I went to visit Waterloo this weekend. I stayed on the couch in my apartment because my bed had no mattress. Ya, moving that out was not very smart. I have discovered that the trip from my apartment in Waterloo to my office is about the same time wise as the trip from my parent's house to my office. I think realistically if I work in Toronto next term I am just going to commute. even if it is and extra 15 or so minutes to work I would much rather live with my friends in Waterloo than at home. Don't get me wrong, I love living at home - it's just that I found that I felt very alone this term despite making one of the best friends I have ever had. I can't stand just going to work and coming home and playing computer games, xbox and watching TV. I didn't do too much visiting this term. I went out to see Colleen once, she came out to Toronto one once, and this weekend I was in Waterloo. That's it. Next weekend I am going out to visit Colleen again but compared to some previous terms where I was out almost every weekend in Waterloo this has been a bit of a disappointment.

I have, all in all, mixed feelings about the last semester. Work was good but someone wasn't spectacular. I couldn't really ask for a better job but I think that I am kinda getting sick of programming. Or at any rate development. Maybe private computers research? I'd like to try it. Also, I have discovered that a - long hair is absolutely the biggest chick magnet ever and b - that I really need a girlfriend. Maybe it's time for me to abandon all my romantic ambitions and find some meaningless 17-year-old frosh to make out with. Well, maybe 18-year-old.

Man, I turn 20 in November. 20. Fuck, what happened to being a teenager and all? I am getting the same feeling that I somehow missed out on the whole teenager thing. It's strange because I know that I spent countless hours pulling all nighters with friends having the time of my life, but now that is over. Well, I will still pull all nighters and have fun with friends, but some how I know there will never be another first year. It's unbelievable that just looking at my friends that look different. Mike is so far away from where he was when I first met him yet in other ways he hasn't changed. Alex and Danielle are pretty much the same, except now Danielle looks like she is 25. My friends who were just a few years a head of me are graduating soon, or dropping out, or something. School is half over and I will soon be in my 20s and I have a career path emerging. If growing up is anything this semester I don't want to do it. I don't want to go in to the office every day alone. At the same time I so afraid of going nowhere.

Also, I thought the apartment would get cleaner after Alex moved in. It hasn't. There is a bathroom that hasn't been cleaned coming up on a year. I think that I would like to try to be clean this semester. That place is pretty disgusting. I'll crash clean it when I move in and then try to at least keep it clean. Maybe clean it once a month or something. Also this term magic cards stay put away and clothes gets dumped into the closet. I think I will also resolve to do more laundry.

Also, I got an email from Adrian So who is apparently back in Toronto. I want to get together with the high school guys before I move back in 2 weeks and a bit. Maybe go out for drinks or dinner or a movie. I also found a cool little restaurant that would be perfect for a date. Now I just need a date. Can you tell that I feel alone?

This is a loot system I have proposed for a new WoW guild I am part of. We will be raiding AQ20, ZG and MC mostly. Some of us have cleared ZG, some of us have not. No one has cleared AQ20 or MC (on any characters in guild that is). This is not the DKP system we are actually using, but rather one we hope to try out in ZG once we get it on farm.

The system is a combination of Suicide Kings and a Closed Auction. I started out by outlining 5 characteristics of a loot system that I thought were important.

I would like a system that:

1.      prioritizes players for items they want as simply as possible

2.      is based on the effort players put into raiding irrespective of where they raid

3.      is insensitive to when an item drops in the guild or instance lifecycle

4.      is sensitive to the value of the item in question for the players who want it

5.      is predictable insofar that no one can go for a long time without getting good loot because of circumstances beyond their control

Tiered Suicide Kings, or How to Eventually Get the Loot You Want, or Just the Eventually System

We can modify the Suicide Kings system to bring it in line with some of the above mentioned priorities. We will introduce item bidding tiers and track queues separately for each tier. This lets players save up for big items while still getting small items. It also addresses the issue of item valuation by making different items worth different amounts. It acknowledges that the same item is worth different amount to different people, even when they are the same class, have the same gear, or even the same spec. The “official” name of this system is The Eventually System. This is because it was written to be used by the guild Eventually (Spirestone) and its rotating priority queues means that eventually every will get good loot if they contribute. The official author is Nicholas Engelking who plays as a Gnome Mage named Jeathetius on Spirestone.

The tier system works as follows; when an item drops every player who wants it bids a tier (privately in a tell to the master looter), with tier one being the highest. The loot would go to the first person in the queue of the highest tier bid who submitted a bid. If you are in the bottom half of a tier, you are not eligible to bid that tier unless it is tier three (or whatever your last tier is). This prevents the people at the bottom of high tiers from always bidding them on items where other players would not be willing to lose their high queue positions in the high tiers. Those at the bottom of tier 1 would have nothing to lose by always bidding tier 1 and would beat out players who bid more realistically. This is a big problem in regular Suicide Kings. The limit does not have to be 50%, but the idea is to lock out the lowest in the tier queue from bidding that tier.

