[MUD-Dev] Persistent Worlds

[Tess Lowe]

Matt Mihaly replied:
> 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.

This must differ from player to player I imagine. Personally speaking,
I dislike having to chase around the world teasing out back-story. I
like for it to be nicely presented on a webpage so I can quickly get
up to speed on everything that has happened since the beginning of
that world. I also like to see not only backstory, but write-ups of
all significant player-instigated events. I can't feel part of a
community unless I have access to the complete shared history and
cultural meaning of everything. If I play a MUD without reading any
history, I not only feel like an outsider, I feel like an invader.

I should put it more bluntly, I choose what MUDs to play predominantly
based on the quantity and quality of history on their website, because
I want (and need) to feel part of that world/community before I
participate in it.

The most attractive 'pull' of all for me, is seeing player-written
stories and histories on a MUD website. From reading these I get a
feel for the culture of the community, and I develop a sense of
'knowing' several (or many) main characters/players within it. This
gives me the original incentive to play. In Dark Ages, it was a moving
story by a character called Cliona Malkier that first inspired me. I
found that I wanted to know this Cliona, and others like her. My
thrill in playing Dark Ages was in moving from pathetic newbie status
to gaining respect from this clique of players who had been around
since the start of beta-testing. In Achaea, it was some prose written
by the goddess Eris about Her ascension to divinity that caught my
eye. (http://www.achaea.com/game/dieties.html)

On the other hand there is *too much* written about Everquest. It's
just too big. I could never even begin to feel a desire to seek out
Everquest's backstory, whether in-game or outside. And this is why it
never captured my affection.

~Tess

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