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

[Mik Clarke]

Matthew Mihaly wrote:

> As you say, in real life, you wouldn't work for 24 hours a day to maximize
> your earnings potential, but in a mud, it is all-too-easy to do just that
> with automation. Even without automation, I can't imagine that any mud
> would require its players to put in a solid 8 or 10 (or 14 if you have a
> tech industry!) hours a day in order to maintain a reasonable standard of
> living.

On many muds you don't do any work at all.  You simply look around for someone
(a mob) who has something you want and whom you can kill and just murder them
for it.  Once your character has risen above the level of the lowest level mobs
with a fairly high ticket item or a lot of loose change, you effectively have
unlimited funds - you just need to remember to harvest them occasionally (or
frequently if you need a lot of dosh in a hurry).  This probably has a lot to
do with the vast imbalance in power between players who are fairly close in
level.  Most players have a killing range of +/- 5 levels - more than 5 levels
higher and you can't kill it most of the time, more than 5 levels lower and you
don't get any xps - but you do get gold and equipment.  The mobs posessions
don't however reflect this even though they are not organized enough to protect
themselves.

Mik




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