In the real world there are such things as Patents, Copywrights and Registered Trademarks. In EMC not so much. I see it as a challenge to those who wish to create and/or profit from something they do/create as an additional challenge to be creative, resourceful and clever.
I chose: " I think that it is perfectly fine for one to steal another's ideas. " , but it is not exactly how I see it (but it is the closest). I wouldn't call it stealing but evolving the idea. Only because you invented something doesn't mean it is the most efficient idea. Someone can upgrade it and get better results. Then another person will use the upgraded version and make it even more efficient. The whole idea of copyrights is to block the market for your profits. Some companies patent some ideas that haven't been created yet fully and when others complete the project THEY don't own the right for it. If electricity would be copyrighted when it was discovered we would not evolve so fast. Even today we evolve our technology a lot slower as we could otherwise. Stop compete people and start to cooperate. Two heads are better than one!
This should be an indication to you that you either weren't doing things as efficiently as your competitor, or that you were charging too much. How is it possible for it to be "worth it" to your competitor when it is no longer "worth it" to you? The only things that I can think is that they are either more efficient or that they just don't care as much about rupees as you do. Both of those things are good for the community.
Except for the fact we have many kids on this server that will go as low as possible just to get some rupees. Kids don't value their time as much as an adult would. So it's very easy for something to be worth it for one person and not to the other. As alex said in the other thread. He could make more by manning his shop than he could if he tried to compete with his prices.
I said that some people don't care as much about rupees. That's a good thing for the consumer. If Alex (or anyone else) can't compete with kids then they can get out of that business. People who don't care about rupees are part of the game. I give rupees away sometimes, I give diamonds away sometimes, I give a lot of things away sometimes. Furthermore, I encourage people to copy my idea of "giving things away" to people in need. Sorry if my charity undercuts someone else's over-inflated prices.
First of all, I have no idea what's going on in this thread, apart from the fact it seems to be about people complaining about having their ideas stolen. If you have an idea that you want to put to the EMC Community, then the easiest suggestion I can make to minimise the chances of someone advancing your idea is for people to stop putting half-arsed ideas up that haven't had the slightest amount of research, planning or co-ordination put into them. If you put up the core of an idea without any form of execution to back it up, then it's natural that someone will want to take your core idea and then expand upon it until the complete product is there. The one thing my boss always says to me is "Give me solutions, not ideas." So if I want to do 'X', I'll have 'Y' and 'Z' there explaining how to achieve 'X'. With all that planning in place, it's hard then for someone to advanced the idea any further. If, however, you have an idea that's already in-place and working for you and someone decides to copy your idea block for block, word for word then here's an example for you. When I had Run For Diamonds on SMP2, lots of people took part in it and enjoyed it. A couple of people then had the audacity to PM me and say: "Hey, we're going to make a course like yours but bigger and better, do you want to help?" Now my immediate answer was going to be something that sounds like GTA but indicating to exit harshly, but instead I just said; "No thanks." and left them to it. Why? Because it's not something worth getting worked up about. It really isn't. If they want to take my idea and copy it, then imitation is the best form of flattery
How is it over inflated? Just because you want to give it away doesn't mean his prices are infalted. Just because someone doesn't value their time much doesn't mean the other person was charging too much. Are you telling me if i sell diamonds at 10r each and you decide to sell them at 1r each my prices are automaticly inflated?
Slozon is making some great points here. I said in the other thread: "My prices reflect the money my mall could be making whilst I am away," or something of the sort. They are un-changable, unless I earn -rupees or very little.
I think Edmund was probably aiming that at the store owners who are charging more than the market average for something. Often, a lot more. Those are the ones that are hurt by other players selling at a heavily reduced rate. The Server 'Steadies' - The stores that are established and sell at reasonable rates will probably go unimpeded by those cheap sellers.
Prices set themselves. People with over inflated prices will not sell goods. People with correct prices for the market will run a successful business. People with prices set to low will not be able to keep stocked. Alex, you were so close. "I'm sorry for how I acted - now punish the people who disagreed with me." This is a poor apology. People disagreeing with you does not = trolling. A mod telling you that you are wrong in thinking that you can keep people from running a business because you "had the idea first" - which you did not have it first - This is not you being trolled.
People that should be punished are people that edit their original post after it's been replied to a few times, thus causing confusion for those that rock up late to the party. I take it there was something crucial to this whole debate said in the OP that has apparently been edited out?
It was a different thread completely Kilman XPGrinder.inc was the name of the thread. If that helps make sense of things.
Do i need to point out the troll posts? How about the people spaming the copyright this and that. They had no reason to post in the thread. They added nothing to that thread. They were 100% trolling. In fact here was a good one.
We are meant to be a COMMUNITY, helping others with their creations. Taking someones basic idea shouldn't be classed as "against the rules". It should just persuade the creator to improve on their idea. On the other hand, players who will visit a structure and build it block by block are abusing this freedom, but the original creator should feel safe in the knowledge that the copying player is gaining nothing other than a bad reputation and a building someone already has.
Guys, I'm sorry about editing the stuff out of the OP. The reason I did that was that people were offering solutions to the problems, which was not intended. (they were pretty easy to come up with a solution for.) The entire point of the 6 examples was to provide different cases of thievery, mixed in with 'Idea Thievery', to prompt people to think critically about how, if at all, they are different. What I am trying to say is that the debate got away from what it was really about here. If you disagree with me, you are entitled to your opinion, and I respect it.
Stick a linky into the XP.Grinder Inc thread if you feel it's merited - That way you'll get less people coming on going; "Whuh?" Now that I've read that thread, it's all a lot more clear in my mind what's going on here, and how silly it is.
The Thread in question .. Your buddy Alex started the "trolling" Quote from Alex himself in a post belonging to another poster. Is this not the definition of flaming and trolling? Coming into someone else thread, angrily posting off topic?He started the flaming and then people responded to him. You can not have it both ways. I'm done arguing with you! You are just making yourself look silly.
Nope, but I'm telling you that if you start making threads whining about me undercutting you and that I should be banned for copying your brilliant idea of "selling diamonds" then you are going to get some well-deserved ridicule. As far as I know, no one is selling diamonds at 10 rupees, so your ad absurdum argument fails.
