[MUD-Dev] Simpson's "In-Game Economics of UO"

[Paul Schwanz - Enterprise Services]

> adam at treyarch.com wrote:
> 
> > A way of putting this into practice on an actual mud would be to require 
that
> > advanced items (say, battleships) require smaller components which a less
> > skilled (or resourcefull) craftsman could make, and then sell to the master,
> > who doesn't wish to waste their time with such details.
> 

Timothy Dang replied:
> I agree that this would be a great approach. Both because it separates 
> demands more thoroughly, and it's one of the messages of
> Zack's paper: "more intermediate goods". While our classic idea of
> medieval crafts has the master getting labor out of the apprentices,
> there's actually no reason that the people providing the intermediate
> goods have to be on the same skill path as those producing the final good.
> 
> If the final-producer and intermediate-producer are in fact both on the
> same production path, then you'd still want to be pretty careful, because
> it will always be easier for the master to coordinate with themself for
> inputs, than to arrange to purchase from someone else.
> 
> Would it be feasible (designwise and politicwise) to actually have more
> skilled people forget how to produce the lower-level stuff?

While I think such an approach would be feasible, I'd rather see the production 
of lower-level stuff permissible, but not expedient.  :-)  Also, I see the 
intermediate-producer paradigm as realistic for some items, but not so much for 
others.  I guess you could go: iron ore-->iron rods-->steel rods-->steel 
plates-->plate mail breastplate, but with other items, it's hard to imagine how 
you can do more than: animal-->leather-->leather boots.

Along the lines of our classic idea of master and apprentice, what would happen 
if the creation of high-level weapons was based on man hours?  Or maybe skill 
hours?  Suppose it takes 60 (online/offline game) hours to complete a really 
nice breastplate.  What if a lower-skilled apprentice could assist in the 
production of the breastplate by contributing man hours?  Perhaps the ammount of 
assistance that the apprentice gives is related to his skill level.  If the 
master has chosen to "learn" from the experince, then he will fail.  The 
resources will be consumed at the end of the 60 hours and he will gain skill, 
but will give a negotiated amount of that skill to his apprentice(s), based on 
skill level/level of contribution.  If the master has chosen to actually produce 
the item for profit, then he would give a negotiated amount of the profit to his 
apprentice.  In this way, instead of making cheap daggers which no one really 
wants, the apprentice can help make items that are in demand and participate in 
a mentoring relationship in which the master also has a vested interest in 
seeing the apprentice become more skilled.

Perhaps this system would be ripe for exploitation by mules, but I though I'd 
throw the idea out there for discussion.

--Phinehas  


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		"All things are permissible,
			but not all things are expedient." 
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