Bob Slydell: What if - and believe me this is a hypothetical - but what if you were offered some kind of a stock option equity sharing program. Would that do anything for you?
Peter Gibbons: I don't know, I guess. Listen, I'm gonna go. It's been really nice talking to both of you guys.
I'm just going to put this on Front Street, and you can think about the merits of this on your own.
DKP, is the dumbest invention in the history of MMOs. And if not the dumbest, one of the most outdated, outmoded and ass-backwards motivational systems that encourages the extremes, and demotivates the middle.
Background: I'm a Finance graduate from Penn State, who is 3 credits away from a dual-degree in Management. Management classes, by the way, are simply a study in motivation and getting people to act on your behalf, while thinking it was their idea.
World of Warcraft understands motivation better than Las Vegas, because every single piece of activity since Activision consumed Blizzard has been dedicated to putting more and more carrots, for the donkeys in-game to chase. And chase them you do...
Exhibit A: Achievements. Blizzard found a way to make you waste your time in incredible amounts, for a title, a tabard, a mount, or most likely, nothing.
Somewhere out there is a mysterious X, where X is the amount of time it takes to get fully geared: T10, 264 weapons, etc. Once you spend 'X' you no longer need to play the game; you can subscribe to another MMO, go outside (ha!), or build up your Modern Warfare character.
X + Y + Z + A + B + C + D + E + F + G = H
Y=Time required for Explorer Title
Z=Time required for Glory of the Raider Title
A=Time required for Calling the Cavalry Title
B=Time required for Insanity Title
C=Time required for Crusader Title
D=...and so on.
H by the way, is the NEW time it takes to complete everything before you leave the game, and now H is much, much larger than X because of all the bullshit people do in the meantime.
Exibit B: Badges.
Here's the "I don't give that much of a shit to research it properly" definition of DKP: In Everquest some guild named Afterlife (Follwing the meme of overly dramatic one-word guild names) developed DKP to rewards the asshats who showed up, rather than give out loot to people who just stumbled in. This, in turn, was supposed to promote all the behaviors they wanted (attendance) and discourage all the behavior they don't want (for example, falling into whelps).
Really? We're using an 11-year old incentive system developed for a game that didn't hand out Epic gear like M&Ms at Halloween, and was a ballbreaker to boot? Are you fucking insane?
Why not develop a system in tune with the state of the game today? Oh yeah right; not a lot of Management majors playing Warcraft.
DKP doesn't do anything that a boss dying doesn't accomplish, other than frustrate the people at the bottom, and disincentivize the people in the middle, which are precisely the people you want to motivate to come back.
Let's imagine what goes on in the head of 3 raiders...one with 60 DKP, one with 10 DKP and one with -15 DKP.
60 DKP: I can't wait to raid tonight because if something awesome drops, it's mine!
10 DKP: Well, another night of grinding to build up some more DKP. I hope the asshole with 60 DKP actually bids on something tonight, because he's got a shit ton more than me, and we both want the same trinket.
-15 DKP: I am going to bid on everything that shows up, and hope something falls to me. Of course, I'll go deeper in the hole, but that's ok because if I get a few more loot upgrades, I can transfer to a guild where I can free roll.
So the only people excited about this system are the people at the top, but there can never be more than a couple people at the top. Plus, with the introduction of crafted items and high level BoEs, some of the richer characters will supplement their toon with items they buy, making them much more likely to gear up and tune out than someone else.
Plus, do you really want to introduce the concept of buyer's regret into WoW? What if a guy spends his DKP on tier legs, and then they show up in VoA? Now he's pissed that he spent all those weeks on an item he could've had for free.
If he just rolled on them during the run, he's probably not going to keel over and die if they drop, and he's probably not going to be able to remember all the other things he had to pass on thanks to winning the Tier piece.
"But the system encourages people to show up..."
No asshole, loot encourages people to show up. If you don't believe me, announce you're holding a raid where you will not loot the boss at all, and nobody will get badges or loot. You're just going in to 'have fun' and 'hang out with friends'.
See how many people show up. Then announce that is going to be your policy one out of every four weeks, and see how many people leave the guild.
The 'friendships' that exist are all based around the glue that is progress, and in a game that caps your progess at level 80, progress comes from loot. People will continue to be a part of a system they think is fair, as long as they think nobody else is fucking with the system too.
What is the best system? Loot count, with bonus points.
Loot count, for those who don't know (and how you wouldn't know I have no idea) is the system where you roll on things you can use main set, and if you've already won something in that week's run, someone who has won LESS than you automatically gets priority.
This prevents one douche from cleaning up all the items with a stellar week of rolls. It keeps everyone in the guild at roughly the same level of gear, and incentivizes everyone to show up because your chance of winning SOMETHING is more equitable than the chance of winning A LOT or NOTHING.
Free Roll:
Person A: Wins a lot of shit. He's happy.
Person B: Wins nothing. He's pissed at Person A.
Person C: Won one thing. He's happy.
Person C: Didn't see any upgrades. Neutral.
Loot Count:
Person A: Won an item, and lost a roll to B because he already won a piece of gear.
Person B: Also won an item, thanks to person A getting passed over.
Person C: Won nothing. Is pissed at God & Blizzard for shitty item drop rates, random number generators, and being cursed.
Person D: Didn't see any upgrades. Neutral.
And I did mention bonus points. On your roll, you're permitted to add the following modifiers.
On time: +5
Food Buff: +5
Flasked: +10
On vent: +10
Melee rolling on ranged item: -40 (e.g. Warrior rolling on a gun)
Ranged rolling on melee item: -40 (e.g. Ranged rolling on an axe)
DPS less than tank: -20
Elemental Shaman: -50
...and so on. Go crazy. Give points to all the things you want your raiders to do, and take them away from the assholes who give you lip or make raiding hard.
You can encourage the behavior you're looking for IMMEDIATELY, and since nobody wants to be at a disadvantage on loot rolls, you will find that everyone flies right, and shows up to get every numeric advantage to all their rolls as possible.
I am a goddamned visionary. If I wasn't so lazy or didn't hate people so much, I'd start my own guild and see how it goes. I'd even call my guild 'Loot' just so there is no mistaking what it's all about.
