The underlying principle is that pointsEarned - pointsSpent = 0

A system that is not zero-sum is almost always an inflationary system. New members that are added into the system are immediately at a disadvantage against the rest of the guild for a long time. These players may surrender to the hopelessness of competing with the top for the 'best' loot and only attend farm nights to scoop up their scraps of defaulted loot. If inflation is too extreme much loot can be lost to minor upgrades or sidegrades by the top end of your raiding force thinning the spread of power. In most cases this does not best prepare your raid force for tackling the next upcoming instance when it is released.


There are many different implementations and of zero-sum systems. Some even carry the flaws of an inflationary systems under the guise of being zero-sum. If you are going to make adjustments and recalculations to your system between top end dungeons is probably the best time to do it. If you are looking to retool your guild's loot system now is the time to start some serious discussions and decide your guild's priorities.

Pretty simple solution in zero sum - take 20% of the earned dkp on a regular night, give that to an IDKP account - and respend those points on wipe nights. Balance, incentive, and its not debilitating.

We use zero sum. (It is also per boss and fixed price)

We have dkp cap for farm instances. (hello moidified EJ system) If you are over the cap you get 0 dkp, but a bank character gets the dkp. The officers can than "spend" that dkp on wipe nights.

So for instance we showed up at emps and did a full night of attempts. All people that showed got bonus dkp/# of people dkp for the night. It is a fairly good motivator for some. (obviously not gonna turn a casual into a hardcore, but it can help)

The system is zero sum and pretty much fully automated for dkp maint crew.

One of our sister guilds uses zero sum but doesn't award the dkp until the end of the week. (maint period)

They tally the total dkp earned for all runs. Than assign percentages to each raid based on guild goals.

Raid 1 BWL (farm) - 20%
Raid 2 Naxx (day 1 farm) - 20%
Raid 3 Naxx (day 2 new) - 40%
Raid 4 AQ40 (farm) - 20%

Than each raids attendees are given that percentage of the dkp.
i.e. 5000 dkp total earned
Raid 1 20% of 5000 =1000/# of attendees = dkp per person
etc.

I kinda like there system better but it has some drawbacks. (like a full week to see dkp earned)

I'm thinking in the expansion we might use zero sum that is instance based. So there is no earning tons of dkp in instance A only to spend it in instance B.

I could never see Loot councils working for anyone but the truely hardcore. It would just seem prone to an "old boy" type of problem.