i'd like to speak to the manager this was just a thought i had in the shower, but why does coffee milk exist if it serves the same purpose as a nearest town scroll? also they cost the same btw.... nearest town scrolls and coffee milk cost the same and serve the same purpose, but take up 2x the amount of space in ur use tab.. with that extra slot u could be holding a stack of chaos scrolls instead nlc scrolls used to function in that you could use them from phantom forest/crimsonwood keep or amoria to tp u back to nlc, but now u can use return scrolls instead lmao jus make doors work let's not also forget that victoria island map scrolls cost more than the return scrolls even though the town scrolls are universal and can be used anywhere but u can just use taxi cabs to get around victoria island so really, what is the point of having coffee milk and nlc town scrolls if their functions are rendered useless by return scrolls? Spoiler this may seem like troll post but i rily would like to know why coffee milk and nlc scrolls exist if they r useless? i am not suggesting removal of anything.. jus wna kno why......
ya this has to be up there with the greats like autoban and rwt, as a royaler im faced with dilemmas on a daily basis the last thing i need is to contemplate between coffee milk and town scroll also how hikari gona charge an entry fee for the same price on coffees as towns i don't pay a fee to go into kerning pharmacy...
A very common element in late-capitalist society is that a certain breed of commodities is brought into existence which defies the classical laws of value. Commodities are known to contain two separate instances of value, use and exchange, the former the aspect of a product that satisfies a need, the latter the aspect which indicates how much general equivalent (i.g. money) is to be exchange to receive the product from a previous owner. As technology and Capital's insatiable thirst for self-replication and accumulation advance forth over time and societies slowly but surely turn post-industrial (i.e. late capitalist), a new type of value is added to the row of use and exchange values: Sign Value. Jean Baudrillard is the most associated thinker when it comes to the dissection of Sign Value in modern society, and believed it to be a form of value which in post-industrial societies would come to rule above the other types of value in terms of defining what value any sort of commodity might hold in the eyes of a consumer. Whereas use value is hard to express in any sort of measured sense, and exchange value is usually the socially average labour required for a product to be made, sign value is calculated not by anything that might be inherent to a commodity, but rather by commodities that can be compared or seen alongside it. Brand products are a perfect example of this, not having anymore use than a non-brand version of a commodity, nor requiring more average labour, but merely its differentiation from other commodities by the addition of a name which allows to it stand out among the sea of similar commodities, which bizarrely enough allows it to be exchanged on a market for highly inflated prices compared to the regular commodity. In a way, sign value is only the additional value of being able to show off the fact to other individuals that one has the wealth required to purchase a specific commodity at all, additional value of the commodity being a status symbol rather than a more labour intensive product. With laws of value being as malleable as shown by this happenstance, producers, in their attempt to maximise their sales and profits, easily figure that a commodity's value can be increased without the need for the creation of additional use or exchange value (the former being influenced mostly by external conditions, and the latter requiring an increase in costs which as a result wouldn't change the profit margin). The problem however is that sign value has to be harvested purely from the consumer's idea of the commodity, rather than anything physical. The consumer has to believe that the producer's specific commodity is somehow more valuable than other commodities, a concept which creates the basis for the branch of marketing. As a producer becomes savvy in marketing, learning the ins and outs of the consumers they're attempting to attract, the physical property of a commodity's value diminishes more and more over time. Producers figure their product doesn't have to satisfy a need, but the consumer has to believe they have a need with would be satisfied by the producer's commodity. The phrase "selling water to a fish" becomes the core thought in the producer's mind, and by merely slightly altering the phrase we find the the answer to this thread's central question: "Selling Coffee Milk to a Mapler" Momoyo is the producer who has discovered this core tenant and is determined to make it work. Her strategy already becomes apparently by merely analysing how she presents herself in the Showa Town Sauna: A mere glimpse and we have a good idea of what she's trying to pull on sauna patrons: - a big friendly smile to show she means no harm to people who come across her (she has the perfect product to satisfy your need after all!), - a ridiculous headband to increase the playfulness of her appearance/express an unusual quality to her nature (her commodities are not like other ones you know!) - an animation loop that simply begs the player "click on me, it might be the most important decision of your life!" After we've reached for her bait, all that remains for Momoyo is that we also purchase her commodity once we lay eyes upon it. Again, a glimpse in her inventory shows us the methods she's employing to make us believe that Coffee Milk is an item we desperately need in our inventory. Perhaps perfectly fitting for a commodity that relies on sign value, this supposed value is expressed in part by the commodities that surround it: - Strawberry and Fruit Milk are excellent, specific commodities to have in general. Seeing how many occasions and events are to be found around Zipangu for the playerbase to engage with, having the option of quick travel around its continent is of great use. - The bathrobes are some of the most important HP washing INT equips available for players to use: with their low level requirement and 10 upgrade slots they're the best candidate for any person who wants to craft their own INT equips from scratch. The general value of these other commodities are sure to indicate that her inventory is valuable all around. The player, seeing the usefulness of it all, is put in a state of irrational trust in Momoyo: all her commodities are valuable! And in the middle of them all, we found our titular Coffee Milk. The player is already well aware of the use value of a Return to Town scroll, and the Coffee Milk's exchange value is identical to that of a Return scroll, it remains to the sign value for Momoyo to convince the player that her Coffee Milk is worth the cost of an additional filled inventory spot, and she has given her commodity the perfect form to obtain such sign value: as a drink. Joong put the marketing phrase out there already: Coffee Milk differentiates itself from a Scroll purely in it being a delectible consumable. Is there anybody on this server who genuinely enjoys eating paper? Unless they are a goat, I have good reasons to believe it not so. But how do you signify your not-goat existence to the people around you? Surely, to be believed to be a goat playing a nostalgic Mushroom Game™ is a nightmare for an average player, and transporting yourself back to town, not by chowing down on a dry and bland piece of paper, but instead consuming a fashionable and stylish drink is the perfect sign to show that, yes!, you are indeed another human who engages with this game! Your need to not be seen as a goat becomes satisfied, even if you weren't at all aware of that need before you laid eyes on Momoyo and her commodity. With this differentiation and brand new need satisfaction, Momoyo has set-up the perfect environment for her Coffee Milk to be purchased. It is surrounded by truly valuable commodities, and despite not satisfying a need that was previously unsatisfied, she differentiated her commodity as one which surely and truly must hold this additional value that justifies the additional cost (one inventory slot) it entails. There is your answer. Momoyo truly understands what it means to succesfully sell commodities in a post-industrial society.
Half the items in the game are useless. Let's just delete everything except bathrobes, sky skis, apples and other stuff we actually use at this point
