[MUD-Dev] story vs. screenplay

[ghovs]

On Friday 08 February 2002 16:00, James Edward Gray II wrote:
>>> And a line for the producer, the one who hosts the MUD.

>> That role is almost not represented in the game, and seldom even
>> figures in the minds of players. I'm pretty certain that that's a
>> -good- thing. You set up a world, and then stop interfering
>> (aside from Events which can open up new opportunities, or simply
>> make things a bit more interesting), letting the people enjoy it.

> I don't think you speak for all of us here with this.  I'm
> designing my MUD (technically a MOO) with almost the exact
> opposite in mind.  Administrators for my system can interact with
> it at every turn.  The quest engine sits in the background merrily
> popping out quests periodically, or admins can give it
> instructions constructing quests on the fly.  Admins can "jump
> into" all critters and NPCs making real conversations with the
> shopkeepers and others possible and even creating opportunities to
> use them in quests.  Imagine how this changes the tactics of
> combat as well.  Admins can construct anything from standard items
> to unique gear with custom usage instantly and place it anywhere.
> I'm trying to build a world that lives and breathes and while I
> can automate a lot, I can't yet script the Spark of Life.  Knowing
> that, I'm leaving room to lend it mine.  Personally, this is the
> kind of system I want to play on.

I can see how this is -very- interesting in a hack&slash setting,
where there are generally a lot of often scorned, abused or just
plain ignored NPCs around. It's interesting to give a counterweight
to that, in either smartening up the mobs by giving them a human
controller, or having the apparent NPC salesman suddenly giving you
a witty or snippy comment back (or just pleasant banter).

>From my own experience, in the purely text-based RP I'm accustomed
to, this sort of overriding isn't really useful. Firstly because
NPCs tend to be figments of the players' own imaginations more than
anything, secondly because any such scripting or embedding would be
superfluous in an evironment where the players (including those
players who happen to be admins too) can put any text at all on
everyone's screen.

I know that there's a lot of space in between, populated by a lot of
folks, so excuse me for using funnel vision in that (and maybe even
this) comment.


rgds,
ghovs
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