An Iron Realms Credit Card from the Delos Credit Union?

(Market): Iora says, "Selling my Mexican island for 5 million credits, send tells."

if only that could happen lol

i think that was the movie i watched... this article made me think of that...their exchange currency was time

enjoyment vs cost.  Not just video games, but everything...like a steak vs taco bell.

nice chart!

It's 'addictive,' not 'addicting.'

Anyway!  We're all just living Ron Paul's dream of competing currencies.

Didn't Trey do this once? "I'll send some (I don't remember how many) credits to you if you have a pizza delivered to my home?"

Yea I heard about Trey getting chinese food ordered for him with credits before. Kind of funny.

Interesting chart!

I have lots of posting to do to save up for that nice tv!

Very cool indeed!

Maybe you could look into a cheaper apartment in Jersey or Philly, commute and spend the difference in credits.

With all the credits I've bought with RL cash, I could buy... 20 gallons of gas. Though with all the credits I've earned in game, then I'd be getting up to iPad 2 territory. But I suppose most of those are bound...

someone is addicted

Maybe I should found the first international bank of Achaea.Turning Credits into RL good since... some time :P

I know other games you can exchange in game currency for cash. I can say to my dad, I'm not goofing off, I'm making money on the side to pay for my house. :P

I just want one for commenting. :P

I'll just take the island and retire. 

I guess this would lead to greathunt scenarios, where everyone is bashing for gold, everything is hunted out, and more agressions related to hunting areas. And ranting: Can't buy lunch because a dragon cleared my area."

So basically, a Veil of the Sphinx is pricier than an iPod2 :)) Yeah, I can see that.

think about all the items that have been auctioned off, for even more price fun

A very cool concept.

IRE, pay me money for my FB credits please, I need a job :(

lol everyone would be playing IRE. hmmmmm advertising idea?

Isn't that what FB credits are for?

I've been converting currency into credits and vice versa for years.  Interesting to know that a brand new car costs about 70k credits...I bet some people are kicking themselves.

Being from (and living in) another country, I used to do this a lot to justify to myself buying credits (credits->dollars->local coin). What I didn't knew were prices for some common items, like McDonald's lunch. I find rather interesting how some things could end up being quite cheaper if I could buy them with IRE gold rather than using my credit card.

What are pokemon dollars? Also, if we can use them to buy a reteo-lancer, can you use them to buy IRE credits?

Powels Books, D&D handbook, 10.50 used.

Good Article!

An interesting read. Also, I like the name 'Penelope'.

whow.. i just realized that an Ipad 2 is cheapper than a Veil! ._.

months promo is only a day away!

want one of those cards

it's hard to contribute to this article via comment

Would IRE consider doing this? It would cause the economies of the games to go into a severe recession, would it not? There would be less currency circulating in the game worlds, therefore a recession. You'd get the value of gold climbing, steeply, in relation to the value of credits, I imagine, as people tried to buy credits with gold to fund their Netflix subscription or whatever. And you'd get the WoW phenomenon, with people farming gold to use to get real goods. Seems like a recipe for unhappy customers.

Also, addicting with italics sounds affected. How about "addictive", no italics. Have you been told to use this catchphrase for search engine optimization? Bleh.

scary :o

While this idea is funny I'm creeped out that some of us are taking this seriously :/

This was rather funny, I laughed quite a bit XD Thank you for the article!

Commenting to get free credit, so I can go out and buy lunch.

It's too bad there's not some kind of inter-game currency exchange because I had the most Zorkmids in the recently defunct (and crap) Legends of Zork "game..."

Could I get 30% off on that 82' TV please?

heh

This would be a real offshore account for certain

The problem with this is that if you can convert credits for cash and have them be fully convertible, would it just be a secondary market and have players or brokers buy and sell them or would they be a fully convertible currency. Problem with having it be a fully convertible currency would be that IRE could go, we now have a million more credits, dollars please. Also, nom, nom, nom free credit.

I would throw myself off a cliff if ANYONE could get 5mil credits and then sold them for an island.

Dx

(Free bound, yay!)

