Dragon's Tale - Lotteries and Unintended Consequences

[teppy]

I'm writing to describe the latest "game" in Dragon's Tale, but also to share an interesting unintended consequence of a decision that I made months ago. (these effects are so interesting - this is why I love designing MMOs.)

Since early on, large jackpots in Dragon's Tale have been announced game-wide and accompanied by fireworks displays. Announcements like "A Major Jackpot of 1.450 BTC by Emperatorzs on Fence: Watch Beetle Downs for a display of Mmmmmm Donuuuts in 15 seconds" would be heard several times an hour.

The first unexpected effect was after I added drinks to the game: These were a way to buy yourself a fancy visual treat that pays off - sometimes less than the cost of the drink, sometimes more. Drinks could also be bought for friends in the game, and it became a popular custom to buy a round of drinks to celebrate a particularly large win.

Over time, some of our top players began to notice that these "rounds of drinks" were sort of expected, and it was always by players that themselves seldom had large jackpots (because they only played for low stakes, didn't deposit, etc.) And so they asked if I could give a way for them to turn off these jackpot messages so that they wouldn't be constantly pestered for free drinks. These were our top players, so of course I accommodated the request.

So fewer and fewer jackpot messages were displayed. The amount of play was still great, but players commented that the game seemed very quiet, and I noticed a fall in active players. It was logical to conclude that this was causal. My dilemma though was that I could not simply remove an option that many players liked.

I explained all of the above in-game, and brainstormed with players about solutions - at the suggestion of Zebedee, we created a sort of lottery: Daily drawings for 50 BTM (0.05 BTC), weekly drawings for 500 BTM (0.5 BTC) and a monthly drawing for one Bitcoin. For each "Major Jackpot Message" that you generate, you get one ticket to each of the three drawings.

Immediately nearly all players turned their Major Jackpot messages back on; numbers improved across the board, and the game once again felt alive. Yesterday's peak was 44 players.

[Micon]

Teppy I love you very much even though to my knowledge we have never met IRL

the Dragon's Tale world continues to be molded in your image, as if you are some sort of crypto-deity.

I haven't popped in to DT in a while (9.5 month old daughter) but I know when I drop in the next time I will be warmly greeted by the players like I always have and there will be something new for me to gamble some bitcoin on.

[b!z]

That sounds like a very interesting solution to your problem. What is the highest number of players you've ever had online?

[Skinnkavaj]

Andrew Di stop trying to get people to play in your SCAM casnio that is NOT PROVABLY FAIR.

EDIT: This post was done by a hacker that took control over my account. I had not changed my password on bitcointalk and I had an easy one. I have no regained control over the account. Ignore this post.

[teppy]

For simple games in Dragon's Tale, it would be possible to implement provably fair bets, and I may do this at some point for those.

Most of the games are much more complex or intentionally make use of hidden information as part of gameplay: For example in cow-tipping, each player has their own paytable representing which cow-tipping techniques are known, and how well each is known. These knowledge units are called "facets," and once you have 5 facets of a technique, you are able to perform that technique and teach facets to others. Each paytable is computed on the fly and balanced to 95% EV (plus Dragon's Treasures, a whole different discussion), but is not transmitted to the player: You have no way of knowing which techniques your character is capable of, though you get closer to this knowledge over time. Cow-tipping is a cross between gambling and a collection game!

In other games the logic itself is hidden (server-side only) - part of the game is (collaboratively or individually) figuring this out. For instance, each of the berry types has it's own hidden rules which influence the harvest (jackpot.) Some berry types are considered "solved" while others are not, yet nobody knows for sure.

Making all of Dragon's Tale provably fair would be the equivalent of making any other MMO provably fair.

[cowandtea]

I tried the game but don't really like it. The interface and everything was quite buggy.

I did talk to the soldier for free BTC and cash out about 0.001 BTC (after talking to about 10 soldiers)

[czardinheiro]

I even play that fucking fence more rare win this tale dragons like all casinos have the tendency to only bring home the amount ... more yet addictive ..... Today I lost about 100 MBTC for it lol 8)anger but I ended up taking it back as always the secret is patience to win back their losses
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