[MUD-Dev] Alternatives to PvP for sustainable fiction?

[Sean Kelly]

There has been a lot of talk about the various types of PvP, and
roleplaying vs. PvP, but I haven't seen much mention of a related
topic that concerns me, which is how can a MMORPG maintain a
sufficient level of new content without PvP?

Of the MMORPGs now, all seemed to make the assumption that the MUD
model would map directly into a massively multiplayer world.  IMO
Asheron's Call both gave this the best shot and proved it the most
false.  The problem is that the MUD model is built on the old P&P
model of 5 people sitting around a table.  That is, the world is
generally designed to support a single small party of adventurers.
This carries over fairly well into MUDs because the population
densitity stays sufficiently low that the illusion that each party
is exploring an area pretty much on their own is never violated.

Within a week of UO's release, the player density to world size was
such that everywhere you went you would see players.  The most
dangerous dungeons in the world were as populous as Times Square.
The only apparent advantage UO had was that it didn't purport to
have much of an overarching plot, and respawning monsters didn't
appear to bother anyone that much.

Asheron's Call was the first MMORPG to take a stab at a single
unifying plot as the focal point of the game.  This is great from a
story perspective as it gives the players a sense of purpose but
broke down in my mind because of the aforementioned issue -- it was
too stuck in the P&P metaphor.  That is, the Big Quest of the Month
was generally designed to be solved by a single party of
adventurers.  The obvious neccessity was to have the quest reset
just like any other dungeon so every player in the world could
experience the same thrill of solving the puzzle of the month.
While many players seemed to enjoy this, it left me with a feeling
of "why bother, the bad guy doesn't stay dead, the world doesn't
stay saved."  And 2 days after the patch, the bulk of eager
adventurers had solved all there was to solve.

Ultimately, a MMORPG world cannot survive on developer-created
content.  No dev team can hope to keep up with ten thousand rabid
players with no seeming need to sleep or eat.  Personally, I'm a
proponent of the "the guy is dead he stays that way" and "so-and-so
got the magic sword, this cave is now empty" approach.  Resetting
dungeons may provide entertainment for more players but they do so
at the expense of purpose.  Why play a MM online game if all the
content is designed for a single small group of adventurers?  I'd
rather play Baldur's Gate online with my friends.

In a MM world, not everyone can be heroes or adventurers.  There
will never be enough dungeons and the exceptional people are hardly
exceptional if every person in the game is just as exceptional.  Why
save a town from a rampaging dragon if there are 200 other people
just as brave standing there with you?  There is some fact of
psychology where the more people who are present when something
horrible happens, the less likely any of them are to help.  "Someone
else will handle it."  Heroes are made by being the only ones
suitable for a task.  Not a face in the crowd.

The obvious solution seems to be player-created content.  Anarchy
Online seems to be taking the most obvious approach to this -- split
the player base into factions and pit them against one another.
DAoC and SB seem to be taking similar approaches.  Ultimately,
everything comes down to territory.  You have it, I want it.  I hear
of a powerful weapon so I recruit someone to go and get it because I
think it would give me an edge taking what you have from you, or
defending what I have from someone else.  But the main sweep of
things is generally conflict between individuals, the people who
support them, and the innocent bystanders.

I personally believe that a MMORPG cannot survive without conflict.
Call it PvP if you like but it wouldn't have to be actual physical
combat, it could be political maneuvering, a popular game (Piers
Anthony's Adept series), etc.  A game needs motivation that will
drive its players to think creatively how to do something towards or
for another group of players.  And the designers can give the
occasional nudge and supply bits of content and unique this and that
here and there.

So I'm curious, first, to see whether I'm completely off the mark
and second, to hear some discussion of how to create a sustainable
fiction in a MM world.  Personally, I think NWN is taking perhaps
the most novel and potentially successful approach by leaving
responsibility for all content (both for its construction and for
its appeal) in the hands of the unsleeping unsalaried college
masses, but there is a strong potential for a vast array of small
personal worlds instead of a single (or multiple) large
interconnected pieces.  There are some bold projects (forgotten
realms), but I fear that the player base may splinter rather than
gather around a single forum motivated towards creating a (or
multiple) large interconnected world(s).


Sean

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