[MUD-Dev2] [DESIGN] Player-generated content

[cruise]

Thus spake Lachek Butalek...
> Create the system well and it will self-adjust. Make the players spend
> their own resources on the rewards (or a 1:1 convertible resource,
> like 1GP = 1XP) so you don't have unnecessary inflation. Ensure that
> it is beneficial for more accomplished players to create quests for
> less accomplished players rather than performing the task themselves.

See, it's that "Ensure that it is beneficial" bit I'm asking about :P
What incentives can you offer the quest-creating player? If there's a 
reward, how do you stop players from starting numerous easy quests for 
the reward they get back?
The thought I keep coming back to is some way of automatically rating 
the difficulty of content, but I can see that being fraught with issues 
- has anyone tried that before?

> You may be able to create a user rating system to rate what quests are
> worth compared with how difficult they are to carry out. Let's say X
> makes a quest "bring 100 lumber from A to B, reward is 50 gold". Y
> might come along and go "huh? that's really hard, and should be worth
> much more". They vote "thumbs down" for the worth of that quest,
> indicating to a novice that the quest doesn't pay out what it should,
> and to the quest giver that maybe they should adjust the rate.

So players will simply "thumbs down" every quest so the reward rate has 
to go up before anyone does it. It's unforuntate, but you cannot ever 
trust the players, it seems. Unless we perhaps borrow the web of trust 
ideas from the social networking websites - players can be rated by 
others, and the higer their rating, the more their rating counts? Still 
abusable, but much harder, at least.

Another thought is perhaps to offer quests anonymously. If a player 
creates a quest and the reward, it goes up on the lists mercenary-guild 
(or whatever) with no name attached and you have no control over who can 
take it. If you create an easy quest with a fabulous reward then you 
can't guarantee the character you're trying to twink is the one that 
will get the quest.