Hacker News Reader

HNHacker News

Top New Best Ask Show Jobs

Comment by callmeed | Hacker News Reader

Full thread

callmeed·

From the FAQ:

>> Q: Can customers use their Amazon Coins to buy in-game currencies?

>> Yes. Customers will be able to purchase in-game currencies with Amazon Coins.

Good Lord, how many levels of fake money do we have to travel down?

View on HN

...USD to buy Bitcoins to buy gift cards to buy Amazon coins to buy in-game currency to buy in-game items to build up my virtual character which I sell on ebay for USD to buy Bitcoins...

This is what I heard in my head while reading your comment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FpCM5cWkNM

tweet version of the comment> "buy BTC to buy gift cards to buy Amazon coins to buy in-game currency to buy in-game items to sell my character on ebay for USD to buy BTC"

You ought to 3d print the in-game items and then sell licenses to the files.

And the joy it's all essentially virtual. Not like USD is much more real than the rest.

The "Apple Dollars" you have in your iTunes account from gift cards are no more "real" than Amazon Coins.

At least it's a (nearly) 1:1 rate.

This seems to be as well, just multiply the USD amount by 100 or divide the Amazon Coin amount by 100.

Taking it out of USD and changing the units around (even though it's just dropping a decimal point) mentally disassociates 'Amazon Coins' from USD. Microsoft goes even further on the Xbox, 1 USD (+ local sales tax) buys 80 MSP; so it takes a moment to realize an 800 MSP game is actually $10.

I've seen this many other places. They seem to intentionally choose hard-to-calculate multiples. No one ever sets them at 10 or 100 to the dollar.

They are less abstract. My 8 year old's iTunes balance has a $ in front of it. She understands it.

It is more like a credit balance though, and not a virtual currency. Purposefully, I imagine, to make accounting/taxes more straightforward.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com