[MUD-Dev] Persistent worlds in NWN (was: Retention without Addiction?)

[Matthew Dobervich]

Dave Rickey wrote:
> Matthew Dobervich wrote:

>> It will be interesting to see how these worlds grow and mature.
>> I have a feeling the speed of game world evolution will continue
>> to outpace commercial MMORPGs, it is yet to be seen if they
>> overtake commercial games in time.

> In scale, or in polish, or in creativity?  Scale, never.  Polish,
> with occasional isolated exceptions, no.  Creativity, they will
> very quickly.  I'd expect them to have a similar relationship with
> the commercial games as independant films have to Hollywood.

In scale, highly unlikely.  The largest NWN PW currently is
http://www.alandfaraway.net/ currently that world has 888 players
(each hand picked from an application to assure role-players) and 49
servers each capable of hosting 32-64 players.  Think of these
servers as zones.  Assuming an average capacity of 48 players per
server, we're talking a world capable of supporting 2352 players at
once.  Can you send messages between zones?  No.  Is it the same
thing as a commercial world?  No.  Is it interesting?  You're darn
right.

In Polish?  They've got a long way to go, but are getting there
faster than the bar is being raised.  How many people does a
commercial PW have working on crafting content in the way of quests
and encounters?  10?  20?  50?  You also have to remember the open
source nature of NWN PWs.  Is there a great quest in a stand alone
module that you'd like to grab for your world?  How about a great
quest from another PW?

In Creativity?  It looks like we agree, and thank you for comparing
commercial PWs to Hollywood for me, it saves me the embarrassment.
Don't get me wrong, I understand that when you NEED 100,000 users to
stay for 4 months each you have to try and be all things to all
people.

One of the most interesting things about this to me is that it's
currently disproving the largest concern that's raised in commercial
PW dev circles regarding player created content.  "It'll be a copy
write fiasco!".  I've yet to hear a Britney Spears track in game.

There have some copy write issues though.  There was a bit of a stir
about people "releasing" Dungeon Siege models as NWN compatible
files recently, but much to my surprise there was a LARGE backlash
inside the community against this kind of thing.  It looks like
there is a level of self policing as it relates to player created
content after all.

Matthew Dobervich
A DAOC fan.

PS. Try a couple of these worlds before you pass judgement.



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