“Play-to-Earn” and Bullshit Jobs

Post by steveylang » Thu, Dec 30, 2021, 8:22 PM UTC

58x14 wrote: post #32

In the late 2000s, as a teenager, I was gifted a Runescape account. This account had level 80+ woodcutting, allowing one to chop magic trees - which would produce the most expensive lumber in the game. It took a staggering number of real hours to achieve this skill level, we're talking several hundred hours minimum. At some point I had realized that there were different sketchy websites that would buy and sell the in…

Post by unkulunkulu » Sat, Jan 01, 2022, 3:21 PM UTC

danShumway wrote: post #170

58x14 wrote: post #32

In the late 2000s, as a teenager, I was gifted a Runescape account. This account had level 80+ woodcutting, allowing one to chop magic trees - which would produce the most expensive lumber in the game. It took a staggering number of real hours to achieve this skill level, we're talking several hundred hours minimum. At some point I had realized that there were different sketchy websites that would buy and sell the in…

I know a lot of people have fond memories of this kind of thing, but from a designer perspective, is it good that a game is so boring that players are willing to pay real-world money to skip parts of it? Runescape set up a system that was so grind-heavy that players broke server rules and wrote automated scripts to grind for them, and other players gave them money to do that. Because the minute-to-minute gameplay of…

Post by smileybarry » Sun, Jan 02, 2022, 1:11 PM UTC

mannanj wrote: post #648

acdha wrote: post #622

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference is that gold has useful applications which act as a floor for pricing and moderate fluctuations. Gold bugs can still lose their shirts speculating but a normal buyer knows the value will never be zero. Bitcoin is in contrast a pure fiat currency with very weak backing. Nobody has a need for it which can’t be satisfied at least as well by alternatives and it requires a very expensive always-on network t…

>Nobody has a need for it which can’t be satisfied at least as well by alternatives Have you ever tried to send more than $5k, $10k or $20k before? You basically can't with your bank without having to go through a bunch of hurdles or time delays. I can easily do that with bitcoin. Legit, real need for it that can't be satisfied with alternatives. In addition the bank is often closed on weekends, and doesn't service y…

Post by dreinhardt » Mon, Jan 03, 2022, 1:05 AM UTC

Siira wrote: post #694

kingcharles wrote: post #481

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not just financially-challenged, but under-educated too. If your education was sub-par then it's easy to get tricked, especially with something as complex as the crypto world, where someone like me who had a great education, minted Satoshi's finest like they were water from a firehose, and almost 40 years of coding, still has a really hard time understanding the current plethora of blockchain shenanigans.

When you don’t have any evidence why an investment is sound, you simply should not invest.

Post by darkwater » Sat, Jan 08, 2022, 2:46 PM UTC

nradov wrote: post #421

thombat wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now you've made me wonder: those hours I spent mesmerised by watching the colourful display of Windows 95 defragging the disc, would I have paid a monthly subscription for it? What if they'd added achievements, or leveling up? "Congratulations! Your wizard can now restructure directory chains!"

I've seen people watching mesmerized as a Roomba vacuumed the floor. A time saving device indeed!