[MUD-Dev] Persistent Worlds

[John Buehler]

Matt Mihaly writes:

> On Tue, 20 Feb 2001, John Buehler wrote:

>> Yeah, any pertinent backstory should be presented *in* the game,
>> not via some document to be read before playing the game.  And *in*
>> the game doesn't mean that there's a document to be read while
>> playing the game.  I want the virtual world to be experienced by
>> the players, not dissected like some...  game.

> Hmm. Reading the backstory in a document is really much more
> life-like than game-like. Having to find it out by talking to NPCs
> and whatnot (since you apparently want to prevent players from
> writing the backstory down) seems very questy and game-like to me.

What can I say?  I take exception to backstory documents because they
implicitly promise far more than the game world can provide -
generally speaking.  I don't want to goof around with quests and the
like.  But if the mechanisms available to the players for
understanding the backstory through the game world end up being
'game-like', then we're back to my problem with the dichotomy between
gameplay and prose.

> I realize I may not be in the majority here, but I spend probably
> half my reading time reading history about the physical world. I
> love it, if it's well-written. And frankly the sort of book about a
> fictional world that I'd enjoy the most (say, Middle-Earth) would be
> a history of Middle-Earth penned by my favorite historian, Will
> Durant. I'd probably rather read that than Lord of the Rings, for
> instance. How many Tolkien fans out there have found immense joy in
> reading the Appendices at the end of Return of the King? Or who have
> bought the Karen Wynn Fonstad Atlas of Middle Earth just to look at
> the maps and read some more history of Middle Earth?

I love history as well.  Those who fail to study it, etc.  I suppose
where I'm going with all this is that I want prosaic backstory - and I
want the game that can match it.  If the game can match it, then books
can be found in the world that deliver the backstory.

As for the topic of game information getting out of the game world,
I'd very much like to see a culture change that discourages such
things.  Exporting information from game worlds really damages the
game experience for those players who are hoping to see and hear about
new things through their character's experiences.  With all
information documented on the web, exploration goes right out the
window.  I happen to be an enthusiastic explorer.

JB

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