Opening a Banking Service

[Belark]

...and that\'s why we got mules!

[Araye]

True money is weightless and the point is not to hold it because they are loaded down with weight.  So let me give you an example of the purpose it would serve.

Araye needs to give Masoj 10000 trias as Masoj is the treasurer for the DSG guild.  But Masoj is no where to be found and hasn\'t played for three days.  Araye must hold onto that money until such time as he sees Masoj and must remember that he needs to give it to him.  (We have a guild contribution system so that we can host events).  In the meantime, Paselle wants to give Masoj money too, but instead gives it to Araye, who must again remember to give this money to Masoj.  But Araye needed to train and spent that money.  Oopsie...  Now Asalya needs a new dress for the Ambassador\'s Ball and is five hundred trias short.  Since it is a guild function, she is allowed to withdrawal money from the guild treasury for this purpose.  Oopse, where\'s Masoj?  She thinks, \"well I\'ll just ask Araye\".  Nope he accidently spent it training.  Maybe Paselle has some money...  He just gave it to Araye.  Time to go loot a Longsword then.  Now Asalya gets back to the dressmaker and finds out that Ripshol has purchased it out from under her nose.  If only she had that 500 trias quicker.  A bank sure would have been helpful.

Anyway, this is just one example of the purpose it would serve.  I\'m sure there are many other cleaver uses.

Now, do we trust you???  Open a branch office and let\'s find out.

Araye

[Rolf Blacksmith]

But storing money for someone else is a good idea!

Imagine, someone currently not online needs some money, but you have to leave. So you give a banker the money (along with a note or instriction), and the other one can fetch it when he goes online, or, like already mentioned, create a fund for a guild or a similar grouping.

[Pestilence]

hmm well we do have a treasury character in our guild, but to entrust that to just anyone.....

Anyhow why would I pay for that if I can simply make an extra character for that? It might work if you could somehow garuntee you would have someone dear 24/7 but otherwise I don\'t see people paying for it. Not much anyhow.

[Araye]

Yes, a guild could do that and I am sure this is how some guilds operate stores and such.  BUT as I\'m sure Drey will tell you two posts from now, you are not supposed to \"exploit\" the game in that way.  It discourages role playing and takes opportunities like this away from characters that want to role play a banker or open stores or whatever.

I agree that we are short of tools (like a sign or placard, instead of using pets or a locking chest) to take this game and economy away from the npc\'s, but we should encourage PC\'s in their attempts to do so.

Araye

[miadon]

Well Araye if you want to store some tria with me now, you can

[Drey]

Originally posted by miadon
true, but would people trust me enough :p. Well thats up to them.

well, isn\'t the whole banking thing done on trust + reputation anyway?

[Einnol]

I see great potential in this idea.  It could even be taken to a bigger level.  Instead of one \'banker\', how about a banking guild (ie \'The Yliakum Banking Guild\' or \'The First Bank of Yliakum\')?  This would greatly improve the chances of finding someone with whom to make deposits or withdrawals.

Originally posted by Araye
Now guilds can come to you (or players with lots of cash) and pay you to hold onto it for them.

As Araye stated, the \'banking guild\' could have personal and guild (business) accounts.  Perhaps any member of a guild could make deposits to the guild account, but only certain members (guild leader, treasurer?) could make withdrawals.  I guess that would be up to the account holder as far as who is authorized to do what.  The banking guild would have to keep accurate records of transactions.  A simple PHP/MySQL application could probably handle it or perhaps a forum with one thread per account and posts for transactions to the account.

From section 3.6.4 of the Player\'s Guide
To make large trades like these using official currency, banks or Craft Guilds will issue credit letters to whoever needs them.

Since we still lack in-game mechanics for IOU\'s or credit letters at this time, this could be a suitable replacement.  E-mails/PM\'s to the banking guild could be used to authorize payments to a person or guild either thru dispersment of tria from the banking guild to the recipient or an account to account transfer.  Want to make a payment or donation to a person, guild, or other \'unofficial organization\' that has an account?  Simply make a deposit in their name to their account.  How about husband-wife joint accounts where both can make deposits/withdrawals and share \'household income and expenses\'?

Hey, it is a thought anyway.  

[miadon]

look at my sign :p

[Einnol]

 There you go.  Think big!!!  That\'s what I\'m talking about.

/me looks around for an ATM machine.

[ou8i8uo]

When you first told me about this idea, I didn\'t fully understand what you were talking about. I think its a great idea! Iwill stop and swap you change whenever i have it.

[Araye]

Hey Miadon, you have to be on all the time for this idea to work.

we have need of your service right at this moment.  We need to transfer money from one player to another and can\'t seem to get them on PS at the same time.

This is a relatively large sum of money and could have been very lucrative for you.  BUT, you HAVE to be on all the time because missing the bank just won\'t be acceptable.  Maybe you could have set hours?

[Avarus]

Originally posted by miadon
opposite Bodocher (Spelling??)

It\'s Bodacher...

[Pestilence]

It\'s not exploiting the system to have a character that you use for banking of your guild. Why would it be? It gives no benefits exept that it\'s clear it\'s guildmoney and it\'s not unrealistic in any way to have a person in your guild that oversees your financial matters.

If you don\'t agree you could also see it as a way to compensate for the fact there is no guildhouse or guildstorage where you could otherwise keep guildmoney and properties.

Planeshift is only a beta and working around something that isn\'t implemented yet isn\'t exploiting the game.