[MUD-Dev] Commercial value of RP

[Travis Casey]

Jon A. Lambert <jlsysinc at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>On 29 Dec 97 at 13:39, JC Lawrence wrote:
 
>> Something that just struck me is that all the commercial
>> representatives we have on the list seem to espouse their games as
>> being RP games, and discuss their values in terms of the RP values
>> generated by their games.
>> 
>> Is this valid in a commercial sense?  What are its origins?
[much cut]

> I do believe Ola hit on this directly or around the edges. :)  
> If you can pick up a sword, cast a spell or fire a phaser, the game will
> likely be marketed as a role-playing game in a commercial sense.

Well, it's not *quite* that bad.  Doom, Quake, Heretic, etc. haven't
been marketed as RPGs -- at least, not by Id.  Single-player computer
games that are marketed by RPGs generally seem to have these 
characteristics:

- The player gets to create one or more characters, who are individualized
  in some way, such as attributes.  (That is, the character serves as
  more than simply a counter and/or a name to store the player's save
  files with).
- The characters can improve in the course of the game.
- The characters interact with non-player characters in ways beyond 
  simply killing them.

Of course, the term "RPG" is really a misnomer for most of these games
anyways, but I'm trying to define the way the term seems to be used in
describing computer games, not how I think it *should* be used.

Both UO and Meridian 59 share these characteristics with the single-player
computer games that are referred to as "RPGs", so it seems logical to call
them computer RPGs as well.

Now, a personal opinion:

I believe that any well-designed, realistic mud will make a good 
environment for roleplaying.  To explain why, let me first give my 
definition of roleplaying:

 Making decisions about how your character will act based on the 
 character's personality, rather than on such bases as what will give
 the most advantage in the game or what must be done to win the game.

Well-designed muds can be played in this way as a consequence of the 
fact that they are multi-player games.  Since they are multi-player
games, there must be multiple activities available for characters;
multiple goals to choose from, if you will.  This means that players
can choose which goal(s) they want their character to pursue -- 
which further implies that that choice can be made on the basis of
the character's personality.

This stands in contrast to single-user RPGs; most of these have only
one overall goal for the game.  If a player decides that his/her
character would not want to accomplish that goal, there's nothing else
to do in the game but waste time.
--
      |\      _,,,---,,_        Travis S. Casey  <efindel at io.com>
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