Money sinks, a short post

2009-07-04T04:31:00.000-07:00

Most computer games, which require roleplaying, ones which have in-game money, have so-called gold or money sinks. This metaphor describes a process where the game has built-in characters, mechanics or places that require you to pay a lot of money to complete the task. Usually this task is essential to advancement making it impossible not to lose this money.

The whole point of this is that, in computer games, the economy is never realistic, and huge amounts of money can be acquired very easily. They need to build in such devices to keep the eventual money level balanced, to prevent the game from becoming too easy. Also, the ways of getting money are usually easy, because if they were to difficult people wouldn't use them, and the game would become too difficult as a whole.

Now, I'm writing about this in this simply because the real world, at least, my real world contains money sinks as well... sadly. Only this week I've lost at least a hundred euros on silly things. I had to pay the library an insane fine because I didn't return things soon enough, my public transportation card for students got lost and I have to pay to replace it. Which means that in the mean-time, I can't travel without paying.

The whole difference with the games is that this money doesn't disappear, it basically becomes public... and is probably spent on improving the services of the public institutions I'm paying... but I'm wondering if it doesn't go into the pockets of the managers. That would be weird because then:

The full salaries of some of the people in these institutions are financed by people being irresponsible... or forgetful, or being stolen from.

... Guess I just have to improve.

writing English in italics is so beautifully f-filled. Wheeee!

A first post

2009-07-03T08:07:00.000-07:00

If one wants to be successful at anything, one needs practice.

I tried over and over to create a successful blog, and this is my next try. The last blog made involved me teaching about random things, but that isn't a good concept. Basically I would have to try to be an expert on everything I'm interested in and want to share, and honestly, I think it would be better to post something like: "Hey, this is cool, check it out here with this accredited person."

Everything, which could be of interest to anyone or anything, I will write down here. Basically, things that happen in my life, maybe some links to music or other artistic things, some nerdy stuff and especially some of my writing. I'll probably talk about some linguistics and politics sooner or later as well.

Cheers, and good luck achieving peace to you all!

Nick Scholten

Nlog

Money sinks, a short post

A first post