This is a bit of a strange suggestion, and definitely ties into two things we've seen in the BattleTech universe: Gambling and stock trading. Yes, the latter first made it's appearance as a mechanic in the game Crescent Hawks Inception, the first computer version of BattleTech.
Obviously, using NPC corporations might be problematic (unless the idea of brand-named weapons actually happens), but rather for the stock angle I'd love to see it related specifically to mercenary corporations. By investing in merc groups, you tie your money to their success and failure. It'd be a pretty cool mechanic to see people putting much of their hard earned c-bills on the reputations of the best corps in the game, or even merc groups offering stock options to their own roster. It'd definitely add a lot of flavor and something else to do in the metagame that shouldn't impact the other systems.
Second up is straight up gambling. I'm unsure what MWO has planned for Solaris, but allowing some kind of betting pool on matches held there would be a stellar option, in particular if you could spectate the arena - possibly even from the POV of a spectator to discourage cheating. Getting to watch match ups between players with actual c-bills riding on the outcome could be really neat and addictive and as long as the betting pool system is used (with the house taking a percentage), PGI can make money on the whole thing in the process, making it win-win for everybody except the poor saps who bet on the wrong pilot.
It would again add a ton of flavor and the idea of some pilots rising up in MWO to have a reputation as terrors on Solaris and getting huge bets thrown around on their fights would be downright awesome while again, not impacting the overall metagame too badly.
I lumped these into the same post because they both have the same underlying concept (a decent argument can be made for the real world stock exchange being a form of gambling) of investing money and winning it based on someone else's performance rather than your own, but the two have very, very different flavors.
Importantly, each option also might appeal to different kinds of players. I could actually see players that don't possess a drastic amount of skill themselves getting invested in these systems to boost their income as well as many long time veterans that aren't in the mood to get into a match right now just logging in to kick back and watch some fights on Solaris, which take on a very, very different atmosphere if you have in-game currency riding on the outcome rather than just spectating.
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Stocks & Gambling: The ComStar Market and Solaris VII
Started by Victor Morson, May 03 2012 04:49 PM
7 replies to this topic
#2
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- Bad Company
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Posted 03 May 2012 - 05:07 PM
Good idea, pain to implement.
#3
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- 453 posts
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- LocationB.F.E.
Posted 03 May 2012 - 07:13 PM
I'd have a hard time keeping up with stocks, considering I'm in the market myself.
#4
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Posted 05 May 2012 - 02:42 PM
I like the idea, but depending on local law where the company is based/ content is hosted it might not be possible to allow betting, especially if the house takes a percentage.
This probably wouldn't matter if c-bills could only be earned in-game, but if there is a way to purchase them, or especially redeem them, for real cash they become vouchers for real cash, which will probably not be viewed any differently in most jurisdictions who care about online gambling.
Purchasing stock options with rewards paid out depending on performance might perhaps be enough distance from the action so to speak as not to be considered gambling, but I wouldn't want to commit to any of this if I were Piranha unless I had thoroughly checked out the legalities, and even if you do that there always seems to be some obscure law or regulation that will come and bite you in the butt.
Really it's too bad. This sort of thing could potentially take the game to another level.
This probably wouldn't matter if c-bills could only be earned in-game, but if there is a way to purchase them, or especially redeem them, for real cash they become vouchers for real cash, which will probably not be viewed any differently in most jurisdictions who care about online gambling.
Purchasing stock options with rewards paid out depending on performance might perhaps be enough distance from the action so to speak as not to be considered gambling, but I wouldn't want to commit to any of this if I were Piranha unless I had thoroughly checked out the legalities, and even if you do that there always seems to be some obscure law or regulation that will come and bite you in the butt.
Really it's too bad. This sort of thing could potentially take the game to another level.
Edited by Fire§torm, 05 May 2012 - 02:43 PM.
#5
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- 85 posts
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Posted 05 May 2012 - 06:05 PM
... and, the topic of this thread is recycled as it has already been comprehensively discussed or can be considered as a copy of part of this thread:
http://mwomercs.com/...ar-investments/
There is even a poll in my initial thread
...