So one tri-trans character is worth a netbook? A tradeskill is worth 10 gallons of gas?

As some already mentioned you don't HAVE to buy anything. You can as well just win events / bash / quest / whatever. Fairly simple to get at least tri-trans and whatnot with just that. Granted, those who want it -now- has a way :)

2018 is far, I'd be damned if I'm still playing. :o

I, for one, welcome our new IRE overlords.

Here's food for thought. Get 1 billion gold in Lusternia, and that equals roughly 30k USD, so you get that Honda Civic and you have 4k extra.

I do enjoy doing this far more than working...so make it so

Yikes

Maybe I should sell my island then, so I can do better in Achaea.

The described concept is interesting, but could backfire on the users. If credits were used to buy RL objects, then you probably could also SELL these objects in order to get credits... Now that could be dangerous for some of the most addicted players.

Sure, they can sell their stuff and buy credits for the money already but it's not that easy, as it would be if credits were the used currency;)

Interesting chart.

The bestest

Will it ever happen?

Sadly, a lot of players don't live in USA or UK and suchlike and have to pay a lot more to buy credits. It would cost me an arm and a leg now to purchase credits...so the argument can only be directed to those types of countries. I suggest IRE cater for developing countries, in the name of social responsibility.  

Living off playing a game would be the ultimate!

Definitely would be very interesting to play a game and live life because you do play this game!!

This is a really interesting idea. If it were a real-life thing, it wouldn't work for everything, but there could be deals struck with some companies to allow it.

An... interesting concept.

Don't remind me how much I spend on Achaea.

If this goes in, I will be the first to sign up. Yes please!

^

sadly, the Ipad 2 costs less than some artifacts.

It is an interesting thought, and I might actually sign up with that company! -laughing-

The chart is pretty nice indeed, but... would they customise the HDTV or the other stuff for me if I threw in a silver token, too?

for all the logosmas shopping

I lost mine yesterday, actually!

I wonder how many orcs I would have to kill in order to buy a new car?

Hahahahaha

That's all I have to say.

very funny!

Well considering the likes of Second Life and people farming for gold in WoW in China...this can be oddly plausible...difficult, but plausible.

Those comparisons are scaaary...but I guess if you spend a few years working on anything at all you come out pretty far ahead.

Fun idea, but i shudder at the thought of the farming hordes

I thought maybe this was going to be about an IRE credit card with a rewards program that earned credits.

Someday!

I wish that it could really be possible, but logically thinking if you break it down, that would never work. Save for maybe the prepaid idea, and that wouldn't be worth it because of third party's cut. IRE would have to pay out money for all the credits you used to buy real life merchandise. and since most of the credits on the market come from player purchases, each credit would be closer to 5cents then the original suggestion of 35cents if they did want to make it possible without prepay. Because if they did, they would have to make a profit since the credit market is a large part of the IRE's funding if I'm not mistaken. On top of that, the remaining credits on the market come from rewards for things like, the bardic and artisinal awards each month, or the runner up prizes in the seal challenges every year in lusternia for example. Plus some of the credits paid for by players are actually alot cheaper then the package's original price since they often have various credit sale's ranging from 10% to 40% (based on my personal clear memories. could be higher but I can't say i remember seeing it higher.) so the IRE's profit is reduced even more, so for them to maintain a profit large enough to maintain the game's and further expanding of the company, the value of a credit would be really low. 5cents would be a pretty low, but even that seems like it would likely be hard to sell.

My conslusion is that, the idea is only possible with prepaid, and prepaid would be too pricey. you'd pay $10 per load and get maybe 5 credits. making the idea very unworthy of the cost. none of us would really use it. and every company you could pitch the idea to, would quickly reject the thought, knowing that their profit margins would be too low to put in the effort and cost of getting started.

But thats just my thought! hehe XD

GO WYRDO! lol

Not quite the customer base needed for it.

How about a benefits card that you hand in when buying things and lets you save up credits, with being able to cash them in at certain intervals? Or maybe the ability to use points for certain stores to buy credits with. Ofc this would mean IRE entering in some exchange program with those stores.

You know you're addicted when...