[Cathan]

After reading all this Yantis/IGE crap I know how I've felt about the selling of anything EQ for RL cash all this time since it started, it's the debil.. I always saw it as negatively affecting the game I enjoyed because rl money should not become a factor in the ability to attain things in a world that's supposed to be separate from the real world we live in. That's been the exact issue right there.

Basically to advance in EQ it's expected that you do it on your own or you join a guild and advance your character through friends legitimately inside the game. That's what we expected.

The fact real world money spilled over into the game made me start thinking. This is a complex debate over how real life is a double standard vs how we expect things to be in EQ. In RL we buy and sell things and money is a factor but WHY don't we expect to advance ourselves alone or with friends/family the same as we expect in EQ? Why do we buy/sell things in the real world when essentially we could all work together as a unified race sharing and helping each other?

I think the reason why that doesn't work is because it's human nature. I put the simulation to work in my head where everyone works together sharing things and we as a civilazation across the globe help each other yet nothing is ever bought or sold. I came across the flaw when one man has a woman and another man wants her. Right there it falls apart once people start resenting each other and stop helping each other.

I also thought about the necessity of buying/selling to advance the civilization. If no one could gain from making something new people would want then why would someone want to make something new other than out of the goodness of their heart. If someone can make something and others want it they would trade him for his new product.

In the end I related this to EQ by asking myself:

IS buying/selling game items right or wrong since it is the same thing we do everywhere else in life?

My thoughts above are just my own ideas... They aren't firm beliefs so I don't expect you all to buy into them. Actually I would enjoy seeing other ideas or theories that proved/disproved my own.

Cathan