[MUD-Dev] Game Economies

[Greg Munt]

-----Original Message-----
From: Matthew Mihaly <diablo at best.com>


>[Santa Fe Institute's activities in economics]
>
>I think it would be beyond excellent if a mud was ever coded with truly
>sophisticated adaptive agents, though I'm not really sure how much I'd
>want this to happen in a for-profit game. Who knows what kind of
>structures they would form. Would they invent central banking and options
>trading, or would they come up with entirely new ways of expressing
>economic motives and desires?

Note: the following is just a feeling I get from Mihaly's posts. As such, it
is based on assumption. Read: I could be wrong :-) (Also, I have no
particular opinion on the subject. Yet!)

Your posts suggest a general distaste (almost fear) at trying new things,
which would make your mud more dynamic. Specifically, that would allow your
players to interact with each other - and the world - in ways that you could
not possibly control. (In fact, this would be the whole point. of the
'dynamic' features...) You express fear that such things would reduce the
general income of a pay-mud.

Above, you imply fear again, with "I'm not really sure how much I'd want
this to happen in a for-profit game." (I hope 'fear' isn't a word that you
find too strong.) Why is this?

Do pay-mud administrators feel that they *have* to stay 'mainstream', to
only have what is deemed popular? And, if this is the case, how can pay-muds
be involved in any way, with extending the 'state of the art'?

Endnote: from reading Raph's posts about UO - specifically 'what we planned
on doing' vs 'what we actually did' - UO seems to be a lot closer to the
'state of the art' than most free muds. Yet a lot (apparently) of the
original plans either remain unimplemented, or have been disabled. Now, we
all know that UO has no problem clearing its costs - so how are these fears
of Mihaly's justified?

Greg.



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