[MUD-Dev] Buying benefits [was Re: business models]

[Matt Chatterley]

> From: Marc Bowden <ryumo at merit.edu> 
> Reply-To: mud-dev at kanga.nu
> To: mud-dev at kanga.nu
> Subject: RE: [MUD-Dev] business models
> Date: Fri, 25 May 2001 10:09:05 -0400

> --On Wednesday, May 23, 2001 8:55 PM -0500 Jason Salem
> <res06fsh at gte.net>  wrote:
>> Matt Mihaly wrote:
 
>>> This is an extremely naive question from a tech POV I'm sure, but
>>> why did anyone ever implement lockers? I have never understood the
>>> necessity.
 
>> In both Dragonrealms and Gemstone, the encumbrance systems penalize
>> players that carry too much stuff.  There are combat penalties, and
>> at least in Dragonrealms, it becomes more difficult to even stand
>> up if you have a lot of stuff.  So the locker becomes the place to
>> put extra stuff.
 
> Not to mention being a convenient way to drain players' pockets in a
> proportional manner. =)

I first encountered Lockers many years ago on one of my first Muds,
which was an old strain of LPMud. Back then, you could hire one for X
gold per day (enough gold to be out of reach for a couple of levels,
but then easily affordable). They let you store your kit between
logins, but weren't reboot-safe. Since reboots were weekly or
thereabouts, you could spend a bit of time at the start of the week
building up your kit, and not have to requip for several logins,
unless you broke things or wanted to upgrade.

Its interesting to think that you can actually buy these for real
money in some games. :)

>> Also of minor note is that the houses/homes (the private room
>> listed in the benefits list) aren't/can't be used for storage like
>> a locker. They don't supercede the "stuff stuffing" role of the
>> lockers/vaults.

> Across the long term, no. Across the short term, it does allow them
> to amass a "horde" for a brief period of time - we usually see this
> when people are on "milk runs" and want to sell the loot as a block
> towards the end (money has weight, bank has a per-transaction
> fee). We let it go unless they start using public rooms for it
> because they're not really getting away with anything, once the time
> they spend doing it is factored in, so it's an acceptable trade-off.

Yeah. What other buyable benefits are there on these games?

I've been working on developing my own Mud from scratch in C++ for a
while (just because I've not done it yet and I want to), and one of my
main goals is an economy which makes /sense/, rather than the
traditional fantasy Mud one of 'newbies are skint, other players are
rich'. Heh.

I'm trying to find a theme too, if anyone has ideas. :P Cyberpunk is
tempting at the moment. But I'm still a fantasy afficionado.

-Matt

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