[MUD-Dev] Re: MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #142 - 4 msgs

[Mik Clarke]

"Koster, Raph" wrote:
> 
> Don't know where the subject line went on this one...
> 
> > From: Marian Griffith [mailto:gryphon at iaehv.nl]
> >
> > On Wed 18 Aug, Greg Miller wrote:
> >
> > > "Koster, Raph" wrote:
> >
> > > > I view simulated economies as anathema entirely. This is
> > also a huge shift.
> > > > I am much more interested now in letting a REAL economy develop by
> > > > simulating as little as possible. People will do the work
> > your code would
> > > > have done--only better.
> >
> > But only if you have a lot of players. For a game like UO it
> > is possible
> > to have players run  the entire economy.  For smaller games
> > there is no
> > choice but simulate the economy and have players fit in somehow.
> 
> Depends how small, and in what manner they affect the economy. I could see a
> smaller game having a player-run economy quite easily, but you'd have to
> provide enough facilities for it. What if there were no shops in the game at
> all, so that players were forced to trade with one another? If the game was
> compelling enough to make people stay despite that difficulty, and if there
> were good facilities to allow trading when only one of the two parties was
> online (like delayed auction systems, or hireling-run shops or something)
> then a player-run economy could develop without too much trouble even in a
> small game.
> 
> You would still need a certain critical mass, of course. But players trade
> given the slightest provocation (notice the popularity of dedicated
> "auction" channels).

I don't know.  My experience is that they tend to trade junk or abuse
the
auction mechanism to act like the ACME Mail Order company that Wiley E
Coyote is so fond of.  One guy says they want something, another guy
buys
it and puts it up for auction, the first guys has to win the bidding and
the auction mechanism will magically deliver the item to him, no matter
where he is in the mud.

Most of the times that I've got serious (useful) equipment from other
players it has been because they were trying to recruit allies and
trusted players (this is on a PKill mud).

Mik



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