What exactly are you expecting? It sounds like you want altruistic people who deposit regularly, cite poetry in the city squares and scatter rose petals on the highways to be rewarded with what's been described as basically premium mining missions....but the missions should loot well? You post is completely at odds with itself. IRL companies are set up with investors to target specific ship wrecks. The investors expect some sort of return. That may be money. It may be that they are wealthy and would like to document our heritage. Perhaps they are just curious. IRL museums either have a private donor base or are funded out of tax dollars. Do you expect wealthy hunters to donate ped so some people can explore their intellectual side and then exhibit what they find? I doubt that will happen. Do you expect MA or Ark to tax all players so that a few can go solve puzzles and dig up cool stuff? That won't happen either. Ark's challenge is to make the treasure desirable in game enough so that people are willing to pay for it. Otherwise the profession is DOA and they've just spent a lot of money to provide you with entertainment. Call me a "greedy miner" if you wish but crafters rely on my minerals to craft and hunters rely on the weapons crafted. Otherwise people are left with TT items and what's looted from mobs.
Doc, for the most part not at all because of the Uniqueness of this entire idea that is to be incorperated into a RCE, I love it sure. Rather not entirelly copied from RL ofc. Heck I also loved watching treasure hunting by ship on NatGeo. The ship costs a small fortune to maintain and not to mention not all is treasure but there are artifacts also removed. I am also curious tho and perhaps may be surprized at the outcome and implimentation of this. Arkadia has a Museum I too was a miner and can relate. Combination in loot with both artifacts and treasure, all with monetary and historical vallue ? research vallue? Lots of factors.
Mistress, I am glad you got the point of my post. IRL, I fight traffic, put up with endless meetings, etc so I can pay taxes (museums are cool) and have some left over for expenses. I also donate so others can indulge in their passions and my "return" is emotional. Interestingly, the greediest of the greedy such as Bill Gates and Andrew Carnegie usually set up the largest foundations and ultimately give the most over time. I think MA and Ark have a huge challenge on their hands. How do they make archaeology and treasure hunting desirable without making is another grinding profession? Anything people discover will be immediately posted on the forums which adds another level of complexity. It would be very cool if they came up with a interesting story line like Myst so people could just have some fun and keep them engaged. What we have now is a tease from David so we'll just have to stay tuned. It would be nice if a post on the forum sparked some ideas from the design team and the person who posted it gets a nice unique item, even if it's just something they can hand on the wall in their apartment. What is refreshing is that Ark is soliciting ideas and responding to people. That keeps people engaged. I added my two pec to another thread in this forum on what I would find interesting.
