DDragong Kill Points:P i t Loot L t Distribution Di t ib ti in i MMORPGs MMORPG

Ernst Gunnar GranGran,, ernstgr@[email protected] no Sven-Arne ReinemoReinemo,, svenar@[email protected] no

e t g r AbAbstract t t a o s Requirements:equ e e s: Pitfalls:s: s p s y OOne off theh majorj reasons ffor playingli MiMassive MlilMultiplayer OliOnline RlRole u p t e e u i n n n t s x s n o e m s o i a l o i t Playing Games (MMORPGs) is the possibility to show off your abilities - stimulate usage - inflation l s o e i s r u u p d n t o a u t n m n r l ll - bonus support - collusion m i f s to other players. The more rare your equipment isis, the higher is the show i o o a a o i t n off value of your character. And because rare items are hard to find - llitlow complexitypy - didistortion t ti S B C R F I C D - randomness + + o + + o + + cooperationp between several playerspy is often requiredq . This introduces a RDCP - fairness Roll n/a n/a + + - n/a n/a n/a conflictfli t btbetween ththe players,pyl ,andd a wayy tto didistribute t ib t ltloot iis necessaryy. Bidding - + + - o - - - WWe itintroduceoduce d ththee problempobebl ofof ltlootoo didistributiond s t ib bu ti o iin MMORPGMMORPG,OG,andadd we Fixed Price - + o - o - + + suggest andd givei a preliminaryli i evaluationli off a new andd idimproved The five most common loot distribution systems in use today are roll-only, bidding, fixed price, Zero Sum - - o - o o + + zero sum, and ranking list. Their pros and cons are summarized in figure 1. In a roll-only system Ranking List o - + - o n/a n/a n/a Dragon Kill Points system. ththe didistribution t ib ti off ltloot iis bdbased on ththe randomnessd off a didice,, whereh ththe playerpyl withith ththe hihighestg h t roll receives the item. In a bidding system the players interested in an item have to bid with their ’+’ = Good, ’o’ = Average, ’-’ = Poor accumulated DKPsDKPs, and the player with the highest bid wins the loot. A fixed price system requiresq i theh raidid ldleader to pricep i allll relevantl iitems iin advanced . ThThen lloot iis didistributed ib d to theh player with the highest amount of DKPs. In a zero sum system the number of points entering Introduction FigFig. 11. Pros and Cons of different DKP systems and exiting the system is equal. Whenever an item is looted the number of points equal to the Recent research has shown that it is not only the act of playing with others that is important in items value is deducted from the DKPs of the player that receives loot. Then the same number MMORPGMMORPGs,, bbut alsol theh act off showinghig offff one’s’ skillskill to otherh playerspyl . BiBeingg skilledkill d iis oftenf off pointsp it iis splitplit evenlyly btbetween allll playerspyl . A rankingki g lilist t systemy t maintainsiti a lilist t off allll players,pyl players lose a percentage of their DKP when winning an itemitem, players with very low DKP will referred to as being elite. As a character reaches the maximum level in a gamegame, further growth in where the player at the top of the list is first in line when loot is distributed. A player that get items for close to free. To avoid “free”free loot a minimum loss (ML) value should be used. ML elitness can mainly be shown through improved equipment. Acquiring even a single new receives loot is moved to the bottom of the list. iss a predefined,pede ed,minimumu amountaoutofo DKP thattata winningwgplayerpaye willw loseose. WhateverWateveiss greatest,g eatest, valuablelbliitem might,ihg,hhowever,, requireq i theh cooperationp i bbetween manyy players,pyl ,whichhi h againg i ththe p% DKP or ththe MLML, willill bbe subtractedbt t d ffrom ththe winningiig playerspyl DKP. ThThe sizei off ML willill itintroduce d a conflictfli t btbetween ththe playersl . WhWho iis eligibleli ibl ffor ththe lt?loot? depend on how the players earn DKP. It should be set high enough to reflect the value of the MMORPGs like World of and Age of Conan have simple in-game mechanisms for Roll DKPDKP, Cut % items won, but still low enough to only come into action for players with low DKP. The dealing with loot distribution. These loot distribution mechanisms are, however, typically found itintroduction d ti off ML iliimpliesp ththat t a playerspyl DKP mightihtg ddropp blbelow zero,, ththerefore f a playerpyl withith tto bbe idinadequateq tffor encounterst requiringqgii more ththan 15 playerspyl . ThThe problemp bl off ltloot didistribution t ib ti ThThe RDCP systemt iis a ltloot didistribution t ib ti system,t itintroduced d dbby ththe authors,th ththat t iimposes no negative DKP will not be eligible for more loot until DKP is once again above zero. in larger groups of players were discovered early by players of EverQuestEverQuest, and in 1999 the guild restrictions on how guild members earn DKP. The system rewards players with DKP for in- events like killing bosses and for out-of-raid events such as making potions to other raid Afterlife created the first Dragon Kill Point (DKP) system to handle loot distribution. The basic A summaryy off ththe preliminarypyli i evaluationlti off ththe RDCP systemy t iis givengi iin fifigureg 1. WhilWhile RDCP membersb . It iis upp tto ththe guildg ild tto makek sure ththat t allll membersb flfeel ththat t DKP iis didistributed t ib t d iin a fifair ididea bhidbehind DKP iis to awardd playerspyl pointsp i ffor attendingdi g bboss killkills. WhWhen lloot iis acquired,q,idtheh might be the most complex systemsystem, the required DKP management could be handled by in- way. E.g by rewarding the same level of effort by the same amount of DKPDKP, and by rewarding player with the most DKP gets the item in exchange for some or all of this person’s DKP. The game logics. In all other respects RDCP scores well. The inclusion of randomness together with tedious tasks with some extra DKP. introduction of the first DKP system has later led to a myriad of related systemssystems, and the theh p% DKP cut preventsp hdihoardingg andd llets theh RDCP systemy blbalance theh treatment off regularg l WhWhen an iitem ddrops,p,allll idinterested playerspyl toss a didice withihtheh sizei off eachh playerspyl own DKP. abbreviation ‘DKP’DKP has become a common label for all of them. and casual players. FurthermoreFurthermore, the use of p% cut reduce inflation. RDCP also provides The winner is the one that rolls the highest number. In the case of a tietie, the players with the It hhas bbecome a common understandingdtdig ththat t bildibuildingg a DKP systemy t iis an actt off blbalancing ig a support for bonusesbonuses, and players can not influence the price of itemsitems, thus avoiding the pitfalls highest rolls reroll using the same size of the dice as before. Notice that a player rolling with a number ofof, sometimes conflictingconflicting, requirements and avoiding a set of pitfalls. Even if the of collusion and distortion. The RDCP system seems to be the one system that is best able to dice twice the size of another player, has three times the chance of winning an item. requirements do differ among communitiescommunities, there are some important basics. We have identified satisfyti fy ththe requirements,q itwhilehil stilltill avoidingidi g ththe common pitfallspitf ll . FthFurther user studiestdi off ththe WhWhen a playerpyl winsi an ititem, ththe playerpyl lloses p% off DKP. ThThe sizei off p iis givengi iin advanced . fifive requirementsq i ffor a wellll blbalanced dDKP system,y,as wellll as theh threeh most common pitfallspif ll to RDCP system remainsremains, howeverhowever, as future work. avoid. E.g. p could depend on the quality of the item; 25% for rare items and 50% for epic itemsitems, or a more fine grained calculation of p based on various item statistics could be used. Because

