Rent Seeking Behavior

[Wil]

I'd like to introduce my fellow players to an economics concept called "rent seeking behavior." Contrary to the name, it has barely any connection with what you understand a lease to mean.

Rent-seeking is defined as the act of growing one's existing wealth by manipulating the social or political environment without creating new wealth. Specifically it involves the capture of regulatory agencies to establish a coercive oligarchy that results in advantages to the rent-seekers while imposing disadvantages on their up and coming competitors.

For example, suppose someone were to buy his way to the #1 position within a game. He then finds the #2 and #3 players chasing close on his heels using another technique. So, he lobbies the game operator for rule changes which would distinctly disadvantage the #2 and #3 players without hugely affecting him.

Naturally the #1 player has many plausible reasons why candidate rule changes would improve the game. He's even made a compelling demonstration why failing to change the rules would be bad. But no matter how they play out, it can't be ignored that the any of the changes would serve to help him retain the #1 spot.

Such behavior, should you observe it, would be a textbook example of "rent seeking."

More reading if you're interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking

[Johnny Warren]

Interesting. While I have previously observed this behaviour, in RL and in game, I had no idea it had a name.

[Geriatric]

i had no idea thats what it was called

i was reading about a legal dispute with jack daniels and smaller distilleries about being able to be marketted at tennessee whiskey

http://knoxblogs.com/humphreyhill/2015/ ... war-again/

the exact same thing happens in farming too, the super big farms with hundreds of thousands of acres that are owned by hedge funds, lobby the government to bring in new stricter farming regulation

this destroys the smaller farms and therefore destroys the competition,

[Zanzi]

Very interesting and educational post. How is this related to UOex?

[Geriatric]

Very interesting and educational post. How is this related to UOex?

with the argument of balron scripting, the richest people are going to promote the idea that keeps them as the richest people

[Muolke]

with the argument of balron scripting, the richest people are going to promote the idea that keeps them as the richest people

But those that have used the automatic balron farming scripts the past few years are all among the richest players on the shard so...getting rid of that or at least diluting earnings from it would actually hinder those same players...not help them.

[Johnny Warren]

Maybe those that farm heavily are among the richest, and well they should be if they are able to spend a serious 8 hours a day playing. I know I could never do that and I used to gripe about it big time, but I have come to accept I was sooking because I couldn't grind as long or hard as the newer generation of powergamers. But the point is, they are still well below the wealth level of the shard's uber rich, and your comment is deliberately deflecting that fact. This Rent Seeking Behaviour seems to me that the wealthiest are targeting those that are closest to attaining their level of wealth, not those practices much further down the tree. I mean nobody is seeking change to the rat quest as an easy source of gold. Nerfing the ballys is designed just to hit the tier of "new money" players who grind long hours to try and catch those that have had years headstart. I think the term fairly aptly describes some of the arguments we are seeing regarding balron farming. With the free release of the script even the newest of players now have a fast-ish route to make some wealth and the uber rich are calling for it to be nerfed. Seems like a textbook case.

[Muolke]

Maybe those that farm heavily are among the richest, and well they should be if they are able to spend a serious 8 hours a day playing. I know I could never do that and I used to gripe about it big time, but I have come to accept I was sooking because I couldn't grind as long or hard as the newer generation of powergamers.

I think what you meant to say is…

“I used to be vehemently against being able to recall around farming Balrons 8 hours per day but since I’m now in a guild where my guild master farms Balrons more than any other player on the shard I am conveniently changing my opinion on it for personal gain”

[arrow]

Back in the old days we were more concerned about (no slur intended) Chinese Gold Farming. Very annoying, degrades the game experience and causes major inflation. Not exactly what is happening here but still annoying, degrading and inflationary!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_farm ... _sweatshop
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/ ... aming-scam

Lord British plans for future r/l gold farming: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/pc/richar ... owered-mmo Play to get paid !

[Cerrera]

Lol, ty for such info, also didnt knew that it has a name, i was calling it, that everyone turns shirt on hes own side

[Wil]

For example, suppose someone were to buy his way to the #1 position within a game. He then finds the #2 and #3 players chasing close on his heels using another technique. So, he lobbies the game operator for rule changes which would distinctly disadvantage the #2 and #3 players without hugely affecting him.

Naturally the #1 player has many plausible reasons why candidate rule changes would improve the game. He's even made a compelling demonstration why failing to change the rules would be bad. But no matter how they play out, it can't be ignored that the any of the changes would serve to help him retain the #1 spot.

Such behavior, should you observe it, would be a textbook example of "rent seeking."

But those that have used the automatic balron farming scripts the past few years are all among the richest players on the shard so...getting rid of that or at least diluting earnings from it would actually hinder those same players...not help them.

