What is the world? (was: Re: [MUD-Dev] Weaknesses in the HCDS player type model)

[Zach Collins {Siege}]

On 21 Oct 2002, Ola Fosheim Gr=F8stad wrote:
> "Richard A. Bartle" <richard at mud.co.uk> writes:

>> It's what's there when the players aren't.

> This doesn't help me a whole lot... Is it only the state, and not
> the rules which may not be formalized in code? Is it only, what
> can be influenced, but not the fictional beliefs that players hold
> which also influence what happens?

> Ok, let me put it this way: is it what the players choose to see
> as world or is it what the designer assume to be the world he is
> designing? I.e. the intended versus the assumed reality.

The world is the world.  Everything in a given game world is
created, whether by players or by designers.  However, when the
players are not in the game, what remains is what was created.  This
includes both the intended and the assumed realities.

But then, can you analyse players outside of a given environment?
What the game world allows and rewards/punishes, and the social
structures the players create, are part of the world.  What do the
players value, and is that part of the world?

Yes, it is.  The designers create a world by its rules and datasets.
They create a fiction supported by the texts and images within and
surrounding the game.  And then they release players into the game.
These players re-create the world, by interacting with it and with
each other, extending the fiction to include and encompass
themselves and the players around them.

The game world in its simplest form is data structures with rules
(gravity works in this way, there are mountains over there, this
building looks like it was made of ancient stonework), but this
ignores the full environment of the game.  It merely provides a
set-dressing over which the players perform their play.

A more complete game world provides and supports a consistent
fiction.  It allows for different social structures, and for the
expansion of its fiction in different directions.  It provides a
deeper explanation for its core rules (which are not necessarily the
written rulesets), so that players understand the game more quickly
and clearly within its own context.

As we understand the nature of completeness in game worlds, and how
to complete our own worlds, we progress from games that say "kill
everything to win" and into games that say "here's a character,
here's a weapon, here are people and monsters and a place to
interact with them, go have fun" with so-called unwritten rules
being backed up by the code, structures, and fiction of the game so
that players naturally progress in the ways the designers intended.

To summarise: A fully complete game world provides not only rules
and data, but its own context in all of its environments, so that
new players can immerse themselves in the 'foreign' culture of the
game as quickly and easily as possible.  These rules, dataset, and
context are to be considered the game world, and it includes the
actions, information, and context of the players already in the game
as well as the information and context that new players bring with
them as they begin to play.

--
Zach Collins


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