Diablofans - WWI Card Tyrael Pet Contest
- A Tyrael pet code redeemable for one of your current World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade characters.
- A World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Beta Key Code
Europe and USA players are eligible for as long as you play on servers in these regions. How can you become the foster parent of these orphaned Tyrael pets?
Simply be creative and post one or more detailed suggestions or your personal wishes for the Diablo 3 Team ... What do you want to see in Diablo 3 concerning Trading features and PvP features. Post them below.
These suggestions will be forwarded to the Diablo 3 Team through Bashiok (Diablo 3 Community Manager).
Only one entry per forum member and household. Anybody who makes more than one post in the contest thread will be disqualified. We will PM the winners and ship the cards to the winners' homes.
This contest will close on August 25th at 11:59pm EST at which point the forum thread will be locked.
Thanks for being an avid member of the Diablofans Community! Good Luck!
NOTE: Only entries are accepted in this thread. Any non-entry posts will be removed from this thread. More than one entry will result in an automatic disqualification.
For non-entry comments go to the following thread
Anyways hope you like my ideas!
-Britton-
1. Give all players the ability to attack anyone in game, but it will cause you to go into a hostile mode for a certain duration of in game time. This would keep players from attacking someone and exiting the game just to come back and attack them again while unhostiled.
2. Give all players the ability to decide whether they can or cannot be attacked, PvP on- PvP off
3. Implement some sort of PvP specific reward system such as items that give bonuses to +Damage to Players. This way people playing PvE will not be required to get PvP gear to advance in the game.
4. Have a duel consent option in which players can wager items/gold in a mini-inventory type screen.
Trading Suggestions:
1. Keep the barter system. A player driven economy gives both high and low players the ability to possibly get something they need.
2. Implement lower level super unique items. Not all great items in the game should come at the end. Give some items an extremely low drop rate, but available early in the game. This would give new players or people that start playing long after relase the oportunity/rare chance to have something valuable in the player economy without having to reach the end boss first. Some item examples could be very rare gems/stones/reagents that are extremely sought after early and late in the game.
3. Item linking. Its a great idea many people enjoy. Included with the item link could be the option to request a trade to the person. A box will pop up that you put your items into that you wish to trade and hit submit. The person recieving the offer would get a little tooltip sign possibly in the topright corner alerting them they have an offer. They could pull up a menu which would have the player requesting the trade and a short summary of the items they offer(this could be in list form showing offers from multiple players). Clicking the player name in this menu would bring up the box they put the items into where you could look over stats and quality and either accept or reject the offer.
- Making Diablo finally a more team-oriented game would do wonders. Synergies between classes would make things interesting for the meta-game. Something like Diablo Battlegrounds (one idea is a unique deathmatch-CTF style game where either killing the entire other team or capping the flag would score you 1 point playing up to X amount of points or Y amount of time -- no respawns until either one team is dead or the flag is capped) would be absolutely amazing, but an arena with standardized gear (not necessarily the exact same gear - balanced variety is always a good thing) is a must in terms of competitive PvP.
- Make sure that character buildup is interesting through both varieties of powerful itemization (ie: not just 1 be-all-end-all weapon, helmet, boots, etc. for each class) and whatever skill/talent tree implementation will be in the game. As much as people (including me) love WoW, armor is overly streamlined and the synergies between talent trees (especially the hybrid classes) are lacking which leads to a game where players hardly have to think carefully about builds. This is something I believe Diablo can easily surpass since it does not have to operate within the confines of an MMO. The bottom line here is to make sure that players are making meaningful and effective choices along the way from headgear to footwear to their first and last skill/talent points.
- In general, competitive PvP should stray away from any grinding, etc. Any tournament-type PvP with prizes on the line should have a completely equal and level playing field for all players.
- Separate the competitive PvP world from the regular world. Trying to focus on both at the same time can cause a lot of problems for both sides. Competitive PvP should probably be in a world of its own away from the leveling/item-gaining aspect of the game (the main server).
- Winning on the dedicated PvP server should result in "shinies" not more powerful gear, etc. Why should someone who is already superior in skill gain an even bigger upper hand through better itemization? Rewards for PvP instead can range from achievements/trophies to titles to vanity pets to unique graphics. This is where I think imagination is definitely needed. These rewards should probably be usable on the main server as well so people can flaunt their prizes.
