Make the lottery work better

[Silvatica]

Recently the winner of the lotter got over 2 000 000 gc the week after that the same winner got only a measly 72 000. How did that happen ?

 

Well the way it happend was easy. Learner provided a seed capital to the lottery by not taking his winning for the week before the huge win. That shows that if the lottery start

with some seeding capital then more players will buy tickets and the lottery will be more fun for everyone and also work better for its intentions.

 

The bad part was that only one single player got the full 2 million gc and thus got filthy rich while the rest of the players playing the game got nothing at all.

 

So I would like to propose two changes to the lottery to help accomplish that more buy tickets and also so that not one player get filthy rich.

 

Proposal 1. Let 10% of the winning each week be kept and be used as a seed to the next weeks lottery. I.e. let 80% of the lottery money go to the winner and 10% to maintainance and 10% to seed the next weeks lottery.

 

Proposal 2. Let 50% go to one winner 20% to second place winner and 10% to third place winner. That way even if you win you get alot of money but even if you don't win you have a chance to get second or third prize. With more prizes to win, more people will be inclined to put their money into the lottery.

 

 

So say the total is 2 000 000 as the big winning was a couple a weeks ago. First price is 1 000 000 still a flithy amout of money. Second prize is 400 000 which a very good prize to win and third prize is 200 000 which is also a very nice price to win. Then 200 000 is taken out of the game for maintainance and 200 000 could have been used to seed the next weeks lottery.

 

Since about 200 000 was the initial seed to get the lottery be so big that it was over 2 000 000 this new seed should have really helped to make that next weeks lottery big as well.

 

With an initial seed of money into each weeks lottery the amount of money in the lottery each week will increase from what it is today since the seed money makes it mathematically correct to buy a ticket into the lottery.

[Affliction]

So say the total is 2 000 000 as the big winning was a couple a weeks ago. First price is 1 000 000 still a flithy amout of money. Second prize is 400 000 which a very good prize to win and third prize is 200 000 which is also a very nice price to win. Then 200 000 is taken out of the game for maintainance and 200 000 could have been used to seed the next weeks lottery.

 

your maths wrong..

 

the winners would have to split the 80% of 2 million. 20% goes back to the npc..

 

so.. with your idea. 400k of that goes back to the npc. leaving you with 1.6million

 

1st place gets 800k

2nd place gets 320k

3rd place gets 160k

 

 

i Like the idea. just thought i'd correct your math.

 

#edit... umm lol i think my math was wrong.. just woke up sorry.

 

wait. figured it out.. the winners in my previous calculations used yoru 50% 20% and 10%.. thats only 80% of the 1.6 million.. so the winners should get something like 60% 25% 15% (making 100% devision of the 80% of the total gcs)

 

giving them

1st place 960k

2nd place 400k

3rd place 240k

Edited May 1, 2009 by Affliction

[Dchels]

Good idea like it.

[Sir_Odie]

really good idea

[DarthCookie]

Love the idea... Never put my money in there because only 1 person would win and the chances even if you buy several tickets, your chances to win are low

 

One possible problem I see is that : This idea raises the probability of winning, so more people would play.. and then we would be back in the same

situation

 

Overall its great idea!

Edited May 1, 2009 by DarthCookie

[bkc56]

With an initial seed of money into each weeks lottery the amount of money in the lottery each week will increase from what it is today since the seed money makes it mathematically correct to buy a ticket into the lottery.

Brings to mind the old saying: The lottery is a tax on people who can't do math.

[Raytray]

I would buy more tickets if this happened.

 

I was thinking of hosting a player's run lottery. With like 10kgc buy in, max of like 6 tickets per person and a 30 ticket total so the chances and prizes are still high.

[Entris]

I would also buy more tickets if this happens, more fun to know that there is atleast 3 chances to win something then just 1

[Erossa]

yeah i love this idea too

[jajohn]

Affliction: I don't see anything wrong about his maths....in fact he can't even be wrong because he is just suggesting it:P

you only suggested another way of dividing the money,but none of these is 'the right'

 

I like that Idea,and I think I might even try to buy a ticket once for a time...

[robotbob]

That shows that if the lottery start

with some seeding capital then more players will buy tickets

 

The lottery was created, from what I understand, as a way to redistribute ingame wealth and to remove

a portion during every lottery end. From Radu's Blog:

 

01 December 2006

EL Lottery

[...]

