[MUD-Dev] Crafting/Creation systems

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Ron Gabbard wrote:

> Why is it that two players playing the same game can spend the
> same amount of time repetitively hitting a set of buttons yet one
> player is rewarded with a positive in-game cash flow while the
> second is penalized with a negative in-game cash flow?

Because the inputs and outputs are not the same.

> The first player sells bug parts, bones, and other items with no
> conceivable use to the NPC vendor at a profit while the second
> player sells brand new functional items to an NPC vendor for less
> than the raw material cost to make them.

If the players cared only about market value, they'd abandon the
latter course.  If the market was a free market instead of a MUD
administrator controlled market, then the market would undergo
corrections.  But the whims of MUD admins aren't a free market so
the prices stay out of balance.  If players take this sucker bet,
they're doing it for reasons other than making profit.  Like, they
might be bad/inexperienced traders, or maybe they get inherent
satisfaction out of making the conversions.  Maybe the conversion
animation is spiffy.  Maybe they're mindless, semi-autistic dolts.
Maybe they are still thrilled with anything they can do in a
computer game.  Why do people play solitaire?  It's totally
pointless to play most forms of solitaire, there's no skill
involved.

> [EQ] There is little more real risk to doing a dungeon crawl than
> there is in sitting under a tree making doilies... but a heck of a
> lot more reward.

Solitaire with a reward curve sounds like a game design achievement
to me.

> Am I missing some fundamental principle in MUDdom that says that
> crafting must be unprofitable in a fixed-price, NPC-driven
> world... especially when that profit made on a sale to an NPC
> would become virtually worthless as the economy inflated over
> time?

Yes, you are missing the fundamental principle that other people's
ideas suck and yours don't.

Cheers,                         www.3DProgrammer.com
Brandon Van Every               Seattle, WA

20% of the world is real.
80% is gobbledygook we make up inside our own heads.



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