[MUD-Dev] Casual Crowd vs.Time Rich Crowd [was: Time Debt]

[David Kennerly]

William Leader wrote:

> Ok, I'm really new here and it may be a little early for me to
> speak up, but what the heck, the moderators will decide that for
> me. A quick introduction: I am an aspiring MMO developer (which
> you may get a ton of on here). For more information about me see
> my sig.

Hi Will.

> On way this might be set up is to use a scaled pricing plan. (I
> know for some people that is a bad word.) But think of it this
> way, instead of charging frequent players more, offer a discount
> to casual players.

You might want to consider a different metric than time logged on.
The player is content.  As long as she's not harassing or macroing,
each hour she spends in the community increases the value of the
service.

Have you considered modifying a points function?  Like an xp cap per
day, or subtle, like a decaying efficiency function, which still
rewards play, just with even further diminishing returns.  Or,
thinking positively, a once per day bonus.  Or, on the supply side,
such as an economic limit per day, or points per player per day.

For example in Dark Ages, I designed a labor economy to encourage
casual play and regulate rarity.  Some tasks, in politics, religion,
crafting, and questing, require labor.  Labor is only replenished by
each new day, or through having someone labor for you--thereby
transfering their labor to you.  So the global labor pool is linear
function of characters per day.

David
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