[MUD-Dev] Hunting mobs vs Economy (was Advancement considered harmful (long))

[Jeremy Hovance]

--- Dave Rickey <daver at mythicgames.com> wrote:
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Brian Green <brian at psychochild.org>
> To: mud-dev at kanga.nu <mud-dev at kanga.nu>
> Date: Saturday, May 27, 2000 11:54 PM
> Subject: [MUD-Dev] Advancement considered harmful (long)

[snip]
>     I was wrong.  Not wrong in my arguments, all of the negative aspects =
of
> "forced grouping" are easy enough to spot, and compelling in and of
> themselves.  But wrong in my conclusions, that it should be possible to =
play
> an OLRPG with no dependance on any other player.  I'm now tasked with
> designing an economy for Dark Age of Camelot, and one of the first =
things I
> did was eliminate any chance of playing the game completely without =
support
> from other players.  Basicly, I came to the conclusion that creating a
> system where players could be economically self-sufficient was in direct
> opposition to using the economy as a community-building tool.

That is what I see as one of the major flaws of the economies in current =
online games. The hunting of mobs and the economy system should be =
completely two different games, two seperate philosophies, yet they are =
designed to be the same.=20

Kill monster, get gold or item. Click on screen twenty times to "mine" for =
gold, repeat until enough gold is collected. Use craft skill twenty times =
to create craft good and raise skill. It's all the very same thing. =
Positive reinforcement works great for getting anyone to do one thing, =
like hunting mobs ir churning out items but the reinforcement stops there. =
If you expect people to take it a step further and actually compete in an =
economic market, there needs to be a further inducement.=20

However, it would better if you could distance the mindset of economic =
game player from the mindset of the hack and slash game (and the correspond=
ing expectation of reward) by replacing the positive reinforcement of =
'action -> get gold' with a negative reinforcement of 'if you don't do =
certain action, you don't get paid'.=20

This could be accomplished through a limited pie "The Merchant's Council =
declares this week's contract is for 5000 daggers." and the various groups =
can produce a certain amount and be assured payment when just dumping them =
off at a merchant might not. Or you could assign smaller contracts like 10 =
or 100 or 500 to various groups "Submit your bids to the Council Steward." =
and see the intrigue of graft, kickbacks and shady backroom deals =
develops. Or you could set up an alliance system like AC where the =
Merchant's Council has set up a protection racket for its members. The NPC =
merchants won't buy items from non-Master crafter or non-Master level =
quality items, so the new crafter players sign up for a apprenticeship at =
an established Master crafter's shop. The Master craft buys craft items =
from the apprentices, who are learning skills in turn. The Master then =
sells the items to a shopkeeper, or takes orders from a shopkeeper who =
then orders the apprentices to make X items. The amount of material could =
be a communal stockpile that everyone chips in to fill up. Anyone =
producing an large amount of useless items probably isn't going to make =
the Master happy or get any money out of it for it.=20

A second concept to the Hunting vs. Economy tracks is to make each track =
have one piece of the puzzle. Mobs should rarely have finished products on =
them, just raw resources that require a crafter to finish them up. Gold =
ore but no gold coins.

Hunting and Economics require two different concepts, so they shouldn't be =
treated with same brush. Hunting solo should be fine, but an economic =
empire is built on connections and trade.
Hunting should stay like Quake, while economic play should be Civilization =
or Solar/Barren Realms Elite. The competitors should blatently know the =
economy is limited and those best at competiting should be publicly =
honored. So the expectation of being constantly rewarded is taken off =
making the craft and the emphasis is placed upon successfully selling it =
better than others.




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