[MUD-Dev] Narrative, quest design, and the solution of in-game problems

[Brandon J. Rickman]

I'm going to limit myself to a ten minute reply...

On Wed, 7 Jun 2000, J C Lawrence wrote:
> Three Problems for Interactive Storytellers By Ernest Adams
> ...
> The Problem of Amnesia

Not really a problem, merely a narrative device that is a bit cliche.  Up
to a certain point, the game is driven by pure exposition - what is this
place, who are these characters, how do I play?  Because the environments
are usually not dynamic, this expositive quality is lost on subsequent
replay.

> The Problem of Internal Consistency

The player isn't playing the game you set up for them.  The player is
trying to find the "edge of the world", the places where your engine won't
let them go.  Once the player has done this, she feels like she can
comprehend the environment, and will set out to play the game you have
planned.  My question is, what does a player do when they can't find that
edge?

> The Problem of Narrative Flow

More of a psychological symptom, in which the designer and the player
agree on the control mechanism for interaction.  "I am this character, I
can make him walk around."  If we take away this control mechanism, maybe
we can start constructing narrative.

> Conclusion

Conclusion: If you are going to make a list of rules, try not to be
dogmatic.

- B!





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