[MUD-Dev] Storytelling and Professionals (was: RE: )

[Dave Rickey]

-----Original Message-----
From: Lee Sheldon <linearno at gte.net>

> As I posted elsewhere they HAVE story.  It's just sort of free
> floating, connected to a vague backstory the way some quests were
> connected to backstory in EQ.  And another plus for DAoC's story:
> it's much easier to find than EQ's!  If you want, you can learn
> pretty quickly who is on who's side, and who isn't... some history
> of the realms, etc.  It's just a shame it goes nowhere.

They're still working on it.  The 40th+ stages of the "Epics" are
just going in.

> Hehe.  Agreed.  But that's also an easy excuse in a culture with
> little concern with content.  I expect the additional content we
> the players are now hearing about will be more of the same, and
> aimed at the same subset of the potential audience.  They've not
> done or said anything to the contrary.

Don't take my assertion as any indication of the future direction of
DAoC content development.  For starters, I'm not that important.

> Well, others have pointed out its stability had a lot to do with
> it, coming on the heels of disasters like WWII Online and AO.  And
> I like much of the gameplay elements in it.  I'm still playing.  I
> signed up for another 3 months.  Despite it's clonish tendencies,
> it makes a number of things more fun for ex-EQers like me.  And I
> do think the market is a snake eating its own tail.  There's a lot
> of market history to back up that worry, as I mentioned here and
> elsewhere.  But the market for these IS finite.  There will always
> be some natural matriculation, but the market IS finite.  Trust me
> on that.

We're approaching the limits of the "Loot and Level" paradigm in a
fantasy setting.  A Sci-Fi version that didn't have serious
technical problems could still double the market, though.

Anyway, "Loot and Level" isn't very promising as an avenue for "Game
as story", anyway.  The things you have to do to protect the
integrity of the levelling process get in the way.

--Dave Rickey

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