[MUD-Dev] Self-Sufficient Worlds

[Lee Sheldon]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mud-dev-admin at kanga.nu
> [mailto:mud-dev-admin at kanga.nu]On Behalf Of
> Paul Schwanz - Enterprise Services
> Sent: Wednesday, April 26, 2000 1:13 PM
> To: mud-dev at kanga.nu
> Subject: Re: [MUD-Dev] Self-Sufficient Worlds

> 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.

Exactly.  It is not hard to see where the idea (and the hope) that PCs will
provide their own entertainment comes from.  It is fear and suspicion of
that black box that "creates" entertainment for all those other human beings
out there.  Fear and suspicion to the point of denying its necessity, and
focussing on providing the playground, then sitting back and waiting for
people to entertain themselves.  Three points:

1) Playgrounds are filled with very rigid devices for increasing enjoyment
in the space.

2) There may be other people in the playground you a) want to play with and
who want to play with you; b) want to play with, but who don't want to play
with you; c) you don't want to play with, but who want to play with you; d)
neither one of you wants to play with the other.

3) All humans are blessed (or cursed) with imagination (even car salesmen).
Few are blessed with the ability to work within the box.  Many can't
honestly tell which category they lump into.  Very, very few of the true
storytellers, entertainers will turn up on your, or my, doorstep and want to
be a part of our world.

Factor those three together and there is no way you can ever guarantee a
good time to your players, while relying on them to be their own
entertainers.  And we must guarantee that.  It is the nature of the audience
to demand it, and if it isn't forthcoming, to move on.

> 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?

This seems like such a basic truth, that for so many to continue to deny it
(and several thousand years in the evolution of human beings as storytelling
mammals) can only be because of the blindness mentioned in point 3, and the
fear and suspicion in the first paragraph.

There was a great article in the NY Times a few weeks back about a
scientific study showing how incompetent people not only could not recognize
their incompetence, but actually thought they were -better- at the job than
most others.  That analogy is a bit unfair, I admit. (But it is a
fascinating study, and can help all of us deal better with certain
individuals with whom we may one day come into contact).  I'm not charging
the incompetence part of that example in this case, only the blindness.

> 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.

I could not have said this better myself.  I can ask my players to pony up
some role-playing, some community, even some money.  But vision?  Do I
really want to strike fear and suspicion into their hearts?  I think not.

Lee




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