What is Zero Sum DKP?
Zero-sum means that DKP are distributed based on the value of items that drop. All members in a zero-sum DKP start with a score of 0. When an item is given to a raid member, they have to pay for it in DKP (going negative if necessary). These DKP spent are immediately distributed among all the raid members. Thus the amount of DKP, i.e. the sum of all members in the system, is always zero. The idea here is that inflation is impossible, since no points enter the system from the outside. Although “zero-sum” describes only a method of earning DKP, and it would in theory be perfectly possible to combine this income method with bidding for finding the item prices, nearly no raids actually do that. Instead, about every real-live zero sum system uses fixed prices, thus the terms “zero sum” and “zero sum, fixed price” have nearly become synonyms.
