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===Minimum bid=== |
===Minimum bid=== |
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Items may have a static minimum bid value; the winner MUST spend at least this much, even if they are the only bidder on an item. |
Items may have a static minimum bid value; the winner MUST spend at least this much, even if they are the only bidder on an item. |
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+ | ===Class restrictions=== |
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+ | Only high priority classes may be allowed to bid on an item, versus any player who can equip an item. This may be used to prevent situations where an individual member of a class values an item more highly (and has more points to bid) than members of a class for whom the item is more traditionally valuable. For example: a [[Paladin]] bidding on [[Drake Fang Talisman]] and outbidding [[Rogue|Rogues]] who may get more benefit. Class restrictions (or priorities) are traditionally hotly debated. |
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=Advantages= |
=Advantages= |
Revision as of 16:06, 6 January 2007
Bidding systems refer to auction-style variable pricing in DKP loot distribution systems. As in real life, there is an arbitrary number of methods to conduct an auction. The most popular are:
Basic Systems
Open Bidding
On loot distribution, everybody writes their bids in the open raid channel. The loot master functions as auctioneer. The highest bidder gets the item and loses the amount of DKP he bid.
Silent Bidding
When an item is due to be distributed, everyone interested whispers their bid to the loot master. The highest bidder wins the item for the amount bid.
Variations
Spend one more
The winner pays not the amount he bid, but just one more than the second highest bidder.
Tier bidding
Bidding amounts are in set tiers, e.g. in multiples of 10; players bid at tiers, up to the DKP they possess (or in some cases, the next tier up, resulting in some players have small negative amounts of DKP).
Maximum bid
Items may have a static maximum bid value; players may bid no more than this amount, no matter how many DKP they possess.
Minimum bid
Items may have a static minimum bid value; the winner MUST spend at least this much, even if they are the only bidder on an item.
Class restrictions
Only high priority classes may be allowed to bid on an item, versus any player who can equip an item. This may be used to prevent situations where an individual member of a class values an item more highly (and has more points to bid) than members of a class for whom the item is more traditionally valuable. For example: a Paladin bidding on [Drake Fang Talisman] and outbidding Rogues who may get more benefit. Class restrictions (or priorities) are traditionally hotly debated.
Advantages
The subjective value of a drop is not fixed. The same item may be a valued upgrade for one raid member, and a minor sidegrade for another. In an homogenous and fair environment, bidding leads to the best possible item pricing and item distribution. Since everyone is free to bid as much as they can (up to their current DKP score), it's not automatically the person with the highest score who gets the item, if someone with a lesser amount is willing to spend more, he will get it. So items normally go to the raid members who value them most, for whom they are the greatest upgrades. On the other end, even small up- or sidegrades will be distributed and not disenchanted.
Disadvantages
Since bidding is a free market, it introduces all problems of a free market. Bidding systems not only reward contribution to the guilds goals, but also reward playing the bidding system well. In order to gain maximum profit in a bidding envinronment, it is neccessary to "read" the situation, and to correctly assess when an item starts to become cheap (or wether it will remain rare/expensive for quite some time).
The issues are in particular:
Inflation
If the system permits players to accrue large amounts of unspent points (e.g. because they've attended a large number of raids without seeing anything they want to bid on), it may become very difficult for new members to ever become competitive for the top of the line drops. See also the DKP gap.
Lowballing
In systems with non-fixed prices, a player may get away with an item for a very low price, because every other player on that raid didn't want or need it, even though other players in the system (but not in the raid) would have bid much higher.
Collusion
As detailed in the Wikipedia article, collusion is an open or silent agreement leading to price fixing. In loot systems with bidding, collusion usually means that members of one class (due to lucky drops or by intent) pay only minimal prices on their class gear, in order to be more competitive on cross-class items.
Draining
Sometimes, one or more players enter a bidding contest with a specific player just to push the price of an item up, and thus drain the point pool of the player in question, ensuring that this player will have to stay out of later bidding contests.