[MUD-Dev] A footnote to Procedural Storytelling

[Raph Koster]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mud-dev-admin at kanga.nu [mailto:mud-dev-admin at kanga.nu]On Behalf Of
> Batir
> Sent: Saturday, May 27, 2000 1:03 AM
>
> Hrm...  Yes you agreed that you needed more then backstory.  I guess I
> didn't think you were taking it far enough.

In the roundtable discussion, or in the games proper? As it was, in the
roundtable discussion, much was glossed, because we ran very much out of
time. I'd say we spent double the time allotted, and only got through a
quarter of the questions the moderator wanted to tackle...

As far as in the games--I personally have never gotten to try running
in-game fiction. It wasn't in my purview while I was at Origin on UO.

>  Backstory seems to
> be just that though, one story.  Give me history ;-)
>
> Imagine a MMORPG AD&D game that used all the books out there as it's
> history...  There would be a wealth of stories to make small, dynamic
quests
> out of.  Ultima doesn't have that.  Using the Zog Cabal (I can't seem to
> remember what they renamed them) is an example of what I want.

They renamed them to Followers of Armageddon.

There is actually a good amount of stuff like that to hang material on. It
just isn't done. One thing that UO lacks is a a story bible in the way that
TV and movie series writers have them.

> And why does 'evil'
> always have to be 'the ultimate evil bent on taking over the world'?

Because of the expectations that both designers and players have of epic
fantasy. I completely agree these expectations can be easily changed, but
somebody has to actually do it. :)

> End of the world stories just don't work for me in online games.

Me neither, for the reasons you cite.

-Raph




_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
http://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev