[MUD-Dev2] [DESIGN] *Starting* Real Currency Based Worlds

[Johnicholas Hines]

On 9/29/06, Nick Koranda <nkk at eml.cc> wrote:
> I can see a real currency world existing pretty easily if all players
> paid a fee, I think it just gets tougher when you allow players to play
> for free as well and still let them earn money.

Do study the Puzzle Pirates and Runescape examples. Doubloon oceans
seem very successful to me (though I'm not party to Three Ring
finances, of course).

I'd like to see a micropayment scheme where the fee is a chunk of your
CPU% while playing or something - distributed computation. One could
even farm out tasks to the humans playing, though it might be tricky
to frame the tasks so that they're not jarring to suspension of
disbelief. (The quest to gain the Vorpal Shovel is: Categorize 100
pictures into "depicts a kitten" and "does not depict a kitten.")

Johnicholas