More Guild Wars

Guild Wars game post again.

There is this "profession" in Guild Wars called Running, where a Runner takes a group of players into his party and brings them to another town. Once you've visited a town once it appears on your map and you can instantly travel to that town any time you want, so reaching a town is important. Why players sometimes need a Runner - the route to that zone may be very dangerous, and fighting your way there bit by bit with a team can take a long time and success is often slim. Especially if you don't know the way, or indeed the safe way through a zone.

Runners usually try to charge for services : it takes a lot of experience to run a route, and it also takes highly expensive equipment and skills if you want to succeed. Here is where the payment method fails : without there being a counterparty or escrow fund, either party has an incentive to cheat the other. If the clients pay before the run, the runner can just take off with the money without providing the service. If the clients pay after the run, the clients can just walk away without paying the runner. If there is split payment / payment halfway there is still incentive for either side to cheat.

A new trend has emerged which I have taken to following : runners like me who offer to run people to locations for free, and simply accept donations upon arrival. It is a trust system : doubtless the runners earn less, but also a surprising number of players are willing to pay full market price for the run at arrival. And I guess it is a game after all : and runners should enjoy running for its own sake.