Great Ralph Koster blog post on this issue (thanks Cory Edo for the link):
http://www.raphkoster.com/2006/11/15/copybot/#more-807
http://www.raphkoster.com/2006/11/15/copybot/#more-807
Thanks for the link. Having played UO and SWG, I'm quite a Koster fan. In that article I find a few points I agree on, and others where I totally disagree; that's not unusual, since the techie type of person tends to loose the contact with reality.
With Koster's Van Hemlock quote I couldn't agree more:
Never trust the client.
Never put anything on the client. The client is in the hands of the enemy. Never ever ever forget this.
Never put anything on the client. The client is in the hands of the enemy. Never ever ever forget this.
But here the reality loss starts:
Kevin Lim astutely points out that this whole thing is very much like the world described in Star Trek after the replicator showed up:
…after such a machine was invented, currency as we knew it ceased to be function. Since everyone had the capability to create (replicate) anything they desire, capitalism as we knew it died, and the new dawn of perfect Marxian philosophy was adopted by the Federation.
Unless someone invents a working RL replicator, you can forget the Marxian philosophy. We have seen where that leads in a world with limited wealth and ressources. And what your typical Marx disciple also tends to forget: humans are competitive by nature. Without a reward, no one is willing to contribute to the community. Even a Mother Theresa wants her share in form of a thankful smile and appreciative words. If no one really needs you or your talents, there isn't anything left to strive and live for.
I've seen it during a visit to the former DDR (east Germany), before the wall came down. A bored person sat behind an ice cream stand. It was his job to sit there. They were sold out. He didn't care. He had no interest to ask his superiors for fresh supplies. Why should he? He didn't choose the job, it was appointed to him; he didn't need any special talent for this job, a trained chimpanzee could have done it; and above all, he made a living no matter what. He got his daily meal (and not much more), if he worked or just sat there. He didn't have to use his brain to survive. So he just enjoyed the sunshine. That's marxism in reality.
No one supports a system that doesn't reward the individual. No one will support SL if it stops to be rewarding.