[MUD-Dev] Maintaining fiction.

[Hulbert]

Caliban Tiresias Darklock [mailto:caliban at darklock.com] wrote:
> On Fri, 8 Jun 2001 10:45:46 -0500, "Hulbert, Leland"
> <LHulbert at czn.com> wrote:
 
>> Why are saved games impossible?  Why couldn't you offer an option
>> of saving the current p-file as a backup whenver a character is
>> 'home.'
 
> But it's not the game. It's just the character.
 
> Saving the game means saving the state of the GAME. Not just an
> object.
 
Granted.  But...In any modern computer game I can think of, there a
"random" aspects that affect gameplay.  Even if I'm playing Diablo
II as a single-player game, things will change if I play my saved
game today, then quit, without saving, and replay it tomorrow.  The
random seed will change, the monsters will be in different places
when I find them, and the treasure they drop will be different than
what they drop today.  A typical consumer may not realise it, but it
happens.  A typical consumer(such as the "casual gamer") will
probably consider it the same if it is implemented the same way in
an online game.  Yes, people will have been and gone in between my
"saves."  Real people, and not just random encounters.  But the play
of the game will not vary considerably, and this is what a typical
consumer will expect.  And, seeing as is nearly identical to the
single-player implementation that is used is most game, there
probably be fewer complaints.  Give them a system they are used to,
even if it has flaws, and they will accept it.  This is not to say
that we shouldn't try to improve on it, but a MMORPG has a lot more
to differentiate from it's single-player cousins, and doesn't really
need a different "save" system.
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