Dragon kill points
Dragon kill points (usually abbreviated with the acronym DKP) was a kind of out-of-game "currency" governing loot distribution within their guild. Devised by players, DKP would be earned by participating in endgame raids and spent by acquiring loot from endgame bosses. The term DKP was also frequently used to designate raid-level loot system in general. Multiple variants of this system existed, which generally differed in the specifics of how points were earned and spent.
Historically, the most popular systems for endgame loot distribution were point-based (and thus DKP systems). The very first endgame loot distribution system was developed by the guild Afterlife in 1999 and named for the original two EverQuest end bosses, both of whom were dragons.[1] As early as Wrath of the Lich King various systems and tools began to be implemented that saw DKP gradually become redundant and ultimately largely abandoned by the bulk of the WoW Community. Revamps of modern loot systems in Battle for Azeroth and Dragonflight, and the move away from master looter style distribution, made out-of-game systems such as DKP a largely unnecessary process.
Many guilds in World of Warcraft: Classic use a system called GDKP. While similarly named, it is not truly a DKP system; it is an entirely in-game process in which players bid gold for the item they want with the winning bid being split among all members of the raid. Due to concern of social systems eroding under the system, Blizzard disallowed GDKP runs in the second phase of Season of Discovery.[2]
Origin
From EQDKP - About:
- What is DKP?
- DKP, short for Dragon Kill Points, is a concept originally created by Thott of Afterlife, at a time where the only two raid targets in Everquest were two dragons, Lady Vox and Lord Nagafen. These points are awarded to each guild member as they attend a guild raid. The current DKP of each member reflects his or her priority for loot. When a member "wins" an item, they lose a DKP amount that reflects the value of that item.
- DKP allows for an unbiased comparison between guild members when decisions about loot are to be made based on attendance and recent items that have been awarded.
DKP automation
Most guilds using a formal loot system used a website to communicate current standings to their members. There were a plethora of ways to do this ranging from simple lists updated manually, to highly tailored full-fledged graphic mods. When setting up such a system it helps to keep it simple at first, and not to get carried away with fancy features and time-consuming projects.
The technically simplest method of dealing with DKP was to just have a list on the guild forums or a flat html file in which the standings are manually updated. The disadvantage of this solution is that there will be no item history, and it's not easy to do fast searches while raiding. Updating was also time-consuming and error-prone.
The vast majority of raids though used some in-game mod to collect data, and a website with a database to display the statistics. These systems needed some time to set up, and required learning on how to use them, but offered a lot of nice features, and are quite safe and simple to use.
eqDKP was something like a gold standard, the grandfather of all such systems. It was rather well documented, and sported support forums on its website. It wasn't a bad idea to simply start there if there are no specific reasons to use one of the other systems.
Scientific research on DKP systems
Meanwhile, the economics of MMORPGs in general, and the loot distribution systems in particular, have become the subject of scientific research. Notable articles include:
- Spohn, Dave. DKP - dragon kill points. About.com.
- Neils Clark (August 2006). "Addiction and the Structural Characteristics of Massively Multiplayer Online Games" (PDF). University of Hawaii.
- Oppenheimer. Loot Distribution for Raids. World of Warcraft Stratics.
- Castronova and Fairfield (October 16, 2006). "Dragon Kill Points: A Summary Whitepaper" (PDF). Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute for Economic Research.
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