- I can't say it enough, promoting a level-playing field in competitive PvP is a MUST. The current WoW Arena server is a perfect example of the competitive PvP server I'm talking about. People pay X amount of $ to enter the current tourney and then compete for the big prize.
- World PvP areas/quests of course are always desirable. Getting people who might have never tried PvP by using quests/rewards can really make an impact and open up another world to players who may have never tried it out. Some may even take the next step and actively try to play PvP competitively which is both fun for the players and success for the devs.
Concerning Trading:
- Make the game as scam-less as possible. For instance, when trading in Diablo 2 it was easy to trick someone by replacing a bow such as Windforce with a regular Hydra Bow since they looked EXACTLY the same unless you hovered over the item. Keeping a running tab to the side of the trade screen could be a good idea (list current items up for trade from both players). This would definitely help out newer players and not discourage them from trading.
- Give the players better ways to advertise trades. Honestly having chaotic trade channels with massive spam is not the way to do it. Whatever the new battle.net has in store for us, I hope it can cater to situations such as these. A dedicated, easy-to-access trade forum could do wonders. There were many sites for Diablo 2 where trading/auctioning could go down that were very reminiscent of the way E-Bay works in terms of repuation (scammers will be shunned) which was definitely a great thing. It also builds awesome social networks.
- Make sure there is a standard (perhaps gold perhaps not) for trading. Although the fluctuation of the trading standards (from SoJs to Runes, etc.) was fun, it definitely discouraged new players from entering the trading fray. Meaningful currency can go a long way to making trading even more fun.
- Making trading easy to get into and accessible is the biggest thing I believe. Perhaps even weave in mini-sidequests that relate to trading (ie: Mission Objective: Successfully put up a unique weapon and have someone buy it out on the auction house) that will reward players for taking part in the player economy.
*** Most important of ALL, make the game hack-free. Whether it takes subscriptions or whatever everyone wants to play a legit game.
I'd really like to see a better trading system in D3. Diablo 2's economy was useless for the 'newcomer' into the game. The major currency for the longest time was Stone of Jordan. Hardcore players hoarded SOJs, and then figured out how to dupe them (which led to more hoarding). For the casual gamer, they were extremely hard to come by. You had to be very lucky and find a high-powered item, then know how much it was worth in the current economy.
The über-diablo quest made it more appealling to shed Stone of Jordans from mule accounts, but at the same time the keys to über-tristram were introduced (which slowly became the new currency).
Then, instead of spelunking for SOJs, I was doing 30 key runs a day.
I guess in short, what i'm trying to say is make a standard of currency that is useful. Put in logistics information on what is being traded, so you can keep track of the market. If people start selling dozens of a high-powered item, it's either worth too much (stats are too high), it's too easy to find, or a method of dupe has been discovered (which need to be squished fast.)
Thanks for listenin
--T.W.
- There should be an out of the game site that manages all the diablo characters and there would be access to bags where you can right click them and transfer gears in your bag or cod them without having to go in game. Or heck it could be built right into the chat channels of B.net and player profiles with linkable loot and making trades would be quicker than going in game and finding someone.
- For gearing up your other characters, instead of being able to get everything from your main to your alt, a simple item or charm could come with any characters after you beat the game in say hell mode that increases drop rate. It doesn't have to be a large number but as you beat hell mode for every character the charm becomes more powerful and you can just get rid of magic finding all together and reward people completing the game with better drop rates.
PvP Features
- An arena idea would be where you go in with a group and kill waves of monsters then a random boss. A chest appears and everyone in your game is flagged for pvp and dukes it out with each other. That way there would be an incentive to go to the arena and get loot while pvping at the same time! The number of players will determine the amount of loot in these chests and difficulty of the waves including boss and the last guy standing will have a high chance of getting epic gear while everyone else gets regular magic items.
PvP - Needs to stay out of Diablo 3. It has no place. Diablo has long been more about the single player and co-op mode then anything else, and as far as I'm concerned ppl who go around PKing are just griefers and need to log off. Seriously, if Im gonna play online, its to advance the story, not kill other players with the exact same goals. Bottom line, keep pvp to a minimum, this isnt WoW and we dont need an arena - leave it a duel to decide differences, or idk mabey fight for loot - other than that, pvp belongs elsewhere. Remember, its primarily a SINGLE player game.