Example

Imagine you have 10 players (for simplicity) in the Guild: Alice, Bob, Charles, Diane, Eric, Fiona, Garret, Harriet, Ivan, and Joanne.

The first three tier queues look as follows

Players who don’t show up are locked in place one spot below where they are when the raid starts.  In this example Harriet, Eric, and, Diane are not here. Note that they could be dropped more than one spot, or lose a percentage of their queue position, have their queue position squared, etc. The point is to encourage people to attend raids by deprioritizing those who don’t.

The table after the boss (assume there is one for simplicity’s sake) is below. Members in bold are locked in place because they are not present.

The boss drops an epic Sword of Phat Lewt.

Alice, Fiona, Garret, Charles, and Joanne all want this sword. Their current weapons are as follows:

• Charles is using Some Crappy Blue Sword
• Alice is using Some Crappy Grey Sword
• Fiona is using Major Sword of Pure Pwnage
• Garret is using A Mace
• Joanne is using An Overpriced but Pretty Good Crafted Sword

The players who want the sword submit their bids privately as follows:

• Alice bids tier 1 as it would be a big upgrade for her.
• Fiona bids tier 3 as her sword is actually better. She just likes the way this sword looks. She could have bid tier 2 (but not tier 1 because she recent won her current sword using a tier 1 bid) but she knows that there is better loot for her later that she wants to win.
• Garret’s mace is pretty good but he is a hunter so he bids tier 1.
• Joanne submits that she wants the sword, and bids tier 2. She actually really wants this sword and it would be a major upgrade, but she knows that there are pants that drop later on in the dungeon, and she wants to save her tier one position for those pants.
• Charles is has no legal bids except for tier 3 because he missed the last few raids.

Alice and Garret perceive the sword to be most valuable to themselves respectively (as indicated by their tier 1 bids). Because Garret is higher up on the tier 1 queue than Alice, he gets the sword and drops to the bottom of that queue. He now has very low priority for really good items (because he just got one!) Note that his priority for smaller items has not changed. This means that he will still get items he wants, just not ones that are as good. In fact, he will not get the opportunity to get tier 1 loot until all players who attend raids as often as or more often than he does all get a chance to have tier 1 priority. Let’s look at the queues as they stand now after the raid is over:

Of course in a real game we would see more changes because chances are more than one item would drop, but the example I think is a good one.

How Successful Is This System?

Now let’s look at how this system meets the criteria that were set out earlier. We can gage the theoretical success of the system by seeing how well it matches those criteria.

Does It Prioritizes Players For Items They Want As Simply As Possible?

Yes. There is no complicated DKP, no auctions and no pricing. We are simply keeping track of people’s priority on similarly values items.

Is It Based On The Effort Players Put Into Raiding Irrespective Of Where They Raid?

Yes. If players don’t show up for scheduled raids they will fall to the bottom of the queues in all tiers (at varying speeds, depending on the guilds preferences). Not only that, but other player will leapfrog over them as players collect loot. Only by showing up for raids will players be able to claim items they want because as they lose their positions (from not showing up) they will lose their bids because they don’t have priority or become ineligible to bid all together. Also, the longer you don’t show up, the more often you have to come to be able to start getting items (look at Diane – She hasn’t shown up in like forever!)

Is It Insensitive To When An Item Drops In The Guild Or Instance Lifecycle?

Yes, although subtly. Early drops are not more “expensive” or “cheaper” than later drops as they are in most systems with an auction component. This is a problem in many auction systems. As time goes on demand is lower and the price for the people getting an item last will reflect that. This bidding system is essentially a game of chicken though. How low can I bid and still win? If I know Bob wants to bid against me and he beats me in tier 2 and I beat him in tier 1 and tier 3 do I bid tier 1? I would win, but I would then not win in tier 1 again for some time. I could bid tier two, but Bob will probably bid tier 2 and I would just lose. I have nothing to lose though, so I should bid tier 2 if I don’t bid tier 1 and I still want to bid, just in case Bob bids tier 3. On the other had, Bob will only win a tier three bid if I don’t bid and he expects me to bid so he will bid tier 2 or nothing. However if I think he will bid nothing I will bid tier 3. If he thinks I will bid tier three he will bid tier two. This kind of logic goes on forever in a prisoner’s dilemma like scenario. Attempts at meta-gaming or auctions with fewer people even do not lead to smaller bids. In fact, meta-gaming here is not unlike meta-gaming in rock-paper-scissors – quite useless. My overriding concern in this example is not what Bob will bid. The question is simply one of do I think getting this item is worth deprioritizing in tier 1. That will come down to how much I want the item. Overall, everyone will in turn get items of similar value to themselves that they want as long as they show up for raids to keep refreshing their tier positions. Whether we have 10 people or 2 people after an item, this will be the same.

