[MUD-Dev] The Best Guy on the Mud Thing

[J C Lawrence]

On Thu, 16 Sep 1999 10:57:50 -0600 (MDT) 
Neill Dang <Timothy> wrote:

> On Wed, 15 Sep 1999, J C Lawrence wrote:

>> Players expect, even demand, that the game will always reward
>> them for their time investments, and doesn't remove those awards
>> once gained.
>> 
>> This is directly parallel to UOL's fishermen who where incensed
>> when they found out that they could fish all day and not be able
>> to sell their caught fish for much more than peanuts.  (Raph,
>> don't you have a law here?)

> I forget whether I've commented on this before or not, but there's
> a useful way to think about such phenomena (specifically economic
> actions, rather than issues of skill gain). A system which
> encourages economic activity in general without some sort of
> contracts for payment essentially requires everyone to be an
> entrepreneur. Most folks aren't used to being entrepreneurs, are
> not really sure how to do so, and may not want to do so.

Well said sir!

> Obviously, one of the main things which could be useful to support
> an inter-player economy is some facility to support enforcable
> inter-player contracting.

This is something I discussed with Raph at one point (in the guise
of user-defined societies and legal systems which those societies
could enforce at the code level on members).  Its one heck of a tar
baby, but damned attractive for all that.  I'd love to see this done 
somehow.

> Contracts will mitigate the problem, but obviously not solve it.
> If a player invests great effort in learning bronzesmithing, which
> becomes almost totally useless with the onset of ironsmithing,
> they're going to be upset. In principle, a thorough system of
> contracting can handle quite a number of possibilities, and one
> could perhaps insure against skill loss.  That probably goes much
> deeper than most players would have an interest, however.

Oh My Gawd.  We're talking about implementing a futures market for
player character skills...  Thus, umm, well, it just does.  Damnit.
I'd never thought about trying to implement some sort of futures
market security into the economic system in a MUD.  

Ooooo!  I gotta ponder about this.  

Katrina:  You still on here?  Any thoughts?

--
J C Lawrence      Life: http://www.kanga.nu/   Home: claw at kanga.nu
---------(*)                Work (Linux/IA64): claw at varesearch.com
 ... Beware of cromagnons wearing chewing gum and palm pilots ...


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