Trading - seeing how this is NOT a persistant world, an auction house would be usless as it could not be significantly populated by what, 8 players max? mabey 10? and then only after creating a new game to play. Trading should be kept similar to Diablo 2, where the characters must be right next to each other and both players must agree to the trade. I see no reason to change this as it worked well for D2. I do think though it would be useful to able to link items into chat. If the world is going to be to big to make face to face transactions convientent (although I dont know how) then perhaps a 'courrier service' would be in order where players pay a convience fee to have some messanger boy deliver it to wherever the other person is - and the fee should be high too, to encourage face to face transactions.
One thing that could added and maintaind despite the world not being persistant, is a reputation system with the different towns - complete quests, rep goes up - beat the game, rep goes up - do something like PK near town for no reason, rep goes down - and then have goods and service costs based on reputation, mabey even rep specific items (I know, like in WoW right? but seriously, how many suggestions in here wernt pulled from WoW in some way)
One of the great things about Diablo 2 was the low drops rates of the greatest of items and gear. I hope that blizzard continues to keep drops rates low on certain great items instead of a higher rate of item drops like in World of Warcraft. However I would like to see some type of rolling system or group leader type system that would minimize the amount of random clicking one has to do when a boss is killed. In diablo 2 when a boss died it was an all out free for all of picking up rare items that certain players did not even need. The one with the fastest click would win no matter how much damage or skill that person put into a fight. Possibly make an award system that would grant the person who did the greatest amount of damage or skill based on how that person is geared. I can see how over all damage can be based on gear so that the people with the greatest of items would always win, so possibly create a way for the game to determine how well that person is doing for the gear that they have on and examine the difference between players who have great gear but don't perform to the ability that they can and players who have not so good gear but perform to the greatest of their abilities.
PVP:
'Battlegrounds' could be interesting for PvP. 'Capture the flag' and such. It would be very different from the usual 'chaotic' pvp of Diablo. This isnt to say the normal chaotic outdoor PVP shouldnt exist, it would be great to have both however.
For the 'outdoor pvp' no matter how that is going to work, it has to be 100% optional. Maybe simply choosing if PvP is allowed when you create a game, with others being able to see this setting before joining.
Customization:
The more the better (as long as the Keep It Simple rule is followed). I guess it shouldnt even have to be mentioned, but anything applies here, sockets, gems, runewords, enchants for items. Even customization of abilities might be an idea (think Inscriptions from WoW Wotlk just without the crafting part of it, for instance, the ability to improve only 1 of your abilities beyond whats doable in the skill trees, having to choose which one you want the most). Anything which adds to the possible ways to make your character should be considered, since its one of the main reasons for Diablo 2s huge replayability (the other being item hunting of course).
1990 vs 2000. The endless hardcore vs. casual debate:
Things have changed in games the last 10 years. Limits which was accepted and even loved in Diablo 2 wont necessarily be great in D3. Specifically the ability to redo your character and your decisions is needed in some ways. E.g. Respeccing your skill trees, your stats, clearing sockets etc. Its a very thin line between making it too hard and too easy to redo mistakes, and clearly it shouldn't be too easy, as rerolling and trying out new things is a great deal of Diablo 2's legacy. I hope you can find this balance.
My preference lis somewhere around this: If you wanted to redo your char 100% then a new character would be your best option. if you mostly wanted to adjust some things (for instance redo your characters skills and stats 75%) then you could do it an easier and faster way through a quest, paying gold or whatever.
Auction House:
Is really a must have. Preferably both having options for buying items with gold (no A-RPG has really managed to make gold stay relevant over time yet however, which leads to the next option.), but definitely also a system where one can offer an item for another through the AH.
BoE vs. BoP items:
Personally, and likely contrary to most others, I dont think it would harm to make some items BoP or even better 'Bound on Account', while item trading is a big part of the game, special items and such which are not tradeable can be used as 'status symbols' to provide rewards for various accomplishments in the game.
