[MUD-Dev] Social Networks

[Harrok]

I'll bite on Bruce Mitchener's query:

>     * Cities in games serve different purposes from cities
>       in the real world.  How much overlap is there between
>       those purposes and where are those overlaps in areas
>       that are suitable for some of the ideas that Jacobs
>       supports?  To what extent would it be valuable to
>       make cities play a more vital role in online worlds?

My experience is limited to playing some MUDs, EQ and DAOC, so I
know a little from the players' POV and nothing at all from the
point of view of a designer. But my view is that cities in most
online worlds -- and particularly the MMORPGs I have played --
simply don't work as places of excitement and vitality.

To me, the city is one of the great archetypes of fantasy. Fritz
Leiber's Lankhmar, Michael Moorcock's London, and Sanctuary of
Thieves World thrum with interest and activity. The taverns are
packed, the markets are crowded, and it's possible to find anything
you can imagine down some dark alley.

My first MMORPG experience with a city was EverQuest's Freeport. I
was disappointed, because it seemed so empty -- just building after
building with the occasional uncooperative NPC. The only players in
sight flitted past at running speed, the Theatre of the Tranquil was
always empty and silent. Outside the city, one zone across, was East
Commons -- a zone populated by low level monsters, and adopted as
the market place by the player community. Now that zone worked as a
city should work. You would zone in, and your chat window would fill
up with auctions, talk and discussion. There was always *something*
happening, even in the early hours of the morning in the USA.

I would suggest that the East Commons zone worked as a community,
and Freeport didn't, for two reasons:

(a) there was something to do in the zone -- low level types could
fight orcs, higher levels could speculate about whether a griffin
would be along soon. People had a reason to be there other than
trading, and in a highly goal-directed game that's vital.  (b) there
was only one zone there, rather than three.

So in conclusion to this long and probably naive post: cities in
MMORPGs will only work, in my view, when they are places where you
can do things other than train.

Cheers
Bill


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