NWN model (was RE: [MUD-Dev] Report: MUD-Dev dinner of 10 June 20 00)

[Sellers]

Raph wrote:
> >   How Never Winter Nights maps very well to the old D&D style
> > players of a small group of friends who got together of an evening
> > to run a campaign one of them GMed, how much fun that basic concept
> > was, what we've lost in ignoring that activity in our MUD designs
> > (outside of MUSHes), and some reference to the impacts of this on
> > player stories and player's awareness of their own stories and
> > scope.
> 
> An interesting quote from the Lum site review of Vampire: the 
> Masquerade:
> 
> "Imagine if you were trying to run an improv interactive theater with
> audience participation.  Now imagine if the audience was encouraged just
to
> walk in and out of 400 other similar plays.  This gives you an idea of the
> magnitude of the problem faced by those wishing to run a game... The only
> games that seemed to be running were frag fests, where the "storyteller"
> would throw down monsters for players to kill."
> 
> Given the massive success that WoD has had on MUSHes, this is rather
> disappointing; it also raises the spectre of whether, given Neverwinter
> Nights, most people will run Diablo-with-better-graphics servers.

I think maybe Lum has missed something basic here: there is (or will be) an
entirely different usage pattern for NWN/V:tM type small-group gaming
sessions.  While in the MMPOGs we see people popping in and out at will, I
suspect strongly that the more successful NWN-type game sessions will be
conducted for a particular group, with drop-ins very rarely if ever allowed.
This goes right back to the classic Friday-night table-top RPG sessions: you
get a group of friends and friends of friends, and run them through your
adventure.  The only difference is now that you can do this is (really
pretty stunning) 3D, and you don't have to be located in the same place.  

If the NWN/V:tM people are smart, they'll make a really robust "lobby" area,
let people vote for and comment on others' scenarios, and let people sign up
in a queue for popular game areas.  This turns the adventure into a
theme-park ride and allows the player-base to reward those who create the
best ones.  Except for missing holograms and such, it's only a few steps
this side of Niven's DreamPark.  I suspect there are at least a couple of
really good models for both creative and business success in there.


Mike Sellers
(still way, way behind on my reading here, if not quite so far back as JC) 



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