Pretty much all dropable items from bosses should be kept BoE for sure, BoP is more suitable for either 1) quest/pvp/event rewards and 2) Cosmetic rewards (so you dont just got awesome gear, but also look awesome in it, for those players who are interested in that... which is quite a few judging from WoW)
Lvling:
Grinding should not really be needed for lvling ever, maybe except the very last few lvls. You are likely going to grind the hell out of the game (literally speaking I guess) for items, no need to make it so for the lvling too. Making new characters should be reasonably fast, so people are encouraged to try out new builds and silly ideas.
Minor stuff:
Shared stash! Please.
Difficulties:
Should have at least two imo. One which is reasonably easy (like it was in Diablo 2), and then one which is balanced for having reasonably good gear. Nightmare in Diablo 2 mostly felt unnecessary, it was often easier than 'Normal' since your char had got access to all its skills at that point, and you just zerged through it to get to 'Hell'.
Having a few bosses which requires exceptionally good gear, builds and execution is great too, however, I would say those should be bosses outside of the main storyline, rather than just the end bosses. It isn't necessarily fun for players to feel they hit a wall in the game where they cant progress further, because its too hard, in the end only the most hardcore players will end up with the best of the best gear etc. Furthermore, making 'Hell* too difficult, also invalids much of the enjoyment of trying different specs and builds than the very best ones.
The most difficult bosses could be a bit like the few bosses which added late in Diablo 2's life cycle which weren't directly a part of the main game. Such bosses would also fit well with the mini-expansion idea below.
Content, the future and you:
It would be nice with smalll downloadable mini-expansions rather than just a big one after a year or two. Downloadable content and mini-transactions seems to be the hot stuff these days, and there certainly are some benefits to it (beside getting the customers to spend more money :D) It would be great with new bosses to fight, new areas to explore, new items to find etc, once in a while. These packages should of course be optional and not subscription based.
One last thing. I realize there are two subgrpups of players when it comes to Diablo and WoW (actually when it comes to WoW and any other RPG). One group want Diablo to copy WoW. The other group hates WoW with a passion and dont want to see any features from it ever. I hope you can balance this, and take out some of the better features in WoW which could work great in Diablo. In many ways WoW is a MMO-A-RPG, and although hopefully Diablo 2 wont be anything like an MMO at all (which is why D3 shouldn't just copy WoW either, which you seem well aware of yourself), but that doesn't mean some of the features wont translate perfectly between the two games.
P.S Strike down hard and swift upon cheaters and those who sell items for money. Then everything will be perfect!
I am a huge fan of the crafting and placing items in cube to make items, as well as rune words. I would like to see more of this in Diablo III.
Also, I believe certain items should be Soulbound in DiabloIII. I understand that trading items is the way the market was ran in the past, plus SoJs and Runes expansion.
One more thing, I hope PvP will be more balanced. I hate seeing one or two classes destroying everyone else on the field, when other classes are in just as good of gear if not better. Example Necromancer
i currently have 5 90+ characters on the current D2x hardcore west ladder.
i have no doubt blizzard will do an exelent job on d3.
i only ask that you keep some form of hardcore comebat.
Diablo 2 is still the only game out. that plays for keeps.
Hardcore is hardcore you lose your charcter you lose your character.
With as many people that are still playing diablo 2 after this long, im sure you could just reskin everything add a few skills and would make everyone happy.
Simple Complexity.
-This is nothign new but I'm putting down my vote to support that gold means something.
PVP suggestion:
-pvp zone, pvp game, pvp reward, pvp title.
-Death in pvp zone/game doesn't cost anything.
-pvp zone/pvp game has no pve content. The only reason to be there is to kill each other.
-pvp in pve areas still possible to keep people on their toe. It's fun and exciting that way. Of course if you don't want any harassment, create a passworded game.
-pvp death in pve areas has penalty (like dropping some of your gold is good enough, if gold means more than before now)
PVE loot drop suggestion:
I don't like the fact that in D2 you can only get certain drops after ActIII Hell mode, like a Grandfather sword. This forces me to only play in Act4 Hell mode even if I'm not just farming. I really like to see the scenes of earlier acts but I don't want to miss out on the possible chance to get a godly drop.
Instead, you should have a chance to get every loot as soon as you are in ActI Hell mode. You can still lower the drop rate in Act I and gradually raise it in the following acts.
