[MUD-Dev] Persistent Worlds

[the_logos at www.achaea.com]

On Sun, 18 Feb 2001, John Buehler wrote:

> To return to the topic of backstory, however, I was attempting to
> point out that having backstory really isn't all that useful to
> players.  This is a bit like having documentation for software.
> Nobody reads the stuff, and software needs to be easy to use anyway,
> so why bother except with reference information?  I believe
> backstory fits the same mold.  Having a backstory written down is
> handy for those who like fiction, but it's pretty much a non-issue
> for the mainstream player, who just hops into the world and plays.
> In their case, only the bits and pieces of the world's activity that
> they witness or people tell them about will be of any interest at
> all.

Saying that nobody reads the backstory is, no offence, flat out wrong,
at least in my experience. This discussion has happened here before
and as a result of it, I did a survey of our players and found out
that over 75% of our players had read at least 75% of our backstory
(and it's not a short backstory either. 30,000 words+.) Granted, I
can't prove they weren't just lying, but the evidence is fairly
overwhelming that nearly all Achaean players who play for any length
of time read the backstories at least once. Some, I know, have scoured
them multiple times.

What backstories can do is provide a lot of 'hooks' for plots and
roleplay. Players _love_ it when things happen that is related to our
history. They're also always looking for ways to tie in some
open-ended things in the history with current times. I just can't tell
you how wrong you are if you think a backstory has no use.

I also have to say that I think your argument not to have a backstory
because it sets expectations too high is baffling. So we shouldn't
attempt to provide anything of quality because it might set players
expectations too high? We should intentionally do second-rate work?

--matt

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