[MUD-Dev] On socialization and convenience

[grafx at innovativestudios.com]

We are designing our games to cater to the needs of a "cluster"
group... as opposed to a traditional MMORPG where all entities crawl
throughout the realm on the same ticking of the same clock.

I draw a parallel in real life.... in times of extreme adrenal
activity, time can (and maybe even does) slow to a crawl, whether
the person's mind is simply hyper-aware at the time so it seems
slower, or otherwise, so too should the interactions be between
player groups.  Rather than a massive clock ticking the moves of
hundreds of players, we are attempting to create a time bubble
around a campaign group, moderated by a single, attentive GameMaster
that is escorting the group throughout the adventure.  Not only does
this singular attention address issues such as unregulated PKing,
but the GM can "tell the tale" as the players progress through the
adventure, being less dependent on the tick of a clock as they are
relying on their storytelling abilities to add their own strokes of
creativity to the grander painting.

The GMs will be part of an hierarchial ranking so an intersection of
two time bubbles or perimeters would instantly cede the keeping of
the "clock" to the ranking GM of the two intersecting time bubbles
until the two groups separate once again.

Is this possible in real life?  I don't know... but it's part of
some of our grander goals of social engineering in multiplayer
interaction.

One technical challenge lies in our dependence on one server to one
group, as the current MMORPG technologies are designed for this,
however we have thought about some type of server instantiation such
as a terminal server or other multi-session OS that could be used to
host divergent groups on a single server, but that's just me
dreaming.

I'm also dreaming about the revenue model that would support this
one-on-one interaction of a qualified GM with a player group.

*sigh*

Jared Nielsen
www.ShardsOfTheStone.com

_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev