Is EMC asking us to pay rupee tax next week? (closed)

Setting a trap for the staff? Intentionally?
That would be very, very wrong and it would way too much remind of USSR, DDR, NK etc. and related kinds of paranoia.
I refuse to believe that.
I'm appalled by the idea itself.

A trap doesn't have to be set intentionally. Think of it more as a social mistake. Someone says something at a party and it reminds you of a joke that maybe you maybe should not tell. In this case the "something someone said" could also be part of the mistake.

That's about the best analogy I can think of at the moment. Actually it is horrible. If you need a better one let me know and I'll try something else.

Not sure what to think atm.
For me, this thread was the best joke of the week.
#laugh-of-the-week
then
#awkwardmoment

Why would you make a thread like this...

An advice that goes to you along all other EMC players:
If you manage to pick up staff only information, keep it to yourself.

Weird thread.

It isn't even proven to be staff only information. :/

It would be a lot for everyone to give, no matter the amount they have - 8% of their total is as valuable as 8% of another to that person

I almost read all the words


Should I mail my taxes or deduct auto ? I think we should have a property tax. And a tax for transferring things across smps. Based on the value of things in vault. A customs tax if you will. I also think the leader of an outpost should collect taxes everytime someone enters his empire.

Also I think attacking Russia in the middle of winter was the best idea any general had.

Someone spread rumours around, if Shell did not start this post someone else would of to validate the rumour. If the tax thing was a true thing or not we can discuss it, there is no rule that disallows it, no one is being hurt in doing so. No one is going to leave EMC because of a rumour, if they did its their loss and mistake. I doubt many or anybody here would leave until knowing the truth. Have faith in the community, and let us discuss.

And here is the part which makes no sense whatsoever, Shell and the other people were part of the contribution team, it is there job to stay up to date with news and stuff in EMC so they can keep the wiki up to date and thus help others. To start a thread trying to validate a rumour i would say is part of there job.

Lastly EMC may have an economy but it never should have to mirror real life, it is a game afterall, don't take all of the fun out of it. I bought Minecraft, and i bought diamond supporter before too, to take 8% of what i make in EMC is to take my hard effort and time as well.

Since the cat's already (partly) out of the bag, I may as well clarify a few things. Maybe some of you guys will see this before it gets deleted - wouldn't be the first time Krysyy's had me [redact] one of my posts...

-As has already been pointed out, in the past contests Staff have had a rupee pool for donations. The concept is (was?) that this would simply be an automated way to handle that. Yes, Aikar can just magically wave his code-wand at will and create rupees, but the desire is to redistribute existing rupees within the existing economy, not compound the inflation already taking place.

-Not sure where the idea of a "weekly" tax thing got started, the more likely implementation would be per shop-sign transaction, and the percentage of funds siphoned off was still very much up for debate. 8% was ballpark guesswork, and little else. And yes: this is easily circumvented with /pay (user), so it would mainly only affect shop owners / customers, as well as EMC /Shop.

-Players outside the US might not be aware of this, but April 15th is the deadline for filing income tax here in the US. I know a lot of folks are thinking this is an early prank, and I don't fault you for finding the timing suspect, but taxes are actually pretty topical for this time of year, all jokes aside. (I still need to do mine )

-Nothing is decided. Obviously this was (is?) still under heavy discussion, and it's pretty clear a lot of you are against it. As you know, Aikar's been looking into a lot of different ways to keep a handle on EMC's economy, a "sales tax" is just one of them. Rather than rage about how EMC is going downhill / threaten to quit, try suggesting viable alternatives - y'know, constructive criticism stuff.

EDIT:

Discussion of news and publicly available information is very much topical and part of the job. Leaking "rumors" and information about private discussions before it's ready to be seen? Not so much.

What a silly rumor.

I have no problem with a tax for events donations, but don't include those that don't attend or can't attend these events and make them pay for the prize that others will receive. As I stated in one of my posts, I'm sure that staff will/have considered this alternative.

On another note, I'd like to apologize to the Contribution members who were (possibly) punished for this thread, and I understand that things were "leaked" when they were in development phases. Thank you for your services and thank you Kephras for shining some light on this situation.

April Fools (I hope lol).

Because out of all the ideas for rupee sinks, taxes are such a rainbow happy fun one!

Not.

"Cake or taxes?"

Thank you for this words of reason and sanity! ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

#throw-dramaphobia-away

But, I think, it shall mirror human behavior and serve natural human needs for (in-game) exchange and economic activity, which will most likely make it quite similar to "real life", hopefully even better.

Yes, but remember also all of the "free rupees" you've got - without any in-game effort.

Tax politics is all but simple. All of the tax ideas in this thread are far too clumsy.

If Aikar is interested in improving EMC economy - yes, it can be improved to be both better for the community (natural, stimulating, serving its purpose, rewarding in-game effort) and better for the provider (stimulating donations). It is possible to have a win-win solution, but there is no simple one-side solution that can do that.

Any blunt action like a simple balance tax or a simple transaction tax would only do damage!

The best is, again, to present the issue to the community, to discuss and to find good solutions. There are people here who understand the economy a bit deeper than just on the surface and who will be glad to help.

Tea party.

That way we get tea and cake in one party

+1 for the (I presume) Napoleon reference

Thanks! ♥

I hope that the days of censorship and "editing of history" on EMC are long, long gone.
I hope that every EMC staff member realizes how dangerous and damaging such thing would be.
For staff and everyone else - if you see a posting that is not to your liking, you better do this:
- Answer it, clarify, state your opinion. This is the best way and it should be enough in most of the cases.
- Ask the poster to change it, e.g. to remove inappropriate or less than truthful content
- If it is obvious libel / slander remove that part and give explanation what was removed and why - both to the poster and to the community!

I'm very glad that EMC staff and the majority here realizes that creating rupees out of nothing does NOT create value, but does endanger and destroy value.

This is not a good idea - for the reasons you have stated, but also several other reasons.
The main purpose of the currency is to provide for easy and cheap exchange. Adding a simple transaction tax is working directly contrary to that! This would only make the situation in EMC economy worse.

Discussion of a so important topic behind the community's back?
Not a good idea.

Better: present the issue, the problem and discuss.
What is the problem?

Any "handling" or "tweaking" or "keeping in check" of the economy is destined to fail.
Why?
Because you can not create value out of nothing, without effort. As simple as that.

seriously? Did you miss the part where this whole fracas should never have happened and three team members got sacked for talking about it?

EMC is not "design-by-committee." While transparency is good, and major decisions ought to incorporate at least some level of community feedback, Staff are not under obligation to double-check every random idea they have with you.
If you want a hand in the dev process that badly, send Aikar a damn resume.

Bottom line, discussion of ideas in the pipeline is one thing, but stop trying to be EMC's backseat driver. It's really starting to get old.

I can pretty much 150% agree with you there, yes this April Fools joke is ruined, and yes, the demotions were part of it I believe.