There are a few reasons for this lottery:

1. Money sink; only 90% of the ticket price goes into the prize, 10% is lost.

2. Redistribution of wealth; allows anyone to become very rich, so long as they participate and are very lucky.

[...]

 

If the game created gold coin via this method it would negate the original reason the lottery was implemented.

Learner's seed gold coin already existed in the game, and was redistributed to the winner. Winners typically

spend a large portion of their winnings on items, thereby causing a secondary distribution of the gold coin.

 

There is no way this idea would be implemented unless a way to deal with the new gold coin is created.

 

The idea as it currently stands, asks the virtual {invisible} government to mint new currency for the lottery. Perhaps if

the other -tax- related ideas merged with this one, there would be a source of gold coin (without creating new)

 

---

 

As to raytray's player run lottos, the blog also mentions:

01 December 2006

EL Lottery

Next server update, which will be probably Monday, will bring a new feature to the game: a lottery.

We had some player based lottery bots in the past, but the problem with them is the lack of trust from the players. They can't be sure the owner won't cheat.

 

---

 

I think the most workable part is the 1st,2nd,3rd places.

Also a cap on the number of tickets you can buy, since many people win the lotto via the 'all or nothing' method.

[Raytray]

As for the player run lottery, I was thinking of trying it out inside my own guild first, where they (at least I hope) do trust me. I realized the trust issue is there, but this is a pretty good community and if they've gotten this far without being called an outlaw, they probably would be able to be trusted. Which would be my logic as to why I trust the players.

 

In the original suggestion. 100% of the money is put in via tickets. 50% goes out to first place, 20% goes out to second, and 10% goes out to third. Which is a total of 80%. It then goes to 10% to seed, and 10% disappears.

Next week you have 100% from tickets, and 10% from last week. If you add that together and then distribute as last week, I don't believe their would be any new gold added from the server itself. Of course, I havn't tested the math behind the theory.

 

 

Let's say 100k comes in.

50k to first place.

20k to second.

10k to third.

10k is destroyed.

10k is kept for next week.

 

Again, 100k comes in.

110k total.

55k to first.

22k to second

11k to third.

11k is destroyed.

11k is kept for next week.

 

We brought in a total of 200k, redistributed 168k, and destroyed 21k and kept 11k for next week.

 

Is my math correct here? 84% of the total gold in two weeks is redistributed, 10.5% is gone, and 5.5% is kept for next week.

 

 

EDIT: oops, I seem to have combined prop 1 and prop 2

--

 

And another suggestion if this isn't already implemented. Is there a way to check if I actually have a ticket for this week?

Edited May 3, 2009 by Raytray

[DarthCookie]

Raytray - How much would your tickets be, and how would people buy tickets =p

[Raytray]

That last post was towards the real lottery.

Player driven, maybe something like 10kgc buy in, max of like 6 tickets per person and a 30 ticket total so the chances and prizes are still high. Buy through me and it'll be noted on a forum post somewhere.

[Silvatica]

Sorry but my math is correct.

Say there is 1 000 000 in the lottery

 

100 000 will be money sink

500 000 will go to first price

200 000 will go to second price

100 000 will go to third price

100 000 will go to seed the next lottery

-----------

=1000 000 which is the total money spend on the lottery.

 

So no money will be created instead 100 000 gc will be removed from the game. The money sink works fine.

 

With 100 000 inital seed into the lottery it will be mathematically correct to buy a ticket as long as the total value of the lottery is below 500 000 - since the expected return for a ticket on average will then exceed the price of the ticket. 400 tickets with a return of 80% of 500 000 means that each ticket will win on average 5 000 gc. If less tickets are bought the average expected win of each ticket would exceed 5000gc.

 

But when the value of the lottery is 500Kgc many will buy a ticket because of the chance to win a big win if they get a prize.

 

I am certain my proposal will increase the lottery as money sink. And also will create many happy winners.

[marack]

Proposal 2. Let 50% go to one winner 20% to second place winner and 10% to third place winner. That way even if you win you get alot of money but even if you don't win you have a chance to get second or third prize. With more prizes to win, more people will be inclined to put their money into the lottery.

 

 

I like this idea.