[MUD-Dev] Game Economies

[Mik Clarke]

Matthew Mihaly wrote:

> On Thu, 10 Jun 1999, J C Lawrence wrote:
>
> > On Wed, 9 Jun 1999 21:43:59 -0700 (PDT)
> > Matthew Mihaly <diablo at best.com> wrote:
>
> >
> > > I doubt I will ever take the risk of putting a system in with the
> > > intention of allowing emergent properties, simply because they
> > > could be bad for business.
> >
> > Oddly enough that would be precisely why I would use them, but then
> > I guess that explains what I do for a living.
>
> You'd use them BECAUSE they would be bad for business? (assuming you were
> running a business?)

No, you would use them because they would be good for your business.
Provided that you can get the correct emergent behaviour generated, it is a
very powerful programming technique, letting you produce impressive results
considerably more efficiently than other techniques.  In some sense emergent
is the epitomy of OO programming - you just string the objects together and
they work out what to do.  Many MUDs are emergent (it's just that, in most
of them, the mobs have no interaction with each other, and thus no behaviour
interesting behaviour).

You could also look for 'Individual based models'.  most muds would be
pseudo-spatial ones, using rooms to approximate to a location in physical
space and as the determiners of the individuals environment.

Mik




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