MUSE Ltd.: radioactive points

radioactive points

radioactive points

noun The concept that points should disappear naturally over time, either in real time or per hour played. The former approach will tend to cull the persona file of high-ranking personae who haven't played for ages, whereas the latter will make life difficult for plodders. Radioactive points will usually be lost in proportion to overall score, and can thus be explained in terms of half-lives. Example: reducing all scores in the persona file by 0.1% generates a half life of approximately 693 time units (because 0.999^693 is 0.5). Doing this every week will therefore halve everyone's points after 13 years 4 months (!); doing it every hour will halve them roughly every month (!). Radioactive points are usually not implemented in MUAs precisely because it's so hard to get the half life period finely tuned enough to achieve the desired effect (unless the desired effect is to drive everyone away!).