I read the essay on creating a dkp system at:
http://www.dkpsystem.com/dynpage.php?id=14

And, the author states that every dkp system should have some sort of decay, and would like to write an essay on it.

Frankly, such a strong statement almost makes me WANT the decay system, even if it's in a very, very weak state, so that decay is unnoticable until I can figure out why to increase it.

But at this point, I'm not totally sure why we need it, and my fellow officers don't want it at all.

I feel like we're missing something fundamental, but I don't know what that something is.

So, can anyone tell me why anyone should have decay? And if YOUR guild uses decay, what is your experience with it, and do you think it's worthwhile?

Thanks very much in advance. We're extremely curious.

Yeah, it's a pretty strong statement, and like I said, the ideas of decay could themselves almost be an essay, but I'll try to summarize my thoughts.

The essence of decay is to give weight to recent activity: Raids attended and loot received yesterday should be weighted more than raids attended and loot received 5 months ago. By doing this, is also helps to prevent hoarding of points, which can eventually become an economic problem. Decay also helps to slow inflation.

The last thing you want, as a guild leader, is for someone to dissappear for 5 months with a ton of DKP, only to come back and sweep loot over regular raiders who might not has as much. That is a huge cause of drama. One of the methods of curbing that problem is the implementation of an "inactive period," but if that inactive individual has enough DKP, and his status gets changed back to "Active" they'll probably still be riding on those points they earned so long ago, and as the past is usually a strong indicator of the future, chances are, they'll dissappear again. If they dissappear again after getting loot over someone else who DOESN'T dissappear and who regularly raids, then those items are effectively lost. So while an inactive period is somewhat effective for the short-term, implementing decay is the most effective long-term solution, as far as I can tell.

The method by which the decay works here is that, like I said, it puts weight on RECENT activity, by slowly decaying the value of past activity. In doing so, if someone dissappears for a few months, their points are already on the decline, and will eventually bottom-out at an ultimate minimum that you define.

For example, lets say you make 0.25 become your minimum. That means that every earned and spent point will eventually be reduced to 0.25. Say someone 20 undecayed points, eventually, those 20 points will be reduced to 5. The same goes with loot. Say someone gets an item worth 12 points, eventually, those 12 spent points will be partially returned, and in the long run that item will have been worth 3 points.

This goes a long way to encouraging spending of points, while at the same time, making sure members stay in regular attendance. As another example, say a member USED to be a REALLY hardcore raider (95% attendance), but suddenly decides that "Real life" is more important and becomes a weak raider (20% attendance). Those points he earned in the past will begin decaying, and eventually the fact that he's not a hardcore raider anymore will shine through in the number of points he has. That will happen, as the past raids begin to decay. In doing so, it will help to ensure that the now regular raiders will receive more loot than the now irregular raider.

I could go on with examples for days, and I probably spent 10 hours describing decay to my guildies when we implemented it. It did take some explaining, but once they understood the methodologies, they began to realize the power of decay as a loot regulation mechanism.

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