DKP hoarding
From LokDoc
DKP hoarding is the process of hoarding DKP. It means that a large portion of the total available DKP are held by only a few individuals. It is a noticeable occurrence in zero-sum systems as the DKP in those systems are finite.
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Reasons
There are many reasons why DKP converge to a small number of people.
Racing
If there several people want the same rare item then a situation might occur where the persons start to "race" to have the highest DKP the next time the item drops. People who race do generally not buy items if they risk loosing the race as a result. If the item does not drop for a long time then everyone who are committed to the race will gradually start to build up large reserves of unused DKP.
Lack of items to buy
If a person has everything so that only minor improvements remain then hoarding occurs. The person does of course not fancy buying a minor improvement simply because it isn't worth it. The person will just go on accumulating DKP as long as nothing spectacular drops.
Problems
Hoarding is a problem in systems with finite amounts of DKP, which is the case with a zero-sum system with a cap on how deep negative one may go. As an example one might not be permitted to go lower than -1000 DKP. If a large portion of DKP is then bound up to a few individuals then the remaining people will find themselves with less and less room to move around in. Eventually more and more people bump into the -1000 cap and dropped items begin to rot. The turnaround rate of DKP approaches unhealthy low levels.
Solutions
There are quite a lot of solutions too.
Hard-caps
One of the simplest solutions is to just impose a cap on how much DKP a person may accumelate. Earning DKP while at the cap will not have any effect. The problem with such a cap is that there's no reward for people who are at the cap to go to a raid where nothing they want drops. It is quite an easy system to maintain though.
Example
A, B and C participate together in a raid, B buys an item for 150 DKP so the reward is 50 DKP. There is a har-cap at 1000. Upon awarding the DKP one notices that A will run into the cap, so the extra 40 DKP that A does not receive are rewarded to B and C instead (20 DKP each).
Before
A: 990 DKP B: 100 DKP C: -50 DKP
After
A: 1000 DKP (+10) B: 20 DKP (-80) C: 20 DKP (+70)
Note that zero-sum is still intact. Any further DKP that A earns will be awarded to B and C instead.
Soft-caps
Instead of having a hard cap one can have a "softer" cap. Meaning that after a certain point any further DKP rewards slow down. The soft-cap is harder to maintain as it usually requires a lot of calculations to maintain, so software such as Balancer's anti-hoarding code is often used.
Example
A, B and C participate together in a raid, B buys an item for 150 DKP so the reward is 50 DKP. There is a softcap at 500. Upon awarding the DKP one calculates that A will loose 40% (20 DKP) as a result of the cap, so the extra 20 DKP that A does not receive are rewarded to B and C instead (10 DKP each). Person A can continue earning DKP, but will loose a larger and larger portion to the soft cap every time.
Before
A: 990 DKP B: 100 DKP C: -50 DKP
After
A: 1020 DKP (+30) B: 10 DKP (-90) C: 10 DKP (+60)
Note that zero-sum is still intact.
Spend all
This is a variation where people have to spend all their DKP or a specified amount of DKP, whichever is highest, in order to buy any item.
Example
A: 990 DKP B: 100 DKP C: -50 DKP
Item I has a set price of 150 DKP. If person A buys it then she or he will have to pay 990 DKP for it. If B buys it then she or he will have to pay 150 DKP for it. The DKP spent to buy items is distributed amongst the participants, so zero-sum is maintained. The participants of the raid will earn more if A buys the item than if B buys it.
