[MUD-Dev] MUD Economy

[Shawn Halpenny]

On Fri, 9 Jan 1998, Marian Griffith wrote:

> On Thu 08 Jan, Ling wrote:
> 
> > On Wed, 7 Jan 1998, Shawn Halpenny wrote:
> 
> > > Perhaps vendors should keep track of what people have come in and
> > > asked for but the vendor didn't have.  He doesn't even need to have
> > > any idea that it exists, just that someone asked for it.  This
> > > requires that characters be able to walk into a store and ask for an
> > > item the shopkeeper doesn't have.  Then the shopkeeper can wait until
> > > someone trades him that desired item, or find another method of
> > > obtaining some (trade caravans come to mind, amongst other avenues of
> > > obtaining goods).
> 
> Eww. Sounds awfully complicated to me. Why not have players running the
> shops?  They ought to be better able  to decide what items to sell  and
> what to refuse?

Players can run the shops (become the shops; however you want to look at
it) if they would like to.  The NPC vendors are merely a convenience that
makes the world more complete (to me anyway).  And for a player-run shop,
it's entirely up to him.  He can even set up his own shopkeeper for when
he's not playing.  I dislike the idea of having nothing _but_ player-run
shops, though--what happens when the player tires of running it?  At least
with NPC vendors around (and the right set of behavioral rules), there's
someone to either get the ball rolling or pick up the slack without
disallowing players to try running things their own way.

--
Shawn Halpenny