Decisions

Top-down vs. bottom-up economic model

The mechanisms proposed here are an abstraction of how nations are supposed to work. We have chosen this abstraction to help us avoid simulating things at the level of plots of land. This document proposes a top-down model of an economy.

The alternative would be to go bottom up - define plots of land in the game world, what resources each plot can produce, how they group into nations, how they participate in conflict, etc.

Given the massive scale of this game, that would give players and game masters too much information to keep track of. Starting with a top-down model avoids burying the fun of Great Wyrm in accounting.

The unchecked power of quest mode and tournament mode

The Council of Game Masters will create quests and tournaments that act as dynamic faucets and sinks for Great Wyrm tokens. At the outset, there will be no checks or balances on the ability of the Council to create quests.

In the future, we may want to add some constraints on the amount of research points, magic, etc. Game Masters can create through quests.

For now, this gives Game Masters a means of balancing the game if the economy goes off the rails.

The Council of Game Masters: A metagame

Players who demonstrate a solid understanding of the goals of Great Wyrm and the lore of Great Wyrm will be invited to the council of Game Masters. A seat on this council comes with a lot of power and influence within the Great Wyrm community.

We should expect players to turn the acquisition of a Council seat into a metagame.

It should not become an empty popularity contest - we should do our best to ensure that people who end up with a Council seat are genuinely passionate about Great Wyrm.

We should only reward concrete, quantifiable accomplishments to ensure some degree of meritocracy in the selection of Game Masters. Selection should be based purely on ideas making it into Great Wyrm canon, either through gameplay or through community proposals (direct voting on proposals to add lore to canon).

The player base should not vote directly on who gets to be a Game Master.