[MUD-Dev] narrative

[Ron Gabbard]

From: "Amanda Walker" <amanda at alfar.com>
> On 8/16/02 4:18 AM, Brandon J. Van Every
> <vanevery at 3DProgrammer.com> wrote:

>> A story about 2000 people is not a story.  It is a war.  Go
>> design a war if that's the number of people you want to have
>> interact.

> Or, rather than writing a story for 2000 people, write a
> *backstory* for them.

> I spent last week in a multi-user virtual context involving more
> than 10000 people 24x7 for over a week straight.  No story for it
> was pre-written, though there were a few pre-planned large-scale
> "events".  Most events and content were participant-produced,
> including housing and items, and most participants came out of it
> with stories that were very meaningful and important to them.

> There was PvP and RvR combat, though probably only about 20% of
> the people took advantage of this.

> This multi-user virtual context was called "Pennsic War XXXI", an
> SCA event held yearly in western Pennsylvania
> <http://www.pennsic.net/>.  SCA events produce stories, not by
> writing or pre-plotting them, but by creating a context in which
> individual participants and groups can *do things worth telling
> stories about*.

> Sure, many of the stories start "no joke, there we were..." or "a
> long time ago...", but that's how most human stories start anyway.

> I think that concentrating on narrative may be a mistake.  Game
> developers want to build worlds, not write stories.  Players want
> to do stuff worth telling stories about, not just write them from
> scratch.  I think experience has shown, both in MUDs and in other
> contexts, that if the setting and interaction are engaging, the
> stories will just happen.

I totally agree with the last two paragraphs.

One facet of storytelling that seems to go underutilized is that of
histories and/or legends built around player characters.  I recently
opened an EQ account again after being gone for quite a while and
started a character on the server I hadn't played on since 1999.
There were only a couple of my friends remaining there after all
this time as everyone else had either re-rolled into anonomymity or
left.  But, the most disheartening part about it was that there was
no evidence that my friends (or my original character) had ever
existed.  The server really had no history or past.

Human beings, in general, are very big on the concept of
memorializing people and events.  In turn, stories build over time
around the more signifcant people and events thus forming myths and
legends.  An example: Hannibal and the elephants during the second
(if I remember correctly) Punic War.  Only 1 elephant actually made
it through the mountains yet those elephants have grown to much
greater status in legend than they ever did in real life.  A more
'base' example: The widow who donates a few hundred dollars to a
town to have a bench placed in the park with her late husband's name
on it.  No legend may ever grow out of it, But, it satisfied the
widows need to memorialize her dead husband.

The desire to memorialize is a central facet of the human psyche.
It would seem that leveraging that desire to foster the growth of
myths and legends would be easier (and more relevant to the players)
than trying to write intricate backstories and histories about NPCs
with which the players will always be completely disassociated.  The
stories will just happen.

Cheers,

Ron




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