What I'm proposing is Nightmare can drop every item from ilvl 1-66. Hell mode, ilvl 1-99. This is true as soon as you are in Act I Nightmare or Hell, so it should be possible to get get a lvl 88 unique in ActI Hell. All item base types have been unlocked by Act4 Normal, and all their exception type should be available as soon as Nightmare mode starts, and all their elite type should be available in Act1 Hell. I don't want to only see the elite DAGGERS in Act1 Hell. Elite crystal sword should be available too right away.
Keep the gradual unlocking of items in Normal mode as in D2 (can't get lvl 30 unique in ActI normal) to cater to single offline player that will not even play Nightmare or Hell.
On the trading side of things a auction house or a system to post items up for trade or bartering. If money is worth anything in d3 the auction house could work, but if not a system that allowed you to post a item up for trade were other players could message you with possible items that they are willing to barter for it.
I'll limit myself to one topic here: trading.
The online system is too open to exploits and dupes.
For trading to be fair you must eradicate dupes.
Given the advances in computing power in the last ten years it should be possible to establish the uniqueness of an item. As a seasoned app systems designer and ER modeller I can see many ways of doing this. Whether it would affect game play and cause server stress I cannot say.
Preventing dupes in the first place is the number one priority for implementing a trading system that is fair at its foundations. No trading mechanism can compensate for dodgy gear.
Secondly, a fool proof means of swapping gear is required. Very easy to do, from my background at least.
Limit trades to swaps/bartering. Many to many, one to many, or one to one item. Seller posts item(s) for trade. This request stays live while the user is logged on. Connection drop or whatever = cancelled sale. At posting time the seller can enter a minimal description of what is sought. Keep it simple and short. Seller does not enter text to describe item(s) being sold. Let battlenet work that out.
Option to be notified in game that someone is wanting to buy. TP to town and enter the trade window. See the offer of the purchaser. Accept or decline. Both parties can see a full icon view of the item.
At this offer stage both sets of items are locked in escrow on battlenet. There can be no dodgy substitution.
If trade accepted by seller: battlenet does the swap. Confirms swap and flags trade as complete in the battlenet trade DB. If problems, backout trade when the user is next logged in, for example. An escrow system is very simple to do.
With these two enhancements: No dupes and guaranteed integrity of the swap then I'll return to battlenet.
At home we run multiple copies of D2. We dupe at home, I'll admit. If I had my time all over again I'd not support that. Duping should also be impossible for home TCP/IP users.
(My IT background says "unique keys" but generating this rapidly across all servers and saving and maintaining these centrally I can't say if it is feasible. Locally no problem as our CD key can seed the keys, etc although a security concern if using our CD key online?)
A third suggestion: When I trade I want to see rare items which are genuinely rare. Let's have some limits and make this gear uber good. Again you'll need a central DB of issued gear, with a guaranteed unique ID. Possible?
A fourth suggestion: Items only. No health/mana/full rejuves (it seems they must be cnsumed at pickup time in D3 - good) and no gold in bartering. Common stuff like that just creates a currency.
I want to HnS and immerse myself in the storyline and quests. Making gold rarer would minimise the possibility of players doing lucrative gold runs as gold hordes with gold as a currency will skew trading.
A fifth suggestion: The old and dodgy "droping an item" trading system. Just make it impossible. If a player wants to trade they MUST use the barter system. In game (in town) or out of game. Trades can be private if you like (i.e. not open to other barterers). If a player drops gear then it stays there until an NPC steals it, as happens now in D2.
This gets back to unique IDs for gear. A monster drops gear specifically for a player then it stays assigned to that player until such time as it is traded fairly.
If I drop gear in game then it can just stay invisible to other players.
Yes, that means I have to mule the gear myself but with the bag system developments I have seen, extra mule characters won't be necessary.
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To Blizzard: I love what I have seen of D3 so far. Bring it on when you're good and ready. We'll be buying three copies.
PvP:
I'd like to see the ability to record your PvP kills with a built-in video recording feature. So instead of using bulky, third-party programs like FRAPS, D3 should just let you hit a button or hotkey to start saving the video of you pulling off some epic leap attack over an exploding pile of zombie sheeps and killing your enemy as he reaches the last 1/10th of a millisecond of his Meteor spell. Mainly a bragging rights kind of thing.
