[MUD-Dev] Value in the Economy of the MOG

[rayzam]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Tresca" <talien at toast.net>
To: <mud-dev at kanga.nu>
Sent: Wednesday, July 04, 2001 12:02 PM
Subject: RE: [MUD-Dev] Value in the Economy of the MOG

> On Tuesday, July 03, 2001 3:56 AM J C Lawrence posted:

>> In a sense its akin to the problem of monopolistic tendencies in
>> economic systems.  By their nature economic entities will tend to
>> evolve into monopolising their niches.  IRL we attempt to control
>> that wil things like the monopoly commission, taxes on inherited
>> wealth (death duties), and the simple fact of a limited human
>> life span.

> We switched RetroMUD's basic death model for precisely this
> reason.  We saw a disturbing trend: eventually, even if you're a
> complete moron with no sense of partying tactics or survival
> skills, one could just play 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and
> eventually ascend to ridiculous levels of power.

> While we didn't implement a permadeath model, we did create a
> sliding scale of power in both directions.  Originally, if a
> character died he lost all of his experience points down to 0.
> But he could go no lower.  So characters then took on ridiculous
> risks, knowing that they wouldn't "lose anything of significance."
> We changed is to that death takes a proportional amount of exp
> based on level, and that you CAN go into negative exp.  Go far
> enough into negative exp and you slide backwards -- you lose a
> level.

> The one downside to our sliding scale, unfortunately, is that it
> becomes increasingly more difficult to play the game.  This often
> outrages higher level players who are not accustomed to the game
> becoming more challenging.  Because advancement and the feel of
> power that "makes it all worth it" becomes less and less common
> (as the levels get harder and harder to attain), when a PC dies
> and slides backwards, some have gone ballistic and essentially
> self-destructed.

The basic issue is that each death costs you 1/8th the cost of your
next level. Since level costs go up with level, the ratio of exp
gained/death is necessarily forced upwards as the character advances
in levels.

Thus, instead of winning, you have players who top-out, or reach
threshold. Due to their own playing abilities, they are unable to
get beyond a specific level. What the actual level is, is a measure
of the player's ability. Like any psychophysical threshold
estimation, they may get a level ahead, but then a series of deaths
knocking them far enough negative in experience will drop them back
a level.

The ones who go ballistic are often the ones who feel they 'deserve'
to be higher level, just because they've been around longer, or
based on their ego. Overall, this changes the long-term population
of the mud. Take a player who likes to find a powerful combo or
loophole, or somesuch. They use it to gain a lot of levels.  Staff
tweaks the game. The player will slide backwards to their
appropriate level. Player leaves. [This has happened many times. A
player that leaves over a single skill or spell isn't playing the
game, he's playing the power.] Other players work their way up, then
reach threshold. After a while at that point, they often look
around, and try to learn how to be a better player, which in turn
raises their threshold.  Knowledge is power :) Finally, those that
are higher levels do get more positive feedback from it. Advancement
is based more on player ability, therefore it means more to them.

rayzam


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