Vere, Cui Bono, Felidae?

For some reason, Arizona is the land of the retired people. The end result being that preditors from all over the world come descending upon Arizona to beg, borrow, steal or otherwise obscond from these said retired people ever dollar and cent they may have saved up. Pyramid, Ponzi, Boiler Room scheems galore. It was an eppidemic for a while, and still goes on today. But the end result of many of the scams that were run was the government created a public education effort to make sure people could see what was happening before it was too late. I remember a really interesting television show that explained in a dramatic way when three groups of people combined several different scams into one huge seemingly legal system that trapped thousands of people when it actually happened in real life.

So why am I thinking about this idea again? Has Amway started selling gil now? No...not that I know of... Its about my title I'm reusing. "Really, who benfits, cat?" I have yet again question about what people are thinking about when they design their rules for end game events.

Now, don't get me wrong. This time around, I have seperated with kindness and appreciation. I have no real ill will towards anyone, and I hope they have none towards me. And I did nothing wrong nor do I leave them with anything that would cause anyone a grudge.

This is what I propose as an argument; an intellectual excercise based upon what I know and what I hope to be valid evidence toward that argument. And I hope it is taken to be as much.

Previously, I stated the argument that people act and do things based upon their own goals. For the most part, people need incentive to continue to act in a certain manner. This is a standard for business management as much as it is for natural human nature. But I believe that what I forgot mention was the fact that not every "incentive" are create equally.

Lets look at an idea for a shell created to obtain specific gear. They gather every week to work through time, monster and strategy to obtain the chance for said gear. Attendance for each week, and commitment in lost experience points and consumables becomes the measure of each person's individual commitment. Yet as time moves on, people who obtain gear and complete their goals no longer decide they have a reason to remain and leave. Suddenly there is a void of manpower. They seek to fill this void, but with the caveat for each new person: you cannot obtain gear until the first group obtains their gear. Yet, after time, once these "firsts" obtain gear, they too decide they no longer have a reason to keep working and decide to leave. Again the manpower void, and the cycle continues.

Much like a pyramid scheme. The early joiners are the ones who obtain the benefits of the group. The success is determined upon gaining more "new" people with promises of future rewards that may or may not come.

I am a firm believer in the fact that work should equal reward. Yet just like the idea that a person will work a single job for years without ever the hope of a raise in pay is something that MUST be taken into account. The efforts that things like dynamis and sky takes to complete is heavy and week after week of no rewards--not even a small 1 or 2 thousand gil items--makes the effort worthless. If there is no difference between no or little effort and full and complete effort, then where is the incentive to do either?

I believe there is a happy solution somewhere, but I just know that I couldn't find it where I was at the time. I will continue to seek and maybe I will eventually find it.

Again, I repeat the words of Shakespeare: "If it do come to pass that any man turn ass, leaving his wealth and ease, a stubborn will to please, Ducdame, ducdame, ducdame: Here shall he see gross fools as he, an if he will come to me. "