game balancing auctions

The "all pay" auctions aren't as brutal if there's still something for the second-higgest, third-highest ets players to get. If there's only one thing up for auction, like buying an artifact, it seems strange that everyone would have to pay even if recieving nothing. You're almost punishing players for participating in the auction. But if there's more up for grabs (like highest bidder goes first, second highest goes second etc) it is very reasonable to have everyone pay.

Koen

The only "all pay" auction I've seen is in Shogun (currently named "Samurai Swords"), in which players bid for the ninja and turn order. The benefits to choosing your turn order (usually a player will choose to go first or last) and hiring the ninja are great (and the DISadvantages if another player DOES win the ninja or turn order choice are also great), but if you are not the high bidder, you lose that money (koku).

TWO AUCTION STYLES I HAVE USED:

Style 1:

I have used a form of the simultaneous secret bidding style in which ONLY the high and low bidder pay, with a minimum bid and no ability to opt out, meaning that essentially you must pay to opt out of an auction (since you could just bid the minimum and be the low bidder). It also increases the chance that there will be more competitive bidding. If you don't want what is being bid on AND you don't want to pay, you must try to NOT be the highest or lowest bidder, but if you bid a moderate amount and everyone else still outbids you, you still have to pay.

Style 2:

I also have a bidding style in which everyone must participate in the auction, and may place between 1-3 "money" cards in to bid. Only the number of cards is visible to players before the reveal (it is very likely that a player will have a single money card with a high enough value to beat 3 other money cards - it comes down to whether they are willing to spend it for the item up for bid), creating a secondary bluffing mechanic, since players do not have to bid in any particular order, so players can wait to see what other players do before they place all of their cards. Cards can be added to a bid, but not taken away once they are submitted - this, like poker, can cause a bluffing/bidding mechanic that is actually quite intriguing. Once either all players have 3 cards in for bid or all players state that their bids are final, the bids are revealed and the high bidder wins, with all losing players forfeiting the LOWEST money card submitted for bid. If there is a tie for highest bidder, the item goes to the LOW bidder (who pays, with all other players forfeiting their lowest money card submitted).

Money cards have values from $0 to $100,000 - so you could conceivably throw in 3 $0 bidding cards, making your opponent think that he has to try to outbid you, but when he spends a $30,000 card to try to outbid your 3 cards, he finds out that you bluffed him and caused him to severely overpay. The other players losing their lowest money card will eventually pull out all of the $0 money cards to reduce the ability of other players to bluff.

I'm wondering what you are exactly trying to analyse?

The most common kind of auction is probably round-robin, open bidding, once a player has passed he may not re-enter the bidding. One item per auction, and the item up for auctioning may or may not have a different value to different players. Don't know how that relates to any real world problem, though.

Thee BEST bidding system, IMO, is "For Sale".
Starts with Open Bid. Then, either Raise or take the lowest card and half of the bid you made. (If you made none, no payment needed.
After all cards are sold, Simultaneous Bidding occurs for a new set of cards using the cards that were purchased earlier.