[MUD-Dev] Logical MUD Areas

[Brian Hook]

At 10:16 AM 5/7/01 -0600, Travis Nixon wrote:

> Fine.  So don't generate random content with no personality.
> Generate content that has personality.  Sounds simple enough, right? 
> :)

One could argue that the content generated by a "random personality
generator" isn't going to be particularly compelling.  Random
"whatever" generators tend to be of the "Mad Lib" style forms.  Not
very compelling.  Hell, writing a good random NAME generator can be
tough enough ;-)

So randomly generating content with "personality" doesn't seem to be a
trivial problem.  It would be akin to randomly generating a movie or
book that makes sense and has depth.  While I won't say that
Everquest's stories are going to win any literary awards, there are
some creative people that put a lot of energy and heart into their
work.  Crush's Tunic, by itself, is a fairly epic little "mini-story".
To someone more entranced by the world of EQ than the achievement
stuff, things like the Shiny Brass Shield and Crush's Tunic and
Dvinn's Dagger have a lot of meaning and personality, even if there
isn't much of a story.

Even items without stories but that are unique have personality
because of their locations, operation, etc.  The Polished Granite
Tomahawk or Barbed Leather Whip just wouldn't be that cool if their
effects existed as a random attribute of random gear from random mobs.

Brian Hook

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