“RunningRunning a guild is like running a business in a very real sensesense. However,However instead of holding a paycheck over someone’ssomeone s head to get them to cooperate you have to deal with intangibles like loot and DKPDKP. ” SWWlSparc, WoW player,

“EitherEither we use a DKP system or we cancan’t t raid.Itraid It’s s that simple.simple ” CGMLROlCustos, GM, LotRO player

“Manyyg guilds have been disbanded and dissolved due to loot argumentsarguments.g ” http://www.wowwiki.com/Create_a_DKP

“All gguilds ild hhave tot use a DKP K system y t tot control t l loot. t I'mI' GGM of f my y gguild, ild , I haveh officers ffffi and d stuff, t ff,ff Loot examplepl everydayryy d on my y server r r I see gguild ild disband,di b d split p lit and d stuff t ff becauseb of f DKP.DKP MMyyg guildild lostlt a lotlt of f members cause DKPDKP. ” Vahkagarvah, WoW player

"Th"The guildgggild isi goingi tot didisband b d iff DKPK iis not t fxfixedfi d byb y 8am8 US East!"E t!" http://www.blotslauget.org/ Marok,,Q EverQuest2 player py hhttp://www.addictguild.com/ // ddi ild / Oi’LiOnyxia’s Lair – a 40-man atti maximum level llitithiillfWldfWft instance in the original release of A 24-man raid encounter byyg the guild Addiction in Age g of Conan