[MUD-Dev] Self-Sufficient Worlds

[Paul Schwanz - Enterprise Services]

Chris Lloyd wrote:
> 
> In a perfect MUD, the entire world is run by the PCs. 

 [snip]
 
Thoughts:

In a perfect MUD, the entire world is run by _perfect_ PCs.

What's my point?  I hear where you are coming from and I'm also of the opinion 
that fewer NPCs is better (at least until NPC AI is greatly advanced).  However, 
I'm not sure I buy into the completely hands-off paradigm.  For instance, if you 
leave all story-telling in your MUD up to your PCs and they are not particularly 
good at story-telling, then I don't think you'll end up with the perfect MUD.  

I know that the analogy is a bit of a stretch, but it seems to me that this is 
akin to saying that the perfect book is the one that the reader writes.  But 
many people purchase books that are written by others because they know that 
they are not very good authors themselves.  The $64,000 question remains.  Can 
there really be such a thing as interactive story-telling, or is the term an 
oxymoron.  If we ever do end up with a truely interactive story, will it be 
something that people really want?

It seems to me that the trick to interactive story-telling lies in finding the 
right balance between the freedom of the reader and the talent of the author.  
Similarly, the perfect MUD may be one that finds the right balance between the 
player's freedom to run the world and the developer's control of the overall 
vision and direction.  In this MUD, the players will _feel_ that they run the 
world, but it will move in a direction beyond their vision.

Just my two coppers.

--Phinehas

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