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The Services Industry


Caesares

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So, I was curious on what the community thought about the possibility of services industry, as in non-essentials, such as insurance, banking, funding, loans, investment, and other things such as hotels and entertainment. 

 

I was wondering if they will be a part of the game, or if the game will be more like EvE, where the majority of organizations have to work mainly on essentials and there aren't, or are limited player-run entertainment groups or orgs, and the banking, insurance, loans etc. that there is is risky, as a player could just grab the money, send it to a friend, and disappear from your radar.

 

Anyway, I was wondering what people thought the role of the service industry will be, whether or major or non existent.

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A very risky business, you would be essentially forced to have a strong military allied with you or personally. You have to be able to deal with people who doesn't want to pay back in ways that makes the next customer afraid to cheat you.

 

That or you have to be VERY VERY careful with who you give loans to.

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Insurance sounds the riskiest, since if you insure a ship, a person could get their friend to "steal" it and then they collect insurance money and still have the ship. Ship insurance could work if limited to an organization with trusted members. As for building insurance, this would be more practical as a building can't be stolen, and a person isn't likely to destroy their building just to get insurance money. Although with insuring structures, I don't see many situations where this would make much sense. For an insurer, you wouldn't want to insure an unprotected players home as it's at high risk, and insuring something large like a town/city would also be risky, since in a successful attack the whole town/city is likely to be destroyed/looted. I just don't think a lot of people would want to be insurers, or want to get insurance.

As for banking, I could see that as a possibility with a trusted organization. Basically people would agree to give their money to the bank, and the bank would make investments with the money to make more money. loans/investments will likely only happen with trusted players/organizations. If someone/some organization gets a large loan and never pays it off, they'll need to be able to be held accountable, so a military force would be needed to make sure they pay. 

Basically people would only really use a bank if the bank reliably makes their customers money, so they would need to build up a very good reputation. 

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I feel like a hotel would have merit for those players who have no alliance ties in an area. Hotels offer a safe place to store your gear and lay low in exchange for a bit of cash. Makes being a full PvPer easier: you won't even have to build a makeshift base to store your items for a while, you can just delegate that task to the hotel. Thus, people who don't want to get involved with the PvE side of DU at all can do that.

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With the Insurance, Funding, Loans, and possibly Investing, I have a feeling no one will go into this because it will be very risky and will be you trusting your hard earned in-game money with internet strangers in a gaming community.

 

In terms of the banking, this has been brought up a lot and I know there will be orgs invested in running banks whether private or public. 

 

With hotels and entertainment, I don't really think hotels will be a thing but entertainment for sure. There are tons of threads on racing events, casinos, fight clubs and more. It will be cool to see what people end up scripting and designing

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The problem is not so much the concept as rather it is the idea of how to get it into the game over time. As these ideas come through, the implementation of systems will take time. I'll give you an example.

 

Of course credit is something we have in the real world(depending on what country you are in) and the ability to predict on how a person will take care of the funds they receive and pay you back is important. While not a supprise to most of you, the problem is getting a system like that in place and enough people on it. As most of this relies on trust and incentive to join these sorts of systems.

 

One unbiased organization could begin a startup and offer credit services. While I am sure someone has thought of this and an organization might exist to accomplish this, the funds required to back the organization and get it off the ground are those that are worthy lengthy consideration. Creating such requires a larger entity. Here is where we get to the problem.

 

There either needs to be a coalition to finance such organizations from a number of biased groups, such as the Terran Union, Band of Outlaws, Cinderfall Syndicate, Empire(s), and other orgs. This would largely be possible if there is a high need that outweighs the risks. Effectively creating services such as loans companies, banks, investment economics(stock market), and so forth will take time. I do imagine if someone can create this idea and execute it well, it will be interesting.

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Such services will exist at some point but to me they will only fill a niche market, if any at all (except for scamming).

Every mechanic I've seen so far can be abused one way or the other, so it'll mostly depend on trust. And that trust is hard to earn.

 

Even with things as parking lots for constructs to be safe when you're on vacation or something. I, as a pirate, would run such a business for months, earn the trust with an alt and then take all the money, constructs and equipment and run.....

 

IMHO such things will be provided by alliances and orgs themselves, because it's easier to trust them

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As already stated by some, some things in that area will be less popular or spread out (niche market, higher risk, etc.) than others.

 

I do see a more golden future for the event and entertainment branch, including news of any kind. That is often also less abstract for most people, often associated with a faster "reward" or feedback compared to insurance, banking, etc.

 

I am also more leaning towards those things than banking and whatnot and I am sure some of the things will have a practical reasons, such as hotels.

 

The question is: who mans or operates some of these things if automation can't take care of it? You'd have to be (or find) that guy behind the counter, hoping for customers. At least in some hotel if it can't be automated unlike some other things like a parking lot. In such or a hotel, you'd have to consider security aspects in turn and hire people or do it yourself.

 

Or, say, clubs. Those probably need increased "maintenance" to make something out of it. In the end, the question is: Is the reward worth the effort or risks I guess.

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It would be nice to have services.

But as was said before, who are you going to trust?

 

Just as an example, in EVE there have been several attempts at banks or investment funds. As far as I know at some point someone took the money and ran. The age and reputation of the character didnt mean much in those cases.

 

One time an org was hired to assasinate another orgs leader. What happened was that the assasins infiltrated the org, moved up the ladder and gained enough trust to be promoted into positions of power. This was the long con game. Then one day they stole everything that wasnt nailed down and delivered on their contract.

 

It makes for a great story and cautionary tale. You never know who you are dealing with. ;)

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"

Insurance needn't be so hard or risky. 

 

If Dual Universe implements the "kill-mail" concept from Eve, there are less ways in which it can be abused. 

 

If, for example, a report is generated for each construct that is destroyed, the insurance organisation will simply ask you for the report. If you can't produce it, you don't get anything. The best way to do this would be to provide some in-game method for sending mails. Using the Forums can be abused: all it takes is a screenshot and some trivial skill in photo manipulation and any such report can be manufactured or modified. Using an in-game mailing system ensures that no external influence will be involved.

 

As for banking and the majority of services, the real problem is integrity on the part of the organisation. I hope Novaquark doesn't step in when people are scammed or cheated out of their money, because...this is a sandbox. Everyone is looking for someone honest to trust their possessions with and the hurdle the service providers are going to face is establishing reliable trust. The theft of a single player within an Insurance styled organisation can spell doom for the entire group or deal a crippling blow for a considerable time. 

 

 

Cheers.

"

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For banking service, I would like to know do you have to physically be there to perform a loan transaction or can it be done electronically.  I ask because, lets say John Doe is looking for a loan but the Banker is offworld, exploring, mining, building, etc.  Can the banker still provide the loan electronically.  Same for collecting payments, how would that be handled?  Is there a mechanism to handle that?  Can you email funds?  Maybe a terminal can be made like an ATM machine?

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For banking service, I would like to know do you have to physically be there to perform a loan transaction or can it be done electronically.  I ask because, lets say John Doe is looking for a loan but the Banker is offworld, exploring, mining, building, etc.  Can the banker still provide the loan electronically.  Same for collecting payments, how would that be handled?  Is there a mechanism to handle that?  Can you email funds?  Maybe a terminal can be made like an ATM machine?

I think they said it will be a currency like EvE, where it can be exchanged like internet currency or BTC.

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