[MUD-Dev] Re:(fwd) Re: Multiple currencies

[Richard Woolcock]

Michael.Willey at abnamro.com wrote:
> 
> Here's a question:  What collective feature of these examples engages the
> player imagination and inspires this status game?  I could just as easily
> see an attempt at creating a player currency flop spectacularly.  What does
> it take for a simple perpetual prop to become a player currency, and how
> can we incorporate these ideas into our own MUDs?

Well I'm no expert in this area, about the closest I've got (in godwars only,
darkcity has nothing like this yet) is players who collect the severed heads 
of other players whom they have killed, artifacts (unique items) and quest 
tokens (players earn quest tokens from automated quests, which can be eaten or 
regurgitated at will to create a sort of currency).  I would guess that some 
of the following rules could apply to helping a player currency become 
successful:

1) Make the currency very difficult to get.
2) Give the currency some special value (like my quest points, which can be
   spent to customise equipment).  Gold/Silver/etc used to be used as currency
   because it was - literally - worth its weight in that material.  In other
   words its value wasn't just face value.
3) Give the currency some sort of collectability value; something which makes
   it fun to own.
4) Somehow arrange for the most powerful players in the mud to aquire some of
   this currency (in other words, make some sort of apparent link between this
   currency and being powerful).
5) Have something else in the mud equally (or more) powerful, or else have the
   currency varied, to encourage the trading of it.

Well thats me out of ideas for now...IMO the most important of the above is
actually number 4 - if the greatest warriors in the land walk around with
hydra-teeth necklaces that they made themselves, all aspiring warriors will
eagerly await their chance to take on a hydra, thus "prooving themselves" to
the mud community.  Not long after, you'll hear things like "group looking 
for an h-warrior" over your public channels (if you have any)...in a mud
without levels, such trophies might well be the *only* way to judge the power
of individuals...

KaVir.