KoL is scary

[learnedax]

So recently I've been spending far too much of my free time playing The Kingdom of Loathing. For those of you who aren't already playing it, KoL is a (very slightly) graphical MUD focused on the clever, and extremely strange, parodistic style of its content (treasure is measured in units of meat; getting drunk can increase your stats, like Moxie; Pastamancer is an available character class).

The funny thing is, not only does this game manage to capture the best qualities of classic MUDs, it's players have taken the game so far beyond its wry stick-figure core that their built-up infrastructure puts Everquest to shame. Sure, these days everything has a Wiki, and most MMORPGs have some pretty complex economies going on, but KoL takes economic analysis to the extreme. Its sociology is rich, as well: as was recently discussed it has become a rarified playground for all four of Bartle's MUD-playing types. The spades are ingenious (see commentary on right-hand side for explanation of the image), the diamonds are hyperactive, the clubs methodically abuse players' trust, and the hearts... have created a radio station!

I am consistently surprised by how deep this game has gotten considering it's core is a joke (a very good joke, perhaps, but a joke nonetheless). It is simply a stunning instance of social infrastructure crystalizing around the right seed.

Comments

[londo.livejournal.com]

Also, I hear some fool bastard wrote a bot that sells Hell Ramen (and a few other choice commodities) to the entire damn game.

fool indeed.

[mpgalvin.livejournal.com]

true. he's trying to drive the price down, and in so doing, bought out someone who was inching it down via production-competition at a loss. the botmaker doesn't seem to understand that there's NO *possible* punishment for price-speculators except massive production at a lower cost point. (sufficiently large that the person buying-and-reselling-higher can't afford to buy all the stock. and eventually, they *will* be able to, if your constant production rate is too low. and it has to be very very high to account for all the meat now in the economy, or several people's worth of production.)

Re: fool indeed.

[londo.livejournal.com]

Hey, it wasn't my idea, I just coded the bot.

Re: fool indeed.

[mpgalvin.livejournal.com]

hey, i don't blame ya, but y'alls trying to solve an unsolveable. the amount of circulating currency will only go up, and the number of items are either a) limited only by available currency actually "exiting" the game, or b) limited by drop rarity.

a) will eventually be rendered moot if price inflation begins and then b) will become the basis of game econ. every mud i've ever seen, D2X, etc. all follow that pattern.

i see no endgame solution to meatflation, because there's *never* a penalty, and always an incentive to buyout and resell higher. speculation is the only viable long term economic participation, it seems.

if there's a maximum mall price (5 9's?) then the meat econ will die as soon as inflation pushes the rare-item prices above that cieling. trading rares will take precedence over the game-currency because of it's intensely low value.

---
*ponder*
some method of adding drainage could help. making certain things "subcription costs" like the Calendar could have a subtle deflating effect. it needs to be something *for* the money though, or even i'd gripe. (adding a campsite charge: pissy. adding a calendar fee: ok.)

the Tree on the other hand, sort of levels the playing field, without really exacerbating the problem. i'm not sure where i stand on that one.

i should totally read up on php to properly do this.

[mpgalvin.livejournal.com]

now that i think about it, the meat econ doesn't have the constraint of staying *in* the mall. the mall itself may die when it can no longer traffic in the majority of valued items, (a long way off, but still forseeable future) but the meat can always move through direct Offers. unless those, too, have a numerical limit... but since i've seen people offering 20M meat for Mr A's, i guess it's pretty freaking high.

at the moment, there is no offer system for buffs or trades?