[MUD-Dev] Continuity of experience in movies

[Valerio Santinelli]

From: "eric" <ericleaf at pacbell.net>
> From: "Valerio Santinelli" <tanis at mediacom.it>
>> From: "shren" <shren at io.com>
>>> On Tue, 18 Jun 2002, eric wrote:

>>>> This is relevant to game development in many ways however, the
>>>> immaturity of the participants and their ego, and controlling
>>>> desires. Most games are linear because the designers are
>>>> control freaks.

>>> For really flexible plot, check out The Way of the Samurai for
>>> the PS2.  6 different endings to the same story, it's totally
>>> non-linear in play.  Different events happen at different times,
>>> and no matter which you go to or how you react to them, the game
>>> continues forward.  You only get herded at the end, to set
>>> things up for one of the 6 endings.

> I'll check that out, another game I enjoyed on the ps2 along these
> lines was Dynasty Warriors 3. There was a large cast of characters
> you played against and with. Good characters that is, background
> stories, believable plots and subplots. Interesting also as a
> historical tale of what went on during that period of asian
> history.

I've had the chance to try Dynasty Warriors 3 a few days ago. I've
not yet got into the depth of the game itself, but the concept is
good. Although you are bound to a certain plot, you are effectively
free to wander around the battlefield and act as you think it fits
best. I also noticed that your actions on the battlefield influence
the morale of your troops and consequently the actions they take
during battle.

>> I also consider Ultima 6 one of the best non-linear games. I've
>> spent months wandering around the world doing different
>> things. And Ultima has been my preferred serie since then. I've
>> yet to see a game where you can go around the world without
>> restrictions and without having to be bound at all times to a
>> single plot.

> Thats the particular issue of failing, when you have too much
> control you aren't bound by plots, and likewise when you are bound
> by plots you naturally haven't much control. That really only
> exists in SP oriented games, plenty of freedom to create
> spontanous plots in MUDs and MMOGs. And as soon as the old idea of
> the gamemaster/wizard/dungeon master being the active force in
> this is broken we may see some innovation in this regard.  Thats
> actually why my interest in muds was recently rekindled, working
> on that exact topic right now.

I do not see plots in MMOGs a problem per se. The real problem is
providing the same quests to every player without breaking your
world. What I mean is something that Ted L. Chen discussed in a
previous post. If you're going to provide a plot that is related to
an NPC being kidnapped, you cannot provide the same experience to
every user. Let's call the NPC Mr. McDonald (thanks Ted!). There's
only one such NPC. If he's been kidnapped, only certain players will
go and investigate on the case. If another player wants to join in,
that's fine. But you cannot repeat this same quest forever. It makes
no sense.

That's why GMs are needed to provide quests.

This makes sense if you're aiming at continuity in your world. If
you're not interested in having a life-breathing world, you can
provide the same quest over and over for as long as you want (thus
having it automated), but to people living there it would surely
look old that every 2 hours Mr. McDonald gets kidnapped.

I still do not have a clear idea about how to provide fully
automated quests without being repetitive. But there sure will come
a solution. The main problem I see is that the game has to maintain
a sort of knowledge base of events happening in the world, and
assign them a meaning. This way, based on data related to events,
characters, NPCs, etc.. it should be able to make simple quests
based on some guidelines provided by the implementors.  I am going
to think more about possible solutions to this issue.

--
Valerio Santinelli
One Man Crew Gaming Community (http://www.onemancrew.org)
My Lab (http://tanis.hateseed.com)
HateSeed.com Founder (http://www.hateseed.com)
In Flames Italia Webmaster (http://www.inflames.it)



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