Of course I will do so; further, I will also question that it is suboptimal.

Your definition of "optimal" appears to be "making all the profit you can".

The definition of optimal for the shopkeepers you are arguing with is something else entirely. Their definition is the same one I have been telling you; the optimal ratio between time spent and gold gained. That is optimal shopkeeping to me, and them. That is generally how running a shop in Lusternia goes.

If someone sells a lot lower than you and manages to restock it to satisfy demand, then your price can go down a bit in order to continue fulfilling the same time -> sale ratio; you're not really competing with other people directly, you're just riding the upper end of the market wave at a rate that earns you a nice supplemental income without forcing you to spend all your time restocking (because who the heck wants to do that?).

You are welcome to try to bring real-world models in to drive them all out of business, but I can guarantee it won't. It may just drop prices a bit, until you get tired of it.

In a business the definition of optimal is always about profit. Trying to argue that it can be a business and not based on profit is silly. If you are running the shop as a hobby, then it is not an actual business but a hobby. There is a reason the United States Government has different classifications for hobby "businesses" and real ones that require all sorts of hoops.

Now, given that I said it was a bad business plan, and not a bad hobby plan, or a bad game plane, or a bad enjoyment of your own personal plan plan, I wasn't wrong. In terms of business--hence automatically referring to an endeavor attempting to make profit--it is, objectively suboptimal, and therefore "bad" in comparison.

I can buy a 47c cheeseburger at Burger Boat. Or I can go to Super Burger Extraordinaire, pay $8, but get an amazing whiskey-imbued burger topped with exquisite cheeses on a bun baked by a 98 year old Italian great grandmother who knows the secret recipes of the old country-- not to mention the hundreds of toppings and side dishes. Yeah, Burger Boat is cheaper. But the selection and quality of Super Burger Extraordinaire is unmatched by the Boat.

Guess which one Lendren is? That's why he can charge higher.

EDIT:

This is Lusternia. Lusternia is a game. You make little words appear on the screen in different combinations in order to gain satisfaction from the combinations. Not a single player, even those who own text shops, are making a cent of profit.

This would be applicable if Lendren wasn't selling the exact same ring with the exact same enchantment for twice the price.

This is more akin to McDonalds A charging $.98 and McDonalds B charging $2. Its the same product.

And actually, if you make a novice in Serenwilde, the first thing a lot of people will tell you is that Lendren overcharges so you should look other places.

If that isn't the definition of a bad business plan, I'm not sure what is.

And your problem is that you are defining in-game businesses as real-world businesses when they are not. I mean, take a look at them! They are businesses within a game that earn no real-world money, so they can't help but be anything but a 'hobby'. From the word go. They aren't going to pay any of your bills, after all.

That is why I state that the Lusternian business plan has no relation to the real-world business plan. It just does not. It's a different world, different resource limitations, different amounts of time that can be spent on it, limitations on what can be created, and so on. It also has significantly fewer expenses in order to keep your business going; taxes in Glomdoring, for example, are 7000 gold a year (not even a percentage of income with specific fees and licenses attached). It is fundamentally a different environment from a real-world economy, especially where shops are concerned. As such, the Lusternian business model is about finding the right balance between time spent and income produced, instead of being just about the bottom line.

And yet people continue to shop there. Because he is a reliable, dependable supplier. Sure, you can search around to find a lower price. But it's much easier to go to Lendren's shop, because it is hard to find something he does not sell that you regularly need. Price is not really an issue in a game where making money is easier than having babies.

DS, I want you to know that I say this in love. I like you. I really do. You seem smart, and I dig that.

90% of your posts could be replaced with an MP3 of the sound that balloons make when you rub them together.

The reason I'm letting you know is that your initial posts seemed to indicate that you wished more people would interact with you, and I totally hope that happens. You have got to slow ya roll, dawg.

But, given that you people only seem to know how to pick at semantics and use the magic argument of "NUH UH!", I'm just going to drop it, because its like trying to have a discussion with a brick wall.

Wtf? I'm not even whining about anything.

And honestly, after dealing with certain people here on the forums, it only sort of reinforced my opinion that I should cancel my membership and save the money. There is such a "agree with Regular X or get dog-piled for it" mentality that it is a huge turn-off. Like this situation--i'm not whining or complaining, but you feel the need to tell me I am, just because I am defending my point.

Does Xenthos get any snide comments even though he is doing the exact same thing I am? Of course not. Just me.

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEACH.

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEACH.

Scribe, sometimes you just have to let things go. I know this violates all known laws of the Internet, but not everything in-game is worth complaining about on the forums, and out of that subset, even fewer things are worthy of a protracted debate.

Once again, not trying to tell you how to live your life. Just trying to be pals. I've also had a lot of Riesling.

I WASN'T COMPLAINING ABOUT ANYTHING. I made a little joke question about Lendren's prices, and I got god damned attacked for it. Half the damned Serenwilde thinks he overcharges, and will say so out in the open. But I make a joke about it on the forums? Oh, I must be a whiner.

Jesus christ.

Alternatively, you can purchase a shop, try to stock it and run it, and see how it goes. The people you're arguing against are shopkeepers (and have been for real-life years, about three in Ragniliff's case), so are arguing from the side of experience. It really is a different world, but it's harder to see if you're not involved in it.

It's not a magic, "NUH UH" any more than your side is a magic, "UH HUH IT JUST IS." It's just a completely different world that you have to actually play around with for a while to get a feel for it.

Nearly all of the mass-produced cheap shop-owners burn themselves out pretty quickly, and either sell their shops or quit and get their shops passed on to someone else. The general long-term shop model is the one we're describing to you, because that's how people manage to keep their shop going for all that time while still playing and enjoying the game.

Further, the longer the shop is open, the more revenue it will produce...

Ok.

Seconded, I've just been too chicken to say so out loud.

You seem potentially rad, DS, but you're doing a bull in a china shop kinda thing here, and have been for a few days now.

Also, screw shops for profit! I'll visit my local for-profit blood plasma collection center twice per week, make $70 total, use that to buy 200 credits, then turn those into 1,320,000 gold. (Exchanging blood for text goodies, now there's a concept, eh?)

I did in fact get a snide comment. Did you read AllergictoSabres' post?

We've just mostly learned that snide comments slide off of Xenthos. He collects them in little pots, and when the pots fill, he unleashes them on unsuspecting forum goers who are left completely Xenthos/Xinemus'd, thinking "wtf just happened?"

If you want to make gold, it's a "bad business plan" to run a shop at all. The time spent stocking the shop would generate far more revenue if you spent it bashing gold areas, especially places like the Catacombs.

A lot of people, you'll find, don't run shops for the gold. They run them for the fun of exploring a different part of Lusternia, and for the enjoyment of being able to provide a large variety of wares, and in doing so helping people. If, in having a slightly higher price, you ensure that there will be that item there when someone really needs it, that makes some people happy.

Is Xinemus delving into my pots again?

Bad Xinemus, bad!

Then I've been doing something wrong.



Me. You. Best friends man. We can go places. Like to the store, but that's as far as I'll go with a stranger.



There are snide comments about Xenthos everywhere. It's a National Past-time.

For people who've been on these forums a long time, they've learned to just roll their eyes and move on. This is the interwebs. Arguing on them or getting actually upset over anything is pointless. If you like to argue, by all means do. Just don't do it if it makes you upset. People like Xenthos can go for YEARS arguing a point here. He likes to do it and from all I can tell doesn't actually take anything personally, which is how it should be. If that's not for you, don't engage him (or others) after you've gotten the point you wanted to make out.

Just sayin'.