[MUD-Dev] Mass customization in MM***s

[Damion Schubert]

From: John Buehler

> Dark Age of Camelot's downfall with regard to keeps is that it
> didn't really doesn't matter to me if the derned things fell.  So
> I ignored the whole thing, visiting the PvP grounds only when my
> friends went there.  It really wasn't any different than killing
> AI monsters.  Initially I cared about the grand scheme believing
> that there was something to it.  When I found out there wasn't, it
> was ignored.

Tragically, real politics is like this as well.  Who wins and who
loses affects a tragic few, the mercs take their coin either way,
and the peasants live their lives either way.

> The grand scheme here must be one that grabs the imagination of
> the players and they log in each week to find out how they can
> help, how they are affected, what happened, etc.  It's a big soap
> opera with thousands of moving parts and it stays interesting and
> entertaining because the publisher makes sure that it stays on
> track.  There are no abrupt changes where some sneaky player
> character slinks into the Emperor's chambers and whacks him,
> ending the entire story.

On UO2, we were toying with a new model which was event-driven but
still had a high degree of player involvement.  We called what we
were toying with 'skirmishes'.  The notion was that we would have
monthly events, and that event would be non-participatory, but would
announce the emergence of mini-activities that players could do to
move the world forward and further their cause.

For example, the event might be a speech where the king tells the
world that elves are treasonous.  This might be done via a web
annoucement or (in the mythical world where we had enough resources)
and in-engine movie instead of being a public, crowded, laggy
in-game event. The game would then periodically spawns camps in the
world, where elves are being held by human guards, and players who
have aligned themselves with the elven faction could try to rescue
the elves, with success earning score for their faction, as well as
their guild.  Other factions might have differing goals.

While not perfect, we found this solution had some interesting
outcomes.  Most notably, it allowed us to have a strong sense of
story.  Even more important to me, it gave the world a sense of
history, as the rules of the world changed around you.  The events
(skirmishes) spawned for the month were decentralized and sporadic.
Still, they were automated, and didn't need GM involvement. Players
could take part in the skirmishes no matter when they logged in, and
thus everyone could get involved.  Lastly, there were two scoring
mechanisms (faction vs faction and intrafaction guild vs guild),
which increased the odds that players would care about the outcomes
of the skirmishes.

Would it have worked?  Beats me.  But at the very least, it seemed
to have an entirely new set of problems to solve.

--d

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