Is It Sensitive To The Value Of The Item In Question For The Player Who Wants It?

Yes. By using tiers, players who value items more will get priority. In the short term they win by bidding higher (if they have not won recently). In the long term though, they will not get better items than anyone else because the queues are cyclic. If they win an item due to a tier 1 bid they will not win with a tier 1 bid again until all other regular raiders have had their pick of a tier 1 item. If they miss raids it will take them longer to reach to top of the tier again.

Players could of course use their high tier positions to get items that really aren’t that good, but this is a big draw back as those players will have to wait some time for good items in the future. When the item drops that they really want they will not get it because they blew their high tier bids on low tier items. Of course you also have reasonable class restrictions – mages cannot ask for plate items no matter how high up on the queues they are.

Is It Predictable Insofar That No One Can Go For A Long Time Without Getting Good Loot Because Of Circumstances Beyond Their Control?

Yes. No one can go for too long without getting good loot as long as they show up. Either people will take loot ahead of them and they just wait their turn or players ahead of them don’t take loot and they get the opportunity to take loot lower in the queue. Even new players will get their turn at “first dibbs” on an item of a particular relative personal value (even if it is not clear which particular item that is).

Class Tiers

Suicide Kings implements a class tier. This is so that people do not have to use their queue positions on things such as class set pieces, especially when they may be the only on who needs it. This is not needed in this system as players can use lower tiers for class items. Sure – other class members could override by using a higher tier, but then they lose their chances to get other good items. Even so, adding more bidders to the system does not significantly shift the relative cost of an item.

Loot That Only One Person Can Use

Sometimes one player is the only person who can use an item – just like how they would still need to spend DKP to get it they would still need to bid to get the item. They could bid tier three though and receive the item without it interfering with their loot plans. The idea is to give all regular raiders loot – if you are the only person who can use an item you are still receiving loot and someone else should get a turn.

Guild Priorities

You can also promote individuals above others the same way you demote people who don’t show up. Maybe once a week your officers and main tanks are moved up in their queues. Maybe your tank gets moved up one spot in the tier one queue each raid to ensure he or she gets greater priority on new spiffy tanking items. The benefit is that you can increase someone’s priority for the good of the guild without giving them “free DKP” for doing nothing and you can deprioritize people without “stealing” their DKP. Also you can choose to punish people who don’t show up more or less. Maybe they drop two spots, or maybe they only drop a spot once every two raids they miss. Maybe you lower the halfway line or only take the top 50% excluding people who are absent. Note that having a cut off is important to prevent the people low in the tier one queue from just classifying crappy items as tier one and not dropping but still winning. You could even make it so that when you win an item you go to the bottom of all the tiers below the tier you drop in as well. This would prevent players from getting any items after getting a big one while still letting them get small one while saving up. The system is highly tuneable to individual guild needs.

Benefits over DKP

By eliminating the money system of DKP we ensure that all gear goes to someone who can use it. There are no more disenchants of gear someone could use just because they don’t want to pay for it. You can always bid from the bottom of tier 3. On the other hand there is no price inflation and new guild members can be started in the middle (or bottom) of the queues and reasonably start getting gear without falling behind as long as they show up. The system allows you to “save up” for big stuff while still getting lesser items by saving your tier 1 bids. At the same time it prevents hoarding and because it is a priority system it limits the gaps between haves and have-nots. This is important because most DKP systems still give priority to guild veterans over people who joined the guild later. Even if the new players have perfect attendance in coming to raids in a new instance while some older members may not, older members used the DKP that they have accumulated due to inflation to stay ahead forever. It also has low variation among players who show up regularly because a player can wait at most one cycle of the tier one queue (ignoring players who don’t attend raids). If other players in the queue choose not to take items regularly, that is ok too as it will pass to players beneath them. Everyone who shows up for raids gets an even share of similarly valued loot.

Conclusion

No loot system is perfect but I think that this one is very good. It meets all 5 outlined priorities for a good loot system. It’s fair, efficient, easy, predictable, tuneable, and rewards showing up. If you want more information and are on Spirestone alliance side send me a tell on Jeathetius.

Sun beams,
streaming through the canopy of the trees above.
I cannot see the water and I'm still in love
with you but you’re a cannibal of my needs.
And my head is dark and cloudy, while the
sun beams.

And the sparks fly –
swirling up from the campfire into the starlit sky.
A million points of pure light look like fireflies.
The water rustles gently in the bay
while the red skies on the far horizon
bring new day.

Snow falls
gently on the side walk; I sit in shopping mall.
I tighten my scarf a bit and fade away.
I'll never have to face you again.