[MUD-Dev] Continuity of experience in movies

[eric]

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.

It was non-linear locally in the missions as well, since you could
decide to battle whereever on the battle you wanted, and the rest of
the participants acted in as well. The interestings point is that
you could say decide to be heroic and leave your support troops and
rush into the enemy camp and attack the leader, obviously at great
risk. Or you could play more conservatively and advance with the
rest of the troops. Most times you had a horse available so you
could get around the battle pretty easily and be the active force in
the battle to support other commanders and search out enemy leaders.

> 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.





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