Bitcoin Forum

Designing proper game rules for "Duke of Ether" game.

An original "King of Ethereum" game is a well known auction type game
of an early epoch of smart contracts. The "well known" part comes mostly
from the fact that the game was hacked, but it was, nevertheless, an interesting
idea.

Original rules were simple:
a) There is a Throne. One can pay to take it, and the amount is 50% higher that
the previous King paid.
b) As you are kicked... sorry, ASKED to leave the Throne, a new King pays 50%
more you paid - and you get this money.
c) As in any auction, sooner or later we get a winner, stuck with the Throne and
no one willing to pay for it :)
d) Month later the money vanish, and the game restarts.
e) Oh, yes! There is a list of former Kings, a hall of glory, so to speak.

Our objective was to keep the game simple (no 3d graphics in block chain - yet!)
but to make it more attractive. Here are few modifications we made. By the way,
the game itself is up and running in Ethereum blockchain. Its Web UI is located
at http://duke-of-ether.com/duke_of_ether.htm (and you need Chrome's plugin
called MetaMask to run Ethereum DApps, which takes about 30 seconds to install).

New rules:
a) There is a World, and there are many countries (3 to 12) in the World, and
you can choose which country you feel like ruling. So far, USA is a clear favorite,
there is quite a fight between (ta-dam!) Putin and Tramp.
b) One can pay to take the Throne, and the amount is 50% higher that
the previous Duke paid. This part is the same as in an original game.
b) As you are forcefully retired, a new Duke's money (50% more than you paid)
are transfered to you (think golden parashute).
c) As in any auction, sooner or later we get a winner, stuck with the Throne and
no one willing to pay for it :) We do not want it to happen, so after 60 days with
no activity, the price of a Throne begins declining at 5% per day, to give
current Duke a chance to return at least part of his investments.
d) Of course, there is a list of former Kings, a hall of glory, that will stay in a
blockchain for as long as Ethereum itself exists.

e) Now the fun part. If you want a new country (say, North Korea), you can pay extra
to create it.
f) As there is an upper limit (no more than 12 countries), or as you might choose to
be on a Dark Side for a change, you can pay to destroy an existing country. Why not?
In that case the "Hall of Glory" gets a record, something like
"USA: destroyed by (put your name here)"

We believe this set of rules makes a game a bit more vivid.
Comments are welcome.

http://duke-of-ether.com/images/ethereum_01.png

Very interesting game. What will the min bet be? So basically I get in the end the money from the first king/ruler because all other money is paid to successive kings/rulers?

Does not sound really luring to me. Or did I get it wrong? What is the incentive to rule a country?

Min bet is 0.0015 ether (1.5 finney).
And no, you will not get FIRST Duke's money. You get money of the Duke that comes AFTER you - 150% of what you invested (minus fee).
So if you look at a table, you can see that "Putin!" paid 0.00338 ether (it was for USA, as Putin got active lately :). Now if you look at a table right to the chart, it says next bet for USA is 0.005063. When (if) someone takes the Throne, he'll pay this amount (unless he choses to pay more) and this is exactly what you get (again, minus fee).
:)

Interesting concept, and a way for people to make some ether. Though you do say minus the fee. What is the fee? is it the normal tx fee or is it the tx fee in addition to the site fee? How much is it?

Fee is 4%. It is not transaction fee, it is owner's fee.

By the way, if you press the "?" button, you'll get full set of rules. We plan to move it up, as it is not very intuitive :)