Pitfalls of DKP
No, we're not talking about some guy swinging from a vine across a lake with alligators in it to gain his DKP(hmm that might be a great idea to solve some issues though). These are those ultra-negative things that would lead one to reconsider running a DKP system instead of a non-points system.
The biggest pitfalls of DKP systems are 1)inflation, 2)collusion, and 3)upbidding.
Inflation is by far the biggest problem that faces DKP systems. This isn't exactly the monetary inflation that we're so used to in our grocery shopping. Monetary inflation (as given to us by dictionary.com) is "a persistent, substantial rise in the general level of prices related to an increase in the volume of money and resulting in the loss of value of currency." DKP inflation, however, is when veteran raid members have a large amount of points versus new raid members. This leads to newer members almost always being lower in the pecking order.
Collusion, meaning price fixing(dictionary.com again), is the next largest DKP pitfall. Collusion in DKP's case is not that there is intentional price fixing but that by the nature of the game collusion occurs. For instance, there are many items in the game that are usable by only one class or maybe a select few classes. At first, these items may have the same worth as other items but over time they become something that rots. The same, yet unavoidable, thing happens when the random boss drops are uneven. Recently in NV we have gotten a plethora of plate drops yet hardly any leather drops(we call this the curse of Kree).
Depending on your DKP system actual, dictionary collusion can happen if groups of players make agreements together to lessen the going price of the item. This is less of a problem as most of the time people are more willing to gear themselves up rather than make a deal, so this form of collusion is less problematic when it does happen.
Upbidding is the opposite of collusion. This problem is only viable with an auction style DKP sytem. It is when players purposefully bid up each other so that the items will sell for a much higher price, or when a player purposefully starts the bidding at a higher price without the intention of purchasing the item. This problem is not traditionally thought of as a pitfall of DKP systems but I have seen it succeed enough to feel like it should be included as one. Remember, your raid members are humans and humans naturally have tendencies to do such things like this(primarily when it comes to epic lewtz), especially since a majority of the time people hide faceless behind their monitors.
In the next post I'll talk about the ways these pitfalls can be avoided(don't you love these cliffhangers, I feel like a season of Hero's).
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