Gasp! Shock! Sputter! Spit! Faint! etc...etc...etc.

I've heard a lot about people arguing that a feature shouldn't be allowed because you can buy your way to the top if that feature was added. But come the hell on people, the mafia is not about who has the biggest gun. It's about who has the most money.

Money

Is

Power.

Why shouldn't we have features here that reflect that?

I have beautiful features...

The sky is the limit.

All you need is a ladder...

Nods

Looks over at the masses of bodyguards surrounding him.

I have no clue what you speak of. However I would like a coke. Can I buy one of those?

OMG

people can use game money to purchase credits

real money doesnt even have to come into play

ZOMG

Someone shoot that Asylum guy please x

I will give zeee a ten minute pass with my sexy "features"

Exactly my point Ragnarok. Anyone that puts some effort into the business aspect of the game can prosper quite a good amount in a short amount of time.

All credit's do originate from real money purchase, so that's not strictly true...

Just because a credit originates from a real money purchase is irrelevant. They are up on the marketplace. Always. I never purchase credits with real money, but I have 50 or more at any given time.

O.k....ten minutes and 50 credits?

Drexler: I had 75 credits when I registered this account.

Hows does your credit count make Asylum die a thousand deaths?? 

Asylum will never die. Much like gonorrhea.

Bad times, was worth asking though! God Speed!

If you've to ask it's not going to happen. Asylum is that good.
*nods*

The secret is the cocaine they put in the Coke. It's all kinds of addicting.

Begins singing.

Hide yo wife, hide yo kids Asylums' Coke is gonna get'em all.

Aybabtu, you have bought 50 credits. Thats great. But then the 50 credits you bought have still given those with a lot of IRL cash the advantage over those who don't have it.

Now, I understand thats just the way it is now. I understand the reasons why credits were put into place and I accept that money for the coders et al isn't exactly great. The game needs to recoup what it loses. But from a solely selfish point of view I have never liked it. The playing field isn't so much level anymore. It's a massive mountain. Yes, you can work your way to the top over a number of months. Or you can be old enough and rich enough to buy yourself there in a week.

But it is what it is. But don't slag people off for saying what is essentially correct. You can, and people do, buy their way to the top of certain things within the game. That is their choice I accept. But a young wo/man on shit wages and no spare cash is now at a massive disadvantage straight off the bat. The only thing that used to seperate users was a set of answers and time spent here. Not the case anymore.

Sam_Tyler:

I made 13 mill in my first month alive. I did nothing more than a couple scattered petties, about 10 drug runs, a few scattered felonies, and a very rigorous attack on the credit marketplace.

The only way the people that purchase credits with IRL money are getting an advantage is if they get things that we who don't buy with IRL money get. And in this case, that's just not the case. In anything. I can get anything with the credits I buy that anyone else can. I also, in the end, wind up with MORE MONEY than the people that bought with IRL money get.

How is that? Because I buy from them for low, and then resell them. Their profit margin may be higher, but not by much more than a drug-run. So that's 1 drug run to equalize the playing field.

It's not as bad as everyone makes it out to be.

You monoploised the marketplace. Thats fine. That works for you.

You say they only make as much as a drug run. Aye but if they do that drug run 10 times in an hour? 100 credits a week.

What the people with credits get is huge sums of money. And they are huge. Whether I buy and sell credits or not. They have no intial MR money out lay. They literally make 1.5 million minimum from every deal you do. 15 mill a week + the drug runs they can do the same as everyone else. I'd say thats quite a few more Bodyguards, which directly impact game play, more than anyone else. No?

It is obvious that repeatedly gaining 100s of bodyguards through real money has an impact upon the game.

It is similarly obvious that the use of real money gives an advantage to those who use it over those who do not.