[MUD-dev] Fun in Games

[shren]

On Fri, 26 Apr 2002, Brandon J. Van Every wrote:

> Just as the movies have a maxim "show, don't tell," probably games
> need a maxim "play, don't show."

As soon as I saw this line I thought I had seen the sentiment
before.  Turns out Warren Spector said this:

  - Players do; NPCs watch. It's no fun to watch an NPC do something
  cool. If it's a cool thing, let the player do it. If it's a boring
  or mundane thing, don't even let the player think about it -- let
  an NPC do it.

He's talking about the "rules for roleplaying" that he kept in mind
when designing Deus Ex.  Here's a link to the first page, the rules
list are on the second.

  http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20001206/spector_01.htm

I do remember getting a "these people are helpless, what would they
do without me" feeling playing Deus Ex, though, so it just goes to
show that you should let NPCs do something interesting once in a
while.

--
http://www.shren.net

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