Another thing that would be neat is actually an idea from Star Ocean 2: The Second Story. At one point your character enters an arena match, and rather than using his own items, he's given a specific set of gear and consumables from a number of different sponsors. Now, depending on how well you did in the tournament, you could keep some of the items the sponsor gave you, and some money too I think. I think it'd be cool to see a sort of "template" feature in D3 PvP, sort of like arena matches. This could help people experience it even if they don't have the best gear, and possibly a chance to earn upgrades for their character if they do manage to win.
Going along with the idea of sponsored Arena matches, it'd be pretty sweet to see players be able to bet on PvP matches, with calculated odds and return values. This opens up the possibility of players becoming sort of "mob bosses" by having power through wealth, hiring on gladiators to fight in the arena and winning cash from them, using some of the earnings to gear up their fighters. I guess this kind of ties into the economy too, since it gives gold a bit more value than just paying for repairs and potions.
Really overall the economy to me isn't a huge concern; I feel that if players are given a base of gold and initial values from vendors, then we'll be smart enough to develop worth through the basics of economic principles. The market should be able to support and develop itself. This is pretty noticeable if you look at WoW's economy via the auction house. You see some fluctuations when new things occur, such as the massive influx of gold from the daily quests (which lead to a period of inflation and eventual recession). As long as Blizzard plays as kind of economic supervisors and steps in if something is causing massive damage to the market, then I believe players will have the true power to create a system that suits us.
Thanks to everyone who reads/considers/even looks at this :).
Overview:
In January of 1997 when the Diablo series made its debut, it was primarily the game's loot system that brought players back to Tristram time and time again. In today's World of WarCraft, millions of players enjoy a slightly modified Diablo loot system in which in-game economies have sprung and thrive.
Proposition:
I propose Blizzard Entertainment incorporate into Diablo III an auction house where players can hawk and bid upon the items they seek.
In addition to having an auction house in Sanctuary, I also propose Blizzard take in-game trading to the next level via web-site trading system that allows the buying, selling and trading of in-game items outside the game itself and between characters on the same account.
History:
In Diablo I, there was no formal trade system. You'd simply drop the item on the ground and trust the other player to do the same. This presented some complex morality issues, but this was later overcome by players when an unexpected exploit that allowed players to "dupe" or duplicate items became widespread.
In Diablo II, the trade system was flawless. Trade windows opened, each player inspected the other's item(s) in a safe, private window that allowed players to accept or reject the other players offer. Once both accepted, the trade was made. One minor flaw in this design was the overlooked matchmaking system - matching a buyer to a seller. This caused players that are looking to buy/sell/trade their items to create a new instance of the game with a unique title and hope another player will bite. Diablo II's trading system was better, but lacked match-making capabilities.
Although Diablo I and II could be considered MMOG's by the definition of the term itself (Massively Multiplayer Online Game), it wasn't until World of WarCraft that Blizzard got the trading system right. In a persistent world where players would find, craft, and "farm" items sought by other players, an auction house made perfect sense - Blizzard's very own eBay within their vibrant, virtual world.
The auction theory in and of itself is perfect - allowing for a player to set a price at which they feel the item is worth, while another player offers how much they are willing to pay for said item. Matchmaking for sales was no longer an issue as the item would be seen by any other player seeking an item via the auction house.
The next level for the auction house system is to manufacture a system that would allow players to trade in-game items from outside the game's interface. Many World of WarCraft players log in for hours on end just to buy low and sell high, evaluating the auction house or looking for that one item before quickly logging off. Even then, each server is limited to a set number of players, limiting the overall World of WarCraft economy to individual servers. Incorporating a system outside the game that is capable of handling all aspects of the auction house would alleviate the game servers' load, allowing for more auction house activity, and ultimately, more accurate, player-driven auction house pricing.
Conclusion:
As players return to Sanctuary time and again for that one elusive drop or with their friends, they are bound to find good gear and items that another player could use. By including an auction house in Diablo III, players will be able to sell these items for the price they want, while buyers pay only what they are willing.
In order to lighten game server loads and broaden the audience and activity of the auction house, players should be able to buy, sell and trade items via web-browser without having to log in to the game itself. Web-based trading amongst characters on the same account would also alleviate repetitive logging in and out of the game severs simply to transfer items.
These proposed additions to Diablo III would create more accurate pricing as the audience of the auction house would be broader than any single World of WarCraft server, bringing each and every one of the estimated millions of players together to create the ultimate virtual game economy.