[MUD-Dev] Quests + No Spoils (was: Interesting EQ rant)

[the_logos at www.achaea.com]

On Mon, 26 Feb 2001, Corey Crawford wrote:

>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: mud-dev-admin at kanga.nu [mailto:mud-dev-admin at kanga.nu]On Behalf Of
>> J. Coleman

>> Why is it unreasonable to make the character learn the information,
>> even if the player already knows? The player *is not* the
>> character. This, in my opinion, is one of the most telling examples
>> of RP vs. GoP players available. How many CRPG characters know
>> anything about web boards? I'd be perfectly happy to have the
>> character remember the secret password *once they know it*, but the
>> character still must learn it in the first place.
 
> Justin brings up a good point here.
 
> Take the game Deus Ex (Game of the Year according to PC Gamer) for
> example. You might be able to read the hint books and find out what
> "quests" need to be done (though the whole game is one long quest
> composed of mini-quests that lead you to the next set of
> mini-quests) your character still needs the information.
 
> Need to talk to the arms dealer over by the subway? You have to find
> out the passcode before he'll let you in. You could probably just
> look it up on some website, but your *character* can't. So you have
> to go find someone who can tell you what the passcode is. Then once
> you have that, you can get into his place anytime you want, because
> your character remembers the code.

Funny how all these games that don't mind that your character comes
into it apparently knowing about Simpsons and gangsta rap get all
roleplay intensive when it comes to this issue.

In any case, my point is and has been all along that in a MUD quests
that try to make your character 'learn' info that he can get just by
talking to other characters is ridiculous. It serves no roleplay
purpose and is just patently absurd.

> So unless every single quest done by a character is unique to that
> character alone, I honestly don't see a way to prevent some type of
> spoilage. (If you see otherwise, please do share!) Of course, it's
> relatively easy to create a unique quest for a character, but the
> depth and creativity of the quest is totally limited to how well the
> quest generator can "think".

Why is it spoilage? It isn't spoiling the player's experience. If he
really wanted to "do" the quest in the way it was designed, he'd do
it. It sounds to me like generally it's just spoiling some kind of
pleasure the designer gets from watching or imagining the mortals
jumping through the hoops he's set up.

--matt

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