comparison mathematicals. 

    40 credits cost $3.  Thus, $0.075 per credit.
    It then takes 2 credits to get 1 token.  So, that's $0.15 per token.
    Then, you convert tokens to coupons... no wait, that's something else.
    It takes 1 token to make one imbued TP script.  Thus, a cost of $0.15 per Imbued Script (minus a whole lot of effort).
    Lastly, you have to then sell said TP script.  Say you made 1000 currants on the auction, for the sake of argument.  That means that you could make 20,000 currants with $3 of real-world cash, assuming the following:

    1). you actually can get 1000 currants per script
    2). you can produce, from nothing, a market for imbued TP scripts
    3). you can do all this without the log-watchers noticing (highly unlikely)

    So, I would argue that it would be highly inefficient to sell imbued TP scripts to make lots of currants using real-world currency.  It's just too darn easy to teleport with energy and an unimbued script (the in-game cost of which is, what, 10% of your daily energy?, which is, for me, less than an awesome stew at this point).

    Honestly, you'd be better off spending a couple hours feeding batterflies and selling 20,000 currants worth of guano on auction. ;-)

    That said, legally, you aren't really getting anything that can't be done in game already.  You can teleport with energy incredibly easily, you can use the original tokens you got to map-teleport beyond the base you get each day (assuming you learned enough skills), and you can imbue TP scripts for yourself, saving currants and/or energy.  So, if you can imbue TP scripts for yourself with your own money, why couldn't you do it for others?
    Posted 11 months ago by Grem Sketch Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Honestly I don't see it as much of an issue at all. The ones I've seen on auction go for 189 currants. Additionally, they disappear after being used. So really, it doesn't even leave a dent. I could make 189 currants in less than a minute by nibbling piggies. 
    Posted 11 months ago by Juria Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I would love it if we could imbue the scripts with energy instead of just with a token.  That way the person we give it to could use our energy. :3
    Posted 11 months ago by ♪♥~ Auren ~♥♪ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • The times that I did see imbued Teleportation Scripts in the auction house (not counting the scripts from street projects) they were going for ~500c and they were not snapped up immediately, so I don't think there's a large market for it considering that with Teleportation IV and V will get you free map teleports.
    Posted 11 months ago by Mal'akh Subscriber! | Permalink
  • The issue from a T&C perspective is probably more the other way.  Selling in-game items for real money would be a problem,  or paying someone real money to grind away for you, or something.  Giving Tiny Speck money to buy in-game items which you then swap for in-game currency much less so, I would have thought.  
    Posted 11 months ago by shhexy corin Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Shexycorin Yes, agreed -- but unlike a lot of games, TS *has* specifically stated that paying cash will never give you an in-game advantage over a non-subscriber (i.e., you can have special wardrobe items and extra teleport tokens, but you wouldn't be able to mine faster or jump higher or learn special subscriber-only skills.)

    It's kind of a squishy area as to whether imbued scripts are an "in-game advantage," but I don't think it's enough of an issue that it's necessarily worth worrying much about, particularly since the currants system is going to be overhauled when Imagination comes out, anyway :)
    Posted 11 months ago by Ashbet Subscriber! | Permalink