[MUD-Dev] Interesting EQ rant (very long quote)

[Lee Sheldon]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mud-dev-admin at kanga.nu
> [mailto:mud-dev-admin at kanga.nu]On Behalf Of
> Madrona Tree
> Sent: Tuesday, December 12, 2000 2:48 AM
> To: mud-dev at kanga.nu
> Subject: Re: [MUD-Dev] Interesting EQ rant (very long quote)

> - Players should not be able to find the Items that Hasten needs
> without talking to him first and setting the flag.  Otherwise, folks
> will do quests out of order, which contributes to the camping
> problem, and which, btw, completely cheapens them.

Yes, it's so easy to be sloppy about this, isn't it?  When you
approach things from the programming logic side at the expense of the
story logic side, it's no wonder that while the code is rock solid the
quest's "story" might suffer.  I'd hope it's all for the sake of
keeping things as freeform as possible, and not simply forgetting to
set a flag.  The trap designers fall into over and over again of
course is when they stare too hard at the alternative: it can start to
look too linear!  The last thing a player in a persistent world wants
to feel is herded.  The programmer's option is to keep things open at
the expense of story logic.  We are deluged by this "solution."

The writer's option is to make the story/quest engaging enough that
the player won't mind.  A little linearity is fine in my opinion, as
long as what's happening is as entertaining as anything else in the
game.  I have writer/designer friends who would argue that lots of
linearity is fine, particularly in solo, level-based games.  The
"python" structure is already there, dictated by the structure of game
levels.  Maybe so, but not in our persistent worlds.  Python
structures in persistent worlds, as in larger solo games, result in
wandering, and that's even worse than weak story.

> Quests should not be static.  The gnome should want a lens once, and
> a halfling in one of those cute little halfling-mounds could want
> the lens another time, and somebody else could want a lens the next
> time -- all for different reasons.  The prize for retrieving the
> lens would be different every time.

Yes!  Mix and match these too!  The gnome wants something else next
time.  Again in a strict code sense a gnome who never remembers you
brought him a lens, and is never going to have too many, makes perfect
sense.  In a story sense it's ludicrous.  With a little pack shuffling
though you can have him need x lenses now, then a tube next time, then
in three months/45 visits/whatever he needs more lenses because
several broke.

Lee

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