[MUD-Dev] Re: online economy behavior (was: Self-organizing worlds)

[Matthew Mihaly]

On Tue, 23 Mar 1999, Robert Green wrote:

> Well, I think its 'feast or famine' in most muds ... I've seen "luxury"
> items but they are all really extravagant, personalized estates, custom
> descriptions, etc.
> 
> Also, some muds have player-to-player barter as an established tradition
> (Legendmud's auction channel comes to mind, all the best equipment is
> always being bought and sold) 
> 
> I think the part where the simulation falls short is the 'intangibles' .. 
> there is really nothing in between 'necessities' and the extravagant
> items, really... things like your tasty lunch, entertainment, etc ... what
> is the mud simulation of going to a concert or play? even if we were to
> code it, how to we make it an attractive thing for a player to want to do?
> The simulation falls short in that aspect, I guess. Unless there is some
> way to quantify those sorts of things, that would definitely be a big hole
> in the online vs.  real economic models. Of course, that can become such
> minutia that it wouldn't be a worthwhile feature, unless done really
> creatively ... then again, I guess you can apply that concept to
> _anything_ you want to implement.

The mud simulation of things like concerts or operas can be any type of
event. The only difference is that I think in a mud, you have to have
participation by the player, as opposed to passive reception of
stimulation. So why not have games that cost money and such? For instance,
we have an Arena where a player can challenge another and after paying
(higher levels pay more), gets tossed into a battle to the death with the
other player (if the other agrees). When fighting in the Arena, none of
the limited-use items (wands, potions, edible plants, salves, etc) get
used up, and death doesn't result in anything bad except a loss of
reputation.

As we speak, I'm coding a game of 'freezetag'. A god will start the event,
and players will pay to play it. They'll get a wand, get deposited in the
Arena, and when the God starts the event, they'll run about trying to
"freeze" each other, which works line of sight. When hit 3x with a freeze
wand, the player is 'out'. An added twist is that there is a fairy, which
is able to track players down, that goes after the last player to use his
wand, and, if it gets to that player's location, freezes him or her once.

There are a TON of games like this that I can think of that can be
implemented and can cost money. They are, I think, the equivalent of an
event in real life like a concert, etc.

--matt



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