... I sincerely hope the staff will not merge this and my initial thread as this will result in the deletion of the poll of my thread (this happened the last time one of my threads was merged with another one that dealt with an aspect of it ... many thanks to the developers for that in advance!
http://mwomercs.com/...ar-investments/
There is even a poll in my initial thread
...... I sincerely hope the staff will not merge this and my initial thread as this will result in the deletion of the poll of my thread (this happened the last time one of my threads was merged with another one that dealt with an aspect of it ... many thanks to the developers for that in advance!
#6
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- Elite Founder
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Posted 05 May 2012 - 07:41 PM
Put in stocks and I'll manipulate it so much you'll all be crying thats a promise. 
#7
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- Elite Founder
- 6,370 posts
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- LocationAnder's Moon
Posted 05 May 2012 - 11:04 PM
Fire§torm, on 05 May 2012 - 02:42 PM, said:
I like the idea, but depending on local law where the company is based/ content is hosted it might not be possible to allow betting, especially if the house takes a percentage.
This probably wouldn't matter if c-bills could only be earned in-game, but if there is a way to purchase them, or especially redeem them, for real cash they become vouchers for real cash, which will probably not be viewed any differently in most jurisdictions who care about online gambling.
Purchasing stock options with rewards paid out depending on performance might perhaps be enough distance from the action so to speak as not to be considered gambling, but I wouldn't want to commit to any of this if I were Piranha unless I had thoroughly checked out the legalities, and even if you do that there always seems to be some obscure law or regulation that will come and bite you in the butt.
Really it's too bad. This sort of thing could potentially take the game to another level.
This probably wouldn't matter if c-bills could only be earned in-game, but if there is a way to purchase them, or especially redeem them, for real cash they become vouchers for real cash, which will probably not be viewed any differently in most jurisdictions who care about online gambling.
Purchasing stock options with rewards paid out depending on performance might perhaps be enough distance from the action so to speak as not to be considered gambling, but I wouldn't want to commit to any of this if I were Piranha unless I had thoroughly checked out the legalities, and even if you do that there always seems to be some obscure law or regulation that will come and bite you in the butt.
Really it's too bad. This sort of thing could potentially take the game to another level.
From my looking into this previously, as long as the currency stays in the game with no way to "cash out" (outside of Ebay or the like, which is breaking the EULA for most games), I don't think this strays into legal issues. I would be shocked if there was a way to do that in MWO.
That's really the key thing; you can purchase in-game currency legally, but if what happens with it stays in-game it's alright since fictional money is a "thing" and not actual money. In a way, in-game gambling even happens with cheesy facebook games all the time, because you can purchase currency that is used for making a random roll on stuff, or TF2 when you spend money buying keys to gamble on the content of crates.
That said, I totally agree if MWO has an official way to cash out, you'd have a WHOLE different set of legal issues to deal with but I'm pretty much 100% positive as long as there isn't, this is totally a safe bet.
Gwenaelle Focht, on 05 May 2012 - 06:05 PM, said:
... and, the topic of this thread is recycled as it has already been comprehensively discussed or can be considered as a copy of part of this thread:
http://mwomercs.com/...ar-investments/
There is even a poll in my initial thread ...
... I sincerely hope the staff will not merge this and my initial thread as this will result in the deletion of the poll of my thread (this happened the last time one of my threads was merged with another one that dealt with an aspect of it ... many thanks to the developers for that in advance!
http://mwomercs.com/...ar-investments/
There is even a poll in my initial thread
...... I sincerely hope the staff will not merge this and my initial thread as this will result in the deletion of the poll of my thread (this happened the last time one of my threads was merged with another one that dealt with an aspect of it ... many thanks to the developers for that in advance!
The saddest thing is I searched the topic and somehow managed to entirely miss this. I have no idea how, either. I sincerely apologize.
Edited by Victor Morson, 05 May 2012 - 11:06 PM.
#8
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Posted 06 May 2012 - 04:19 AM
If Op is talking about gambling for real money than this idea is already dead in the water.
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