I fear I was too subtle. I modeled the hypothetical example on you, Muolke. Your behavior. In this thread if no other, you are my #1 player.

I can only hope that +Colibri recognizes his own role in the drama as the regulatory authority targeted for manipulation by rent seeking behavior.

[DonQuixote]

For example, suppose someone were to buy his way to the #1 position within a game. He then finds the #2 and #3 players chasing close on his heels using another technique. So, he lobbies the game operator for rule changes which would distinctly disadvantage the #2 and #3 players without hugely affecting him.

Naturally the #1 player has many plausible reasons why candidate rule changes would improve the game. He's even made a compelling demonstration why failing to change the rules would be bad. But no matter how they play out, it can't be ignored that the any of the changes would serve to help him retain the #1 spot.

Such behavior, should you observe it, would be a textbook example of "rent seeking."

But those that have used the automatic balron farming scripts the past few years are all among the richest players on the shard so...getting rid of that or at least diluting earnings from it would actually hinder those same players...not help them.

I fear I was too subtle. I modeled the hypothetical example on you, Muolke. Your behavior. In this thread if no other, you are my #1 player.

I can only hope that +Colibri recognizes his own role in the drama as the regulatory authority targeted for manipulation by rent seeking behavior.

It's interesting to watch exactly what the post was made about play out inside the post. This rent seeking behavior thing is very interesting.

[Turnabout]

***

I fear I was too subtle. I modeled the hypothetical example on you, Muolke. Your behavior. In this thread if no other, you are my #1 player.

I can only hope that +Colibri recognizes his own role in the drama as the regulatory authority targeted for manipulation by rent seeking behavior.

Congrats this is your 1k post lol...

Edite: fixing quotes.

[Muolke]

But those that have used the automatic balron farming scripts the past few years are all among the richest players on the shard so...getting rid of that or at least diluting earnings from it would actually hinder those same players...not help them.

I fear I was too subtle. I modeled the hypothetical example on you, Muolke. Your behavior. In this thread if no other, you are my #1 player.

I can only hope that +Colibri recognizes his own role in the drama as the regulatory authority targeted for manipulation by rent seeking behavior.

You weren't too "subtle". The word you're looking for is that you didn't have the cojones to do it in the first place. You're the typical Liberal. You see something or someone be much more successful than you at something and you dig deep in some dictionary to give them a label in an effort to appeal to others who may be swayed by that. Liberals do it all the time by calling people racists, homophobes, or whatever other label they can come up with when someone doesn't agree with them or chooses not to participate in their delusional games.

The reality, for those reading, is that Wil has been on this server for probably as long if not longer than I have and he looks at his gear and then looks at mine and his inner liberal gets jealous. He realizes how big of a failure he is in this game considering how other players with 1-2 years in the game have much more than he does in terms of wealth and items they own.

Another player posted that in the past 2-3 years I was number 3 on the list of spenders at auction. Somehow that makes me the wealthiest player in the game and makes me want to take down anyone else that even comes close. An interesting theory but the only problem is that it is debunked simply by the fact that the top spender at auctions is in my guild and the 2nd highest spender at auctions has a good relationship with me in game.

So while some players may be swayed by the attempt Wil is making to throw a label on me to try and appeal to your emotional side, what he's saying is simply not true and there's factual evidence that discredits this entire theory. But as we all know...liberals don't care about any of those pesky facts. They only care about being right.

Lastly, if you farm gold and make 500,000-600,000 gold per hour that's the equivalent of a $1 donation. I don't need to cut down on other players gold farming since all they have to do is donate a few dollars and have enough gold to buy what they want. Unlike John Warren who has conveniently changed his position on this matter, my position has remained the same about the negative effects of Balron recall farming in the server. I was against it when I started in this game and was poor and i'm against it now as one of the wealthiest players on the shard. I didn't change my opinion based on convenience or based on what my guild mates do to gain wealth in the game. That would be very hypocritical of me.

[Wil]

You weren't too "subtle". The word you're looking for is that you didn't have the cojones to do it in the first place. You're the typical Liberal. You see something or someone be much more successful than you at something and you dig deep in some dictionary to give them a label in an effort to appeal to others who may be swayed by that. Liberals do it all the time by calling people racists, homophobes, or whatever other label they can come up with when someone doesn't agree with them or chooses not to participate in their delusional games.

The reality, for those reading, is that Wil has been on this server for probably as long if not longer than I have and he looks at his gear and then looks at mine and his inner liberal gets jealous.

Oh, did I trigger you? For the record, I'm just as skillful at pressing the Donate button as you are. I've simply done it less.